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US-IRAN: New Arms Claim Reveals Cheney-Military Rift
WASHINGTON - In a development that underlines the tensions between the anti-Iran agenda of the George W. Bush administration and the preoccupation of its military command in Afghanistan with militant Sunni activism, a State Department official publicly accused Iran for the first time of arming the Taliban forces last week, but the U.S. commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan rejected that charge for the second time in less than two weeks.
Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns declared in Paris Jun. 12 that Iran was "transferring arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan", putting it in the context of a larger alleged Iranian role of funding "extremists" in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Iraq. The following day he asserted that there was "irrefutable evidence" of such Iranian arms supply to the Taliban.
The use of the phrase "irrefutable evidence" suggested that the Burns statement was scripted by the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. The same phrase had been used by Cheney himself on Sep. 20, 2002, in referring to the administration's accusation that Saddam Hussein had a programme to enrich uranium as the basis for a nuclear weapon.
But the NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Dan McNeill, pointed to other possible explanations, particularly the link between drug smuggling and weapons smuggling between Iran and Afghanistan.
Gen. McNeill repeated in an interview with U.S. News and World Report last week a previous statement to Reuters that he did not agree with the charge. McNeill minimised the scope of the arms coming from Iran, saying: "What we've found so far hasn't been militarily significant on the battlefield."
He speculated that the arms could have come from black market dealers, drug traffickers, or al Qaeda backers and could have been sold by low-level Iranian military personnel.
McNeill's remarks underlined the U.S. command's knowledge of the link between the heroin trade and trafficking in arms between southeastern Iran and southern Afghanistan. The main entry point for opium and heroin smuggling between Afghanistan and Iran runs through the Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchistan to the capital of Zahedan. The two convoys of arms which were intercepted by NATO forces last spring had evidently come through that Iranian province.
According to a report by Robert Tait of The Guardian Feb. 17, Sistan-Baluchistan province has also been the setting for frequent violent incidents involving militant Sunni groups and drug traffickers. Tait reported that more than 3,000 Iranian security personnel had been killed in armed clashes with drug traffickers since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
McNeill further appeared to suggest in the interview with U.S. News that not all the arms coming from the Iranian side of the border were necessarily Iranian-made. Munitions in one convoy, he said, "were without a whole lot of doubt in my mind Iranian made," implying that the origins of the arms was not clear in other cases.
McNeill's rejection of Burns' accusation reflected the views of Afghanistan's Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, who told Associated Press on Jun. 14 that it was "difficult" to link the arms traffic to the Iranian government. Wardak said the arms "might be from al-Qaida, from the drug mafia or from other sources."
The clash between key civilian officials and the command in Afghanistan over the explanation for the arms entering Afghanistan from Iran followed a series of news stories in late May and early June quoting an anonymous administration official as claiming proof of a change in Iranian policy to one of military support for the Taliban. These anonymous statements of certainty about such a policy shift, for which no intelligence has ever been claimed, pointed to Cheney's office as the orchestrator of the campaign.
Given the very small scale of the arms in question, Cheney's interest in the issue appears to have much less to do with Afghanistan than his aim of ensuring that President Bush goes along with the neoconservative desire to attack Iran before the end of his term.
The U.S. military command in Afghanistan, on the other hand, sees the external threat in Afghanistan coming from Pakistan rather than from Iran. U.S. commanders there are very concerned about the increase in Taliban attacks launched from Pakistan's North Waziristan and South Waziristan following Pakistani Prime Minister Pervez Musharraf's truce with Islamic separatists in those border provinces last year.
McNeill told a press conference Jun. 5 that there can be no "long-term stability" in Afghanistan "if there are sanctuaries just out of reach for both the alliance and the Afghan national security forces that harbor insurgents."
Apparently reflecting Cheney's dominant influence on policy, the Bush administration has continued to defend the Musharraf government's policy of compromise with the Pakistani Islamists and has said nothing publicly about the rise in Taliban attacks launched from Pakistan or the massive arms flow from Pakistan to Taliban forces.
