Honestly, read my post from last November entitled: Wag The Dog: Green Salt is The New Yellowcake, and tell me it’s not Déjà vu, all over again…?

To wit: New IAEA Report Hypes Fear on Iran’s Nuclear Program, IAEA: Iran rapidly increases controversial nuclear work, and then, Netanyahu: UN report proves Iran’s nuclear program advancing ‘uninterrupted’…

Now, it’s certainly reassuring to finally see some serious pushback from the Intel Community, and, the fact it’s being covered at all, in our Lame Stream Media…

U.S. does not believe Iran is trying to build nuclear bomb

The latest U.S. intelligence report indicates Iran is pursuing research that could enable it to build a nuclear weapon, but that it has not sought to do so.

But Israel appears to have a lower threshold for action than Washington. It regards Iran as a threat to its existence and says it will not allow Iran to become capable of building and delivering a nuclear weapon. Some Israeli officials have raised the prospect of a military strike to stop Iran before it’s too late…

Now, parsing through all the verbiage, I’ve ascertained that short of a ‘false flag’ operation, a very likely event, we’re not going to bomb Iran, either the US and/or Israel alone…! I should also add that all of Yukiyo Amano’s main ‘allegations’ still derive solely from the ‘Laptop of Death’…

What it boils down to is the fact that the Western Hegemonic structures are crumbling down, and, the MOTU’s sorely need to distract the ‘unwashed’ masses…! Since a ‘preemptive’ strike on Iran is ruled out, the Western/Israeli PTB’s seek to chip away at the Iranian periphery, such as Syria…! Btw, don’t you find it ironic that, not only are we on the same side of the Syrian Abyss as AQIM, but, Hamas too…! That’s gotta stick in Bibi’s craw, just a tad…!

Now, speaking of Bibi and Israel… My favoritest, long time virtual friends, outside of FDL, Annie Robbins wrote at Mondoweiss today, what truly underscores Bibi’s recent efforts…

Look over there! All eyes on Iran as Israel quietly devours Area C

…No East Jeruslaem, no Area C and what is our mainstream media, our politicians and our public focused on? Iran.

There is no conceivable way anyone can build a state with whatever piddly crumbs will be left over after Israel finishes eating this pie. And after that, will it still be hungry?

To expand on her point that Palestine will essentially be reduced to the de facto ‘Bantustans’…

Israel’s Left Annexation Plan of 60% of West Bank

“Bennett’s initiative is immoral and undemocratic. It will only aggravate Israel’s situation with regards to the Palestinian issue,” said Oppenheimer, “Bennett’s solution, which includes the unilateral annexation of settlements, would deepen the crisis between Israel and the international community and may bury the chance to separate from the Palestinians.”

Basically it boils down to a One State ‘Solution’ and all non-Jews will be eternally persecuted…!

But, I digress…

As I’d last warned about in my Wag the Dog post… ‘Do we really want to awaken the slumbering Dragon…?’

China: U.S., Europe have hegemonistic goals in Syria

At the Friends of Syria meeting in Tunisia, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton blasted Russia and China as “despicable” for vetoing UN Security Council resolutions backing Arab League plans aimed at ending the conflict and condemning the crackdown by President Bashar Assad’s government.

Well, Do we really want too…?

*gah*

I actually laughed when I read this headline; Iran ‘very optimistic’ over nuclear expert visit…

…Iran said it was very optimistic over a visit by UN nuclear inspectors aimed at shedding light on suspected military aspects of Tehran’s atomic work, but suggested Tehran would curb cooperation if the experts became a “tool” for outside powers.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani warned the IAEA team to carry out a “logical, professional and technical” job or suffer the consequences. “This visit is a test for the IAEA. The route for further cooperation will be open if the team carries out its duties professionally.

“Otherwise, if the IAEA turns into a tool (for major powers to pressure Iran), then Iran will have no choice but to consider a new framework in its ties with the agency.” …

As numerous ex-Intel vets have been saying all along, and wikileaks confimed, is the fact that the IAEA deck has been stacked against Iran, ever since El Baradei ‘retired’…! I do hope the Iranians will provide extra security to the brave souls that meet with the IAEA ‘inspectors’…! As I’ve mentioned before all of the assassinated and/or, disappeared Iranian Scientists had met with IAEA personnel previously…!

Now, Panetta sat down with ’60 Minutes’ and regurgitated all the old tropes…

…”The United States — and the president’s made this clear — does not want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the CBS program “60 Minutes.”

Panetta told the interviewer that “the consensus is that, if they (Iran) decided to do it, it would probably take them about a year to be able to produce a bomb and then possibly another one to two years in order to put it on a deliverable vehicle of some sort in order to deliver that weapon.”…

So again… Wtf, over…? What’s the rush to bomb, bomb, bomb Iran…? Or better yet the rush to build a better bomb for Iran…?

…The Pentagon has decided that its largest conventional bomb isn’t capable of destroying Iran’s underground nuclear enrichment facilities and has ordered efforts to make it more powerful.

The 30,000-pound “bunker-buster” bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, was designed to penetrate deeply buried targets, like some of Iran’s nuclear facilities. But tests of the bomb led the Pentagon to believe it may not fully destroy the facilities, and so this month they secretly submitted a request to Congress additional for funding to build a bigger, more destructive bomb.

Already more than $330 million has been spent to develop about 20 of the bombs, which are built by Boeing Co. The Pentagon is now seeking about $82 million more to enhance it…

I know we could’ve spent the $82 million on more ‘constructive’ uses, not destructive…!

