Guest blogged by Winter Patriot
If anyone had reason to suspect that representatives of the Bush administration would tell bald-faced lies in order to try to justify a war they had already decided to fight, we might have reason to take the following report from Reuters somewhat seriously. [my emphasis, here and below]
The letter recalled clashes between the IAEA and the Bush administration before the 2003 Iraq war over findings cited by Washington about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that proved false, and underlined continued tensions over Iran’s dossier.
Sent to the head of the House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Intelligence by a senior aide to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the letter said an August 23 committee report contained serious distortions of IAEA findings on Iran’s activity.
The letter said the errors suggested Iran’s nuclear fuel program was much more advanced than a series of IAEA reports and Washington’s own intelligence assessments have determined.
It said the report falsely described Iran to have enriched uranium at its pilot centrifuge plant to weapons-grade level in April, whereas IAEA inspectors had made clear Iran had enriched only to a low level usable for nuclear power reactor fuel.
We’ve been here before, haven’t we? And we know what happens next, too. Don’t we?
Never content to tell a single lie, they’ve been lying about more than uranium enrichment!
The letter said the congressional report contained “an outrageous and dishonest suggestion” that the inspector was dumped for having not adhered to an alleged IAEA policy barring its “officials from telling the whole truth” about Iran.
Diplomats say the inspector remains IAEA Iran section head.
…
“This (committee report) is deja vu of the pre-Iraq war period where the facts are being maligned and attempts are being made to ruin the integrity of IAEA inspectors,” said a Western diplomat familiar with the agency and IAEA-U.S. relations.
President Bush clearly doesn’t care. He’s taking his “incorrect and misleading”, “outrageous and dishonest” case against Iran to the United Nations next week. And he’s already started threatening the UN.
Of course the mainstream media can’t call it that. So instead they write it up like this:
Bush, who will make a speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, said he liked UN chief Kofi Annan personally but warned that many Americans were wary of the United Nations and that he sometimes shares that view.
Amid optimism from Europe about a new round of talks with Iran over it’s nuclear program, Bush warned US partners not to waver in diplomacy to ensure the Islamic republic does not acquire atomic weapons.
“My concern is that, you know, they’ll stall; they’ll try to wait us out,” he said in a wide ranging press conference in the White House Rose Garden. “So part of my objective in New York is to remind people that’s stalling shouldn’t be allowed.”
“They need to understand we’re firm in our commitment and that if they try to drag their feet or, you know, get us to look the other way, that we won’t do that,” said Bush.
I find Gwynne Dyer’s take on this issue quite a bit more realistic. And timely, too. He had all this figured out a couple of weeks ago.
The US government’s explanation is that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened in May to “wipe Israel off the map,†and that nuclear weapons are the way he plans to do it. (Any that are left over would presumably be given to terrorists.) As proof of Iran’s evil ambitions, it points to the fact, revealed in 2003, that Iran had been concealing some parts of its so-called peaceful nuclear energy program from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for 18 years.
But there are a number of holes in this narrative, and the first is that Ahmadinejad never said he wanted to “wipe Israel off the map.†This is a strange and perhaps deliberate mistranslation of his actual words, a direct quote from the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the font of all wisdom in revolutionary Iran, who said some 20 years ago that “this regime occupying Jerusalem (ie Israel) must vanish from the page of time.â€
It was a statement about the future (possibly the quite far future) as ordained by God. It was not a threat to destroy Israel. Attacking Israel has never been Iranian policy, and a few days later the man who really runs Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, publicly stated that Iran “will not commit aggression against any nation.†While Ahmadinejad continues to say nasty things about Israel, he too has explicitly rejected accusations that Iran plans to attack it.
Please read Dyer’s entire column.
For more on this seemingly-fabricated crisis-to-be, see Chris Floyd: “History’s Actors” Prepare for a Sequel or Kurt Nimmo: Neocon Iran Nuke Lies “Outrageous†and “Dishonestâ€.
Not to defend *, but I really think they’re keeping him just sober enough to stumble through the scripts they give him.
Well duh. Who wudda thot?…..
If them reckless assholes aren’t impeached soon, we are all dead
If not, all we can hope for is a military coup of some sort
It has been about a month or two since I read on the blogs that the US Navy pre-placed warships in Iran’s vicinity. I do not recall where I read that, but I wonder whether anyone out there can confirm this? How does one know such things anyway?
I dunno, GTASH, but I remember reading somewhere that Iran has 2,000 mile-an-hour missiles that can sink every one of those ships. I’m really afraid, not of Iran, but of the drunken bozo who is in charge of keeping our magic bus on the road, our tragic train on the tracks. Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?
