But, while all eyes are on Iran, and we are deafened by the din of Iranophobic threats and tirades, the situation in Syria continues to boil, in fact, has begun to boil over.   The population is increasingly caught up in the internal violence.  With all the big international players are becoming more and more engaged in the struggle, diplomacy on Syria has come to a standoff.  The UN representatives of concerned parties have lost patience with the process and with one another, and their communications have become increasingly harsh and bitter.  Inside Syria, the government is openly warring with the Free Syrian Army and their associates in neighborhoods ins and around the city of Homs.  Outraged newscasts of atrocities in the mainstream media are appropriate except for one tiny detail.  They neglect to mention that the armed opposition is the reason for the fire fight, and that it was armed by our allies in the region, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel with our blessing and most likely our assistance.   A Russian Carrier Group is now docked at Tartous, along with a couple of Iranian Warships, permitted by the new Egyptian SCAF + Muslim Brotherhood Government to take the short route to the Mediterranean through the Red Sea and the Suez.    This is a tinder box waiting for a match.

Even China has joined the fray with a special diplomatic mission now in Damascus advising the Assad government.   Russia has opted out of the ‘Friends of Syria’ meeting where the ‘international community’ will discuss how best to support the opposition in the country.   Their statement is docked in Tartous.   But the firefight in Homs has provided ammunition to the Imperial propaganda machine that is priceless.  It is refined so that only the Assad government is responsible for the disaster.  We hear the voices of those under fire, and it breaks our hearts.  But the broad context of the disaster is viewed as a support system for the oppressed rather than a cold blooded initiative to use them as pawns on the world chessboard.  The fact that  external forces are exacerbating and prolonging the violence is never mentioned.  The possibility of mediated diplomacy is dismissed.   The government’s claims that they are under attack by international enemies are ridiculed in the same reports where that attack is righteously supported.

The question isn’t whether the people aren’t suffering or that they don’t have legitimate complaints.  Of course they are and they do.  The question is whether violent civil war is the best or only way to protect their interests and guarantee their rights.   I want to suggest that violence and war are not, and would not in any context be the best approach to achieving justice, peace and prosperity.  Meanwhile, the  problem of a legitimate government to replace the Assad regime clearly frames the fallacy of this approach.   It is assumed that, just as it has been for the last 100 years, whomever the Western Masters choose to put in power  will be supported by the locals.   Since the majority of the Syrian army is loyal to the government, this is a questionable assumption.  The Syrians know this and so, nationally, the support for maintaining the present power structure and engaging in negotiations that lead to better governance is relatively strong.  However this stance is slowly eroding under the combination of real damage from the firefights and the associated flood of propaganda.  In other words, violence begets violence.

Since the Western Gods choose to oppose diplomacy on all fronts, their proxies will fight on to the last man and the circle chaos and destruction will continue to spiral outwards.   While the majority of us in the west spin around wildly unrealistic election debates and lament the fate of our Syrian sisters and brothers, or cheer the most intransigent factions of the opposition in Syria, the risk is growing that the Immortals (our governments) and their minions (us) will be swept up in the fire storm they have nurtured and fed with the hopes and dreams, as well as the flesh and bone of the Syrian people.

A dangerous situation has emerged through the cyclical threats and accusations against Iran.  Due to US sanctions, Iran has started trading actively on a basket of currency.   This is a serious blow to the petrodollar.     The US struck Iraq shortly after Saddam Hussein began to sell oil in Euros.   NATO bombed Libya after Muamar Qaddhafi began selling oil in other currencies, and began lobbying the African Union for an ‘African’ Central Bank to support an African currency based on gold (which there is plenty of in Africa) and which would be use for all intra African trade.   Now Iran is selling oil and gas to India in rupees, and to China in renmibi.  They are trading with Russia in rubles.   What are we to expect?

Obama has eased the level of tensions a little the last couple of days, but this remains a very dangerous situation.  Iran is surrounded by US bases and military forces in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is targeted by US missiles in Europe and Israel. Repeated upgrades of international sanctions have left Iran without parts to repair their aging civilian airlines or high tech medical equipment readily available in western countries. Despite its vast oil reserves, Iran imports refined petroleum products like gasoline and heating oil, because sanctions have made it impossible to repair the oil refineries destroyed during the Iran-Iraq War. 

War Has Begun

The last decade has seen a cyclical escalation of threats and sanctions against Iran by Israel and the United States. The US currently has two aircraft carrier fleets in the Persian Gulf, while Iranian forces conduct defensive military exercises in International waters off their own coast. At the same time the escalating program of covert sabotage ratchets up pressure inside Iran, an increasing stream of accusations comes from the US mainstream press, the Israeli and European press.

Numerous instances of sabotage and assassination have occurred inside Iran, all attributed to the Mossad, CIA and M16. On January 11, nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed by a magnetic bomb attached to his car from a passing motorcycle. He was the fourth Iranian scientist assassinated in the last 2 years; a fifth scientist survived an attack. Last November, an explosion killed 30 in a Tehran missile base. A couple of weeks later, another explosion occurred in a nuclear storage site in Isfahan, and in December yet another explosion rocked a nuclear site in Yazd.

These attacks were likely perpetrated with the assistance of the Mujahedin-e-Khalk (MEK) a terrorist organization that has lived under US protection on a base in Iraq near the Iranian border since the beginning of the Iraq War. Shortly after the Islamic Revolution the MEK bombed the offices of Imam Khomeini’s political party, killing more than 30 members of the Iranian Parliament and Cabinet, including senior clerics. The MEK fought with Saddam Hussein against Iran in the Iran-Iraq War, and since 2003 has worked openly with the Mossad and the CIA.

Jundallah, a terrorist organization operating in the Baluchistan region of Iran and Pakistan, perpetrated a series of attacks on Iranian citizens prior to June, 2010 when their leader was arrested and executed. During 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, Jundallah killed over 100 Iranians. Before Jundallah leader Abdolmalak Rigi was executed, he testified that the CIA was sponsoring Jundallah operations in Iran, and provided detailed information related to meetings and financial transactions. On January 13 of this year, two days after the murder of Mostafa Roshan, Foreign Policy, a foreign policy magazine close to the US State Department, published an article stating that Mossad operatives sponsoring Jundallah terrorism were masquerading as CIA agents.

There are strong indications that the US worked with Israel to unleash the Stuxnet virus on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. Israeli sources have more or less taken credit for many of these operations, while the US consistently denies involvement. But George W Bush designated millions for covert operations in Iran. One might ask, “Where did it go?”  Sometimes it appears that Israel and the US are playing ‘Good Cop’ – ‘Bad Cop’ with Iran.  The most recent sanctions against Iran include a prohibition against diplomacy with Iranian officials. This leaves us with a covert war and no mechanism for reconciliation. What could possibly be gained by such a restriction?

