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Snipped from newyorker.com.
As though Bush’s foreign policy hasn’t done enough damage to our global reputation as an arrogant imperialist, we apparently are in the process of planning attacks on another country which is not an imminent threat. It appears that the Pentagon is continuing intensive planning for a possible bombing attack on Iran, a process that began last year, at the direction of the President. However, I smell a rat and its name is Dick. Why Congress is allowing this loose canon to continue to plot his evil intentions behind the scenes is beyond me. You won’t believe what Cheney and Company is up to now.
In recent months, it has been reported in the New Yorker article that a former intelligence official revealed that a special planning group has been established in the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, charged with creating a contingency bombing plan for Iran that can be implemented, upon orders from the President, within twenty-four hours. The alarming news is that the Iran planning group has been handed a new assignment in which they are identifying targets in Iran that may be involved in supplying or aiding militants in Iraq. Previously, the focus had been on the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities and possible regime change. But now, the new plan is being called a “redirection” and is being directed by Dick Cheney and his deputy national-security adviser Illiott Abrams, the departing ambassador to Iraq, and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi natonal-security adviser.
This clandestine side guided by Cheney is the most scary to me because it is all in secret and has the potential to side step any Congressional authority because it would be promoted as a plan to reduce military casualities due to Iran’s supply of weapons into Iraq. The reason we should be alarmed is because Cheney and Co. realizes that they would not get Congressional or public support for bombing Iran due to its nuclear ambitions. So, they go to an alternative plan cooked up by Cheney and Saudi Arabia to bomb them for another reason even though the casualties from Iran’s interference is far less than the casualities imposed by the Sunni insurgents.
Here is a portion of the article that is alarming in its clandestine type operations echoing the same tactics as used by former President Reagan known as the Iran-Contra scandal.
Some of the core tactics of the redirection are not public, however. The clandestine operations have been kept secret, in some cases, by leaving the execution or the funding to the Saudis, or by finding other ways to work around the normal congressional appropriations process, current and former officials close to the Administration said.
The Bush Administration’s reliance on clandestine operations that have not been reported to Congress and its dealings with intermediaries with questionable agendas have recalled, for some in Washington, an earlier chapter in history. Two decades ago, the Reagan Administration attempted to fund the Nicaraguan contras illegally, with the help of secret arms sales to Iran. Saudi money was involved in what became known as the Iran-Contra scandal, and a few of the players back then—notably Prince Bandar and Elliott Abrams—are involved in today’s dealings.
If you would like to read the full article click the image below.
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