I should also add that that Iranian ‘timeline’ for a potential Nuke, and the missile to deliver it, that Panetta is peddling, is exactly the same timeline the US/EU/Israel has been pimping since 1984…!

Speaking of the race for Tehran, Israel experienced a little setback…!

Now, it’s interesting to see what overtures Iran is making… Iran Calls on Syria to Hold Free Elections… And then to read about other interesting developments…

Turkey may provide Hamas with $300 million in annual aid

Hamas has been facing financial difficulties due to late and reduced payments from Iran; Meshal deciding between Qatar and Jordan for new Hamas headquarters, after leaving Syria.

Do you suppose Erdogan likes Bibi very much…?

Bank on it, folks… $150 a barrel: Iran warning

Can you afford it…?

*gah*

Let me start off the discussion with something Trita Parsi had mentioned to Laura Rozen recently…

…The United States wants Iran to stop enrichment to 20 percent, to turn over its stockpile of low enriched uranium, and to halt plans to make Fordo operational. “But what can they and the Europeans” offer in return? asked Parsi, who is the author of a new book on U.S. diplomacy with Iran. A “mutual freeze on any mutual escalation” is one possible formulation, he said. But western powers are “asking Iran to give up things they already have.” It’s hard to imagine, he added, that the United States would be prepared to offer Iran a corresponding suspension of sanctions already in place–particularly while a presidential election is under way in the United States…

Iran Affair’s Cyrus Safdari expands on the fallacy…

…And it occurred to me that in reality no one in the US can offer anything that Iran would logically and presumably ask for. For example, on the question of removal of sanctions: Can Obama actually remove the sanctions? He has the legal authority to rescind some Executive Orders, of course, but that is only a small part of the web of sanctions imposed around Iran. He would have to go up against the US Congress, which as that Tom Friedman character recently said, is “bought and paid for” by Israel. So how would these sanctions be removed, exactly? How could the State Department actually get Adelson to stop funding think tanks that hire PhDs as advocates acting under a guise of scholarly objectivity to promote the idea that giving up on sanctions amounts to Chamberlain bowing to Hitler? How could Obama get editors to stop or start using keywords and phrases over and over again in their publications, “Nuclear Weapons Program”, “Terrorism”, etc.? How could he do any of this, even if he didn’t have to worry about getting re-elected, because after all he can’t do anything unless he’s re-elected… {snip}

…So, am I right? Assuming that Washington wants to resolve things with Iran peacefully and is willing to make the necessary compromises to do so, IS anyone in Washington really in a position to deliver on such promises and to implement such policies in the face of domestic opposition, where being ‘weak on Iran’ is blood in the water for the opposing campaign? To sell any sort of real change in Iran policy to the public, or at least those who pay for his election campaigning, the President would have to be willing to consume a great deal of political capital. Can he get the necessary laws passed, and other laws rescinding? How many votes in Congress would that require? How much fighting will be required for each vote? Its just not possible. No politician in the US can do this. Even assuming he could win some of the fights, it would consume far more resources than any politician can be willing to dedicate to a single cause…

MJ Rosenberg, in Al Jazeera, cited Jeffrey Goldberg a few times…

Assassination in Tehran: An act of war?

The murder of an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran suggests that Israel and neoconservatives are pushing for war.

…Writing about a piece in the current edition of Foreign Affairs that endorses bombing Iran as a neat and cost-free way to address its nuclear programme, Goldberg explains why he thinks the author, Council on Foreign Relations fellow Matthew Kroenig, is wrong. Goldberg says he now believes:

…that advocates of an attack on Iran today would be exchanging a theoretical nightmare – an Iran with nukes – for an actual nightmare: A potentially out-of-control conventional war raging across the Middle East that could cost the lives of thousands Iranians, Israelis, Gulf Arabs and even American servicemen.

Think about that for a minute. Uber-hawk Jeffrey Goldberg is saying that the threat posed by Iran is a “theoretical nightmare” while a war ostensibly to neutralise that threat would present an “actual nightmare”.

{snip}

…Here is Jeff Goldberg again in a column subsequent to the one I already cited:

If I were a member of the Iranian regime (and I’m not), I would take this assassination program to mean that the West is entirely uninterested in any form of negotiation (not that I, the regime official, has ever been much interested in dialogue with the West) and that I should double-down and cross the nuclear threshold as fast as humanly possible. Once I do that, I’m North Korea, or Pakistan: An untouchable country.

In short, for those hell-bent on getting the US engaged in a war that even Jeff Goldberg views as a “nightmare” for both the US and Israel, this is a very good day indeed.

Congratulations. Or something like that.

Jim Lobe really hammers home the point…

Whoever Killed the Scientist Was Aiming at Much More

Under these circumstances, the timing of today’s assassination was particularly remarkable. Among other things, it makes me believe that the U.S., which condemned the attack and categorically denied any role in it (See Clinton’s statement in her press conference with the Qatari Prime Minister here), was not in fact involved.* That leaves two obvious suspects: 1) Israel and 2) a faction within the Iranian regime. If there was indeed an Israeli hand behind it, the assassination was not just an effort to set back the Iran’s nuclear program and induce fear among other scientists working on it. I think it was also a provocation designed to 1) blow up prospects for progress in any p5+1 negotiations that might convene over the next month or so; 2) strengthen hard-line factions in Tehran that oppose negotiations; and 3) possibly provoke retaliation that will further escalate tensions, if not armed conflict. Of course, all three of these overlap and reinforce each other. If it was an internal Iranian faction, which, frankly, I find more difficult to believe, both 1) and 2) above also apply…

About the possible internal Iranian faction within the Iranian Regime, both Emptywheel and Jim White are pointing to JSOC ops, as opposed to CIA ops, and, even the possibility of Mossad posing as CIA agents…!

