Free Iraq

"It is essential to emphasize that the acquisition of a national nuclear weapon requires foremost a political decision." Similarly, the newly minted American position giving Iran sort of a clean (probably temporary?) bill of health re their nuclear intentions/capacity is a political (strategic) decision. What is up?
 

Dicked Around: Cheney War Pushers Get Slapped By Spy Services
 

I wish, oh how I wish Saddam was not so cocky about Iraq's nuclear program ! The Iranians seeking nuclear weapons? quite frankly, they would be stupid not to. I am glad North Korea managed it.
According to sources quoted by CND cnduk.org There are tactical nuclear weapons at the American base in Inclick, Turkey.
We live in an ear where might is right and international law is used in toilets! Any nation in the sights of the US is foolish not to protect itself.
 

US spies concoct a potent Iran brew: ... The bottom line, thanks to its vast cadre of intelligence "alchemists" is that the US and its even more gullible politicians, has now pre-positioned itself for yet another disastrous gambit in the volatile Middle East.

The temporary freeze on the military option by the new intelligence report has nested within it its exact opposite, and may be calculated as part and parcel of a roundabout way of dealing with Iran's "nuclear menace". This is, indeed, a menacing development.
 

Did an Iranian Spy Clear Tehran of Nuclear Ambitions? So what convinced the US intelligence community that Iran's weapons program was long ago dismantled?

A prominent Iran specialist is suggesting on a private email list that very likely, it is explained by one name: Ali Reza Asghari. [ . . . ]
 

Will the US Invade Venezuela Before Or After Bombing Iran? Venezuela is the only answer to America’s problems with conquering the Middle East. ...
 

You, Too, Can and Should Be an "Intelligence Analyst": The first error is the belief that decisions of war and peace are based on intelligence at all.

(Accepting the above as valid - beyond question - I continue to wonder what exactly accounts for the startling U.S. repositioning regarding Iranian nuclear capability.)
 

Bush scolds Congress, talks Iran and Iraq: On Iran, Bush said the report's finding would not prompt him to take a U.S. military option against Tehran off the table.

"The best diplomacy -- effective diplomacy -- is one in which all options are on the table," he said.

The president also said that the world would agree with his message that Iran shouldn't be let off the hook yet.
 

Iraq: The Trail of Disinformation (Short article / excellent embedded links)
 

WHO IS SENDING YOUR CHILDREN OFF TO DIE IN WAR? (One guess only. Trail of compelling links.)
 

Olmert: Nuke report on Iran shows need for tighter Iran sanctions (Yes, I judge books by their covers. This guy looks like a criminal!!!)
 

Played for Fools Yet Again: About that Iran "Intelligence" Report
 

Imad

Evelyn (first comment above) has a very valid apprehension.

Note the excellent point in this article US spies concoct a potent Iran brew that if the US intelligence agencies had "high confidence" that Iran had a nuclear weapons program, then why did they never provide that evidence to the IAEA? (Aside from the craptaculous and obviously phony "laptop incident", of course...)

Note especially these chilling reasons:

"What is troubling about the new NIE is that top US intelligence officials have been going on record, for instance in their congressional testimony, promising no repetition of past errors put on full display with respect to Iraq, no "cherry picking" intelligence on Iran, and even threatening to resign if selective intelligence were to be misused for military adventures against Iran.

With the US intelligence community on the defensive since the post-Iraq-invasion revelations still plaguing the George W Bush administration, the latter may have managed a mini-coup with the intelligence community by procuring a new report that confirms an Iranian nuclear weapons program, albeit one that it claims has been "halted".

If complemented by a follow-up report that Iran is now poised to change course and resurrect its halted activities, then theoretically speaking, that gives ample justification for Washington's planned "pre-emptive strikes" on Iran, not to mention added sanctions. Yet, even short of such a follow-up, the present state of mind on Iran fueled by the new intelligence report is sufficiently paranoid to warrant tough new actions against Tehran".

