I know we don’t post often on NT anymore….we are trying to get back to the good ol’ days when we had new content daily…..

Anyways…if you haven’t noticed, the corporate media has been beating the war drums lately when it comes to Iran. I know President Obama isn’t a dumb guy…..but after awhile, even the smartest folks could end up believing that if Iran gets a nuke, then the world as we know it will change forever! We have heard this before……and we’ll hear this again. Just remember, when you hear this mass display of yelling about the end of the world……they did this with Iraq, we heard it with North Korea…we heard it with Afghanistan…..just remember that the same people who own 95% of our media outlets also have a big financial stakes in the defense industry. War is very profitable for some folks….and those same folks couldn’t give a fuck about the people who are directly affected….these include the victims in the war zone, and the soldiers who have to leave their families in order to fight.

side note: I don’t completely share Vidal’s pessimism, but he does make some interesting points. Especially his thoughts on our media in this country and specifically all the Iran talk over the last few years…….I just hope he’s wrong!

Tim Teeman
Times Online
The grand old man of letters Gore Vidal claims America is ‘rotting away’ — and don’t expect Barack Obama to save it

A conversation with Gore Vidal unfolds at his pace. He answers questions imperiously, occasionally playfully, with a piercing, lethal dryness. He is 83 and in a wheelchair (a result of hypothermia suffered in the war, his left knee is made of titanium). But he can walk (“Of course I can”) and after a recent performance of Mother Courage at London’s National Theatre he stood to deliver an anti-war speech to the audience.

How was his friend Fiona Shaw in the title role? “Very good.” Where did they meet? Silence. The US? “Well, it wasn’t Russia.” What’s he writing at the moment? “It’s a little boring to talk about. Most writers seem to do little else but talk about themselves and their work, in majestic terms.” He means self-glorifying? “You’ve stumbled on the phrase,” he says, regally enough. “Continue to use it.”

Vidal is sitting in the Connaught Hotel in Mayfair, where he has been coming to stay for 60 years. He is wearing a brown suit jacket, brown jumper, tracksuit bottoms; his white hair twirled into a Tintin-esque quiff and with his hooded eyes, delicate yet craggy features and arch expression, he looks like Quentin Crisp, but accessorised with a low, lugubrious growl rather than camp lisp.

He points to an apartment opposite the hotel where Churchill stayed during the Second World War, as Downing Street was “getting hammered by the Nazis. The crowds would cheer him from the street, he knew great PR.” In a flash, this memory reminds you of the swathe of history Vidal has experienced with great intimacy: he was friends with JFK, fought in the war, his father Gene, an Olympic decathlete and aeronautics teacher, founded TWA among other airlines and had a relationship with Amelia Earhart. (Vidal first flew and landed a plane when he was 10.) He was a screenwriter for MGM in the dying days of the studio system, toyed with being a politician, he has written 24 novels and is hailed as one of the world’s greatest essayists. (more…)

side note: That’s all we need is those righty leaders in Israel launching an attack on Iran. Hopefully President Obama can bring some sanity to that region. Good Luck though…..

by James Hider in Jerusalem
TimesOnline

America’s spy chief was sent on a secret mission to Israel to warn its leaders not to launch a surprise attack on Iran without notifying the US Administration.

As Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, prepares to visit Washington, it emerged yesterday that Leon Panetta, the head of the CIA, went to Israel two weeks ago. He sought assurances from Mr Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, that their hawkish new Government would not attack Iran without alerting Washington.

Concerns have been rising that Mr Netanyahu could launch a strike on Tehran’s atomic programme, in the same way that Israel hit Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor in 1981. Israel has been preparing for such an eventuality. It has carried out long-distance manoeuvres and is due to hold its largest civil defence drills this summer. The country’s leaders reportedly told Mr Panetta that they did not “intend to surprise the US on Iran”.

Mr Netanyahu will leave for Washington this weekend. He will meet Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, and Mr Obama, whom he will try to convince of the need for tougher action against Iran. Mr Obama favours trying to engage Tehran, but his efforts have been received coolly by President Ahmadinejad.