Alex Kane at Mondoweiss had this to add…The headline you aren’t seeing: Iran wants talks, Israel pushing for war…

Foreign Policy has been abuzz with numerous posts…

Iran agreed to nuclear talks and an IAEA mission… And… Do Israelis really want to bomb Iran?

Now, as ex-CIA Middle East desk Chief, Philip Giraldi, updates his 2007 prognostication of What World War III May Look Like… He then paints a mighty bleak picture of What War With Iran Might Look Like…

God help us all…!

I would like to apologize for my sparse reporting on the Middle East and the I/P of late, but, my local Occupy is extremely addictive…!

Anyways, I had already typed out my title when I found this Christian Science Monitor report…

Resolution on Iran nuclear program hailed by US, but lacks teeth

The US lauds the ‘unified message‘ sent by the UN’s nuclear watchdog expressing ‘deep and increasing concern‘ over the Iran nuclear program. But the resolution lays no groundwork for action…

…In comments following adoption of the resolution, Clinton suggested the international community is now expressing unprecedented concern about Iran’s activities. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job bringing the international community to a place that it had never come to before,” she told NBC in an interview.

But she also suggested the reality that any action based on the resolution might be limited to the US and the European Union. “When it comes to sanctions,” she told NBC, “there are more steps that the United States and Europe are probably willing to take than others at this time.”…

Now, as the AFP reported…

UN atomic watchdog condemns Iran

…The resolution said it was “essential for Iran and the Agency to intensify their dialogue” and calls on Tehran “to comply fully and without delay with its obligations under relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council.”

A total of 32 countries on the 35-nation IAEA board of governors voted in favour, with Indonesia abstaining and Cuba and Ecuador voting against, diplomats said.

To assuage Chinese and Russian misgivings, the resolution has no timeframe for Iran to comply, calling instead for IAEA head Yukiya Amano to report to the board in March on Tehran’s “implementation of this resolution.”

It should be a real wake up call to Western leaders, especially when the Wall Street Journal, and, Haaretz point out how far the MOTUs have truly fallen…

UN nuclear watchdog to soften Iran resolution, as gesture to China and Russia

IAEA to issue more moderate condemnation, despite recent report revealing that Iran is working toward developing nuclear weapons…

Basically, Russia and China aren’t buying the recycled tripe…!

But, never fear our AIPAC, bought and paid for, Wingnuts will gladly step up to bat… Republicans Tell Israel: U.S. Will Back Strike Against Iran…!

Now, while SecDef Panetta was warning about the possible ramifications of an attack on Iran… US defence secretary says military action against Iranian nuclear sites could have unintended consequences for the region…! It would appear that the real ‘crisis’ is being confronted head on…

From the Grey Lady…

U.S. Plans New Sanctions Against Iran’s Oil Industry

The Obama administration plans to impose a new round of sanctions against Iran’s petrochemical industry, a Western official briefed on the plans said Friday, less than two weeks after a United Nations report published evidence that the Iranian government was working on a nuclear weapon.

The sanctions, expected to be announced on Monday, build on existing measures against Iran’s oil and gas industry, which aim to curb foreign investment in refineries or other facilities. European nations are expected to announce similar measures when their leaders meet later in the week, the official said…

Well, No D’uh…! Here’s another Grey Lady op-ed penned by a PNAC Reichwinger, Reuel Marc Gerecht… Don’t Give Up on Sanctions…!

It should also be noted that it’s truly a Bipartisan push to punish Iran…

Senator Proposes New Sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank

Proponents of additional sanctions recognize the sever humanitarian costs, but argue human suffering in Iran is necessary

…One of the bill’s top supporters, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), said, “Critics [of the sanctions] argued that these measures will hurt the Iranian people. Quite frankly, we need to do just that.”

The renewed push for additional sanctions against Iran comes after excessive government and media hype over the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report inflating concerns about a covert Iranian nuclear weapons program, although little evidence was put forth…

It’s always been about the Oil, the Iranian Oil Bourse, and, ultimately, Regime Change…! Not the Nuclear asperations of the Iranians, that the West and Israel are so concerned about…!

Case in point…

Israeli Attack on Iran Would Include Targeting Civilian Infrastructure

…Anonymous U.S. intelligence officials told The Daily Beast that and Israeli attack “would go far beyond airstrikes from F-15 and F-16 fighter planes and likely include electronic warfare against Iran’s electric grid, Internet, cellphone network, and emergency frequencies for firemen and police officers.”

Such an attack could cause serious human suffering and might constitute a deliberate violation of international law, which prohibits targeting civilian infrastructure for attack…

I will guarantee ya that the small island of Kish in the Straits of Hormuz will be the very first target and not Natanz or Bushehr…! Any takers…?

Meanwhile, in other tomfoolery…

Mitchell says Palestinians must show flexibility

The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah showed inflexibility over Israel’s settlement program and will have to make compromises for the sake of peace, the Obama administration’s former Mideast envoy has said.

George Mitchell, who resigned in May as US President Barack Obama’s special envoy for the Middle East peace process, said Tuesday at the University of Maine that the Palestinian side placed too much emphasis on settlements.

“I personally went to 13 countries and in almost every single one I was told that Palestinians … should not enter into negotiations unless there was full freeze on Israeli settlement activity,” Mitchell said, according to US news reports.

