UPDATE: US Aerial Attack on Iran Planned for June

UPDATE Latest From Iran .... *Iran shows off nuclear centrepiece *Iran opens nuclear plant to media *Iran leader takes reporters to nuke plant The Coming War in Iran, continued ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear programme. The inner cabinet of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, gave “initial authorisation” for an attack at a private meeting last month on his ranch in the Negev desert. Israeli forces have used a mock-up of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant in the desert to practise destroying it. Their tactics include raids by Israel’s elite Shaldag (Kingfisher) commando unit and airstrikes by F-15 jets from 69 Squadron, using bunker-busting bombs to penetrate underground facilities. The plans have been discussed with American officials who are said to have indicated provisionally that they would not stand in Israel’s way if all international efforts to halt Iranian nuclear projects failed.... Silvan Shalom, the Israeli foreign minister, said he believed that diplomacy was the only way to deal with the issue. But he warned: “The idea that this tyranny of Iran will hold a nuclear bomb is a nightmare, not only for us but for the whole world.” Dick Cheney, the American vice-president, emphasised on Friday that Iran would face “stronger action” if it failed to respond. But yesterday Iran rejected the initiative, which provides for entry to the World Trade Organisation and a supply of spare parts for airliners if it co-operates. “No pressure, bribe or threat can make Iran give up its legitimate right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes,” said an Iranian spokesman. US officials warned last week that a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities by Israeli or American forces had not been ruled out should the issue become deadlocked at the United Nations. *The Coming War in Iran, cont SCENARIO Let us suppose, as certainly is quite possible (perhaps probable), that the Bush people are re-elected, legally or otherwise (legally, not legitimately!). Here is one scenario that may be in store, and that is certainly being discussed outside the mainstream media in the U.S., though not in sources for which I can find URLs. It is a scenario that may not even require a Bush victory, but is surely more probable to unfold in the form imagined under Bush. In any case, I offer it here for your horror. Iran is already increasingly defiant in the face of international pressure about its nuclear capabilities. Being a founding member of the "Axis of Evil," the Iranians have no doubt drawn the correct conclusion that their best protection against the American juggernaut is to acquire nuclear weapons. This story, in any event, is so far on the back burners in the mass media. At some point (probably after November 2), Israel will strike the Iranian nuclear facilities, as it did with Iraq more than two decades ago. Since Iran, unlike Iraq, is not a decimated country with a third-rate army, the Iranians will retaliate against "the Zionists." Assuming Israel does not, then, annihilate the Iranians with nuclear weapons, it will respond militarily in some other form, and the U.S. will come to Israel's "defense." With the pretext of an assault on a valued ally, the Bush war mongers will call for a new millitary draft, a proposal that will win the warm support of principled Democrats like Senator John Kerry, who also voted for the "Patriot [sic] Act" and the war in Iraq. With a concerted "Zionist" assault upon an Islamic nation, there will, of course, be upheaval throughout the Islamic world, including the toppling of Bush's man in Pakistan, who will be ousted by Islamic radicals in his own military. Assuming India does not then launch a preventive nuclear war against Pakistan, the Pakistanis will, no doubt, transfer some of their own nuclear capabilities to the beleagured Iranians. You can fill in the rest. It goes without saying that there will also be all kinds of terrorist incidents in the United States as "retaliation." Let us hope my powers of prognosis are poor. But who would have dreamed in the summer of 2001 that it would be a matter of national urgency within a year to invade Iraq? Once burned, twice shy.... Revealed: Israel plans strike on Iranian nuclear plant Uzi Mahnaimi ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear programme. The inner cabinet of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, gave “initial authorisation” for an attack at a private meeting last month on his ranch in the Negev desert. Israeli forces have used a mock-up of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant in the desert to practise destroying it. Their tactics include raids by Israel’s elite Shaldag (Kingfisher) commando unit and airstrikes by F-15 jets from 69 Squadron, using bunker-busting bombs to penetrate underground facilities. The plans have been discussed with American officials who are said to have indicated provisionally that they would not stand in Israel’s way if all international efforts to halt Iranian nuclear projects failed. Tehran claims that its programme is designed for peaceful purposes but Israeli and American intelligence officials — who have met to share information in recent weeks — are convinced that it is intended to produce nuclear weapons. The Israeli government responded cautiously yesterday to an announcement by Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, that America would support Britain, France and Germany in offering economic incentives for Tehran to abandon its programme. In return, the European countries promised to back Washington in referring Iran to the United Nations security council if the latest round of talks fails to secure agreement. Silvan Shalom, the Israeli foreign minister, said he