it makes me weary just reading this thread....doesn't anybody feel the least bit of OUTRAGE?
Is Iran Next After Iraq!
I guess some troops will be pulled out of Iraq if this comes to fruition! 
I can't help but see how Bush is further alienating us from the world...making America the country to hate! Following right along the book of Revelations....I hope and pray along the same lines that Bush realizes sometime before it's too late..that China and Russia are not our "friends"!
Journalist: U.S. planning for possible attack on Iran
White House says report is 'riddled with inaccuracies'
Sunday, January 16, 2005 Posted: 9:23 PM EST (0223 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration has been carrying out secret reconnaissance missions to learn about nuclear, chemical and missile sites in Iran in preparation for possible airstrikes there, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday.
The effort has been under way at least since last summer, Hersh said on CNN's "Late Edition."
In an interview on the same program, White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett said the story was "riddled with inaccuracies."
"I don't believe that some of the conclusions he's drawing are based on fact," Bartlett said.
Iran has refused to dismantle its nuclear program, which it insists is legal and is intended solely for civilian purposes.
Hersh said U.S. officials were involved in "extensive planning" for a possible attack -- "much more than we know."
"The goal is to identify and isolate three dozen, and perhaps more, such targets that could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids," he wrote in "The New Yorker" magazine, which published his article in editions that will be on newsstands Monday.
Hersh is a veteran journalist who was the first to write about many details of the abuses of prisoners Abu Ghraib in Baghdad.
He said his information on Iran came from "inside" sources who divulged it in the hope that publicity would force the administration to reconsider.
"I think that's one of the reasons some of the people on the inside talk to me," he said.
Hersh said the government did not answer his request for a response before the story's publication, and that his sources include people in government whose information has been reliable in the past.
Hersh said Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld view Bush's re-election as "a mandate to continue the war on terrorism," despite problems with the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Last week, the effort to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- the Bush administration's stated primary rationale for the war -- was halted after having come up empty.
The secret missions in Iran, Hersh said, have been authorized in order to prevent similar embarrassment in the event of military action there.
"The planning for Iran is going ahead even though Iraq is a mess," Hersh said. "I think they really think there's a chance to do something in Iran, perhaps by summer, to get the intelligence on the sites."
He added, "The guys on the inside really want to do this."
Hersh identified those inside people as the "neoconservative" civilian leadership in the Pentagon. That includes Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of Defense Doug Feith -- "the sort of war hawks that we talk about in connection with the war in Iraq."
And he said the preparation goes beyond contingency planning and includes detailed plans for air attacks:
"The next step is Iran. It's definitely there. They're definitely planning ... But they need the intelligence first."
Emphasizing 'diplomatic initiatives'
Bartlett said the United States is working with its European allies to help persuade Iran not to pursue nuclear weapons.
Asked if military action is an option should diplomacy fail, Bartlett said, "No president at any juncture in history has ever taken military options off the table."
But Bush "has shown that he believes we can emphasize the diplomatic initiatives that are under way right now," he said.
Hersh said U.S. officials believe that a U.S. attack on Iran might provoke an uprising by Iranians against the hard-line religious leaders who run the government. Similar arguments were made ahead of the invasion of Iraq, when administration officials predicted U.S. troops would be welcomed as liberators.
And Hersh said administration officials have chosen not to include conflicting points of view in their deliberations -- such as predictions that any U.S. attack would provoke a wave of nationalism that would unite Iranians against the United States.
"As people say to me, when it comes to meetings about this issue, if you don't drink the Kool-Aid, you can't go to meetings," he said. "That isn't a message anybody wants to hear."
The plans are not limited to Iran, he said.
"The president assigned a series of findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other special forces units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia," he wrote.
Under the secret plans, the war on terrorism would be led by the Pentagon, and the power of the CIA would be reduced, Hersh wrote in his article.
"It's sort of a great victory for Donald Rumsfeld, a bureaucratic victory," Hersh told CNN.
He said: "Since the summer of 2002, he's been advocating, 'Let me run this war, not the CIA. We can do it better. We'll send our boys in. We don't have to tell their local military commanders. We don't have to tell the ambassadors. We don't have to tell the CIA station chiefs in various countries. Let's go in and work with the bad guys and see what we can find out.'"
Hersh added that the administration has chipped away at the CIA's power and that newly appointed CIA Director Porter Goss has overseen a purge of the old order.
