Today's
Stories
April 26,2006
Gary
Leupp
Wilkerson Speaks Out About the Coming War on Iran
April
25, 2006
Paul
Craig Roberts
The World is Uniting Against the Bush Imperium
Linda
S. Heard
Is the US Waging Israel's Wars?: the Prophecy of Oded Yinon
Ralph
Nader
Political Science: Gingrich, "Futurism" and the Abolition
of the OTA
Mike
Whitney
Preparing for the Economic Typhoon
Michael
Donnelly
Lutherans Betray Michigan's Loon Lake Wetlands for Pieces of Silver
Sharon
Smith
Breathing New Life Into May Day
Website
of the Day
SDS Ver. 2
April
24, 2006
Tim
Wise
What Kind of Card is Race?
John
Stanton
Strike Iran, Watch Pakistan and Turkey Fall
Dave
Lindorff
Dangerous Times Ahead
Steve
Shore
Berlusconi Defeated: The Long Wait is Over ... Or Is It?
Amadou
Deme
Hotel Rwanda: Setting the Record Straight
Mickey
Z.
15 Minutes of Radical Fame: America Meets Bill Blum and Ward Churchill
Ralph Nader
Lee
Raymond's Unconscionable Platinum Parachute
Alexander
Cockburn
Obama's Game
Website
of the Day
Too Stupid to Be President?
April
22/23, 2006
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The General, GM and the Stryker
Jeff
Halper
SUMUD vs. Apartheid: the Elections in Palestine and Israel
Jeff
Klein
How to Manufacture a War Criminal: Saddam and Me, a True Story
Thomas
P. Healy
Out Now: an Interview with Anthony Arnove
David
Underhill
Stuck in Mobile with the Rev. Graham Blues Again
Lee
Sustar
"We are Going to Keep Marching": an Interview with Immigrant
Rights Organizer Martín Unzueta
Deb
Reich
The Little Mermaid on Highway Six: Rooting for Ordinary Israelis
to Wake Up
John
Chuckman
America's Gulag: Purge at the CIA
Fred
Gardner
More Suppression of Marijuana Research
Julian
Edney
Can Our Economy Run Without Fear?
Seth
Sandronsky
The GOP and California's Levees
Brynne
Keith-Jennings
The Meddlesome Ambassador Trivelli: Undermining Democracy in Nicaragua
Dave
Lindorff
Where are the Frogs?
Catherine
Ann Cullen and Harry Browne
Springsteen Polishes His Roots: First Impressions of "We Shall
Overcome"
Bill
Pahnelas
Bush Passes the Buck on Soaring Gas Prices
Jim
French
Time to Overhaul US Farm Policy
Ron
Jacobs
"I Know I'm Not Dreaming, Because I Can't Sleep Any More"
David
Krieger
The Courage of Sophie Scholl: Resisting Hitler
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets'
Basement
Buknatski, Engel and Ford
Website
of the Weekend
Eye of the Storm
April
21, 2006
Jonathan
Cook
The Sinister Meaning of Olmert's "Hitkansut":
Deporting Hamas MPs
Lawrence
R. Velvel
Physical Courage, Moral Courage and American
Generals
Evelyn
Pringle
How to Out a CIA Agent
Christopher
Brauchli
The Rich are Different
Pratyush
Chandra
Pure-and-Simple Revolutions in Nepal and Venezuela
Michael
George Smith
This is What a Movement Looks Like
Missy
Comley Beattie
Serving at the Decider's Pleasure
Sarah
Hines
The Bracero Program: 1942-1964
Website
of the Day
Hunger Strike at U. of Miami
April 20, 2006
Chris
Kutalik
As Crisis Deepens, Is Labor Finally
Showing Signs of a Comeback?
Gary Leupp
Cheney, the Neocons and China
Joshua
Frank
Stop the War! Dump the Democrats!