“We negotiated that and the Israeli leaders agreed to halt new housing in the West Bank for 10 months. It was much less than what we asked for but more than anyone else had done,” the Freepress Online quoted him as saying.

“The Palestinians rejected it as worse than useless. They were strongly opposed to it.”

Can anyone be more oblivious than George Mitchell, besides Tony Blair…?

The Settlements are the problem, Period…! Well, the illegal Occupation too…

Unfortunately, Foggy Bottom just doesn’t get it either…

Report: US warns Palestinians on unity deal

The US may sanction the Palestinian Authority if Fatah and Hamas implement a reconciliation deal signed in May, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday.

Israel HaYom reported that US deputy secretary of state Bill Burns was in the region to relay a sharp message from the US president, Barak Obama, warning of serious consequences for the Palestinians.

Burns will tell President Mahmoud Abbas that if he intends to form a unity government, Hamas must renounce violence, recognize Israel, and agree to abide by previous agreements, the daily reported…

What is wrong with our Ship of State…? Does it really want to founder on those perilous shoals…?

God help us all…!

*gah*

“We will never enter any war against the U.S. or against any other country. This is our policy…We have never attacked anybody. Why should we do that? Why should we start a war?” – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Oct. 18, 2011)

Why indeed…?

Now, The IAEA, once again, defies one of the first principles of logic: Negative evidence – the absence of something – cannot be used to prove the existence of something…! Ironically, during the Iraqi fiasco, the IAEA was on the right side of the logical ledger, stating bluntly that they could not prove that Saddam had possessed any WMD’s, much less, a nuke program…!

Well, seemingly, they’re on the wrong side of the very same equation… To wit…

“While the Agency continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material at the nuclear facilities and LOFs declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement, as Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation, including by not implementing its Additional Protocol, the Agency is unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”

Hmmm… I wonder what had changed at the IAEA…?

Today, the intrepid Pepe Escobar completely eviscerated all the latest Iranian hype…

Dodgy Intel

The IAEA insists is relying on “credible” intelligence – over 1,000 pages of documentation – from more than 10 countries, and has drawn on eight years of “evidence”.

Yet the IAEA has no independent means to confirm the enormous mass of information – and disinformation – it receives from mostly Western powers. Mohammad ElBaradei – who was the predecessor of the Japanese Yukya Amano as the head of the IAEA – said so, explicitly, many times. And he always disputed what passes for “Iran intelligence” – knowing it was politicized to the extreme, and trespassed by waves of rumor and speculation.

No wonder ultra-conservative Iranian newspaper Kayhan had reason to ask whether that was a IAEA report or an American diktat to the meek, easily pressured Amano.

There’s nothing even remotely earth-shaking about the report – satellite images and speculation by “diplomats” being sold as irrefutable “intelligence”. If this looks like the build-up towards the war on Iraq, that’s because it does. Essentially, it’s regurgitation of a four-year-old farce, known as the “laptop of death”…

Antiwar’s Justin Raimondo did a masterful job too…

…What jumps out at the careful reader of the IAEA report is that there is nothing concrete involved in this nefarious plot: only hearsay descriptions of blueprints and computer models, including various publicly available scientific studies authored by Iranian scientists. According to Khan, what was transferred to the Iranians was know-how: theoretical knowledge and contacts with suppliers. Yet throughout the IAEA report, although there are plenty of instances where Iran is alleged to have sought this or that dual use component, we are never told if they actually succeeded in procuring the item. While the report attributes its information to “Member States,” why will I not be surprised if this “intelligence” comes from the same folks who brought us the Niger uranium forgeries?

Although there is no smoking gun, the injection of the A.Q. Khan network into the propaganda mix at this level is a relatively new development, one that links the latest Enemy of the Moment (Pakistan) with longtime-favorite Iran. Why not kill two birds with one stone?

Wiki has a great synopsis on the Laptop and the Green Salt Project…

It should be noted that not only has Russia called bullsh*t, immediately, but, also the Chinese…

…”It is clear that contention between the various sides over the Iranian nuclear issue has reached white hot levels and could even be on the precipice of a showdown,” the overseas edition of the People’s Daily said in a front-page commentary…

China’s official Xinhua news agency also suggested that Beijing would respond warily to the report. The UN watchdog still “lacks a smoking gun”, Xinhua said in a commentary.

“There are no witnesses or physical evidence to prove that Iran is making nuclear weapons,” it said.

“In dealing with the Iran nuclear issue, it is extremely dangerous to rely on suspicions, and the destructive consequences of any armed action would endure for a long time.”…

“If these sanctions harm China’s substantive interests, then China will have to respond in some way,“said Li Hong, the secretary general of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, a government-controlled body.

Do we really want to awaken the slumbering Dragon…?

*gah*

From the BBC today…

The UN’s atomic watchdog is planning to reveal evidence that Iran has been working secretly to develop a nuclear weapons capability, diplomats say.

The evidence is said to include intelligence that Iran made computer models of a nuclear warhead.

Iranian officials say the International Atomic Energy Agency report, due next week, is a fabrication.

Israeli officials have said a military option to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons is drawing nearer.

Diplomats, speaking anonymously, have been briefing journalists on the IAEA’s next quarterly report on Iran.

They said the report would also include satellite images of what the IAEA believes is a large steel container used for high-explosives tests related to nuclear arms…

Of next week’s report, one Western diplomat told Reuters news agency: “There are bits of it which clearly can only be for clandestine nuclear purposes. It is a compelling case.“…

Israeli President Shimon Peres, when asked by Israeli television if “something was bringing us closer to a military option rather than a diplomatic one“, he replied: “I believe so.”

