US PLANS JUNE ATTACK ON IRAN

[StoneMtn]

Here's the latest news as proliferated by Lawyers Against the War...

Subject: US PLANS JUNE ATTACK ON IRAN

Scott Ritter Says U.S. Plans June Attack On Iran

02/19/05 --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 recent Jan. 30 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.

http://www.ufppc.org/

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Uh boy. What kind of total war are they trying to get at? Was the whole Iraq thing a disappointment to them?

Lawyers against the War - interesting group, SM. Good clearinghouse for all the horrible news I've been avoiding for the last few weeks.

[Chameleon]

I saw Dahr speak in Juneau and to say the least, it was very emotional. He talked about how the Bush Administration has a blueprint for the entire Middle East showing when and where they will strike next in there attempt to dominate all oil producing countries. To say the least, it was even more difficult to stomach the pictures of GWB in my boss's office. Ignorance is no longer bliss.....it's humanely destructive.

[Vermontdave]

www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com

peace

[Im going home Donny]

Taste the waste.....

does anyone truely believe the box can be closed?

I think I'm growing more and more existentialist about this world everyday for peace of mind reasons.

It just seems people are way too greedy and selfish to give a rats ass in the mass numbers needed to create the ammount of massive change needed in the ammount of time its needed to happen.

Tottally willing to be inspired to have more hope here....Doctors and Lawyers giving a rats ass is kinda hopefull...

Apocalypse

by Dennis Lee

If it walks like apocalypse. If it

squawks like armageddon.

If it stalks the earth like anaphylactic parturition.

If the halo jams like septicemic laurels, if

species recuse recuse if mutti clearcut, if

earth remembers how & then for good forgets;

if it glows like neural plague if it grins, if it

walks like apocalypse-

[Im going home Donny]

Just watched The Corporation for the 5th time in days....I have a very faint ray of hope.

Tottally reccomend folks watch this and reccomend it to their friends, relatives, co-workers et...

after all, knowlage is power and everyone can't be truely souless.

[timouse]

Just watched The Corporation for the 5th time in days....I have a very faint ray of hope.

Tottally reccomend folks watch this and reccomend it to their friends, relatives, co-workers et...

after all, knowlage is power and everyone can't be truely souless.

we got the dvd on saturday and watched it last night. bloody brilliant! we passed it on to my mother and law who is very keen to see it. i'm about ready to strap a TV to the top of my car and drive around playing it to anyone that will watch...

at least it helps to explain why the hell the world is the way it is...that gives me hope, i think. eventually enough people get mad about the way things are and there's a chance for something better to happen...