[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Iran and Iraq

[Alfred Kagan]

>> 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 packed 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 June 2005, and claimed the U.S. manipulated the results 
>> of
>> the recent Jan. 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
>> illegal war in Iraq. But in passing, the former UNSCOM weapons 
>> inspector
>> stunned his listeners with two pronouncements. Ritter said plans for a
>> June attack on Iran have been submitted to President George W. Bush, 
>> and
>> that the president has approved them. He also asserted that
>> knowledgeable sources say U.S. 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.
>> Its purported goal is the destruction of Iran's alleged program to
>> develop nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the
>> administration also expected that the attack would set in motion a 
>> chain
>> of events leading 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 George 
>> W.
>> Bush has called "a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone 
>> in
>> the advance of freedom," were not so free after all. Ritter said that
>> U.S. authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to 
>> reduce
>> the percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from
>> 56% to 48%.
>>
>> Asked by UFPPC's Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an 
>> official
>> involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would soon 
>> be
>> reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major 
>> metropolitan
>> 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 since last summer." According to Hersh, "Defense
>> Department civilians, under the leadership of Douglas Feith, have been
>> working with Israeli planners and consultants to develop and refine
>> potential nuclear, chemical-weapons, and missile targets inside Iran. 
>> .
>> . . Strategists at the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, in
>> Tampa, Florida, have been asked to revise the military's war plan,
>> providing for a maximum ground and air invasion of Iran. . . . The 
>> hawks
>> in the Administration believe that it will soon become clear that the
>> Europeans' negotiated approach [to Iran] cannot succeed, and that at
>> that time the Administration will act."
>>
>> Scott Ritter said that although the peace movement failed to stop the
>> war in Iraq, it had a chance to stop the expansion of the war to other
>> nations like Iran and Syria. He held up the specter of a day when the
>> Iraq war might be remembered as a relatively minor event that preceded
>> an even greater conflagration.
>>
>> Scott Ritter's talk was the culmination of a long evening devoted to
>> discussion of Iraq and U.S. foreign policy. Before Ritter spoke, Dahr
>> Jamail narrated a slide show on Iraq focusing on Fallujah. He showed
>> more than 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 in
>> 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 in
>> 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 Sound
>> Community College's Student Activities Board, Veterans for Peace, 100
>> Thousand and Counting, Olympia Movement for Justice & Peace, and 
>> United
>> for Peace of Pierce County.
>>
>> --
>>
>> NOTE: Dahr Jamail will make three more appearances in the Puget Sound
>> 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 p.m.
>> at the Vashon Land Trust. Vashon Islanders for Peace will be hosting
>> Dahr Jamail and Bert Sacks on the subject of Exit Strategies from 
>> Iraq.
>> For more information, contact: Kate Hunter, 206-463-5117; (3) SUNDAY,
>> FEB. 20, 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 the 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.
>>
>
>
Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliogrpaher and Professor of Library Administration
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801

tel. 217-333-6519
fax 217-333-2214
akagan at uiuc.edu