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Straits of
Hormuz, Gulf of Tonkin – Different Names, Same Bloody Games – Washington and
the Pentagon Play “Crank The Jingos”!
(As
Ron Paul presciently anticipated)
Here’s Washington’s Narrative: Five Iranian speedboats
allegedly ‘threatened’ three U.S. Navy warships:
1.
the guided missile destroyer USS
Hopper,
2.
the guided missile cruiser USS Port Royal and
3.
the guided-missile frigate USS Ingraham
Iran plays down 'ordinary'
incident with US ships: January 7, 2008 - Hiedeh Farmani, reporting for AFP
writes, “ Iran on Monday played down an incident between Iranian
forces and US naval ships in the Strait of Hormuz, describing the event as an
‘ordinary occurrence’ that ended without any disturbance. The assurances by
Iran that the weekend encounter was unremarkable were in stark contrast to
statements by Pentagon officials that Iranian speedboats swarmed three US
navy ships, radioing a threat to blow them up. ‘This is an ordinary
occurrence which happens every now and then for both sides,’ foreign ministry
spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told the state-run IRNA agency of the
incident. When such incidents take place, he said ‘the issue is resolved
after both sides recognise each other.’”
Provocation in
the Strait of Hormuz: January
8, 2008 – In an Editorial for Truthout.com, Marc Ash writes, “US Navy warships are parked a few miles off the coast of
Iran. They are there, apparently, to protect oil shipping lanes into and out
of the Persian Gulf. Tensions are mounting. If provocation is at issue, those
facts must remain front and center. If Iranian warships ever made it as
close to the American coastline as US warships now lie to Iranian shores, our
military would in all likelihood attack them. Iran is not attacking our
warships - parked on their doorstep.
The
US State Department last year warned Iran, ‘not to interfere with US
interests in the region.’ What the State Department did not explain to the
American people is what interests average Americans have in the region. The
answer to that question is, likely none. That leads to the next question:
whose interests is the American Navy protecting in the Persian Gulf? The
owners of the oil tankers, apparently. The American people are the end
consumers; we pay what's marked on the pump. Bluntly stated, the United
States Navy appears to be in the Persian Gulf to protect the interests of
US-based oil businesses, not the interests of the American people.
Incidentally, the second-largest deposits of oil in the world lie beneath the
soil of Iraq, so the same formula applies there as well.”
Islamists Kill Truce Negotiators in Pakistan: January 8, 2008 -Jeremy Page writing for the London Times Online reports, “Suspected Islamist militants
shot dead eight tribal leaders in coordinated attacks just hours before they
were due to discuss a planned ceasefire between Pakistan’s security forces and al-Qaeda and Taleban insurgents near
the border with Afghanistan.”
Killer of US Soldiers Becomes Hero for Iraqis: January 8, 2008 – IPS correspondents Ali al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail report from Baghdad, “On Dec. 26, an Iraqi
soldier opened fire on U.S. soldiers accompanying him during a joint military
patrol in the northern Iraqi city Mosul. He killed the U.S. captain and
another sergeant, and wounded three others, including an Iraqi interpreter.
Conflicting
versions of the killing have arisen. Col. Hazim al-Juboory, uncle of the
attacker, Kaissar Saady al-Juboory, told IPS that his nephew at first watched
the U.S. soldiers beat up an Iraqi woman. When he asked them to stop, they
refused, so he opened fire.
‘Kaissar is a professional
soldier who revolted against the Americans when they dragged a woman by her
hair in a brutal way,’
Col. Juboory said. ‘He
is a tribal man, and an Arab with honor who would not accept such behavior.
He killed his captain and sergeant knowing that he would be executed.’
Others gave IPS
a similar account. ‘I was there when
the American captain and his soldiers raided a neighborhood and started
shouting at women to tell them where some men they wanted were,’ a resident of Mosul, speaking on condition
of anonymity, told IPS on phone. ‘The women told
them they did not know, and their men did not do anything wrong, and started
crying in fear.’
The witness said
the U.S. captain began to shout at his soldiers and the women, and his men
then started to grab the women and pull them by their hair.
‘The
soldier we knew later to be Kaissar shouted at the Americans, 'No, No,' but
the captain shouted back at the Iraqi soldier’, the witness told IPS. Then
the Iraqi soldier shouted, 'Let go of the women you sons of bitches,' and
started shooting at them. ‘The soldier’, he said, ‘then ran off.’”
George Bush
travels to Israel for briefing on Iran strike options: January 6, 2008
– Uzi Mahnaimi (Tel Aviv) writes for London’s Sunday Times, “ISRAELI security officials are to
brief President George W Bush on their latest intelligence about Iran’s nuclear programme - and how it could
be destroyed - when he begins a tour of the Middle East in Jerusalem this
week. Ehud Barak, the defence minister, is said to want to convince him that
an Israeli military strike against uranium enrichment facilities in Iran
would be feasible if diplomatic efforts failed to halt nuclear operations. A
range of military options has been prepared.”
“Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful
and murder
respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure
wind.”
~George Orwell~
Israeli FM Vows to Continue Military Action During
Peace Talks: January 8, 2008 - Haaretz (Israel) correspondents, Barak Ravid and Shahar Ilan write, “Foreign Minister
Tzipi Livni visited with Israel Defense Forces commanders in the West Bank on
Monday, telling them that Israel would continue to act against terrorism
during the negotiating period with the Palestinians. ‘Israel has no intention
of throwing they [sic] key over to the other side and hoping for the best,’
she said.”
Israeli Soldiers Kidnap Man in Lebanon: January 7, 2008 - Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reports, “A Lebanese
shepherd was ‘detained’ by Israeli forces on Monday at the edge of the common
border, Lebanese and UN sources said. Ahmed Abed al Aal, was taken from
Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanese by Israeli forces, the Lebanese security
source said. The source said Abed al Aal was ‘snatched’ while he was at the
edge of the Lebanese territories just adjacent to the Israeli border.”
WAR IS PEACE…Bush gets room with a view for Mideast “peace” push:
January 7, 2008 – Reuters reporter Rebecca Harrison writes,
“When U.S. President George W. Bush gazes out of his sumptuous Jerusalem
hotel room this week, the conflict that has confounded generations of
politicians will be literally staring him in the face. Bush's hotel suite --
which goes for $2,600 (1,300 pounds) a night before diplomatic discounts --
overlooks Jerusalem's fabled Old City and its holy sites, which are cherished
by Jews, Christians and Muslims and cut to the heart of the Middle East
conflict. Looking beyond the ancient city walls, Bush will spot Israel's
snaking West Bank barrier -- viewed by Palestinians as a land grab and a
hated symbol of occupation and by Israel as a vital buffer against suicide
bombers.”
VIDEO
Reason’s Nick Gillespie
appeared on Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor on January
2, 2008 to discuss the Ron Paul phenomenon and American interventionism in
the Middle East.
Imperialist Propaganda -Second thoughts on Charlie Wilson's War: January 8, 2008- Chalmers Johnson writes for Hong Kong’s Asia Times,
”I have some personal knowledge of congressmen like Charlie Wilson (D-2nd
District, Texas, 1973-1996) because, for close to 20 years, my representative
in the 50th Congressional District of California was Republican Randy ‘Duke’
Cunningham, now serving an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence for
soliciting and receiving bribes from defense contractors. Wilson and
Cunningham held exactly the same plummy committee assignments in the House of
Representatives – the Defense Appropriations
Subcommittee plus the Intelligence Oversight Committee – from which they could dole out large sums of public money with
little or no input from their colleagues or constituents. Both men flagrantly
abused their positions – but with radically different
consequences. Cunningham went to jail because he was too stupid to know how
to game the system – retire and become a lobbyist – whereas Wilson received the Central Intelligence Agency
Clandestine Service's first ‘honored colleague’ award ever given to an
outsider and went on to become a $360,000 per annum lobbyist for Pakistan.”
PERSPECTIVE
“Blowback”
– Perspective
Video
Saddam Hussein – “Thanks for the Memories”
Video
Bush will find no Gulf takers for war with Iran:
January 7, 2008 – Lydia Georgi of Pakistan’s
Daily Times writes, “US
President George W Bush will not win any support for military action against
Iran when he visits four Gulf Arab allies later this month, political
analysts in the region say. While Gulf states are concerned about Iran’s nuclear programme, they would be even more fearful of a
US-Iranian conflict. ‘It might not spell the end of Iran as a military power,
but (merely) spark Iranian reactions against Gulf states which are more than
these countries can take,’ Kuwait’s Ayed al-Manna told AFP.
Although Washington rode roughshod over the Gulf states’ opposition to its 2003 invasion of Iraq, they can be expected
to urge Bush ‘not to escalate militarily with Iran because of the
consequences that military action would have in the region and to pursue a
peaceful settlement instead’, said Emirati analyst Mohammed al-Roken.”
Whistleblower Accuses US Officials of Selling Nuke
Secrets: January 6, 2008 – London’s
Sunday Times reports, “a Whistleblower has made a series of
extraordinary claims about how corrupt government officials [U.S.] allowed
Pakistan and other states to steal nuclear weapons secrets. Sibel Edmonds, a
37-year-old former Turkish language translator for the FBI, listened into
hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency’s Washington field office. She approached The Sunday Times last
month after reading about an Al-Qaeda terrorist who had revealed his role in
training some of the 9/11 hijackers while he was in Turkey. Edmonds described
how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to
acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions.
