Bowing to US pressure last week, Brown went from virtual silence on the issue, to throwing his full support behind the Conspiracy.
Rumors of (More) War
Likelihood of Iran Attack Gains Credence
By DAVE LINDORFF
As someone who has been writing about this crazed administration's plans to launch an attack on Iran now for over a year, I have always noted that the real sign that it might happen would be when oil industry analysts started to worry about it.
That's because the oil industry is probably more plugged into the inner sanctum of the Bush administration than any other entity. If the analysts, who have their fingers on the pulse of the oil industry, start worrying that an attack could happen--with the resulting shutdown of oil shipments through the Persian Gulf, from which the world gets roughly a third of its oil--then we need to take the threat very seriously.
While we haven't seen the kind of spike in oil futures prices that we would expect should that mad war begin--which would see oil soaring well above $200 a barrel--we are seeing oil rise to a record high of around $100 a barrel.
Now comes word from the respected newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor, that analysts are starting to factor a US attack on Iran into their thinking. As the newspaper put it in an article published today reporting on the recently concluded meeting of the leaders of OPEC nations:
The 13-nation cartel once controlled prices often by just talking about pumping more or less oil. But now its leaders say booming world demand--largely from India and China--and concern over a possible US attack on Iran are driving prices.
The article also quotes an oil industry analyst, Mustafa Alani, of the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, UAE, who says, " ... there's very little they [the OPEC leaders] can do if there's an attack on Iran or something of that nature. In that case, prices will double, perhaps go to $300 a barrel."
It may be that Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his generals, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, and the leaders of many of America's Fortune 500 companies are opposed to an attack on Iran, knowing that it will be a military disaster and that it would cause a global economic collapse, but the US today is being led by two insane and desperate men, who may not care what any of those people think. With their domestic and international policies in ruins and their legacy a disaster, they may have decided to double up on their bet and just throw everything in with an air assault on Iran.
Keep watching those oil prices. If they start really bumping up from their current level, hold on to your Constitution--and get the hell out of dollars--because they're both going down.
Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. His n book of CounterPunch columns titled "This Can't be Happening!" is published by Common Courage Press. Lindorff's newest book is "The Case for Impeachment", co-authored by Barbara Olshansky.
He can be reached at:
dlindorff@mindspring.com
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff11202007.html
Are we Going to Occupy Iran and Syria, Too?
by Prof. Eric Alterman
Global Research, November 18, 2007
Media Matters for America - 2007-11-14
Are we going to occupy Iran and Syria, too?
I got a letter the other day from a faculty member at the University of Maryland's overseas division in Europe. UM is the primary university providing classes for U.S. service members abroad.
Here it is:
The reason that I am writing today is to inform you of something rather unsettling. Last weekend, we had a Europe-wide faculty meeting at our headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany. At that meeting, we were told that the U of MD military education contracts will be expanding soon to Iraq, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Djibouti, and other locations in the Middle East and Africa. This comes as no surprise.
What is startling is that the U.S. military has also asked us to prepare a bid for educational programs in IRAN and SYRIA (and, oddly enough, France -- where we have had no presence since NATO was expelled in 1967 -- probably a function of the new conservative government there). We will be bidding on an education contract to these locations at the end of November.
"This is a truly ominous development. The U of MD overseas program follows the military around the world -- thus clearly the contingencies for an occupation of several Middle Eastern countries is not only being contemplated, but actually set up.
Could someone with an expense account from a major media corporation still interested in journalism please look into this?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7359
Israel's Syrian Air Strike Was Aimed at Iran
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8196S
The ME has had a Secretive Nuclear Power in its Midst for Years
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8195S
Spooks Refuse to Toe Cheney's Line on Iran
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8173S
IAEA Again Verifies Iranian Compliance
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8130S
Israeli Extremists Prep for Nuclear Strike on Iran
http://www.israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/7903/index.php
Israel, US Joint Plotting Against Iran, Attack ElBaredei
http://www.israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/7888/index.php
Likelihood of Iran Attack Gains Credence
By DAVE LINDORFF
As someone who has been writing about this crazed administration's plans to launch an attack on Iran now for over a year, I have always noted that the real sign that it might happen would be when oil industry analysts started to worry about it.
