Saifedean Ammous, The Electronic Intifada, Sep 25, 2007
"Imagine an American TV network deciding to take the American Idol format and apply it to poetry: lining up poets to read their poems in front of temperamental judges while the nation gets out its mobile phones to vote for its favorite poet. One can be sure the show would not survive the first commercial break before the chastened executives pull the plug on it and replace it with yet another series on the Life and Times of Nicole Ritchie. Yet, that was exactly the formula for the latest TV sensation to take Arab countries by storm......"
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Border impasse arises again
Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani, The Electronic Intifada, Sep 25, 2007
"CAIRO, 24 September (IPS) - The border crisis that had appeared to subside last month is back, with an estimated 2,000 Palestinians marooned on Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip. A new security arrangement between Cairo, Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Authority (PA) has effectively sealed the last sovereign transit point in or out of the troubled territory, which has been governed by Palestinian resistance faction Hamas since mid-June....."
"CAIRO, 24 September (IPS) - The border crisis that had appeared to subside last month is back, with an estimated 2,000 Palestinians marooned on Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip. A new security arrangement between Cairo, Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Authority (PA) has effectively sealed the last sovereign transit point in or out of the troubled territory, which has been governed by Palestinian resistance faction Hamas since mid-June....."
Delegation from Barcelona visits Gaza City
"Gaza – Ma'an – A Spanish delegation from the Spanish city of Barcelona in Spain on Monday condemned "the tyrannical Israeli conduct against the Gaza Strip" which they said was aimed at depriving people of food, medicine and freedom.
The delegation is currently on a visit to Gaza City, which is twinned with the city of Barcelona.
The delegation met on Monday with the Mayor of Gaza City, Majid Abu Ramadan and handed over a letter of solidarity from the Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, who expressing the solidarity of the district of Catalonia with Gaza City and its residents.
Commenting on the letter of solidarity, the Mayor of Gaza city requested that the people of Spain be informed of the suffering of the people of Gaza City."
Turning Ahmadinejad Into Public Enemy No. 1
by Juan Cole
salon.com
"......Taking potshots at a bantam cock of a populist like Ahmadinejad is actually a way of expressing another, deeper anxiety: fear of Iran’s rising position as a regional power and its challenge to the American and Israeli status quo. The real reason his visit is controversial is that the American right has decided the United States needs to go to war against Iran. Ahmadinejad is therefore being configured as an enemy head of state. The neoconservatives are even claiming that the United States has been at war with Iran since 1979......
And now the American war party, undeterred by the quagmire in Iraq, convinced that their model of New Empire is working, is eager to go on the offensive again. They may yet find a pretext to plunge the United States into another war. Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York this year will not include his visit to Ground Zero, because that is hallowed ground for American patriotism and he is being depicted as not just a critic of the United States but as the leader of an enemy state. His visit may, however, be ground zero for the next big military struggle of the United States in the Middle East, one that really will make Iraq look like a cakewalk."
What World War III May Look Like
A Must Read
"......It might start with a minor incident, possibly involving an American Marine patrol operating out of the new base at Badrah near the Iranian border. The Marines are surrounded by superior Iranian forces claiming that the Americans have strayed inside Iranian territory. The Marines refuse to surrender their weapons and instead open fire. The Iranians respond. Helicopter gunships are called in to support the Marines, and artillery fire is directed against Iranian military targets close to the border. President Bush calls the incident an act of war and, in an emotional speech to the nation, orders U.S. forces to attack. A hastily called meeting of the UN Security Council results in a 17-1 vote urging the United States to exercise restraint, with only Washington voting "no." In the UN General Assembly, only the U.S., Israel, Micronesia, and Costa Rica support the military action. The U.S. is effectively alone.
In the first few days, overwhelming American air and naval superiority destroy Iran's principal air, naval, and army bases. Iranian Revolutionary Guard facilities are particularly targeted and are obliterated, as are the known Iranian nuclear research and development sites. Population centers are avoided, though smart weapons destroy communications centers and command and control facilities. There are nevertheless large numbers of civilian casualties and widespread radioactive contamination as many of the targeted sites are in or near cities. Infrastructure is also hit, particularly bridges, roads, and power generation stations close to known nuclear research centers and military sites. The U.S. media, which had supported the administration's plans to engage Iran, rallies around the flag, praising the surgical attacks designed to cripple Tehran's nuclear weapons program. Congress supports the bombing, with leaders from both parties praising the president and commenting that Iran had it coming.......