The Israeli leader is expected to insist that the US stays focused on Iran, rather than tackling stalled talks with the Palestinians. (more…)

side note: Whenever Sy Hersh speaks, or is on a news show, EVERY American should watch or read his work. He is a true investigative jounalist who has broken some of the biggest news stories of our time. From the My Lai Massacre to Abu Gharib, to….well, go Google him and you’ll see. This is a NT must read. (CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO OF THE HERSH INTERVIEW ON DEMOCRACY NOW’S SITE)

by: Amy Goodman
Democracy Now
The investigative journalist for The New Yorker explains his recent bombshell revelation about Dick Cheney’s “executive assassination” squads.

Amy Goodman: Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh created a stir last month when he said the Bush administration ran an executive assassination ring that reported directly to Vice President Dick Cheney. Hersh made the comment during a speech at the University of Minnesota on March 10th.

Seymour Hersh: Congress has no oversight of it. It’s an executive assassination wing, essentially. And it’s been going on and on and on. And just today in the Times there was a story saying that its leader, a three-star admiral named McRaven, ordered a stop to certain activities because there were so many collateral deaths. It’s been going in – under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or to the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving.
Amy Goodman: Yesterday, CNN interviewed Dick Cheney’s former national security adviser, John Hannah. Wolf Blitzer asked Hannah about Sy Hersh’s claim.

Wolf Blitzer: Is there a list of terrorists, suspected terrorists out there who can be assassinated?

John Hannah: There is clearly a group of people that go through a very extremely well-vetted process, inter-agency process, as I think was explained in your piece, that have committed acts of war against the United States, who are at war with the United States, or are suspected of planning operations of war against the United States, who authority is given to the troops in the field and in certain war theaters to capture or kill those individuals. That is certainly true.

Wolf Blitzer: And so, this would be, and from your perspective – and you worked in the Bush administration for many year- it would be totally constitutional, totally legal, to go out and find these guys and to whack ‘em.

John Hannah: There’s no question that in a theater of war, when we are at war, and we know – there’s no doubt, we are still at war against al-Qaeda in Iraq, al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and on that Pakistani border, that our troops have the authority to go after and capture and kill the enemy, including the leadership of the enemy.
Amy Goodman: That’s John Hannah, Dick Cheney’s former national security adviser. Seymour Hersh joins me now here in Washington, D.C., staff writer for The New Yorker magazine. His latest article appears in the current issue, called “Syria Calling: The Obama Administration’s Chance to Engage in a Middle East Peace.”

OK, welcome to Democracy Now!, Sy Hersh. It was good to see you last night at Georgetown. Talk about, first, these comments you made at the University of Minnesota.

Seymour Hersh: Well, it was sort of stupid of me to start talking about stuff I haven’t written. I always kick myself when I do it. But I was with Walter Mondale, the former vice president, who was being amazingly open and sort of, for him – he had come a long way … since I knew him as a senator who was reluctant to oppose the Vietnam War. And so, I was asked about future things, and I just – I am looking into stuff. I’ve done – there’s really nothing I said at Minnesota I haven’t written in the (New Yorker). Last summer, I wrote a long article about the Joint Special Operations Command. (more…)

side note: When I think of Cheney, what always comes to mind is a man who has never taken any other viewpoints into consideration……it always has to be his way, even if another route appeared less bumpy. We must remember that Cheney was “picked”, and I use that term loosely, b/c Cheney formed a committee to choose a VP and then chose himself. Anyhow…he was “selected” for his foreign policy experience. dubya didn’t have any, and Cheney was there to balance the ticket. And after that……9/11 happened on his watch! The worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history occurred while he was at the helm. For this guy to get up and say that we’re going to be attacked is just another form of his fear mongering. I do think that this country will be involved in some type of attack in its future, of course none of us know when, or how…..but we will know why. It’s because of Cheney and his minion’s policies over the last 30+ years……as much as Cheney likes to say that “they” hate us b/c of our freedoms….if you listen at all to our enemies, it was nothing to do with that at all….it has to to with our policies.

By: John F. Harris and Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei
Politico.com

Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed.

In an interview Tuesday with Politico, Cheney unyieldingly defended the Bush administration’s support for the Guantanamo Bay prison and coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects.

And he asserted that President Obama will either backtrack on his stated intentions to end those policies or put the country at risk in ways more severe than most Americans—and, he charged, many members of Obama’s own team—understand.

“When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry,” Cheney said.

Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” he said. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.”

Citing intelligence reports, Cheney said at least 61 of the inmates who were released from Guantanamo during the Bush administration—“that’s about 11 or 12 percent”—have “gone back into the business of being terrorists.”