No Iranian Retaliation

It is interesting that Iran has not significantly retaliated for these actions. Iran remains active in regional diplomacy, with a history of encouraging regional cooperation through trade and mutual support systems. The hype in the mainstream press over Iranian terrorism and the dreaded Iranian bomb seems oddly disconnected from reality. Even when attacked by Saddam’s chemical weapons during the 80s, Iran did not reciprocate in kind. Oil is often cited as the reason for this campaign of terror against Iran. And, Iran is designated a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’ for actively supporting and advocating the Palestinian right to self-determination and condemning Israel’s ethnic cleansing in Palestine.

But I believe there is something more going on here. The US is a little over 200 years old. Israel is just over 60. Iran has been around for over 3000 years as a center of culture and civilization. It has a cultural identity deeply rooted in its society.   Over millennia, the Persian Empire has expanded across the Arab world, across India and southwest Asia. Iran has a Jewish population that goes back to biblical times, supports Kurdish and Arab populations, and has recently absorbed influxes of Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian refugees. Iranians know who they are. This kind of integrity is stunning when you first encounter it. I imagine it is terrifying to the contemporary proponents of American hegemony.  Or maybe it is just plain unimaginable.

No War on Iran!  No Sanctions!  No Intervention!  No Assassination!

Regardless of the reason for the ongoing buildup of forces against Iran, we must reject the current status quo in no uncertain terms.   I have seen a video of a Chinese news report where a well known academic is quoted as saying that China is prepared to go to war to protect Iran.   Russia is currently taking a very active stand in defense of Syria and Iran.      The deliberate effort to drop Syria into a civil war, like the NATO regime change in Libya is a Crime of monumental proportions, equal to the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, which are yet to be played out.      I notice that Obama has eased the level of tensions a little the last couple of days, but this is a very dangerous situation.   It is a dire threat to the people of Iran … . but also to the world.

Contact your members of congress, the president and state department officials.   Tell them enough is enough!  Tell them that the American people will not stand for another war of aggression. 

** This article was originally written for the Syracuse Peace Council Newsletter with editorial support from SPC Staff member Andy Mager, and later updated for the Fellowship of Reconciliation.  

“No War on Iran!  No Sanctions on Iran! 

        No Intervention in Iran!  No Assassinations in Iran! “

Everyone who opposes the ongoing oppression of the Iranian people should come out February 4 against the war on Iran. Everyone who does not want to see a devastating new war that will result in the deaths of thousands of Americans and millions in Southwest Asia, and perhaps initiate a new world war, should heed this call.

This is a very dangerous moment.  Recent provocations against Iran have been extreme. Iran is targeted by US forces, missile installations and drone bases in the Persian Gulf, in Northern Iraq, in Israel and Turkey, in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Monarchies, and even in Europe. What could possibly require this kind of buildup to war?

Due to US sanctions, Iran has started trading actively on a basket of currency. This is a serious blow to the petrodollar. The stupidity of the ongoing sanctions and and impending escalation of economic sanctions on Iran is mind blowing. Closing the door to diplomacy is unimaginably childish and counterproductive. The US struck Iraq shortly after Saddam Hussein began to sell oil in Euros. NATO bombed Libya after Muamar Qaddhafi began selling oil in other currencies, and began lobbying the African Union for an ‘African’ Central Bank to support an African currency based on gold (which there is plenty of in Africa) and which would be use for all intra-African trade. Now Iran is selling oil and gas to India in rupees, and to China in renmibi. They are trading with Russia in rubles. What are we to expect?

I have seen a video of a Chinese news report where a respected Chinese academic is quoted as saying that China is prepared to go to war to protect Iran. I notice that Obama has eased the level of tensions a little the last couple of days, but this is a very dangerous situation. Russia is currently taking a very active stand in defense of Syria and Iran. The deliberate effort to drop Syria into a civil war, like the NATO regime change in Libya is a Crime of monumental proportions, equal to the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, which are yet to be played out. The current situation is a deadly threat to the people of Iran . . . . but also to the world.

Attacking Iran is a Red Line.

        No War on Iran! No Sanctions on Iran!

                No Intervention in Iran! No more Assassinations!

More to follow . . . .

In this speech, Frank says some things that, in our time, might seem naive.  He looks to the United Nations to be a fair arbiter in international affairs, even a World Government.  Now we actually have kind of a negative feeling about the United Nations and all codifications of international law because our government on the one hand, disdains these initiatives, and on the other hand, shamelessly manipulates them to serve an aggressive foreign policy driven by internal political objectives.   We can’t conceive of the United Nations people looked to immediately following the second world war.

Frank’s  conclusion is that the United States should take the lead in world peace and lay down its arms.  In this way, we could use our position as the most powerful nation on earth to model a better world; today we might say, a sustainable world.   He suggested we hand over our power to the United Nations, in his mind not the evil New World Order, but a platform in which all voices will be heard, where the powerful and prosperous nations will assist the developing world to develop, a dream that has been implemented in an often perverse and counterproductive way since that time,  It’s a beautiful dream, really; if we let ourselves imagine the most generous and supportive potentials it holds.

Yet Frank also points to a frame of reference that is true to this day, and which, due to the way in which history has been taught, we often fail to perceive.   This is an important frame because it makes sense of the deadly chain of wars that emerged throughout the 20th century.  He talks about atomic power and weapons, and emphasizes the way they have changed the nature of war.   He says that World War II was a continuation of World War I, and the war isn’t over.  It isn’t over because without a concerted effort at peace and reconciliation which has not occurred, the war has just gone underground.  And, when condititons are right it will re-emerge.

Frank was a scientist.  In seeing the wars of the 20th century as one war, he saw the rapid unfolding of technology as it manifested in the framework of warfare.   We have seen it continue to this day.  The weapons are becoming more deadly (atomic weapons) and more pervasive (drones).  Soon there will be no aspect of our lives that is not subject to these weapons of war.   Is that how we want to live?

It seems like time to revisit Frank’s radical call to lay down our arms.  He says that there is no one who wants or needs anything more from us than the possibilities that peace provides, and I think that is still true today.   He looks towards international law, not to undermine the sovereignty of nation states, but to protect it, just as our national laws protect the rights of the individual.   Yes.  There are failings in the system.  However, it is necessary to start somewhere.

The system of international law that governs us now is a centralized finanical network that maintains a fictional economy at the expense of the people and states that fall under it’s purview (all of us).   When I think about trade and economics, I think about a system that evolved from trading of goods, to form a network with symbolic tokens to facilitate trade in this broader network.  So, the individual can trade with someone who wants his goods, but who does not supply the goods he is most in need of at present.  Then he can use the symbolic tokens to acquire what he needs,

The economy that is enforced by our independent world government has privileged the potential flows of symbolic tokens over the reasonable expectation that the exchange of goods is a means to facilitate the prosperity of the people.   It is an autocratic system, as well as a technocratic system.   People fear the power of a world government but we already have one, and it is a destructive one.

What we need is an empowered international forum where all members are respected, and where the dignity of individuals and the sovereignty of nations is respected.   This forum would have to emerge from the people and the nations, rather than be imposed upon them.  For this to occur, we have to lay down our weapons, as Frank so boldly suggested.