U.S. military officials in Afghanistan could be expected to be sceptical about an anti-Iran propaganda line aimed at making it more difficult for Bush to resist neoconservative pressures for a war against Iran. An attack on Iran could only make the task of coping with the threat from the Taliban more difficult.
Burns, who served in senior positions in the Bill Clinton administration, is part of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's team, which is resisting Cheney's pressures for preparations for an attack on Iran. But the Burns statements came during a visit to France that was aimed at ensuring the French government would support tougher sanctions against Iran in the United Nations Security Council if Iran did not suspend enrichment of uranium within a week or two.
So Rice apparently agreed to the new accusation against Iran in order to strengthen the U.S. argument for tougher sanctions -- an administration policy with which she and Burns have both been identified since late 2005.
Meanwhile, despite the public statement by Burns indicting Iran, both the State Department and Defence Department appear to have adopted a more ambiguous position on the issue. In the daily press briefing by State Department on Jun. 13, spokesman Sean McCormack did not claim that Iran has actually changed its policy toward the Taliban, much less support the "irrefutable evidence" language used by Burns.
"At this point we can't make that assessment," McCormack said in regard to a change in Iranian policy. Asked by reporters to explain the categorical language used by Burns, McCormack offered the rather awkward explanation that Burns was merely expressing the "concerns and suspicions" that everyone in the administration had about Iran's intentions. That remark effectively undercut the use of the headline-grabbing language by Burns, but was buried in media coverage of Burns' remarks.
Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, who was then on his way to a NATO meeting on Afghanistan, did not repeat a previous dismissal of the charge of Iran's arming the Taliban, but also failed to endorse the language used by Burns.
"I would say, given the quantities [of arms] that we're seeing, it is difficult to believe that it's associated with smuggling or the drug business, or that it's taking place without the knowledge of the Iranian government," Gates said.
However, Gates, who had denied on Jun. 4 that there was any evidence linking the arms trade to Iran, made the significant admission that he had seen no new intelligence supporting such speculation. 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



26 Comments so far
Show AllSo long General Macneil, you disagreed with the misadminstrations statements to rush us to war with Iran, didn't you watch what happened to the generals in Iraq who told the truth? We need more of you in the military, this misadministration doesn't want facts or truth, just toadies to repeat their line. I'll be watching to see when you "retire" or are sent to some remote outpost, but if I were you..I wouldn't count on another star under these despots.
The propaganda machine is gearing up...
Please see at niemanwatchdog.org (follow link to Iran) a February 2, 2007 essay by Dan Froomkin entitled "How the Press Can Prevent Another Iraq." The first section, "We can't be too skeptical of authority," reads in part:
"Don't assume anything administration officials tell you is true. In fact, you are probably better off assuming anything they tell you is a lie.
"Demand proof for their every assertion. Assume the proof is a lie. Demand that they prove that their proof is accurate.
"Just because they say it, doesn't mean it should make the headlines.
Other sections are entitled "Provocation alone does not justify war," "Be particularly skeptical of secrecy," "Watch for rhetorical traps," Don't just give voice to the administration officials" (give voice to the skeptics; don't marginalize and mock them), "Encourage public debate," AND MORE.
Every journalist who does NOT yet believe that Dick Cheney is vetting all intelligence just as he did prior to the Iraq invasion should print out a copy of Froomkin's instruction sheet and paste it to his/her wall where it will always be in sight.
Cheney, that son-of-a-bitch, needs to be put on trial.
Here we go again ... you won't hear a peep about this on the MSM, except maybe Olbermann or The Daily Show.
Ever wonder what some of the Germans were feeling with Hitlers build up to total war?
Why are we so surprised. Secret arms' deals have always been part of our domestic and foreign policy. But usually the deals are kept secret. Like the bombing of Cambodia. It's clear the White House wants more war. They will follow a well established formula to plant the seeds needed to grow the reasons for going to war. It's like "dog-whistle journalism". Justification can be grown in the press and fed to the people when ever necessary. The White House has filled the press with garbage that is being sanitized and fed to ever-willing Americans.
I wish our military would follow the example of their Thai Military colleagues and step in and stop a dictator from ruining the country.