believed that diplomacy was the only way to deal with the issue. But he warned: “The idea that this tyranny of Iran will hold a nuclear bomb is a nightmare, not only for us but for the whole world.” Dick Cheney, the American vice-president, emphasised on Friday that Iran would face “stronger action” if it failed to respond. But yesterday Iran rejected the initiative, which provides for entry to the World Trade Organisation and a supply of spare parts for airliners if it co-operates. “No pressure, bribe or threat can make Iran give up its legitimate right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes,” said an Iranian spokesman. US officials warned last week that a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities by Israeli or American forces had not been ruled out should the issue become deadlocked at the United Nations. Additional reporting: Tony Allen-Mills, Washington *Revealed: Israel plans strike on Iranian nuclear plant By Mark Jensen Saturday, 19 February 2005 United for Peace of Pierce County (WA) Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday in Washington State, dropped two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to a packed house in Olympia's Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons inspector said that George W. Bush has signed off on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and claimed the U.S. manipulated the results of the recent Jan. 30 elections in Iraq. The principal theme of Scott Ritter's talk was Americans' duty to protect the U.S. Constitution by taking action to bring an end to the illegal war in Iraq. But in passing, the former UNSCOM weapons inspector stunned his listeners with two pronouncements. Ritter said plans for a June attack on Iran have been submitted to President George W. Bush, and that the president has approved them. He also asserted that knowledgeable sources say U.S. officials "cooked" the results of the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq. On Iran, Ritter said that President George W. Bush has received and signed off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran planned for June 2005. Its purported goal is the destruction of Iran's alleged program to develop nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the administration also expected that the attack would set in motion a chain of events leading to regime change in the oil-rich nation of 70 million -- a possibility Ritter regards with the greatest skepticism. The former Marine also said that the Jan. 30 elections, which George W. Bush has called "a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in the advance of freedom," were not so free after all. Ritter said that U.S. authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to reduce the percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from 56% to 48%. Asked by UFPPC's Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an official involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would soon be reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major metropolitan magazine -- an obvious allusion to New Yorker reporter Seymour M. Hersh. On Jan. 17, the New Yorker posted an article by Hersh entitled The Coming Wars (New Yorker, January 24-31, 2005). In it, the well-known investigative journalist claimed that for the Bush administration, The next strategic target is Iran. Hersh also reported that The Administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer. According to Hersh, Defense Department civilians, under the leadership of Douglas Feith, have been working with Israeli planners and consultants to develop and refine potential nuclear, chemical-weapons, and missile targets inside Iran. . . Strategists at the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, in Tampa, Florida, have been asked to revise the military's war plan, providing for a maximum ground and air invasion of Iran. . . . The hawks in the Administration believe that it will soon become clear that the Europeans negotiated approach [to Iran] cannot succeed, and that at that time the Administration will act. Scott Ritter said that although the peace movement failed to stop the war in Iraq, it had a chance to stop the expansion of the war to other nations like Iran and Syria. He held up the specter of a day when the Iraq war might be remembered as a relatively minor event that preceded an even greater conflagration. Scott Ritter's talk was the culmination of a long evening devoted to discussion of Iraq and U.S. foreign policy. Before Ritter spoke, Dahr Jamail narrated a slide show on Iraq focusing on Fallujah. He showed more than a hundred vivid photographs taken in Iraq, mostly by himself. Many of them showed the horrific slaughter of civilians. Dahr Jamail argued that U.S. mainstream media sources are complicit in the war and help sustain support for it by deliberately downplaying the truth about the devastation and death it is causing. *Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches News From Inside Iraq One Western military specialist based in Tehran said on condition of anonymity that over the last year, Iran was sharpening its abilities to wage a guerrilla war, the Boston Globe adds. But most analysts agree that the biggest trump card Iranians could play is to unleash havoc in neighboring Iraq, where Iraqis who spent years in Iran as exiles are about to assume a dominant role in the government. In other words, the U.S. will be confronted with a large number of resistance fighters in Iraq, conceivably upward to a million or more, and not the paltry 200,000 or so it currently faces and finds overwhelming. On the day after the Pentagon stupidly bombs Irans illusory nuclear facilities there will be hell to pay in Iraq. For over a week rumors have circulated in the Arab press that both napalm and other chemical