Israel's New Strategy for Starting Iran War
Oppose Neo-Fascism | 19.12.2007 19:45 | Anti-militarism | World
The real threat is posed by the Extremists in Israel, and their few allies in the US and other "western democracies" ...
Israel unveils new strategy on Iran
14/12/2007
by Anshel Pfeffer Jerusalem
Israel is working together with the United States administration and the British and French governments to counter the effect caused by the US National Intelligence Estimate report last week, which stated that Iran had stopped its military nuclear programme in 2003.
The report has also changed Israel’s diplomatic policy towards the Iranian threat.
Senior officials from all four governments were in contact last week immediately following the report’s publication to coordinate steps to minimise its effect.
US National Security adviser Stephen Hadley and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s chief of staff, Yoram Turbovich, were involved in planning the two governments’ subsequent actions together with British and French officials. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s statement last week that Iran was still in defiance of the international community, and therefore Britain would seek further sanctions, was also part of these efforts, as was the publicity attached to Binyamin Netanyahu’s meeting on Monday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss the Iranian issue.
Despite being the official head of the opposition, Mr Netanyahu was conveying official messages from Mr Olmert to the French leadership.
On Sunday, following the cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Mr Olmert issued a statement saying that “Iran is continuing to manufacture and develop ballistic missiles and continuing its research and development aimed at nuclear armament,” and that Israel would act to bring this information to the attention of the world.
Mr Olmert was in effect announcing a departure from the policy Israel maintained over the past few years, formulated by ex-prime minister Ariel Sharon. This put forward the view that the Iranian nuclear programme was “the world’s problem” and that Israel should be careful not to be seen as the prime motivator of pressure on Iran.
Now it is clear to the decision-makers that Israel has to be a lot more energetic in convincing the international community and public opinion that Iran is still intent on building a bomb.
“Israel has been pushed into the centre of the world’s attention by the American intelligence report,” one government adviser told the JC.
“It would have been much better if the Americans and Europeans had acted on this earlier and with more vigour,” said another diplomatic source, “but that was an unrealistic expectation.
“It was the right thing to say at the time, but the problem was that, for too long, the government actually believed that message and only over the last few months has the Iranian issue gone to the top of the agenda. The American report was a last wake-up call for whoever still needed it that Israel has to rely on itself first in this. For the Americans, an Iranian bomb is a serious threat to their interests; for us it’s a serious threat to our very existence.”
According to a senior Israeli intelligence source, “the American report was a much shorter version of a larger report.
“There were worries that it would be leaked to the press, so the administration had no choice but to release the version, which was hastily and carelessly written.
“Now everyone has gone in to damage-limitation mode. There is still no question among the intelligence agencies, including those of the US, that the Iranians are working on a bomb and one out-of-context sentence from one report doesn’t change that at all. The US, Israel, Britain and France are now working together to change the impression caused by that report.”
There have been calls within the government to reveal at least part of the Israeli assessments of the Iranian programme, but these have been rebuffed by the intelligence community.
However, it is now the consensus within government that the time of quiet diplomacy is over and Jerusalem will have to work a lot more openly with the western governments on this issue. After the initial shock of the NIE report, the assurances received from the US administration and the response of the British and French leaderships have been generally encouraging.
http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11s19&SecId=19&AId=56976&ATypeId=1
Israeli Extremists Brief Top U.S. Official on Iran
The largest threat to the region doesn't come from Iran: it comes from Israel's success in having had the US "neutralize" countries which it believes to be an existential threat to it's existence.
However, there's just one little problem with this approach concerning Iran.
Russia's diplomats have stated unequivocally that any attack against Iran will be perceived as an attack on Russia.
Well, that, and the fact that none but a small Fringe in America supports the Extremists in DC.
Israelis Brief Top U.S. Official on Iran
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: December 11, 2007
JERUSALEM, Dec. 10 — Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made an unusual visit to Israel and got a polite earful on Monday about Israel’s gloomy assessment of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Israel thinks that an American intelligence assessment of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, published in an unclassified version last week, is unduly optimistic and focuses too narrowly on the last stage of weapons development — fashioning a bomb from highly enriched uranium.
