Jon Stewart Tears Apart Petraeus’ Dog and Pony Show

US isn't going to attack Iran?

Al-Manar special

"13/09/2007 For at least a year and a half, a dangerous conventional wisdom has been percolating within the foreign-policy community and it is this: The US isn't going to attack Iran. Whether ignoring familiar warning signs or waving them away, most mainstream analysts are towing this line, too.

And why shouldn't they? Even Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said flatly: "We are not planning for a war with Iran." But the situation appears to be changing—and fast. Germany reportedly informed the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council last week that it would not back further sanctions against the Islamic Republic. That decision could deadlock next week's meeting of the six powers in Washington, where Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns hopes to secure a new set of sanctions against Tehran. The European Union is also failing to fully back International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei's plan for new inspections in Iran. Baradei rebuffed US critics of a cooperation deal it has struck with Iran as "back-seat drivers" and urged them to give it time to work to help avoid war.
Opponents to a military strike claim that an attack would require at least one week of intense bombing, and that it would only set the Iranian nuclear program back a few years, according to a report done by Fox news (according to a Fox News report). Two other claims of the opponents is that an American strike would provoke Iran into attacking Israel, and that abandoning diplomatic action would negatively impact Iraq and the US troops stationed there, not to mention US interests in the Gulf.

Other Concepts
A senior Bush administration official told Fox that "everyone in town" was discussing the costs and benefits of a military assault on Iran that was likely to unfold within the next eight to ten months, well before the November 2008 presidential elections. According to the Fox news report, Germany's decision has spurred senior US army officials to try and convince US Foreign Secretary Condoleezza Rice to abandon once and for all the diplomatic route of preventing a nuclear Iran.
The report stated that the attack would be comprised of two main strategies: cutting off the Iranian gas supply, which the US hopes would pressure the Iranian people towards action against their government, and an aerial bombing campaign, which would be meant to paralyze Iranian defenses and allow American bombers to destroy the nuclear facilities.
Moreover, the Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni said during a radio interview broadcast today that the UN Security Council should adopt more and tougher sanctions against Iran to try to halt Iran’s nuclear program.
On the other hand, the chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said on Wednesday that Iran will not stop uranium enrichment, despite a call by the European Union and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to halt sensitive nuclear work.
So, is the US seriously contemplating military attack on Iran?"

The Greatest Story Never Told

By Stephen Lendman

"No issue is more sensitive in the US than daring to criticize Israel. It's the metaphorical "third rail" in American politics, academia and the major media. Anyone daring to touch it pays dearly as the few who tried learned. Those in elected office face an onslaught of attacks and efforts to replace them with more supportive officials. Former five term Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney felt its sting twice in 2002 and 2006. So did 10 term Congressman Paul Findley (a fierce and courageous Israeli critic) in 1982 and three term Senator Charles Percy in 1984 whom AIPAC targeted merely for appearing to support anti-Israeli policy......."

Police: Top Iraq sheik working with U.S. slain

"BAGHDAD - The most prominent figure in a revolt of Sunni sheiks against al-Qaida in Iraq was killed Thursday in an explosion near his home in Anbar province, police said.

Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha was leader of the Anbar Salvation Council, also known as the Anbar Awakening -- an alliance of clans backing the Iraqi government and U.S. forces....."

Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

The question is:

Do you trust the Petraeus-Crocker Iraq report?

With 1,300 responding so far, 94% said no.

More Hysteria: Livni calls for tougher UN sanctions against Iran

"The UN Security Council should adopt more and tougher sanctions against Iran to try to halt Iran’s nuclear program, Israel’s foreign minister said in a radio interview broadcast Thursday.

The foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, also said private groups and businesses should stop dealing with Iran, despite possible economic losses.

The US is to press for tougher UN sanctions when diplomats hold a strategy session next week with the five other nations that have sometimes reluctantly used the world body’s punitive powers against Iran. Two rounds of milder sanctions have not slowed or stopped Iran’s nuclear program.