Hoa binh
This nonsense about Iranian weapons flowing into Afghanistan and getting into the arms of the Taleban is becoming a "meme". The use of memes is a psycological technique of repeating something over and over again until it gets into people's heads and people believe it to be fact. The administration is very good at this. Just remember the false meme of 911 being linked to Iraq. 911 was not committed by a single Iraqi.
Let me explain. Iran is stronly anti-Taliban. Iran is Shi'a and the Taliban are Sunni. The Taliban were backed by US allies Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The Taliban are still backed by these two groups and most of their members originate from Pakistan. The Afghan Northern Alliance and Tajik and Hazara minorities were backed by Iran prior to 911 because they are largely shi'a Muslims. The Northern Alliance and Ahmed Shah Masoud fought against the Taliban the entire time. Iran helped the US after 911 with intellegence against the Taliban. If we bomb Iran then Afghanistan will fall again to the Taliban and the radicals in Paksitan will take over the government and remove Musharaff. Pakistan has far more nukes then Iran will ever have and imagine if they got into the wrong hands--goodbye Delhi and Kabul and probably Europe! Pakistan is backing terrorist groups along with the CIA in Iran now. If we bomb Iran with nukes nuclear fallout will reach as far as Delhi, India.
So please tell me which country we should be worrying about in the region?
Besides the studied insanity of the PNAC doctrine, this is a tactic to divert our attention from the failed invasion and occupation of Iraq. Watch out when the trickster waves his one hand in the air in an obvious flourish because it is with his other hand that he does his real dirty work.
Withdraw the troops.
Abandon the 14 permanent bases in Iraq.
Give the new American "Mall of
America" sized embassy to the Iraqi's.
Use an abandoned Abu Grahib prison for artillery practice till totally demolished.
Use a year of the military budget for the war, to pay reparations to Iraq for the damage we have done.
"Islamic Terrorists" supported by Uncle Sam: Bush Administration "Black Ops" directed against Iran, Lebanon and Syria
by Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, May 31, 2007
The Bush administration has ADMITTED [my emphasis] that covert actions of an aggressive nature were applied against Iran and Syria. The stated objective was to wreck the countries' economies and currency systems. The infamous Iran-Syria Policy and Operations Group (ISOG) created in early 2006, integrated by officials from the White House, the State Department, the CIA and the Treasury Department, had a mandate to destabilize Syria and Iran, and bring about "Regime Change" :
"The committee, the Iran-Syria Policy and Operations Group [ISOG], met weekly throughout much of 2006 to coordinate actions such as curtailing Iran's access to credit and banking institutions, organizing the sale of military equipment to Iran's neighbors and supporting forces that oppose the two regimes." (Boston Globe, 25 May 2007)
ISOG had also been providing undercover assistance to Iranian opposition groups and dissidents. The group's propaganda ploy consisted in feeding disinformation into the news chain and "building international outrage toward Iran". (Boston Globe 2, January 2007)
About-Turn in Iran-Syria Policy?
Washington has recently announced an apparent about-turn: no more treacherous covert ops directed against "rogue enemies" in the Middle East. The Iran-Syria Policy and Operations Group (ISOG) has been disbanded on the orders of President Bush. The US will no longer be involved in "[covert] aggressive actions against Iran and Syria", according to State Department officials.
"The group had become the focus for administration critics who feared that it was plotting covert actions that could escalate into a military conflict with Iran or Syria. The air of secrecy surrounding the group when it was established in March 2006, coupled with the fact that it was modeled after a similar special committee on Iraq, contributed to those suspicions.
A senior State Department official,... said the group [ISOG] was shut down because of a widespread public perception that it was designed to enact regime change. State Department officials have said the focus of the Iran-Syria group was persuading the two regimes to change their behavior, not toppling them." (Ibid)
Believe it or not?
Foreign policy analysts have described Washington's decision as proof of a welcome "softening" of US strategy in the Middle East. The Bush administration is said to have discarded " regime change" in favor of a more flexible approach, consisting of constructive dialogue with Tehran and Damascus. Aggressive covert actions, we are told, have been swapped for bona fide international diplomacy:
The [dissolution of ISOG] comes as the Bush administration has embarked on a significant new effort to hold high-level meetings with Iran and Syria.
