U.S. air strikes against Iran in 2007/08 as all-but-a-done deal.

[seemslikeadream]

:shrug:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/dc-notes-wes-clark-is-_b_37837.html

At the packed-to-the-rafters brunch preceding Nancy Pelosi's formal swearing in, Melinda and I ran into Wes Clark (and I mean that literally; like I said, it was packed). Clark was really angry about what he'd read in this column by UPI Editor at Large Arnaud de Borchgrave. In the piece, which Clark quickly forwarded to my BlackBerry from his Trio, de Borchgrave details Bibi Netanyahu leading the charge to lobby the Bush administration to take out Iran's nuclear facilities, and paints U.S. air strikes against Iran in 2007/08 as all-but-a-done deal.

http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20070102-125318-7565r

[kimmerspixelated]

1. this needs to be blasted around the world.

[seemslikeadream]

3. I've read

but can't link:

The word from the State Department is that incoming Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte will oversee an "embedded" unit of private contractors who are preparing for an attack against Iran. Although the Baker-Hamilton Commission called for dialogue with both Iran and Syria over the Iraq Civil War and quagmire the neo-cons foisted on the U.S. military, the Bush administration appears intent on confronting Iran militarily.

[Marie26]

27. "Iran-Syria Policy and Operations Group"

This article justs seems like more neocon delusions, but there had to be a reason why Negroponte was moved (demoted) to the State Dept. Elizabeth Cheney, Cheney's daughter, is the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, & will be reporting to Negroponte. In turn, the "Iran-Syria Policy Group" reports to Elizabeth Cheney. The "Iran Policy Group" is devoted to regime change in Iran & is composed of the same shady Pentagon characters that were in the old Office of Special Plans under Rumsfeld. It seems like maybe Negroponte was moved to the State Dept. to head up some sneaky undercover regime change projects against Iran. He did the same exact thing to get "regime change" for Reagan in Nicaragua. http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0220-20.htm

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Iran-Syria_Operations_Group

[seemslikeadream]

33. Thanks

:hi:

[goforit]

43. Wow A real nice guy. But why the state dept? What pretendproject will he have?

[Marie26]

44. Well, not bombing

If this little theory is right, that is. If they were planning to seriously bomb Iran, I don't think they'd be moving Negroponte to the State Dept. Sneaky undercover funding & covert operations was his game. In Honduras, Negroponte funded & trained military "death squads" & Contra rebels to undermine the Nicaraguan gov. We then sent our trained militias to wreak havoc, kill civilians, and create terrorist attacks. So if he's now helping the cause of "regime change" in Iran, it will probably be using his old methods. Maybe they're planning to fund some Sunni "death squads" to attack Shiites loyal to Iran (al-Sadr?), or maybe training militias to infiltrate/sabatoge Iran. They're terrified of Iran's influence, & might be trying some dirty tactics to get "regime change" & topple the government there. Who knows? It's probably sneaky, evil & illegal, but IMO it's not overtly military. We have no military left.

"Negroponte's Time In Honduras at Issue - Focus Renewed on Intelligence Pick's Knowledge of Death Squads in 1980s"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52001-2005Mar20?language=printer

[mmonk]

2. Clark's been mad ever since these clowns in the administration

were selected.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. this could lead to world war.

I cannot believe just how insane these people are.

Bibi is as nuts as the NeoconMen.

[LSK]

5. I see nothing there saying its a done deal

I see the writings of a NeoCon from Israel.

And more importantly, we do not for sure where all of Irans nuke facilities are.

[The Magistrate]

6. Indeed, Sir, It Remains A Mere Pipe Dream

Not a 'done deal' by any means.

[LSK]

7. and this non-story about a NeoCon gets 11 votes???

:wtf:

[The Magistrate]

13. Why Are Horror Movies Popular, Sir?

Some people enjoy having the wits scared out of them while actually in a condition of perfect safety. This is just another field for the same sort of entertainment product.

[Bucky]

15. Anyone can click "recommend." That number carries little weight

It's a bit smarter than the "Mihop" threads that frequently poll bigger numbers than 11.

[robertpaulsen]

21. I voted for this "non-story" because I support Wes Clark.

And I think his anger against de Borchgrave, Netanyahu and LIEberman is justified and a worthy story to report on here in GD.

What's your problem with Clark? Or is it with Huffington?:wtf:

[LSK]

26. my problem is not with Clark or Huffington

As there is no assertion by them that it is "almost a done deal".

Why misrepresent my beef???