"He's been committing sort-of ordered executions'" Hersh said. "He's been -- you know, people have been fired, they've been resigning."
The target of the housecleaning at the CIA, he said, has been intelligence analysts, some of whom are seen as "apostates -- as opposed to being true believers."
I can't help but see how Bush is further alienating us from the world...making America the country to hate! Following right along the book of Revelations....I hope and pray along the same lines that Bush realizes sometime before it's too late..that China and Russia are not our "friends"!Journalist: U.S. planning for possible attack on Iran
White House says report is 'riddled with inaccuracies'
Sunday, January 16, 2005 Posted: 9:23 PM EST (0223 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration has been carrying out secret reconnaissance missions to learn about nuclear, chemical and missile sites in Iran in preparation for possible airstrikes there, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday.
The effort has been under way at least since last summer, Hersh said on CNN's "Late Edition."
In an interview on the same program, White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett said the story was "riddled with inaccuracies."
"I don't believe that some of the conclusions he's drawing are based on fact," Bartlett said.
Iran has refused to dismantle its nuclear program, which it insists is legal and is intended solely for civilian purposes.
Hersh said U.S. officials were involved in "extensive planning" for a possible attack -- "much more than we know."
"The goal is to identify and isolate three dozen, and perhaps more, such targets that could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids," he wrote in "The New Yorker" magazine, which published his article in editions that will be on newsstands Monday.
Hersh is a veteran journalist who was the first to write about many details of the abuses of prisoners Abu Ghraib in Baghdad.
He said his information on Iran came from "inside" sources who divulged it in the hope that publicity would force the administration to reconsider.
"I think that's one of the reasons some of the people on the inside talk to me," he said.
Hersh said the government did not answer his request for a response before the story's publication, and that his sources include people in government whose information has been reliable in the past.
Hersh said Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld view Bush's re-election as "a mandate to continue the war on terrorism," despite problems with the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Last week, the effort to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- the Bush administration's stated primary rationale for the war -- was halted after having come up empty.
The secret missions in Iran, Hersh said, have been authorized in order to prevent similar embarrassment in the event of military action there.
"The planning for Iran is going ahead even though Iraq is a mess," Hersh said. "I think they really think there's a chance to do something in Iran, perhaps by summer, to get the intelligence on the sites."
He added, "The guys on the inside really want to do this."
Hersh identified those inside people as the "neoconservative" civilian leadership in the Pentagon. That includes Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of Defense Doug Feith -- "the sort of war hawks that we talk about in connection with the war in Iraq."
And he said the preparation goes beyond contingency planning and includes detailed plans for air attacks:
"The next step is Iran. It's definitely there. They're definitely planning ... But they need the intelligence first."
Emphasizing 'diplomatic initiatives'
Bartlett said the United States is working with its European allies to help persuade Iran not to pursue nuclear weapons.
Asked if military action is an option should diplomacy fail, Bartlett said, "No president at any juncture in history has ever taken military options off the table."
But Bush "has shown that he believes we can emphasize the diplomatic initiatives that are under way right now," he said.
Hersh said U.S. officials believe that a U.S. attack on Iran might provoke an uprising by Iranians against the hard-line religious leaders who run the government. Similar arguments were made ahead of the invasion of Iraq, when administration officials predicted U.S. troops would be welcomed as liberators.
And Hersh said administration officials have chosen not to include conflicting points of view in their deliberations -- such as predictions that any U.S. attack would provoke a wave of nationalism that would unite Iranians against the United States.
"As people say to me, when it comes to meetings about this issue, if you don't drink the Kool-Aid, you can't go to meetings," he said. "That isn't a message anybody wants to hear."
The plans are not limited to Iran, he said.
"The president assigned a series of findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other special forces units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia," he wrote.
Under the secret plans, the war on terrorism would be led by the Pentagon, and the power of the CIA would be reduced, Hersh wrote in his article.
"It's sort of a great victory for Donald Rumsfeld, a bureaucratic victory," Hersh told CNN.
He said: "Since the summer of 2002, he's been advocating, 'Let me run this war, not the CIA. We can do it better. We'll send our boys in. We don't have to tell their local military commanders. We don't have to tell the ambassadors. We don't have to tell the CIA station chiefs in various countries. Let's go in and work with the bad guys and see what we can find out.'"
Hersh added that the administration has chipped away at the CIA's power and that newly appointed CIA Director Porter Goss has overseen a purge of the old order.