He continued: “I estimate that intelligence services of all these countries are looking at the ticking clock, warning leaders that there was not much time left“….

In otherwords, Aluminum tubes and Yellowcake grade fabrications ‘intel’ there, folks…!

Arms Control Wonk has already disproved some of the IAEA’s latest assertions, like a Syrian Spinning Factory in Hisaka, actually being a fabric company, and not harboring centrifuges for heavy water…! Some simple Journalistic gumshoe work blew that one out of the water…! Fancy that…!

Now, get a load of this Yahoo…

Israel May Attack Iran and Obama is Not Happy About It

Rumors that Israel is poised to attack Iran’s nuclear installations, exacerbated by the recent test of a Jericho long range missile capable of hitting that country, have gotten Obama administration officials worried.

They are not worried Iran will develop a nuclear weapon or if the administration is it is not saying. A military official recently stated the Obama administration is worried Israel will strike Iran without consulting it first.

There is a good reason for Israel to attack Iran without asking permission of President Barack Obama. He would try to stop it…

There is, however, an excellent reason why Israel should attack Iran. If Iran gets a nuclear weapon and places it on a missile or even smuggles it close to Israel on a ship, it will use that weapon to commit genocide against the Jewish people.

Obama has placed himself in an unfortunate position by acting hostile and even petty toward Israel while practicing appeasement with Iran. A more sensible American government, say that of President George W. Bush, could talk to Israel, dissuade it from doing something desperate, but also reassure the tiny Jewish state that should an attack be necessary, American forces would participate. Obama has thrown away that capability. Israel has no assurance that if it came down to it, American military forces would attack Iran on the behalf of Israel and the Islamist country’s other neighbors. So, as it has many times before, Israel finds itself alone…

Unfortunately this means that a match is going to be set to the Middle East, likely just in time for the 2012 elections. So much for smart diplomacy.

That folks, is the sort of mindset that has dominated the discourse on Iran for decades…! Cyrus Safdari posted some of the ‘Greatest Hits’ over the past 18 yrs…

Israel about to bomb Iran – after 18 years of speculation and sabre-rattling??

They say Americans have 20-second attention spans so it easy to mislead and spook them over and over again by keeping people in a constant confused state of fear and insecurity — and we’re certainly in one of those cycles now about a supposed Israeli attack on Iran. But some of us have longer memories and have a terrible habit of keeping old news clippings , and so we can see through this repetition of hype.

So, I was curious just how long we’ve been fed this ceaseless hype and speculation about the ever-imminent Israeli attack on Iran (which the US media automatically labels as being “pre-emptive,” when it most certainly is not.)

Well, turns out that I have at least 18 years worth of such reports about an imminent Israeli strike on Iran saved up, averaging about 1 such report for every 2-3 months. Below are some these reports arranged by date, going back to the mid-1990 – the same BS, over and over again. And just for more context, I’ve also included here the repeated claims about how Iran just so close to getting nukes (marked with a bolded, red *asterisks*) just to give you an idea of how long THAT claim has also been fed to us…

I’ve been railing against this very same IAEA, or otherwise, bullsh*t for years, here’s a pertinent one I’d wrote earlier this year… IAEA Claims ‘New Info’ On Iranian Nukes… Sound familiar…?

Meanwhile, right next door to Iran, we have a real nuke crisis…

Pakistan Carts Its Nukes Around In Delivery Vans…

God Help us all…!

*gah*

As Scott Horton so eloquently pointed out in that video, Iran has proven the ‘negative’ that Iran has not diverted any nuclear material towards a bomb, yet that noise still persists…

There’s a whole new spate of fear-mongering headlines that is proliferating across the web today, fueled by this Reuters report…

IAEA says gets info on possible Iran military work

The U.N. atomic watchdog has received new information regarding allegations that Iran may be seeking to develop a nuclear-armed missile, the agency said in a report voicing deepening concern about the issue.

The confidential document signalled the U.N. body’s growing frustration at what it sees as Iran’s lack of cooperation with a long-running investigation into its disputed nuclear programme.

It also made clear Iran’s determination to press ahead with sensitive atomic activity despite four rounds of U.N. sanctions since 2006, saying the country had informed the IAEA it would soon start operating a second uranium enrichment plant.

The report looked likely to add to Western suspicions that Iran is secretly bent on building a nuclear weapons capability from its enrichment programme, which Tehran denies. [...]

The IAEA report, obtained by Reuters on Friday, said it remained concerned about possible current activity in Iran to design a nuclear payload.

“Iran is not engaging with the agency in substance on issues concerning the allegation that Iran is developing a nuclear payload for its missile programme,” it said. [...]

An official with knowledge of the IAEA’s investigation said the new information, if it turned out to be correct, concerned both Iran’s past and more recent activities.

The report said that based on an analysis of “additional information which has come to its attention since August 2008, including new information recently received, there are further concerns which the agency … needs to clarify with Iran.”

In parsing the verbiage, once again it would appear that ‘unnamed Western countries’ are rehashing the same old debunked ‘Nuke Laptop’ conspiracy theories…

Iran Nuke Laptop Data Came from Terror Group

WASHINGTON, Feb 29, 2008 (IPS) – The George W. Bush administration has long pushed the “laptop documents” – 1,000 pages of technical documents supposedly from a stolen Iranian laptop – as hard evidence of Iranian intentions to build a nuclear weapon. Now charges based on those documents pose the only remaining obstacles to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declaring that Iran has resolved all unanswered questions about its nuclear programme.