Livni told Israel Radio that the world must act quickly. "There must be no delays,” she said. “The world must take all the necessary action ... While we are talking, Iran is trying to obtain nuclear weapons."......"

Bolton Wants Iran Regime Change

"John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, says in an interview with U.S. News that despite the Bush administration's continued attachment to a diplomatic solution on nuclear programs in Iran, he favors seeking a change of regimes there.

"My preference is regime change," says Bolton, who is now affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "The regime is more fragile and has less support than people think."

Bolton called military strikes on Iran's nuclear sites "the last resort" and "deeply unattractive," but he nonetheless said that the Bush administration or a future administration may have to confront that choice to prevent Iran from fielding a nuclear arsenal. On regime change, he cited the dissatisfaction with Iran's ruling mullahs among many youth and restiveness in some of the areas populated by ethnic minorities. But he says that even clandestine U.S. support for regime change "may take longer than we have" on the nuclear issue.

Iran is mastering uranium enrichment techniques despite facing technical problems, he adds, and the U.N. Security Council is not likely to direct decisive sanctions against Iran. Consequently, within the Bush administration, he says, "there is frustration, and that's an understatement."

Revved Up Manufacture of Consent to Attack Iran: Iran accused over attack on US Iraq base

"A US general today accused Shia militants backed by Iran of executing a deadly rocket attack on a US military headquarters in Iraq as the US president, George Bush, prepared to ask the American people to give his war strategy more time.
One person was killed and a dozen injured in the incident, which happened when a 240mm rocket hit Camp Victory, a sprawling base near Baghdad international airport, two days ago.

The US claims such rockets are supplied to Shia extremists by Tehran.

Major General Kevin Bergner said the rocket was launched from the Rasheed district of west Baghdad, which he said had been infiltrated by the Mahdi army militia of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

In a speech tonight, Mr Bush is expected to cite the threat from Iran as a reason for maintaining a heavy US troop presence in Iraq......."

By Tom Toles

Petraeus out of step with US top brass

By Gareth Porter
Asia Times

"As the highly public face of President George W Bush's policy in Iraq, especially the "surge", General David Petraeus has done his boss proud in following the White House script. This spokesman's role, however, has created a deep rift between him and the nation's highest military leaders. Most notably, he is on a collision course with Admiral William Fallon, chief of Central Command, who has reportedly dismissed him as an "asskissing little chickenshit"......"

Behind the Anbar myth

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"......Petraeus' key argument this week to prove his steering of the Bush-devised "surge" was a "success" was to spin the close collaboration between the occupation and the Shi'ite-dominated Iraqi government in Baghdad on the one side with Sunni tribal leaders in al-Anbar province on the other. Petraeus framed it as if this "sustainable" solution was a huge counterinsurgency success of his own making. Nothing could be further from the truth.......

Way beyond any "success" claimed by Petraeus, what's happening in Anbar is once again a replay of what happened in eastern Afghanistan in 2001. Local tribes profit from US largesse - and weapons - and then proceed with their own tribal and/or nationalist agenda. What matters for all these players, most of all, is restoration of Sunni power. The Dulaimi tribe and sub-clans, armed by the Americans, as soon as they have a chance, will try to topple the US-sponsored puppet government in Baghdad.......

So why not spice it all up with some extra divide and rule - to justify an eternal US presence? Arming Sunni tribals in Anbar, under these circumstances, makes sense. The occupation does not need to fight Sunnis in oil-deprived Anbar. The Bush administration is now full steam ahead on fighting Shi'ites - both in Iran (the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps) and in Iraq (from the Maliki government to Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army). Shi'ites in both Iran and southern Iraq are sitting over a wealth of oil. The Sunnis are needed to advance this agenda....."

