Rolling Stone Exclusive: Senior Pentagon Officials Plotted To Invade Iran.

[kpete]

Rolling Stone Exclusive: Senior Pentagon Officials Plotted To Invade Iran...

Rolling Stone | JAMES BAMFORD | July 26, 2006

Iran: The Next War
Even before the bombs fell on Baghdad, a group of senior Pentagon officials were plotting to invade another country. Their covert campaign once again relied on false intelligence and shady allies. But this time, the target was Iran. BY JAMES BAMFORD

A few blocks off Pennsylvania Avenue, the FBI's eight-story Washington field office exudes all the charm of a maximum-security prison. Its curved roof is made of thick stainless steel, the bottom three floors are wrapped in granite and limestone, hydraulic bollards protect the ramp to the four-floor garage, and bulletproof security booths guard the entrance to the narrow lobby. On the fourth floor, like a tomb within a tomb, lies the most secret room in the $100 million concrete fortress--out-of-bounds even for special agents without an escort. Here, in the Language Services Section, hundreds of linguists in padded earphones sit elbow-to-elbow in long rows, tapping computer keyboards as they eavesdrop on the phone lines of foreign embassies and other high-priority targets in the nation's capital.

At the far end of that room, on the morning of February 12th, 2003, a small group of eavesdroppers were listening intently for evidence of a treacherous crime. At the very moment that American forces were massing for an invasion of Iraq, there were indications that a rogue group of senior Pentagon officials were already conspiring to push the United States into another war--this time with Iran.

more at:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/10962352/iran_the_next_war
via:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/07/26/rolling-stone-excl_n_25845.html

[Spazito]

1. No surprise there, it is good to see it actually in print!

Rolling Stone has been excellent in getting out the facts, it is past time I took out a subscription.

[JanusAscending]

2. And everyone says the Iranian President is nuts!!!

They (Iran) have "probably" been expecting this for a LONG TIME!! I would be trying to build nuclear capabilities too, if crazy george bush was breathing down my neck. Who's the crazy one here??? God help us all!!:nuke:

[me b zola]

4. Lately that phrase comes to me quite often

"God help us all"

bush* has done his damnedist (is that a word?) to bring back the arms race with new and terrifying meaning. Indeed, who, with a big-phat target on their back, would not seek to arm themselves from the biggest bully of all? And don't forget that Valerie Plame's covert cia work and her front company that was outed by bush* were tracking loose nukes en route to Iran.

The insanity is numbing. God help us all.

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. Kick nt

[Reckon]

5. The shift in official policy

"has thrilled former members of the cabal. To them, the war in Lebanon represents the final step in their plan to turn Iran into the next Iraq. Ledeen, writing in the National Review on July 13th, could hardly restrain himself. "Faster, please," he urged the White House, arguing that the war should now be taken over by the U.S. military and expanded across the entire region. "The only way we are going to win this war is to bring down those regimes in Tehran and Damascus, and they are not going to fall as a result of fighting between their terrorist proxies in Gaza and Lebanon on the one hand, and Israel on the other. Only the United States can accomplish it," he concluded. "There is no other way."


It's just a matter of time before the right-wing nuts get us in a 20 year war.

[krkaufman]

6. Anybody here wanna bet ... ?

... that Israel's disproportionate response was intended to aid Bush and the US neo-cons?

[malaise]

7. Why else were bombs

sent by charter flight.

[krkaufman]

8. Yep. Sometimes, our foreign peers can sum things up so very well.

(paraphrasing) "Why is Bush sending us food, and Israel more missiles?"

[PATRICK]

9. Intentions

and results are, fortunately sometimes, completely opposite things. If Bush were going into Iran soon OR whether he was not and the mess has emboldened Iran, the result is the same. Israel has to pre-empt massive actions against itself by Iranian proxies. That is the trap of being in with bush the Incompetent. Whatever he does or does badly it forces his dependent allies into the maelstrom.

A help to Bush? es, that would be a part of the scenario or a desperate connection going unheeded by Bush. Bush I kept Israel out so as to severely limit the conflict- no matter what happened to Israel- within limits I suppose. Bush I then encouraged the Shiites to rise up as a tactical help with some possibilities if by some miracle they could upset Saddam. Then he left them in the lurch. The reality with Bush is, you are on your own unless he makes you perform for the agenda. A huge mistake, Sharon=Cheney, was any linkage in the first place.

The disproportionate response seems calculated to block a wide scale Arab war and pacify one weak front at the same time. That is insane unless they feel forced to by Bush's action or inaction against Iran. By doing this they may force Bush's hand or "help" but in any event they probably feel they must strike first. All the provocations and terrorists strikes are certainly not small pretexts, but the response is more than just emotional extemporizing. Unfortunately, once something gets going all the thinking and context vanishes into the raging fires. And somehow the military, that should or does know better goes from determination to hell in a handbasket. Eventually it really is as simple as you see on the ground. More victims, more enemies and anyone using violence suffering costly defeat one way or the other.