The 200 or so inmates still there, he claimed, are “the hard core” whose “recidivism rate would be much higher.” He called Guantanamo a “first-class program,” and “a necessary facility” that is operated legally and with better food and treatment than the jails in inmates native countries.

But he said he worried that “instead of sitting down and carefully evaluating the policies,” Obama officials are unwisely following “campaign rhetoric” and preparing to release terrorism suspects or afford them legal protections granted to more conventional defendants in crime cases. (more…)

side note: We have to make some changes…this old way of doing things is just not working. You have to have open dialogue not only with your friends, but with your enemies as well. This is the only way progress occurrs……..

The Guardian
by Robert Tait and Ewen MacAskill

Officials of Barack Obama’s administration have drafted a letter to Iran from the president aimed at unfreezing US-Iranian relations and opening the way for face-to-face talks, the Guardian has learned.

The US state department has been working on drafts of the letter since Obama was elected on 4 November last year. It is in reply to a lengthy letter of congratulations sent by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on 6 November.

Diplomats said Obama’s letter would be a symbolic gesture to mark a change in tone from the hostile one adopted by the Bush administration, which portrayed Iran as part of an “axis of evil”.

It would be intended to allay the suspicions of Iran’s leaders and pave the way for Obama to engage them directly, a break with past policy.

State department officials have composed at least three drafts of the letter, which gives assurances that Washington does not want to overthrow the Islamic regime, but merely seeks a change in its behaviour. The letter would be addressed to the Iranian people and sent directly to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or released as an open letter.

One draft proposal suggests that Iran should compare its relatively low standard of living with that of some of its more prosperous neighbours, and contemplate the benefits of losing its pariah status in the west. Although the tone is conciliatory, it also calls on Iran to end what the US calls state sponsorship of terrorism.

The letter is being considered by the new secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, as part of a sweeping review of US policy on Iran. A decision on sending it is not expected until the review is complete. (more…)

JOHN HEILPRIN | AP
via huffingtonpost.com

President Barack Obama’s administration will engage in “direct diplomacy” with Iran, the newly installed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Monday.

Not since before the 1979 Iranian revolution are U.S. officials believed to have conducted wide-ranging direct diplomacy with Iranian officials. But U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice warned that Iran must meet U.N. Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment before any talks on its nuclear program.

“The dialogue and diplomacy must go hand in hand with a very firm message from the United States and the international community that Iran needs to meet its obligations as defined by the Security Council. And its continuing refusal to do so will only cause pressure to increase,” she told reporters during a brief question-and-answer session.

Her comments, reflecting Obama’s signals for improved relations with America’s foes after eight years under President George W. Bush, came shortly after meeting with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on her first day in her new job. (more…)

Suzanne Goldenberg
http://www.guardian.co.uk

The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon George Bush’s ­doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the Islamist organisation, sources close to the transition team say.

The move to open contacts with Hamas, which could be initiated through the US intelligence services, would represent a definitive break with the Bush ­presidency’s ostracising of the group. The state department has designated Hamas a terrorist organisation, and in 2006 ­Congress passed a law banning US financial aid to the group. (more…)

By murrayw
http://murraywaas.crooksandliars.com

Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a still-highly confidential FBI report, admitted to federal investigators that he rewrote talking points for the press in July 2003 that made it much more likely that the role of then-covert CIA-officer Valerie Plame in sending her husband on a CIA-sponsored mission to Africa would come to light.

Cheney conceded during his interview with federal investigators that in drawing attention to Plame’s role in arranging her husband’s Africa trip reporters might also unmask her role as CIA officer.

Cheney denied to the investigators, however, that he had done anything on purpose that would lead to the outing of Plame as a covert CIA operative. But the investigators came away from their interview with Cheney believing that he had not given them a plausible explanation as to how he could focus attention on Plame’s role in arranging her husband’s trip without her CIA status also possibly publicly exposed. At the time, Plame was a covert CIA officer involved in preventing Iran from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, and Cheney’s office played a central role in exposing her and nullifying much of her work. (more…)

Sep. 1, 2008
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

The Dutch intelligence service, the AIVD, has called off an operation aimed at infiltrating and sabotaging Iran’s weapons industry due to an assessment that a US attack on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program is imminent, according to a report in the country’s De Telegraaf newspaper on Friday.