But can they let go of their dream of total power?  The dream is hubris.  It is megalomania.  It is toxic. However, it  is propagated through the population of this country, and indeed has been promoted throughout the world for decades, as a kind of glamor, backed up by the big stick of a new world war with nukes, and now robotic weapons.  Freedom, justice and prosperity backed up by the arsenal from Hell.    While we watch the Arab world burn in the name of  freedom, justice and democracy, and the EU collapse under the weight of the banking cartels, unable to save themselves from the obligations they took on in the name of peace and prosperity, Russia, China, India are growing stronger and more confident.  Most of South America has set boundaries and begun a regional project to assert their independence and bring prosperity to the majority of the people.

It’s over.   The awful truth is known throughout the world.  The reality is an occasional, accidental reflection of justice in a world powered by freedom for those with the desire and the resources to take it, and prosperity for a few at the expense of the many.   I don’t like to use the terminology of class because I think it is patronizing and demeaning to those who just happen to have taken birth in circumstances of poverty and ignorance, and deforms the understanding of those who were born in better circumstances.  No ‘class’ can take power without tipping the balance and turning the wheel that leads to another formulation of the same dilemma.  Only in a world with no classes can  justice and prosperity flower, leading to the kinds of personal and civil freedoms that people crave.

I just read William Blum’s “Rogue Sate, A Guide to the World’s Only Super Power“.   The first paragraph of his introduction takes us to the heart of the human resistance to giving up our ideal world and seeing the naked and painful truth.  He says”

“This book could be entitled: Serial chain-saw baby killers and the women who love them.

The women don’t really believe that their beloved would do such a thing, even if they’re shown a severed limb or a headless torso.  Or if they believe it, they know down to their bone marrow that lover-boy really had the best of intentions; it must have been some kind of very unfortunate accident, a well-meaning blunder; in fact, even more likely, it was an act of humanitarianism.”

Towards the end of the book, Blum talks about how people in other countries, even those most ferociously attacked by the US total dominance machine, often see us through the rose tinted lens of freedom,  justice and prosperity, all unfolding from predatory trade and the power to cast the deciding vote on any issue.  Oh the joys of hegemony!   Often, these people are sorely disappointed when they test the freedom and justice of the great American dream.   Blum mentions Ho Chi Minh and Chairman Mao as admirers of the American system, who only wanted acceptance.   Che Guevara sent a note to the American President offering to negotiate a peaceful understanding for Cuba, Hitler repeatedly opened his hand to Americans, who were, after all, funding much of his militarization up until 1942 or so.   Iranian Presidents Rafsanjani, Khatami and Ahmadinejad all reached out to the Great Satan in an attempt to find a place for their country in the New World Order.  But, it wasn’t meant to be.

Muamar Qaddhafi’s son was welcomed in Western schools.   On his return, Saif al Islam advised his father to lay down his sword and join the world created by the Western Powers.   Bashar al Assad, also schooled in London, with a British wife, also showed admiration for Western Culture.  Now Muamar Qaddhafi is dead along with several of his sons, Saif al Islam is awaiting a kangaroo trial and their country, long the most prosperous and egalitarian in the region, is in ruins.   Bashar al Assad in embattled, with a host of international angels fomenting a revolution in his country.  They are saying, “step down, or we will destroy your homeland.”  Yet it is clear that if he does step down, his country will most likely be destroyed anyway.   What did he do?  He came to New York to plead his case, and was interviewed on mainstream television.  What did he hope to achieve?  Russian warships are now docked at their Syrian port in Tartus, and the US carrier fleet has been moved from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.  Representatives of the undemocratic, often brutal,  regimes of the Arab League are coming to observe.

Yesterday the US army stepped out of Iraq with much fanfare.   The war has been won.  Iraq, with devastating physical and emotional wounds, over a million dead and millions more displaced, many living in Syria which appears to be the next target, is finally free.   But few Iraqis have any illusions about that ‘chain-saw baby killer’.  People complained that the Iraqis could hardly be sovereign without control of their airspace.  So, they’ll be getting a few F-16s.  Great.  If there is a war, and their neighbors on both sides are attacked, what do you think they will do with them?   I suppose it’s a non-issue.  US forces have been removed to Kuwait and distributed in and along the Persian Gulf.

A couple of days into freedom, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, issued an arrest warrant VP, Tariq al Hashemi.  He has accused him of Terrorism, and cited him for running  a lethal militia during the war.    The Iraqiya parliamentarians, who could have formed an opposition block when al Maliki cobbled together a Shia majority to form the Government but were too proud to play their delegated role, were given a pass by their US sponsors.  They got an empty special status, just enough power to bring the government to a standstill.  Now they have withdrawn from the government and are boycotting parliament.   Too much . . . too little . . . too late. . . .    Al Hashemi is cooling his jets in President Uncle Jalal’s Kurdish refuge, the Prime Minister is demanding his return, and the Sadrists are calling for the dissolution of the Parliament and new elections.  Democracy is unfolding.  Meanwhile Iran has high level Ambassadors advising both the President and the Prime Minister in an attempt to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Our drones are no longer a secret.    The US and Israel no longer have a virtual monopoly on the technology.   China has been working on Drones for some time now.  Russia is building a fleet of Drones.   Iran managed to capture a Global Hawk surveillance Drone hovering 144 miles inside their border last week.   What an uproar!  They are triumphant.  Whoo Hooooo!   Gotcha!  Mark one up for our side.  Yep.  Iran says they were able to take over the Drone and land it.   The US says the Iranians could not be capable of interfering with the sophisticated technology of the Global Hawk.   In fact, the US says they aren’t capable of shooting it down.   It must have failed on it’s own.  Hmmmm.  Here we have the most dangerous country in the world, capable of developing a nuclear warhead and a missile to carry it without being caught and without using any of the uranium we know they are enriching (materializing it out of thin air?).  Yet these are the people who aren’t even capable of shooting down the Global Hawk, much less taking over a control system based on Windows CE,  the most insecure operating system on the planet, continually  subverted by viruses and trojans dispensed onto the internet by rogue computers in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, oops, I mean Serbia, or is that Kosovo.

According to Debka, an Israeli site that focuses on covert information, military analysis and  conspiracy theories, the Russians assisted the Iranians in creating the technology to bring the Drone down.  Maybe.   Iran is a central member of the SCO, though it cannot have full membership in the SCO because there is a rule saying you can’t have full membership if you are under United Nations Sanctions.   But, behind the scenes, they have functioned as a core member of the organization for some time.  It seems likely, given the level of Iran’s participation in the SCO, that what this means is, “You have been targeted by some very dangerous people, and we can’t help you by putting ourselves in the cross-hairs.  Instead, we will keep our relationship covert, but if you really need us, we are your family.”   Any way you look at it, Russia and China had representatives on their way to Tehran the day after the Drone landed.