(No, they're simply angry that the report was released so publicly, and so contradicted the statements of the Extremists thirsty for war with Iran. They know the 'nuclear issue' is only the excuse, not the reason, behind their threats an preparations for another Act of Aggression.)
The National Intelligence Estimate, a consensus of 16 American spy agencies, says with “high confidence” that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and with “moderate confidence” that the program had not resumed.
(However, this is rather misleading, since the entire claim that Iran even had such a program comes from a single, questionable source reminiscent of the Ahmad Chalabi information regarding Iraq. See 'Laptop of Death' below.)
Israeli intelligence estimates say Iran stopped all its nuclear weapons activities for a time in 2003, nervous after the American invasion of Iraq, but then resumed those activities in 2005, accelerating enrichment and ballistic missile development and constructing a 40-megawatt heavy-water reactor in Arak that could produce plutonium.
('Could' being the operative word. In other words, the Israelis don't actually have any evidence of such a thing, they simply want us to believe otherwise, so they can start a war, or the US will start a war they want.)
Israel believes Iran continues to work, however limited by international pressure and economic and technical difficulties, on all phases of building a nuclear weapon. Iran denies ever having had a nuclear weapons program and says its nuclear program is focused on generating electricity.
(Israel doesn't actually believe this, and know very well that the facts contradict their empty allegations.)
In meetings on Monday with the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, and Israeli intelligence officials, Admiral Mullen and his staff listened to concerns that Iran could produce a nuclear bomb, unless deterred, by the end of 2009 at the earliest or, more likely, sometime in 2010-11.
(If they decided they want to-and the evidence says they don't. And even if they did, this would not be grounds for a war. Iran, on the other hand, knowing of a US/Israeli plot to attack it, could claim pre-emption in any attack on either country. But they don't want to start an unecessary war, unlike these Israeli Extremists.)
The Pentagon, focused on Iraq, is eager for a diplomatic solution with Iran. But the Pentagon has also emphasized that the intelligence estimate “made it clear that Iran did have a nuclear weapons program and that they are still enriching uranium,” said Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for the admiral.
(Unless more evidence is produced, making this single-sourced claim is irresponsible, and rather deceptive. Iran is within its rights under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in enriching uranium, and has done nothing wrong.)
Captain Kirby called Monday’s discussions “productive and candid,” and said they centered on regional challenges “and the shared recognition that there remains a potential for Iran to develop nuclear weapons and threaten its neighbors.”
(A "potential" is very different than actually doing so, or even trying to. Look for a marked shift in the Bush/PNAC Regime's Talking Points in the days ahead.)
Admiral Mullen, who has been chairman of the Joint Chiefs for only a few months, was making a 24-hour visit to Israel, rare despite close defense ties between the United States and Israel.
He was returning from a regional security conference in Bahrain, where the American defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, emphasized that Washington continued to see Iran as a grave threat to regional security. Mr. Gates said Iran had accelerated its efforts to enrich uranium despite United Nations Security Council sanctions and could restart a weapons program at any time.
(If they wanted to, which they don't appear to. And it's impossible to 'restart' something that never existed in the first place. But it's enlightening to study the spin these Neo-Fascists are using. Study it very closely, because they're using all their dirty tricks on this one. Learn them.)
Admiral Mullen was a guest of the Israeli chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, who held a dinner for him Sunday night.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/world/middleeast/11mullen.html?ex=1355029200&en=61f9d2d5748a47a0&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
In light of this, it's important to keep the following recent information in mind:
Israel, US to set up joint committees on Iran: report
http://rawstory.com /news/afp/Israel_US_to_set_up_joint.com mittee_11092007.html
Note the willingness of the original source to repeat the long-refuted LIE that Ahmadinejad threatened to 'wipe Israel off the map', the result of a mistranslation from Farsi to English, which was corrected the same week it was made.
It's ironic that we're supposed to support a war, based on this lie, yet ignore the fact that Israel and the US are actually plotting to attack this sovereign country.