weapons were used mainly in the Jolan district of Falluja, a major area of the fighting. Now, despite a US media blackout, more evidence is leaking out and causing a furor in the British Parliament. As Gilfeather reports: Tony Blair was dragged into the row as furious Labour MPs demanded he face the Commons over it. Reports claim that innocent civilians have died in napalm attacks, which turn victims into human fireballs as the gel bonds flames to flesh. Blair is being pressed by furious MPs to clarify whether or not he knew that the banned weapon was being used. He is also being asked to withdraw British troops if the US continues its use of napalm. As of this writing, Blairs response remains unknown. The US has already admitted that it used napalm during the siege of Baghdad. The truth was reluctantly confirmed by the Pentagon after news reports corroborated the evidence. The military has tried to conceal the truth by saying that there is a distinction between its new weapon and traditional napalm. The improved product carries the Pentagon moniker Mark 77 firebombs and uses jet fuel to decrease environmental damage. The fact that military planners even considered environmental damage while developing the tools for incinerating human beings, gives us some insight into the deep vein of cynicism that permeates their ranks. The Pentagons hair-splitting has done little to obfuscate the facts. Marines returning from Iraq call the bombs napalm and napalm it is. Journalist Simon Jenkins of the British Sunday Times describes the incidents in Falluja like this: Some artillery guns fired white phosphorous rounds that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water. Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns. It is an excruciatingly painful way to die. Independent journalists have been reporting for some time now that the US has been using banned weapons in Falluja. Iraqi doctors have noted that many of the bodies they have examined have been swollen, yellowish and have no smell. Asia Times online has reported that Americans used chemical weapons in the bombing of Jolan, ash-Shuhada and al-Jubayl neighborhoods. They also say the neighborhoods were showered with cluster bombs; an allegation that refutes the Pentagons claim of precision bombing. Theres no doubt that the US embedded media is being prevented from seeing the vast devastation and carnage of Falluja so they wont be exposed to the suspicious looking corpses that still litter the city. So far, their collusive wall of silence has provided fairly good cover for American war crimes. Fortunately, the truth is slowly leeching out due to the efforts of the foreign press and independent media. Soon, the world will get a better rendering of Washingtons moral values by a full vetting of transgressions in Falluja. *Reference: US Aerial Attack on Iran Planned for June *Reference: Iran prepares for "Asymmetrical Warfare" Stumble It!

UPDATE: US Aerial Attack on Iran Planned for June

UPDATE Latest From Iran .... *Iran shows off nuclear centrepiece *Iran opens nuclear plant to media *Iran leader takes reporters to nuke plant The Coming War in Iran, continued ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear programme. The inner cabinet of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, gave “initial authorisation” for an attack at a private meeting last month on his ranch in the Negev desert. Israeli forces have used a mock-up of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant in the desert to practise destroying it. Their tactics include raids by Israel’s elite Shaldag (Kingfisher) commando unit and airstrikes by F-15 jets from 69 Squadron, using bunker-busting bombs to penetrate underground facilities. The plans have been discussed with American officials who are said to have indicated provisionally that they would not stand in Israel’s way if all international efforts to halt Iranian nuclear projects failed.... Silvan Shalom, the Israeli foreign minister, said he believed that diplomacy was the only way to deal with the issue. But he warned: “The idea that this tyranny of Iran will hold a nuclear bomb is a nightmare, not only for us but for the whole world.” Dick Cheney, the American vice-president, emphasised on Friday that Iran would face “stronger action” if it failed to respond. But yesterday Iran rejected the initiative, which provides for entry to the World Trade Organisation and a supply of spare parts for airliners if it co-operates. “No pressure, bribe or threat can make Iran give up its legitimate right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes,” said an Iranian spokesman. US officials warned last week that a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities by Israeli or American forces had not been ruled out should the issue become deadlocked at the United Nations. *The Coming War in Iran, cont SCENARIO Let us suppose, as certainly is quite possible (perhaps probable), that the Bush people are re-elected, legally or otherwise (legally, not legitimately!). Here is one scenario that may be in store, and that is certainly being discussed outside the mainstream media in the U.S., though not in sources for which I can find URLs. It is a scenario that may not even require a Bush victory, but is surely more probable to unfold in the form imagined under Bush. In any case, I offer it here for your horror. Iran is already increasingly defiant in the face of international pressure about its nuclear capabilities. Being a founding member of the "Axis of Evil," the Iranians have no doubt drawn the correct conclusion that their best protection against the American juggernaut is to acquire nuclear weapons. This story, in any event, is so far on the back burners in the mass media. At some point (probably after November 2), Israel will strike the Iranian nuclear