Tag: Iran

Positive Signs from Conyers

By David Swanson

Coming out of today’s meeting with John Conyers, these seem to be the significant developments:

He is circulating a letter among his colleageus for signatures, a letter addressed to Bush letting him know that an attack on Iran will result in impeachment hearings. LET’S ASK EVERY MEMBER OF CONGRESS TO SIGN ON! I know it seems bassackwards and we want impeachment before a new war, not after, but this is a way for us to show Conyers the support that will be there any time he moves forward.

He is open to the new argument that we have been making to him, namely that impeachment hearings for Cheney or Bush (on torture, signing statements, spying, war crimes, etc, etc) would hurt John McCain’s candidacy by forcing him to defend the crimes.

He is open to meeting with experts allied with us to hear their arguments for impeachment.

All of that is positive. Still, Conyers continues to believe that elections are more important than justice, that impeachment would be bad for the elections, and that impeachment hearings would be stonewalled by the White House. There are a couple of possible responses to the last point. One is that impeachment hearings, including taking up H Res 799 as instructed by the full House last November, and even marking it up to add new charges, overrule claims of “executive privilege.” Of course Bush and Cheney could claim otherwise, but there is an answer to that. When Nixon refused a subpoena, the House Judiciary Committee passed an article of impeachment against him for that refusal. Cheney and Bush have already refused subpoenas. There’s no need to wait.

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The Hatfields and McCoys were rival American clans who feuded in the latter part of the 1800s.  They lived on opposite riverbanks and dealt in moonshine.  

The Shiite clans of South Iraq are having family feuds and the new government and its occupiers have been unable to settle them down. It took negotiation from Iran, because clan ties predate national borders.  

Imagine if aliens from another planet had come to the US in the 1800s to intervene between the Hatfields and McCoys!  Ironically, in 2003 they united against their common enemy, “the perpetrators of 9/11.”  check out their next reunion plan here.

Original article via Agence France-Presse.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – CIA chief Michael Hayden expressed his personal belief Sunday that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, but also stood by the agency’s assessment that the program was suspended in 2003.

The obscenity that is American politics, circa 2008.

This is funny, and the Reverend Wright’s comments are outrageous? What planet am I living on?

Via Dar Al Hayat (Lebanon):

Nicknamed “the Fox” by his colleagues, he was renowned as one of the best strategists in the US military, and the most diplomatic – the “voice of reason in the administration” according to Hillary Clinton. When President George Bush appointed him Commander of the US Central Command, he had hoped to rely on him in the confrontation with Iran. He is Admiral William Fallon, who submitted his resignation two days ago, generating a whirlwind of interpretations as to the reasons behind it, despite the clarity of the resignation text itself.

Iran holds its parliamentary elections today, March 14th, to fill the 290 seats of the Islamic Consultative Council.  It is also expected to be a referendum on Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is in the third year of a four-year term.  Currently the Iranian Parliament seats consist of 190 conservatives, 50 reformists, 43 independents (or centrists), 5 seats reserved for religous minorities, and 2 other seats.  Voting will conclude at 2:30 PM EDT today, and preliminary results can be expected Saturday and Sunday.  Official results will probably not be announced for a few days after that.  

A nice, short primer on the 1953 coup and its consequences.

When I came online this morning I saw that the Green Zone in Iraq had suffered an attack of mortar bombs and/or rockets:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A barrage of mortar bombs or rockets hit Baghdad’s heavily protected Green Zone, home to the U.S. embassy and Iraqi government ministries, on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Of course for operational security reasons, we cannot know if there was any damage or what kind of damage or anything else:

“I can confirm that we did receive indirect fire and that it was multiple rounds,” said U.S. military spokesman Major Brad Leighton, referring further queries to the U.S. embassy.

U.S. embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo refused to say whether there had been casualties or damaged.

“To maintain operational security, we do not comment on indirect fire into the International Zone,” she said.

And of course what would the military official response be without a reference to Iran?

The U.S. military has blamed missile attacks on the Green Zone on so-called “special groups”, rogue elements of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia they say receives funding and weapons from neighbouring Iran. Iran denies the charge.

So we can’t know what damage was done by this attack.  Yet we can hear the military tell us they know exactly where this attack came from and that Iran has to be behind it.  Guess that’s not a secret so we can all know who the REAL enemy is!