JPost: US Airstrike on Iran Likely "Within Weeks"

According to this post, there's an actual airstrike against Iran in the works, probably something like W's Last Stand. Now, when everyone's all in a tizzy over Palindrome and the election. It may be just a well-placed rumor, and it doesn't make any sense, but knowing the recklessness of Bush/Cheney, it might just be true, and it might just help to blow this thing wide open before it hits the world:

From the Jerusalem Post:

The Dutch intelligence service, the AIVD, has called off an operation aimed at infiltrating and sabotaging Iran's weapons industry due to an assessment that a US attack on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program is imminent, according to a report in the country's De Telegraaf newspaper on Friday.

The report claimed that the Dutch operation had been "extremely successful," and had been stopped because the US military was planning to hit targets that were "connected with the Dutch espionage action."

The impending air-strike on Iran was to be carried out by unmanned aircraft "within weeks," the report claimed, quoting "well placed" sources.

According to the report, information gleaned from the AIVD's operation in Iran has provided several of the targets that are to be attacked in the strike, including "parts for missiles and launching equipment."

"Information from the AIVD operation has been shared in recent years with the CIA," the report said.

On Friday, Ma'ariv reported that Israel had made a strategic decision to deny Iran military nuclear capability and would not hesitate "to take whatever means necessary" to prevent Teheran from achieving its nuclear goals.

According to the report, whether the United States and Western countries succeed in thwarting the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions diplomatically, through sanctions, or whether a US strike on Iran is eventually decided upon, Jerusalem has begun preparing for a separate, independent military strike.

Are they playing the old "Israel, Bully to the World" bit? Is it telling that the Jerusalem Post is the one to "break" this "story" about something as impossible to verify as the Dutch intelligence service?

Why Do 5 Former Secretaries of State Say Close Gitmo?

This just came in from truthout: Former Secretaries of State Colin Powell, Henry A. Kissinger, James A. Baker III, Warren Christopher and Madeleine K. Albright all agreed that Guantanamo should be closed.

James Baker went on to say:

"It gives us a very, very bad name, not just internationally," he said. "I have
a great deal of difficulty understanding how we can hold someone, pick someone
up, particularly someone who might be an American citizen - even if they were
caught somewhere abroad, acting against American interests - and hold them
without ever giving them an opportunity to appear before a
magistrate."
The former secretaries of State also urged that the U.S. open a line of dialogue with Iran, each saying it was important to maintain contact with adversaries and allies alike.

Iran? And what about Iran? Do you mean we shouldn't take McCain's word and "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran"?

Baker suggested the dialogue (with Iran) could center on a common dilemma,
saying a "dysfunctional Iraq, a chaotic Iraq, is not something that's in the
interest to Iran. There's every incentive on their part to help us, the same way
they did in Afghanistan."
Kissinger urged an open - if delicate - line of communication with
Iran. "One has to talk with adversaries," said Kissinger, who served the Nixon and Ford administrations.

Didn't think the old guy had it in him. Does that mean talk to .... terrorists, too? They are "adversaries", so "one has to talk" with them. So where were they when Gitmo was put in place as Our Torture Chamber?

The Whitanic House

Bridgethought of the Day: If the Bush administration is really unsinkable, why is it nobody can breathe? Is anyone still cognizant of the fact that the only cause of death is oxygen-starvation?

'Way back in 2005, almost an apocalypse ago in today's time-compressing world, a man who represented the best and brightest of patriots, of people who believe in Right and God and Country, and Integrity and Being Your Level Best, commit suicide over corruption and massive wrongdoing in Iraq, and we're talking about the U.S. side, not even the Iraqis, not only the insurgents or "jihadis". You can read the details in this article from Alternet.org. U.S. Contractors in Iraq apparently were sabotaging the military itself, stealing weapons and equipment and killing Iraqis. This man, Col. Ted Westhusing, was there to do good, and found himself up against a mountain of evil. Who put that mountain there, and why?

Iran-Contra Revisited, Apocalypse Now Style

Jumping back to Now again, we need to take a very hard look at the reports coming out of veteran story-breaker (think My Lai in Vietnam and AbuGhraib in Iraq) Seymour Hirsh published in the New Yorker exposing the sins of Bush II & Corp. In his article entitled "The Redirection", Mr. Hirsh states:

In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has
significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The “redirection,” as some
inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United
States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the
region,propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni
Muslims.

He goes on to explain that the U.S. has a "strategic bombing plan" for Iran and has built up to the point where they can strike inside Iran on a 24-hour notice. Aircraft carrier groups are already moving into position, and military sources say a spring strike would be ready to ... spring. And that one of the influences in the Administration's foreign policy decision-making for the region is Saudi Arabia's Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a close friend of the Bush family. Seems he's the guy who sees the "rise of the Shias" as a greater threat than Sunni insurgents or al-Qaeda, and now plays the role of self-proclaimed expert on Islamic and Middle East affairs. Therefore, we must "re-direct" our entire nation and all that comes with it, military might, corporate power, and last - we hope not least, but "hope" ain't good enough, people. Thousands of people going over to be killed, and to kill - no, calling it a "war" doesn't make it any less gutwrenching - with no doubt innocents and good folks on both sides - for the "vision" of a guy who hasn't exactly been right, and whose motives aren't exactly on the same page we claim to be opening here... and with the side effect of money going to terrorist groups in the name of - what? democracy? patriotism? national security?

The key players behind the redirection are Vice-President Dick Cheney, the deputy national-security adviser Elliott Abrams, the departing Ambassador to Iraq (and nominee for United Nations Ambassador), Zalmay Khalilzad, and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi national-security adviser. While Rice has been deeply involved in shaping the public policy, former and current officials said that the clandestine side has been guided by Cheney.

Or, as Tom Englehardt said, "Seymour Hersh's recent report that Iran-Contra veterans working out of Dick Cheney's office are using stolen funds from Iraq to arm al Qaeda-tied groups and foment a larger Sunni-Shia war is a very big deal. "

Doesn't sound good to me - Dick Cheney, of Haliburton fame, Elliot Abrams, Mr. Iran-Contra Enabler, and Prince Bandar, whose government isn't exactly a model democracy, with a human rights record of shame. But to an American public that has been described as "blase about torture" and seems far more interested in pointless yelling matches called "political shows" or better yet, celebrity gossip, than whether or not they will wake up tomorrow in a democracy, a police state, or a state of siege, all this news falls on deaf ears.

He who has ears, let him hear. We need more air. More O2.

When the Whitanic House sinks, I'm afraid more will sink with it than some incompetent policy-makers. Where are the "we the People" kind of people? Like Seymour Hirsh?

Unsinkable. That's what they said. It's that hubris thing again. Mixed with rank incompetence.