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TechnoratiWASHINGTON - Following revelations of a George W. Bush administration policy to hold Iran responsible for any al Qaeda attack on the U.S. that could be portrayed as planned on Iranian soil, former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinksi warned last week that Washington might use such an incident as a pretext to bomb Iran.
Brzezinski, the national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 through 1980 and the most senior Democratic Party figure on national security policy, told a private meeting sponsored by the non-partisan Committee for the Republic in Washington May 30 that an al Qaeda terrorist attack in the United States intended to provoke war between the U.S. and Iran was a possibility that must be taken seriously, and that the Bush administration might accuse Iran of responsibility for such an attack and use it to justify carrying out an attack on Iran.
Brzezinski suggested that new constraints were needed on presidential war powers to reduce the risk of a war against Iran based on such a false pretense. Such constraints, Brzezinski said, should not prevent the president from using force in response to an attack on the United States, but should make it more difficult to carry out an attack without an adequate justification.
Brzezinski's warning came a few weeks after the publication in late April of former Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet's memoirs, which revealed that CIA officials had told Iranian officials in a face-to-face meeting that the Bush administration would hold Iran responsible for any al Qaeda attack on the United States that was planned from Iranian territory.
The Bush administration has made persistent claims over the past five years that Iran has harboured al Qaeda operatives who had fled from Afghanistan and that they had participated in planning terrorist actions -- claims that were not supported by intelligence analysts.
Pentagon officials leaked information to CBS in May 2003 that they had "evidence" that al Qaeda leaders who had found "safe haven" in Iran had planned and directed terrorist operations in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Then Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld also encouraged that inference when he declared on May 29, 2003 that Iran had "permitted senior al Qaeda officials to operate in their country."
The leak and public statement allowed the media and their audiences to infer that the "safe haven" had been deliberately provided by Iranian authorities.
But most U.S. intelligence analysts specialising on the Persian Gulf believed the al Qaeda officials in Iran who were still communicating with operatives elsewhere were in hiding rather than under arrest. Former national intelligence officer for Near East and South Asia Paul Pillar told IPS in an interview last year that the "general impression" was that the al Qaeda operatives were not in Iran with the complicity of the Iranian authorities.
Former CIA analysts Ken Pollock, who was a Persian Gulf specialist on the National Security Council staff in 2001, wrote in "The Persian Puzzle", "These al Qaeda leaders apparently were operating in eastern Iran, which is a bit like the Wild West." He added, pointedly, "It was not as if these al-Qaeda leaders had been under lock and key in Evin prison in Tehran and were allowed to make phone calls to set up the attacks."
Although most elements in the Bush administration appear to oppose military action against Iran, Vice President Dick Cheney has reportedly advocated that course. He has also continued to raise the issue of al Qaeda officials in Iran.
Cheney told Fox News in an interview May 14, "We are confident that there are a number of senior al Qaeda officials in Iran, that they've been there since the spring of 2003. About the time that we launched operations into Iraq, the Iranians rounded up a number of al Qaeda individuals and placed them under house arrest."
Cheney did not say that the al Qaeda officials who were communicating with other operatives outside Iran were under house arrest.
As recently as last February, Bush administration officials were preparing to accuse Tehran publicly of cooperating with and harbouring al Qaeda suspects as part of the administration's strategy for pushing for stronger U.N. sanctions against Iran. The strategy of portraying Iran as having links with al Qaeda was being pushed by an unidentified Bush adviser who had been "instrumental in coming up with a more confrontational U.S. approach to Iran," according a report by the Washington Post's Dafna Linzer on Feb. 10.
As Linzer revealed, the neoconservative faction in the administration was still pushing to link Iran with al Qaeda despite the fact that a CIA report in early February had reported the arrest by Iranian authorities of two more al Qaeda operatives trying to make their way through Iran from Pakistan to Iraq.
The danger of an al Qaeda effort to disguise an attack on the U.S. as coming from Iran was raised in an article in Foreign Affairs published in late April by former NSC adviser and counterterrorism expert Bruce Reidel.
In the article, Reidel wrote that Osama bin Laden may have plans for "triggering an all-out war between the United States and Iran," referring to evidence that al Qaeda in Iraq now considers Iranian influence in Iraq "an even greater problem than the U.S. occupation".
"The biggest danger," Reidel wrote, "is that al Qaeda will deliberately provoke a war with a 'false-flag' operation, say, a terrorist attack carried out in a way that would make it appear as though it were Iran's doing."