Diane Christian
The Authority to Kill
William
S. Lind
Sweeping Up: the Real Problem Wasn't
the Execution of the War, But the Enterprise Itself
Ramzy
Baroud
A Case for the Palestinan Government
Justin
E.H. Smith
Doctors and Lethal Injection
April 19, 2006
P. Sainath
More Kids? Pay More for Your Water
Norman
Solomon
When Diplomacy Means War: Bait-and-Switch
on Iran
Anthony Papa
When Justice Isn't Blind: Double Standards
for the Rich and Poor in New York
Mike
Ferner
Movement Blues
Stanley Heller
The Massacre at Qana, 10 Years Later:
Still No Justice
Rifundazione
"We Defeated Berlusconi"
Christopher
Reed
Secrets of the Garden of Bliss
Alexander
Cockburn
The Pulitzer Farce
Website of
the Day
Bunker
Busters: the Movie
April 18, 2006
Paul Craig Roberts
How Safe is Your Job?
Eric
Wingerter
Washington Post vs. Venezuela
Juan Santos
What Immigrants Need to Learn from
the Black Civil Rights Movement
Greg
Weiher
The Zarqawi Gambit Revisited
Sam Bahour
Is Hamas Being Forced to Collapse?
Behzad
Yaghmaian
In the Gaze of New Orleans
Website of
the Day
The
FBI and the Jack Anderson Files
April 17, 2006
Kevin Zeese
An Interview with the First Arab-American
Senator: Jim Abourezk on Bush's Lies and the Dems' Complicity
Uri Avnery
Olmert the Fox
Norman Solomon
Why Won't Moveon.Org Oppose the Bombing
of Iran?
John Ross
A Real Day Without Mexicans?
Laila al-Haddad
The Earth is Closing in on Us: Dispatch
from Gaza
Jeffrey Blankfort
A Tale of Two Members of Congress
and the Capitol Hill Police
Website of the Day
Dixie
Chicks: Not Ready to Back Down
April
15 / 16, 2006
Jeffrey
St. Clair
How Star Wars Came to the Arctic
Ralph
Nader
Remembering Rev. William Sloan Coffin
Thaddeus
Hoffmeister
The Ghost of Shinseki: the General Who Was Sent Out to Pasture for
Being Right
Kevin Prosen
/ Dave Zirin
Privilege Meets Protest at Duke
Thomas
P. Healy
Taking Care of What We've Been Given: a Conversation with Wendell
Berry
Kristoffer
Larsson
Are 40 Percent of All Swedes Anti-Semitic?: Anatomy of a Statistical
Flim-Flam
Fred
Gardner
Continuing Medical (Marijuana) Education
Edwin Krales
New York's Katrina: the Hidden Toll of AIDS Among Blacks and the
Poor
Brian
Cloughley
Don't Blitz Iran: Risking the Ultimate Blowback
John Holt
Walking Off Vietnam with Edward Abbey's Surrogate Son
Seth
Sandronsky
What Billionaires Mean By Education Reform: Oprah, Bill Gates and
the Privatization of Public Schools
Rafael Renteria
Making It Plain About New Orleans
Michael
Ortiz Hill
In the Ashes of Lament: an Easter Meditation
William A.
Cook
An Israel Accountability Act
Gideon
Levy
Shooting Nasarin: a Story About a Little Girl
Andrew Wimmer
Stopping the Bush Juggernaut: a New Citizens Campaign
Madis
Senner
Talking Points for Easter Weekend: Jesus Didn't Lie, Mr. Bush
Michael Kuehl
The Sex Police State: Women as "Rapists" and "Pedophiles"?
Mark
Scaramella
When Even God Can't Follow His Own Commandments: the Timeless Scarcasm
of Mark Twain
Nate Mezmer
187 Proof: Living and Dying Hip-Hop
Jesse
Walker
Playlist
Poets' Basement
Engel, Laymon and Subiet
Website
of the Weekend
Pink Serenades Bush
April
14, 2006
Col.
Dan Smith
Candor or Career?: Why Few Top Military Officials
Resign on Principle
Saul Landau
Ho Chi Minh City Moves On Without Regrets
Stan
Cox
The Real Death Tax
Kevin Zeese
Hersh vs. Bush on Iran: Who Would You Believe?