It’s the yellow cake scam all over again.
Here’s an article from Raw Story that ties in with this.
In a replay of Iraq, a battle is brewing over intelligence on Iran
“‘Incorrect and Misleading’, ‘Outrageous and Dishonest'”
The Bush presidency in a nutshell.
I don’t know if you saw the press conference in the rose garden where our georgie tries to defend how he wants to re-interpret Article Three of the Geneva Conventions…well, ok, as HE explains it, he simply wants to “clarify” the law & “set high standards”… it’s several minutes long, but at the end is Keith Olbermann’s interview with Jonathan Turley, which is very much worth watching. It spells out very clearly what he wants to do.
Hopefully this is not TOO off-topic for this thread. It seems to clearly belong under the heading “outrageous and dishonest”, certainly:
link
Gtash Comment # 4,…
As a show of force the USA has placed carrier groups is the middle east region to warn/threaten Iran. America and Israel will periodically flex their muscles to remind Iran of the combined military might.
Link :US carrier groups moved to the Middle East to warn Iran.
Another article of US naval buildup in the gulf area as a show of force to Iran.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/s...ar/message/442
====================
Czaragorn Comment # 5
Iran has sophisticated anti ship missile systems that it purchased from Russia sometime ago,..they currently manufacture this missile internally with Russian engineering help. This anti ship missile travels at 2 1/2 times the speed of sound,.. it can not be defeated by the Aegis missile defence systems used by the USA aircraft carrier battleship defence group.
If Israel and/or America should attack Iran,.. Iran would immediately close off the Strait of Hormuz,.. trapping American warships in the Persian Gulf. Iran would then launch their Sunburn anti ship missiles from their land based portable launchers and sink the USA naval ships who’s radar systems are incapable of tracing or defending against this rapidly traveling advanced missile. Essentially these sophisticated anti-ship missile systems have rendered our surface naval fleets obsolete or readily sinkable.
Info about the sophisticated “Sunburn” anti-ship missile system in the possession of Iran,..
Nov 2004: The Sunburn – Iran’s Russian Missile Could Destroy US Navy in Gulf
Many years ago, Soviet planners gave up trying to match the US Navy ship for ship, gun for gun, and dollar for dollar. They shrewdly adopted an alternative approach based on strategic defense – developing several supersonic anti-ship missiles, one of which, the SS-N-22 Sunburn, has been called “the most lethal missile in the world today.” Today, Russian missiles are a growth industry generating much-needed cash for Russia, with many billions in combined sales to India, China, Viet Nam, Cuba, and also Iran. In the near future this dissemination of advanced technology is likely to present serious challenges to the US. Some have even warned that the US Navy’s largest ships, the massive carriers, have now become floating death traps, and should for this reason be mothballed.
The Sunburn missile has never seen use in combat, to my knowledge, which probably explains why its fearsome capabilities are not more widely recognized. Other cruise missiles have been used, of course, on several occasions, and with devastating results.
During the Falklands War, French-made Exocet missiles, fired from Argentine fighters, sunk the HMS Sheffield and another ship. And, in 1987, during the Iran-Iraq war, the USS Stark was nearly cut in half by a pair of Exocets while on patrol in the Persian Gulf. Not only is the Sunburn much larger and faster, it has far greater range and a superior guidance system.
The Sunburn can deliver a 200-kiloton nuclear payload, or: a 750-pound conventional warhead, within a range of 100 miles, more than twice the range of the Exocet. The Sunburn combines a Mach 2.1 speed (two times the speed of sound) with a flight pattern that hugs the deck and includes “violent end maneuvers” to elude enemy defenses. The missile was specifically designed to defeat the US Aegis radar defense system. A single one of these missiles can sink a large warship, yet costs considerably less than a fighter jet.
The US Navy has never faced anything in combat as formidable as the Sunburn missile. Try and imagine it if you can: barrage after barrage of Exocet-class missiles, which the Iranians are known to possess in the hundreds, as well as the unstoppable Sunburn and Yakhonts missiles. The questions that our purblind government leaders should be asking themselves, today, if they value what historians will one day write about them, are two: how many of the Russian anti-ship missiles has Putin already supplied to Iran? And: How many more are currently in the pipeline?
The US Navy will come under fire even if the US does not participate in the first so-called surgical raids on Iran’s nuclear sites, that is, even if Israel goes it alone. Armed with their Russian-supplied cruise missiles, the Iranians will close the lake’s only outlet, the strategic Strait of Hormuz, cutting off the trapped and dying Americans from help and rescue. The US fleet massing in the Indian Ocean will stand by helplessly, unable to enter the Gulf to assist the survivors or bring logistical support to the other US forces on duty in Iraq.
