Saturday, April 15, 2006

Script for invasion of Iran appears headed for production

If you listen and read carefully, you will get a sense of déjà vu right now.
Remember Iraq? It’s like that….

A quietly rising media jingoism campaign is already beginning to stoke fear among the American people that Iran is an out-of-control regime dead set on raining down nuclear fire on innocent children.

So it is no real surprise that investigative journalist Seymour Hersh recently penned an article for the New Yorker revealing that the Bush Administration is currently laying the groundwork for an invasion of the Persian nation.

Iran is at least two and as much as 10 years away from developing a viable nuclear weapon, according to intelligence experts who spoke with Narco News. Even then, Iran would have a petty nuke arsenal that would be more than checkmated by much larger arsenals in India, Pakistan, Israel, China and the United States, among others.

So why the rush to war?


Well, to explore that subject, Narco News decided to check in with a trusted source -- a consultant who was recently invited to Washington, D.C., to bid on a contract to help develop an Iran war plan for the Pentagon. The source came forward after discovering that the insanity of the Bush Administration’s plan for Iran, as it was laid out in the contract negotiations, merited exposure.
Now, many folks reading this notebook may immediately conclude that a writer for Narco News couldn’t possibly have the inside skinny on this insanity. After all, Bill Conroy is no Seymour Hersh.

Still, I feel compelled to convey what I was told and only ask that you mark the link to this story. Then, six months from now, you can look back and see if any of it was on the mark. In terms of preventing this madness from unfolding in the meantime, well, that is something that can’t wait six months.

So, following, in brief, is what the source had to say about what he was told by Pentagon officials, whom, he claims, were seeking to hire him to help develop a strategy to get the American people “on board” with this Iran plan. (The goal, the source says, is to “educate” the American people, not through PR, but by “tweaking the danger” factor, to get the people to “support the government’s pronouncements about how much of a danger Iran is to us.”)

The source claims this Iran plan has been in the works for about 24 months, blowing out of the water any claim by the administration that it is a “contingency” plan.

The Pentagon, this consultant adds, plans to spend $1 billion to “refurbish” the two existing major bases the U.S. military now operates in Iraq.

"If we (U.S. troops) are getting out of Iraq in a year or so, they would not be spending $1 billion to refurbish the bases,” the consultant stresses.

In addition, the Pentagon plans to appropriate, through various channels, another $2 billion to build a third major base and three smaller ones, the source says.

“Then they will begin moving in aircraft and other equipment within three to four months,” the source says. “They are talking about maintaining 100,000 troops long-term (in Iraq). The plan is for the bases to be permanent.”

Included in the "equipment" shipped into Iraq for the assault on Iran will be tactical nuclear weapons, for use in targeting deep underground installations, the consultant claims. The troop preparation for the invasion of Iran, and the invasion itself, will be staged from U.S. bases in Iraq, he adds.

“They will need ground troops for the invasion of Iran,” the consultant says. “A 100,000 troops is not enough, but it’s better than trying to bring all of the necessary troops in from far away.”

Within six months (prior to the upcoming Congressional elections), the strategic bombing is slated to begin in Iran, the consultant claims. However, he says because there are an estimated 100 or more unknown underground sites that are being used as part of Iran’s fledgling nuclear program, strategic bombing (even tactical nuclear weapons) alone won’t do the trick, the consultant says, which is why the ground troops must be committed to the war effort.

The Bush Administration will launch the invasion with or without the consent of Congress, the consultant claims. The legal justification that will be used, according to information supplied to him by Justice Department attorneys, is that the Iraq war resolution adopted by Congress also authorizes the action in Iran.

The consultant adds that the rationale for the invasion currently being packaged for the media and the American public by the Pentagon (Iran’s supposed imminent nuclear-weapon threat) is a red herring -- the bait for the jaws of war.

“We’ve gone through nine reasons for going into Iraq,” the consultant says. “They aren’t looking for reality here (in the planned Iran invasion) either. The real reason for this (new war) is to rally the American people to get the administration out of the horrible bind they’re in.”

That’s right, it is an election year, and the big threat to the Bush Administration is not really Iran, after all. Rather, it’s a changing of the guard in Washington that might put Democrats in the position of setting up their own congressional committees with subpoena power.

Like I said, check back at this link in six months to see if I did, in fact, get an advance copy of the Iran War script.

However, I, for one, hope this Wag the Dog Tale never makes it to production.