The report claimed that the Dutch operation had been “extremely successful,” and had been stopped because the US military was planning to hit targets that were “connected with the Dutch espionage action.”

The impending air-strike on Iran was to be carried out by unmanned aircraft “within weeks,” the report claimed, quoting “well placed” sources.

The Jerusalem Post could not confirm the De Telegraaf report.

According to the report, information gleaned from the AIVD’s operation in Iran has provided several of the targets that are to be attacked in the strike, including “parts for missiles and launching equipment.”

“Information from the AIVD operation has been shared in recent years with the CIA,” the report said.
(more…)

side note: Why the fuck are we still letting this administration formulate any type of policy?!?! They should all stick to things like tossing the opening pitch at a ball game, cutting the ribbon at a new shopping mall and giving graduation speeches!

by: Agence France Presse

Prague – US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed Tuesday what she called a “landmark” missile defence deal with the Czech Republic, drawing immediate condemnation and threats from Russia. The accord permits the siting of a tracking radar station on Czech soil as part of an extended US missile shield that Washington says is necessary to ward off potential attacks by so-called “rogue” states such as Iran. Moscow immediately threatened to respond with “military resources” to what it sees as a threat on its doorstep from the proposed system.

“If a US strategic anti-missile shield is deployed near our borders, we will be forced to react not in a diplomatic fashion but with military resources,” a statement from the foreign ministry said.

But the United States said Wednesday that Russia and Europe should be “equal partners” in its planned missile defence.

“We seek strategic cooperation on preventing missiles from rogue nations, like Iran, from threatening our friends and allies,” said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe. “We will continue to have a dialogue with the Russians.”

“We want to design a system between the United States, Russia and Europe, with everyone participating as equal partners,” Johndroe said on the margins of a rich nation summit at Toyako in northern Japan. (more…)

side note: Great….this is just what this tense situation needed! Everyone needs to chill until we get get dubya out of the captain’s chair……then hopefully we can get a leader in there that will move towards a real peace agreement, not just bullshit rhetoric about wanting a deal! Will McBush do this? Probably not…..he will owe the people who pushed him into the White House, and some of those folks are tied quite closely with Israel. Will Obama do this? I hope so….he has pulled back the covers a bit to expose an extremely religion individual. That’s not necessarily a bad thing…but there seems to be a close tie between the religious right and the State of Israel. I just want the next President to do what’s best for this country……

BBC News

The Shahab-3, with a range of 2,000km (1,240 miles), was armed with a conventional warhead, state media said.

Iran has tested the missile before, but the latest launch comes amid rising tensions with the US and Israel over the country’s nuclear programme.

The early morning launch at a remote desert site sent oil prices climbing.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe called on Iran to “refrain from further missile tests if they truly seek to gain the trust of the world”.

‘Under surveillance’

Two other types of missile with shorter ranges were also fired as part of the Great Prophet III war games being staged by Iran’s military.

Brig Gen Hoseyn Salami, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ air force, said: “Our missiles are ready for shooting at any place and any time, quickly and with accuracy. (more…)

side note: This is a must read for all NT readers! Once again, Sy Hersh has outdone himself by relaying some important insider information to the American people. We have seen what happens when this administration gets it’s hands on something….it turns to shit! A few examples:
1. National Security, we had the worst domestic attack since Pearl Harbor on their watch. According to numerous sources, this administration wasn’t interested in terrorism before 9/11. (Richard Clark’s book: Against all Enemies)
2. Energy policy: A barrel of oil was 26 bucks when dubya took office, it’s now $140!
3. Iraq War……what a god damn shame!..we have lost so many good men and women. What a fuck-up! If anyone tells you the surge is working, then they don’t understand the plan behind the surge. If you don’t either, it’s critical you read The Rolling Stone magazines cover story here.
4. The search for Bin Laden. (by the way, any time a righty brings up National Security….ask them where Bin Laden is.
5. No Child Left Behind: Go ask any teacher…the program is worthless!
6. New Orleans and the mess Katrina left
7. Our overall standing in the International community
8. The US dollar…it’s fuckin worthless outside of this country, unless you visit a country where the average daily wage of workers is 4 bucks!