But those documents have long been regarded with great suspicion by U.S. and foreign analysts. German officials have identified the source of the laptop documents in November 2004 as the Mujahideen e Khalq (MEK), which along with its political arm, the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), is listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organisation.

There are some indications, moreover, that the MEK obtained the documents not from an Iranian source but from Israel’s Mossad.

In its latest report on Iran, circulated Feb. 22, the IAEA, under strong pressure from the Bush administration, included descriptions of plans for a facility to produce “green salt”, technical specifications for high explosives testing and the schematic layout of a missile reentry vehicle that appears capable of holding a nuclear weapon. Iran has been asked to provide full explanations for these alleged activities.

Tehran has denounced the documents on which the charges are based as fabrications provided by the MEK, and has demanded copies of the documents to analyse, but the United States had refused to do so.

In a recent Truthout article, Gareth Porter further debunked the hype…

Exclusive Report: Evidence of Iran Nuclear Weapons Program May Be Fraudulent

Here’s another extensive article on Iran and Israel’s attempts to frame Iran…

The Phantom Menace: Fantasies, falsehoods, and fear-mongering about Iran’s nuclear program

I’ve also highlighted Bibi’s desire to bomb Iran with US complicity…

AFP: ‘Create Credible Military Threat Against Iran,’ Says Israel to U.S.

This is getting really old, really fast…!

*gah*

Update: Here is the IAEA Board of Governors report (12 pg PDF) In it they state that they can confirm the ‘nondiversion of nuclear material’, but, bitch about not being given ‘full access’ to the Iranian military’s plans…! Can you think of any nation allowing that to occur…? *gah*

This RT Youtube is dated from August 10, 2010, Ray McGovern and VIPS had just released a Memorandum, in which they had raised the alarm about this Repugnant bill, HR 1553 (6 pg. PDF!), that was sent around to House members…

Expressing support for the State of Israel’s right to defend Israeli sovereignty, to protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, and to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the use of military force if no other peaceful solution can be found within reasonable time to protect against such an immediate and existential threat to the State of Israel.

Earlier this month, another member of VIPS, Philip Giraldi, wrote; “The Iran Report”

…The last NIE on Iran, released in late 2007(PDF!), was controversial in that it concluded that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and had not resumed it. The document was immediately attacked by neoconservatives and the media, who responded that the Iranians might have a secret program and were intending to revive their efforts. Israel and its supporters have since been insisting that there is, in fact, a hidden program and have been constantly sending out alarms suggesting that a nuclear weapon is only six months or a year away. They keep revising forward the date whenever six months or a year passes without a weapon actually making an appearance.

The new Iran NIE has been delayed a number of times because of conflicting demands from the CIA analysts involved and from the White House. The analysts, badly burned by the heavily politicized 2002 NIE on Iraq, which led to a war, and also nervous about the barrage of criticism of the 2007 NIE on Iran, want the estimate to be completely credible and very tightly analyzed and reviewed. The Obama Administration wants, instead, a document that will give it whatever option it seeks to pursue vis-à-vis the Mullahs…

Yeppers… Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old…! Can you say ‘Stovepipe’ and ‘Cherry Pick’…! *gah*

Anyways, I chose to write about this all-important topic because there’s currently a long lull in the Peace Farce talks, and, even in the unity talks between Fatah and Hamas. Also, while partaking in my usual perusal of Haaretz and the other Israeli dailies, I came across this interview with ex-IAEA henchman, Olli Heinonen…

Behind the scenes of UN nuclear inspection of Iran

It’s only been two months since Olli Heinonen left the IAEA, where he worked for 27 years. In a first interview with an Israeli media outlet, he cautiously explains what is known about Iran’s nuclear program

…”The challenge faced by the international community in coping with Iran’s nuclear effort is huge,” he states in the interview. “We have about a year, until the end of 2011, or perhaps the start of 2012, to solve the problem.” [...]

“The centrifuges are not operating well, and some of them are failing,” Heinonen said. “They are losing materials because of this; and so, with this defective equipment, they will have a hard time enriching the material to a level high enough to enable the production of nuclear weapons. They have a lot of problems, and they are not there yet.”

So, which is it Olli…? *gah*

Now, fortunately there’s a few individuals that are wise to Olli’s wily ways. For instance, Iran Affairs’ Cyrus Safdari has been chronicling his mischief for some time. Here’s Cyrus shortly after Olli announced his resignation…

Spinning Olli Heinonen’s resignation from IAEA

IAEA Deputy Director Olli Heinonen has apparently announced his plans to resign from the IAEA. It is interesting to read how the media are trying to spin this news.

For example, the BBC claims:

Mr Heinonen’s department’s five-year investigation drew on Western intelligence to help to build the IAEA’s case that Iran was working to develop a nuclear-armed missile.

Actually the IAEA has never made any such claim about “nuclear armed missiles.” These are part of the so-called “Alleged Studies” claims that the US has made against Iran based on the “Laptop of Death” computer it claims was obtained from a secret source in Iran. Quite the contrary to what the BBC claims, there is reportedly a lot of controversy within the IAEA about the authenticity of these “alleged studies” claims, and the IAEA has consistently stated that it has no actual evidence to back up the claims. This is what former IAEA head Elbaradei had to say about the documents:

And I have been making it very clear that with regard to these alleged studies, we have not seen any use of nuclear material, we have not received any information that Iran has manufactured any part of a nuclear weapon or component. That’s why I say, to present the Iran threat as imminent is hype.

