"La Bocca Della Verit=E0 - D=E9j=E0 Vu Le Proph=E9te"
<yessireeyesindeedydo@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:1109148973.566902.177010@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

According to the former UN expert, Scott Ritter, maybe !!

SCOTT RITTER SAYS U.S. PLANS JUNE ATTACK ON IRAN, 'COOKED' JAN. 30
IRAQI
ELECTION RESULTS
By Mark Jensen

United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)
February 19, 2005

Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday in
Washington
State, dropped two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to a

house
in Olympia's Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons
inspector
said that George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in

2005, and claimed the U.S. manipulated the results of the recent

30
elections in Iraq.

Olympians like to call the Capitol Theater "historic," but it's
doubtful
whether the eighty-year-old edifice has ever been the scene of more
portentous revelations.

The principal theme of Scott Ritter's talk was Americans' duty to
protect
the U.S. Constitution by taking action to bring an end to the

war in
Iraq. But in passing, the former UNSCOM weapons inspector stunned

listeners with two pronouncements. Ritter said plans for a June

on
Iran have been submitted to President George W. Bush, and that the
president
has approved them. He also asserted that knowledgeable sources say

officials "cooked" the results of the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.

On Iran, Ritter said that President George W. Bush has received and
signed
off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran planned for June 2005.

purported goal is the destruction of Iran's alleged program to

nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the

also
expected that the attack would set in motion a chain of events

to
regime change in the oil-rich nation of 70 million -- a possibility
Ritter
regards with the greatest skepticism.

The former Marine also said that the Jan. 30 elections, which

Bush
has called "a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in

advance of freedom," were not so free after all. Ritter said that

authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to reduce

percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from

to
48%.

Asked by UFPPC's Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an

involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would

be
reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major

magazine -- an obvious allusion to New Yorker reporter Seymour M.
Hersh.

On Jan. 17, the New Yorker posted an article by Hersh entitled The
Coming
Wars (New Yorker, January 24-31, 2005). In it, the well-known
investigative
journalist claimed that for the Bush administration, "The next
strategic
target [is] Iran." Hersh also reported that "The Administration has
been
conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least

last
summer." According to Hersh, "Defense Department civilians, under

leadership of Douglas Feith, have been working with Israeli

and
consultants to develop and refine potential nuclear,

and
missile targets inside Iran. . . . Strategists at the headquarters

the
U.S. Central Command, in Tampa, Florida, have been asked to revise

military's war plan, providing for a maximum ground and air

Iran. . . . The hawks in the Administration believe that it will

become
clear that the Europeans' negotiated approach [to Iran] cannot

and
that at that time the Administration will act."

Scott Ritter said that although the peace movement failed to stop

war in
Iraq, it had a chance to stop the expansion of the war to other

like
Iran and Syria. He held up the specter of a day when the Iraq war

be
remembered as a relatively minor event that preceded an even

conflagration.

Scott Ritter's talk was the culmination of a long evening devoted

discussion of Iraq and U.S. foreign policy. Before Ritter spoke,

Jamail
narrated a slide show on Iraq focusing on Fallujah. He showed more

a
hundred vivid photographs taken in Iraq, mostly by himself. Many of
them
showed the horrific slaughter of civilians.

Dahr Jamail argued that U.S. mainstream media sources are complicit

the
war and help sustain support for it by deliberately downplaying the
truth
about the devastation and death it is causing.

Jamail was, until recently, one of the few unembedded journalists

Iraq
and one of the only independent ones. His reports have gained a
substantial
following and are available online at dahrjamailiraq.com.

Friday evening's event in Olympia was sponsored by South Puget

Community College's Student Activities Board, Veterans for Peace,

Thousand and Counting, Olympia Movement for Justice & Peace, and

for
Peace of Pierce County.
--
NOTE: Dahr Jamail will make three more appearances in the Puget

area
this weekend: (1) SATURDAY, FEB. 19, 7:00 p.m., at the Kirkland
Congregational Church, 106 5th Avenue, Kirkland WA. Admission $5 --
Sponsored by Evergreen Peace & Justice; (2) SUNDAY, FEB. 20, 1:00

at
the Vashon Land Trust. Vashon Islanders for Peace will be hosting

Jamail and Bert Sacks on the subject of Exit Strategies from Iraq.

more
information, contact: Kate Hunter, 206-463-5117; (3) SUNDAY, FEB.

7:30
p.m. at UW Kane Hall, Room 120. Hosted by the Interfaith Network Of
Concern
for the people of Iraq (INOC), the University of Washington --
Department of
Communication, the Iraqi Community Center of Seattle (ICCS), and

United
Nations Association, Seattle. For more information contact the Rev.
Richard
Gamble at Keystone United Church of Christ 206 632-6021.


--Mark Jensen is a member of United for Peace of Pierce County.
Post a follow-up to this message

I was told (er, forced down my throat) 12 years ago going down the

that judgment day / the apocalypse / armageddon / etc would happen

the evidence of the Iraq war THEN was proof there would be no more

from that point on and forever more.

When it actually happens, I'll let you know (just in case you missed