...
Shortly before the Iran-Syria group was shut down, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice launched a major initiative to engage Iran and Syria in a regional effort to stabilize Iraq, reversing longstanding U.S. policy against high-level contact with the countries.
For years, the Bush administration has shunned meetings with Syria. ...But Rice met this month with Syria's foreign minister in Egypt, the first such high-level meeting between the two countries since 2004, and on Monday, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, is scheduled to meet his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad.
Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East specialist at the Congressional Research Service, the research arm of the U.S. Congress, said he did not think it was a coincidence that the Iran-Syria group was disbanded at the same time the State Department began its diplomatic outreach.
"I think the rationale for that group was promoting regime change, and Rice is going in a much different direction from that," Katzman said. "The regime-change school within the administration has really gotten quite a bit weaker." (Ibid)
The decision to dismantle ISOG is largely cosmetic. Most of these intelligence operations remain intact. ISOG was one among several covert initiatives to destabilize Iran and Syria. Regime change and outright war are still part of the Administration's agenda. In fact, destabilizing covert intelligence operations directed against Iran and Syria have been stepped up in the course of the last four years. Moreover, these operations are closely coordinated with Israeli and NATO war plans, which constitute an integral part of the US sponsored military operation directed against Iran, Syria and Lebanon.
The covert ops have been synchronized with the military road map, including the various US war scenarios envisaged since the launching of " Theater Iran Near Term" (TIRANNT) in May 2003, barely a month after the invasion of Iraq. These war-like scenarios explicitly envisage regime change:
... Under TIRANNT, Army and U.S. Central Command planners have been examining both near-term and out-year scenarios for war with Iran, including all aspects of a major combat operation, from mobilization and deployment of forces through postwar stability operations after regime change." (William Arkin, Washington Post, 16 April 2006)
The US is on a war footing and the various covert operations and Psy-Ops --which routinely feed despicable images of the Iranian head of State into the news chain--, are an integral part of the military-intelligence and propaganda arsenal.
In turn, the covert ops are coordinated with US, Israeli and NATO military deployments in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf including the conduct of major war games, which have been carried out almost continuously since Summer 2006.
CIA " Black Ops" directed against Iran
Coinciding with the announcement on the closing down of ISOG, "The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, according to current and former officials in the intelligence community... " (ABC News Report 22 May 2007). This parallel CIA sponsored initiative, which "received approval by White House officials and other officials in the intelligence community", has broadly the same mandate as that of the defunct ISOG:
"The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions.
"I can't confirm or deny whether such a program exists or whether the president signed it, but it would be consistent with an overall American approach trying to find ways to put pressure on the regime," said Bruce Riedel, a recently retired CIA senior official who dealt with Iran and other countries in the region.
A National Security Council spokesperson, Gordon Johndroe, said, "The White House does not comment on intelligence matters." A CIA spokesperson said, "As a matter of course, we do not comment on allegations of covert activity." (ABC News Report 22 May 2007)
The CIA plan was apparently "designed to pressure Iran to stop its nuclear enrichment program and end aid to insurgents in Iraq." The covert operation, according to US officials, was a softer alternative to that of a military strike on Iran, an option which was favored by Vice President Dick Cheney and other hawks within the administration:
"Current and former intelligence officials say the approval of the covert action means the Bush administration, for the time being, has decided not to pursue a military option against Iran.
"Vice President Cheney helped to lead the side favoring a military strike," said former CIA official Riedel, "but I think they have come to the conclusion that a military strike has more downsides than upsides." (Ibid)
The covert intelligence operations directed against Iran and Syria is not an alternative to military action. Quite the opposite. The CIA plan was designed to support Washington's strategy to destabilize Iran and Syria, through both military action and non-military means including covert intelligence operations.
Unleashing The Islamic Brigades Inside Iran
In relation to Iran, US intelligence has been supporting a Pakistani based terrorist group, Jundullah (Soldiers of God), that has conducted terrorist raids inside Iran. The group operates "from bases on the rugged Iran-Pakistan-Afghanistan 'tri-border region'." According to a report by ABC News:
"A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News.