Who needs "human intelligence" on the ground, eh?
 

(Posted with thanks.)
Was Bush Behind the Iran Report? Bombing Iran, it seems, is now off the table. There's no other reasonable take on the latest National Intelligence Estimate that concludes Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

But there is also no doubt that the Bush White House was behind this NIE. While the 16 intelligence agencies that make up the "intelligence community" contribute to each National Intelligence Estimate, you can bet that an explosive, 180-degree turn on Iran like this one was greenlighted by the President.

... The real story behind this NIE is that the Bush Administration has finally concluded Iran is a bridge too far. ...
 

Detainee Operations in a Joint Environment (Or, as someone said - and here, I abbreviate: "Welcome to America!")
 

Iraqis sold out; oil sold off: It looks as though elements of the Iraqi government are virtually saying to their nation’s occupiers, “Our house is your house. Stay as long as you like and help yourself to the fridge." I don’t know why and I suspect neither do the Iraqis.
 

(Apologies. I'm needing a break!)
What if we had a White House press conference that wasn’t a scam (questions i am dying to ask the commander guy): What were you smoking when Jesus asked you to invade Iraq and where might I find a sample?
 

Ahhhhh !!! Following on a 'theme' -
Bush Grasp of Reality Tenuous: Farideh Farhi, at our group blog, Global Affairs, says she listened to Bush's press conference on Tuesday -- which was full of implausible statements -- and now wants to know what George W. Bush has been smoking.
 

Oil showdown in Kurdistan
 

Changes in Guantanamo Bay Standard Operating Procedures manual (2003-2004): ... detainees will be treated in accordance with the "spirit" of the Geneva conventions "to the degree consistent with military needs" ... .
 

WHAT THE HECK IS THIS STUFF?
 

Words I wish I'd written . . .
Our Man in the BugHouse: He Just Made Me More Nervous Than Ever: There he stood, facing an avalanche of status-quo obliteration, and pretended -- or rather honestly believed? -- that nothing had changed. Nothing at all. There he stood, grimacing and wincing and twitching, and swore that, in fact, he had been vindicated. The deranged bastard had me paralyzed with fear. It was like watching the disintegrating Captain Queeg on the witness stand -- only this commander has his unsteady finger on the nuclear button.

In fact, given Mr. Bush's most unsettling display of incontrovertible instability yesterday, the situation is more worrisome now than ever. For years we have witnessed his absolute, prep-boy intolerance for behavioral correction and his messianic determination to do, simply, whatever he thinks God wants him to do. ...

He affirmed, in short, that he's exceedingly bonkers, and is skating on the very edge of a destructive mental collapse. This we are expected to find reassuring?
 

Bolton Calls For Congressional Witch-Hunt Into Anti-Bush ‘People In The Intelligence Community’: “I’ve never based my view on this week’s intelligence,” Bolton proclaimed today. Just as he did before the Iraq war, Bolton is attempting to discredit any intelligence which contrasts with his fixation on more war in the Middle East.
 

Ex-Italian President: Intel Agencies Know 9/11 An Inside Job: ". . . [T]he disastrous attack has been planned and realized from the CIA American and the Mossad with the aid of the Zionist world in order to put under accusation the Arabic Countries and in order to induce the western powers to take part ... in Iraq [and] Afghanistan."
 

Supreme Court expected to rule against Gitmo detainees
 

More War is Job One: Torturing the Truth on Iran: Anyone hoping that the "no nukes in Iran" NIE report might hobble the Administration's armed march toward Persia should take note of how George W. Bush moved the goal posts in his warmongering game during a press conference on Tuesday.
 

Video (brief), The Bush-itter squirms: President Bush on Timing of Iran NIE Briefing
 

Iran Intelligence Report: Another Psychological Warfare?
 