But spinning Heinonen’s resignation continues. The Jerusalem Post says:

Heinonen, a 63-year-old Finnish radiochemist, caused great international worry in February 2008 with a power-point presentation to diplomats showing links between Teheran’s efforts to process uranium and Iranian tests of high explosives and modifications to missiles to deliver a nuclear payload.

Well, again, during that presentation Heinonen was simply presenting the content of the “alleged studies”, and not vouching for them nor presenting independently-obtained evidence by the IAEA. The US gave (some) of alleged studies claims to the IAEA, Heinonen presented the information in a powerpoint to the diplomats, one of whom then (conveniently-enough) leaked it to the press — thereby allowing the press to misrepresent the matter as if the alleged studies claimed originated with the IAEA rather than with the US. They basically recylcled the allegations to hide their true source.

Antiwar’s Muhammad Sahimi details some of the hijinks and more on the ‘Nuke Laptop’…

A New Judith Miller for
Iran Hawks?

[David] Albright’s contact at the IAEA, with whom he is “extremely tight” (in the words of several sources), is Olli Heinonen, the IAEA’s deputy director for safeguards, who is in charge of the current inspections in Iran. Heinonen, whose Finnish nationality may lead people to believe that he is impartial, is leading a crusade against Iran. He constantly acts outside the IAEA’s protocol by leaking sensitive information to the press and spreading unproven allegations about Iran’s nuclear program. A February 2008 report by ElBaradei to the Board of Governors of the IAEA declared that Iran’s six minor breaches of its Safeguards Agreement had been addressed to the IAEA’s satisfaction and that the IAEA had a better understanding of the history of Iran’s nuclear program. Heinonen immediately made a presentation to the Board of Governors that was entirely based on the laptop, four years after the IAEA had obtained it, calling its contents “alarming.” He expects the Iranian government to explain a document it has never seen. The solution is straightforward: present copies of the documents to Iran and analyze the laptop’s digital chain of custody.

Now, wouldn’t you be a little skeptical about an Iranian Scientist’s laptop that is all in English with no Farsi…

…Tehran rejected the material as forged, and there are still reservations within the IAEA about its authenticity, according to officials with knowledge of the internal debate in the agency.

“First of all, if you have a clandestine programme, you don’t put it on laptops which can walk away,” one official said. “The data is all in English which may be reasonable for some of the technical matters, but at some point you’d have thought there would be at least some notes in Farsi. So there is some doubt over the provenance of the computer.”

IAEA officials do not comment on intelligence passed to the watchdog agency by foreign governments, saying all such assistance is confidential.

It is insane how determined they are to ‘Bomb, Bomb, Iran’…!

*gah*

One other noteworthy I/P article I saw today…

Israel army chief says forces fired 308 bullets on flotilla

Israeli commandos fired 308 live bullets aboard a Gaza-bound aid ship in May, Israel’s army chief said on Sunday as he testified again before the Tirkel panel investigating the incident.

Gabi Ashkenazi said the navy’s killing of nine Turkish nationals on the Mavi Marmara had been unavoidable, British news wire Reuters reported.

God help us all…!

Greg Thielmann and Ray McGovern really delved into the facts and issues behind the hype of the Iranian nuke intentions to Congressional staffers and the press in DC in Oct. of 2009. Entitled:"Beneath the hype: Is Iran close to nukes?" That clip above was Part 4 of 5…

Here’s Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and, Part 5

Philip Giraldi chimed in recently with his: Shaping the Story on Iran

…And now it is Iran’s turn and the story and the storytellers are exactly the same.

Even when everything changes, nothing changes for the American mainstream media (MSM), which continues to be wedded to a policy of all war all the time. There is a long history of media lies. [...]

Today it is different as newspapers rarely compete for market share and have no interest in exposing the half-truths of their peers. The unanimity of view is particularly evident on the editorial pages where the neocons and the groupthink that they have fostered have become deeply embedded. Everyone in the MSM agrees that Iran either already has nukes or is about to go nuclear and that the country shelters terrorists on every block, all colluding to attack a completely innocent and guileless United States. Saturated with the propaganda, the American public more or less accepts that narrative...

Jim Lobe lays out the time frame: Stirrings of a New Push for Military Option on Iran

…And while it’s only July – and less than a month after the U.N., the European Union (EU) and the U.S. Congress approved new economic sanctions against Iran – a familiar clutch of Iraq war hawks appear to be preparing the ground for a major new campaign to rally public opinion behind military action against the Islamic Republic.

Barring an unexpected breakthrough on the diplomatic front, that campaign, like the one eight years ago, is likely to move into high gear this autumn, beginning shortly after the Labour Day holiday, Sep. 6, that marks the end of summer vacation.

By the following week, the November mid-term election campaign will be in full swing, and Republican candidates are expected to make the charge that Democrats and President Barack Obama are "soft on Iran" their top foreign policy issue.

In any event, veterans of the Bush administration’s pre-Iraq invasion propaganda offensive are clearly mobilising their arguments for a similar effort on Iran, even suggesting that the timetable between campaign launch and possible military action – a mere six months in Iraq’s case – could be appropriate.

Marc Lynch asked the pertinent question: Why put an attack on Iran back on the table?

…I suspect that the real reason for the new flood of commentary calling for attacks on Iran is simply that hawks hope to pocket their winnings from the long argument over sanctions, such as they are, and now push to the next stage in the confrontation they’ve long demanded. Hopefully, this pressure will not gain immediate traction. Congress can proudly demonstrate their sanctions-passingness, so the artificial Washington timeline should recede for a while. The Pentagon is now working closely with Israel, it’s said, in order to reassure them and prevent their making a unilateral strike, which should hopefully push back another artificial clock. That should buy some time for the administration’s strategy to unfold, for better or for worse. An attack on Iran would still be a disaster, unnecessary and counterproductive, and the White House knows that, and it’s exceedingly unlikely that it will happen anytime soon. But the real risk is that the public discourse about an attack on Iran normalizes the idea and makes it seem plausible, if not inevitable, and that the administration talks itself into a political corner. That shouldn’t be allowed to happen.