"He's been committing sort-of ordered executions'" Hersh said. "He's been -- you know, people have been fired, they've been resigning."
The target of the housecleaning at the CIA, he said, has been intelligence analysts, some of whom are seen as "apostates -- as opposed to being true believers."
- Status
1 - 20 of 5050 Posts
angelize56 said:Iran Speaks Up! Guess they heard the news too!
Attachments
eggsaxactly :up: ....... this stinks of empire building (control)....the school yard bully, or the all star athlete (depending on your pov) in a pissing contest with some testosterone nemisis...there is no end to the list of "potential enemies" in the world, if you set it up as an armed camp.izme said:All I can say is, are you willing to send your children to Iran, for what our Government see's as a threat, and if they die there, was it worth it to lose your son or daughter? Maybe we should put these politicians on the front line first? How much more war can we endure and how long will the other powers that be, let us run amock like Alexander the great? Defensive actions to prevent the inevitable? Why not go after Saudi Arabia too? Hell, why stop there? Canada has rich oil reserves
if you're one to see the unrest in iraq as simple terrorism, then our efforts to curb terrorism have been an absymal failure, compounding the problem....to those who would scoff and point out how it's "localized", at least, i can only shake my head at the profoundly egocentric pov.
i stand on my astonishment at so little outrage
purely political, angel.angelize56 said:^^ iltos: Hmmm.....are you comparing me with LAN...or just making a political statement with that avatar?
....tho methinks the articles you're posting on this thread are feeding the fuel of my flames...it tough for me to come to grips with policies created out of fear.
LOL....a very tactful way to say "get a grip" :up:LANMaster said:Outrage over what?
Have we attacked Iran?
911...thousands of innocent people die....we are outraged and vow justice
afganistan....breeding ground of terrorism, the glitter dome of OBL...we liberate that country from the taliban, as a part of our bringing OBL to justice...then chase him into the mountains, hunting him.....
^^^^this, to me, is the war on terrorism
iraq....a megalomanic that had outlived his usefullness...an unadmitted embarrassement, and an easy target, cause hussein was an overblown small fry with visions of grandeur....MUCH more noteworthy than OBL, who continues to prove himself really intelligent and invisible to our high tech radar.....so we put the war on terrorism on the back burner (my pov) to do a little clean up in the region...oh yeah, and as long as we're at it, let bring "freedom" (our version) to these poor, oppressed people....they'll love it
iran....well, shoot, some successes in iraq, some failure, too....this whole democracy thing is elusive.....but we'll continue to chase it into the mountains, hunting it (it must be around here somewhere)....but, look, as long as where here and throwing our weight around.....
and this is what it feels like, LAN....adding layer upon layer to a half baked cassarole loosely called the war on terrorism.....
i hear your pov, and don't mean to present my outrage as taking issue with it......your responses are thoughtful, reasonable and measured.....
but i don't feel at all reasonable and measured about this...it is almost like the specter of hussein hangs over the region, and anyone seeking to bring order to it, for whatever noble or ignoble purpose, is subject to the influence of his madness.....
either that, or bush went into iraq to fight his own shadow
if i were president (god help us)....my four years would see me impeached inside of a year....if that didn't happened, we'd either all be dead by the end of my first term, or this madness would end by the end of my second one.....LANMaster said:Good question.
The Administration denies any such actual preparations are in the works.
But if you were President, wouldn't you have people working on contingencies for any likely threat from Iran & NK ????
I submit to you that this is all blown out of proportion by Hersh, or a clandestine deliberate leak by the DOD to make the Iranians think twice about her nuclear aspirations. If the latter is the case, it apparently failed. I tend to believe the former. Hersh has a history of anti-Republican hysteria. I submit this is all about him regardless the damage it does with our relationship with Iran.
Just my opinion.
that our human brains, gifted with so much logic and imagination, can even concieve of a rational scenario that would again justify the use of nuclear weapons.....this is exactly why some folks suggest that we, as a species, are an evolutionary dead end.....izme said:
just because we can think ourselves into lose-lose situations and allow our egos to find an advantage in it is not the same thing as intelligence.
this is my hope, as well, LAN :up:LANMaster said:
still looking for signs of the courage, tho....there is courage in this administration, but, imo, it is ill concieved, and lacks understanding....my brand of it, at least
1 - 20 of 5050 Posts
- Status