Brian
McKinlay
Bad Times for Bush's Buddies
Howard Meyers
Dwarves, Knives and Freedom: Bush, Jr. is No LBJ
Ishmael
Reed
The Colored Mind Doubles: How the Media Uses Blacks
to Chastize Blacks
Website of
the Day
Asshole: a Film Strip
April
13, 2006
CounterPunch
News Service
Powell's "Bitch"?
Norman
Solomon
The Lobby and the Bulldozer
Stanley Heller
Time to Shake Up the Peace Movement
Jeff
Birkenstein
Bush and Freedom of Speech
Evelyn J.
Pringle
Not So Fast, Mr. Powell
Michael
Donnelly
The Week the Bush Administration Fell Apart
Kamran Matin
Synergism of the Neo-Cons: What's Going On In Iran?
Website
of the Day
"Don't Be Afraid of the Neo-Cons"
April
12, 2006
Vijay Prashad
Resisting Fences
Alan
Maass
The Suicide of Anthony Soltero
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Insane First Strike Policy: If You Don't Want to Get Whacked,
You'd Better Get Your Nation a Nuke ... Fast
Ron
Jacobs
Resistance: the Remedy for Fear
Ramzy Baroud
The Imminent Decline of the American Empire?
Randall
Dodd
How a Wal-Mart Bank will Harm Consumers
Missy Comley
Beattie
The Boy President Who Cried "Wolf!"
P. Sainath
The Corporate Hijack of India's Water
Website of
the Day
"The System is Irretrievably Corrupt"
April
11, 2006
Al
Krebs
Corporate Agriculture's Dirty Little Secret: Immigration
and a History of Greed
Lawrence
R. Velvel
The Gang That Couldn't Leak Straight
Sonia Nettinin
Palestinian Health Care Conditions Under Israeli Occupation
Willliam
S. Lind
The Fourth Plague Hits the Pentagon: Generals as Private Contractors
Robert Ovetz
Endangered Species in a Can: the Disappearance of Big Fish
Pratyush
Chandra
Nepalis Say, "Ya Basta!"
Grant F.
Smith
The Bush Administration's Final Surprise?
Laray
Polk
Loud, Soft, Hard, Quiet: Marching Through Dallas for Immigrant Rights
Francis Boyle
O'Reilly and the Law of the Jungle: How to Beat a Bully on His Home
Turf
José
Pertierra
A Glimpse into the Mindset of Terrorists: Posada Carriles, Orlando
Bosch and the Downing of Cubana Flight 455
Website of
the Day
The Dead Emcee Scrolls
April
10, 2006
Ralph
Nader
Tinhorn Caesar and the Spineless Democrats
Heather Gray
Atlanta and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Uri
Avnery
The Big Wink
Joshua Frank
Big Greens and Beltway Politics: Betting on Losers
Seth
Sandronsky
Immigration and Occupations
Michael Leonardi
The Italian Elections: "Reality is No Longer Important"
Evelyn
Pringle
Did Bush Pull a Fast One on Fitzgerald?
Tom Kerr
FoxNews Does Ward Churchill
Lucinda
Marshall
The Lynching of Cynthia McKinney
Website of
the Day
Brown Berets
April
7 -9, 2006
Alexander
Cockburn
If Only They'd Hissed Barack Obama
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Saga of Magnequench: Outsourcing US Missile
Technology to China
Patrick
Cockburn
The War Gets Grimmer Every Day
David Vest
The Rebuking and Scorning of Cynthia McKinney
Dave
Lindorff
The Impeachment Clock Just Clicked Forward
Gary Leupp
"Ideologies of Hatred:" What Did Condi Mean?
Elaine
Cassel
The Moussaoui Trial: What Kind of Justice is This?
Saul Landau
Vietnam Diary: Hue Without Rules
James
Ridgeway
"This is Betty Ong Calling": a Short Film
Ron Jacobs
Why Iran was Right to Refuse US Money
John
Walsh
Kerry Advocates Iraqization: Too Little, Too Late
Ramzy Baroud
The US Attitude Toward Hamas: Disturbing Parallels with Nicaragua
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush Finds Democracy Has Its Limits
Todd Chretien
What the Pentagon Budget Could Buy for America
Jonathan
Scott
Javelins at the Head of the Monolith
John Bomar
What They're Saying About Bush in Arkansas
Michele
Brand
Iran, the US and the EU
Ronan Sheehan
Remember When the Irish First Met the Chinese?