The Barksdale Nukes

B-52s and Bush’s War Plans
By SCOTT VEST

former Air Force Captain at Minot AFB
CounterPunch

"......I'm a former Air Force Captain and I was a munitions specialist in the very unit that erroneously shipped the weapons out of Minot AFB from '87 to '90. I am no Republican mouthpiece trying to cover for the administration. I'm a social liberal and fiscal conservative (basically the opposite philosophy of the administration), and I think Bush and especially Cheney are war criminals along with being the normal variety of criminals on a grand scale.......

Do I think that the administration is drawing up serious plans to attack Iran? I do. Do I think that neocon whack jobs and particularly Dick Cheney are considering the use of nuclear weapons? I do. But the facts are scarier than the conspiracy theories swirling around this B-52 incident. If a decision is made to launch nuclear strikes from US bases using B-52s, it can be done without any telltale unusual movements of assets. A single B-52H can put over 6 megatons of nuclear power on target anywhere on the planet within 30 hours from the time the order is received. "

All Lies, All The Time: U.S. warned N. Korea not to help Syria with nukes

Any day now, Judith Miller will be coming up with her fictional horror stories, this time about Syria. It worked before and it will work again; after all you are dealing with the American sheeple, 30% of them still believe that Saddam was responsible for 9-11.

"U.S. President George W. Bush warned North Korea last year against transferring nuclear material to Syria, Iran or a terrorist organization, saying such a move would be perceived as a "grave threat," a former U.S. official recently told Haaretz.

In a telephone conversation, the former U.S. ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said North Korea may be using Syria and Iran as "safe havens" for its nuclear activity.

Bolton, now affiliated with the "American Enterprise Institute" in Washington, served Bush in his first term as Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. In that capacity, as well as later, he clashed with other officials, most notably from CIA, regarding Syria's nuclear plans.

On Thursday, a U.S. official was quoted as saying Damascus may be building a nuclear facility with North Korean assistance, a week after Syria claimed Israeli aircraft violated its airspace and dropped munitions within its territory,

According to a Washington Post report, a U.S. official talking on condition of anonymity said recent satellite images gathered over the past six months mostly by Israeli sources indicate Syria may be building such a facility.

Access to the information has been heavily restricted to a team headed by security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, leaving many in the intelligence community unaware of the reports' significance, the U.S. newspaper quoted sources as saying......."

Hamas calls on Palestinian resistance to declare state of full alert in its rank

"GAZA, (PIC)-- Hamas called on Wednesday on its armed wing and the Palestinian resistance forces to declare a state of full alert in their ranks in anticipation of any aggression on the Gaza Strip and to be fully prepared to defend the Palestinian people against the IOF troops.

Hamas's warning came after receiving confirmed information from the Palestinian lands occupied 1948 that the Israeli military war machine is preparing for a large-scale aggression against the Gaza Strip from three axes including the borderline with Egypt (Salahuddin axis), according to a statement received by the PIC.

In the same context, a Hebrew newspaper, Ha'aretz quoted an Israeli military source as saying that the IOF troops carried out a small-scale incursion into central Gaza on Wednesday night a day after a rocket attack on Israeli military base inflicted tens of injuries in the ranks of Israeli officers and soldiers.

In a meeting of the Israeli mini-cabinet chaired by Israeli premier Ehud Olmert and his war minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday, they decided to use fighter bombers to target political leaders and many areas in Gaza at the pretext of striking the infrastructure of the Palestinian resistance.

In the statement, Hamas warned that any Israeli aggression will not be a picnic for the IOF soldiers, confirming that the invasion troops will be doomed to failure and defeat......."

A Look At How Petraeus Helped Arm Warring Sunni and Shia Militias in Iraq

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman

Contributed by buh

"On Tuesday, President Bush's top military commander in Iraq returned to Capitol Hill for a second day to urge the continuation of the war in Iraq. We speak with Arun Gupta, an editor of "The Indypendent" about the Petraeus hearings. Gupta's most recent article is titled, "Meet Gen. David Petraeus: His Militia Strategy Plunged Iraq Into a Civil War, And Now He's Back for More."......"

