VOICES FOR WAR AGAINST IRAN

"... Rep. Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee... (held) a hearing on how the U.S. should respond to the alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington... Panelists recommended a dramatic escalation of U.S. actions against Iran...

“You don't want to run away from that war, you want to run towards it," said Reul Marc Gerecht of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “We are more willing to have another front on the war on terror.”

“Let’s not wring our hands,” said General Jack Keane (Ret.). “If the international community doesn’t want to step up to it, we go without ‘em. We’ve got to put our hand around their throat right now.”

http://www.niacouncil.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7681&security=1&news_iv_ctrl=-1

ASSASSINATION PLOT A U.S. STING OPERATION AGAINST IRAN

"... the legal document describing evidence in the case provides multiple indications that it was mainly the result of an FBI "sting" operation... the legal document, called an amended criminal complaint... suggests that the idea originated with and was strongly pushed by a undercover DEA informant, at the direction of the FBI... when Arbabsiar first met with the DEA informant he thought was part of a Mexican drug cartel, it was not to hire a hit squad to kill the ambassador... there is reason to believe that the main purpose was to arrange a deal to sell large amounts of opium from Afghanistan... not a single quote from Arbabsiar shows that he agreed to assassinating the ambassador, much less proposed it... There is also circumstantial evidence that Arbabsiar may have even been brought into the sting operation to help further implicate his cousin Gholam Shakuri... an officer in the Iranian Quds Force... in the terrorist plot."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105458

IRANIAN PLOT ALLEDGED TO KILL SAUDI ENVOY

"... the U.S. Justice Department Tuesday charged a dual Iranian- American national and an alleged member of the Islamic Republic's special operations unit of conspiring to assassinate the Saudi ambassador here... the two named defendants, U.S.-based Manssor Arbabsiar and Iran-based Gholam Shakuri, sought to hire someone who they believed was a member of a Mexican drug cartel but who was actually an informant for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to carry out the plot in exchange for 1.5 million dollars... the Iranian mission at the United Nations (U.N.)... said in a letter expressing outrage to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that his government "categorically reject(s) these baseless allegations".

"United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI), a hawkish group... called openly Tuesday for the president to "make it clear that Iran will face consequences for its actions, including military retaliation for attacks on Americans".

"... Others voiced caution. "If the alleged Iranian action was aimed at provoking the U.S., the Obama administration should be careful not to walk into such a trap," noted Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council..."

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105425

RUSSIAN-BUILT BUSHEHR NUCLEAR PLANT ONLINE

"Iran's much-delayed Russian-built nuclear power plant in Bushehr went on line... heralding a new era for the country that promises even greater national investment in nuclear energy in the coming years... ... Russia has given cause for national joy in Iran and this may mean more nuclear contracts with Tehran; this at a time when the West knows only the language of coercion and threats against Iran..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MI07Ak02.html

THE MISSED OPPORTUNITY WITH IRAN AFTER 9/11

"... Had the George W Bush administration responded to repeated overtures from Tehran, it might have cemented a powerful ally against al-Qaeda, given the US an easier time pacifying Iraq and reduced Iranian motivation to oppose Arab-Israeli peace... allowing the 2001-2003 talks to end was "a fantastic mistake. The dialogue that existed on Afghanistan was the single unparalleled opportunity to create a diplomatic process" with Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MI09Ak01.html

WAR ON TERROR WAS ABANDONED BY BUSH AGENCIES AS INEFFECTIVE

"... The War on Terror was based on the notion that Islamic terrorism represented a unified, ideologically coherent, and operationally centralized threat, demanding a singular and predominately military response. This notion was rejected by U.S. security officials long before the killing of Bin Laden. Indeed, it was abandoned well before the election of President Obama.

By the latter years of the Bush administration, the exceptional tactics that defined the War on Terror -- preventative detentions, pain-based interrogation, ethnic and religious profiling, and widely expanded domestic surveillance powers -- were either abandoned or dramatically scaled back based on overwhelming evidence that they were ineffective. Meanwhile, the actual wars initiated in the name of the War on Terror, in Afghanistan and Iraq, rapidly evolved into counter-insurgency and then counterterrorism campaigns as military leaders recognized that the U.S. was unable to replace theocrats and autocrats with stable, western-style democracies.

The War on Terror lives on today only as political theater..."

