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What We Don’t Know About Washington’s Iran Policy
Negotiators for Iran, the U.S., Britain, China, France, Russia, and Germany are to meet in Turkey today, face to face, for the first time in more than a year. There are small signs of possible future compromise on both sides when it comes to Iran’s nuclear program (and a semi-public demand from Washington that could be an instant deal-breaker). Looking at the big picture, though, there’s a remarkable amount we simply don’t know about Washington’s highly militarized policy toward Iran. 
This January 2011 file photo shows Iran's heavy water nuclear facilities near the central city of Arak, 150 miles southwest of Tehran. (Hamid Foroutan/ISNA/AP/File)
Every now and then, like a flash of lightning in a dark sky, some corner of it -- and its enormity and longevity -- is illuminated. For example, in 2008, the New Yorker’s indefatigable Seymour Hersh reported that the previous year Congress had granted a Bush administration request for up to $400 million “to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran,” including “cross-border” operations from Iraq. Just recently, Hersh offered a window into another little part of the U.S. program: the way, starting in 2005, the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command spent years secretly training members of M.E.K., an Iranian opposition-group-cum-cult that’s on the State Department’s terror list, at a Department of Energy site in the Nevada desert.
Similarly, from time to time, we get glimpses of the U.S. basing and naval build-up in the Persian Gulf, which is massive and ongoing. As for the skies over Iran, last year the Iranians suddenly announced that they had acquired -- downed, they claimed (though this was later denied by the Americans) -- an advanced U.S. spy drone, the RQ-170 Sentinel. Indeed, they had the photos to prove it. Until then, there had been no publicity about American drones flying over Iranian territory and initially the U.S. military claimed that the plane had simply strayed off course while patrolling the Afghan border.
Last week, however, a range of typically anonymous officials leaked to Washington Post reporters Joby Warrick and Greg Miller the news that the CIA’s drone surveillance program over Iran was more than three years old, large-scale, and itself just part of an “intelligence surge” focused on that country. According to their sources, “The effort has included ramped-up eavesdropping by the National Security Agency, formation of an Iran task force among satellite-imagery analysts, and an expanded network of spies.” In addition, under former CIA Director Leon Panetta, “partnerships” were built “with allied intelligence services in the region capable of recruiting operatives for missions inside Iran.”
Such reports and leaks give us at least the bare and patchy outlines of a concerted military, covert action, spying, surveillance, and propaganda program of staggering proportions (and that’s without even adding in the Israeli version of the same, which evidently includes the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists). All of this, we have to believe, is but part of an even larger set of intertwined, militarized operations against a modest-sized regional power with relatively limited military capabilities. It’s a program that we’re sure to know less about than we think we do, filled with what former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would have called “known unknowns” as well as “unknown unknowns.”
In his recent TomDispatch.com piece, “Why Washington’s Iran Policy Could Lead to Global Disaster,” Juan Cole does a remarkable job of offering us a full-scale picture of the complex economic underpinnings of the present Iran-U.S.-Israeli crisis and the unnerving dangers involved. But for the full, grim story of Washington’s campaign against Tehran, we are reliant either on the next Bradley Manning, a future WikiLeaks, or declassification of the necessary documents in time for our grandchildren to grasp something of the folly of our moment.
Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, runs the Nation Institute's TomDispatch.com. His latest book, co-authored with Nick Turse, is Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050. His other most recent book is The United States of Fear (Haymarket Books). Previous books include: The End of Victory Culture: a History of the Cold War and Beyond, The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's, as well as of a novel, The Last Days of Publishing. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com here.
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Show AllPerpetual war, the damage to democracy:
In one of the most egregious violations of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech seen in quite some time, Tarek Menanna, an American Muslim, was convicted this week in a federal court in Boston and then sentenced yesterday to 17 years in prison. He was found guilty of supporting Al Qaeda (by virtue of translating Terrorists’ documents into English and expressing “sympathetic views” to the group) as well as conpsiring to “murder” U.S. soldiers in Iraq (i.e., to wage war against an invading army perpetrating an aggressive attack on a Muslim nation). I’m still traveling and don’t have much time today to write about the case itself — Adam Serwer several months ago wrote an excellent summary of why the prosecution of Menanna is such an odious threat to free speech and more background on the case is here, and I’ve written before about the growing criminalization of free speech under the Bush and Obama DOJs, whereby Muslims are prosecuted for their plainly protected political views — but I urge everyone to read something quite amazing: Menanna’s incredibly eloquent, thoughtful statement at his sentencing hearing, before being given a 17-year prison term.
