Desperately seeking casus belli

The Bush-Cheney war regime and the Pentagon use various journalists as conduits for propaganda they want to get to the public. They used Judy Miller and recently Michael Gordon of the NY Times. They use Tim Russert of NBC. They use David Martin at CBS. They have used ABC journalists too. Here the Pentagon uses a CNN journaist to probe for casus belli with Iran. Analysts have suggested that the U.S. is angling for a naval incident with Iran similar to The Gulf of Tonkin incident which was used as pretext for escalating the U.S. war in Vietnam.

Officials: Iranian patrol boats probe Iraqi waters

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POSTED: 1836 GMT (0236 HKT), February 19, 2007

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
• Officials: Iranian patrol boats recently entered Iraqi waters near oil terminals
• U.S. Navy officer says Iran trying to see what response its actions get
• Iran's actions the subject of recent U.S. military briefings, officials say
• U.S. assessment is Iran trying to raise its military presence in Persian Gulf

From Barbara Starr
CNN Pentagon Correspondent

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iranian patrol boats have increased attempts in the last week to assess defenses near Iraqi offshore oil terminals, U.S. military officials said Monday.

The Iranian actions at the northern end of the Persian Gulf have been a subject of operational briefings for U.S. military personnel in recent days, the officials said.

The officials -- who said they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter -- said that the United States does not see the Iranian moves as aggressive or provocative. The assessment is that the probes are part of an Iranian effort to raise its military presence in the gulf.

Officials said that for several months they have seen Iranian flagged vessels attempt to approach oil terminals in the area, but activity rose last week.

On at least two days, Iranian patrol boats crossed into Iraqi waters at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, the officials said.

The boats stayed inside Iraqi waters for several minutes before Iraqi security forces told them to leave. The Iranian boats did not approach the oil terminals.

Iraqi security forces recently took over the main responsibility for guarding the terminals, although U.S. naval forces remain nearby.

A senior U.S. Navy officer said he thinks Iran is trying to see what response its actions get from Iraqi and U.S. naval forces. The Navy officer said that in the last several months Iranian naval forces have expanded their area of operations inside the gulf, often increasing activity in offshore areas for training and exercises.

The U.S. Navy has encountered Iranian ships and small fishing vessels in several cases, but there have been no hostilities, the officer said.

The intelligence assessment is that in many cases the Iranians are watching the U.S. Navy to see how it operates. The officer confirmed to CNN that the Navy has increased its security precautions when dealing with Iranian entities on the water to ensure there are no miscommunications or miscalculations.

U.S. ships will continue to render assistance to stranded mariners, including Iranians, the officer said, but will be cautious in approaching any Iranian boats seeking U.S. naval assistance.

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Faire l'amour, pas la guerre
Make love not war

Rush to war with Iran (cont'd)

The posted below is the latest entry in a thread I began on The Augusta Chronicle bulletin board titled Rush to war with Iran (cont'd) :

The kindling behavior preceding outbreak of hostilities with Iran is clearly building. To wit:

I have never claimed that U.S. military casualty statistics is the sum total of how the U.S. war in Iraq is progressing. Without diminishing the death of every precious life, 3020 would be a small price to pay as a nation in a just war of self-defense. We are invoved in a war of hegemony. The price that America is paying is far too high, and it pales in comparison to the price that Iraqis are paying by having a U.S. war of aggression foisted upon them.

Here is the state of affairs as of 16 January 2007. The Sunnis are outraged over the botched executions of Saddam Hussein and two of his hinchmen. The Kurds have both an historical and an ongoing relationship with neighboring Iran. The Kurds, our closest allies in Iraq, are outraged by U.S. actions against Iranian consular officials in Arbil, Iraq. The Kurds also do not want the U.S. fighting a proxy war aginst Iran in Iraq or in Kurdish territory. They don't like that prospect on bit.

Finally, the Shiites are outraged because we won't let them control affairs in Iraq. They won in the elections. The Iraq Prime Minister is a Shiite. The Shiites have close historical and ongoing ties with Iran. News reports say that Iranian intelligence is set to take over in southern Iraq. There is no doubt that United States will engineer the removal of Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki in short order because there is no evidence whatsoever that he will move against Shiite militias in Iraq including those militias alligned with Moqtada al Sadr.