[seemslikeadream]

31. yes it was Huffington's words

all-but-a-done deal, that is.

[LSK]

34. not really, she was describing what is said in the article

"In the piece, which Clark quickly forwarded to my BlackBerry from his Trio, de Borchgrave details Bibi Netanyahu leading the charge to lobby the Bush administration to take out Iran's nuclear facilities, and paints U.S. air strikes against Iran in 2007/08 as all-but-a-done deal."

[robertpaulsen]

35. I don't believe I'm misrepresenting anything.

Re-read that Huffington post link:

In the piece, which Clark quickly forwarded to my BlackBerry from his Trio, de Borchgrave details Bibi Netanyahu leading the charge to lobby the Bush administration to take out Iran's nuclear facilities, and paints U.S. air strikes against Iran in 2007/08 as all-but-a-done deal.

So again, Clark is angry with de Borchgrave for detailing what Netanyahu and Lieberman are lobbying for: US airstrikes against Iran. Sorry if I'm again misrepresenting your beef, but why are you shitting on a thread that reports this as a "non-story"? Clark believes de Borchgrave painted this scenario as an "all-but-a-done-deal". Don't you share his anger?

[seemslikeadream]

10. Dear Sir

no one said done deal except LSK

[LSK]

12. "all-but-a-done deal"

And that means what exactly?

[seemslikeadream]

17. thanks for quoting correctly this time

and I'm sure you know what the phrase means

[LSK]

19. and now that we have spun with the English lesson

I see nothing in that article indicating "all-but-a-done deal".

However, carry on with your unfounded hysteria, sorry to rain on your parade.

[seemslikeadream]

32. and who said that it was?

[The Magistrate]

23. You Are Pressing A Distinction Without A Difference, Ma'am

You have presented the thing as a certainty, and it is not. Predictions Iran was going to be attacked in a few weeks, or months, or next year, have been a staple here for several years. The people who made them have never acknowledged they were in error, but simply proceeded, like so Millerites, to predicting a new date. One begins to think of the closing statement at the End of the World Society's meetings: "Cheer up, guys! Same time tomorrow! We must get a winner one day!"

[seemslikeadream]

25. They are not my words

and are posted in GD Politis also but I see no problem over there with it.

[The Magistrate]

29. There Is No Problem With It Here, Ma'am

Some people are simply reacting as they feel suitable to the presentation, having come across it in the open forum. How could that be described as a problem?

[seemslikeadream]

30. oh I'm sorry

I thought I detected that some one had a slight problem.

[FogerRox]

50. And everyone of those predictive thread had one post that said

There is no moon next week, thats when they will attack.

Friggin YAWN.


Saudi Arabia & its modernized ICBM program

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/4/13653/75021

[seemslikeadream]

8. no one said done deal Lieberman said:

http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20070102-125318-7565r

Anticipating the new line, Sen. Joe Lieberman (Independent-CT) referred to "Iran and al-Qaida" on Wolf Blitzer's Sunday program on CNN. That Iran is Shiite and al-Qaida Sunni becomes irrelevant in the new game plan that will most probably lead to U.S. air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities in 2007/08.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

9. Look,

You don't get huge numbers of replies in your threads by reasonably reporting the truth. You get them by starting flame wars or inciting panic. :)

[seemslikeadream]

14. I had no intention of starting a flame war or inciting panic

please refrain from your all knowing psychic ability of my thoughts

[FogerRox]

49. I know where they are

problem is the sites where centrifuges are, are 1000 ft under rock, making them untouchable. Best we can do is bomb the doors, multiple doors, to these installations. You see only 2 of these sites have centrifuges, they have the S-300 anti missile missle guarding them.

[Bucky]

11. I remember Scott Ritter saying an *invasion* of Iran was going to happen in March... of 2005

I'm concerned, too, but the reality is just so wildly opposed to any sort of direct attack on Iran. Note that I say "direct attack." They may want to hit Iran, but devising a workable plan to do so that doesn't destroy trillions of dollars of capital investment by their corporate masters is going to prove impossible. "Done deal" is an exaggeration.

[warrens]

16. You do know who de Borchgrave works for, right? Rev. Moon. NT

[seemslikeadream]

22. ask him if he got the Lieberman quote correct

or Lieberman, CNN or Wolf Blitzer

[Tom Joad]

18. aipac wants a war. who listens to them?

No other event in Washington DC is as widely attended by congressmembers as the annual conference of aipac, with the exception of the constitutionally -mandated State of the Union address.