In a briefing for reporters about the article, Reidel said al Qaeda officals have "openly talked about the advisability of getting their two great enemies to go to war with each other", hoping that they would "take each other out".
Reidel, now a senior fellow with the Saban Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, was one of the leading specialists on al Qaeda and terrorism, having served in the 1990s as national intelligence officer, assistant secretary of defence and NSC specialist for Near East and South Asia up to January 2002.
Supporting the warnings by Brzezinski and Reidel about an al Qaeda "false flag" terrorist attack is a captured al Qaeda document found in a hideout of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq in 2006. The document, translated and released by the Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafek al-Rubaie, said "the best solution in order to get out of this crisis is to involve the U.S. forces in waging a war against another country or any hostile groups".
The document, the author of which was not specified, explained, "We mean specifically attempting to escalate tension between America and Iran, and America and the Shiite[s] in Iraq."
Gareth Porter is an historian and national security policy analyst. His latest book, "Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam", was published in June 2005.
© 2007 Inter Press Service
50 Comments so far
Show AllEvelyn Smith
Don't take this as a rebuttal of your earlier post regarding the aftermath of a nuclear exchange, but rather as a clarification. I agree with your statements, just not your description of the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. Modern thermonuclear warheads are optimized for efficiency and low weight so that they may be more easily delivered by the various means available (and delivered in larger numbers). That being the case, these warheads contain the lowest-yield plutonium fission triggers possible with which to provide the necessary heat/pressure for kick-starting the fusion of their tritium cores. But since the cores are optimized for efficiency, the majority of the plutonium is "burned up" in the fission process and converted to any number of nasty fission by-products. Most of these have a relatively short half-life of around 30-60 years or so and are thus intensely radioactive. That's where all that gamma radiation comes from to which steppen Razor refers. This is a much shorter half-life than plutonium, which is on the order of 25,000 years. I realize it really doesn't matter whether it's plutonium or cesium or strontium that gets you, you're just as dead either way. I just wanted to clarify that point about bombs scattering plutonium. They only do that if their HE charges dentonate without initiating fission. If you are at the receiving end of a "dud", you're still better-off dealing with a few kilos of scattered plutonium dust than a 10-million degree fireball. I used to work at the place where they made the plutonium, but couldn't reconcile that with how I felt about the weapons I was helping to create. So I left that behind to pursue other areas of employment.
I read about the Dick blaming Iran for all the problems in Iraq and I think about how he still blames 9/11 on Saddam. And how he still insists that Saddam had WMD. And all the other myths and legends he has created over the years.
The upshot is that no matter what happens, he will claim that Iran is responsible and start a war. An ammunition dump may blow up because some US aircraft dropped a bomb on it "by mistake," but that will be enough.
If the south still wants to secede from the union, I think we ought to let them.
Cheney will persuade Bush to attack Iran if Al Qaeda attacks the U.S. Strategize like a chess player. What if Al Qaeda’s targets are just Bush and Cheney? Bingo. No one left to declare war.
al Qaeda or the Mossad, whats the difference?? They're both terrorist organizations controled by Israel.
RE: "In the event of another Al Qaeda attack, the American public should put the White House and their minions in Congress on trial and hang them in public. This is what a free and brave nation should do to its domestic enemies."
You meant to say "When" not "In the event" didn't you? I second this notion. But how would we accomplish this satisfying bit of justice, and how to get CNN there to film for the 11 oclock news? I am sure the whole world will want to watch these thugs get a taste of their own brand of wild west justice.
Bush is looking for any excuse to blame his failure's in Iraq on. Right at the moment, Iran fits the bill! He is one who always has to blame someone for his own incompetence and ignorance. I could be wrong, but I think the American people have had enough of the fear tactic's the Bush Administration is using. It's been proven to many times he is a pathological liar and nothing he says can be believed. He has lost every ounce of crediability he ever had. That's the biggest reason Bush hasn't bombed or invaded Iran yet. The support for such an action is not there! If he wanted to take Iran on, he should have done it when he invaded Iraq! All he is doing is running his big mouth trying to threaten the Iranian's. There is to much sentiment against the Iraq war now almost 60%. A war with Iran with put it over the top. I really think the American people would take matter's into their own hands. Maybe Bush isn't bright enough to know this. But, I am certain someone in that lousy administration has the brains to realize it would be the beginning of the end. It would be Bush's final scene before he got run out of office.
jazzara - I appreciated the Gore Vidal quote. Ever since fish in a lake in Texas turned up with their bodies filled with Prozac, I've been wondering if the admin literally has been doping the majority (in targeted areas, via tap water) of the American people since 9/11. Dopey television and media complicity can account for a lot of the brain-death of America, but.... what if? could it be done? I've always wondered if it would make sense that there was so much Prozac being ingested in one small area of Texas that its excretion in urine would pollute a lake. I know that water supplies are monitored for safety, but the Prozac was still a big surprise when it was discovered.