The United States uses a neutron-type bomb against the main Iranian nuclear research center at Natanz, which it had already bombed conventionally and destroyed. It vows to bomb again if Iran continues to resist. Iran is defiant and fires another wave of Silkworms at U.S. ships, sinking one. Suicide bombers hit U.S. targets in Iraq and Afghanistan. Russia and China place their nuclear forces on high alert. Pakistani militants take over parliament, aided by radical elements in the army and the intelligence service. India launches a preemptive strike against the main Pakistani nuclear centers at Wah and Multan, where the country's arsenal is believed to be concentrated. Pakistan has hidden some of its nukes elsewhere, however, and is able to strike back by bombing New Delhi. World War III has begun."
250-Strong Israeli Spy Ring Equipped by the German BND External Intelligence with German Passports
"The pro-Iranian Lebanese Shiite group has seized on Sharon’s accidental detention in the course of a suspected murder probe in Beirut, to depict him as belonging to a 250-strong Israeli spy ring equipped by the German BND external intelligence with German passports. The 32-year old Sharon is said to have been on a mission to prepare the US-Israeli attack on Iran. No source in Israel or Germany confirms this tale.
Monday, Sept 24, the Phalange leader Samir Geagea also claimed Sharon’s arrest had “foiled a big terrorist attack in Lebanon. What has Lebanon come to when an Israeli agent can operate in the heart of Beirut?” he asked.
Following these allegations, the Lebanese government cancelled the visits to the detainee scheduled by German embassy and Red Cross officials for Monday.
According to DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources, Hizballah is connecting the alleged Israeli air attack on Syria of Sept 6 to claims of US-Israeli preparations to attack Iran and trying to present the Israeli-born German Daniel Sharon as proof of those preparations.
As further grist for its mill, our sources report Hizballah is planning to hold up a purported French intelligence “document” which fell into its hands to expose the trilateral collaboration between the US, Germany and Israel. This “document” is described as the source of Hizballah’s claim that Mossad agents, armed with genuine German passports, had in the past year been sent on missions to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. They are described as transiting Amman, flying by Royal Jordanian Airways to Irbil and Suleimaniya in Kurdish Iraq and thence to Iran and other Muslim states.
All these missions, Hizballah propagandists report, were linked to the preparations to strike Iranian nuclear installations and the Mossad’s other plans for halting Tehran’s nuclear program. They add for good measure that Israeli intelligence veterans are pushing hard for the Mossad to carry out pinpoint liquidations of Iranian and foreign nuclear scientists along the same format as Israel’s liquidations of German scientists employed in Egypt’s missile program in the late 1950s."
Monday, Sept 24, the Phalange leader Samir Geagea also claimed Sharon’s arrest had “foiled a big terrorist attack in Lebanon. What has Lebanon come to when an Israeli agent can operate in the heart of Beirut?” he asked.
Following these allegations, the Lebanese government cancelled the visits to the detainee scheduled by German embassy and Red Cross officials for Monday.
According to DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources, Hizballah is connecting the alleged Israeli air attack on Syria of Sept 6 to claims of US-Israeli preparations to attack Iran and trying to present the Israeli-born German Daniel Sharon as proof of those preparations.
As further grist for its mill, our sources report Hizballah is planning to hold up a purported French intelligence “document” which fell into its hands to expose the trilateral collaboration between the US, Germany and Israel. This “document” is described as the source of Hizballah’s claim that Mossad agents, armed with genuine German passports, had in the past year been sent on missions to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. They are described as transiting Amman, flying by Royal Jordanian Airways to Irbil and Suleimaniya in Kurdish Iraq and thence to Iran and other Muslim states.
All these missions, Hizballah propagandists report, were linked to the preparations to strike Iranian nuclear installations and the Mossad’s other plans for halting Tehran’s nuclear program. They add for good measure that Israeli intelligence veterans are pushing hard for the Mossad to carry out pinpoint liquidations of Iranian and foreign nuclear scientists along the same format as Israel’s liquidations of German scientists employed in Egypt’s missile program in the late 1950s."