The 25th Anniversary of the Massacre at Sabra-Shatilla

Will anyone remember? Does anyone really care anymore?

by Franklin Lamb / September 12th, 2007

Martyrs Square
Sabra-Shatilla Palestinian Refugee Camp
Beirut

"A Letter to Janet

Dearest Janet,

It’s a very beautiful fall day here in Beirut today. Twenty-five years ago this week since the September 15-18, 1982 Massacre at the Palestinian refugee camps at Sabra-Shatila. Bright blue sky and a fall breeze. It actually rained last night. Enough to clean out some of the humidity and dust. Fortunately not enough to make the usual rain created swamp of sewage and filth on Rue Sabra, or flood the grassless burial ground of the mass grave (the camp residents named it Martyrs Square–one of several so named memorials now in Lebanon)) where you once told me you that on Sunday September 19, 1982, you watched, sickened, as families and Red Crescent workers created a subterranean mountain of butchered and bullet riddled victims from those 48 hours of slaughter. Some of the bodies had limbs and heads chopped off, some boys castrated, Christian crosses carved into some of the bodies.

As you later wrote to me in your perfect cursive:

“I saw dead women in their houses with their skirts up to their waists and their legs spread apart; dozens of young men shot after being lined up against an ally wall; children with their throats slit, a pregnant woman with her stomach chopped open, her eyes still wide open, her blackened face silently screaming in horror; countless babies and toddlers who had been stabbed or ripped apart and who had been thrown into garbage piles”.

Today Martyr’s Square is not much of a Memorial to the upwards of 1,700 mainly women and children, who were murdered between Sept. 15-18. You would not be pleased. A couple of faded posters and a misspelled banner that reads: “1982: Saba Massacer”, hang near the center of the 20 by 40 yard area which for years following the mass burial was a garbage dump. Today, roaming around the grassless plot of ground is a large old yellow dog that ignores a couple of chicken hens and six peeps scratching and pecking around.

Since you went away, the main facts of the Massacre remain the same as your research uncovered in the months that followed. At that time your findings were the most detailed and accurate as to what occurred and who was responsible.

The old 7-storey Kuwaiti Embassy from where Sharon, Eytan, Yaron, Elie Hobeika, Fradi Frem and others maintained radio contact and monitored the 48 hours of carnage with a clear view into the camps was torn down years ago. A new one has been built and they are still constructing a Mosque on its grounds.

I am sorry to report that today in Lebanon, the families of the victims of the Massacre daily sink deeper into the abyss. No where on earth do the Palestinians live in such filth and squalor. ‘Worse than Gaza!” a journalist recently in Palestine exclaims......."

The Bitch is Coming, The Bitch is Coming....
U.S. Secretary of State set to visit Middle East next week (AP)

Head for the bomb shelters!

"حماس" تحذِّر الاحتلال من أنّ عدوانه "لن يكون نزهة وأنّ عليه تحمّل النتائج"

"غزة – المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام

حثّت حركة المقاومة الإسلامية "حماس"، كافة أجهزتها وقوى المقاومة، على أخذ الحيطة والحذر وإعلان حالة الاستنفار القصوى لرد العدوان الصهيوني المحتمل على قطاع غزة والتصدي بكل قوة، وطالبت بالاستعداد التام له وقطع الطريق عليه، كما دعت الحركة كافة قوى المقاومة إلى أخذ استعداداتها للدفاع عن نفسها وشعبها بكل ما لديها، وقالت "ندعوهم إلى التعاون والتكاتف ووحدة الصف بين كافة المجاهدين".

وقد جاء تحذير حركة "حماس" بعد "ورود معلومات موثقة من داخل فلسطين المحتلة بأنّ قوات الاحتلال الصهيوني تعدّ العدة لعملية عدوان واسعة على قطاع غزة خلال الأيام القادمة براً وجواً وبحراً، انطلاقاً من ثلاثة محاور"، حسب البيان.