Bloggers probably to too young to remember Neville Shute's "On the Beach" circa 1963 or the movie. You might want to see or read. The feeling of waiting for the big mushroom clouds to filter down to Australia is the subject.In those days movies had dialogue. You might even like it.
Count me in on ground zero hope Toronto gets one if they come.
Here we go again...
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jun2007/iran-j07.shtml
They have an agenda and they continue to operate like all the evidence exposing their fraud from start to finish is irrelevant.
Imagine destroying a country, destablizing the ME, looting the treasury, jeopardizing national security by weakening armed forces, using armed forces of mostly poor as cannon fodder, using mercenary forces and hiding stats on the taxpayers dime, destroying, privitizing, deregulating US infrastructure, media, human services, educational opportunities, environment,justice & watch dog agencies, health care, social security and pensions--a mind-boggling list too overwhelming to conceive of while being despised by the world... global corps with no allegiance to US other than to milk treasury and buy government AND STILL they bang the war drums for oil and Israel.
Bombing Iran is seen by the neocons as a way to rally people in "defense of our troops" and for an unpopular war that they all know is lost in Iraq. It is a desperate plan by an insane clique. It's time to surround the whitehouse with angry mobs demanding their removal!
In other news, Southern Baptists have been spotted in Texas.
[Pax Salam] told [censored] News in an interview May 15, “We are confident that there are a number of senior Southern Baptist officials in Texas, that they’ve been there since the spring of 1984. They are preparing for an event they term the Apocalypse, which they are confident will extinguish life on Earth."
Hey steppen, I'm sure you are correct, some of humaity will survive if it ever happens and I was joking about the eye. I was only half joking about the stupid SOB's that would set it off and I'm sure some of them will survive.
Well, Evelyn Smith, have no fears of a lost eye. I was raised in a good Southern family who taught gun education and shooting from the time I was five. I'm sure all that exotic cheese, wines, beer and Russian caviar will be in the underground city the Government has in Mount Weather. But do the research for yourself on that one. As usual, while the Government kicks back in safety after they cause a global disaster, it will be the common man who has to pay the price for their blundering. I've done a lot of research on this subject. Nuclear war IS survivable. But you won't enjoy it. The LUCKY ones will be at ground zero.
steppen Razor: Well, sure do hate to think of sitting in a cave with a couple of AK-47's and a case of two of dry ammo for the rest of my days. The facts are, hydrogen bombs have a pound or so of plutonium in the warhead. Since a single eight ounce cupfull of plutonium,is far enough poison to kill five billion people, any decent nuclear war will distribute upon our plaet, a ton or so of the most posionious substance known to exist in the universe. That could help in several ways I supppose, no more killer bees, no more West Nile virus, because there won't be any birds and no more lost whales. Just a few examples of the good side of a nuke war.
Perhaps some of the obviously insane leaders of this planets nations would believe a good nuke war would solve the serious overpopulation problems, would even help with global warming with the atmosphere full of smoke and dust for a few years. Yeah! Why not? Those rich, crazy leaders likely have a cave ready too, probably well stocked with exotic cheeses, wines, beer and Russian fish eggs. You won't be alone steppen Razor, but be careful, don't shoot your eye out.
Saila: If only there was justice attached to INSTANT karma. And Clark Kent: Good explanation to Moonraven.
Jedediah, you miss the point. I don't expect the AK-47 to save me from a thermonuclear exchange. But, however, I do live in the mountain regions and I do have a cave staked out where the walls of rock will pretty much block out the heavy gamma radiation that will come with the fallout. The AK is for what comes afterwards when Americans can pretty much kiss all this crap they consider important now goodbye. Won't be any more Wal-Mart, won't be any more drug stores, won't be any more Sonic or MacDonalds where you can just wheel in there and get a Big Mac. Like most Americans, you really haven't thought this shit through, have you? Do yourself a favor, Jedediah. Google the term 'Mount Weather' and find out where all the Political Whores of America will be when 'Der Tag' comes. Then, go buy an AK and LOTS of ammo! Good luck, man! If you wait for the media to tell you what's happening, well, you and everybody you love is already dead. Oh, yeah. Today is the anniversary of D-Day. It was a different America back then. All of that is gone now.
jazzara, you are correct, but perhaps this website does in unknown ways, help to make many people think and pehaps act, it's a start.