Israel, US meet to discuss common Middle East strategy
Minister Shaul Mofaz speaks about possible future sanctions on Iran, replacing current director of IAEA
http://www..net news.com /Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3469447,00.html
Israel urges ElBaradei removal
Thu, 08 Nov 2007
Israel has mockingly called for the removal of IAEA chief from his post, claiming he has turned a blind eye to Iran's nuclear progress.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=30268
IAEA Leader's Phone Tapped
U.S. Pores Over Transcripts to Try to Oust Nuclear Chief
http://www.washingtonpost.com /ac2/wp-dyn/A57928-2004Dec11?language=printer
Olmert: ElBaradei 'no fan of Israel'
Israel intensifies its criticism (slander) of IAEA, prime minister says its chief does not harbor positive feelings towards Israel. 'His lethargic and irresponsible conduct should have led to his dismissal,' says cabinet minister
http://www..net news.com /articles/0,7340,L-3469118,00.html
Memo to Prime Minister Olmert: the only thing for which the Head of the IAEA, Mohamed El Baradei should be "a fan" is simply this: the truth.
And he seems to be. That's why the Neo-Fascists want to replace him with someone more 'pliable' ...
What is happening here is, as Yogi Berra used to say. "deja vu all over again". We are again witnessing the personal smearing and crafted innuendos against the man who has stated very clearly that Iran has no weapons program.
Iran is simply building a power plant, nothing more.
Does anyone remember what happened, right before the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, when Hans Blix stated that Iraq absolutely had no weapons of mass destruction?
Blix: I was smeared by the Pentagon
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,974998,00.html
This is precisely the same thing.
Now, we can only wait to find out precisely when the US and Israel will declare the UN "irrelevant" again, and go in with guns blazing.
Bombed If You Do, Bombed If You Don't
by Rep. Ron Paul
http://www.antiwar.com/paul/?articleid=12033
Israel Considering Strike on Iran Despite US Intelligence Report
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8694S
Report Exposes Neo-Con LIES On Iran
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8655S
'Laptop of Death': Revising the NIE on Iran
The entire claim that Iran was building nuclear weapons rests on a laptop provided by a dubious source.
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8720S
14/12/2007
by Anshel Pfeffer Jerusalem
Israel is working together with the United States administration and the British and French governments to counter the effect caused by the US National Intelligence Estimate report last week, which stated that Iran had stopped its military nuclear programme in 2003.
The report has also changed Israel’s diplomatic policy towards the Iranian threat.
Senior officials from all four governments were in contact last week immediately following the report’s publication to coordinate steps to minimise its effect.
US National Security adviser Stephen Hadley and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s chief of staff, Yoram Turbovich, were involved in planning the two governments’ subsequent actions together with British and French officials. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s statement last week that Iran was still in defiance of the international community, and therefore Britain would seek further sanctions, was also part of these efforts, as was the publicity attached to Binyamin Netanyahu’s meeting on Monday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss the Iranian issue.
Despite being the official head of the opposition, Mr Netanyahu was conveying official messages from Mr Olmert to the French leadership.
On Sunday, following the cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Mr Olmert issued a statement saying that “Iran is continuing to manufacture and develop ballistic missiles and continuing its research and development aimed at nuclear armament,” and that Israel would act to bring this information to the attention of the world.
Mr Olmert was in effect announcing a departure from the policy Israel maintained over the past few years, formulated by ex-prime minister Ariel Sharon. This put forward the view that the Iranian nuclear programme was “the world’s problem” and that Israel should be careful not to be seen as the prime motivator of pressure on Iran.
Now it is clear to the decision-makers that Israel has to be a lot more energetic in convincing the international community and public opinion that Iran is still intent on building a bomb.
“Israel has been pushed into the centre of the world’s attention by the American intelligence report,” one government adviser told the JC.
“It would have been much better if the Americans and Europeans had acted on this earlier and with more vigour,” said another diplomatic source, “but that was an unrealistic expectation.
