Another grim article. Frankly, I am needing to cut back on the piles
of articles that flash across my computer, all crying out the same
"Doom and Gloom". I know that these are harsh times, and critical to
the dreams of Working Class Americans, but I can only absorb so much
before I begin to physically react.
My disposition was impacted by the deaths of three very close people,
in a period of three weeks. At the same time my trusty Braille 'N'
Speak dumped all of my client, personal address', and assorted files,
forcing me to spend much extra time in rebuilding as much as I am
able. Topping the pile of personal complaints is the fact that Cathy
and I both came down with the Father of all Flu Bugs. We've been up
and down for several weeks, getting better and then regressing. We
are back to seeing clients again, but every day is a gamble. Just to
make certain that stuff was not messed up enough, last evening my
Mother-In-Law called in great distress. Cathy and Marlene rushed to
her apartment, an hour away, and found their mother in a bad way.
They called 911 and spent several hours at emergency, while tests were
being conducted. They returned just about 12:30 A.M. with mother in
tow.
Hopefully that sums it all up for the moment. But my point is that I
will not be too active on the list for a bit of time.
Carl Jarvis
(but I'll still be lurking!)
On 5/4/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The Coming US War Against Iran
By John Kiriakou, Reader Supported News
04 May 18
I
spent nearly 15 years in the CIA. I like to think that I learned something
there. I learned how the federal bureaucracy works. I learned that cowboys
in government - in the CIA and elsewhere around government - can have
incredible power over the creation of policy. I learned that the CIA will
push the envelope of legality until somebody in a position of authority
pushes back. I learned that the CIA can wage war without any thought
whatsoever as to how things will work out in the end. There's never an exit
strategy.
I learned all of that firsthand in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. In
the spring of 2002, I was in Pakistan working against al-Qaeda. I returned
to CIA headquarters in May of that year and was told that several months
earlier a decision had been made at the White House to invade Iraq. I was
dumbfounded, and when told of the war plans could only muster, "But we
haven't caught bin Laden yet." "The decision has already been made," my
supervisor told me. He continued, "Next year, in February, we're going to
invade Iraq, overthrow Saddam Hussein, and open the world's largest air
force base in southern Iraq." He went on, "We're going to go to the United
Nations and pretend that we want a Security Council Resolution. But the
truth is that the decision has already been made."
Soon after, Secretary of State Colin Powell began traveling around Europe
and the Middle East to cultivate support for the invasion. Sure enough, he
also went to the United Nations and argued that Iraq had weapons of mass
destruction, necessitating an invasion and overthrow because that country
posed an imminent threat to the United States.
But the whole case was built on a lie. A decision was made and then the
"facts" were created around the decision to support it. I think the same
thing is happening now.
First, Donald Trump said repeatedly during the 2016 campaign that he would
pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as
the Iran sanctions deal. The JCPOA allows for international inspectors to
examine all of Iran's nuclear sites to ensure that the country is not
enriching uranium and is not building a weapons program. In exchange,
Western countries have lifted sanctions on Iran, allowing them to buy spare
parts, medicines, and other things that they had been unable to acquire.
Despite the protestations of conservatives in Congress and elsewhere, the
JCPOA works. Indeed, the inspection regime is exactly the same one that the
United Nations imposed on Iraq in the last two decades.
Trump has kept up his anti-Iran rhetoric since becoming president. More
importantly, he has appointed Iran hawks to the two most important
positions
in foreign policy: former CIA Director Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State
and
former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton as National Security Advisor.
The
two have made clear that their preferred policy toward Iran is "regime
change," a policy that is actually prohibited by international law.
Perhaps the most troubling development, however, is the apparent de facto
alliance against Iran by Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates,
and
Bahrain. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent "presentation"
on what he called a clandestine Iranian nuclear weapons program was
embarrassingly similar to Powell's heavily scripted speech before the UN
Security Council 15 years earlier telling the world that Iraq had a
program.
That, too, was a lie.
Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman, the godfather of the Saudi war in
Yemen, which in turn is a proxy war against Iran, recently made a grand
tour
of the United States and France talking about "the Iranian threat" at every
turn. The rhetoric coming out of the UAE and Bahrain is at least as hostile
as what has been spewed by the Saudis.
Meanwhile, there's silence on Capitol Hill. Just like there was in 2002.
I can tell you from firsthand experience that I've seen this before. Our
government is laying the groundwork for yet another war. Be on the lookout
for several things. First, Trump is going to begin shouting about the
"threat" from Iran. It will become a daily mantra. He'll argue that Iran is
actively hostile and poses an immediate danger to the United States. Next
Pompeo will head back to the Middle East and Europe to garner support for a
military action. Then US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley will scream in
front of the UN Security Council that the US has no choice but to protect
itself and its allies from Iran. The final shoe to drop - a clear
indication
of war - will be if naval carrier battle groups are deployed to the eastern
Mediterranean, the Arabian Sea, or the Persian Gulf. Sure, there's always
one in the region anyway. But more than one is a provocation.
We have to be diligent in opposing this run into another war of choice. We
can't be tricked or taken by surprise. Not again.
John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior
investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the
sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the
Espionage
Act - a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a
result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration's torture program.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work.
Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
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