Exclusive: Iran, Syria, Lebanon on military alert over US Gulfmovements and Israel's home defense dr

Exclusive: Iran, Syria, Lebanon on military alert over US Gulf

movements and Israel's home defense drill

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5168

According to British media, the US is set to attack Iranian military

facilities. DEBKAfile's military sources add that the USS Abraham

Lincoln Strike Force is heading for the Persian Gulf.

War tensions in the Middle East have shot up - not only over the

signals flashing between Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, but also on the

US-Iranian front in Iraq in the wake of rising in violence around the

Basra conflagration.

Tuesday, April 8, US Iraq commander, Gen. David Petraeus and

ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, will stress in their report to

Congress that Iran is waging war on America in Iraq, say sources in

Washington, London and Baghdad.

This emerged strongly last week, when US intelligence learned that

Iran had intervened directly in the Iraqi government's crackdown on

renegade militias in Basra and southern Iraq, by directing and

provisioning those militias through the Revolutionary Guards' al Qods

Brigades.

Official sources in London predict that Iran's intervention against

the American effort to stabilize Iraq may well prompt a US attack on

the military installations in Iran which are orchestrating the

interference.

Gen. Petraeus is on record as accusing Iran of being the source of the

daily rocket bombardment of Baghdad's Green Zone, seat of government

and US diplomatic and military headquarters.

DEBKAfile's military sources report that Moscow has dropped its two

nickels into the rising war alarm. In the last two weeks, Russian

military and intelligence officials have been leaking claims of

intensified American military movements around Iranian shores.

Iran is certain to come up in Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir

Putin's farewell talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi Sunday, along

with other controversial business, such as Moscow's objections to

NATO's eastern expansion and US missile shield in East Europe.

Saturday, US defense secretary Robert Gates turned up in Oman, the

site of big American air bases, for talks with Sultan Qaboos. He then

flew straight back to Washington. While Gates insisted to

correspondents aboard his plane that the US is committed to a

diplomatic solution for Iran's covert nuclear program, the surpise

visit struck sparks in the already fraught regional atmosphere,

particularly as it followed on the heels of US Vice President Dick

Cheney's talks in Oman two weeks ago.

DEBKAfile's Middle East sources sum up how Tehran and Damascus read

these events and the picture they have built up of Washington's

intentions as combined with Israel's military steps:

1. US is preparing to attack the Iranian military installations linked

to subversion in Iraq. The operation will widen out into strikes on

the Islamic Republic's suspect nuclear sites.

2. Israel will use the chance for a concurrent attack on Syria.

3. Israel will attack Hizballah's strongholds in Lebanon.

4. A broad, coordinated US-Israeli offensive will be mounted against

Iran, Syria and Hizballah.

Iran and Syria view Israel's four-day home defense exercise against

missile attack, conventional or non-conventional, beginning Sunday, as

setting the stage for these attacks.

Both believe Washington and Jerusalem are in close military step.

Neither is reassured by soothing statements from prime minister Ehud

Olmert and defense minister Barak that Israel does not seek violent

confrontation - especially when the US administration is withholding

all comment. Hence the high state of preparedness ordered by the

jittery governments in Tehran, Damascus and Beirut.

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Forwarded:

Thanks for this send of Paul Craig Roberts' latest piece (included

after the following) for counterpunch.org. However, only apparent

problem with it though is that the Russian article referenced was

dated 2007 making it somewhat out of date (Paul Craig Roberts links to

it at the following URL):

Russians, Saudis Expect U.S. Attack On Iran

http://www.vdare.com/roberts/080330_iran.htm

Here is the actual article (as you can clearly see the '2007' date

shown):

Russian intelligence sees U.S. military buildup on Iran border

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070327/62697703.html

Saudi Arabia 'braces for nuclear war'

http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=87121

Bob wrote:

I pieced together the same information Secretary Roberts notes below

in his excellent CounterPunch article, writing these words last night

to a friend:

"xxxxx, this [the Russian colonel's intelligence] seems to be of a

piece with the notice you circulated today re Saudi Arabia's

preparation for nuclear fallout. Are we a criminal country -- acting

on Israel's behest -- or what? We don't give a damn how many people --

Lebanese, Palestinians, Iraqis, Iranis -- we murder, how many lives we

ruin, how many lands we devastate on the path to imperial MidEast

hegemony for USrael...."