P/S We have our own well and our water is OK, don't drink the water In DC though.
"...they [the US government] must be putting something in the nation's drinking water...." --- Gore Vidal grasping to explain what's happened to critical-thinking skills of the US public.
To which I want to add: Whatever the (arguably multiple) causes that are allowing Bush/Cheney's slow-motion coup d'etat to deepen, unchallenged by a paralyzed citizenry & congress, we need to recognize: Those of us citizens who have no illusions about what's happening --now have precious few options to expand citizen consciousness. So bad is the situation.
Telling our hoodwinked (fellow) citizens that they're needlessly paralyzed, in mainstream OPED letters to local print/broadcast media in our respective communities, is one useful route.
But this approach needs to be accompanied by focused recaps of the public/legal evidence that already damns Bush/Cheney.
Simultaneously: personally getting on the phone with our congressional reps - and registering our outrage -- is another route - however seemingly 'square.'.
Organizing local political info events in our respective communities, to help snap folks out of their paralyitic hypnosis, plus financially supporting impeachment orgs, are also other 'practical' approaches.
What the hell else can we do?
But I'd add this: If you're only venting on cyberspace sites like this one, to the exclusion of the above political actions, you're not doing as much as you could do - or as much as the situation requires.
No criticism intended to anybody, here - just a reminder that: relatively few people read these kinds of sites. But almost everybody reads about opinons/protest actions of their neighbors in the local media.
We need to jar more citizens awake, in more direct ways. Otherwise, this coup d'etat by the 'elites' is gonna fully succeed....
JA/Missoula, MT
Evelyn Smith,
"The World is so full of a number of things,
I think we should all be as happy as kings"
said Robert Louis Stevenson.
So here we are with modern technology promising a long and happy life for everyone, yet lust for exclusive wealth and power drives us to another World War and ecocide. Surely the human species is insane.
Here is a thought provoking piece, penned by a good Republican. There are (some) good ones.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be it's author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we must live through all time or ___ die by suicide.
Abraham Lincoln
Well, we may just die by the hand of one of our elected leaders.
moonraven,
The people are in denial, unable to confront the horror of a fascist White House, thus meekly swallowing the lies and manipulations, trusting everything will be for the best eventually, or else complicit in the crimes -- similar to the German people of the 1930s.
clark kent,
If the folks in the US are not brain dead, I would like to know why you allow someone who IS to remain in the Oval Office.
Bandjineer,
Not even the richest of the rich can survive the ecocide they themselves are perpetrating, which is final proof of their insanity. But if Cheney/Bush succeed in provoking another World War, life on Earth will be extinguished rather more quickly.
The Iraq War has always been for the purpose of controlling that country’s oil wealth, and from there controlling petroleum supplies throughout the entire region.
Reducing dependence upon petroleum cannot be achieved by developing alternate fuels alone,(bio-fuels, hydrogen, syn-gas). There is no replacement for petroleum that will allow industrialized nations to maintain current levels of energy and fuel consumption.
Closer to the crux of the matter is the corporate vision/scheme for a new world order centered around globalization’s ‘unsustainable’ amount of long-distance travel and transport of goods. Sudden disruption of fuel supplies will trigger destruction to every nation whose economy remains utterly dependent upon global trade, long-distance transport of goods, vast daily commuting. Economies dependent upon tourism are likewise vulnerable.
The New World Order is a death trap only the rich will survive. Are Neo-conservatives initiating WWIII? Did Prescott Bush not realize his business dealings with Hitler would lead to WWII?
Those who would be destroyed first go mad. Cheney, Bush, Rove, the American people and the people of the World are stark staring insane with lust for wealth and power by any means necessary, regardless of consequences. Thus, the consequences are inevitable.
