Ex-CIA officer Slams US Allegations against Iran as Sham
CASMII Press Release
28 July 2007
In an alarming exposure of the acceleration and urgency of the
American war party's push towards catastrophic war with Iran, Philip
Giraldi, former CIA counter terrorism officer, in an interview [1] on
24th July with Anti War Radio debunked the NeoCons' repeated myth of
Iran's support for AlQaeda as a pretext for war. Whilst acknowledging
Iran's helpfulness in trying to establish security in both Afghanistan
and Iraq, Giraldi spoke of the United States' hypocritical and illegal
support for terrorist separatists groups inside Iran, and various
plans and scenarios which have been drawn up to destroy Iran's
military and economic infrastructure by massive bombardment, with the
use of nuclear bombs a real and stated possibility.
Giraldi refuted the assumption that sharing hostilities towards the
US, placed Iran and AlQaeda in the same camp and sharing similar
agenda, arguing that Iran followed a very different agenda in its
dealings with the US. He emphasised both the fact of Iranians'
helpfulness in Iraq, in terms of pushing for greater stability, and
also their help and cooperation in Afghanistan, as well as the reality
of the deep hostilities between Shiia Iran and Sunni extremism of
AlQaeda. Giraldi recalled the major attack against the Iranian
consulate general in Afghanistan by the Taliban, a close ally of
AlQaeda, in which 11 Iranian diplomats were killed, and the regular
AlQaeda violent attacks against Shiia population in Iraq, and
concluded that a Shiia Iranian-AlQaeda alliance was not a plausible
possibility.
He described the recent New York Sun's allegation [2] that AlQaeda
prisoners in Iran led terrorist operations inside Iraq under the
advice of the Iranian government, as one of many propaganda pieces
making a case for war. He said how in 2003, the Iranian government,
through the Swiss embassy, had offered to hand over the six AlQaeda
prisoners kept in Iran, which includes Osama Bin Laden's son, in
exchange for the US ceasing its support for the MEK, and how this
offer was rejected by the US. He said of the MEK that it was sheltered
and armed by Saddam against Iran, and now supported and armed by
Pentagon against Iran.
Highlighting what he called American "ultimate hypocrisy", Giraldi
explained how the US government is supporting terrorist groups and
ethnic division in Iran and charging the Iranians in Iraq for what the
US was doing in Iran itself and with a lot more evidence. Giraldi
talked of US's support for Jundullah which he described as a Sunni
Baluchi separatist group in eastern Iran that has launched deadly
terrorist attacks inside Iran. He also spoke of US support for
separatists amongst the Arab minority which is closer to the border
with Iraq.
Giraldi repeated the alarm call he first made in his revelations in
the American Conservative Magazine in 2005 that ***** Cheney, who has
no authority under the constitution, had ordered the air force to draw
up plans for air strike against Iran that even included the use of
nuclear weapons. He said he thought there was a lot of evidence since
then to suggest that nuclear weapons are still very much on the table
and named Republican Senators such as McCain, Gilliani and Romney who
had not "flinched at all" in the debate about the prospect of using
nuclear weapons against Iran.
He spoke of various war scenarios cooked up by the war party. One
scenario was of the automatic use of the nuclear weapons in order to
reach and destroy the Iranian nuclear sites buried under ground.
Another scenario was to use the nuclear threat if the "Iranians
continue to fight back after we staged our attack", the idea being
"that's what the nukes are for, our nukes that everybody knows that we
in fact do have, is to tell them, listen, you are going to sit there
and take it while we bomb you for a week or two and you are not going
to fight back and if you do fight back then we will use nuclear
weapons on you", and he cited the example scenario of Iranians
resisting by staging attack in the Strait of Hormouz or destabilising
Afghanistan.
Setting out the horrifying context of the possibility of the US using
nuclear strikes against Iran, under the pretext of destroying Iranian
nuclear bombs which do not exist and Iran's cooperation with AlQaeda,
another propaganda fabrication, Giraldi drew attention to the recent
warning to Iran and the threat of war issued by AlQaeda for Iran's
support for the Shiia government in Iraq, as well as AlQaeda's
constant horrific attacks inside Iraq targeting Shiia population and
mosques.
Prof. Abbas Edalat of CASMII said today: "Giraldi's revelations is
consistent with and confirms the emergence of a shift in the dynamics
of the American foreign policy decision making away from dialogue and
in favour of the war. The reality of the shared strategic interests
between Iran and the US in stabilising Iraq and the possibility and
great benefits for both countries in reaching a rapprochement in their
bilateral relationship, based on mutual respect and cooperation rather
than threat and coercion, is persistently obscured and sabotaged by
the fanatical warmongers of Cheney camp and the Israeli lobby, who are
relentlessly pushing for war".
It is incumbent upon the media and journalists to give active voice to
informed and conscientious individuals like Giraldi who have well-
established connections within the intelligence community and are
warning the international community about the impending catastrophic
war against Iran.
For more information please contact CASMII or visithttp://www.campaignira=

Notes
[1]http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2007/07/24/philip-giraldi-5/
[2]http://www.nysun.com/article/58599
[END]

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Email to Jeff Fager (who is the executive producer of CBS '60
Minutes':

Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 03:04:08 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: For Jeff Fager

Dear Mr. Fager,

I would like to know if '60 Minutes' has a segment in the works to
interview respected political science professors John Mearsheimer and
Stephen Walt about their soon to be released book (it will be
available on September 4th, 2007) which was expanded from their paper
(http://tinyurl.com/obe2j) on the pro-Israel lobby and how it pushed
US to attack Iraq and is doing similar to get US to attack Iran. If
'60 Minutes' does not plan to do a segment about the Mearsheimer/Walt
book, I would like to know why (I have a pretty good idea already
though). The following currently can be found atwww.amazon.comafter
doing a search there for 'Mearsheimer':

Editorial Reviews
Book Description
The Israel Lobby," by John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago
and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government,
was one of the most controversial articles in recent memory.
Originally published in the London Review of Books in March 2006, it
provoked both howls of outrage and cheers of gratitude for challenging
what had been a taboo issue in America: the impact of the Israel lobby
on U.S. foreign policy.

Now in a work of major importance, Mearsheimer and Walt deepen and
expand their argument and confront recent developments in Lebanon and
Iran. They describe the remarkable level of material and diplomatic
support that the United States provides to Israel and argues that this
support cannot be fully explained on either strategic or moral
grounds. This exceptional relationship is due largely to the political
influence of a loose coalition of individuals and organizations that
actively work to shape U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction.
Mearsheimer and Walt provocatively contend that the lobby has a far-
reaching impact on America's posture throughout the Middle East-in
Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict-and
the policies it has encouraged are in neither America's national
interest nor Israel's long-term interest. The lobby's influence also
affects America's relationship with important allies and increases
dangers that all states face from global jihadist terror.

Writing in The New York Review of Books, Michael Massing declared,
"Not since Foreign Affairs magazine published Samuel Huntington's 'The
Clash of Civilizations?' in 1993 has an academic essay detonated with
such force." The publication of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign
Policy is certain to widen the debate and to be one of the most talked-
about books of the year.

About the Author
John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service
Professor of Political Science and the co-director of the Program on
International Security Policy at the University of Chicago. He has
published several books, including The Tragedy of Great Power
Politics.
Stephen M. Walt is the Belfer Professor of International Affairs at
the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and
was academic dean of the Kennedy School from 2002 to 2006. He is the
author of Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy,
among other books.
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Product Details
Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (September 4, 2007)
Language: English