TAREK’S SENTENCING STATEMENT
...When I refused to become an informant, the government responded by charging me with the “crime” of supporting the mujahideen fighting the occupation of Muslim countries around the world. Or as they like to call them, “terrorists.” I wasn’t born in a Muslim country, though. I was born and raised right here in America and this angers many people: how is it that I can be an American and believe the things I believe, take the positions I take? Everything a man is exposed to in his environment becomes an ingredient that shapes his outlook, and I’m no different. So, in more ways than one, it’s because of America that I am who I am....
http://www.salon.com/2012/04/13/the_real_criminals_in_the_tarek_mehanna_case/singleton/
That is absolutely horrifying. Please CD, this is worth an article in its own right.
Thanks for putting in black and white even for the dummies. The US trains the terrorists we have to fight. Now if that is not funny,I don't know what is.
And the US can go in to any country it wants with the JSOC and do whatever the hell it wants,but if another country comes in to the US, they are terrorists.
Iran was blamed for meddling in Iraq, but it is ok for the US to meddle in Iran from Iraq?
I give up.
If all you have is a hammer (military power), everything starts to look like a nail.
If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening all over this land. I'd hammer out danger, I'd hammer out a warning, I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters, all over this land.
I'd rather be a hammer than a nail, yes I would, indeed I would, if I only could.
Clever,whizbang! Long ago and far away.
We actually know nothing except what public statements are made declaring themselves to be policy. Behind the scenes, the ruling elite, has a whole other set of policies they enact at their will while underlings concoct lies to tell the public and the rest of the world.
I just watched on C-Span a talk from CSIS given by two old guards of the National Security Establishment, Brent Scrowcorft and Zbigniew Brzezinski. They were both arguing that the U.S. policy in respect to Iran was very dangerous, that the Middle-East is very volitile, that the hardline Washington D.C. rhetoric could likely be a spark to a regional conflagration...
...Of course, they spoke very diplomatically, but it was a far cry from the threats coming everyday from Washington D.C.from both of the Corporate Parties.
Was quite surprising, actually. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/TurkeyI
If I remember correctly, Zbig was pretty sharp and progressive (except maybe his support for the Shah). Alas, many of his policies were pushed under a bus with subsequent administrations. In my mind, he is one of the great unsung heros of foreign policy, along with Mikhail Gorbachev.
Well, Zbig was instrumental in the arming and training of the Mahujadeen in Afghanistan before the Soviets invaded, with the intent of drawing them into a conflagration there. The consequence of this is ongoing. He was a strong cold-warrior, hardly what I call "progressive" in that sense. However, compared to the rhetoric coming out of Hillary's State Dept., or the even more reactionary GOPher candidates, even Scowcroft sounded reasonable...
"What We Don’t Know About Washington’s Iran Policy" --- is that it's a policy of Empire!
And what Tom Engelhardt should certainly "Know About Washington’s Iran Policy" (since he is the co-founder of the Empire Project) --- is an Empire when he sees one!
The issue of the Empire's hubris and global control is now obvious in recent foreign policy dictates by the US headquarters of this DGE (Disguised Global Empire):
There has been no doubt in my mind for several years that the current DGE (Disguised Global Empire), the corporate/financial/militarist (and media) Empire, that has captured and now fully “Occupies” our former country (and others), by hiding behind the facade of its modernized and two-party “Vichy” sham of faux-democratic and totally illegitimate government --- just as surely as the Nazi Empire captured and “Occupied” France and tried to hide behind its earlier, crude, one-party “Vichy” facade --- must be diagnosed, exposed, and confronted by the people if we are to survive as a species on this planet.
But now the evidence of this DGE's power and control should be very obvious to all those who seriously consider the following recent imperial outbursts:
+The DGE's increasing sanction pressure (boardering on 'blockading') against the country of Iran which has attacked no other country and does not possess the global WMD sufficient to do so.
+The DGE's imperial hubris and extreme arrogance in demanding that even supposed allies such as; Japan, South Korea, and others MUST NOT buy any oil from Iran, and then the US headquarters of this disguised Empire grudgingly saying that Japan will be given a limited “exemption” by the friggin empire! Who is this global Empire to dictate to Japan, Korea, or any of the sovereign countries that they can't do business, and must beg and plead for an “exemption” from this self-appointed Empire?