Time to Dust Off Barghouti? I Have Always Said That Israel is Saving Him for the Right Moment; Is That Moment Now?
Ben-Eliezer: Israel should free Barghouti, he is next PA leader
"Imprisoned Fatah boss Marwan Barghouti will become the Palestinians' next leader, Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer recently told Haaretz.
In a holiday interview with Haaretz - which will appear Tuesday - Ben-Eliezer said that he believed that "there is no reason to become alarmed" by the possibility that Barghouti will be released from the Israeli prison system, where he is serving five consecutive life sentences for terrorist activities.
"I would consider releasing him. I think it's a legitimate move, though I believe that his actions were sinister, and I don't take them lightly at all," Ben-Eliezer said.......
Ben-Eliezer says over the past months he had realized Barghouti is probably the best partner Israel has with whom it can hope to achieve a breakthrough in negotiations with the Palestinians.
According to Ben-Eliezer, Barghouti enjoys considerable sway over the situation in Palestinian Authority from within the Hadarim prison facility.
The minister says Barghouti's pull extends to the preparations for the U.S.-sponsored regional peace summit Washington intends to hold in November.
"We have to find a suitable opportunity to release Barghouti, and we have to link it to the release of Gilad Shalit," the minister said. Ben-Eliezer was referring to the Israel Defense Forces soldier Hamas had abducted more than a year ago from the southern Gaza Strip.
"I know this hard to cope with. But we have to look 10 years down the line, and ask ourselves where we want to go," the minister, who has known Barghouti for many years, said. "
Military brains plot Pakistan's downfall
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Asia Times
"With al-Qaeda, assorted jihadis and the Pakistani Taliban on their side, former officers in the Pakistan Army are plotting the course by which they plan to bring down the government of President General Pervez Musharraf, or at least bend him to their will. Saudi Arabia has tried unsuccessfully to defuse the situation and the plan - modeled on Vietnamese guerrilla tactics - is entering a new and decisive phase.....
Pakistani jihadis have launched many attacks on the establishment and against Musharraf, but now they face a well-coordinated "guerrilla" strategy, spearheaded by former army officers.
The former military men are operating out of the Waziristan camp of former Pakistani jihadi commander Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri. They are mostly ex-middle cadre (captains, majors, colonels) who resigned upon Pakistan's U-turn after September 11.....
In Afghanistan, he oriented the fighters to adopt the three-phase guerrilla tactics of Giap in the southeastern provinces of Khost, Paktia and Paktika. These are now being adopted against the Pakistan Army in the two Waziristans......."
Asia Times
"With al-Qaeda, assorted jihadis and the Pakistani Taliban on their side, former officers in the Pakistan Army are plotting the course by which they plan to bring down the government of President General Pervez Musharraf, or at least bend him to their will. Saudi Arabia has tried unsuccessfully to defuse the situation and the plan - modeled on Vietnamese guerrilla tactics - is entering a new and decisive phase.....
Pakistani jihadis have launched many attacks on the establishment and against Musharraf, but now they face a well-coordinated "guerrilla" strategy, spearheaded by former army officers.
The former military men are operating out of the Waziristan camp of former Pakistani jihadi commander Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri. They are mostly ex-middle cadre (captains, majors, colonels) who resigned upon Pakistan's U-turn after September 11.....
In Afghanistan, he oriented the fighters to adopt the three-phase guerrilla tactics of Giap in the southeastern provinces of Khost, Paktia and Paktika. These are now being adopted against the Pakistan Army in the two Waziristans......."
'Hitler' does New York
By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
".......Articulate, evasive, manipulative, the Iranian president - even lost in translation - was especially skillful in turning US corporate media's hysteria upside down consistently to paint those in the administration of President George W Bush as incorrigible warmongers. Both at the National Press Club, via video-conference, and live at Columbia University, Ahmadinejad even had the luxury of joking about fabled Western "freedom of information" - as so many are still "trying to prevent people from talking".
