The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.

Source: newyorker.com

by Seymour M. Hersh
6/29/2008

Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Reuters

Reasons to think it’s true:

• The Pentagon is bypassing official US intelligence channels and turning to a dangerous and unruly cast of characters in order to create strife in Iran in preparation for any possible attack, former and current intelligence officials say. One of the operational assets being used by the Defense Department is a right-wing terrorist organization known as Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), which is being “run” in two southern regional areas of Iran. [4/13/2006 - Rawstory]
  
• During an interview on CNN Friday night, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner claimed that U.S. military operations are already ‘underway’ inside Iran, RAW STORY has found. - [4/15/2006 - Rawstory]
  
• Current and former American military and intelligence officials said that Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups. - [4/17/2006 - New Yorker]
  
• Israel and the United States have also been working together in support of a Kurdish resistance group known as the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan. The group has been conducting clandestine cross-border forays into Iran, I was told by a government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon civilian leadership, as “part of an effort to explore alternative means of applying pressure on Iran.” (The Pentagon has established covert relationships with Kurdish, Azeri, and Baluchi tribesmen, and has encouraged their efforts to undermine the regime’s authority in northern and southeastern Iran.) The government consultant said that Israel is giving the Kurdish group “equipment and training.” The group has also been given “a list of targets inside Iran of interest to the U.S.” (An Israeli government spokesman denied that Israel was involved.) - [11/27/2006 - New Yorker]
  
• Iran-Contra veterans working out of Dick Cheney’s office are using stolen funds from Iraq to arm al Qaeda-tied groups and foment a larger Sunni-Shia war - [3/17/2007 - Tomdispatch]
  
• A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources - [4/3/2007 - ABCNews]
  
• “Rice and her colleagues in the administration decided to embark on a daring and risky third course: a coordinated campaign, directed with the help of the intelligence services of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates….The bill for the covert part of this activity, which has involved funding sectarian political movements and paramilitary groups in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories, is said to amount to more than $300 million. It is being paid by Saudi Arabia and other concerned Gulf states, for whom the combination of a hasty American withdrawal from Iraq and a nuclear-armed Iran means trouble.” [5/7/2007 - The Atlantic]
  

REUTERS
Reuters US Online Report Top News
May 12, 2008 12:36 EST

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran’s judiciary said on Monday it would file international lawsuits against the United States and Britain, accusing them of providing financial support to those behind a blast in a mosque that killed 14 people.

Iran’s intelligence minister last week said Iran had arrested five or six members of a terrorist group with links to Britain and the United States who he said were involved in the explosion that also wounded 200 in the southern city of Shiraz.

Iranian officials had previously said the April 12 blast, during an evening prayer sermon by a prominent local cleric, was caused by explosives left over from an exhibition commemorating the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Judiciary spokesman Ali-Reza Jamshidi told state television the terrorists behind the bombing were agents of the U.S. and British governments in Iran.

“The relationship of those who planted the bombs in Shiraz with the U.S. and Britain was identified and they were being financially supported and in fact they acted as foreign agents in Iran,” he said.

“In view of the documents obtained the judiciary in cooperation with the government and the Foreign Ministry will file lawsuits with international authorities against their supporters, who on the one hand claim to fight terrorists and on the other hand provide them with equipment,” he said.

He was clearly referring to Britain and the United States, but did not give details on how Tehran would take legal action against them.

Iran has in the past accused the two countries of trying to destabilize the Islamic Republic by supporting rebels, mainly those in sensitive border areas.

Tehran’s accusations over the mosque blast echo allegations U.S. officials have made about Iranian support for militias in Iraq that have fought U.S. and U.S.-backed government forces there, accusations Tehran denies.

Iran and the United States are also at odds over Tehran’s nuclear program, which Washington suspects is aimed at making bombs. Iran says its program is for producing electricity.

Security is normally tight in Shi’ite Muslim Iran and bomb attacks have been rare in recent years. Several people were killed in 2005 and 2006 in blasts in a southwestern province with a large Sunni Arab population.

Shiraz is a southern city with more than one million inhabitants and is a popular tourist destination.

Given the recent false accusations of aggression towards U.S. Naval ships, Cheney’s tour of the Middle East, and how Iran was “high” on his list of topics, Fallon’s resignation, Bush’s recent lie about Iran’s intentions regarding Nukes, and today’s accusation from General Betrayus that Iran was behind the Green Zone attacks (topping the official toll of 4000 dead American soldiers), I’m scared again that something is going to happen. I think Conyers should impeach BEFORE we do anything stupid. - Jon

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

3/24/2008

The most senior US general in Iraq has said he has evidence that Iran was behind Sunday’s bombardment of Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

Gen David Petraeus told the BBC he thought Tehran had trained, equipped and funded insurgents who fired the barrage of mortars and rockets.

He said Iran was adding what he described as “lethal accelerants” to a very combustible mix.

There has as yet been no response from Iran to the accusations.

In response to the news that 4,000 US military personnel have now been killed in Iraq, he said it showed how much the mission had cost but added that Americans were realistic about it.

He also said a great deal of progress had been made because of the “flipping” of communities - the decision by Sunni tribes to turn against al-Qaeda militants.

The extent of this had surprised even the US military, he said.

‘Promises violated’
In an interview with BBC world affairs editor John Simpson, Gen Petraeus said violence in Iraq was being perpetuated by Iran’s Quds Force, a branch of the Revolutionary Guards.

“The rockets that were launched at the Green Zone yesterday, for example… were Iranian-provided, Iranian-made rockets,” he said, adding that the groups that fired them were funded and trained by the Quds Force.

“All of this in complete violation of promises made by President Ahmadinejad and the other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi counterparts.”

The barrage hit the Green Zone on Sunday morning. Some rockets missed their targets killing 15 Iraqi civilians.

Later in the day four US soldiers died when their patrol vehicle was blown up by a bomb in southern Baghdad, putting the total number of US fatalities above 4,000.

This and other bloodshed on Sunday came despite an overall reduction in violence since last June, when the US deployed an extra 30,000 troops for the surge.

Days earlier, Mr Bush marked the fifth anniversary of the invasion, saying that it had made the world a better place.

Jon Gold
8/28/2007

Today, Bush warned Iran, “the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” that their “active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust,” and “Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere, and the United States is rallying friends and allies to isolate Iran’s regime, to impose economic sanctions. We will confront this danger before it is too late.”

I was reminded of the days before the Iraq War, and obviously there has been a massive push recently by the Administration, especially by Cheney, to go to war with Iran.

According to Rawstory, “the US has prepared its military for a “massive” attack against Iran, requiring little contingency planning and without a ground invasion.”

As far as I know, the people of America DO NOT support yet ANOTHER illegal war. However, if there is another 9/11 type event blamed on Iran (as Zbigniew specified), that’s it. We’re going to war.

I just want the Bush Administration to know that if we are attacked, I am not going to look at Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, or even Pakistan as culprits. I’m going to look right at you. I’m sure I won’t be the only one.