+One of the "GAP" countries/territories, Pakistan, is finally confronting the DGE (Disguised Global Empire), by demanding that the empires' military arm should no longer be able to launch Drone attacks on its citizens without warning or cause, and must actually respect the older than hell (1684 the Treaty of Westphalia) and newer (UN Security Council) of national sovereignty of another country ---- even though the arrogant DGE considers Pakistan merely a 'territory' of its world domination.
WOW. Talk about the mouse that roared at the empire.
What Thomas Barnett in his strategy promulgating 2004 Naval War College book, "The Pentagon's New Map", defined as the "Old Core's" plan to cut a swath across the whole of the Middle East and Central Asia (across a 5000 mile swath from Mauritania to the very boarders of India and China) to assert Empire control of this "Crescent of Instability" among the "GAP" countries, and to absorb them (and their resources) into the ruling Empire's "Old Core" --- and prevent any "New Core" (read BRIC) from gaining power --- has now hit its first real roadblock in Pakistan.
Likewise, Iran, and even the "Old Core" allies, like Japan, So Korea, etc. who have been dictated to by the US (the self-appointed HQ of the Old Core) that they MUST NOT trade for oil with Iran, is simultaneously becoming the second roadblock to the best made plans of the DGE to capture a full global control that the Third Reich (German for 'empire') had never dreamed in a thousand years.
It will be 'interesting times' (as the Chinese say) to see what happens if the hubris of the US headed DGE tries to run those roadblocks.
Liberty, democracy, justice, & equality
Over
Violent/Vichy
Empire,
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Fine, astute analysis, as always Alan MacDonald.
This factor that you raised is what hit me, too:
"The DGE's imperial hubris and extreme arrogance in demanding that even supposed allies such as; Japan, South Korea, and others MUST NOT buy any oil from Iran, and then the US headquarters of this disguised Empire grudgingly saying that Japan will be given a limited “exemption” by the friggin empire! "
Years ago I made the comment that the U.S. acts like Landlord (make that slum-lord) to the world. There's this tacit assumption that anything it wants it can take, or that IT ALL belongs to the U.S./Empire anyway. The motto is an undisguised "Might Makes Right" that's smoothly sold to the Amerikan people (thanks in large measure to a Captured Media) as delivering freedom, democracy, the liberation of women, our way of life and/or Free Enterprise. (As if...)
And all those weapons invested in while education, health care, and every decency are pushed into unfunded oblivion. With priorities like this, who needs an outside enemy or terrorist force! Defense Spending = the biggest lie of the 21st century!
Yes, Siouxrose, you've hit the nail on the head --- "acting like a Landlord" --- both aloof and arrogant.
Best,
Alan
Thank you Once again, Mr. Tom Engelhardt, for your seemingly endless pursuit of the truth and sharing your valuable knowledge with us...
I also thank you for the recognition of Bradley Manning and Julian Assange (Wikileaks)...They both deserve much more than this "secret/shadow" Government has in store for them...
You are indeed A National Treasure IMHO....
Finally, a realistic assessment of US policy towards Iran. Diplomacy is not going to stop Iran. Diplomacy is a plan that is intended to fail but gives the appearance of a "reasonable" attempt (from the perspective of the more powerful nations) to resolve the problem. Once diplomacy fails, the corporations have gained the justification to extract more wealth from taxpayers by launching a "pre-emptive" war to save the world from Iran. All the arguments about the availability of alternative energy strategies are beside the point that possessing a nuclear weapon gives power status. Iran will be attacked to prevent the achievement of that status and to gain control of their oil supply.
totalitarian, I like your reference to "extracting wealth" both from abroad and here at home.
I just read Dylan Ratigan's interesting, if 'over the top' titled new book, "Greedy Bastards", and I was similarly impressed with his candor on the key term, "extractionism" --- which he correctly blames, as you seem to, for many of our problems.
Yes, "extraction" or "extracting wealth" is certainly a seminal pathology of our beloved system here in the US.
However, I would offer you the same advice I offered to Dylan, to "read Timothy Parsons' fabulously revealing book, “The Rule of Empires”, in which he correctly diagnoses and identifies 'extractionism' as the fundamental basis and pathological method of Empire."
totalitarian, although the method of 'extracting wealth' is the prime method that this DGE (Disguised Global Empire) uses both at home and abroad, as you rightly note, conveying, educating, and exposing all the sophisticated techniques (like negative externality cost dumping, or deceptive imperialist wars) that the hidden Empire uses to do this "extraction" is generally beyond the understanding level of most Americans, BUT the vast majority of Americans can and actually DO understand that Empire is very bad and that their country was founded by confronting an Empire.