The Iranians say that they will build a drone just like the captured Global Hawk.  Americans say they are too incompetent to reverse engineer the technology.  In fact, this is all posturing, and the arguments are a distraction.  The Global Hawk has our latest and greatest radar shield technology to make it invisible.  If they managed to take control to bring it down, there is either some serious espionage involved (from Russia, maybe) or there have been lots of similar Drones flying over Iran for a long time, so as to give them lots of opportunities to evaluate the technology through some kind of scientific testing over a significant set of data.  Or maybe the technology just isn’t as great as we thought it was.  After all, how good does it need to be to fool Taliban warlords and Al Qaeda Jihadis.

Any way you look at it, what it means is we no long have a cloaking device.   That’s why they are saying the GH could not have been captured or shot down.   Maybe it will be in their interest to copy it, but once someone learns to look through your cloaking device, you can’t cloak any more.   If they (the Iranians, the Russians or the Chinese) understand our technology well enough to see a  cloaked Drone, take it over and and pull it from the sky, then we have to make some serious changes in the security of the system.  If they don’t already understand  it (Whoooo Hooooo!), then they now have an opportunity to reverse engineer it.    Russia and China, and even Iran already have Drones of their own, so why not?   Yes, drones aren’t nuclear science.  They are cheap and accessible.  Yes, there is something about saving face.  Bottom line, having your latest and greatest cloaking technology fail in Klingon territory could be an ugly expensive problem.

—————-

Recently , there have been numerous  ‘conspiracy theories’ going around about Iran making trouble in South America.  Perhaps that is the root of the US Government conspiracy theory wherein an  absent minded drug addicted, used car salesman with a drinking problem, is selected by the IRGC to arrange a hit on the Saudi Ambassador to the US with the evil Mexican Drug Cartel.   Now they have a Hezbollah story to go with it.   The story goes something like this: Hezbollah is getting rich by purchasing cocaine from Columbia, shipping it to Europe via West Africa, then laundering the money through a particular bank in Beirut.  The project is managed by a rich Lebanese trader and  the Mexican Drug Cartel.  They launder the money by mixing it with the proceeds from the sale of used car sales from America in Africa.    That’s a whole lot of shipping.   And what about that messed up Iranian guy selling used cars and . . .  Well, see how consistent they are?

A friend called recently to say there’s a story going around about Iran sending military trainers to countries in South America. Is it true?  Well, I don’t know, but it seems like overkill to me.   What do the South Americans need with Iranian military trainers?  We have been providing them with military training and supplying their military resources off and on for more than a century.  I read an article that implied Iran is ‘infiltrating’ South America by trading there.   Very paranoid.  What are they up to?   It would seem clear that Iran is operating on the same wavelength as some of these South American Countries, newly emancipated from US backed dictatorships and ready for regional collaboration.   It is pretty obvious that a country like Iran, under severe sanctions from the western power brokers, would trade whomever is a willing partner.   Iran has plenty of reasons to do business with South America.    Why assume subversion?

The article in question proceeded to drag out all the old complaints about Iran helping Hezbollah kill Americans during the Lebanese Civil War.  There was a war going on,  What where we expecting the Lebanese to do? It talked about Iran killing off humanitarians in Europe after the revolution, distasteful actions but not out of line with those of certain other world powers, removing enemies of the state from the international scene.  These actions were entirely focused on Iranian internal affairs.      The author wondered why Argentina would trade with Iran after they manipulated Hezbollah into blowing up a Jewish Community Center there, a crime which Iran  and even Hezbollah had no  motive to commit, though there was a corrupt Lebanese President who did have both motive and opportunity.   Nothing mentioned was current or relevant.

But I do think there is something behind all those conspiracy theories about Iran in South America.  It has nothing to do with the old stories or Iran training military forces for Hugo Chavez.    Russia and China are constantly antagonized by US actions on their borders.  But they do not have access to the American continent.  They can’t set up bases  or point short range missile defense systems at us from just over the border.   Think of the Cuban Missile Crisis which almost started a nuclear war.   But, Iran belongs in South America.  It’s just another uppity little third world country trying to stay afloat without the support of the Western Masters of the Universe.   But, Iran is a central player in the SCO, though it is not a full member of the SCO.  Iran has deniability.    Iran doesn’t have significant military hardware to sell.    They are the guys who are just over 20 years out of a devastating war, and who don’t want to fight another.

I don’t think Russia and China want war either.  They just want to build economic power.   However they have an imperative to get some kind of toehold on the American Continent.   It’s survival for them, just as trading with somebody somewhere is survival for Iran.   Iran is just a convenient messenger.  They don’t need to do much, either.  Just keep the lines open, for now.  As a peace activist,  I almost feel guilty mentioning this angle.   But really, if I have thought of it, those paranoid war mongers in Washington must have seen it as well.   It makes a lot more sense to be worried about the barest whisper of an advantage for one’s real adversary than some crazy scheme that pits an incompetent moron against a heavily guarded diplomat.  And it makes more sense than some crazy get rich scheme that requires both drugs and used cars to be transported half way around the world on ships.

Shades of Luis Posada Carriles!   The raid actually went off without interference, even though the government had the plans and connections in hand far in advance, and their own agent had done all the reconnaissance and planning.  In fact he had bragged about it to his family and friends all along the way.   Even after the fact, they refused to go after him.  He was allowed to plead for his life at trial, and receive a life sentence (I wonder if it is life without parole?) and immunity for his faithful wife who knew the details all along.  You have only to look at the assassination of Anwar al Awlaki to see, by contrast, what happens to provocateurs who aren’t on the home team.

If Headley were a rogue agent, he would have been apprehended long before the attack on Mumbai.  If all they wanted was the intelligence, they could have interrupted the flow of events and saved all those people.  It’s no wonder that Pakistani Officials are unwilling to pursue individuals implicated by Headley’s testimony in the U.S.

Here is a map of Iran, showing the surrounding U,S. bases around 2008.   Click on the image below to open a dynamic version of the map, where you can zoom in for a better look, and a key to the various symbols and the names of the bases.  Base names and locations from GlobalSecurity.org.  If you zoom in really close on most of the air bases, you can see the runway.

U.S. Bases Surrounding Iran circa 2008

Now, a new military initiative is rapidly being deployed across the Middle East, Southwest Asia and Africa, around the world, and even here on the U.S. mainland.   New bases are being built and old ones converted to host Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAV); recently re-designated as  Remote Piloted Aircraft (RPA); commonly referred to as Drones.  The largest and most used in the region at this time are named Predator and Reaper.   The MQ9 Reaper can carry several Hellfire Missiles and laser guided 500 lb. bombs.  These Drones fly so high that they can virtually hover over a target for hours, piloted by a computer operator from his office or home here in the U.S,.   Unfortunately, misinterpretation of evidence based on cultural discrepancies, pilot impatience, inaccurate target identification before the Drone is called and other similar issues make civilian casualties in the context of Drone strikes a regular occurrence.  The image below shows some of the sites known to be used for drone bases.  