He scored major points among the target audience that really matters: worldwide Muslim public opinion. Contrasting with a plethora of corrupt Arab leaders, Ahmadinejad has been carefully positioning himself as a Muslim folk hero capable of standing up to Western arrogance and defending the rights of the weak (the Palestinians). The way he deflected US ire on the enemy's own turf will only add to his standing.......
On Israel, Ahmadinejad said, "We do not recognize a regime based on discrimination, occupation and expansionism," and he said that country "last week attacked Syria and last year attacked Lebanon"; pretty much what most of the Middle East agrees with. He may have granted that the Holocaust did take place, but the world needs "more research on it". The Holocaust is not his main point: it always serves as an intro to one of his key themes - why should the Palestinians pay the price for something that happened in Europe? He said he wanted a "clear" answer. No one deigned to provide it......
......(CBS) was firing on all cylinders for a casus belli - from "There's no doubt Iran is providing the IEDs" (improvised explosive devices, in Iraq) to "Why don't you just stop denying that you're building a nuclear bomb?" Ahmadinejad was bemused, to say the least. CNN for its part could not resist proclaiming, "His state even sponsors terrorism ... in some cases even against US troops in Iraq.".....
.....just to plunge once again into the Palestinian tragedy. He stressed how Iran "is friendly with the Jewish people" - which is a fact (at least 30,000 Jews live undisturbed in Iran). Then back to the key point: Why are the Palestinians paying the price for something they had nothing to do with? Iran has a "humanitarian proposal" to solve the problem - a referendum where Palestinians would choose their own political destiny.....
....He is more than aware that the nuclear dossier is "a political issue" - a question of "two or three powers who think they can monopolize science and knowledge". It's up to a sovereign Iran to decide whether it needs nuclear fuel. "Why should we need fuel from you? You don't even give us spare parts for aircraft."....."
Monday, September 24, 2007
Body Bag Number 3,800 Has Just Arrived
U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq.........3,800
"Coalition" Troops Killed...........4,100
U.S. Troops Wounded..............27,936
First Chapter: ‘The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy’
"......Yet on one subject, we can be equally confident that the candidates will speak with one voice. In 2008, as in previous election years, serious candidates for the highest office in the land will go to considerable lengths to express their deep personal commitment to one foreign country-Israel-as well as their determination to maintain unyielding U.S. support for the Jewish state. Each candidate will emphasize that he or she fully appreciates the multitude of threats facing Israel and make it clear that, if elected, the United States will remain firmly committed to defending Israel's interests under any and all circumstances. None of the candidates is likely to criticize Israel in any significant way or suggest that the United States ought to pursue a more evenhanded policy in the region. Any who do will probably fall by the wayside.
This observation is hardly a bold prediction, because presidential aspirants were already proclaiming their support for Israel in early 2007. The process began in January, when four potential candidates spoke to Israel's annual Herzliya Conference on security issues. As Joshua Mitnick reported in Jewish Week, they were "seemingly competing to see who can be most strident in defense of the Jewish State." Appearing via satellite link, John Edwards, the Democratic party's 2004 vice presidential candidate, told his Israeli listeners that "your future is our future" and said that the bond between the United States and Israel "will never be broken." Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney spoke of being "in a country I love with people I love" and, aware of Israel's deep concern about a possible nuclear Iran, proclaimed that "it is time for the world to speak three truths: (1) Iran must be stopped; (2) Iran can be stopped; (3) Iran will be stopped!" Senator John McCain (R-AZ) declared that "when it comes to the defense of Israel, we simply cannot compromise," while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) told the audience that "Israel is facing the greatest danger for [sic] its survival since the 1967 victory."......."
Excerpted from The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by John J. Mearsheimer Stephen M. Walt Copyright © 2007 by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt. Excerpted by permission.
Podhoretz secretly urged Bush to bomb Iran
"President Bush and Karl Rove sat listening to Norman Podhoretz for roughly 45 minutes at the White House as the patriarch of neoconservatism argued that the United States should bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. The meeting was not on the president’s public schedule. Rove was silent throughout, though he took notes. The president listened diligently, Podhoretz said as he recounted the conversation months later, but he “didn’t tip his hand.”
“I did say to [the president], that people ask: Why are you spending all this time negotiating sanctions? Time is passing. I said, my friend [Robert] Kagan wrote a column which he said you were giving ‘futility its chance.’ And both he and Karl Rove burst out laughing.