Oddly, Secretary Roberts -- unlike many of his commentaries of late --

makes no mention below of Militant Zionist Israel, and the

machinations in which beyond doubt it is involved toward war on Iran

for its sake and in its ultimate interests....

To repeat a recurring theme expressed by me, I simply cannot

understand why Secretary Roberts, Admiral Fallon, retired Ambassadors

of any number of names and eminences, a principled Christian leader or

two, a principled journalist or two, university/thinktank scholars,

retired members of Congress, human-rights NGOs, etc., are not banding

together, calling a press conference, denouncing this administration

and the entire fabric of current governance (sic), and establishing/

building a momentum designed to pre-empt the execution of three

million Iranis (Iran's population = thrice that of Iraq...).

Full-bore insanity is upon us...Bob

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts03312008.html

March 31, 2008

Iran in the Crosshairs

A Third American War in the Making?

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

The US Congress, the US media, the American people, and the United

Nations, are looking the other way as Cheney prepares his attack on

Iran.

If only America had an independent media and an opposition party. If

there were a shred of integrity left in American political life,

perhaps a third act of naked aggression--a third war crime under the

Nuremberg standard--by the Bush Regime could be prevented.

On March 30, the Russian News & Information Agency, Novosti, cited "a

high-ranking security source: "The latest military intelligence data

point to heightened US military preparations for both an air and

ground operation against Iran."

According to Novosti, Russian Colonel General Leonid Ivashov said

"that the Pentagon is planning to deliver a massive air strike on

Iran's military infrastructure in the near future."

The chief of Russia's general staff, Yuri Baluyevsky, said last

November that Russia was beefing up its military in response to US

aggression, but that the Russian military is not "obliged to defend

the world from the evil Americans."

On March 29, OpEdNews cited a report by the Saudi Arabian newspaper

Okaz, which was picked up by the German news service, DPA. The Saudi

newspaper reported on March 22, the day following Cheney's visit with

the kingdom's rulers, that the Saudi Shura Council is preparing

"national plans to deal with any sudden nuclear and radioactive

hazards that may affect the kingdom following experts' warnings of

possible attacks on Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactors."

And Admiral William "there will be no attack on Iran on my watch"

Fallon has been removed as US chief of Central Command, thus clearing

the way for Cheney's planned attack on Iran.

The Iranians don't seem to believe it, despite the dispatch of US

nuclear submarines and another aircraft carrier attack group to the

Persian Gulf. To counter any Iranian missiles launched in response to

an attack, the US is deploying anti-missile defenses to protect US

bases and Saudi oil fields.

Two massive failures by the American media, the Democratic Party, and

the American people have paved the way for Cheney's long planned

attack on Iran. One failure is the lack of skepticism about the US

government's explanation of 9/11. The other failure is the Democrats'

refusal to begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush for

lying to the Congress, the American people, and the world and

launching an invasion of Iraq based on deception and fabricated

evidence.

If an American president can start a war exactly as Adolf Hitler did

with pure lies and not be held accountable, he can get away with

anything. And Bush and his evil regime have.

Hitler launched World War II with his invasion of Poland after staging

a "Polish attack" on a German radio station. On the night of August

31, 1939, a group of Nazis disguised in Polish uniforms seized a radio

station in Germany. Hitler announced that "last night Polish troops

crossed the frontier and attacked Germany," a claim no more true than

the Bush Regime's claim that "Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass

destruction." Hitler's lie failed, because his invasion of Poland,

which began the next day allegedly in reprisal for the Polish attack,

had obviously been planned for many months.

Iran is a beautiful and developed country. It is an ancient

civilization. It has attacked no one. Iran is a signatory to the

Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Iran is permitted by the treaty to

have a nuclear energy program. The Bush Regime's case against Iran is

based on the Bush Regime's desire to deny Iran its rights under the

treaty.

The International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have repeatedly

reported that they have found no evidence of an Iranian nuclear

weapons program. Despite all the disinformation from US Gen. Petraeus

and other Bush Regime military lackeys, Iran is not arming the Iraqis

who are resisting the American occupation.

