MPACUK comment: When the neoconservatives don’t have any convenient facts to hand they make them up. Their ideology calls for this and it is known as the “noble lie”. Since they “know best” the public need not concern themselves with mere issues such as the truth. Their mission necessitates having a large, capable and relentless enemy so that they can implement their policies and put America on a permanent war path. The events on September 11th 2001 gave them the excuse they were looking for - hence the “global war on terror”.

Iran is the new “Iraq”. A threat that does not exist but that is insufficient reason to not attack or provoke Iran. Complying with international law, Iran is within its rights as a sovereign nation to develop nuclear technology for energy. The US has already begun a campaign to fight a war with a democratically elected government. Destabilising the region and in turn, the world the neo-cons do not care about issues such as worsening domestic security. In fact making matters at home worse only feeds into their nihilist dogma scaring an already compliant public into giving up their hard-won freedoms and allowing their friends in “War Inc.” to make a killing - literally.

From The Guardian: 

Report: Bush boosts covert actions in Iran

The Bush administration has significantly increased covert military operations inside Iran aimed at destabilising the country's government, according to a US report published yesterday.

The report, in the New Yorker magazine, quotes military, intelligence and congressional sources as saying that CIA and special forces operations were ordered by George Bush in a "presidential finding" in the past few months. It said Bush sought - and congressional leaders from both parties approved - $400m (£200m) for the secret war, which includes abductions and assassinations.

According to the report's author, Seymour Hersh, the operations inside Iran have been under way since last year but have recently been "significantly expanded".

However, Hersh - who broke several stories on the intelligence fiasco before the Iraq war- reported yesterday that there was considerable resistance from US generals and the defence secretary, Robert Gates, to White House pressure for an all-out attack.

The operations described by Hersh involve support for Baluchi and Arab separatist groups in Iran, "seizing members of al-Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of 'high-value targets' in the president's war on terror, who may be captured or killed".

There have been reports from Iran of assassinations of military officers, which Tehran has sometimes blamed on US and British operations. Both the US and Britain insist they are focused on diplomatic means to convince the Iranian government to suspend uranium enrichment and reprocessing.

Earlier this month an international delegation to Tehran delivered a package of economic and diplomatic incentives for the government to comply with UN security council demands. Yesterday, the Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said the package was being studied "carefully and strongly".

Iran insists its nuclear programme is purely peaceful, while western governments believe it is being used as a front for developing weapons, despite a US intelligence estimate published late last year concluding that Iran had closed down its weaponisation programme in 2003. The EU has intensified its travel and financial sanctions on Iran, while the Bush administration has said it will press for more punitive measures in the security council.

There has been persistent speculation that the Bush White House is considering air strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities before it leaves office next January.

Over the weekend, the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, told a Tehran newspaper that Iran would retaliate against any US or Israeli attack on its nuclear installations by targeting the global oil supply.

Source: The Guardian  

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