Towards a global perspective . . .

Russians Predict US will Attack Iran Next Week

I flipped on Air America this afternoon at work. I was bored, and I’ve been wondering who replaced Al Franken. The Thom Hartmann show was in progress. I wasn’t expecting more, really , than the usual spin about the corrupt administration, frustration with neocon impunity and so on. But no, Thom was talking about a “US Plan to attack Iran on April 6th”. My worst nightmare! And it was discussed seriously, for two hours.

Hartmann cited an article on inteldaily.com as his source. I pulled it up while he was speaking. He stated that the internet is buzzing with discussion of this prediction while US Media has not mentioned it. I found this same article on numerous websites and blogs around the country. The subject is also covered by various German, French and Italian internet periodicals. But it can be traced to an article by Andrei Uglanov in the Russian Weekly, Argumenty Nedell. In brief, the article says that Russian Generals are predicting that the US will bomb Iran on April 6th using tactical nukes to take out their nuclear and military installations and to create a chaotic and fearful situation where the populace will accept a more compliant (to American concerns) government. I suggest you follow the link above to get a more complete translation.

There is a reiteration of the article featured on March 19th, According to a Russian Expert, The Pentagon will Attack Iranian Military Targets, featured in RIA Novosti, a Russian International News Portal. This was followed by an interpretive interview with a Russian General Ivachov on March 21st, Russian Military Expert Says Iran Will be Attacked at the Beginning of April, also in RIA Novosti. These articles were featured in the French, German and Spanish versions of RIA Novosti, but not the English one. For a rough English translation of the second article, go here. Read the rest of this entry »

International news reports make it clear that members of the UN Security Council do not unanimously support sanctions against Iran. South Africa requested a 90 day waiting period before implementation. Other third world members supported limiting the sanctions to Nuclear related materials only. President Bashar Assad of Syrian commented on the Issue in a French interview. He pointed out that Iran is not attacking anyone, though another country in the Middle East is attacking her neighbors. He said that Syria does not support sanctions on Iran at this time as Iran has a non-military nuclear program. However, he said that the Arab nations do support an initiative to have a Nuclear Weapon free Middle East. However they are concerned because Israel already has Nukes.

Meanwhile, Israeli reports that they aren’t going to make any concessions to the Arabs. They broad cast an interview with Ra’anan Gissen, an adviser to Ariel Sharon, who says that they aren’t going to be the “first canary down the shaft” to find out “just how dangerous Iran really is”. Hopefully that means they won’t make a first strike on Iran to provide us with an opportunity to engage them. Good news, I say. However, they go to talk about how the other Arab states are going to have to be the ones to rein in Iran. This makes sense, but it isn’t the same thing. The Arabs, like the rest of the Third World, are actually quite ambivalent about such a move. Iran may be a local adversary, but in the context of world at large, Iran is one of them, not one of us.

In this morning’s paper (The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle), Bush was quoted as saying that we need to be ‘patient’ with the situation in Iran and give the ‘diplomacy’ time to work.

The United States has no direct diplomatic contact with Iran.  We rejected Iranian President Khatami’s diplomatic initiative 3 years ago, and President Ahmadenijad is on his second visit to this country, but no one in the Bush Administration or Congress has met with him. We are pressuring the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran that many members don’t really support, just as we have pressured the IAEA into supporting our nuclear apartheid agenda.

Meanwhile, we have 2 (or is it 3) warships (air carriers that each support dozens of military aircraft) in the Persian gulf directly off Iran’s coastline. There is open talk about a plan in place for the president to initiate an attack on Iran within 24 hours. And when the President suggested using ‘tactical nukes’ to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities, both Democrats and Republicans alike have stood up to say, “No option is off the table.”

This is the Bush Diplomacy.

A couple of days ago, the Lebanese Government announced that they had identified the perpetrators of the recent bus bombing where a large number of school children were killed by a terrorist attack on a couple of school buses[1]. This was a terrible incident and everyone is concerned that the perpetrators be identified and brought to justice. The perpetrators were recently identified government investigators as members of a Palestinian resistance group in Lebanon called Fatah al Islam.

Read the rest of this entry »

I wrote this book review, and published it in the Metro Justice Newsletter last November. However, I believe it is not only still relevant, but more relevant than ever. I have added some links and a couple of comments for this posting.

Becoming Informed about Iran

Within the last few weeks, the US and England have been conducting military operations in the Persian Gulf. Israel has not only increased their hostilities towards the civilians in Palestine and violated the peace treaty in Lebanon with Military maneuvers over Beirut, but has talked openly about a preemptive attach on Iran. President Bush has been talking for months about instituting ‘Regime Change’ in Iran, and about using Bunker-Buster nukes to accomplish this end.
In response, Iran has been conducting ‘War Games’ in the desert and the Persian Gulf. They are demonstrating that they have a functioning defense system, a significant arsenal of weaponry, and the capability of doing some serious damage in Israel (unlike Hezollah and Hamas). This is very sad because our military threat is actually driving theirs.
In this volatile context, I think it is time to become informed. It is time for diplomacy. It is time to confront our government with an informed and persistent demand to relate to our neighbors in the world in a respectful and intelligent manner, and to insist that our representatives take the trouble to become as informed as we are. To continue on our current ignorant and belligerent course is an invitation to disaster.
For some time I have been frustrated by the terms of the public conversation about the Middle East in the Media, in Government and among my fellow progressives, as well as traditional liberals and conservatives. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week City Newspaper had an article featuring a group called Christians United For Israel. I was a little surprised to see an event sponsored by this organization featured in City. However, a number of local churches and a Jewish organization are sponsoring the group in Rochester. The article, called “Local evangelicals join ‘Honor Israel’ push “, raises a number of issues. The CUFI organization is led by Reverend John Hagee, a fire and brimstone fundamentalist minister with a large following and big bucks to play with. Hagee is very involved in prophesying the so called ‘End Times’ when the antichrist will lead the world to destruction. After this, Christ will return and rule over the faithful. Israel is crucial to those who believe that the ‘End Times’ are imminent because it is where the action is predicted to occur.

Apparently the group is holding a number of events around the country this year to generate support for their ideas. According to a piece on [ The Jewish Week] Hagee was a guest at an AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee) event where he was warmly applauded. This is very strange because much of Hagee’s polemic is really not very flattering to Jews. The City article cites a feature by Max Blumenthal that ran in The Nation last August during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Blumenthal was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! around the same time. He said in the interview that many Jews believe that the group is using the appearance of ‘honoring’ Israel to undermine the credibility of Jews everywhere. I would think this means that they have read his book or heard him speak. Read the rest of this entry »