“It was the right thing to say at the time, but the problem was that, for too long, the government actually believed that message and only over the last few months has the Iranian issue gone to the top of the agenda. The American report was a last wake-up call for whoever still needed it that Israel has to rely on itself first in this. For the Americans, an Iranian bomb is a serious threat to their interests; for us it’s a serious threat to our very existence.”
According to a senior Israeli intelligence source, “the American report was a much shorter version of a larger report.
“There were worries that it would be leaked to the press, so the administration had no choice but to release the version, which was hastily and carelessly written.
“Now everyone has gone in to damage-limitation mode. There is still no question among the intelligence agencies, including those of the US, that the Iranians are working on a bomb and one out-of-context sentence from one report doesn’t change that at all. The US, Israel, Britain and France are now working together to change the impression caused by that report.”
There have been calls within the government to reveal at least part of the Israeli assessments of the Iranian programme, but these have been rebuffed by the intelligence community.
However, it is now the consensus within government that the time of quiet diplomacy is over and Jerusalem will have to work a lot more openly with the western governments on this issue. After the initial shock of the NIE report, the assurances received from the US administration and the response of the British and French leaderships have been generally encouraging.
http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11s19&SecId=19&AId=56976&ATypeId=1 Israeli Extremists Brief Top U.S. Official on Iran
The largest threat to the region doesn't come from Iran: it comes from Israel's success in having had the US "neutralize" countries which it believes to be an existential threat to it's existence.
However, there's just one little problem with this approach concerning Iran.
Russia's diplomats have stated unequivocally that any attack against Iran will be perceived as an attack on Russia.
Well, that, and the fact that none but a small Fringe in America supports the Extremists in DC.
Israelis Brief Top U.S. Official on Iran
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: December 11, 2007
JERUSALEM, Dec. 10 — Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made an unusual visit to Israel and got a polite earful on Monday about Israel’s gloomy assessment of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Israel thinks that an American intelligence assessment of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, published in an unclassified version last week, is unduly optimistic and focuses too narrowly on the last stage of weapons development — fashioning a bomb from highly enriched uranium.
(No, they're simply angry that the report was released so publicly, and so contradicted the statements of the Extremists thirsty for war with Iran. They know the 'nuclear issue' is only the excuse, not the reason, behind their threats an preparations for another Act of Aggression.)
The National Intelligence Estimate, a consensus of 16 American spy agencies, says with “high confidence” that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and with “moderate confidence” that the program had not resumed.
(However, this is rather misleading, since the entire claim that Iran even had such a program comes from a single, questionable source reminiscent of the Ahmad Chalabi information regarding Iraq. See 'Laptop of Death' below.)
Israeli intelligence estimates say Iran stopped all its nuclear weapons activities for a time in 2003, nervous after the American invasion of Iraq, but then resumed those activities in 2005, accelerating enrichment and ballistic missile development and constructing a 40-megawatt heavy-water reactor in Arak that could produce plutonium.
('Could' being the operative word. In other words, the Israelis don't actually have any evidence of such a thing, they simply want us to believe otherwise, so they can start a war, or the US will start a war they want.)
Israel believes Iran continues to work, however limited by international pressure and economic and technical difficulties, on all phases of building a nuclear weapon. Iran denies ever having had a nuclear weapons program and says its nuclear program is focused on generating electricity.
(Israel doesn't actually believe this, and know very well that the facts contradict their empty allegations.)
In meetings on Monday with the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, and Israeli intelligence officials, Admiral Mullen and his staff listened to concerns that Iran could produce a nuclear bomb, unless deterred, by the end of 2009 at the earliest or, more likely, sometime in 2010-11.
(If they decided they want to-and the evidence says they don't. And even if they did, this would not be grounds for a war. Iran, on the other hand, knowing of a US/Israeli plot to attack it, could claim pre-emption in any attack on either country. But they don't want to start an unecessary war, unlike these Israeli Extremists.)
The Pentagon, focused on Iraq, is eager for a diplomatic solution with Iran. But the Pentagon has also emphasized that the intelligence estimate “made it clear that Iran did have a nuclear weapons program and that they are still enriching uranium,” said Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for the admiral.