facilities, as it did with Iraq more than two decades ago. Since Iran, unlike Iraq, is not a decimated country with a third-rate army, the Iranians will retaliate against "the Zionists." Assuming Israel does not, then, annihilate the Iranians with nuclear weapons, it will respond militarily in some other form, and the U.S. will come to Israel's "defense." With the pretext of an assault on a valued ally, the Bush war mongers will call for a new millitary draft, a proposal that will win the warm support of principled Democrats like Senator John Kerry, who also voted for the "Patriot [sic] Act" and the war in Iraq. With a concerted "Zionist" assault upon an Islamic nation, there will, of course, be upheaval throughout the Islamic world, including the toppling of Bush's man in Pakistan, who will be ousted by Islamic radicals in his own military. Assuming India does not then launch a preventive nuclear war against Pakistan, the Pakistanis will, no doubt, transfer some of their own nuclear capabilities to the beleagured Iranians. You can fill in the rest. It goes without saying that there will also be all kinds of terrorist incidents in the United States as "retaliation." Let us hope my powers of prognosis are poor. But who would have dreamed in the summer of 2001 that it would be a matter of national urgency within a year to invade Iraq? Once burned, twice shy.... Revealed: Israel plans strike on Iranian nuclear plant Uzi Mahnaimi ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear programme. The inner cabinet of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, gave “initial authorisation” for an attack at a private meeting last month on his ranch in the Negev desert. Israeli forces have used a mock-up of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant in the desert to practise destroying it. Their tactics include raids by Israel’s elite Shaldag (Kingfisher) commando unit and airstrikes by F-15 jets from 69 Squadron, using bunker-busting bombs to penetrate underground facilities. The plans have been discussed with American officials who are said to have indicated provisionally that they would not stand in Israel’s way if all international efforts to halt Iranian nuclear projects failed. Tehran claims that its programme is designed for peaceful purposes but Israeli and American intelligence officials — who have met to share information in recent weeks — are convinced that it is intended to produce nuclear weapons. The Israeli government responded cautiously yesterday to an announcement by Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, that America would support Britain, France and Germany in offering economic incentives for Tehran to abandon its programme. In return, the European countries promised to back Washington in referring Iran to the United Nations security council if the latest round of talks fails to secure agreement. Silvan Shalom, the Israeli foreign minister, said he believed that diplomacy was the only way to deal with the issue. But he warned: “The idea that this tyranny of Iran will hold a nuclear bomb is a nightmare, not only for us but for the whole world.” Dick Cheney, the American vice-president, emphasised on Friday that Iran would face “stronger action” if it failed to respond. But yesterday Iran rejected the initiative, which provides for entry to the World Trade Organisation and a supply of spare parts for airliners if it co-operates. “No pressure, bribe or threat can make Iran give up its legitimate right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes,” said an Iranian spokesman. US officials warned last week that a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities by Israeli or American forces had not been ruled out should the issue become deadlocked at the United Nations. Additional reporting: Tony Allen-Mills, Washington *Revealed: Israel plans strike on Iranian nuclear plant By Mark Jensen Saturday, 19 February 2005 United for Peace of Pierce County (WA) Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday in Washington State, dropped two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to a packed house in Olympia's Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons inspector said that George W. Bush has signed off on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and claimed the U.S. manipulated the results of the recent Jan. 30 elections in Iraq. The principal theme of Scott Ritter's talk was Americans' duty to protect the U.S. Constitution by taking action to bring an end to the illegal war in Iraq. But in passing, the former UNSCOM weapons inspector stunned his listeners with two pronouncements. Ritter said plans for a June attack on Iran have been submitted to President George W. Bush, and that the president has approved them. He also asserted that knowledgeable sources say U.S. officials "cooked" the results of the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq. On Iran, Ritter said that President George W. Bush has received and signed off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran planned for June 2005. Its purported goal is the destruction of Iran's alleged program to develop nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the administration also expected that the attack would set in motion a chain of events leading to regime change in the oil-rich nation of 70 million -- a possibility Ritter regards with the greatest skepticism. The former Marine also said that the Jan. 30 elections, which George W. Bush has called "a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in the advance of freedom," were not so free after all. Ritter said that U.S. authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to reduce the percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from 56% to 48%. Asked by UFPPC's Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an official involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would soon be reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major metropolitan magazine -- an obvious allusion to New Yorker reporter Seymour M. Hersh. On Jan. 17, the New Yorker posted an article by Hersh entitled The Coming Wars (New Yorker, January 24-31, 2005). In it, the well-known investigative journalist claimed that for the Bush administration, The next strategic target is Iran. Hersh also reported that The Administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer. According to Hersh, Defense Department civilians, under the leadership of Douglas Feith, have been working with Israeli planners and consultants to develop and refine potential nuclear, chemical-weapons, and missile targets inside Iran. . . Strategists at the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, in Tampa, Florida, have been asked to revise the military's war plan, providing for a maximum ground and air invasion of Iran. . . . The hawks in the Administration believe that it will soon become clear that the Europeans negotiated approach [to Iran] cannot succeed, and that at that time the Administration will act. Scott Ritter said that although the peace movement failed to stop the war in Iraq, it had a chance to stop the expansion of the war to other nations like Iran and Syria. He held up the specter of a day when the Iraq war might be remembered as a relatively minor event that preceded an even greater conflagration. Scott Ritter's talk was the culmination of a long evening devoted to discussion of Iraq and U.S. foreign policy. Before Ritter spoke, Dahr Jamail narrated a slide show on Iraq focusing on Fallujah. He showed more than a hundred vivid photographs taken in Iraq, mostly by himself. Many of them showed the horrific slaughter of civilians. Dahr Jamail argued that U.S. mainstream media sources are complicit in the war and help sustain support for it by deliberately downplaying the truth about the devastation and death it is causing. *Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches News From Inside Iraq One Western military specialist based in Tehran said on condition of anonymity that over the last year, Iran was sharpening its abilities to wage a guerrilla war, the Boston Globe adds. But most analysts agree that the biggest trump card Iranians could play is to unleash havoc in neighboring Iraq, where Iraqis who spent years in Iran as exiles are about to assume a dominant role in the government. In other words, the U.S. will be confronted with a large number of resistance fighters in Iraq, conceivably upward to a million or more, and not the paltry 200,000 or so it currently faces and finds overwhelming. On the day after the Pentagon stupidly bombs Irans illusory nuclear facilities there will be hell to pay in Iraq. For over a week rumors have circulated in the Arab press that both napalm and other chemical weapons were used mainly in the Jolan district of Falluja, a major area of the fighting. Now, despite a US media blackout, more evidence is leaking out and causing a furor in the British Parliament. As Gilfeather reports: Tony Blair was dragged into the row as furious Labour MPs demanded he face the Commons over it. Reports claim that innocent civilians have died in napalm attacks, which turn victims into human fireballs as the gel bonds flames to flesh. Blair is being pressed by furious MPs to clarify whether or not he knew that the banned weapon was being used. He is also being asked to withdraw British troops if the US continues its use of napalm. As of this writing, Blairs response remains unknown. The US has already admitted that it used napalm during the siege of Baghdad. The truth was reluctantly confirmed by the Pentagon after news reports corroborated the evidence. The military has tried to conceal the truth by saying that there is a distinction between its new weapon and traditional napalm. The improved product carries the Pentagon moniker Mark 77 firebombs and uses jet fuel to decrease environmental damage. The fact that military planners even considered environmental damage while developing the tools for incinerating human beings, gives us some insight into the deep vein of cynicism that permeates their ranks. The Pentagons hair-splitting has done little to obfuscate the facts. Marines returning from Iraq call the bombs napalm and napalm it is. Journalist Simon Jenkins of the British Sunday Times describes the incidents in Falluja like this: Some artillery guns fired white phosphorous rounds that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water. Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns. It is an excruciatingly painful way to die. Independent journalists have been reporting for some time now that the US has been using banned weapons in Falluja. Iraqi doctors have noted that many of the bodies they have examined have been swollen, yellowish and have no smell. Asia Times online has reported that Americans used chemical weapons in the bombing of Jolan, ash-Shuhada and al-Jubayl neighborhoods. They also say the neighborhoods were showered with cluster bombs; an allegation that refutes the Pentagons claim of precision bombing. Theres no doubt that the US embedded media is being prevented from seeing the vast devastation and carnage of Falluja so they wont be exposed to the suspicious looking corpses that still litter the city. So far, their collusive wall of silence has provided fairly good cover for American war crimes. Fortunately, the truth is slowly leeching out due to the efforts of the foreign press and independent media. Soon, the world will get a better rendering of Washingtons moral values by a full vetting of transgressions in Falluja. *Reference: US Aerial Attack on Iran Planned for June *Reference: Iran prepares for "Asymmetrical Warfare"