The United States has moved naval forces into the Persian Gulf with the express purpose of targeting Iran's "very negative" behavior according to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. So, although U.S. casualties are down at the moment - and that is good - the situation in Iraq and the region is more dire than ever - something like the calm before the storm IMHO.

Iran target of US Gulf military moves, Gates says

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Mark Tran and agencies
Monday January 15, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Increased US military activity in the Gulf is aimed at Iran's "very negative" behaviour, the Bush administration said today.

The defence secretary, Robert Gates, told reporters that the decision to deploy a Patriot missile battalion and a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf in conjunction with a "surge" of troops in Iraq was designed to show Iran that the US was not "overcommitted" in Iraq.

Speaking in Brussels after meeting Nato officials, Mr Gates said: "We are simply reaffirming that statement of the importance of the Gulf region to the United States and our determination to be an ongoing strong presence in that area for a long time into the future."

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Iraq edges closer to Iran, with or without the U.S.

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By Louise Roug and Borzou Daragahi
Los Angels Times Staff Writers

January 16, 2007

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government is moving to solidify relations with Iran, even as the United States turns up the rhetorical heat and bolsters its military forces to confront Tehran's influence in Iraq.

Iraq's foreign minister, responding to a U.S. raid on an Iranian office in Irbil in northern Iraq last week, said Monday that the government intended to transform similar Iranian agencies into consulates. The minister, Hoshyar Zebari, also said the government planned to negotiate more border entry points with Iran.

The U.S. military is still holding five Iranians detained in Thursday's raid. Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said records seized in the raid and statements made by the detainees showed that at least some of them worked for Iran's intelligence service.

"I don't think there is any disagreement on the fact that these folks that we have captured are foreign intelligence agents in this country, working with Iraqis to destabilize Iraq and target coalition forces that are here at Iraq's request," Casey said Monday.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, added, "We are going after their networks in Iraq."

Iraqis, who have echoed Tehran's calls for the U.S. to release the five men, say the three-way standoff that has ensued reveals more about American meddling in Iraqi affairs than about Iranian influence.

"We, as Iraqis, have our own interest," Zebari said in an interview with The Times. "We are bound by geographic destiny to live with" Iran, adding that the Iraqi government wanted "to engage them constructively."

Zebari's comments reinforced the growing differences between the Iraqi government's approach and that of the Bush administration, which has rejected calls by the nonpartisan Iraq Study Group to open talks with Iran and Syria.

Administration officials accuse Iran of sowing anarchy and violence in the region.

Zebari's remarks came two days after Iraq and Iran announced a security agreement. "Terrorism threatens not only Iraq but all the regional countries," Iranian radio reported Sherwan Waili, Iraq's national security minister, as saying.

The overtures to Tehran also followed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's appointment last week of a security commander for Baghdad over the objections of U.S. officials, who favored another candidate.

American officials oppose the presence in Iraq of Iranian officials and members of the Revolutionary Guard, which is controlled by religious hard-liners in Iran. Washington and Tehran have been at odds for decades and are in a standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

But to Iraq, Iran is its biggest trading partner and a source of tourist revenue, mainly from the thousands of Shiite Muslim pilgrims who travel to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala every year.

In Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish north, much of the economy is founded on trade with Iran and the smuggling of contraband into the Islamic Republic. Since the 1979 founding of Iran's theocracy, Kurdistan has been a transit point for banned alcohol, movies and satellite dishes.

A blow to the economy

The U.S. raid on the Iranian office, which handled visas and other paperwork for Iraqis traveling to Iran, struck at the heart of Kurdistan's economy, which depends on commercial ties with Iran facilitated through that office.

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Faire l'amour, pas la guerre
Make love not war

Bush's rush to war with Iran

This may be the topic of a previous post. Bush has been intent on taking military action against Iran for quite some time now.