Calling all angels!!!! We are in dire straits here on Mother Earth. Heaven help us all!!!!
steppenrazor, how the hell is an AK47 gonna save you from a nuclear exchange?
how do you revolt against the collective insanity? the WSJ On-line printed this a few days ago, from the capo of all the neocon capi, norman podhoretz
http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110010139
he is looking for an excuse any excuse, again why is the world not doing anything, we in America can't contain him
Well, friends and neighbors, don't depend on the American
public or Capitol Hill to stop it. Most of the American public had their last living brain cell burned out by television and the Political Whores on Capitol Hill are going to do whatever makes them look 'Patriotic.' We are either going to wind up with A) A contrived terrorist attack in the U.S. to make it look like Iranian AQ's did it, B)Then either a limited nuclear exchange in the Middle East, or if the Big Boys get involved like China or Russia, a global exchange. THAT would wake Americans up, you betcha! I've pretty much given up on the hope of sanity breaking out anywhere in this system and am seriously thinking along the lines of buying a couple of AK-47's, plenty of ammo and stocking up on food. It's pretty well apparent now that America and Americans have lost their fucking minds and are determined to take the whole world down with them. The only good news at the moment are that AK's are plentiful and cheap at the moment. But I wouldn't wait too long. The market is bound to get tight.
It's Bush's new global Warming Stategy...
...Blame Iran for Global Warming and bomb the crap out of them
If aL Qaeda was really smart they would sit back and let the United States of Everything collapse under its own greed.
Hoa binh
Given the profound stupidity of George Bush and his administration, it would only make sense that two terms of war would end with an attack on Iran.
Too bad Bush's legacy will be characterized by mindless wars rather than intelligent peace.
Has anything Dick Cheney ever predicted actually come true? Has he ever spoken a word of truth? He is the biggest enemy of this country and should be removed immediately. Then we can get on to cutting the strings of his little puppet, GWB.
Here is what I get for writing JEFF BINGAMAN!
---
Dear, (john)
Thank you for contacting me regarding the Administration's policies. I appreciate your taking the time to write.
Although I do not believe it would be in the best interest of our country to initiate measures to impeach Vice President Cheney, I have a number of concerns about aspects of the Administration's domestic and foreign policy agendas. I believe the Administration's policies should be a reflection of our priorities as a nation and that all too often these priorities seem inconsistent with our nation's values. I believe it will be a mistake if the majority party continues to pursue a purely ideological agenda that is out of touch with the needs and concerns of the majority of Americans. Congress remains closely divided, and the reality is that both parties will have to find common ground and seek bipartisan solutions in order to address our country's pressing problems. Let me assure you that I will continue to work to ensure that the values and policies that have made this country great are not undermined or reversed by an extremist agenda. These values center around improving the quality of life for all Americans and upholding the rights embodied in our Constitution.
As always, the public plays an important role in our democracy by keeping the government in check, and I encourage you to stay engaged. Again, thank you for writing. Please do not hesitate to contact me regarding any other matter of importance to you and your community.
Sincerely,
JEFF BINGAMAN
United States Senator
Cheney claimed on Fox News,†We are confident that there are a number of senior al Qaeda officials in Iran…†Isn’t he part of the same cabal that was positively certain that Iraq had WMD’s? Cheney’s trigger finger is itching for a fight with Iran, and it’s not beyond him to have made such a promise to AIPAC and Likud party. All he needs is to make some baseless claim and the MSM echo chamber will do the rest.
In the event of an attack on the U.S. by Al Qaeda, even if it were planned on the Iranian soil, this is what the American public should ask the Bush cabal:
What the hell have you all been doing for the past six years? Attacking the wrong country for oil and domination? Letting Bin Laden escape from Boro Boro Mountains in Afghanistan so that you could claim an unending “war on tur†(Bush speak) and make your buddies richer?
In the event of another Al Qaeda attack, the American public should put the White House and their minions in Congress on trial and hang them in public. This is what a free and brave nation should do to its domestic enemies.
Al Qaeda promised to bring this country down; but they will do it like the US did to the USSR, financially.
The Google movie Money As Debt shows how indebtedness benefits banks not countries who are in debt.
I think we are being played by international power that has no allegiance to any country. Two main players being George and Osama benifiting the military industrial complex.
Urge your Congressperson to co-sponsor Kucinich's H.R. 333-- Articles of Impeachment for V.P. Dick Cheney.
moonraven-- racism has very little to do with it and the American people are not brain dead. It's all about oil and it's about creating a marginally plausible cover story (Al Qaeda) because naked aggression for oil resources would not play well in the press.
Elections in the U.S. are rigged, so the U.S. citizens are not nearly as stupid as the official vote counts would indicate. Their racism does play a factor in ignoring the reports of 660,000 Iraqi dead.