“It struck me,” Podhoretz added, “that if they really believed that there was a chance for these negotiations and sanctions to work, they would not have laughed. They would have got their backs up and said, ‘No, no, it’s not futile, there’s a very good chance.’ ”
Podhoretz walked out of the meeting neither deterred nor assured the president would attack the Persian state. Yet prior to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York for the United Nations’ General Assembly, Podhoretz said he believes that “Bush is going to hit” Iran before the end of his presidency.
His assumption is based on intellectual instinct. If Podhoretz were merely another old man of the chattering class, his intellectual instincts would hardly be worth pondering. But Podhoretz, after a half-century in argument, remains fiercely relevant......."
Foam on the Water
By Uri Avnery
PalestineChronicle.com
"......The pathetic Condoleezza Rice keeps coming and going. Ehud Olmert is formulating a document without content in order to create the illusion of progress towards the creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel. Israeli airplanes bombard a Syrian area in order to eliminate a threat of "weapons of mass destruction". Israel prepares to bomb or not to bomb nuclear installations in Iran. President Bush is calling for an "international meeting" at an unknown date, with unknown participants for an unknown purpose.
All this is imagined reality. The real reality is unfolding on the ground, every day, every hour: nightly incursions in West Bank towns, frantic building in the settlements, enlargement of the "Israelis only" road network, further additions to the 600 or so existing roadblocks, worsening of the living conditions in the Palestinian ghettos in the West Bank and turning life in the Gaza Strip into hell.
This is the real war: the war for "the whole of the Land of Israel" - a war that has disappeared from public discourse, but that is being waged energetically, far from the eyes of Israelis living only 20 minutes drive from there. The Palestinians are fighting with their meager means but with dogged obduracy......."
PalestineChronicle.com
"......The pathetic Condoleezza Rice keeps coming and going. Ehud Olmert is formulating a document without content in order to create the illusion of progress towards the creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel. Israeli airplanes bombard a Syrian area in order to eliminate a threat of "weapons of mass destruction". Israel prepares to bomb or not to bomb nuclear installations in Iran. President Bush is calling for an "international meeting" at an unknown date, with unknown participants for an unknown purpose.
All this is imagined reality. The real reality is unfolding on the ground, every day, every hour: nightly incursions in West Bank towns, frantic building in the settlements, enlargement of the "Israelis only" road network, further additions to the 600 or so existing roadblocks, worsening of the living conditions in the Palestinian ghettos in the West Bank and turning life in the Gaza Strip into hell.
This is the real war: the war for "the whole of the Land of Israel" - a war that has disappeared from public discourse, but that is being waged energetically, far from the eyes of Israelis living only 20 minutes drive from there. The Palestinians are fighting with their meager means but with dogged obduracy......."
Just How Powerful is the Israel Lobby?
Only Cheney Knows for Sure
By SHERWOOD ROSS
CounterPunch
"......According to Petras, a sociologist at Binghamton University, New York, the pro-Zionist "power configuration" is not just the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee(AIPAC). The Zionist lobby is so powerful, Petras argues, it "calls the shots" and "supports the escalation of the Iraq war and the savaging of Palestine, Somalia and Afghanistan."
"It (the Lobby") has neutralized the biggest and most concerted efforts by big name centrist political figures to alter White House policy," including James Baker, (former Secretary of State under the first president Bush,) former president Carter and "protesting former military commanders" in Iraq.
Petras charges, "the White House is putting into practice the war strategy presented by the American' Enterprise Institute, which he dubs a Zioncon thinktank. Led by "arch-Zionist" Michael Ledeen a resident scholar of AEI, "some in the Jewish Lobby dismissed the Baker Iraq Study Group as the realists and anti-Semites.'" The ISG "was unable to deal with Israeli violence against Palestinians or enter into a dialogue with Syria and Iran on any but the most narrow and unpromising terms," Petras asserted......"
By SHERWOOD ROSS
CounterPunch
"......According to Petras, a sociologist at Binghamton University, New York, the pro-Zionist "power configuration" is not just the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee(AIPAC). The Zionist lobby is so powerful, Petras argues, it "calls the shots" and "supports the escalation of the Iraq war and the savaging of Palestine, Somalia and Afghanistan."