Firstly is perhaps best known as Iraq's most famous nuclear scientist Dr Al-Shahristani kept his lips tied about Iranian

after 1991 war he fled to Iran. He worked in Iran for two years before he moved to UK, he well known talking about Iraq nuclear capability and war mongering while he was in exile.
But when the matter concerned Iranian nuclear project he kept silent and quite.

Secondly UN warned US after invasion of Iraq that most Iraqi nuclear facilities and multi-use facilities are theft or looted, most probably the items went to Iran as this come road of smuggling from Iraq to Iran for decades.
 

There is a way to solve the Iran crisis: The issue at hand here is not about the accuracy or misinformation of various Western intelligence reports. What is more important is that the stance of the American administration should not be adopted by the international community as the agenda for action against Iran. ...

"We cannot afford to follow certain international strategies that could harm our interests. We don't have any information on the Iranian programme except what the Iranian and the International Atomic Energy Agency say that it is a peaceful project, to which we believe they have the right," said Qatari Prime Minister Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem Al Thani during the recent GCC summit in Doha.
 

Wayne Madsen Report (in full) -
December 6, 2007 -- Mossad has no desire for an Israeli attack on Iran: WMR has learned from a US intelligence source who recently spoke with a high-level official of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad that Israeli intelligence concluded that an Israeli attack on Iranian military and nuclear facilities would have disastrous effects on the Jewish state as well as Iran's Jewish population, which, at 25,000, is the largest Jewish population in the Middle East after Israel itself.

Our source reported that Mossad conducts low-level contacts with Iran's government and these contacts have continued ever since the overthrow of the Shah.

Mossad also received reports that Iran's Jewish population was firmly opposed to Israeli military action against Iran. While Israel has tried to convince Iran's Jews to leave their country for Israel, Iranian Jews, while small in number, are engaged in lucrative business enterprises in Iran. Our US intelligence source reports that many of Iran's Jews would like to use their persecution situation in Iran to obtain U.S. residency and citizenship, with a view to settling in southern California among Iran's large expatriate community while being able to travel back to Iran on US travel documents. If they settle in Israel they would not be able to claim religious persecution and not be eligible for US political refugee status.
 

Report: Israeli Defense Officials Knew At Least a Month Ago About NIE Findings, Weeks Before Bush Claims He Was Informed
 

White House Reveals Bush Lied: Was Told In August Iran’s Nuclear Program ‘May Be Suspended’
 

UK defends cluster bomb (But it not nuclear.)
 

Dear U.S. Government: Please Get Your Preposterous Stories Straight
 

CFR used John Edwards & Jack Kemp to trash Putin: Vladimir Putin is arguably the most popular leader in Russian history, although you'd never know it by reading the Western media. According to a recent survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal, Putin's personal approval rating in November 2007 was 85 percent, making him the most popular head of state in the world today. Putin's popularity derives from many factors. He is personally clever and charismatic. He is fiercely nationalistic and has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of ordinary Russians and restore the country to its former greatness. He has raised over 20 million Russians out of grinding poverty, improved education, health care and the pension system, (partially) nationalized critical industries, lowered unemployment, increased manufacturing and exports, invigorated Russian markets, strengthened the ruble, raised the overall standard of living, reduced government corruption, jailed or exiled the venal oligarchs, and amassed capital reserves of $450 billion.

Putin's real crime is that he serves Russia's national interests rather than the interests of global Capital. He also rejects Washington's “unipolar” world model. As he said in Munich, “The unipolar world refers to a world in which there is one master, one sovereign; one center of authority, one center of force, one center of decision-making. At the end of the day this is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within . . . What is even more important is that the model itself is flawed because at its basis there is and can be no moral foundations for modern civilization.”
 

A new Chinese red line over Iran: ... The Middle East sits on plate glass and it is agonizing to contemplate that glass can give way. All we know for sure is that the NIE signals that the Middle East isn't going to be the same again.

The NIE means the Bush administration cannot resort to a military strike against Iran during its remaining term in office, as it says that Iran "halted" its secret nuclear weapons program in the autumn of 2003. The military option simply doesn't exist anymore, no matter US officials' grandstanding.