Today’s Haaretz had this ominous Op-ed from Shrub’s former CIA Director…

U.S. strike on Iran likelier than ever, former CIA chief says

Michael Hayden says Iran intends to reach the point where it’s just below having a nuclear weapon, adding that such a step would be as destabilizing to the region as the ‘real thing.’

Arms Control Wonk posted a great article pointing out the futility "On Bombing the Bomb"…

…Call it the “Say it with JDAMs“ school of nonproliferation diplomacy. Unfortunately, it overlooks a couple of the key puzzle pieces needed to understand the situation.

**

First and most importantly, you can bomb an enrichment facility, but you can’t bomb an enrichment program. (Or not one as well-developed as Iran’s.) It’s not like a reactor, with billions of dollars’ worth of hard-to-replace capital piled up in one spot over the course of several years. Instead, it’s thousands of interchangeable pieces that can be brought together and operated more or less anywhere. [...]

Bomb the workshops — if you are lucky enough to locate them — and new workshops could be set up before very long.

Following this line of reasoning leads you to a realization that Iran’s capacity for precision engineering would have to be bombed somehow. That’s not a problem with a solution.

On Friday the House Repugnants introduced H.RES.1553 … (PDF!)

Expressing support for the State of Israel’s right to defend Israeli sovereignty, to protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, and to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the use of military force if no other peaceful solution can be found within reasonable time to protect against such an immediate and existential threat to the State of Israel.

Please take some time to send a message to demand that House Republic Leader John Boehner denounce this resolution…

We need to stop the madness now…! We certainly can’t afford another war…!

Noam Chomsky…

…"They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran," according to Dan Plesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London. "US bombers and long range missiles are ready today to destroy 10,000 targets in Iran in a few hours," he said. "The firepower of US forces has quadrupled since 2003," accelerating under Obama. [...]

Obama’s rhetorical commitment to non-proliferation has received much praise, even a Nobel peace prize. One practical step in this direction is establishment of NWFZs. Another is to withdraw support for the nuclear programs of the three non-signers of the NPT. As often, rhetoric and actions are hardly aligned, in fact are in direct contradiction in this case, facts that pass with as little attention as most of what has just been briefly reviewed.

Instead of taking practical steps towards reducing the truly dire threat of nuclear weapons proliferation, the U.S. is taking major steps towards reinforcing U.S. control of the vital Middle East oil-producing regions, by violence if other means do not suffice. That is understandable and even reasonable, under prevailing imperial doctrine, however grim the consequences, yet another illustration of "the savage injustice of the Europeans" that Adam Smith deplored in 1776, with the command center since shifted to their imperial settlement across the seas.

Pat Lang…

…The Ziocons are going after him with big money and a media blitz while the MSM types like Joe Scarborough and the lovely Mika look on wondering how far to go in submitting and how quickly.

Why is this new outfit not a candidate for registration under FARA? It advocates partucular American foreign policy positions on behalf of foreign country and seeks to directly pressure legislators to adopt positions favorable to that foreign power. Ah, I know the answer… The Ziocons have the muscle in the Obama Administration to block that at Justice. In any event the Justice Department is too busy suing Arizona to focus on that. [...]

The level of fury and angst in "defense" of Israel is rising steadily in the media. The clock is ticking. In November 2002 I told an audience in Lexington, Virginia that the train had already left the station headed for Iraq. This train is waiting for the conductor to board the passengers.

Joshua Pollack…

On Bombing the Bomb

…Call it the “Say it with JDAMs“ school of nonproliferation diplomacy. Unfortunately, it overlooks a couple of the key puzzle pieces needed to understand the situation.

**

First and most importantly, you can bomb an enrichment facility, but you can’t bomb an enrichment program. (Or not one as well-developed as Iran’s.) It’s not like a reactor, with billions of dollars’ worth of hard-to-replace capital piled up in one spot over the course of several years. Instead, it’s thousands of interchangeable pieces that can be brought together and operated more or less anywhere.

The UK Telegraph: Israel launches covert war against Iran…

[Edited for length - must stay within fair use and copyright guidelines according to rules for Seminal diaries.]

It is using hitmen, sabotage, front companies and double agents to disrupt the regime’s illicit weapons project, the experts say.

The most dramatic element of the "decapitation" programme is the planned assassination of top figures involved in Iran’s atomic operations. [...]

The aim is to slow down or interrupt Iran’s research programme, without the gamble of a direct confrontation that could lead to a wider war.

Gareth Porter…

Heinonen Pushed Dubious Iran Nuclear Weapons Intel

Olli Heinonen, the Finnish nuclear engineer who resigned Thursday after five years as deputy director for safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was the driving force in turning that agency into a mechanism to support U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran.

Heinonen was instrumental in making a collection of intelligence documents showing a purported Iranian nuclear weapons research programme the central focus of the IAEA’s work on Iran. The result was to shift opinion among Western publics to the view that Iran had been pursuing a covert nuclear weapons programme.

But his embrace of the intelligence documents provoked a fierce political struggle within the Secretariat of the IAEA, because other officials believed the documents were fraudulent.

Just imagine the possibilities…!