That's because the oil industry is probably more plugged into the inner sanctum of the Bush administration than any other entity. If the analysts, who have their fingers on the pulse of the oil industry, start worrying that an attack could happen--with the resulting shutdown of oil shipments through the Persian Gulf, from which the world gets roughly a third of its oil--then we need to take the threat very seriously.
While we haven't seen the kind of spike in oil futures prices that we would expect should that mad war begin--which would see oil soaring well above $200 a barrel--we are seeing oil rise to a record high of around $100 a barrel.
Now comes word from the respected newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor, that analysts are starting to factor a US attack on Iran into their thinking. As the newspaper put it in an article published today reporting on the recently concluded meeting of the leaders of OPEC nations:
The 13-nation cartel once controlled prices often by just talking about pumping more or less oil. But now its leaders say booming world demand--largely from India and China--and concern over a possible US attack on Iran are driving prices.
The article also quotes an oil industry analyst, Mustafa Alani, of the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, UAE, who says, " ... there's very little they [the OPEC leaders] can do if there's an attack on Iran or something of that nature. In that case, prices will double, perhaps go to $300 a barrel."
It may be that Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his generals, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, and the leaders of many of America's Fortune 500 companies are opposed to an attack on Iran, knowing that it will be a military disaster and that it would cause a global economic collapse, but the US today is being led by two insane and desperate men, who may not care what any of those people think. With their domestic and international policies in ruins and their legacy a disaster, they may have decided to double up on their bet and just throw everything in with an air assault on Iran.
Keep watching those oil prices. If they start really bumping up from their current level, hold on to your Constitution--and get the hell out of dollars--because they're both going down.
Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. His n book of CounterPunch columns titled "This Can't be Happening!" is published by Common Courage Press. Lindorff's newest book is "The Case for Impeachment", co-authored by Barbara Olshansky.
He can be reached at:
dlindorff@mindspring.com http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff11202007.html Are we Going to Occupy Iran and Syria, Too?
by Prof. Eric Alterman
Global Research, November 18, 2007
Media Matters for America - 2007-11-14
Are we going to occupy Iran and Syria, too?
I got a letter the other day from a faculty member at the University of Maryland's overseas division in Europe. UM is the primary university providing classes for U.S. service members abroad.
Here it is:
The reason that I am writing today is to inform you of something rather unsettling. Last weekend, we had a Europe-wide faculty meeting at our headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany. At that meeting, we were told that the U of MD military education contracts will be expanding soon to Iraq, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Djibouti, and other locations in the Middle East and Africa. This comes as no surprise.
What is startling is that the U.S. military has also asked us to prepare a bid for educational programs in IRAN and SYRIA (and, oddly enough, France -- where we have had no presence since NATO was expelled in 1967 -- probably a function of the new conservative government there). We will be bidding on an education contract to these locations at the end of November.
"This is a truly ominous development. The U of MD overseas program follows the military around the world -- thus clearly the contingencies for an occupation of several Middle Eastern countries is not only being contemplated, but actually set up.
Could someone with an expense account from a major media corporation still interested in journalism please look into this?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7359 Israel's Syrian Air Strike Was Aimed at Iran
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8196S The ME has had a Secretive Nuclear Power in its Midst for Years
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8195S Spooks Refuse to Toe Cheney's Line on Iran
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8173S IAEA Again Verifies Iranian Compliance
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?8130S Israeli Extremists Prep for Nuclear Strike on Iran
http://www.israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/7903/index.php Israel, US Joint Plotting Against Iran, Attack ElBaredei
http://www.israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/7888/index.php 