Click on the image, and you will open a dynamic map.

Bases in the Region around Iran where the U.S. has Drones Deployed

When I introduce people to the use of these vehicles (I’m going to call them Drones) in Afghanistan, I often point out that “The Taliban Have no drones.  They have no airplanes.  They have no helicopters.  They have few, if any, tanks.   The enemy are riding in the back of pickup trucks, armed with kalashnikovs, and an occasional shoulder mounted antiaircraft gun.  That’s the enemy in Afghanistan, and so far, in Pakistan as well.   But, if we were to go to war with Iran, though it’s true they aren’t well armed by our standards, they would have some resources to fight back.  Drones could hurt them, but killing people 1, 2, 3 ….. even 10 at a time would be slow going there.  But, what difference does it make?  None of the ‘enemies’ of the so called ‘War on Terror’ are intimidated by Drones.   Bottom line, only the civilian population is ‘terrorized’ by these weapons.  Women and children are killed while sleeping in their beds, walking or driving down the road, maybe in the company of a selected target, maybe not.

Drones are already keeping Iran and the surrounding region under surveilance.    Iran clearly isn’t the only country under threat.  The social and physical infrastructure of Iraq and Libya have been destroyed. American Drones were used in both wars, but were especially lethal in Libya.   Lebanon has only recently come out of civil war, and even now the international executioner’s axe is raised over the Hezbollah leadership, leaders of the strongest and most popular party of the majority Shia population in Lebanon.   Iran is criticized in the U.S. for their support of Hezbollah, but Hezbollah, oft accused of heinous acts of terrorism, is a product of the Israeli occupation of Lebanon, and has not had a military operation unrelated to a war.   Clearly they are a good friend to have, given today’s news from Ha’aretz, which said that Hezbollah had identified and broken a major CIA spy ring with operatives in both Lebanon and Iran.

The countryside of Afghanistan is no longer safe for civilian residents, and Pakistan is in chaos, with military and civilian forces continually pitted against one another and against the people who brought them to power.   Iran has a substantial narcotics problem, with most of the drugs coming from Afghanistan or through Pakistan.   Iran’s ally, Syria, is collapsing into civil war as a peaceful protest movement was seeded with insurgent gunmen, armed by international forces to lure the government into an unwinnable battle.  Meanwhile those same international forces insist that the protestors should not negotiate with the government, still supported by the overwhelming majority of the military and more than half the population.  Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama tell Asad to step down or end the violence immediately, knowing full well that their allies are maintaining the armed insurgency in his country.

The people of the Middle East are right to be dissatisfied with the status quo.  However, ‘democracy’ is more than making demands and expecting them to be instantly fulfilled.  It is more than just casting a vote, as we in the U.S. should know.  Democracy is about taking responsibility for your government and finding a way to engage with it to make a better society for everyone.    This is not a task that can be accomplished by civil war.   Nor can it be achieved by the intervention of the international power clique, or self serving meddling by one’s neighbors.   War does not equal peace.

What is Iran’s role here?   Iran has been in the bullseye for many years.  They stand up for Palestinians, the Shia underclasses and they are central players in what I used to call in high school, ‘the out crowd’. But, Iran has not intervened militarily in it’s neighbor’s affairs.  Iran’s cardinal crime is independence.  Whatever their failings, the post revolutionary Islamic regime has taken back their resources, and managed them responsibly.   They have made education, public services like potable water and sanitation, and most recently, local elections of local representatives a reality.  They brought these services to the masses, and to remote villages.  They have made both popular and unpopular decisions and, they have actively suppressed dissent, like most of the governments in the region.

As a peacemaker, I am very disturbed by the United States’ proliferation of military bases and high tech weaponry in a fragile and largely underdeveloped part of the world.  Most of the bases in Iraq have been, or are being turned over to the Iraqi government.  However, many were left over from Saddam Hussein’s time when we took them over in the first place.  Many bases in the surrounding countries were used during the first Gulf War.   We don’t own the bases we use in Pakistan.  We just use them.  So, don’t be fooled by the fact that we are taking troops out of Iraq into thinking they would have nowhere to go should we decide to return them.  And, we have the drones in place.    The drones create an electronic occupation.   We can operate them off of other countries bases as we do in Pakistan.

Iran is, and has been encircled with U.S. forces for at least 20 years.  We and our ally, Israel, have spies and provocateurs inside Iran.   What is the point?  There is talk about encircling Russia and China.  Whether or not one agrees with the strategy, it is clear that China and Russia together are powerful adversaries, and, if I may be so bold, might be powerful friends.  They have the capacity to seriously threaten our interests.  Iran, on the other hand, has the resources to be a good friend, the ability to withstand a physical or economic siege indefinitely, but not the capacity to be more than a persistent irritant.

The U.S. vendetta against Iran is a reflection of the true nature of U.S. aggression and drive for hegemony.   An ancient country, recently much beleaguered by Western colonial projects, the people of Iran are sophisticated, experienced for better or worse, with Western culture, and tired of being manipulated and ripped off.  Iran’s current leadership is the result of a revolution against 100 years of colonial ‘occupation’.   Iran has been the center of more than one empire.  It’s current leadership is ready to defend the integrity of their country, and to form close alliances with compatible regional entities.  We say they are meddling.  Iran’s nuclear program, popular with all constituencies within the country, is a defiant statement that they are a player, and their chips are in the game.

There are those who see Iran as a defiant upstart, but it would be equally true to say that Iran is an ancient entity, with a level of internal social integration, of integrity, that is unique in the region.   Iran’s determination to regain her lost dignity has blossomed from the ashes of a chattel nation ruled by an impotent potentate whose best effort to regain the glory of the past involved building a gaudy, Hollywood style replica of ancient structures in a country where the real artifacts of that culture stand proudly among the modern cities and oil refineries.    However one may feel about the theological bent of the Islamic regime, they have made a serious effort to form a  uniquely Iranian government, with many of the principles of a progressive society embedded in the construct, if not fully materialized.

From the day this regime took power, Iran has been under attack.  How it would have developed in a more benevolent context, we will never know.   The colonial masters have determined that the Islamic regime should fall from the day it emerged.    I don’t want to defend any of the violations of human rights or violent suppressions of free speech that we have all heard about, or even to say that they didn’t occur.   It remains that, in Iran, a lively intellectual discussion about what an Islamic Republic might look like, and whether it could exist at all has taken place over the last 30 years.   Governments and leaders who supported the values of freedom of speech and democratic processes that the United States professes so vigorously, have been routinely, rigorously, coldly undermined by the United States.