Therefore, quickly teaching, and proving to Americans that a guileful Empire has captured and now fully "Occupies" their country --- and that they can patriotically confront it (the Empire) --- is far more achievable than teaching and motivating them to action about something called 'extraction'.
Yes, totalitarian, "wealth extraction" is the very Modus operandi of Empire, but when we are dealing with a very guileful Empire that employs expert propaganda to make their 'inverted totalitarianism' [Sheldon Wolin] look and sound like patriotic, free-market, democracy to the average people, then 'calling-out' the Empire by the simple and hated name of what it is, "an Empire", can be a more effective tool than you and I discussing and agreeing on the terrible, but terribly hard to grasp concepts of guileful "extraction".
My advice is that Hannah Arendt had it right when she presciently warned from her painful experience with the Nazi Empire and her lifetime of academic research on all empires, that, "Empire abroad entails tyranny at home" if a people are not focused on confronting empire everywhere.
And unfortunately, my friend, we are, as you note, at the stage where this Empire can fool nearly "all the people all the time" about wealth extraction at home and abroad.
But once tagged as an Empire, it is unlikely to be able to fool many average Americans.
Best to you and yours, totalitarian
Liberty, democracy, justice, & equality
Over
Violent/Vichy
Empire,
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
What I've found as "curious" (as in Alice's "curiouser and curiouser") is that two old time Cold Warriors and members of the National Security apparatus, Scowcroft and Brzezinski are warning that any attack on Iran (or even on Syria) could very well spread to the wider middle-east and beyond to general conflagration.
And while I am certainly not pretending that they are coming at it from the same direction, the warning they are sounding is not dissimilar to the warning of Michel Chussodovsky of Global Research.
Which is curious, of course, as Chussodovsky has well documented the history of the U.S. funding and training of the Mahujadeen and al Qaeda, which was the policy of Brzezinski under the Carter administration, an effort which led to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. That they are both warning of wider, uncontrollable warfare, is, curiouser and curiouser...
The Scowcroft-Brzezinski talk from CSIS is here: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/TurkeyI
Michel Chussoduvsky's website is http://globalresearch.ca
Zero G, thanks much for the links to the interesting video and insightful article.
The US, as nominal (and quite likely temporary) lead in the DGE, strikes me as the loose cannon on a roiling deck.
Best, Alan
One thing we do know is that our Iran policy is being made in Israel by Israel and for Israel. And all American drivers are already picking a healthy chunk of the tab at our pumps.
What is truly amazing is that so many Americans today are either ignorant of what is transpiring, blissfully propagandized into believing that the U.S. government has their best interests at heart, hopelessly apathetic (don't talk about that, I don't want to talk about that), too fearful to confront reality, or simply too lacking in brains or a heart to give a damn.
Israel is the tail that wags the dog, but criticism of Israel is immediately parlayed by its obedient servants into "anti-Semitism." The American press is obedient, much of the Western world powers are obedient, most of the American citizenry are obedient. The nation that was founded on bloodshed and vague 1,900-year-old claims to ownership of the land waves its bloody sword at anyone and everyone who stands in its way. Oppose the bloody treatment of Palestinians? Oppose the illegal settlement of Palestinian lands by Israeli settlers? Oppose the inexorable march to war with Iran, aided and abetted by the U.S. military industrial establishment?
Anti-Semite! Holocaust denier! Hateful Christian! Hateful Muslim! That will be the response you typically get, even from many Americans who must know better.
There is little to hope for in this scenario, but the one "hope" that I think remains is that all these well laid plans - all of them, from war to the stifling of political dissent to, potentially, mass genocide and mass incarceration - will fail. With that inevitable failure, however, will come inevitable chaos that all people, everywhere, bar none, will suffer.
Oh please! Don't talk about it! Don't ruin my happy day! Don't be negative! Don't think, don't believe, don't care, don't speak.
What ever happened to the country that I grew up believing in? Did it ever even exist?
People have to speak up, get some guts, look into their conscience. The truth may be all we have left, but the truth is a powerful thing that can change the world. We can only hope.