Israel to brief George Bush on options for Iran strike
"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. Israeli intelligence is understood to agree that Iran stopped a secret nuclear weapon programme in 2003, but has “rock solid” information that it has since started up again.
Yeah, and where have we heard THAT BEFORE?
While security officials are reluctant to reveal all their intelligence, fearing that leaks could jeopardise the element of surprise in any future attack, they are expected to present the president with fresh details of Iran’s enrichment of uranium - which could be used for civil or military purposes - and the development of missiles that could carry nuclear warheads.
Bush, in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot this weekend, argued that in spite of the US intelligence assessment, Iran still posed a threat:
“I read the intelligence report carefully. In essence, what the report said was that Iran had a secret plan to develop nuclear weapon. I’m saying that a state which adopted a nontransparent policy and had a secret plan for developing nuclear weapons could easily develop an alternative plan for the same purpose. So to conclude from the intelligence report that there is no Iranian plan to develop nuclear weapons will be only a partial truth.”
How Israel Got the Nuclear Bomb.
Israeli security officials believe the only way to prevent uranium enrichment to military grade is to destroy Iranian installations. Many Israelis are eager to know whether America would give their country the green light to attack, as it did last September when Israel struck a mysterious nuclear site in Syria.
Bush: "All options are on the table.”
Blogger commentary:
As for Bush, he is in violation of international law merely by agreeing to Israel's plans, because both the United States and Iran (but not Israel) signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which gives Iran the legal right to build nuclear power stations and to manufacture the fuel rods for them. George Bush is breaking that treaty by bowing to Israel desire to continue its monopoly on nuclear power in the Mideast.
There is no other way to spin this; Israel and George Bush are the criminals in this issue." -- Mike Rivero of What Really Happened
AFP: Bush says US would defend Israel if Iran attacks
"US President George W. Bush said Washington would defend its close ally Israel in the event of an Iranian attack, in remarks broadcast on Israeli army radio on Sunday.
Bush, in excerpts of an interview with an Israeli television station to be aired in its entirety later in the day:
"Whether there's an imminent attack coming, I don't think so. If Iran did strike Israel... We will defend our ally, no ands, ifs or buts."
And what if Iz-ray-HELL strikes Iran, asshole?
And the venue here is fascinating: Israeli Army radio?!?" -- Mike Rivero of What Really Happened
And right on cue!!!!!
Another GULF of TONKIN coming up?
BREAKING! Iran & U.S. Navy have confrontation at sea
Iranian ships 'harass' U.S. Navy, officials say - CNN.com
Bullsh*t corporate media: CNN Pentagon correspondent claims Iran harrass US Navy at Strait of Hormuz
Pentagon says ships harassed by Iran
"US Navy says?" That the same Navy insisted TWA 800 fell out of the sky from a spark in the central tank?
Because the US Navy and the US Government have zero credibility right now, and we know that Bush and his Neocon/Israeli supporters are still itching to kick off a war in Iran even after the NIE makes it clear that Bush was lying yet again about 'nookular' bombs to justify a war of conquest in which YOUR kids will get killed and crippled making already rich old farts just that much richer.
Stop and ask yourself, does it make sense for Iran, having just dodged a bullet with the NIE, to go out of their way to provoke three American warships using 5 BOATS?
Take a look at the Straight of Hormuz. It's NARROW. Traffic passes within hundreds of yards of each other normally just to keep from running aground in the shallow shore waters. All it takes is someone with a radio transmitter operating on US military frequencies to broadcast the radio messages blamed on the Iranians.
And we know who loves to play those kinds of games.
Personally, this sounds like another "by way of deception" hoax to kick off a US attack on Iran now that the NIE took away the 'nookular' bomb excuse." -- Mike Rivero of What Really Happened"
And we are NOT FOOLED this time!
Bush will find no Gulf takers for war with Iran
"By Lydia Georgi
‘Bush is also unlikely to secure concrete steps by his Gulf hosts to forge ties with Israel’
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.
Bush said in his weekly radio address Saturday that the trip aimed to curtail the “aggressive ambitions” of Iran.
The oil-rich Gulf monarchies, including Qatar which Bush visited in 2003, have close military links with the United States and are major buyers of US weaponry. Kuwait hosts some 15,000 US troops and served as a launchpad for the Iraq invasion. Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. One US aircraft carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman, is currently operating in the Gulf, according to a Fifth Fleet spokesman - down from two last year. But Washington has kept up the heat on Iran, with US Defence Secretary Robert Gates calling for the establishment of an “air and missile defence umbrella” over the Gulf region to deter missile attacks by Tehran.
Anwar Eshki, who heads a Saudi private think tank, said Washington wants to extend the “missile defence shield” planned in eastern Europe to the Gulf region in order to “encircle Russia,” citing the Iranian “threat.” While a US strike against Iran does not appear imminent, Israel might attack the Islamic republic and “drag the United States” into the conflict, he said.
Kuwaitis are worried that Bush might exert pressure on Gulf states “to win their support for a military strike against Iran,” which would “badly affect” the region’s economy, Kuwaiti health ministry employee Sami al-Mani told AFP.
Echoing frequent criticism of US policies in the regional press, columnist Iman Kurdi wrote in the Saudi daily Arab News Saturday that while a US-Iranian showdown has so far been averted, Bush’s “blood lust” means that he may yet choose to “go out (from office in a year’s time) on a bang.”
Bush is also unlikely to secure concrete steps by his Gulf hosts to forge ties with Israel, according to Manna. Bush will presumably urge Gulf leaders to “extend a hand of friendship” to the Jewish state."
What a ZIONIST TOOL HE IS!!!!!!!!!!
Now it turns out that the MSM LIED about the "incident."
"The US vessels approached the Iranian boats in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, warning they were in the red zone, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Press TV on Monday."
by Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet Monday, January 7, 2008
Desperate for a Gulf of Tonkin style incident to reinvigorate momentum for an attack on Iran after the National Intelligence Estimate derailed the push for war, the Pentagon is crying foul over the alleged hostile intent of Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats after an incident in the Strait of Hormuz this weekend.
In what U.S. officials called a serious provocation, Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, threatening to explode the American vessels, reports the Associated Press.U.S. forces were on the verge of firing on the Iranian boats in the early Sunday incident, when the boats turned and moved away, a Pentagon official said. "It is the most serious provocation of this sort that we've seen yet," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
Of course, the hyping of such an incident is directly timed to correlate with Bush's visit to the middle east this week in which he will make a desperate attempt to resurrect the boogeyman of Iran's non-existent nuclear weapons program. He will also be briefed by Israeli security officials about "Iran’s nuclear programme - and how it could be destroyed," reports the London Times.
The Times seems to conveniently leave out the fact that the CIA's most recent National Intelligence Estimate emphatically concluded that Iran ceased its pursuit of a nuclear weapon in 2003.
But that matters not to war junkie Neo-Cons who will use any pretext to send more American boys and girls into the imperial meat-grinder in the interests of middle eastern hegemony and corporate blood money.
Numerous respected public figures, from Ron Paul to Zbigniew Brzezinski have warned that a Gulf of Tonkin style stunt could be pulled as a pretext for air strikes on Iran.
It certainly wouldn't be the first time the Bush administration has considered staging incidents as a justification for war. During Bush's January 31 2003 meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a scenario whereby Saddam Hussein would be goaded into shooting down a U2 spy plane painted in UN colors was discussed.Printed from: http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2008/070108_iranian_ships.htm"