So now, today, we are talking about bombing Iran.  Iran is the greatest threat on earth, we are told.  This is clearly absurd.  We have sold Iranian neighbor states Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, tiny Kuwait and smaller Qatar a level of armaments that Iran can only, in today’s market, dream of.  Israel, a country that has held the entire Arab world hostage for 60 years through the occupation of Palestine has more Nukes than the France.  We give Israel three billion dollars a year in aid to make sure that arsenal continues to grow.  China and India have huge populations, and divergent interests from those of the United States, yet we regularly train and employ their scientists.   Both have nuclear power and nuclear weapons.   Pakistan, a third world country that acquired nukes on the sly, ever locked in political standoffs both internally and externally, receives a steady flow of weapons and military aid from the U.S.  And of course, our old adversary, Russia, still has as much nuclear capability than we do.   China as a few nukes and owns a big wad of our economy.

Numerous experts on Iran stood up to say that the story presented seemed highly unlikely.   Even so, the government has proceeded as if the charges are a conviction.   Even as we at FOR, and members of other anti war, pro peace organizations are formulation our concerns about this unexpected event, and the upwelling of anti-Iran propaganda and saber rattling, it appears they have taken the situation to the next level.   With US troops on the verge of leaving Iraq and the wild celebrating over the NATO supported ‘victory’ over Muammar Qaddafi’s regime in Libya, this is cause for serious concern.   The pairing of these significant events in Iraq and Libya right now is, or should be, illuminating.  Who can look at Libya, recently the most prosperous and egalitarian state in Africa, now in ruins, and not see the reflection of Baghdad after Shock and Awe had accomplished their mission?  Who can look at the barbaric torture and murder of Muammar Qaddhafi, after a US Drone strike had delivered him neatly into the hands of the ‘rebels’, and not remember the equally barbaric execution of Saddam Hussein at the hands of his enemies?   And who can watch the gleeful pronouncements of victory by Nicholas Sarkozy, David Cameron and Hillary Clinton without remembering George Bush’s premature pronouncement of victory in Iraq in November of 2004, before the war had even warmed up?

But apparently those in the halls of power have already forgotten the dark days of the past.  Every day, for them, is a new day, unencumbered by the cold lessons of earlier ventures.   This is very bad news for Iran.  And it’s bad news for us as well.   As people begin taking to the streets to demand social justice and economic equity in this country, an occupational vacuum ready to close with a Bang! in Iraq, Pakistan and India ready to kiss an make up to join China and Russia’s circle of trade and security, and a whirring maelstrom reminiscent of the Night on Bald Mountain evolving from the Arab Spring, a new (old) boogie man is being blown up like the giant Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters with a Whooooosh! to come stomping through town, boom boom boom . . . .   Call out the National Guard!   Pay attention!

So, in that light, we can read today’s headline “Joint Subcommittee Hearing: Iranian Terror Operations on American Soil“.  Yes, today, the Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Counter Terrorism and Intelligence and the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Management will hold a joint hearing entitled “Iranian Terror Operations on American Soil.”  These are congressional hearings, I assume, though the article is on the homepage of the Homeland Security Website.    We have the Committee on the Homeland Security Subcommittee on . . . and another subcommittee with a more business like name.  It’s quite dense.   I wonder who assigns these subcommittees to oversee subcommittees.  But guess who’s chaired this hearing, Peter King, the very same Peter King who held a series of McCarthy like hearings, much to the horror of the large Indian Muslim community in his district, who had supported him and even befriended him, based on the assumption that every Muslim is a potential terrorist and should be scrutinized as such.   Not surprising, really, when you think about it.  That was probably his first action as chair of the Committee on the Homeland Security Subcommittees . . .”   for whatever.

So, we have a biased, nay, bigoted leadership with very limited credibility.   That said, I will proceed to deconstruct the testimony at these hearings.  But first, who are the experts whose testimony was heard? Well, we have two retired generals and a representative of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Zionist think tank founded by AIPAC, and a representative of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, another organization funded by prominent conservative Zionists.   Lastly, there is a representative of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a for profit sister of The Center for American Progress, which, according to Wikipedia is a progressive, left leaning organization that has been highly influential in appointments to the Obama administration.   As I see it, this is a serious conflict of terms.

So, our first Witness, retired General James Keane1 says that Iran called the US an enemy of the Revolution (quite accurate), and “Therefore they have been systematically killing us for 30 years.”    That’s a big statement.  Iran just emerged as more dangerous than Al Qaeda and the Taliban, more dangerous than Bin Laden, and more dangerous than Saddam Hussein.   The first several events that he relates to back up his contention were actually committed by Shia fighters in Lebanon, who were receiving support from Iran.   However, there is no reason to assume that Iran had more than a peripheral role in these events as the perpetrators had plenty of reason of their own to target the US, as we were supporting a brutal Israeli occupation of a large part of their country.

He also mentions the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia which was blamed on Iran using local Shia operatives in a group called the Saudi ‘Hezbollah’, misleading as it sounds like a relative of the infamous Lebanese organization where, in fact,  the Saudi ‘Party of God’ would not necessarily have any connection with the Lebanese ‘Party of God’.   I read several articles talking about whether Iran would every cosponsor an action with Al Qaeda, who would have a much stronger motive for the action at Khobar Towers.  The answer is ‘No’, but I found a series of investigative articles by Gareth Porter, a respected historian and journalist, who makes a good case that the bombing was done by Bin Laden’s people and the Saudi Government covered it up.   2,  3

He then goes on to raise the charge, debunked shortly after it was raised, that Iran was providing IEDs to Iraqi militias during the early part of the war.  It turns out the IEDs were made with American parts taken from American weapons stashed buried in the Iraqi desert when we left in 1991.   And, he mentions that Iran was training Shia militias in Iran during the Iraq war.  This charge, though most likely true, leaves out 2 significant points.  First, Iran formed a relationship with the Badr Organization during the Iran Iraq war, fueled for most of it’s duration by Western military assistance and supplies to both sides.  The Badr Brigade was formed by Iran of defectors from Iraq during the Iran Iraq War.   Second, the US made the Badr Brigade the  nucleus of the new army they formed after Saddam’s army was disbanded. This is common knowledge and I’m not even in the military.

After making some unverifiable statements about the Iranian general accused of participating in the current plot, General Keane makes a series or bizarre statements.  He says that Iran is supporting the Taliban.  He refers to Iraq and Afghanistan as ‘fledgling democracies’.   And he says that the ‘Arab Spring’ is a repudiation of radical Islam.  Given that Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria were  all secular states to begin with, this remark is hard to fathom.  Just yesterday, the NTC in Libya declared that it would be governed by Sharia Law henceforth.

General Keane goes on to say that Iran was defeated politically and militarily in Iraq in 2009.  I was in Iraq that year, and I have no idea what he is talking about.  Finally, I am wondering what General Keane’s experience with these events is.  Was he involved in any of the investigations?  Did he actually in Lebanon?  Does he know that the Saudi Hezbollah would not have been the same organization as the Lebanese one?  Was he involved directly in the Iraq war? Has he ever even visited the Middle East?  None of the questions are answered.  But I dare say the answer is no, and no, and no again.

