ALL FOR THE SAKE OF
ISRAEL
German media: U.S. prepares Iran strike
By MARTIN WALKER
But the respected German weekly Der Spiegel
notes "What is new here is that Washington appears to be dispatching
high-level officials to prepare its allies for a possible attack
rather than merely implying The German news agency DDP cited "Western
security sources" to claim that CIA Director Porter Goss asked
Turkey's premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan to provide political and
logistic support for air strikes against Iranian nuclear and
military targets. Goss, who visited Ankara nd met Erdogan on Dec.
12, was also reported to have to have asked for special cooperation
from Turkish intelligence to help prepare and monitor the operation. DDP cited German security sources who added
that the Turks had been assured of a warning in advance if and when
the military strikes took place, and had also been given "a green
light" to mount their own attacks on the bases in Iran of the PKK,
(Kurdish Workers party), which Turkey sees as a separatist group
responsible for terrorist attacks inside Turkey. Goss's visit to the Turkish capital followed the
rising international concern over recent statements by the new
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel should be "wiped
off the map," denying the existence of Holocaust, and suggesting
that Israel's Jewish population might be re-located to Europe. In a December 23 report, the DDP agency
quoted an anonymous but "high-ranking German military official"
telling their reporter: "I would be very surprised if the Americans,
in the mid-term, didn't take advantage of the opportunity delivered
by Tehran. The Americans have to attack Iran before the country can
develop nuclear weapons. After that would be too late." The DDP report also said that several
friendly Arab governments, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman and
Pakistan, had also been informed in general terms that the Pentagon
was preparing contingency plans, including "the option of air
strikes," in the event of the new Iranian government precipitating a
crisis. Arab diplomatic sources have told United Press
International that they have been given no briefings on any policy
change beyond President Bush's "all option are open." Bush's most recent such statement in public came on
Aug. 13, during an interview at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, when
he told Israeli TV: "As I say, all options are on the table. The use
of force is the last option for any president and, you know, we've
used force in the recent past to secure our country." High-profile
visits to Turkey Other NATO sources have told United Press
International that "all this may be mood music, a way to step up the
diplomatic pressure on Tehran." It is possible that leaks from NATO and German
security sources are part of a ploy to convince the Iranian
government that the Americans and their NATO allies are in dead
earnest when they say a nuclear-armed Iran would not be tolerated,
and that Iran had better start negotiating seriously. But the German media speculation about the supposed
U.S. plans has been fueled by a number of high-profile visits to
Turkey this month, including trips by Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, by the CIA's Porter Goss and by the FBI Director Robert
Mueller, who also delivered U.S. intelligence reports on Iranian
backing for PKK operations aimed against Turkey. There have also
been some significant Turkish visits to Washington, as reported by
Der Spiegel. "Two weeks ago, Yasar Buyukanit, the commander of the
Turkish army and probable future chief of staff of the country's
armed forces, flew to Washington. After the visit he made a
statement that relations between the Turkish army and the American
army were once again on an excellent footing," Der Spiegel
reported Friday. "Buyukanit's warm and fuzzy words, contrasted greatly
with his past statements that if the United States and the Kurds in
northern Iraq proved incapable of containing the PKK in the
Kurd-dominated northern part of the country and preventing it from
attacking Turkey, Buyukanit would march into northern Iraq himself,"
the German weekly added. German
reporter under scrutiny for disclosing secrets The CIA Director's Dec. 12 call on the Turkish prime
minister last for over an hour, far longer than customary for a mere
courtesy call, and followed an even longer meeting with senior staff
of MIT, Turkish intelligence. The Turkish Daily Cumhuriyet
reported on December 13: "Goss also asked Ankara to be ready for a
possible U.S. air operation against Iran and Syria." Der Spiegel noted Friday that the latest
high-level visitor to the Turkish premier was NATO Secretary-General
Jaap De Hoop Scheffer. This is not unusual, since Turkey is a member
of NATO, but the coincidence of these various trips prompted
Spiegel
to comment "the number of American and NATO security officials heading
to Ankara has increased dramatically." "In Berlin, the issue is largely being played down,"
Der Spiegel reported Friday. "During his inaugural visit with
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Washington last week, the
possibility of a U.S. air strike against Iran 'had not been an
issue,' for new German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, a Defense
Ministry spokesman told
Spiegel." The original story in the German press which provoked
the wider media furore was written for the DDP agency by a
veteran reporter on security and intelligence matters, Udo Ulfkotte,
who has in the past been criticized in the German media for being
"too close to sources at Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the
BND" (Bundesnachrichtendienst). At the same time, Ulfkotte has himself come under
scrutiny by German security services, and his home and offices have
been repeatedly searched in the course of inquiries into allegations
that he had published official secrets.
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is preparing its NATO
allies for a possible military strike against suspected nuclear
sites in Iran in the new year, according to German media reports,
reinforcing similar earlier suggestions in the Turkish media.
the possibility as it has repeatedly done during the past year."
Turks get green light for
attack on Kurds
The DDP report added that Goss had delivered to the Turkish
prime minister and his security aides a series of dossiers, one on
the latest status of Iran's nuclear development and another
containing intelligence on new links between Iran and al-Qaida.
'Americans have to
attack Iran'
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20051230-112208-8968r
September 29, 2005
Scott Ritter,
former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, made a strong case that the
Bush administration is preparing to take the war to Iran in a speech
he gave at the United Church on the Green in New Haven on Sept. 17
before an attentive crowd of about 250.