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/08/who-killed-the-war-on-terror/244273/

SOME CENTRIFUGES MOVED UNDERGROUND

"Iran has moved some of its centrifuge machines to an underground enrichment site that offers better protection from possible airstrikes... the facility in Fordo... is carved into a mountain to protect it against possible attacks... Iran plans to triple its output of the 20 percent enriched uranium and move the entire program to the new, secretly-built Fordo facility, just north of the holy city of Qom in central Iran. The bunker facility is to house approximately 3,000 centrifuges..."
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2089760,00.html

RUSSIA KNOWS IRAN'S INFLUENCE TO INCREASE

"... Moscow has hurriedly scheduled an intensive strategic dialogue with Tehran... The geopolitical reality is that Iran's regional influence is poised to increase. The West's quagmire in Libya and the collapse of its attempts to overthrow the Syrian regime; Turkey's lurch toward Muslim Middle East and the breakdown in its relations with Israel; the collapse of the US-Israeli-Saudi axis and the surge of the Syrian-Iranian axis; US predicaments in Iraq and Afghanistan; Egypt-Iran rapprochement; high probability of UN recognition for Palestinian statehood; and not least of all, China's determination to build a strategic partnership with Iran - all these work to Tehran's advantage..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/MH04Ag01.html

IRAN DOWNS U.S. SPY DRONE

"Iran's Revolutionary Guard shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane that was trying to gather information on an underground uranium enrichment site... the drone was flying over the Fordo uranium enrichment site near the holy city of Qom in central Iran..."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/20/iran-us-spy-plane_n_904355.html

IRAN TESTS LONG RANGE MISSILES

"Iran's Revolutionary Guards tested 14 missiles... (as) a show of strength to the Islamic Republic's enemies in Israel and Washington. The Iranian-made surface-to-surface missiles, with a maximum range of 2,000 km (1,250 miles), were fired simultaneously at a single target... the Guards fired nine Zelzal missiles, two Shahab-1s, two Shahab-2s and one upgraded Shahab-3 missile.Iranian officials have previously announced that the Shahab 3 can reach targets up to 2,000 km away, putting Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf within reach... while Iran had the technological capacity to build longer-range missiles, the 2,000-km range had been chosen precisely with Israel and U.S. bases in mind... The head of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace division (said) "Except American and the Zionist regime, we do not feel a threat from any other country."
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/iran-test-fires-long-range-missiles-capable-of-striking-israel-u-s-bases-1.370029


IRAN SHOWS MISSILE SILOS



"Iran ... unveiled underground silos that can carry missiles capable of hitting Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf... State TV broadcast footage of deep underground silos, claiming that medium- and long-range missiles stored in them are ready to launch in case of an attack on Iran. The silos are widely viewed as a strategic asset for Iran in the event of a U.S. or Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities... The commander of the Guard's Aerospace Force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, touted the silos as a crucial asset in its standoff with the West, saying that with "these facilities we are certain that we can confront unequal enemies and defend the Islamic Republic of Iran."
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/iran-unveils-underground-silos-with-missiles-capable-of-reaching-israel-1.369924

MEK MAY GET U.S. SUPPORT FOR TERROR AGAINST IRAN

"... the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an organization with the blood of Americans and Iranians alike on its hands... a designated foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government... may succeed in getting removed from the terrorist list... as a result of an unprecedented multi-million dollar media and lobbying blitz.

:... the desire to de-list them in Washington seems partially driven by gravitation towards covert military action against Iran. Neither sanctions nor diplomacy have yielded the desired results on the nuclear issue, and some in Washington are advocating using the MEK to conduct assassination and sabotage campaigns inside Iran. As one former State Department official put it, the "paradox is that we may take them off the terror list in order for them to do more terror."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/trita-parsi/washingtons-favorite-terr_b_887525.html

EGYPT MOVES TOWARD RESTORING RELATIONS WITH IRAN

"... Cairo and Tehran appear closer than ever to restoring diplomatic ties following a 31-year hiatus... "The Egyptian foreign minister and the Islamic Republic of Iran have announced their readiness to expand diplomatic relations between the two countries," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said... (and) Nabil al-Arabi, Egypt's first post-revolutionary foreign minister, declared that Cairo was ready to "turn a new page" with Iran. "The Egyptian and Iranian people," he said, "deserve to have mutual relations reflecting their history and civilisation."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=56238

FALSE SPIN ON IRAN NUCLEAR ASSESSMENT

"Confusion over an assessment of Iran's nuclear program by the Rand Corporation in the past week perfectly illustrates the quagmire that anyone has to contend with when sifting through bias on media reports... A deluge of commentaries took it at face value that Rand was alleging with iron-clad certainty that Iran was "two months away from making nuclear bombs".

"... (however) the Rand report failed to mention that the US intelligence community has yet to revise its December 2009 finding that Iran as of early 2003 has stopped its nuclear weapon program. Nor does it mention that the IAEA despite its expressed concerns about the "possible military dimension" of Iran's nuclear activities has repeatedly stated that after extensive inspections it has found "no evidence of diversion of declared nuclear material".