The second witness4, Dr. Mathew Levitt of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, begins by rehashing the current plot scenario, apparently oblivious to the fact that his predecessor just described it.  He goes on to cite the string of politically motivated assassinations of Iranian expatriates living in the West, who were considered to be traitors by the post revolutionary regime.   These assassinations were carried out in various places around the world, but they were internal business from the Iranian standpoint.  He seems to forget that at least one other country conducted a similar rampage of targeted assassinations around the world.   But Israel didn’t focus on particular individuals who betrayed them, but rather they just assassinated any Palestinian with credibility in the international community.  And, he mentions the Khobar Towers bombing which I spoke about above.

Dr. Levitt also speaks about the bombing of the Jewish center in Argentina, another crime where there is no clear evidence of their participation, but there is a Lebanese connection, and a conceivable motive for Hezbollah in the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon.   He refers to Hamas and Hezbollah as ‘transnational terrorist organizations’, which entirely misses the fact that both organizations are focused specifically and completely on liberating their homelands from Israeli occupation.   Then he proceeds to iterate documents produced by various American agencies that state that Iran is a Terrorist organization.  One was actually published around the same time, in late 2007, as the NIE (National Intelligence Estimate)5 was released stating that Iran is not a threat, and is not working on a nuclear weapon.

Dr. Levitt  says that Iran’s anger in the 1980s was due to the accidental downing of  the Iranian airliner by the USS Vincennes.   Now, he says, they are upset about the Stuxnet virus and the assassinations of their nuclear scientists.   He seems to be saying that we are not responsible for our actions when we target Iran, but they are  dangerous and malevolent because they might retaliate.  He thinks we should somehow force them to close their embassies and end their relations with the countries in South America.   In fact, he wants to remove them from the international community completely.   He lists the organizations they should be banned from, including several United Nations Committees, Interpol,  The World Health Organization and the World Customs Organization, the World Organizations for Agriculture and Tourism.   Add to this Financial isolation, internationally monitored checkpoints on their borders (like the ones maintained for Bosnia/Herzegovina) and UAV (drone) surveillance.  Talk about wiping a country off the face of the earth, I think Dr. Levitt has defined the process specifically for Iran.  But no, its the same program already applied to Palestine.

Next, there is the testimony of Dr. Lawrence Korb6 of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.   Would it be rude to ask why a member of the Lobbyist branch of the organization is testifying rather than a member of the think tank?   Moving along, Dr. Korb congratulates the DEA on their successful investigation (no mention it was a sting) and then stresses the need for a rational response to this threat.  He says it is clear that Iran is building a bomb because they are enriching uranium to 20%.  Apparently he doesn’t know that the uranium has to be enriched to 20% for their medical reactor.  While General Keanes thinks that we defeated Iran in the Iraq war, Dr. Korb believes that we strengthened their hand by our “unthinking military action” in Iraq.  (Darn lefties!)

Dr. Korb points out that this is a problem because Iran has one of the strongest military forces in the Middle East, but unfortunately (for Iran) far from the best armed.   United Arab Emirates probably has more high tech military toys than Iran.  We’ve made a fortune selling these high tech toys to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Kingdoms.  Then there is Israel with their fleet of Apache Helicopters, F16s and UAVs along with several hundred Nukes.   Egypt and Turkey are long time clients of American and Israeli arms.  Anyway, I agree with Dr. Korb that Iran can put up one heck of an insurgency9, if push comes to shove.  They have lots of young men, and a strong nationalist spirit of unity, the likes of which don’t exist in any other country in the region, except maybe Turkey.

Dr. Korb describes at length, his sense of the massive damage caused to Iran by the current sanctions.   One has to wonder what kind of progressive would have such a positive feeling about massive unemployment, inflation, reductions in gas and food subsidies and young people with bleak futures and no jobs.   He points out that the subsidies are interfering with Iran’s oil business.   You bet, but they have oil and despite the struggle, those that don’t are finding ways to buy it from them.7  He talks about the disputed Iranian election in 2009, and the current tensions within the Iranian Government.  Ironically, it doesn’t seem important that neither faction of the current squabble is acceptable to the West.  It’s the demonized Ahmadinejad vs the evil Theocracy.

From here he really starts to lose his connection with reality.   What is it about the Arab Spring that causes people to completely lose their reason?  He says, that if only Bashar Assad is struck down, power will shift away from Islamists in the regions.  Since the Assad government is about as secular as you can get, this is a hard point to argue.    In any case, Iran would lose a faithful ally.

Dr. Korb doesn’t want more war, but he doesn’t want to do nothing either.   He thinks we should use this dastardly, if clumsy, plot to convince our allies AND Russia and China to take a firmer stand against Iran and to abide by the sanctions more strictly.   Apparently Dr. Korb doesn’t watch Russia Today (inexplicably available on standard cable in the US), so he isn’t aware of the low regard in which Russia holds this particular conspiracy theory.   And of course there is India, struggling to find a channel through which to pay for the oil it needs, and Turkey, I believe, who finally made such a channel available.  But we won’t think about all that.

I shouldn’t make fun as I am glad that Dr. Korb opposes military action against Iran.  At the same time, I have a serious problem with the program he supports.  Use economic distress to break the people, then call it a fight for freedom and say you are on their side when they turn on one another to get out of the vice.  It’s a virtual siege.   And it is technically an act of war.

Speaking of the military, the final testimony is from Col. Timothy Geraghty, a retired Marine.  Col. Geraghty is, for starters, also stuck back in the early 80s when Lebanese militants,with Iranian backing, made some serious attacks against American forces in Lebanon.  And he makes strong statements about Iran funding and training Al Qaeda, a scenario very unlikely to have any substance.  More significantly, he describes a network of activities in South America, that my instinct tells me are exaggerated.  However, I think the South American connection actually is a primary reason for the current flap.  It is a more significant fact, I would wager, than Iran’s nuclear program or anything they might be up to in the general chaos of the Middle East. It does appear that Iran has initiated significant trade relationships with a number of South American countries, and not just Venezuela.

This is important because South America is our back yard.  It is far more important because Iran is not only a resource connected to a regional network that is independent of US control, but they are also connected through a number of diplomatic and trade networks, to Russia and China.   Through Iran, they have a seat, however ephemeral, in our back yard.   I often wonder how China and Russia must feel, surrounded by US protectorates and bases and wars.   But Iran is actually functioning at around the same level as the recently emancipated South American Countries.  They very likely have a resonance, an understanding.  Meanwhile, Russia and China, though they keep Iran at arms length as far as appearances go, have many investments in Iran.

They share the soft power model of gaining influence through positive support rather than coercion.   So, in a way, for Iran to be doing a brisk trade in South America is equivalent to NATO members having military bases and missile defense systems on Russia’s borders, to South Korea or Taiwan conducting joint military exercises with the US in China’s local waters.   And, in fact they do, and we do.   The BRICS8 are becoming more and more independent, self defined and assertive.   The BRICS are on several continents, and guess who has favorable trade relationships with all of them.  Iran does.  Iran can’t be included because of the sanctions, but they operate as networking potential that can be instantiated at any point.