Bush is blaming Iran for everything that is happening in Iraq. Bush does not recognize the national basis of the Sunni insurgency. The United States is losing in Iraq not because of what Iran is doing but because George W. Bush ordered the invasion and occupation of a predominantly Arab and overwhelmingly Muslim nation that did not attack or threaten us. Bush only wants to expand his glorious failed war. TWO news articles below:

U.S. detains 6 Iranians in Irbil raid

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By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
1:35 pm EST Thu 11 Jan 2007

U.S.-led multinational forces detained six Iranians Thursday at an Iranian government office in the northern city of Irbil, Iraqi officials said, as President Bush accused Iran and Syria of aiding militants and promised to "interrupt" the flow of support as part of his new war strategy.

The U.S. military said it had taken six people into custody in the Irbil region but made no mention of a raid on the Iranian government office.

The forces entered the building about 3 a.m., detaining the Iranians and confiscating computers and documents, two senior local Kurdish officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information. Irbil is a city in the Kurdish-controlled northern part of Iraq, 220 miles from Baghdad.

A resident living near the building said the troops used stun bombs and brought down an Iranian flag from the roof. As the operation went on, two helicopters flew overhead, the resident said on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

At the Pentagon, a senior U.S. military official said the building was not a consulate and did not have any diplomatic status. The six Iranians were taken in a "cordon-and-knock" operation, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Baghdad was seeking clarification from the U.S. and Iran "about these people and what they were doing there and whether they were employees."

The regional Kurdish government condemned the arrests and called for the immediate release of the Iranians. It added that the government "was not aware in advance of the raid."

Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned the Iraqi and Swiss ambassadors in Tehran and "demanded an explanation" about the incident. Switzerland represents American interests in Iran, where there is no U.S. embassy.

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Rice warns Iran against aggression after US reportedly nabs more Iranians in Iraq

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by David Millikin
AFP 2:00 pm EST Thu 11 Jan 2007

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran that the United States won't "stand idly by" if Tehran tries to disrupt Washington's renewed effort to stabilize Iraq.

Speaking hours after US troops reportedly arrested five Iranians in a raid in northern Iraq, Rice said Washington was determined to crack down on Iran's "regional aggression."

Rice declined to comment specifically on the operation in the northern city of Arbil, which came shortly after President George W. Bush announced a new US strategy to end the violence in Iraq that included stepped up moves to counter Iranian and Syrian involvement in the country.

In a spate of television interviews and testimony in Congress to defend the new Bush plan for Iraq, Rice declined repeatedly to rule out US military action against Iran -- accused by the administration of supporting anti-US insurgents and Shiite radicals in Iraq and of trying to develop nuclear weapons.

"I don't want to speculate on what operations the United States may be engaged in, but you will see that the United States is not going to simply stand idly by and let these activities continue," she said in one interview.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have soared since Bush in 2002 branded Iran part of an "axis of evil" alongside Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

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Faire l'amour, pas la guerre
Make love not war

Bush is faking deliberating options

George W. Bush is a faker and a liar. He has never considered any option except escalating the war he is losing in Iraq. That has been the only option he has considered since the results of the Nov 7 election and the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group forced him to pretend he is reviewiew his Iraq war policy.

Bush has telegraphed his intentions many times. Anyone who thought George W. Bush would listen to voices of reason does not understand how deeply psychologically disturbed the 43rd President of the United States is.

Remember what Bob Woodward said, talking about George W. Bush on "60 Minutes" last October?

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"Late last year he had key Republicans up to the White House to talk about the war. And said, 'I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me.' Barney is his dog,"

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Bush because he is the Commander-in-Chief twisted the U.S. military's arm and finally got Gen. George Custer Casey to go along with Bush's and the neocon American Enterprise Institute's plan to send more troops to Iraq. This will not be a temporary surge but a SURGE and SUSTAIN operation. Bush will lie about the nature of this so-called "surge option" just has he has lied about every aspect of this war from its conception at least as early as July 2002 (probably earlier than that) to its inception on March 20, 2003

Now Bush is convening his sycophants who will all concur "after careful deliberation" with his plan to escalate the war in Iraq. Does anybody think Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, or Stephen Hadley will tell the Commander-in-Chief, No?

This last gasp, Hail Mary, roll of the dice, double down tactic will fail just as everything else associated with Bush's illegal, unjust, unnecessary, immoral, and unwinnable war in Iraq has failed. All the pretend deliberations (just like the pretexts Bush used to start this war) have been cover for his own sweet lying *** .