I mean, the list just goes on and on. We have to get these guys out of power before they fuck up anything else! It’s also important to note that the Dems once again did fucking nothing when it comes to stopping dubya, cheney and their minions. This is why I can’t fully support the Dems any longer……how many more times are they going to sit idly by and allow these fuck-ups to continue to happen? We need strong elected officials who aren’t afraid to speak up when it’s not politically advantageous. Sorry for the language this morning…..I just couldn’t figure out any other way to make sure you understood my level of disgust!

by Seymour M. Hersh
The New Yorker
The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.

Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.
Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. United States Special Operations Forces have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq, with Presidential authorization, since last year. These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of “high-value targets” in the President’s war on terror, who may be captured or killed. But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded, according to the current and former officials. Many of these activities are not specified in the new Finding, and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature.
Under federal law, a Presidential Finding, which is highly classified, must be issued when a covert intelligence operation gets under way and, at a minimum, must be made known to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and the Senate and to the ranking members of their respective intelligence committees—the so-called Gang of Eight. Money for the operation can then be reprogrammed from previous appropriations, as needed, by the relevant congressional committees, which also can be briefed. (more…)

side note: WTF?!?! This just shows you how powerful and influential lobbyist groups can become! I know a lot of NT readers were upset with Obama’s comments when he spoke in front of AIPAC a few weeks ago……I was one of them, but I do understand that Obama is still a politician. This however is just unbelievable!! Especially when you view the list of co-sponsors on this upcoming bill. They are some of the most outspoken Dems when it comes to dubya’s policies…….why would they sign on to this other then pressure from AIPAC about future campaign donations. Obama was right on one thing: Campaign financing is broken!

Truthout.org

A non-binding resolution to demand that President Bush impose “stringent inspection requirements” on trade with Iran – language that leaves the door open for a military blockade – will likely come to the House floor this week, according to sources close to Congressional leadership. The legislation, H.Con.Res.362, which is paralleled by a similar Senate bill, has gained bipartisan support rapidly, with more co-sponsors signing on by the day. Once it hits the floor, it’s bound to “pass like a hot knife through butter,” a staffer in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office told Chelsea Mozen of the nonprofit Just Foreign Policy.

Trita Parsi, co-founder and president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), concurred, saying passage may happen as early as Tuesday.

“This bill will likely be put on the floor under suspension – meaning that it will pass without even a vote,” Parsi told Truthout.

Bills placed under rules of suspension are usually uncontroversial. However, this one is an ominous exception, according to Parsi.

“It sets the stage for a very dangerous escalation,” he said.

The most strongly worded section of the legislation is article three, which states: “Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress – (3) demands that the President initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by, inter alia [among other things], prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran’s nuclear program.”

The resolution makes no mention of the National Intelligence Estimate report released in December 2007, which found that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons development program in 2003. (more…)

side note: We’re winning in Iraq? Lets come up with a very quick, simplified time line of Iraq. We invade Iraq based on bullshit intelligence, and we now know that even dubya’s administration knew it was bullshit. We overthrow Saddam and then have absolutely no plan do deal with the 25 million people or their infrastructure. Looting and violence begins and all we do is fire the police and army (debathification). We then set up a weak central government run by Shiites who had been living in Iran for years, b/c they were run out of Iraq by Saddam. We then team up with these Shiites and go after Sunnis who are starting an insurgency……after years of killing Sunnis (who by the way we call terrorists) we decide that that isn’t working and institute The Surge. What most pundits forget to the mention about the surge is that besides sending over more US troops….we, or better yet, General Petraeus, creates The Awakening. The Awakening is another play on words that this administration used to try and trick the American public….what it is was is we decided that going after the Sunnis….I mean the terrorists, was not working….so instead, we payed them off to join our side. We now have over 100,000 Sunnis on the payroll! Yes, during this time violence has been dropping……but as you can see, it’s not b/c we’re achieving any political goals…it’s b/c we’ve pretty much bought off a good chunk of the insurgency. On a quick side note…even though we’ve bought off the Sunnis….they are not under control of the Shite-led central government. They are local militias who answer to the US military only, as long as the greenbacks are flowing. So the big question surrounding the awakening is: What the fuck happens when we decide to stop paying the Sunnis?? Hmmm….I’m thinking with a shitty infrastructure in place, lack of jobs, no stability….and a host of other issues….that they will probably go back to killing our soldiers and trying to wipe out any Shites they can. Isn’t it interesting that we are providing funds to pretty much re-arm this group that started off post-Saddam Iraq by killing our soldiers? Great plan dubya!