The group, called Jundullah, is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran.
It has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of more than a dozen Iranian soldiers and officials." (ABC News, 2 April 2007)
Abd el Malik Regi, the leader of Jundullah, commands a force of several hundred guerrilla fighters "that stage attacks across the border into Iran on Iranian military officers, Iranian intelligence officers, kidnapping them, executing them on camera, ... Most recently, Jundullah took credit for an attack in February that killed at least 11 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard riding on a bus in the Iranian city of Zahedan." (Ibid)
US government sources have acknowledged that Jundullah's leader "had regular contact with US officials" but denies any "direct funding" of Jundullah by US intelligence.
Inherent in CIA covert operations, the Agency never grants funding "directly". It invariably proceeds through one of its proxy organizations including Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), which historically, since the Soviet-Afghan war, has provided support to Islamic terror groups, including the funding of the training camps and the madrassahs, always acting on behalf of the CIA. In fact this insidious role of Pakistan's ISI (on behalf of the the CIA) is candidly acknowledged by US intelligence:
"American intelligence sources say Jundullah has received money and weapons through the Afghanistan and Pakistan military and Pakistan's intelligence service. Pakistan has officially denied any connection." ( Brian Ross and Christopher Isham, The Secret War Against Iran, April 03, 2007
Other channels used by US intelligence in funding terrorism is through Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, where foundation money is funneled to various militant Islamic groups on behalf of Uncle Sam. "Some former CIA officers say the arrangement [with regard to Jundullah] is reminiscent of how the U.S. government used proxy armies, funded by other countries including Saudi Arabia, to destabilize the government of Nicaragua in the 1980s [reminiscent of the Iran-Contra affair]." (Ibid)
Consistent Pattern: Historical Origins of "Islamic Terrorism"
Ironically, the Islamic groups are portrayed as working hand in glove with Tehran. Iran, a predominantly Shia country, is accused of harboring Sunni Islamic terrorists, when in fact these Islamic terrorists are " intelligence assets" of the United States, supported indirectly by Washington.
This role of US intelligence in support of "Islamic terrorists" is well established. The covert op applied in Iran are part of a consistent pattern
The not so hidden agenda of US intelligence, applied throughout Central Asia and the Middle East, is to trigger political instability and foment ethnic strife by supporting "Islamic terrorist organizations", ultimately with a view to weakening the Nation State and destabilizing sovereign countries.
From the onslaught of the Soviet-Afghan war and throughout the 1990s, a central feature of CIA activities has consisted in providing covert support to " Islamic terrorist organizations":
In 1979 "the largest covert operation in the history of the CIA" was launched in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in support of the pro-Communist government of Babrak Kamal.(See Fred Halliday, "The Un-great game: the Country that lost the Cold War, Afghanistan, New Republic, 25 March 1996): Ahmed Rashid, The Taliban: Exporting Extremism, Foreign Affairs, November-December 1999. See also Michel Chossudovsky, America's "War on Terrorism", Global Research, 2005, Ch. 2.)
With the active encouragement of the CIA and Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, "some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 40 Islamic countries joined Afghanistan's fight between 1982 and 1992. Tens of thousands more came to study in Pakistani madrasahs. Eventually more than 100,000 foreign Muslim radicals were directly influenced by the Afghan jihad." (See Chossudovsky, op cit)
These covert operations in support of the "Islamic Brigades" continued in the post-Cold war period. The ISI's extensive intelligence military-network was not dismantled in the wake of the Soviet-Afghan war. The CIA continued to support the Islamic "jihad" out of Pakistan. New undercover initiatives were set in motion in Central Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans. Pakistan's military and intelligence apparatus essentially "served as a catalyst for the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of six new Muslim republics in Central Asia." (Ibid). "Meanwhile, Islamic missionaries of the Wahhabi sect from Saudi Arabia established themselves in the Muslim republics of the Former Soviet Union as well as within the Russian federation encroaching upon the institutions of the secular State." (Ibid)
A similar pattern emerged in the Balkans. Starting in the early 1990s, the Clinton Administration supported the recruitment of Al Qaeda Mujahideen to fight in Bosnia alongside the Bosnian Muslim Army. Ironically, it was the Republican Party in a document published by the Republican Party Committee of the US Senate which accused Clinton not only of a "''hands-on' involvement with the Islamic network's arms pipeline" but also of collaborating with the Third World Relief Agency (TWRA), "a Sudan-based, phony humanitarian organization believed to be connected with such fixtures of the Islamic terror network as Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman (the convicted mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing) and Osama Bin Laden,... " (The original document can be consulted on the website of the US Senate Republican Party Committee (Senator Larry Craig), at http://www.senate.gov/~rpc/releases/1997/iran.htm )
Since the launching of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) in the wake of September 11, 2001, many of the official documents, which single out the insidious relationship of US intelligence to the "Islamic terror network", have been carefully removed from the public eye.