Equally, the Bush administration's diplomatic campaign to get the international community to back tougher sanctions against Iran runs into a cul-de-sac. Washington has been lobbying for a third round of United Nations sanctions against Iran. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked to their Chinese and Russian counterparts. But Beijing and Moscow have taken serious note of the NIE. Probably, their intelligence already knew of its contents. At any rate, they reiterated their aversion for another UN Security Council sanctions resolution.
 

Let's Face It: Bush Isn't Lying To Us, He's Nuts!
 

The Forged Origins of The New Testament
 

A smart side to US intelligence
 

The flip side to US intelligence: ... [I]n no area has American intelligence gotten it wrong more often than when it comes to assessing foreign powers' nuclear prowess.
 

The surge is a sideshow. Only total US pullout can succeed: When resistance leaders are given an assurance that the Iraq occupation will end completely, real negotiations can begin
 

Blackwater's Bu$ine$$: ... The dirty open secret in Washington is that Blackwater has done its job in Iraq, even if it has done so by valuing the lives of Iraqis much lower than those of US VIPs. That badass image will serve it well as it expands globally.
 

The politics of anti-Semitism: Zionism, the Bund and Jewish Identity politics: Those amongst us who support the Palestinian people, those amongst us who are devastated by the growing scale of Israeli atrocities, those who want to bring justice to Palestine and this includes bringing Palestinians back to their land, will have to make up their minds sooner or later. From now on, everything we do or say about the Jewish state is seen by one Jew or another as anti-Semitism. We have to make up our minds and decide once and for all, is it world Jewry which we are trying to appease, or is it the Palestinians we are fighting for?
 

Keith Olbermann's Special Comment - "You Sir, Have No Business Being President!": You, Mr.. Bush, are a bald-faced liar.

And more over, you have just revealed that John Bolton, and Norman Podhoretz, and the Wall Street Journal Editorial board, are also bald-faced liars. (Thank you, Keith!!!)
 

CIA destroyed video of 'waterboarding' al-Qaida detainees
 

'Millions missing' from Iraq fund: A $5.2bn (£2.6bn) fund used to train and equip Iraqi security forces cannot be shown to have been used properly, US military auditors say in a new report.

... The private US company running the programme, DynCorp, said there had been no intentional fraud. (OK, unintentional fraud.)
 

Occupation forces steal Anbar’s reconstruction Funds: Members of Anbar governing council expressed their concern yesterday saying that the American forces are stealing Anbar’s reconstruction funds, and write false reports to their supervisors about several progress and reconstruction projects in Anbar.

Anonymous source said that most of these reports are false and success-stories fabrication, do not exist on the ground, these projects mentioned are only on papers.

Another source said that he read the financial report submitted by the occupation forces reconstruction Committee and found it full of lies.
 

Dr Khadduri,
Re your above: One would now dare the 16 American "intelligence" agencies if they know the location of the Iranian "complex engineering effort".
Regrettably, their response, because of "national security" concerns, must remain "classified".
 

على إسرائيل أن تطمئن ولا تخاف من مفاعلات إيران النووية، فلن تكون إيران أغْيَر من العرب على أرض العرب، وما دام العرب عجزوا عن فتح بيت المقدس، فإيران أذكى من أن تورّط نفسها في حرب لا ناقة لها فيها ولا جمل. وبيت المقدس في التاريخ فُتِح مرتين على يد قائدين عظيمين صالحين هما: عمر بن الخطاب وصلاح الدين الأيوبي ، ولا يفتحه قائد جاء على دبابة الاستعمارأو آية من آيات السراديب فلا بد للفتح من نكاح لا سفاح،
 

Stunning - very l o n g - interview:
Omar Barghouti: « No State Has the Right to Exist as a Racist State »