If Iran were arming insurgents, the insurgents would have two weapons

that would neutralize the US advantage in the Iraqi conflict: missiles

to knock down US helicopter gunships and rocket-propelled grenades

that knock out American tanks. The insurgents do not have these

weapons and must construct clumsy anti-tank weapons out of artillery

shells. The insurgents are helpless against US air power and cannot

mass forces to take on the American troops.

Indiscriminate American violence has reduced Iraq to rubble. The

civilian infrastructure is essentially destroyed--electricity, water

and sewer systems, medical care and schools. Depleted uranium is

everywhere poisoning everyone, including US troops. There is no

economy, and half or more of Iraqis are unemployed. Literally no Iraqi

family has escaped an injury or a death as a consequence of the US

invasion. Millions of Iraqis have become displaced persons. A

developed country with a professional middle class has been destroyed

because of lies told by the President and Vice President of the US.

The Bush Regime's lies are echoed by a neoconservative media, and have

gone unchallenged by the opposition party and an indifferent American

public.

In Afghanistan, death and destruction rains on even the smallest

village from the air. America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are wars

against the civilian populations.

Just as the world could not believe Hitler's next horror and thus was

always unprepared, the Iranians despite all the evidence cannot

believe that even the Great Satan would gratuitously attack Iran based

on nothing but lies about non-existent nuclear weapons.

Iran's only chance would be to strike before the US delivers the first

blow. Instead of using its missiles to take out the Saudi oil fields

and to sink the US aircraft carriers, instead of closing the Strait of

Hormuz, instead of arming the Iraqi Shi'ites and moving them to

insurgency, Iran is perched like a sitting duck in denial even as the

US and its Iraqi puppet Maliki move to eliminate Al Sadr's Iraqi

Shi'ite militia in order to avoid supply disruptions and a Shi'ite

rebellion in Iraq when the US attack on Iran comes.

It is important to emphasize that Iran is making no moves toward war.

Having tamed, blackmailed, and purchased Congress, the US media, and

US allies and puppets, Cheney might delight in the arrogance with

which he can now attack Iran free of any restraint or fabricated

provocation. On the other hand, he might cover himself by

orchestrating an "Iranian provocation" to justify his attack as a

response. But like Hitler's planned attack against Poland, Cheney's

attack on Iran has long been in the works.

On March 29 the Associated Press reported that Libyan leader Moammar

Gadhafi "poured contempt on fellow Arab leaders" at the Arab summit

that day. Gadhafi told the Arab "leaders," many of whom are on the

American payroll, that their American masters would turn on them all,

just as America turned on Saddam Hussein after using him to fight a

proxy war against Iran.

Saddam had once been an ally of Washington, Gadhafi reminded the

Arabs, "but they sold him out." Gadhafi told the American puppets,

"Your turn is next."

Gadhafi asked, "Where is the Arabs' dignity, their future, their very

existence?" If Arabs remain disunited, he predicted, "they will turn

themselves into protectorates. They will be marginalized and turn into

garbage dumps."

Indeed, it is this disunity that permits the US to bomb and murder at

will in the Middle East.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the

Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street

Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He

is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at:

PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

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"NOMOREWARFORISRAEL" <NOMOREWAR_FORISRAEL@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:b7f3287f-f6f2-45e8-8646-f5ab053579c7@v32g2000prd.googlegroups.com...

> Exclusive: Iran, Syria, Lebanon on military alert over US Gulf

> movements and Israel's home defense drill

Great!

Death to Iran!

Bomb Iran NOW!

"Patriot Games" <Patriot@America.com> wrote in message

news:47fa220f$0$1098$4c368faf@roadrunner.com

> "NOMOREWARFORISRAEL" <NOMOREWAR_FORISRAEL@yahoo.com>

> wrote in message

> news:b7f3287f-f6f2-45e8-8646-f5ab053579c7@v32g2000prd.googlegroups.com...

>> Exclusive: Iran, Syria, Lebanon on military alert over

>> US Gulf movements and Israel's home defense drill

>

> Great!

>

> Death to Iran!

>

> Bomb Iran NOW!

Death to George Bush NOW!