Uh, Okay CNN: The Pentagon Says The Iran Plans Are 'Contingency Plans'!

[leftchick]

And not "Operational" as Seymour Hersh alleges in his New Yorker article. Barbara Starr assured us this morning with that worthless Miles O'Brien that Hersh's allegations are fiction. The WH is depending on diplomacy in dealings with Iran's nuclear ambitions. Any Pentagon plans are purely contingency plan and not operational! Gee I am so relieved Barbara! Thank you for that in depth analysis you propaganda spewing worthless piece of crap!

Reality check!

What Seymour Hersh says the bush administration is up to right NOW!....

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060417fa_fact

The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. 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. The officials say that President Bush is determined to deny the Iranian regime the opportunity to begin a pilot program, planned for this spring, to enrich uranium.



The White House Reaction....

U.S. Tries to Dampen Talk of Iran Strike

WASHINGTON - While stressing that diplomacy is the first course for dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions, the White House is not ruling out a military response and says "normal defense and intelligence planning" is under way.

The White House, sensitive to President Bush's image as a war hawk, is trying to play down the possibility of a military strike on the country that Bush included among nations forming the "axis of evil."

"The president's priority is to find a diplomatic solution to a problem the entire world recognizes," Bush counselor Dan Bartlett told The Associated Press on Sunday. "And those who are drawing broad, definitive conclusions based on normal defense and intelligence planning are ill-informed and are not knowledgeable of the administration's thinking on Iran."


Now let us take a trip in the way back machine:

What the bush administration said and actually did before the Iraq invasion....


Bush: 'No war plans on my desk' for Iraq

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/05/23/gen.war.on.terror/

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- President Bush reiterated Thursday that Iraq remains a significant threat, but he stopped short of saying the United States will go to war with the Middle Eastern country.

"I have no war plans on my desk," Bush said at a Berlin news conference during the first stop of his European tour. "We've got to use all means at our disposal to deal with Saddam Hussein."



Pentagon Funded Mideast Plans In Secret Prior to Iraq-War Vote

http://archive.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=20777

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon acknowledged that in tandem with its secret planning for the Iraq war two years ago, it funded 21 military-related projects in the Mideast when the Bush administration had yet to seek a war resolution from Congress.

The administration said in late summer 2002 that $178.4 million was spent on projects that could be justified as part of the larger war against terrorism. The first detailed accounting of that spending was provided to Congress just this week, and even lawmakers who supported military action against Saddam Hussein say the Defense Department stretched its authority and hid facts that should have been shared with lawmakers.


Now how fucking stupid do they think we are? Fool me once, shame on me. Though I was never fooled, the folks that were back then aren't going to fall for it this time.

... Wise words from Joseph Cirincione in Hersh's piece:

<snip>

The Administration’s case against Iran is compromised by its history of promoting false intelligence on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. In a recent essay on the Foreign Policy Web site, entitled “Fool Me Twice,” Joseph Cirincione, the director for nonproliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote, “The unfolding administration strategy appears to be an effort to repeat its successful campaign for the Iraq war.” He noted several parallels:

The vice president of the United States gives a major speech focused on the threat from an oil-rich nation in the Middle East. The U.S. Secretary of State tells Congress that the same nation is our most serious global challenge. The Secretary of Defense calls that nation the leading supporter of global terrorism.

[annabanana]

1. ~let's bomb annnnother one~

~just like the other one~

I cannot believe they are going to use the same song and dance. If we don't get the Congress this year, the world will never forgive us.

[marmar]

2. We know what contingency means...

:scared:

[KharmaTrain]

3. Actions Speak Louder Than Words...

Where's the "diplomacy"? Condi? Spare Me. Where's the involvement of other nations other than hand holding sessions?

Then we hear the draconian rhetoric of this regime about Iran and the fear mongering that already has taken hold with the right wing base. This is a regime that will do the politically expedient thing when it serves their purpose...even if it means a war.

Six months ago I laughed off the concept of an Iranian adventure for many of the reasons Sy Hersh put forward...and he surely got that from some very exquisite sources. Now I see a regime that is getting more and more backed up in a corner and desperate people take desperate actions.

The elephant in the room here is how this regime knows that no matter what crime it commits, no matter how badly they mishandle this invasion, no matter how they piss off their base...they have the cards to scare the shit out of people and generate it into "public support" or votes.

[annabanana]

5. well yes....

"they have the cards to scare the shit out of people"

..if those "cards" are FOX, ABC, NBC, & CBS.

[rodeodance]

4. Hersh on cnn saying that some Sr. military officers will resign if nuclear

weapons are not taken off the table.

[leftchick]

6. it is in his article as well

What was new to me was the fact that there are boots on the ground IN Iran already!

:scared:

edit: found that in the article as well....

<snip>

If the order were to be given for an attack, the American combat troops now operating in Iran would be in position to mark the critical targets with laser beams, to insure bombing accuracy and to minimize civilian casualties. As of early winter, I was told by the government consultant with close ties to civilians in the Pentagon, the units were also working with minority groups in Iran, including the Azeris, in the north, the Baluchis, in the southeast, and the Kurds, in the northeast. The troops “are studying the terrain, and giving away walking-around money to ethnic tribes, and recruiting scouts from local tribes and shepherds,” the consultant said. One goal is to get “eyes on the ground”—quoting a line from “Othello,” he said, “Give me the ocular proof.” The broader aim, the consultant said, is to “encourage ethnic tensions” and undermine the regime.

[leftchick]

7. kicking cuz Babs is on wolfie

spewing her propaganda again.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. great thread. THERE IS ONE CAUTIONARY TALE NOW.

The cat is out of the bag. Even Bush is attempting to portray the outing of this information as "speculation". Clearly, it is not. To the contrary, if normal people could get wind of a planning operation because it becomes large enough even for civilians to notice and understand, it means it is somewhat more than simple contingency planning. It also means that the planners tasked with this job are going "Holy shit, batman. They want us to plan for WHAT? Are they nuts?"


So, the first reaction is poor and the Bush/Cheney/Rummie/Rovian PR spinners are stuck with their privates exposed?
Hardly.
Remember, these guys have planned disinformation for decades, and are always going to head back to that apporach at the drop of a hat - or in this case, at the first hint of public grumbling.

Watch for the following, and sooner than later:

a) disinformation docs, probably using Palestinians and Iran - possibly smuggling a massive wepaon, chemicals, poisons, or explosives, with convenient Iranian fingerprints and trails. Too convenient.

b) disinformation attacks, possibly using angry Yemenis or Iraqis, to prove that attacks within Iraq on US troops was actually carried out by Iran. This will also be false. Right now, they are too busy laughing at our incompetance and too busy sending food to Iraq. BUt watch the US spin an event, maybe involving the deaths of dozens of US soldiers being set up by our government.

c) Disinformation docs about nukes. Pakistan, India and north Korea are the most likely funnels to add fake stuff into the world market of ideas and spin. This too will be false.

Am I paranoid? No, I just looked at my notes about how Bush got elected and what dirty tricks he and his thugs have pulled before. It is only a conspiracy theory in that these guys have been extremely successful in their prior conspiracies.

Besides, a timely warning might screw them up even more and prevent a nuclear war.

[leftchick]

9. "Wild Speculation"!

used by chimp and scotty numerous times today. In chimps world wild speculation = war plans.