US Sponsored "Islamic Terrorists" inside Lebanon
The recent killings of civilians in Palestinian refugee camps in northern Lebanon, resulted from the confrontation between Fatah Al Islam and the Lebanese armed forces. Fatah al-Islam is a predominantly non-Palestinian Sunni fundamentalist group, operating inside the refugee camps. Fatah Al Islam is also inspired by the Wahabi sects of Saudi Arabia, which were part of the CIA's covert operations since the onslaught of the Soviet-Afghan war.
The Lebanese armed forces have been involved in raids on the camps, leading to the uprooting of the Palestinians refugees. The number of Fatah al Islam militants (made up of Saudi, Syrian, Yemeni and Moroccan fighters), inside the camp was of the order of 150-200 according to press reports. The Lebanese military offensive has been disproportionate, resulting in countless civilian casualties.
"Yet, the massively disproportionate assault on the camp has been unconditionally endorsed by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "The Siniora government is fighting against a very tough extremist foe," Rice said. "But Lebanon is doing the right thing to try to protect its population, to assert its sovereignty and so we are very supportive of the Siniora government and what it is trying to do."
Lebanon has used the police action against this tiny group to ask the US for $280 million in military assistance to help put down what it grandiosely calls an "uprising." State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the request for funds, $220 million of which would go to the Lebanese Armed Forces and another $60 million to security forces, was being considered by Washington. The US gave $40 million in military aid to Lebanon last year and an additional $5 million so far this year. (Chris Marsden, 27 May 2007)
Fatah Al Islam has been presented in media reports, in an utterly twisted logic, as an organization linked to the Fatah movement in Palestine, a secular organization, founded by Yaser Arafat. From an ideological standpoint, Fatah al Islam, is similar to Al Qaeda, which is known to financed out of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States and supported by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in liaison with its US counterpart.
According to Seymour Hersh, Saudi Arabia is providing funding as well as covert support to Fatah Al Islam, in close consultation with the Bush administration
Hersh points to a "private agreement" between top NeoCon officials and Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, who worked closely with CIA Director George Tenet, when he was Saudi Ambassador in Washington. The Lebanese government is also involved in this intelligence operation:
"The key player is the Saudis. What I [Hersh] was writing about was sort of a private agreement that was made between the White House, we're talking about Richard—Dick—Cheney and Elliott Abrams, one of the key aides in the White House, with Bandar [Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi national security adviser]. And the idea was to get support, covert support from the Saudis, to support various hard-line jihadists, Sunni groups, particularly in Lebanon, who would be seen in case of an actual confrontation with Hezbollah—the Shia group in the southern Lebanon—would be seen as an asset, .as simple as that.. We're in the business now of supporting the Sunnis anywhere we can against the Shia, against the Shia in Iran, against the Shia in Lebanon, that is Nasrullah. Civil war. We're in a business of creating in some places, Lebanon in particular, a sectarian violence.."(CNN Interview with Seymour Hersh, CNN International's Your World Today, 21 May 2007)
The pattern of Saudi support to Fatah Al Islam is part of a US sponsored covert operation similar to those conducted by the CIA in the 1980s in support of Al Qaeda.