The gathering, sponsored by Squeaky Wheel Productions, Between the
Lines Radio Newsmagazine, WPKN and the Yale Coalition for Peace, was
perfectly timed. Ritter spoke the day before the visit of Cindy
Sheehan, the mother who still wants President George W. Bush to tell
her why her son died. In his speech, titled "Parallel Deceptions:
The Bush Agenda for War in Iraq and Iran," Ritter made it clear that
her son died because of deceptions by the Bush administration that
led to the Iraq war and that are preparing us for war in Iran. It is
all laid out in the Wolfowitz-Cheney gang's document "Project for a
New American Century" where the neocons plan for military domination
of the Middle East.
Scott Ritter is an imposing man. Big and burly, he still looks like the
Marine Corps leader who led a dozen men in combat. He began his
speech by remarking wryly that he could never have imagined being
sponsored by peace groups. He was and is a military man, a
card-carrying member of the American Legion. "I still believe in
war," he said. "It's just that this is an illegal war and every day
it takes us further from our goals of peace."
Ritter's controlled anger at the Bush administration was apparent. This
is not the anger of a peacenik, but of a military man who has been
deceived by his leadership. "It's not the fault of the military men
on the scene in Iraq," he said. "They are just taking orders. When
you and your 12 men are face to face against the enemy, you have to
focus on staying alive and winning your mission. The military men
and women are doing what we as a country have asked them to do."
"Iraq is a nation on fire," Ritter asserted. "And our troops are the
fuel that feeds that fire." Make no mistake about it, he added,
today is the best day that we are going to have in Iraq. It is only
going to get worse. Why not get out of Iraq on the best day? We do
not need to wait until it gets worse.
Ritter summed up the current Iraq conflict as an "illegal" war that is
the result of a decade of deception by the U.S. government and the
CIA. After Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the U.N. Resolution called
for the removal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait. This was done. Colin
Powell, who was then Joint Chief of Staff of the military, told the
president not to take over Iraq because we did not have a plan for
managing the aftermath; and without a plan there would be ethnic
bloodshed. Bush took his advice. The CIA told the president that
with economic sanctions, we could squeeze the Iraqis until they
deposed Saddam Hussein. The CIA thought it would take six months.
Weapons of mass destruction were used as a justification for the
economic sanctions on Iraq after Kuwait was liberated. But, Ritter
noted, the first Gulf War came close to destroying all of Iraq's
capabilities. These were only "high school-like programs" to develop
WMD, Ritter said. However, the U.S. government hyped up the threat
to make the economy collapse so that Hussein would be thrown out.
Bush signed the order to the CIA that made getting rid of Saddam
Hussein goal No. 1.
During the run up to the Iraq War, the Iraqis were letting arms
inspectors into the country, Ritter explained. The Iraqis said they
had destroyed much of their capabilities. Ritter said inspectors had
evidence of most of the destroyed capabilities, but they could not
verify the last remaining weapons. "It's impossible to prove a
negative," he said. "The CIA kept saying that some remained and at
the time we could not prove them completely wrong. Now we know.
"The CIA said there were 140 SCUD missiles in Iraq and we proved them
wrong," he added. "The CIA reduced that number to 14 missiles and
said they would not budge from that number. And they were right
about one thing--they never budged from that number. But it was
politically motivated from the beginning."
On to Iran. Ritter maintains that the Bush administration plans to go
to war with Iran over its nuclear energy program. Our government
says we can't trust the Iranians because an oil rich nation does not
need nuclear energy. But in 1976 (when Donald Rumsfield was
Secretary of Defense and Dick Cheney was the Chief of Staff under
Gerald Ford's presidency), the Shah of Iran told the United States
that he needed nuclear energy to diversify his country's energy
program for security reasons, in case the Persian Gulf were
militarily blocked or if there was massive damage--natural or
manmade--to its oil wells. The U.S. government agreed with the
Shah's logic then, but has since changed its position, because, as
Ritter noted, the neocon strategy is for regime change throughout
the Middle East, despite the fact that the same people who once
approved of Iran's nuclear energy program, are now opposed to it.
Iran has been complying with all international laws in regards to
international inspections of its nuclear energy program. There is no
legal way to oppose it, so the Bush administration is saying that
it's a front for weapons of mass destruction, according to Ritter.
If the United States asks Iran to shut down its nuclear energy
program, and this request goes to the U.N. Security Council, Russia
and China have said that they will oppose the request. In that
scenario, Ritter said, the United States can fall back on Bush's
Sept. 17, 2002 New Security Agreement and say that U.S. security is
threatened and that the only solution is war.
Ritter said that one reason we cannot find a way out of the Iraq War is
that so many members of Congress voted for the war and are afraid to
change their position. The only solution is for the American people
to vote out of office every elected official--Republican or
Democrat--who refuses to change his or her position to one of
immediate withdrawal. This includes Democrats like Hillary Rodham
Clinton and Joseph Biden, who are sticking by their pro-war
positions as they run for president. Until we purge all of these
people from office, they will send us to war in Iran, Ritter
predicted.
Following his speech, Ritter took questions from the audience. One
person asked about the permanent military bases in Iraq. Ritter said
that the United States started with 120 military bases and is
consolidating them to 40 with the plan to consolidate further to 14
and then to four major bases outside of the population zones. Iraq
will become our "lily pad" in the Middle East, he said. It will
allow us to withdraw our troops from Saudi Arabia, but still provide
us with the capability to strike in Iran, Syria, etc. However, the
Iraqi people want us out of their country completely, he said. They
will not accept these permanent American military bases.
A second person asked Ritter what he could tell his high-school-aged
children. Ritter responded, "I have two girls, 12-year-old twins. We
need to make this world safe for them and their children. When I
speak at high schools around the nation, I tell the students that my
generation has failed them. Yes, we have failed them. They should
not listen to us, because we have created a world of permanent war,
and because we lie to them on a regular basis. Do not trust your
government, I tell them. Trust yourself. Question authority. Take
responsibility for the world. Take action. Only you can save the
world."
