[Mb-civic] Re: Red Reporting

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

This is one of the opening salvos of the new neoconservative drive toward 
"regime change" in Iran.  Now that we have spent almost $200 billion of U.S 
taxpayer money to turn Iraq into a terrorist breeding ground, the neocons 
want to up the ante in their brutal drive for complete world dominance.  
This heavy-handed, brutal approach will not stamp out terrorism....but it will 
cause massive death and destruction and bankrupt our future.  An excellent 
reason to vote for John Kerry, who is not exactly a peacemonger but who 
may have the intelligence and foresight to take a somewhat less reckless 
and self-defeating approach the the "war on terrorism."

On 23 Jul 2004 at 10:41, Michael Butler wrote:

> Iran's Growing Threat
> By Rachel Ehrenfeld
> FrontPageMagazine.com | July 23, 2004
> 
> Recent events have made it clear that the threat posed by Iran should be
> dealt with sooner rather than later.  Today's 9/11 Commission report
> documents extensive ties between Iran and terrorism, and the mullahs' drive
> to create a nuclear weapon is well known.  In recent days, Iranian officials
> and clerics have increased the incitement for violence against American and
> Coalition forces in Iraq.  However, ending the real threat this
> fundamentalist Islamic theocracy poses to the United States and the West may
> be impossible, thanks to the Left¹s and the pro-Islamists non-stop assault
> on the president's credibility.
>  
> The case against Iran should be air-tight. The Bush administration is now
> armed  with:
>  
> [1] The 9/11 Commission¹s report, documenting the  logistical, operational
> and material support from Iran and Hezbollah (Iran¹s  international
> terrorist arm) to al-Qaeda;
>  
> [2] Iran¹s  own admission of its intention to develop nuclear weapons;  
>  
> [3] Iran¹s increasing anti-American rhetoric;  and
>  
> [4] Iran¹s growing support of terrorism in Iraq.
>  
> According to the just-released 9/11 Commission Report,  Iran¹s support of
> al-Qaeda dates back to 1991, when operatives from both  sides met in Sudan
> and agreed ³to cooperate in providing support‹even if  only training‹for
> actions carried out primarily against Israel and the  United States.²
>  
> By 1993, ³al-Qaeda received advice and training from Hezbollah² in
> intelligence, security and explosives, especially in ³how to use truck
> bombs.² The training took place in the Bekaa Valley, Hezbollah¹s stronghold
> in Lebanon. 
>  
> The commission further reports that ³at least 8 to 10 of the 14 Saudi
> Œmuscle¹ operatives traveled into and out of Iran between October 2000 and
> February 2001,² and that Iran facilitated ³the travel of al-Qaeda members
> through Iran on their way to and from Afghanistan.² Yet in an ostrich-like
> move, the commission refrained from accusing Iran of supporting al-Qaeda.
>  
> This is how the commission phrased it: ³There is strong evidence that Iran
> facilitated the transit of al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan
> before 9/11, and that some of these were future 9-11 hijackersŠhowever, we
> cannot rule out the possibility of a remarkable coincidence...[and] we found
> no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was  aware of the planning for what later
> became the 9/11 attack.²
> 
> Indeed, the commission recommends that further investigations should be
> carried out, but looking at the body of evidence about Iran¹s leadership
> role in worldwide terrorism and the war against the U.S., one can only hope
> that we can act in time to restrain it.  
>  
> "Iran is closer to nuclear capability that it was two years  ago," said Dr.
> Ephraim Kam, deputy director of the Jaffee Center for  Strategic Studies in
> Tel Aviv, earlier this week. And U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, R-KS, also
> added that Iran is clearly developing nuclear weapons.  Pakistan, as we
> found out earlier this year, provided Iran with information on how to build
> an atomic bomb. 
>  
> Iran¹s admission that they are working on developing nuclear capabilities
> was made in November 2003 by a member of the Iranian Parliament, Ahmad
> Shirzad. He made reference to the existence of a then-unknown essential
> nuclear facility, at a time when the International Atomic Energy Agency
> (IAEA) and Iranian opposition had identified at least 8 different nuclear
> facilities in Iran. Despite all the evidence, it is unlikely that the
> international community will take steps to disarm Iran any time soon ­
> indeed, the IAEA and EU overtures have been disastrous. And undoubtedly,
> China and Russia will block any real disarmament efforts.  
>  
> Iran denies that it is developing nuclear weapons; however on July 6, 2004,
> the Iranian daily, Kayhan¹s editorial warned that, "The entire Islamic
> Middle East is now a volatile and tangled trap, and will be set off by the
> smallest bit of silliness ­ and will reap many victims of the sinful
> adventurersŠIndeed, the White House's 80 years of exclusive rule are likely
> to become 80 seconds of Hell that will burn to ashes everything that has
> been built.² Earlier, according to reports in the Kuwaiti, Al-Siyassah,
> Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of the Expediency Council stated, "The present
> situation in Iraq represents a threat as well as an opportunity... It is a
> threat because the wounded American beast can take enraged actions, but it
> is also an opportunity to teach this beast a lesson so it won't attack
> another country.² He ended his speech calling for "Death to America, Death
> to Israel.²
>  
> Iran¹s support of the growing terrorist activities in Iraq and its attempts
> to destabilize the interim government resulted in warnings issued this week
> by the Defense and Interior Ministers of Iraq in an interview for the London
> based Arabic-daily, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.  The Defense Minister, Hazem
> Al-Sha¹lan, after accusing Iran of supporting terrorism on Iraqi soil,
> warned, ³We have the capability to move the assault into their
> country[ies].² 
>  
> If you think that Iran has its hands full with terrorist activities already,
> think again. Last month, according to Reuters, the Islamic Republic of Iran
> ­ through the proxy known as the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs
> of the Global Islamic Campaign ­ launched a new campaign calling for
> volunteers to carry out suicide attacks against U.S and Coalition forces
> inside Iraq, as well as missions targeting Israel and author Salman Rushdie.
> Since the 10,000 volunteers already registered are not enough, they
> distributed a ³Preliminary Registration for Martyrdom Operations²
> application for the position of ³martyr.² Announcing this new campaign, the
> cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati urged the public that "It is the duty of
> every Muslim to threaten U.S. and British interests anywhere.²  
>  
> So, what are we waiting for? The president's  impaired credibility, a
> dividend of the perpetual partisan assaults of the  political Left, most
> elements of the Democratic Party in general, and the pro-Islamists
> anti-American elements in Europe and elsewhere now poses a grave danger to
> our security at home and abroad. Since the Democratic Party has embraced its
> activist core, its politicians have denounced the war in Iraq as unjustified
> and immoral, each American and Iraq death the intended by-product of
> President Bush's wilful lies. Ted Kennedy  claimed the war was "cooked up in
> Texas" months or years before it was  launched; Al Gore screeches that
> President Bush "betrayed us!"; and the Left  at large has claimed the
> president massaged intelligence to manipulate the  public into attacking the
> benign despot of Iraq. The 9/11 Commission¹s and Lord Butler¹s report
> debunked the Left¹s and the pro- Islamists¹ allegations, but the damage was
> already done. Having tarnished the president's veracity specifically on the
> War on Terror for political advantage, the Democrats hope is to render us
> impotent to respond to the genuine threat posed by Tehran. If the damage
> they have caused cannot be reversed, their self-seeking rhetoric may prove
> to have mortal consequences.
> 
> *Rachel Ehrenfeld is the author of Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed
> and How to Stop It and is the Director of the American Center for
> Democracy.  
>