Well, the United States was deeply involved. This was a covert operation that Bandar ran with us. Don't forget, if you remember, you know, we got into the war in Afghanistan with supporting Osama bin Laden, the Mujahideen back in the late 1980s with Bandar and with people like Elliott Abrams around, the idea being that the Saudis promised us they could control -- they could control the jihadists so we spent a lot of money and time, ... in the late 1980s using and supporting the jihadists... And we have the same pattern, ... using the Saudis again to support jihadists [Fatah Al Islam], Saudis assuring us they can control these various group, the groups like the one that is in contact right now in Tripoli with the government. (CNN Interview with Seymour Hersh, CNN International's Your World Today, 21 May 2007)
Staged Event in Lebanon? Building a Humanitarian Justification for Military Intervention
Fatah Al Islam is an "intelligence asset" financed by Saudi Arabia. While the Bush administration accuses Damascus of supporting Fatah Al Islam, there are indications that the killings in the Palestinian refugee camps were the result of a carefully staged military intelligence operation..
Since the Summer 2006 following the Israeli bombing of Lebanon, NATO forces are present inside Lebanon as well as off Syrian-Lebanese coastline. The UN Security Council Resolution allowing for the deployment of NATO peace-keeping forces was the first step in this process, which followed the 2005 withdrawal and Syrian forces from Lebanon.
The objective of the military roadmap, is to create sectarian violence inside Lebanon which will provide a pretext "on humanitarian grounds" for a stepped up military intervention by NATO forces under a formal UN mandate. This humanitarian military NATO intervention in liaison with Israel, is envisaged as a sequel to the withdrawal of Syrian troops in 2005 and the Israeli bombings of 2006. If it were to be launched it could lead to a situation of de facto foreign occupation of Lebanon as well as the enforcement of a economic blockade directed against Syria.
The pretext for these stepped up military actions are Syria's alleged support of Fatah Al Islam and Damascus' supposed involvement in the assassination of Rafiq Hariri. The timely "investigation" into Hariri's assassination and the setting up of a kangaroo court are being used by the coalition to foment anti-Syrian sentiment in Lebanon. From a military and strategic standpoint, Lebanon is the gateway into Syria. The destabilization of Lebanon supports the US-NATO-Israeli military agenda directed against Syria and Iran. US intelligence sets loose its Islamic brigades, while also accusing the enemy of sponsoring terrorist groups, which are in fact covertly supported and financed by Uncle Sam."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5837
And that's all I have to say about that. This is classic maneuvering of a fascist government..
Who's the real terrorist here? And if there is dissension in the ranks of the military, espcially the higher ups then, I welcome it. There needs to be more of it. I'd love to see the ground/grunt troops refuse to fight, refuse to kill, and refuse their orders. You can't have a war if no one is fighting it right?
isn't Baluchistan, where these weapons are supposedly coming from, being used by the CIA to foment unrest in iran?
Those who claim that Iran is arming Taliban must take their audience for dumb fools.
Taliban killed 9 Iranian diplomats when they were still in power. Additionally, Iran actually helped the U.S. to overthrow the Taliban. Taliban is Sunni, Iran is Shia, and they hate each other. These are IRREFUTIBLE FACTS, Mr Burns or Cheney, or whoever is trying to please the AIPAC lobby group.
One claims irrefutable evidence, the other claims that the arms are not hat substantial; good cop, bad cop, all of it bovine scatology (b.s.)
The guns are coming from Charlton Heston ...his Alzheimer's has gotten pretty bad, and he thought he was sending guns to the Tally Ban...a group the opposed the Florida recount
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/872761.html
Netanyahu in the US to keep the pressure on Iran. Will somebody please tell the Israelis if they want a war with Iran they are on their own? Our polticans won't as they are bending over backwards to get us into a war with Iran and even making up nonsense to do so as the above article states.
What would be most appropriate at this time in our history, would be for All of the generals in our armed services to stand up and have a huge rift with both President Bush and VP Cheney. I served in the military for 23 years and recall taking an oath, to among other things, to uphold and protect, the Constitution of these United States of America.