"... A report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh titled "Iran And The Bomb - How Real is the Nuclear Threat?" and published in the June 6 issue of The New Yorker magazine quotes former IAEA director general Mohammad ElBaradei as saying he didn't see "a shred of evidence" in 12 years in charge to suggest Iran is building nuclear-weapons facilities and using enriched materials..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MF10Ak06.html

IRAN TO DISPLAY DOWNED U.S. SPY DRONES

"Iran will put on public display two US Navy drones shot down by its elite Revolutionary Guards..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110115/wl_mideast_afp/iranusguardsdrone

RUSSIA: STUXNET VIRUS COULD CAUSE IRANIAN CHERNOBYL

"... Russian nuclear scientists are providing technical assistance to Iran's attempts activate the country's first nuclear power plant... (and) have warned of another Chernobyl-style nuclear disaster at Iran's controversial Bushehr reactor because of... the extensive damage caused to Bushehr's computer systems by the mysterious Stuxnet virus..."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8262853/Stuxnet-virus-attack-Russia-warns-of-Iranian-Chernobyl.html

FAILURE OF U.S. PRESS ABOUT WAR WITH IRAN

"... The mainstream media has also inexcusably failed to educate the public about the nature of a possible war with Iran... It fails to point out that, just like the war in Iraq, any war with Iran would be totally illegal, so long as the Islamic Republic has neither attacked nor plainly threatened the United States. The mainstream media has failed to make clear that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will seem relative child's play compared to a war with Iran. The Islamic Republic has placed many assets throughout the Middle East; if attacked, Iran's military will not hesitate to use both its own resources and those assets to quickly spread the conflict -- via asymmetrical warfare, in particular -- throughout the Middle East and quite possibly the entire Islamic world. The mainstream media does not wish to tell the American people the unpleasant truth that a war with Iran will destroy the economy of the West, and may ultimately lead to World War III."
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/12/using-wikileaks-to-advance-the-narrative-of-war-on-iran.html

SENATOR SAYS U.S. SHOULD "NEUTER" IRAN

"Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham... (said) his country should be prepared to launch a military attack on Iran that would "neuter" the hard line regime... military action against Iran that would destroy its ability to fight back while allowing its people to rise up... "sink their navy, destroy their air force and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard... neuter that regime."
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20101106/lindsey-graham-iran-halifax-101106/

AHMADINEJAD DID NOT ACCUSE THE U.S. OF 9-11 ATTACKS

"The Iranian leader did not accuse the U.S. of conspiring to murder thousands of its own people to create a pretext for launching wars as conveyed by the US media... the Times published a correction: "A headline on Friday with an article about an incendiary speech in the United Nations General Assembly by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran summarized his remarks about the Sept. 11 terror attacks incorrectly. In his speech, Mr. Ahmadinejad asserted various theories about the origin of the attacks, including the possibility that they had been planned by the United States. He did not say that the United States had planned the attacks... "

"Following are the few paragraphs pertaining to this matter from the Iranian leader's text:

"In identifying those responsible for the attack, there were three viewpoints.

"1- That a very powerful and complex terrorist group, able to successfully cross all layers of the American intelligence and security, carried out the attack. This is the main viewpoint advocated by American statesmen.

"2- That some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime. The majority of the American people as well as other nations and politicians agree with this view.

"3- It was carried out by a terrorist group but the American government supported and took advantage of the situation. Apparently, this viewpoint has fewer proponents. The main evidence linking the incident was a few passports found in the huge volume of rubble and a video of an individual whose place of domicile was unknown but it was announced that he had been involved in oil deals with some American officials. It was also covered up and said that due to the explosion and fire no trace of the suicide attackers was found..."

Ahmadinejad did not suggest these were his views...."

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=SMI20100926&articleId=21198

The corrected New York Times article (correction is at the bottom):
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/world/24nations.html?scp=1&sq=ahmadinejad%20correction&st=cse

RUSSIAN SALE OF S-300 MISSILE SYSTEM IS OFF

"... Russia... (will) permanently halt delivery of S-300 missiles, which Tehran wanted to build as a deterrent to airstrikes against its nuclear facilities. The declaration by Mr. Medvedev ended equivocation by Russian officials about whether the sophisticated advanced air defense system would fall under the sanctions ban..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/world/europe/23prexy.html?_r=1

ILLUSION OF LIMITED WAR ON AGAINST IRAN
U.S. casualties on a WW2 scale

"... The range of predictable responses available to the IRGC high command include dramatic hit ad run attacks against military and commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf, the use of mid-range ballistic missiles against American bases in the region and Israel and a direct assault on American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. All these options are likely to be used within 48 hours of the start of hostilities...

"One possible response by the IRGC Qods force is spectacular terrorist-style attacks against American intelligence bases and assets throughout the region. The IRGC Qods Force is believed to have identified every key component of the American intelligence apparatus in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan...

"The IRGC navy will also play a key asymmetrical role in the conflict by organising maritime suicide bombings on an industrial scale. By manning its fleet of speedboats with suicide bombers and ramming them into American warships and even neutral commercial shipping, (they) will hope to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 40 percent of world crude oil supplies pass...

"The combination of these asymmetrical forms of warfare with more conventional style missile and even ground force attacks on American bases in the region will likely result in thousands of American military casualties in the space of a few weeks. The IRGC has both the will and wherewithal to inflict a level of casualties on American armed forces not seen since the Second World War...

"Not only will it awaken the sleeping giant of Iranian nationalism... U.S. military aggression will likely accelerate the actualisation of the very scenario that American political and military leaders insist they are determined to prevent, i.e. a nuclear armed Iran..."

http://www.juancole.com/2010/08/abedin-the-illusion-of-a-‘limited-war’-against-iran.html