Bush to gather top aides ahead of decision on Iraq

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AFP 1:05 pm EST Wednesday 27 December 2006

US President George W. Bush will assemble his top aides at his Texas ranch Thursday for final consultations on his planned strategy change in Iraq, the White House said.

"He's wanting to make sure that we give all consideration to all the options," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters Tuesday.

"He continues to ask questions of his advisors and he is continuing to think about thinking steps ahead and trying to make sure that all options and all ideas are given the due consideration they need, trying to think through the consequences of any actions and of those options," Stanzel said.

Bush is expected after the start of the year to deliver a speech announcing a new way forward in Iraq.

Expected to attend the meeting are the president's new Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Vice President Dick Cheney and national security adviser Stephen Hadley, among others.

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Update on escalation of Iraq war

I find the headline "The President is likely to bow..." to be more than passing strange because Bush WANTS to escalate this war.

Bush may boost Iraq troops by 20,000

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The President is likely to bow to a request for five more brigades as attacks rise to 1,000 a week

Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
Sunday December 24, 2006
The Observer

President Bush began a series of urgent consultations with his key defence and foreign policy advisers at Camp David yesterday, amid expectations that he was preparing to agree to a request from US commanders to send an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq to secure Baghdad.

The request for five extra brigades to secure the capital follows the decision by senior US officers that, despite deep reservations, there was sufficient movement among Iraqi political leaders towards tackling sectarian violence to justify the deployment of extra US troops. A report in yesterday's Los Angeles Times reported that commanders in Iraq, including General George Casey and Lieutenant-General Raymond Odierno, have decided to recommend a temporary increase in combat forces, a plan that appears to be gaining favour in the administration. Casey previously opposed the increase.

Bush was joined at his Maryland retreat yesterday by his new Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, who travelled to the presidential compound from a whirlwind fact-finding mission, meeting US military and Iraqi political leaders in Iraq. Also attending the meeting was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who insisted that the sacrifice in American lives and aid to Iraq was worthwhile for regional security.

Recent comments by Bush, Gates and Rice have led to intense speculation that Bush intends to reject several of the key recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, instead increasing troop numbers. The talks come as a Pentagon report disclosed last week that the number of terrorist attacks had risen to almost 1,000 a week with almost 100 Iraqis now dying every day.

Instead of setting a timetable for a rapid withdrawal, administration officials have made clear that they believe that there will be a long-term US commitment on the ground in support of the Iraqi government. Hints from Gates in the past few days have suggested, however, that while US troops may remain, their mission is likely to be rapidly transformed to that of military advisers, as he spoke approvingly of one unit's success at training Iraqi brigades by boosting the size of the US teams embedded in each Iraqi unit.

Gates refused to rule out an expected surge in US troop numbers in Baghdad - perhaps by as much as a further 30,000 men - which has been widely expected as a short-term solution to the spiralling security problems.

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Robert Gates is flat out lying about Iraqi's "willingness to step forward".

Bush ponders $10 billion New Deal to create jobs in Iraq

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The Sunday Times December 24, 2006

by Sarah Baxter, Washington

THE White House is expected to announce a reconstruction package for Iraq as part of a plan for a “surge” of up to 30,000 troops into Baghdad when President George W Bush unveils America’s new strategy next month.

Bush is being urged to give up to $10 billion (£5.1 billion) to Iraq as part of a “New Deal” that would create work for unemployed Iraqis, following the model of President Franklin D Roosevelt during the 1930s depression.

At the Pentagon, the joint chiefs of staff are insisting on reconstruction funds as part of a package of political and economic measures to accompany the armed forces. They fear the extra troops will be wasted and more lives lost if Bush relies purely on the military to pacify Iraq, according to sources close to General Peter Schoomaker, the army chief of staff.

Military commanders have come round to the idea that an increase of troops is likely to form the backbone of Bush’s new strategy on Iraq. “People are warming to the idea that some sort of surge is necessary,” said a military official.

Robert Gates, the defence secretary, held talks with Bush, Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, and Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, at Camp David yesterday, where he reported back on his three-day tour of Iraq. He said the willingness of Iraqis to “step forward” had advanced significantly.

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