وأضافت "حماس" في بيان لها تلقى "المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام" الأربعاء (12/9)، نسخة عنه بأنه "وفقاً لمصادرنا الخاصة؛ فإنّ العدو الصهيوني سينطلق في عدوانه من ثلاثة محاور، منها احتلال الشريط الحدودي الفاصل بين قطاع غزة والأراضي المصرية (محور صلاح الدين)، المنطلق الثاني هو مدينة غزة، وتحديداً حي الشجاعية وصولاً إلى حي الزيتون والصبرة، والثالث من شمال قطاع غزة ويشمل بيت حانون وصولاً إلى جباليا".

ونقلت الحركة عن "مصادرها بأنها أكدت أنّ العدو بدأ الإعداد لهذا الهجوم عقب اجتماع مجلس الحرب الصهيوني المصغّر" برئاسة رئيس حكومة الاحتلال إيهود أولمرت ووزير حربه إيهود باراك الثلاثاء (11/9)، وأنّ "قوات الاحتلال بدأت في تحريك قواتها من الشمال إلى الجنوب، كما قرّرت قوات الاحتلال الصهيوني استخدام الطائرات لاستهداف القيادات السياسية والعسكرية والعديد من الأماكن بحجة ضرب البنية التحتية لقوى المقاومة الفلسطينية، وبذريعة أنّ هذه العملية العدوانية يمكن أن توقف إطلاق الصواريخ تجاه فلسطين المحتلة".

وأهابت حركة "حماس" بكافة المواطنين الفلسطينيين "رصّ الصفوف والتوحّد مع رجال المقاومة ومساندتهم والوقوف إلى جانبهم وتسهيل مهماتهم، والتشديد على أبنائهم بعدم التوجه إلى ساحات المقاومة حتى لا يعيق ذلك المجاهدين، وفي الوقت نفسه حتى لا يسقط منّا في المعارك من لا علاقة له بالتصدي للعدوان، كما نحثكم على الإكثار من الدعاء إلى الله بنصر المجاهدين خاصة وأننا نعيش شهر الدعاء والخير والبركة"، وفق بيانها.

....."

Israel Bombs Syria, Neocons Cheer

By Kurt Nimmo

"Obviously, the rush to war—or unprovoked mass murder—is not going fast enough for Israel. “Israel believes that North Korea has been supplying Syria and Iran with nuclear materials, a Washington defense official told the New York Times,” Yedioth Internet reports. “The official added that recent Israeli reconnaissance flights over Syria revealed possible nuclear installations that Israeli officials estimate might have been supplied with material from North Korea.”

It appears this ruse is a cover for Israel’s latest provocation—an airstrike against “a Syrian-Iranian missile base in northern Syria that was financed by Iran,” according to a Nazareth-based Israeli Arab newspaper.......

Predictably, Israel’s Arab and Muslim hating Jabotinskyite leaders are “very happy with the success of the operation,” apparently involving “Israeli ground forces who directed the air strike,” that is to say not only aircraft but soldiers violated Syrian sovereignty. In addition, the U.S. neocons “are happy to have Israel carry the message to both Syria and Iran that they can get in and out and strike when necessary,” according to Haaretz. On the other hand, we can assume to neocons, often more fanatical than their Israeli brethren, are unhappy with the fact Israel did not bomb Damascus and president Assad’s summer palace."

War Drums Getting Louder: U.S. Officials Begin Crafting Iran Bombing Plan

"WASHINGTON — A recent decision by German officials to withhold support for any new sanctions against Iran has pushed a broad spectrum of officials in Washington to develop potential scenarios for a military attack on the Islamic regime, FOX News confirmed Tuesday.

Germany — a pivotal player among three European nations to rein in Iran's nuclear program over the last two-and-a-half years through a mixture of diplomacy and sanctions supported by the United States — notified its allies last week that the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel refuses to support the imposition of any further sanctions against Iran that could be imposed by the U.N. Security Council......"