[Mb-civic] Scott Ritter: US will bomb Iran in June; US cooked Iraq elections

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United for Peace of Pierce County (WA) - Feb 19, 2005
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2295

On Friday evening in Olympia, former UNSCOM weapons inspector Scott
Ritter appeared with journalist Dahr Jamail. Ritter made two shocking
claims: George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June
2005, and the U.S. manipulated the results of the Jan. 30 elections in
Iraq.


SCOTT RITTER SAYS U.S. PLANS JUNE ATTACK ON IRAN,
'COOKED' JAN. 30 IRAQI ELECTION RESULTS

By Mark Jensen
United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)

Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday in
Washington State, dropped two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to 
a
packed house in Olympia's Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned 
UNSCOM
weapons inspector said that George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to
bomb Iran in June 2005, and claimed the U.S. manipulated the results of
the January 30th elections in Iraq.

Olympians like to call the Capitol Theater "historic," but it's doubtful
whether the eighty-year-old edifice has ever been the scene of more
portentous revelations.

The principal theme of Scott Ritter's talk was Americans' duty to protect
the U.S. Constitution by taking action to bring an end to the illegal war
in Iraq. But in passing, the former UNSCOM weapons inspector stunned 
his
listeners with two pronouncements. Ritter said plans for a June attack on
Iran have been submitted to President George W. Bush, and that the
president has approved them. He also asserted that knowledgeable sources
say U.S. officials "cooked" the results of the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.

On Iran, Ritter said that President George W. Bush has received and 
signed
off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran planned for June 2005. Its
purported goal is the destruction of Iran's alleged program to develop
nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the administration
also expected that the attack would set in motion a chain of events
leading to regime change in the oil-rich nation of 70 million -- a
possibility Ritter regards with the greatest skepticism.

The former Marine also said that the Jan. 30 elections, which George W.
Bush has called "a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in
the advance of freedom," were not so free after all. Ritter said that U.S.
authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to reduce the
percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from 56% to
48%.

Asked by UFPPC's Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an official
involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would soon be
reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major metropolitan
magazine -- an obvious allusion to New Yorker reporter Seymour M. 
Hersh.

On Jan. 17, the New Yorker posted an article by Hersh entitled The 
Coming
Wars (New Yorker, January 24-31, 2005). In it, the well-known
investigative journalist claimed that for the Bush administration, "The
next strategic target [is] Iran." Hersh also reported that "The
Administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside
Iran at least since last summer." According to Hersh, "Defense Department
civilians, under the leadership of Douglas Feith, have been working with
Israeli planners and consultants to develop and refine potential nuclear,
chemical-weapons, and missile targets inside Iran....  Strategists at the
headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, in Tampa, Florida, have been
asked to revise the military's war plan, providing for a maximum ground
and air invasion of Iran .... The hawks in the Administration believe that
it will soon become clear that the Europeans' negotiated approach [to
Iran] cannot succeed, and that at that time the Administration will act."

Scott Ritter said that although the peace movement failed to stop the war
in Iraq, it had a chance to stop the expansion of the war to other nations
like Iran and Syria. He held up the specter of a day when the Iraq war
might be remembered as a relatively minor event that preceded an even
greater conflagration.

Scott Ritter's talk was the culmination of a long evening devoted to
discussion of Iraq and U.S. foreign policy.  Before Ritter spoke, Dahr
Jamail narrated a slide show on Iraq focusing on Fallujah. He showed more
than a hundred vivid photographs taken in Iraq, mostly by himself.  Many
of them showed the horrific slaughter of civilians.

Dahr Jamail argued that U.S. mainstream media sources are complicit in 
the
war and help sustain support for it by deliberately downplaying the truth
about the devastation and death it is causing.

Jamail was, until recently, one of the few unembedded journalists in Iraq
and one of the only independent ones.  His reports have gained a
substantial following and are available online at dahrjamailiraq.com.

Friday evening's event in Olympia was sponsored by South Puget Sound
Community College's Student Activities Board, Veterans for Peace, 100
Thousand and Counting, Olympia Movement for Justice & Peace, and 
United
for Peace of Pierce County.

[Mark Jensen is a member of United for Peace of Pierce County.]

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"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
   ---   George Orwell


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