. . . and a site worth bookmarking (new to me):
Voltaire Network
 

http://www.alternatefocus.org/Index.html
Blackwater in Potrero
 

Wayne Madsen Report (in full) -
December 9, 2007 -- US Intelligence and military continue rolling "counter-coup": On September 24, 2007, WMR reported the following, "WMR has learned from U.S. and foreign intelligence sources that the B-52 transporting six stealth AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missiles, each armed with a W-80-1 nuclear warhead, on August 30, were destined for the Middle East via Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

However, elements of the Air Force, supported by U.S. intelligence agency personnel, successfully revealed the ultimate destination of the nuclear weapons and the mission was aborted due to internal opposition within the Air Force and U.S. Intelligence Community."

The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran was revised in August this year, the same month that the Air Force aborted the nuclear mission that may have led to a nuclear strike on Iranian targets. President George Bush said it was in August that Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell first told him that there was some radically new intelligence in the NIE: that Iran scrapped its nuclear weapons program in the autumn of 2003.

US intelligence and top level Pentagon brass, aware of the new NIE and the neocon plans to move to the Middle East nuclear weapons destined for an Iran attack, quickly stepped in to prevent what Bush referred to in an October 17, 2007, speech: "World War III."

The word around the Beltway is that when Bush began talking about World War III and continued to discuss Iran options with traitorous neocons like Norman Podhoretz, the intelligence community and Pentagon brass decided to act once again, by threatening to leak the new classified NIE and face the consequences.

The neocons are now on a vendetta against the principal authors of the NIE, veteran intelligence officers Dr. Thomas Fingar, the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis; Vann Van Diepen, the National Intelligence Officer for weapons of mass destruction; and Kenneth Brill, former US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

We are witnessing the same neocon tactic used against CIA counter-proliferation agent Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson. The neocons are suggesting that some of the new intelligence on Iran's nuclear weapons program cessation came from General Ali Reza Asgari, a former Iranian deputy Defense Minister and Revolutionary Guard commander who disappeared from an Istanbul hotel on February 7, 2007, in what may have been an effort to salvage an the remains of an intelligence network compromised by the neocons' outing of Plame.

The neocons are also dangerously attacking signals intelligence (SIGINT) intercepts of Iranian communications by the National Security Agency (NSA) and its British counterpart, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Some neocon quarters are suggesting SIGINT analysts, like CIA human intelligence analysts, are acting for political reasons. WMR has, in the past, reported extensively on the retribution meted out to NSA analysts who produced intelligence reports at odds with the neocon propaganda emanating from Vice President Dick Cheney's office and his coterie of pro-Israeli operatives resident at various Washington "think tanks."

The disclosure of the NIE, like the decision countermanding the order to move nuclear weapons to the Middle East, represents what has been termed a "counter-coup" by the U.S. military and intelligence community. The neocons have every reason to be concerned: there are those in the government and military who would like nothing more than to see the leading neocons and their ilk purged from the government and never again pose a threat to the national security of the United States.

(See above, December 04, 2007 10:58 AM)
 

Discredited Ohio Congressman Ney's Iran links almost mattered: An important new book adds tiles to the mosaic that is federal pris oner 28882-016 -- former U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican. Perhaps 007, James Bond's number, should be added to Ney's.

Trita Parsi's book, "Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States" (Yale University Press) is timely beyond words. ...
 

UN nuclear agency team arrives in Tehran
 

Bush due in region on January 9, Abbas aide says: Israeli news media said that, during his visit, he would try to reassure the Jewish state that Washington stood firm against Iran's nuclear programme despite a US intelligence report this week - disputed by Israel - that Tehran had halted its nuclear weapons programme.
 

Israel says must trade Occupied Jerusalem areas with Arabs
 

Israel no nuclear threat to neighbours, says Gates: The statement was greeted by laughter from a room filled with government officials from Middle Eastern countries.
(But with serious contemplation by American journalists? How come these Middle Easterners are so much smarter than us?)
 