"It (the Lobby") has neutralized the biggest and most concerted efforts by big name centrist political figures to alter White House policy," including James Baker, (former Secretary of State under the first president Bush,) former president Carter and "protesting former military commanders" in Iraq.
Petras charges, "the White House is putting into practice the war strategy presented by the American' Enterprise Institute, which he dubs a Zioncon thinktank. Led by "arch-Zionist" Michael Ledeen a resident scholar of AEI, "some in the Jewish Lobby dismissed the Baker Iraq Study Group as the realists and anti-Semites.'" The ISG "was unable to deal with Israeli violence against Palestinians or enter into a dialogue with Syria and Iran on any but the most narrow and unpromising terms," Petras asserted......"
Action-as-Propaganda
Learning About the Iraq War from Hannah Arendt
By DAVID KEEN
(This essay is excerpted from David Keen's new book, Endless War? Hidden Functions of the 'War on Terror')
CounterPunch
".......Second, even a lack of success may lend legitimacy to the insistence that America and its allies must devote ever-greater energy to defeating terrorism. Indeed, those waging war on terror seem to have an interest in insisting that they are simultaneously both winning and losing. This is a confusing message, to be sure; but a mixed message has the significant advantage that it can never be disproved. Any form of evidence, any positive or negative turn of events, can be harnessed to the (ambiguous) official line. Each victory brings some new atrocity and some new struggle in its wake: the toppling of the Taliban is followed by the bombing of Bali; the ousting of Saddam is followed by the bombing of Madrid; elections in Iraq, but bombings in London. It would seem the task is never done: as Mark Duffield pithily puts it, "It is always a case of one more massacre, of winning this endless war, and we will be free." Just as we breathe a sigh of relief, we find some new anxiety catching in out throats. The war on terror is drawing to an end; long live the war on terror! "
Bush peace confab a swan dive or belly flop?
Khody Akhavi, The Electronic Intifada, Sep 24, 2007
"WASHINGTON, 21 September (IPS) - This past summer, President George W. Bush extended a hand where he never has before, calling for a Middle East conference to find a solution to the long-moribund Palestinian-Israeli peace process. This time, says US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, her boss expects results. Yet as with most of Washington's diplomatic overtures to the region over the last seven years, Bush's recent demands for a "viable Palestinian state" -- which critics argue simply aim to spit-shine an already tarnished presidential legacy -- may crumble under the weight of stark realities on the ground......"
"WASHINGTON, 21 September (IPS) - This past summer, President George W. Bush extended a hand where he never has before, calling for a Middle East conference to find a solution to the long-moribund Palestinian-Israeli peace process. This time, says US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, her boss expects results. Yet as with most of Washington's diplomatic overtures to the region over the last seven years, Bush's recent demands for a "viable Palestinian state" -- which critics argue simply aim to spit-shine an already tarnished presidential legacy -- may crumble under the weight of stark realities on the ground......"
Brzezinski: U.S. in danger of 'stampeding' to war with Iran
"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski likened U.S. officials' saber rattling about Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions to similar statements made before the start of the Iraq war.
"I think the administration, the president and the vice president particularly, are trying to hype the atmosphere, and that is reminiscent of what preceded the war in Iraq," Brzezinski told CNN's "Late Edition" on Sunday.
But Henry Kissinger, the former national security adviser and secretary of state under President Nixon, appeared not to doubt Iran's alleged ambitions.
"I believe they are building a capability to build a nuclear bomb," Kissinger told CNN. "I don't think they're yet in a position to build a nuclear bomb, but they may be two or three years away from it."........"
"I think the administration, the president and the vice president particularly, are trying to hype the atmosphere, and that is reminiscent of what preceded the war in Iraq," Brzezinski told CNN's "Late Edition" on Sunday.
But Henry Kissinger, the former national security adviser and secretary of state under President Nixon, appeared not to doubt Iran's alleged ambitions.
"I believe they are building a capability to build a nuclear bomb," Kissinger told CNN. "I don't think they're yet in a position to build a nuclear bomb, but they may be two or three years away from it."........"
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