Mickey
Z.
Let Us Now Praise OIL
Don Monkerud
March of the Bunglers
Michael
Dickinson
The Rich Young Man: a Miracle Play
Website
of the Weekend
The Case Against Israel and Munich: Compare and Contrast
| April
26, 2006
Wilkerson Fingers the Neo-Cons
on Iran
"The Secret
Cabal Got What It Wanted: No Negotiations."
By GARY LEUPP
It
was May 2003. President Bush had declared “Mission Accomplished”
in Iraq. The State Department, which had been unenthusiastic about
that war, was not inclined to provoke another with Iran and indeed
had been calling for diplomatic engagement with the reform-minded
Khatami regime. That regime for its part asked the Swiss ambassador
to Tehran to forward to the United States a request for talks. These
would address U.S. concerns about its nuclear program, as well as
the lifting of sanctions and normalization of relations.
Secretary
of State Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage were inclined
to accept the offer. Vice President Cheney, soon to declare, “We
don’t negotiate with evil, we defeat it,” was not. Nor
was Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith and his Office
of Special Plans. Indeed, Cheney and his neoconservatives had the
State Department rebuke the Swiss intermediary as they began to
ratchet up the tension level between the countries to its present
near-breaking point.
This
is the extraordinary narrative provided in large part by a highly
reliable source, Powell’s former chief of staff, General Lawrence
Wilkerson. He minces no words. ”The secret cabal got what
it wanted: no negotiations with Tehran,” he told Gareth Porter
of Inter Press Service last month. “As with many of these
issues of national security decision-making, there are no fingerprints.
But I would guess Dick Cheney with the blessing of George W Bush
[is responsible].”
Feith,
who quietly vacated his office in August 2005 after the war for
which he’d tirelessly campaigned had been exposed as one based
on lies, hired neocon ideologue and Iran-Contra principal Michael
Ledeen to work for the OSP in 2002. A longtime friend of fellow
Iran-Contra plotter Manucher Ghorbanifar, Ledeen had met with the
Iranian arms dealer several times from December 2001 to June 2002.
These contacts, opposed by the CIA which has long distrusted Ghorbanifar,
are thought to have some relation to the forged Niger uranium documents
used to bolster the case for the attack on Iraq.
But
Ledeen states that his business with Ghorbanifar related to Iran,
not Iraq. Ledeen, as an American Enterprise Institute scholar and
journalist for the neocon National Review, has repeatedly called
for an immediate U.S. attack on Iran. Meanwhile Ghorbanifar has
been returned to the U.S. government payroll, working with the Vice
President’s Office and the Defense Department. He’s
assigned among other things to provide intelligence on Iran’s
alleged nuclear weapons program.
Ghorbanifar
and one of his associates are thought to be the source of much of
the information in the book Countdown to Terror: The Top-Secret
Information that Could Prevent the Next Terrorist Attack on America...
and How the CIA has Ignored it written by his friend Congressman
Curt Weldon and published last year. It declares that Iran is hiding
Osama bin Laden, preparing terrorist attacks on the U.S., has a
crash program to build nuclear weapons and is the chief sponsor
of the insurgency in Iraq. Shades of Ahmad Chalabi!
This
is all so déjà vu. At least for all with eyes to see.
The rejection of the Iranian proposal in 2003 reminds me of the
Iraqi peace proposals made to the Bush administration from December
2002 to March 2003.