Among the hours of covert tape recordings, she says she heard evidence that
one well-known senior official in the US State Department was being paid by
Turkish agents in Washington who were selling the information on to black
market buyers, including Pakistan. The name of the official – who has held a series of top government posts – is known to The Sunday Times. He strongly denies the claims.”
The AIPAC Spy Trial: A Case of Prosecutus
Interruptus: January
6, 2008 – Justin Raimondo, writing for Antiwar.Blog reports, “I’ve been covering the AIPAC spy case since CBS
broke the story of US secrets stolen by top officials of Israel’s number one Washington lobbyist, way
back in late summer of 2004. Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin, AIPAC
honcho Steven Rosen, and the Lobby’s number one Iran specialist, Keith
Weissman, were indicted on August 4, 2005. Franklin pleaded
guilty, and, in a deal with the government, promised to testify at the trial
of his co-conspirators, Rosen and Weissman, in exchange for leniency:
depending on his performance at the upcoming trial, he may get his 12-year
sentence reduced considerably.That is, if the
trial ever takes place. I’ve been on this case since day one, but even I’ve
lost count of how many times the trial has been delayed, for one made-up-sounding
reason or another. Rosen and Weissman are certainly getting the best defense lawyers: their legal
costs, already running into the millions before the trial has even begun,
must have set some kind of record. Rosen and Weissman are the Lobby’s Sacco and Vanzetti, and they are
certainly getting excellent legal representation. As the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency reports:”
McCain: I
Would Have Started Iraq War Regardless of WMD: January
6, 2008 – Rawstory.com reports that for candidate John McCain, “only the handling of the Iraq war was a
mistake -- not the war itself. ‘It's not American presence that bothers the
American people, it's American causalities,’ said McCain in an interview with
Tim Russert on NBC's ‘Meet The Press’ on Sunday. The validity of this
conjecture is questionable, as fifty-nine percent of Americans say the U.S.
should ‘stick to a withdrawal timetable.’ But McCain said in a recent New
Hampshire debate -- and reasserted as much on Sunday -- that as long as
Americans aren't dying, he sees nothing wrong with US troops staying as many
as 100 years in Iraq.”
 The Top Eleven Myths about Iraq,
2007: January 4, 2008
- Michael Schwartz, blogging
for the Huffington Post writes, “the one [Iraq Myth] I
find most galling and least debunked: that the surge has led to the
pacification of large parts of Anbar province and Baghdad. Quiescence and
pacification are simply not the same thing, and this is definitely a case of
quiescence. In fact, the reduction in violence we are witnessing is really a
result of the U.S. discontinuing its vicious raids into insurgent territory,
which have been - from the beginning of the war - the largest source of
violence and civilian casualties in Iraq. These raids, which consist of home
invasions in search of suspected insurgents, trigger brutal arrests and assaults
by American soldiers who are worried about resistance, gun fights when
families resist the intrusions into their homes, and road side bombs set to
deter and distract the invasions. Whenever Iraqis fight back against these
raids, there is the risk of sustained gun battles that, in turn, produce U.S.
artillery and air assaults that, in turn, annihilate buildings and even whole
blocks. The "surge" has reduced this violence, but not because the
Iraqis have stopped resisting raids or supporting the insurgency. Violence
has decreased in many Anbar towns and Baghdad neighborhoods because the U.S.
has agreed to discontinue these raids; that is, the U.S. would no longer seek
to capture or kill the Sunni insurgents they have been fighting for four
years. In exchange the insurgents agree to police their own neighborhoods
(which they had been doing all along, in defiance of the U.S.), and also
suppress jihadist car bombs. The result is that the U.S. troops now stay
outside of previously insurgent communities, or march through without
invading any houses or attacking any buildings.”
U.S. Upset with Bush on Terrorism, Civil
Liberties: January 6, 2008 - Angus Reid Global Monitor :
Polls & Research reports that “many Americans are dissatisfied
with the way their current government has handled two issues, according to a
poll by Harris Interactive. 59 per cent of respondents have a negative view
of the way the current administration has fought terrorism, and 57 per cent
are dissatisfied with how it has protected civil liberties.”
Standard of living in Britain Outstrips US;
first time since 19th century: January 6, 2008- London’s Times
Online reports, “Living standards in Britain are set to rise above
those in America for the first times since the 19th century, according to a
report by the respected Oxford Economics consultancy. The calculations
suggest that, measured by gross domestic product per capita, Britain can now
hold its head up high in the economic stakes after more than a century of
playing second fiddle to the Americans. It says that GDP per head in Britain
will be £23,500 this year, compared with £23,250 in America, reflecting not
only the strength of the pound against the dollar but also the UK economy’s
record run of growth and rising incomes going back to the early 1990s.”
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