Because a physical joint US/Israeli attack on Iran is not feasible at the present time due to military troop level problems and too much advanced publicity (the USS Kennedy force has been withdrawn from the Gulf. Both her skipper and executive officer were suddenly removed from command for “Special Reasons”) the White House is now turning up the press pressure cooker. The media is now to run a series of ongoing articles about Iran’s “human rights record” and the potential danger she poses to the “free world” (for this read Israel) We are going to get the recently-emasculated CIA to increase spending to the Iranian dissidents, many of whose leaders are now in safe houses in Washington.
The planned limited US/Israeli air strike on Iran's well-dispersed nuclear facilities would certainly cause international outrage (which Bush really doesn’t care about, having nothing but contempt for every other country but England) and the Pentagon studies conclude that such a strike could bring about retaliation against the massive concentrations of US troops now in Iran to “protect the election.”
We know here that Bush and his people are growing more and more eager to start withdrawing troops from Iraq by the middle of next year. The real reason for this is that Bush wants badly to invade Iran, and later Syria, and simply does not have the troops for it. GIs thinking they will be going home are in for a rude awakening as will be their families. Bush doesn’t give a damn about this because he got reelected and could care less what families think. A man who has never gone to any military funeral for the men his actions have killed would care less about what he terms “just limited and temporary” unhappiness domestically. The undertakers, at least, are making money.
The Administration’s main beefs with Iran are that they have a viable nuclear program that could (and probably has) produced atomic weapons. Also, Iran is trying to influence the Shiites in Iraq and are also giving cubic money to Hezbollah. This latter has infuriated the Sharon people who have put the destruction of what they see as their biggest treat on the front burner. There will also be the public BS that some of Osam bin Laden’s “top aides” are now hiding out in Tehran.
Condi Rice is the biggest pusher for increased PR pressure on Iran but her pet love is some kind of Biblical destruction visited upon her obsessively hated Russia. The CIA’s Voice of America and other propaganda outlets are gearing up for massive programs to undermine the Tehran régime and in short, use the same tricks they did in Georgia, Chechnya and now, the Ukraine. The CIA already operates a Persian-language radio service, Radio Farda, which broadcasts to Iran 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Last week, Condi and other rabid hawks held a private meeting in the Monkey Palace with the top leadership of American Jewish groups. The main purpose of the meeting was a consideration of the Palestine problem with Condi pushing for “bigger and longer” walls and perhaps the deportation of all of the Palestinians to the Gaza strip…by force of course…and the subsequent seizure of the now-abandoned Arab homes and businesses for new Jewish settlers. This would make for better containment and the harsh conditions in Gaza might hasten the disintegration of the Palestinians as a viable community. Sharon’s people are delighted with Condi’s plans and Bush is in full agreement with this but is only a silent partner at this point.
The Franklin matter came up and it was agreed that both the White House and the top media people would keep the lid on this. A major columnist, yet to be chosen and bribed, will do an op-ed piece on the fact (“leaked” to him by the usual fake “highly reliable inside sources” ) that the FBI could actually find nothing wrong with Franklin and that the material Franklin gave to the Jews, both in the US and Tel Aviv, were actually “unclassified policy studies” of no strategic value. Then the matter will be considered over and forgotten. Actually, Franklin worked with top neocons and gave the Jews crates of high-level White House and Pentagon situation papers with Cosmic-type security classifications. In short, Franklin, who was well-paid for his treachery and will get to keep his ill-gotten gains, gave away the farm insofar as alerting his friends in Israel to our very top policy secrets. And, it is felt, a great deal more. Still murky but there is something very big and nasty down there in the dark pond. But if the Bush/Israeli people have their way, it will be a very dead issue.
Also, I am forwarding to you tonight, a précis of a very high level report on bioterrorism ( an attack on the US using smallpox..) The original document, which has the highest classifications, would be a real bitch to scan and forward (it runs to six hundred pages) came from three reports: The CIA, the CDC (which is entirely in the Administration’s pocket) and a British intelligence source. (Also highly classified and designed for their leadership alone.)
It will scare the hell out of you and, hopefully, your readers. And the terrifying fact is that it is a certainty and that nothing can be done about it. There is a projected dieoff in this country alone of nearly 70,000,000 people when this gets going! There are absolutely no defenses against it, the government having deliberately destroyed huge stocks of effective vaccine. We know with absolute certainty that terrorists have the smallpox virus, obtained from crooked Russian officials., and although we do not know at present which group is planning to use it as a bioterrorist weapon, we do know for certain that it will be used against us and probably within the next six months. (The winter months are considered the peak months for a widespread dissemination of the virus.)