It's really all about the global class war of the rich and privileged vs. the poor and disenfranchised. The depopulation of Iraq is a harbinger of things to come if the aggressors aren't stopped.
The U.S. will not be able to correct itself without the help of others in the global community any more than moderates in the 3rd Reich could reform Nazi Germany from within. The sooner the global community realizes that, the better. National allegiance is largely irrelevant to the global elite whose Lear jets and capital move across borders with ease. Nationalism is largely used to divide and conquer different groups of oppressed poor people who might otherwise find common cause.
If there is a terrorist strike in America, not only will it spark a new war with Iran, it will allow Bush to invoke emergency powers recently granted to stall the elections and effectively take over, hopefully I'm very wrong.
"Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it ..."
US General Douglas MacArthur
"If the business community and political elite want to go to war they find it easy to mobilize domestic consent."
Edward S. Herman
" Americans cannot teach democracy to the world until they restore their own."
William Greider
"The American oligarchy increasingly has less in common with the American people than it does with the equivalent oligarchies in Germany or Mexico or Japan."
Lewis Lapham
The propaganda system allows the U.S. Ieadership to commit crimes without limit and with no suggestion of misbehavior or criminality; in fact, major war criminals like Henry Kissinger appear regularly on TV to comment on the crimes of the derivative butchers. "
Edward S. Herman
" Because of its power and global interests U.S. leaders have committed crimes as a matter of course and structural necessity. A strict application of international law would ... have given every U.S. president of the past 50 years Nuremberg treatment. "
Edward Herman
" Why should we flagellate ourselves for what the Cambodians did to each other?"
Henry Kissinger
"The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves."
"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people."
Henry Kissinger
Obama, Hillary, Edwards, and Dodd will bomb Iran. Start talking to your democratic friends.
when the hell are the stinking democrats going to impeach this administration? If the dems let this go down what are we going to do to them? GENERAL STRIKE! Keep your guns clean and your amo dry.
“The biggest danger,†Reidel wrote, “is that al Qaeda will deliberately provoke a war with a ‘false-flag’ operation, say, a terrorist attack carried out in a way that would make it appear as though it were Iran’s doing.â€
It seems more likely that Bush will provoke that war by allowing or instigating such an attack and making it seem Iran was involved; it would also give him the perfect pretext to assume his directive 51 dictatorship.
God, folks in the US are brain dead!
Iran's president doesn't have any more to do with Al Qaeda than Saddam Hussein did.
But to you racists, they all look alike.
Give me a break!
There we have it, the new Gulf of Tonkin resolution. But this one can set up an epic disaster that makes Vietnam look like a little squabble. Add to it the Bush declaration of martial law, the US detention centers and the present Supreme Court and the Constitution has really become just a piece of paper.
The fox in the henhouse is Cheney, Bush is just playing at Master of Ceremonies.
Al Qaeda my ass! This adminstration will use any excuse and is likely to create its own. Iran has no connection to Al Qaeda but Bush does via his relationship with the Ibn Sauds and the Bin Ladins.
dc- It's as simple as that, the masses ignore it, Gareth Porter and IPS ignored it; Al Qaeda, would be behind the Sunni cause.
Hijacking Catastrophy!
Al Qaeda is a Sunni Wahhabi/Salaffi organization with funding from Saudi Arabia and Iran is a Shi'a Country. The Saudis and Iranians hate each other. I guess Bush is counting on American ignorance of the region to launch yet another attack. It worked with blaming 911 on the Iraqis. Of course both Al Qaeda and the Iranian regime are horrible. But lets not forget about the innocent people in Iran who would face the bombs.
See this report: http://www.cfr.org/publication/12856/irans_saudi_counterweight.html?brea...
WE need to get this Bush guy out of office real fast before we have a world war or the world is just made inhabitable.
We know the head leaders of al Qaeda are family to Bush Sr.'s coworkers. If al Qaeda attacks the US we know we will find some bureaucratic mess that got in the way of stopping it, like in 911. (We knew and let it happen.) That would be enough for Bush to seize power over congress (and just what does his disaster policy say?). I think this "good ol' boy" network is on both sides of the fence, they seem to gain from everything that happens. Reidel's article and Bushs hostility towards Iran support the theory. If Bush knows the al Qaeda plan, like the rest of his advisers do, why does he try to fall into it with such a blind eye? We'll see!