(Unless more evidence is produced, making this single-sourced claim is irresponsible, and rather deceptive. Iran is within its rights under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in enriching uranium, and has done nothing wrong.)
Captain Kirby called Monday’s discussions “productive and candid,” and said they centered on regional challenges “and the shared recognition that there remains a potential for Iran to develop nuclear weapons and threaten its neighbors.”
(A "potential" is very different than actually doing so, or even trying to. Look for a marked shift in the Bush/PNAC Regime's Talking Points in the days ahead.)
Admiral Mullen, who has been chairman of the Joint Chiefs for only a few months, was making a 24-hour visit to Israel, rare despite close defense ties between the United States and Israel.
He was returning from a regional security conference in Bahrain, where the American defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, emphasized that Washington continued to see Iran as a grave threat to regional security. Mr. Gates said Iran had accelerated its efforts to enrich uranium despite United Nations Security Council sanctions and could restart a weapons program at any time.
(If they wanted to, which they don't appear to. And it's impossible to 'restart' something that never existed in the first place. But it's enlightening to study the spin these Neo-Fascists are using. Study it very closely, because they're using all their dirty tricks on this one. Learn them.)
Admiral Mullen was a guest of the Israeli chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, who held a dinner for him Sunday night.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/world/middleeast/11mullen.html?ex=1355029200&en=61f9d2d5748a47a0&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss In light of this, it's important to keep the following recent information in mind:
Israel, US to set up joint committees on Iran: report
http://rawstory.com /news/afp/Israel_US_to_set_up_joint.com mittee_11092007.html Note the willingness of the original source to repeat the long-refuted LIE that Ahmadinejad threatened to 'wipe Israel off the map', the result of a mistranslation from Farsi to English, which was corrected the same week it was made.
It's ironic that we're supposed to support a war, based on this lie, yet ignore the fact that Israel and the US are actually plotting to attack this sovereign country.
Israel, US meet to discuss common Middle East strategy
Minister Shaul Mofaz speaks about possible future sanctions on Iran, replacing current director of IAEA
http://www..net news.com /Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3469447,00.html Israel urges ElBaradei removal
Thu, 08 Nov 2007
Israel has mockingly called for the removal of IAEA chief from his post, claiming he has turned a blind eye to Iran's nuclear progress.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=30268 IAEA Leader's Phone Tapped
U.S. Pores Over Transcripts to Try to Oust Nuclear Chief
http://www.washingtonpost.com /ac2/wp-dyn/A57928-2004Dec11?language=printer Olmert: ElBaradei 'no fan of Israel'
Israel intensifies its criticism (slander) of IAEA, prime minister says its chief does not harbor positive feelings towards Israel. 'His lethargic and irresponsible conduct should have led to his dismissal,' says cabinet minister
http://www..net news.com /articles/0,7340,L-3469118,00.html Memo to Prime Minister Olmert: the only thing for which the Head of the IAEA, Mohamed El Baradei should be "a fan" is simply this: the truth.
And he seems to be. That's why the Neo-Fascists want to replace him with someone more 'pliable' ...
What is happening here is, as Yogi Berra used to say. "deja vu all over again". We are again witnessing the personal smearing and crafted innuendos against the man who has stated very clearly that Iran has no weapons program.
Iran is simply building a power plant, nothing more.
Does anyone remember what happened, right before the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, when Hans Blix stated that Iraq absolutely had no weapons of mass destruction?
Blix: I was smeared by the Pentagon
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,974998,00.html This is precisely the same thing.
Now, we can only wait to find out precisely when the US and Israel will declare the UN "irrelevant" again, and go in with guns blazing.
Bombed If You Do, Bombed If You Don't
by Rep. Ron Paul
http://www.antiwar.com/paul/?articleid=12033 Israel Considering Strike on Iran Despite US Intelligence Report
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8694S Report Exposes Neo-Con LIES On Iran
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8655S 'Laptop of Death': Revising the NIE on Iran
The entire claim that Iran was building nuclear weapons rests on a laptop provided by a dubious source.
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8720S
Oppose Neo-Fascism