On
February 19 Saddam’s regime indicated to Washington through
intermediaries that in exchange for a U.S. promise not to attack
it would (1) cooperate in fighting terrorism; (2) give “full
support” for any U.S. plan “in the Arab-Israeli peace
process; (3) give “first priority [to the U.S.] as it relates
to Iraq oil, mining rights;” (4) cooperate with US strategic
interests in the region; and (5) allow “direct US involvement
on the ground in disarming Iraq.” The highest-ranking U.S.
official directly involved in the discussion was the chairman of
the Defense Policy Board at the Pentagon, Richard Perle. The “Prince
of Darkness” (as the neocon is sometimes known) regarded Iraqi
pleas for a deal as “all non-starters because they all involved
Saddam staying in power.” The neocons wanted regime change
and they got it. Now they want it in Iran.
Why
settle for a diplomatic resolution of issues between the U.S. and
Iran when you can defeat “evil”?
In
2002, Cheney and Rice spoke authoritatively about Iraq’s attempts
to import aluminum tubes “only really suited for nuclear weapons
programs, centrifuge programs” citing intelligence reported
by Judith Miller in the New York Times.
Nowadays
the press reports about a laptop computer stolen by an Iranian citizen
in 2004 with designs “for a small-scale facility to produce
uranium gas, the construction of which would give Iran a secret
stock that could be enriched for fuel or for bombs” and “drawings
on modifying Iran's ballistic missiles in ways that might accommodate
a nuclear warhead.”
In
2002, unbeknownst to the public, the U.S. intelligence community
was divided, with many in the CIA skeptical of the neocons’
claims. In 2006, that community---even though purged in Cheney’s
effort to scapegoat the CIA for “flawed” (as opposed
to faked) intelligence---is still probably divided.
With
that assumption I read the comments of U.S. intelligence chief John
Negroponte to the National Press Club on April 20. “The developments
in Iran,” he declared, “clearly they’re troublesome.
By the same token, our assessment at the moment is that even though
we believe that Iran is determined to acquire or obtain a nuclear
weapon, that we believe that it is still many years off before they
are likely to have enough fissile material to assemble into, or
to put into a nuclear weapon; perhaps into the next decade. So I
think it’s important that this issue be kept in perspective.”
Negroponte’s
career highlight before acquiring his present Homeland Security
post was his ambassadorship in Honduras from 1981 to 1985. During
that time (which too few Americans remember) he supervised the training
of Nicaraguan Contras and covered up vicious human rights abuses.
I wouldn’t suggest that he’s personally opposed to a
brutal illegal attack on Iran sometime soon. I don’t know.
But by urging that the nuclear issue “be kept in perspective”
he may reflect a concern within the “intelligence community”
that once again the disinformation apparatus is proceeding unchecked.
The neocons may disparage the “reality-based community”
in favor of their Nazi-like penchant to create their own alternative
reality
But
there are professional analysts who still highly valuate things
like facts and reality and perspective. So maybe we see here again
some conflict within the administration---between those merely morally
compromised by their very involvement in such a regime (and inclined
to say, “Hey wait, let’s try to be honest here”)
and those who lie though their teeth---without any moral qualms---to
obtain their world-transforming objectives.
Of
course, the Iran attack advocates aren’t saying that Iran’s
45 minutes away from nuking New York. They’re saying that
it has a secret nuclear weapons program (despite IAEA claims that
there is no evidence for one), and that the program must be terminated
(at some unspecified point) before Iran builds its first nuke. Those
acquainted with the science estimate that Iran is anywhere from
three to 15 years away from constructing a nuclear weapon if it
so desires. The neocons would like us to imagine the mullahs producing
nukes sooner rather than later, because they’re hell-bent
on regime change in Iran while their man is in office and want to
sell their attack as justifiably preemptive---as an attack to defend
the American people.
The
power structure is obviously divided on the Iran issue, if not as
deeply as one might hope. Democratic Party leaders have indeed competed
with the Bush administration to embrace a hard line on Iran. The
president’s recent visit to the Hoover Institution to talk
with foreign policy wonks who favor an attack suggests the plan’s
still on track. But recently there’s been a trend towards
advocating negotiations. I would just suggest those doing so note
that such negotiations might have begun three years ago----had Cheney
and his neocon acolytes (still dangerously occupying key positions)
not sabotaged any diplomatic initiatives standing in the way of
their imperial ambitions.
Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University,
and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion. He
can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu
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