If this is the problem, and I think it is, it is our own fault.   Iran has repeatedly attempted to mend their relationship with the US, and been rebuffed every time.    Iran has been forced onto the very path that is so distressing to US policy makers by the policies they have enacted, and particularly by the ongoing sanctions.  Iran has dealt much more effectively with international sanctions than Iraq ever did.  I believe this is because Iran is secure as a nation.   Iran has been a relatively well  integrated entity for 10 times the history of the United States.  Governments come and go, but Iran is an entity (I hesitate to use the term ‘nation’ which has a lot of baggage related to western style modernity) that has endured for millenia.  You see it when you go there.  It is in the people’s eyes, and in the architecture and in the art and poetry.

That is why Iran is a threat, no matter how charming and friendly the people are, and why attacking Iran militarily would be beyond foolish.   That is why I support Fellowship of Reconciliation’s program in Iran, and why I believe that we, as an organization, have support the sovereignty of Iran and other threatened nations, as well as the human rights of the people who live there.  It is an unbreakable continuum.  The people, the government, the land.   They are separate, but connected.  You can’t attack one without harming the rest; breaking the system and causing it to fail.   The system is failing in Iran at present.   These attacks are exacerbating, if not causing the failure.  They are not, and cannot be the solution.

Footnotes:

1  General John Keane’s Testimony

2  Investigating the Khobar Tower Bombing, Counterpunch, 6/24/09

3  Telltale Signs of Saudi Fraud, Counterpunch, 6/25/09

4  Dr. David Levitt’s Testimony

5  US National Intelligence Estimate, 2007

6 Dr. Lawrence Korb’s Testimony

7  India Iran Solve Debt Payments Issue, Global Post, 10/06/11

8 BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, the organizational keepers of the vast majority of humanity and resources on the earth.

9  David and Goliath, Towards a Global Perception, 7/16/08

All US financial aid has been withdrawn from Gaza since a US initiative to unseat the popular elected Hamas government in Palestine failed.   I believe they have already withdrawn the pitiful charity given to the West Bank, a tiny fraction of the 3 billion given to the wealthy state off Israel yearly, because they refused to withdraw their bid for UN membership.   Of course, Palestine has yet to receive recognition as a state.   And, Israel spends more money suffocating the people of Palestine than feeding them.  Now, if UNESCO accepts Palestine as a member state, then the US will stop paying their dues.   Since, as was pointed out on NPR, we quit paying for 20 years in the past, and somehow they got by, I think they’ll do without us now.

Like I say, it’s pretty much laughable.  But the NPR report did not stop there.  Some are concerned, they say, that if we don’t pay our dues, we will not obtain the services of these organizations.   You might say, we won’t control them any more.    What if, they ask, the Palestinians are allowed to join the IAEA?       How sad for the world.   If we bite off our nose to spite our face, we might just return control of world organizations to . . . well . . . the world.

These unfortunate men are serving their sentences in Federal Communication Management Facilities (CMUs), which means they are in solitary for the duration.    Yassin, whose stated crime was that he happened to be in the room while the agent discussed an illegal weapons sale with another man, had been targeted because someone wrote his name in a list in Northern Iraq, where he lived before coming to the US as a refugee.    Because he  was the named client in a Project SALAM suit claiming the CMUs violate the civil rights of those incarcerated there,  he was released into the general prison population about a year ago in a bid by the state to undermine the case.   However he remains in a federal facility half way across the country from his wife and 4 young children.   The rest remain incarcerated in CMUs, labeled as terrorists until a broader case can be assembled.

Even after following several of these internal cases of FBI sting operations where crimes were manufactured and criminals targeted or drafted for reasons to convince the public that the War On Terror has substance, I must say I was shocked by the case of David Coleman Headley, which clearly indicates US involvement in the infamous Mumbai attacks.   If Headley, an admitted American operative, was deeply involved in the planning of the event, then the US was complicit.   The US was warned by Headley’s ex wife in a detailed message, but somehow no one followed up on the information she provided. He wasn’t picked up until the UK arrested him in conjunction with a planned bombing in Europe.   The Indian government wasn’t allowed to extradite Headley, or even to interview him without an FBI agent present.  And, according to the Guardian, the judge decided against the death penalty because he found Headley to be truly ‘repentant’.

I have, in the past, written of a number of Israeli plots concocted along these lines, and conversely, tall stories concocted about their adversaries actions, and proved by a series of bizarre actions by the Mossad or other Israeli agents.     On the one hand, they really are out there assassinating their perceived opponents, and on the other they are concocting crazy implausible stories about how others are action out scenes from their own spy vs spy nightmares.    You can read a couple of those stories here, and here.   The Hariri Tribunal is another instance of this kind of wild story telling (here and here) being held up as a legal basis for attacking others.

So, today, when I turned on the computer and the breaking news was an Iranian plot to do something totally pointless that would, in essence, paint a bulls eye on their backs, I should not have been surprised.  Even so, there was the kind of shock of yet another attack straight out of the delusional abyss of American mainstream news.   A plot was uncovered by the FBI . . . Iranian expats . .  . under the direction of the ‘Quds Force’ . . . to murder the Saudi Ambassador in New York and . . . more.   Sounds like a terrorist plot doesn’t it?  Sounds like an international hit.  In fact, there is no evidence of any formal connection to the Iranian Government, or even the leadership of the ‘Quds Force’.  But, there is an FBI informant, indeed, a provocateur involved.   According to John Glaser’s article on Antiwar.com today, the Iranian American charged with the crime was thinking about kidnapping the ambassador, but after talking to an undercover DEA agent, he had decided to kill him.

Glaser points out that “The FBI has made a protocol of cradling disgruntled individuals, posing as operatives in extremist groups, and encouraging them to engage in violence.”   After listing some of the many US and Israeli provocations against Iran (documented here, by yours truly), he concludes that

“This failed plot, apparently concocted at least in part by the FBI, and apparently traced to some rogue individual within the Quds Force (not to the Iranian government), is the only tangible action that the US has been able to claim came from any Iranian elements.”

Why am I not surprised?  People have taken to the streets all over the US.   Large encampments are growing in New York and Washington DC.   Restless and unemployed youth are gathering to express their angst, just like in the Middle East.  Elections are approaching, the Republican presidential candidates are the usual bunch of losers, and Obama’s ratings are in the trash bin.   The promised recovery did not include society, only corporations.   People are becoming more restless every day.  They have noticed that, not only has the economy crashed on their backs, but the democracy they have believed in all their lives does not exist.  “Peace, Justice and the American Way”are defunct.  Superman committed suicide, 50 some odd years ago, and then died again of an infection in a bed sore after 20 years as a quadriplegic.   The veil is lifting.   Time for yet another desperate attempt to instil some fear into the masses.   But it looks like they are too late.   No one cares.  They want jobs, medical care and a chance at a comfortable old age.  Those wild and crazy Ayatollahs are old news.  Terrorism is loosing it’s glamor.  The piper has come for his fee.