Israel warns Iran to co-operate or pay price
 

The Ticking Lie Scenario: President Bush, at his press conference on Tuesday, pleaded ignorance as his excuse for statements going back many months--statements which, if made with knowledge and not from ignorance, were treacherous, deceptive, and entailed a deliberate risk to the security of the United States.
 

Olmert: Israel set to expose Iranian nuclear program
 

Hostile questions baffle US army official: THE US' most senior military official in the Gulf yesterday said he had been left baffled by hostile questioning of his country's intentions in the region on the opening day of the Manama Dialogue.

Commander of US Central Command Admiral William J Fallon told the GDN that the strongly-worded questions posed by Arab delegates to US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates on whether the large US military presence in the Gulf is in the region's best interests overlooked the important role played by his country.

"I just reject out of hand the premise of some of the comments we heard - we are a force for peace in the world and we engage here for the purpose of trying to make this a better world, and I think the record pretty much speaks for itself." (Yes, sir, it does.)
 

Gates: Iran causes chaos ‘everywhere’ it turns
 

Inquiry into CIA interrogation tapes' destruction begins
 

Secretly briefed, Pelosi did not object to waterboarding in 2002
 

Gates: Israel doesn't pose nuclear threat like Iran: "Israel is not training terrorists to subvert its neighbours. It has not shipped weapons into a place like Iraq to kill thousands of innocent civilians covertly," Gates said.

"It has not threatened to destroy any of its neighbours. It is not trying to destabilise the government of Lebanon.
 

Bush's Reaction to the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) reveals him as World Warmonger No. 1: President Bush today is telling Iran to “come clean” when he’s nose deep in what comes out of the hind end of a Texas Longhorn.
 

Israeli Envoy: War with Iran may be unavoidable
 

Wayne Madsen Report (in full) -
December 13, 2007 -- Iranian missile technology coming from prospective NATO member: While the neocon chorus continues to debase the US Intelligence Community for its National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran scrapping its nuclear weapons program in 2003, the same circles remain mum over concrete evidence from the US Intelligence Community that prospective NATO member Ukraine continues to sell missile technology to Iran. According to WMR's intelligence sources, Ukraine continues to provide missile technology to Iran after having claimed that the exports stopped after the Orange Revolution threw out the prior president, Leonid Kuchma, in 2005.

In 2005, it was discovered by the government of President Viktor Yushchenko that 8 Kh-55 (X-55/AS15) cruise missiles were sold to Iran between 1999 and 2001. The missiles were sold by a Ukrainian and his Russian business partner using fake end-user certificates from the Progress subsidiary of the UKRSPETSEKSPORT government arms export agency. The missiles are now operational in Iran as the SS-N-22 Sunburn designed as an anti-ship weapon which can travel at mach 2.5.

The Bush administration, which criticized the previous Kuchma government for the X-55 exports to Iran and China, has been silent on the fact that its ally in Kyiv continues to permit missile technology, particularly critical missile booster technology, to reach Iran. The booster technology is being used to increase the range and accuracy of Iran's missile inventory, including mobile missile batteries.

Ukraine has become a favored base of operations for exiled Russian-Israeli tycoons, such as Boris Berezovsky, who have made no secret of their plans to topple Russian President Vladimir Putin.
 

Russia and Iran settle differences over nuclear power station
 

THE U.S. COULD STILL STRIKE IRAN BUT IT IS NOW UP TO ISRAEL TO STRIKE THE FIRST BLOW: In the end the NIE has changed nothing in terms of the endgame for both the US and Israel who want regime change in Iran. What it has done, in fact, is simply made it easier for Israel to take the decision to do the job. There is no more procrastination.
 

Ties on Iran's nuclear program loosen: It's a tough pill for Washington and its European allies to swallow, yet the fact that the new US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) warrants a considerable revision of Western strategy toward Iran's nuclear program is inescapable and, already, new cracks in the previously rigid US stance on Iran can be discerned.