Larisa Alexandrovna: Behind the Administration's six-year-push towards war with Iran

[kpete]

Escalation of US Iran military planning part of six-year Administration push

Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane
Published: Tuesday January 23, 2007

A project of Raw Story Investigates

The escalation of US military planning on Iran is only the latest chess move in a six-year push within the Bush Administration to attack Iran, a RAW STORY investigation has found.

While Iran was named a part of President George W. Bush’s “axis of evil” in 2002, efforts to ignite a confrontation with Iran date back long before the post-9/11 war on terror. Presently, the Administration is trumpeting claims that Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon than the CIA’s own analysis shows and positing Iranian influence in Iraq’s insurgency, but efforts to destabilize Iran have been conducted covertly for years, often using members of Congress or non-government actors in a way reminiscent of the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal.

The motivations for an Iran strike were laid out as far back as 1992. In classified defense planning guidance – written for then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney by then-Pentagon staffers I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, World Bank Chief Paul Wolfowitz, and ambassador-nominee to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad – Cheney’s aides called for the United States to assume the position of lone superpower and act preemptively to prevent the emergence of even regional competitors. The draft document was leaked to the New York Times and the Washington Post and caused an uproar among Democrats and many in George H. W. Bush’s Administration.

In September 2000, the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) issued a report titled “Rebuilding America's Defenses,” which espoused similar positions to the 1992 draft and became the basis for the Bush-Cheney Administration's foreign policy. Libby and Wolfowitz were among the participants in this new report; Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other prominent figures in the Bush administration were PNAC members.

more at:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Iran_The_Road_to_Confrontation_0123.html



The Build Up To Iran Timeline

RAW STORY
Published: Thursday January 25, 2007

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Timeline_new2_0125.html

[mmonk]

1. Yep

Puts all things and rhetoric people hear into perspective.

[robertpaulsen]

2. K & R!

Looking forward to the next installment!

:kick:

[ms liberty]

3. 5th Rec - off to the Greatest Page with you! n/t

[Sir Jeffrey]

4. The updated timeline is EXCELLENT...

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Timeline_new2_0125.html

K & R

[Tom Joad]

5. Wanna stop a war with Iran? gotta stop aipac. go to this website:

www.stopAIPAC.org

[Kurovski]

6. K&R.(nt)

[donkeyotay]

7. But you're a conspiracy nut if you notice that between here and there

they had to elect "The Education President" that you'd like to have a beer with, and have a new Pearl Harbor. It's all just a coincidence.

[Tom Joad]

8. Bush advisor Dan Pipes openly advocated arming Saddam to get Iran.

http://tomjoad.org/pipes.htm

Back when Saddam was at the height of his power and cruelty, Danny Pipes was all for "Tilting" toward Iraq. These people don't want peace, they want war, war, war.

These things are done openly, it was published in The New Republic, for gosh sakes.
These crazies have got to go!