Stop aipac.
www.stopAIPAC.org

[BrightKnight]

20. escalate Iraq, carpet bomb Iran, and secretly invade Syria

...and if Iraq falls the rest of the Middle East will fall to the terrorists like dominoes.

It sounds like Chimpy has been watching too much History Channel.

[Morgana LaFey]

37. Yeah? With whose army, that's what I want to know.

Not questioning YOU, but rather the sanity of any Commander in Chief who might insist on anything like that with the shell of a military force we've got at the moment (with no correction in sight).

[Selatius]

38. No army, just sheer numbers of warplanes dropping bombs on Iran

You don't need an army when you are aiming at destroying Iran's nuclear facilities and other juicy targets by air.

[Marie26]

46. And what about the counter-attack?

1 million+ Iranian troops going against US troops in Iraq? Not a realistic scenario.

[Selatius]

48. No, it's not, but the myopic view only takes into account Iran's nuclear facilities.

They're not thinking much about the Shia militias in southern Iraq or Iran's 1,000,000-man army. I'm guessing here, but I think their solution is "Oh, we'll simply fly the B-52s, B-1s, and B-2s from Diego Garcia and carpet bomb and fire bomb all who challenge us."

[FogerRox]

24. Iranian missiles & the US Navy in the Gulf

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=3039044&mesg_id=3039044

[MGD]

47. Those Iranian missiles will ultimately kill more Iranians than they save. nt

[Balbus]

28. As it was in 2004/2005....

and 2005/2006... and 2006/2007. One day, some year, this prediction might just finally turn out to be true.

[struggle4progress]

36. Some time ago crazy dream came to me: dreamt I was walkin into World War Three

Went to the doctor the very next day to see what kinda words he would say
He said it was a bad dream

[hunter]

39. Well, Russia and France just dropped something big on Colorado...

... but I suppose that was an accident.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/01/04/russia.rocket.ap/index.html

It's the Chinese who hold all the cards. If we bomb Iran, WalMart starves.

You have to take this news for what it is -- neocon porn, sort of like Ann Coulter in a leather thong. It's a very ugly thing to see them masturbating in public like that.

[lovuian]

40. Its pretty obvious that Baker Hamilton Study Group is not

going anywhere...and Bush is bound and determined to WWIII

God help us all

[goforit]

41. This is out of control. Nobody is gonna stop it.

[goforit]

42. The UPI article demonstrates absolute mental illness.

[salin]

45. *sniff, scratch, sniff*... ah UPI, moonietimes... often known

for planting one-sided disinfo to try to get it into the mainstream so that the 'unacceptable' suddenly becomes viewed as the inevitable.

I suspect that the UPI piece (not the Huffpost, nor Clark's understandable reaction) is intentional disinfo.

[Stephanie]

51. If they do this we take Washington.

We go en masse to Washington and we stay until Bush/Cheney are driven out. Enough. Enough.

[annabanana]

52. from the UPI article (emphasis mine)

Netanyahu then said Israel "must immediately launch an intense, international, public relations front first and foremost on the U.S. The goal being to encourage President Bush to live up to specific pledges he would not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons. We must make clear to the government, the Congress and the American public that a nuclear Iran is a threat to the U.S. and the entire world, not only Israel."

There are signs this is already happening in Washington. Before the invasion of Iraq, the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld troika decided the ousting of Saddam Hussein had to become an integral part of the "war on terror." Eventually 60 percent of Americans thought Saddam was behind 9/11, even though there was no link between the two. Today, the Bush-Cheney team faces the same spin scenario: how to weave the global war on terror and the Shiite powers that be in Iran. This one is relatively simple: Iran trains and funds Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian territories.

Anticipating the new line, Sen. Joe Lieberman (Independent-CT) referred to "Iran and al-Qaida" on Wolf Blitzer's Sunday program on CNN. That Iran is Shiite and al-Qaida Sunni becomes irrelevant in the new game plan that will most probably lead to U.S. air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities in 2007/08. Can a Democratic Congress be bypassed under a blanket authorization already secured to hunt down transnational terrorists wherever they may be hiding?

http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20070102-125318-7565r

[seemslikeadream]

53. If Netanyahu and Sen. Joe Lieberman were mis quoted

they should ask for an apology

Sen. Joe Lieberman (Independent-CT) referred to "Iran and al-Qaida" on Wolf Blitzer's Sunday program on CNN. That Iran is Shiite and al-Qaida Sunni becomes irrelevant in the new game plan that will most probably lead to U.S. air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities in 2007/08.