http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=104500&d=11&m=12&y=2007
Iran Is No Threat and That's Official
Linda Heard,
"They stole our threat" goes a headline in the Israeli daily Haaretz.
The author is, of course, referring to the recently published US
National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) composed by 16 American
intelligence agencies. It counters US and Israeli assertions that Iran
is developing nuclear weapons. There's been no such program since
2003, it states.
For those of us in the neighborhood, this is good news but the powers
that be in Washington and Tel Aviv are seething. With plans to squeeze
the Iranian leadership with further UN sanctions and a military option
on the table, this was not what either country wanted to hear.
George W. Bush says the report doesn't change anything. On the
contrary, he says, it shows that Tehran was working toward the
manufacture of nuclear weapons in the past and could reconstitute the
program again.
When challenged by reporters over his "World War III" speech, he said
nobody told him that Iran didn't have a current weapons program. This
assertion has gone down like a lead brick with skeptical
administration's critics.
Investigate reporter Seymour Hersh says it has been an open secret in
Washington since last year. In any event, whatever remnants of
credibility Bush still possessed after the Iraq fiasco have been shot.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he is determined to work with
the nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, to prove that Iran is developing
nukes. If that's so, he's got a difficult task ahead because head of
the IAE Mohammed El-Baradei has consistently discounted such claims
and been vilified by the US State Department for his stance.
The hawkish US Vice President ***** Cheney is accused of trying to bury
the intelligence estimate but he encountered opposition from Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice, who either wanted to put a brake on the
warmongers or feared inopportune leaks. Moreover, US law mandates that
intelligence estimates must be put before Congress. Whatever the real
reason it's been published there is no doubt it has undercut the Bush
administration's military option rationale as well as its efforts to
persuade Russia and China to sign up to further anti-Iranian
sanctions.
China's ambassador to the UN said, "We will assess the situation on
proposals for a new resolution in the UN Security Council on the basis
of several factors including the publication by the US of data showing
that Iran does not have a military nuclear program".
Russia's foreign minister has trumpeted Iran's willingness to adhere
to the principles of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
For its part, Israel feels betrayed by the report's authors. Zvi
Ba'rel writing in Haaretz says "The anger against the American
intelligence report is understandable. After all, the threat remains.
Even if Iran is not nuclear at the moment, it is still a state with a
proven arsenal of ballistic missiles that threatens Israel and the
entire region."
"This explains the profound disappointment, the feeling of betrayal
and, especially, the panic over the American intelligence services'
decision to peek under the Iranian cloak and suggest that there are
significant holes in the 'theory of the Iranian enemy'", he writes.
Actually, Ba'rel, all the countries in our neck of the woods believe
that Israel, which does possess a nuclear arsenal, is currently
occupying Arab land and just last year launched a war against Lebanon,
to be the greatest threat to this region.
Former US ambassador to the United Nations and arch neoconservative
John Bolton is outraged over the estimate and angry with the
intelligence community, which he claims has launched a "quasi-putsch"
against the government position. "This is politics disguised as
intelligence," he said.
There is one question that leaps out. Why on earth are Washington and
Tel Aviv so disappointed to hear good news and so eager to shovel for
bad? Isn't it odd, too, that the governments of both countries are so
determined not to give Iran a clean bill of health that they would
even discredit their own intelligence sources?
For me, the message is crystal clear. Iran hasn't done anything wrong
with the exception of its refusal to kowtow to Western interests, and
it's being targeted purely because it isn't led by pro-Western
marionettes. The US and Israel aren't really concerned about a nuke
threat. There isn't one and they know it. Instead, they are worried
that their obvious joint agenda to overthrow the Iranian regime has
been derailed.
We shouldn't be surprised. We've seen it all before. They hyped the so-
called Iraqi threat by stressing on fictional weapons of mass
destruction and the result is four millions Iraqis displaced and over
600,000 civilians erased from the planet. I'm only surprised at the
fact there isn't more public anger when it's plain we were duped once
and, if the US and Israel had their way, we'd be duped again.
It looks as though the GCC countries have had enough of Washington
crying wolf. During a regional security summit, held last weekend in
Bahrain, they signaled their opposition to military strikes against
Iran and called for roundtable dialogue -- a position that was also
supported by Iraqi leaders attending the conference.
Whether anyone likes it or not, Iran is part of the neighborhood and
it has signaled it wants closer ties with its neighbors. Surely it's
time for the nations of this region to band together and stand against
further foreign adventurism, which costs so much in terms of lives,
treasure and derelict economies.
Just ask yourselves this. In the now unlikely event of a US/Israel
strike on Iran, which people would end up as the biggest losers apart
from the Iranians? The Americans are too far away and would, no doubt,
lap up the action on their screens. The Israelis would move to their
bunkers and rely on US-made anti-missile missiles for protection.
Iran has stated that in the event of an attack, it would retaliate
against US interests in the Gulf and seek to close the Straits of
Hormuz. The biggest losers by far would be the people here, who would
also have nothing at all to gain. Such military aggression would also
negatively impact the future. It would split nations in this region
who must in the end share the same space and potentially lead to
decades of mutual hostility.
There is only one way forward that will produce stability and peace --
unity. If only the GCC, Iraq and Iran can, for once, put up a firm
united front, the sick neocon hegemonic dream would shrivel and
eventually die.
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hooroo
uncle wally
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