With enough anti-ship missiles, the Iranians can halt tanker traffic through Hormuz for weeks, even months. With the flow of oil from the Gulf curtailed, the price of a barrel of crude will skyrocket on the world market. Within days the global economy will begin to grind to a halt.
Source Link to the above.
Floridiot…A military coup? I was kinda hoping more like a grassy knoll. But whatever gets the job done I guess. WIth the boys who are running the Pentagon making decisions, and under martial law no doubt, the future continues to look grim, as in much reaping.
A-99,…..LINK
More of the same allegations,..
Cheney,.. Rummy,.. and the Pentagon intelligence apparatus cherry picking info/intel on Iran as they did on Iraq.
Link to an article at Raw Story.
Soul Rebel,
Just now watching Larry King Live (from Yesterday?)
Jimmy Carter is on and if you have time to catch this show, watch it. It looks like he is still working behind the scenes to allay this madman administrations policies with other countries, Jimmy cuts the shit out of the “crazies” policies
The Coup I’m talking about is where the upper brass in the Armed Services says no when the nuthouse decides to act pre-emptively again
Not really a coup, but more like a strong refusal
The Upper Brass cares infinitely more about what happens to our troops than the PNAC gang or the Republicans, which is plain to see
Other anti-ship missiles Iran will pull from her arsenals if forced into war by Israel or the USA.
Iran will strike all Israeli and American warships and disable oil tankers from taking any petroleum cargo
from the Middle East area.
Other anti-ship missiles held by Iran,..
C-802,.. called “Noor”,.. an Iranian version of a Chinese missile.
Joint venture between Russia and India to produce a supersonic anti-ship missile defense system.
Link to info about missile.
Photo link of damage done to a ship by the Brah-Mos anti ship missile,..Photo link
Hezbollah used a Iranian supplied C-802 anti-ship missile to severely damage an Israeli ship that was shelling the Beirut airport and imposing a shipping embargo on Lebanon during the resent war. The Israeli ship was laden with state of the art hi-tech radar systems yet this Hezbollah fired anti-ship missile almost sank the naval ship,.. it had to be towed back to port because of the extensive damage inflicted.
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1184
This is the same missile Iran will use should they be attacked by Israel or the USA. Among other ballistic missile systems Iran has at her disposal. Iran will not be the cake walk that was found during the incursion into Iraq.
Joan #7
George must hate Jonathan Turley! Every time I hear his name, my ears perk up.
So shortly, the Red Cross is going to ruin Bush’s day. Look out world, here it comes! Bush is about to take us all down with him!
Thanks for the refresher, Old Turk. It’s nice to know my memory’s still serving me well, but on the other hand I can understand why I conveniently “dulled” the message in my mind. What horrifies me is how duhbaya would react to the news that all our ships in the Gulf had been sunk. This would be where the military would have to refuse to go “nucular” if there ever was a time…
CZARAGORN,..
bu$$h thinks he is playing a G.I.Joe war game in his childhood backyard sandbox,.. if he and/or Israel entertains a military adventure into IRAN,.. he will unleash a bloodbath of each party launching their total arsenals of ballistic missile upon one another.
Russia,.. China,.. And India are more than happy to market their hi-tech ballistic missile systems to Iran. They all need continued access to Iran’s petroleum reserves to sustain their economies. If the Zionists,.. corporatists,.. or fascist capitalists think they are going to bully Iran,.. they may well have a sorry surprise coming.
Of course bu$$hco will reap the financial benefits of an expanded war economy,.. the middle class will be saddled with the costs of war,.. and the lower classes will suffer the ultimate consequences by supporting the warmongers – with their lives,.. as casualties and fatalities of these endless military adventures,.. excursions,.. and wars.
They are going to pull out all the stops to attack Iran. They didn’t do everything they did so far to create a fascist dictatorship so they could walk away in 2008, not having attacked Iran.
Preliminary orders given to the US Navy to be prepared to start a naval blockade of IRAN and the STRAIT of HORMUZ.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.co...ves/009834.php
Time Magazine story of coming Iranian War,..
http://fairuse.100webcustomers....-iran-war.html
Old Turk #’s 20 & 21
Scary stuff indeed..!!!! The madman you have at the helm and all his bucaneers are a menace to the whole world. They HAVE to go………….AND the sooner the better..!!!!
ITMFA