If all, or a majority of our generals, would openly contact each other, petition and demand an audience with congress; once there, demand a hearing on the legality of what our president is doing, and has been doing; charge their Commander In Chief and his Vice, with dereliction of duty and with ordering illegal orders, and charge that they are no longer fit to command. I beleve those actions may be legal, just like removing a captain of a ship would be, if his officers deemed the captain was acting in a manner that put the ship and the crew in peril. For that indeed is exactly what is happening and to date our elected congress, for the most part, is sitting on the sidelines in either fear or shock and are there-fore doing nothing.
The evidence is very strong that both the President and Vice President of our United States, have commited impeachable crimes. I hate to even think that this could possibly be factual, that any of us should feel the need to write such as this. This is America, but if most who write here are correct, and I believe they are, then we indeed are in jeapordy of losing all that our fore-fathers gave us, gave with blood, sweat and tears. Are we actually willing to give it up to two men, who may very well be deranged?
Hope it edits this time.
Yeahhh, it edited!
It's time to get the undercover Israeli Offensive Forces out of Iraq and quit agitating the Sunni's and Shiit's against one another. Also hold them responsible for planting "roadside bombs" useing IEDs that are MADE IN ISRAEL. It's a dead givaway who's behind the dirty work that keeps this war going.
I predict that the US NATO commander Gen. Dan McNeill will be looking for a new job, soon.
Cheney and Bush are willy-nilly pushing the world steadily and inexorably into the next world war.Little did their Israeli and Saudi masters realize the hell-fires and the damnations they were unleashing ,in letting these two genies out of the bottle.
Its becoming clearer by the minute that these two genocidal genies seem intent on plunging the world into the next world war -in much the same way as their ancestor in spirit Herr Hitler did.
If that is what the gods have decreed for Mankind, they are hardly likely to blurt out, as Henry II did ,so very long ago : "will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest".
Iran is not allowed to meddle next door but we can attack anywhere. Iran is supposed to prevent a handful of weapons from moving across the border but we can't stop millions of illegals from crossing our border and taking up residence.
Now that they understand the rules; they will welcome our special forces and bombs.
BekkaPoo, June 21:
Your comment was a no nonsense filled with facts. It was absolutely fantastic and extremely informative. Thank You. We look forward to read further comments from you. Please post again.
With the Americans and Chinese among the top arms selling nations on the planet, all WE hear about are Iranian armaments - which are dubiously significant. One would think that at least SOME of the weapons they've found in Afghanistan and Iraq have been from the US and China!!
Any way to get info on that?
Maybe Cheney is smuggling the arms into Afghanistan and Iraq.
The US, the biggest terrorist nation the world has ever seen, actively finances and trains the Islamist terrorists in Pakistan and elsewhere. Al Qaeda is nothing more than the terrorist wing of the CIA, which the US uses when it suits their interests. All of the "Al Qaeda" attacks in Spain, Britain, Istanbul, and elsewhere are CIA operations designed to instill fear of Islamism in the populations of the West, and to get them to fall into line behind the Western governments' bogus "war on terror.: The western nations, especially the US, are terrorist nations, using the same tactics they claim they are fighting against. Russia and China need to rise up against US hegemony to prevent world conflagration. USA EVIL EMPIRE.
Thanks for your post BekkaPoo. Will the United States Government ever learn? How can the United States and the "Coalition of the Willing" expect to win the "Global War on Terror" when the United States Government itself funds terrorist organizations (i.e Jundullah and Al-Qaeda once upon a time for the latter)? They dare call Hezbollah and Hamas terrorists and claim Iran is helping the Taliban? The United States has more close ties to the Taliban than Iran ever could. Americans may as well call The Minutemen in their country terrorists if they call Hezbollah that.
The fact is Cheney and his office is in cahoot with Shiks in Saudi Arabia and UAE. He visits them and reports to them routinely and at the same time considers himself immune from scrutiny by Americans. He is the one behind the new aggresive anti-iranian policy started from one year ago. And the thing is the direct beneficiary of this policy are Saudis and Alqaida. The weaker Iran means stonger Alqaida and Saudis. AlQaida became what it is because iranian were involved with Iraqis in a war in 80s. During that time saudis invested a lot of money in north africa and middle east to spread their version of Islam that eventually brought about 9/11. We bretter wake up soon and see the light. The new policy is not in the interest of american people.