Bush Right Candidate
For KL War Crimes Tribunal

Part Two:
Bush To Attack Iran?

By Datuk Rejal Arbee
www.beritakmu.net


Despite all the setbacks being elaborated in Part One, Bush is seriously contemplating the invasion of yet another Muslim country, this time Iran, while before that making unprovoked threats against Syria. The scenario being played against Iran is the same as what the White House propaganda machines had trumped up just prior to the attack on Iraq.

And the neoconservatives in the Bush administration who have been spoiling for an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites have been seeking to convince the public that the United States must strike before an Iranian nuclear weapons capability becomes inevitable.

According to Alternet, they have even been discrediting the US intelligence community's conclusions in May or June 2005 that Iran is still as many as 10 years away from being able to build a nuclear weapon and that such a weapon is not an inevitable consequence of its present uranium enrichment programme something which the Iranians have been trying to convince the US without success.

It has also now transpired that Bush's chief advisor Karl Rove personally received a copy of a secret offer from the Iranian government to hold negotiations four years ago. Democracy Now said the Bush administration decided to ignore the grand bargain offer. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice recently claimed she had never even seen the document. At the time Iran said it would consider far-reaching compromises on its nuclear programme, relations with Hezbollah and Hamas and support for a Palestinian peace agreement with Israel.

Rove's involvement was revealed by an aide to former Republican congressman Bob Ney. The aide, Trita Parsi, an Iranian and President of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), the largest Iranian-American organisation in the US, said Ney was chosen by the Swiss Ambassador in Tehran to carry the Iranian proposal to the White House because he knew the Ohio Congressman to be the only Farsi-speaking member of Congress and particularly interested in Iran. The Swiss Embassy in Tehran was then looking after the US interests in Tehran

Pentagon

With that possibility for improved relations with Iran thrown down the drain, Washington is now abuzz with rumors that Bush is preparing to attack nuclear and other sites in Iran this spring.

Democracy Now said that while the Bush administration continues to insist it has no plans to go to war with Iran, investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh reported in the latest issue of the New Yorker magazine that Pentagon has created a special panel to plan a bombing attack on Iran that could be implemented within 24 hours of getting the go-ahead from President Bush. Hersh said the planning group was established within the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in recent months.

The Pentagon has, however, denied the US was planning to go to war with Iran and said "to suggest anything to the contrary is simply wrong, misleading and mischievous." Pentagon insisted that the White House is continuing to address concerns in the region through diplomatic efforts.

Nonetheless the following preparations are already in place:

*The deployment of two aircraft carrier groups with a flotilla of minesweepers to the Persian Gulf;

*The supply of Patriot anti-missile batteries to Washington's allies in the region;

*The unprecedented appointment of a navy admiral and former combat pilot as the head of Central Command;

*The "surge" of as many as 40,000 troops into Iraq; and

*Persistent reports of U.S. covert operations inside Iran.

Confrontation

For example, former CIA officer Philip Giraldi in the latest edition of American Conservative, mentioned that Bush has been accusing Iran of supplying bombs to Shi'a militias to kill US soldiers in Iraq. Just as his claims that Iraq was in possession of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ now proven to be a pack of lies; Bush and his officials are claiming that they have evidence to show Iran was supplying weapons to Iraqi Shites.

Then, there was the seizure of Iranian diplomatic and intelligence officials in Iraq by US forces suggesting that Washington is preparing for a military confrontation. At the time, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said the accusations were "excuses to prolong the stay" of US forces in Iraq.

No one doubts that the Bush administration has developed detailed plans for attacking Iran and is certainly putting in place a formidable armada that, if so ordered, has the means to carry out those plans without delay.

Long range B2 stealth bombers would drop so-called "bunker-busting" bombs in an effort to penetrate the Natanz nuclear site, which is buried some 25m (27 yards) underground.

Novinite, the Bulgarian news agency, said American forces could be using their two USAF bases in Bulgaria and one at Romania's Black Sea coast to launch an attack on Iran in April. The American build-up along the Black Sea, coupled with the recent positioning of two US aircraft carrier battle groups off the Straits of Hormuz, appears to indicate President Bush resoluteness to go ahead with the attack. In conjunction with the beefing up of America's Italian bases and the acquisition of anti-missile defence bases in the Czech Republic and Poland, the Balkan developments seem to indicate a new phase in Bush's global war on terror.

Black Sea

News of the advanced war preparations along the Black Sea is backed up by some chilling details. One is the setting up of new refuelling places for US Stealth bombers, which would spearhead an attack on Iran. "The USAF's positioning of vital refuelling facilities for its B-2 bombers in unusual places, including Bulgaria, falls within the perspective of such an attack." Novinite named Colonel Sam Gardiner, "a US secret service officer stationed in Bulgaria", as the source of this revelation.

There were reports that Israel was seeking rights to fly over Iraqi air space to enable it to bomb certain targets in Iran.

Middle East analysts have recently voiced their fears of catastrophic consequences for any such attack on Iran. Britain's previous ambassador to Tehran, Sir Richard Dalton, told the BBC it would backfire badly by probably encouraging the Iranian government to develop a nuclear weapon in the long term.

Last year, Iran resumed uranium enrichment - a process that can make fuel for power stations or, if greatly enriched, material for a nuclear bomb. Tehran insists its programme is for civil use only, though Western countries amenable to the US suspect, Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Just as the events prior to the invasion of Iraq, the US is again using the UN Security Council to impose further economic sanctions against Iran for refusing the suspend its uranium enrichment programme.

Before the end of March 2007, 3,000 US military personnel are scheduled to arrive "on a rotating basis" at America's Bulgarian bases. Under the US-Bulgarian military co-operation accord, signed in April 2006, an airbase at Bezmer, a second airfield at Graf Ignitievo and a shooting range at Novo Selo were leased to America. Significantly, last year's bases negotiations had at one point run into difficulties due to Sofia's demand "for advance warning if Washington intends to use Bulgarian soil for attacks against other nations, particularly Iran".

Romania

Romania, the other Black Sea host to the US military, is enjoying a dollar bonanza as its Mihail Kogalniceanu base at Constanta is being transformed into an American "place d'arme". It is also vital to the Iran scenario according to Novinite.

The Bucharest daily, Evenimentual Zilei, revealed that the USAF is to site several flights of F-l5, F-l6 and Al0 aircraft at the Kogalniceanu base. Admiral Gheorghe Marin, Romania's chief of staff, confirmed "up to 2,000 American military personnel will be temporarily stationed in Romania".

In Central Europe, the Czech Republic and Poland have also found themselves in the Pentagon's strategic focus. Last week, Mirek Topolanek, the Czech Prime Minister, and the country's national security council agreed to the siting of a US anti-missile radar defence system at Nepolisy. Poland has also agreed to having a US anti-missile missile base and interceptor aircraft stationed in the country.

Russia, however, does not see the chain of new US bases on its doorstep as a "defensive ring". Sergey Ivanov, Russia's Defence Minister, has branded the planned US anti-missile missile sites on Czech and Polish soil as "an open threat to Russia".

Since Tehran do not possess intercontinental missiles capable of threatening the USA, from whom is this new missile shield supposed to protect the West? All it actually amounts to is that Prague and Warsaw want to demonstrate their loyalty to Washington." Bush's Iran attack plan has brought into sharp focus the possible costs to Central and Eastern Europe of being "pillars of Pax Americana".

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