War Is A Crime .org - Iran

A retired three-star Lt. General, Flynn had previously been director of the Defense Intelligence Agency during the Obama administration. In that role since 2012, he was a key player in the leadership of the sprawling $50-billion US intelligence apparatus that has increasingly been spying not just on Americans but on US allies and, to the extent possible, on the entire world. Flynn, as DIA director, was the top guy in charge of the so-called “Five Eyes” group of intelligence agencies-- all English-speaking nations including the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada -- which has coordinated spying on citizens of those nations as well as on the citizens and leaders of such supposed NATO allies as Germany, France, Italy, Spain etc.

Knowing all this, it’s simply astounding to learn that Flynn himself was using apparently unencrypted email, phones and texting to communicate with, of all people, the Russian Ambassador to the US, discussing such issues as potentially lifting sanctions imposed on Russia by the sitting president of the United States, Barack Obama.

His political implosion is doubly ironic because Flynn was one of those who was loudly condemning Trump’s presidential opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for her use of a private server for her official State Department business, and for her general lax security standards (he actually led a “Lock her up!” chant at one Trump rally!). Because clearly Flynn was not using secure communications in his own conversations with the Russian ambassador -- communications that are now widely circulating in complete transcript form courtesy of US spy agencies like the National Security Agency.

Talk about someone being hoist upon his own petard!

You’d think that seeing the kind of trouble the NSA’s “collect it all” motto can wreak even for the powerful and seemingly invincible, Washington’s elite might rethink what the NSA is doing?

But nah, I wouldn’t count on that happening. There’s more likely to be a lot of shadenfreude among those, both Democrats and traditional Cold War Republicans, who want to see Trump and his band of bozos go down, but hubristic to a fault, they’re not going to go so far as to think, “Hey, this could as easily happen to me!”

And yet, what we’re seeing here, besides the exposé of a thoroughly inept and out-of-his-depth President Trump, is the workings of the so-called “deep state” -- the permanent power structure the really runs things in the US -- which is taking advantage of its vast powers to rein in the efforts of a loose cannon trying to steer things off on an unorthodox course...

For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF in ThisCantBeHappening!, the uncompromised, collectively run, five-time Project Censored Award-winning online alternative news site, please go to: www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/3452

Democratic hysteria: Liberal Democrats Claiming a Russian Hack of the Election and Putin Control Over Trump are the New ‘Birthe

dlindorff — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 19:22:07 +0000

By Dave Lindorff

Focus: Iran - Nov 30, 2016

bartolo — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 23:39:39 +0000

Pressure mounts on Trump to keep the Iran nuclear deal, Foreign policy luminaries warn that scrapping the accord would create a huge mess - The Huffington Post

CIA's Brennan says tearing up Iran deal would be ‘folly’, because it would make it more likely that Iran and others in the region would acquire nuclear weapons - Reuters

Theresa May's officials to discuss Iran nuclear deal with Trump's camp: 'We firmly support the agreement...make sure that it is properly implemented' - Independent

No New Talks between Iran, US on JCPOA: FM spokesman - Tasnim News Agency

Iran will increase enrichment to 190k SWU if JCPOA breached: MP - campaigniran.org

Washington Post editorial: Trump shouldn’t rip up the Iran deal - The Washington Post

Alan M. Dershowitz: Don’t rip up the Iran deal, enforce it - The Boston Globe

Ellen Laipson: Will the Iran nuclear deal survive under Trump?, The costs of reverting to a confrontational approach to Iran would include more regional instability - worldpoliticsreview

Aaron Arnold: How Trump can strengthen US leverage against Iran, Scrapping the nuclear deal will backfire - thediplomat.com

Former IAEA Director: 'Very dishonest' to claim Iran violated the nuclear deal (VIDEO) - therealnews.com

Iran, Russia stress completion of 2 nuclear units in Bushehr - Mehr News Agency

Russia gets permission to use Iran's Hamadan air base for Syria airstrikes - UPI.com

Weapons seizures show Iran ‘arms pipeline’ to Yemen’s Houthi rebels - The National

--------------------------------------------------

Senate to vote on Iran sanctions bill - Washington Examiner

Iran ready to respond to US if sanctions renewed: Nuclear official - payvand.com

Iran's Khamenei slams Rouhani for being 'too open' toward West - Jerusalem Post

Democratic Senators fire back at Iran for retaliation threat over sanctions renewal - The Weekly Standard

Kerry urges Senate Democrats to back off Iran sanctions renewal - al-monitor.com

Reimposing sanctions on Iran would be difficult for the US - The National

The Iran Sanctions Extension Act: Enforcement overkill, international changes to monitoring Iran's nuclear program have made congressional action unnecessary - JURIST

U.S. grants second Airbus license to sell planes to Iran, after the House passed a bill to block the sale including also planes from Boeing - Reuters

Editorial: Congress shouldn’t kill Boeing’s sale to Iran Air - HeraldNet.com

OPEC Agrees first oil cuts in eight years, The deal overcame disagreements between the group’s three largest producers -- Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq - Bloomberg

Asia's October imports of Iranian oil more than double from year ago - Reuters

Scrapping the Iran deal: What it would mean for oil markets - Global Trade Magazine

To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)

Iranians Ask France Not to Support Terrorism

davidswanson — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 01:29:32 +0000

Dear President Hollande,

On behalf of the people of Iran, we are writing to express our deepest sorrow in response to tragic events that in recent months have been unfolded in your country.

Please accept our condolences, for we share your pain and sorrow for the loss of innocent lives due to the heartless actions of terrorist groups. We convey our sympathy to the people of France and stand in solidarity with families of victims of such barbaric acts.

We, in Iran, understand the horror of terrorism as we have experienced it in first hand and for a long time. In our country thousands of civilians have been targeted by terrorist groups, such as Mujahidin- e- Khalq (MEK). Similar to ISIS, MEK also stands for violence and destruction of precious lives in order to achieve its “goal” and “win.”

In fact, we are saddened and hurt to witness Turki bin Faisale Al Iskander, the Saudi official, entered Paris last week only to openly support Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK), a terrorist organization. This group led by Mariam Rajavi, is responsible for the lives of 17000 Iranians alone, as well as numerous non-Iranians throughout years of terrorist activities.

Sadly, in the eyes of many observers, friendships and collaborations of Saudi officials with terrorist groups and organizations is not anything new. For decades, directly or indirectly, Saudis have supported groups such as Taliban, Al-Qaeda, ISIS and now is openly supporting the MEK. While we deeply sympathize with the people of France and share their pain, we also believe this is the time for the international community to revisit consequences of wrong policies toward states and non-state actors who overtly or covertly have supported terrorism.

In solidarity,

A group of Iranian Artists.

Hot time in the old town of Philly in July?: Washington, Alaska and Hawaii Blowout Wins Boost Sanders Nomination Odds

dlindorff — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 12:24:34 +0000

By Dave Lindorff

Judge's Iran Ignorance Is Widespread and Dangerous

davidswanson — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 17:21:47 +0000

By David Swanson, American Herald Tribune

U.S. District Judge George Daniels of New York has struck again, ruling that Iran must pay $10 billion to compensate for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. If you have read this story in the United States, it probably came from Bloomberg News, which uniquely failed to note that in fact nobody has ever produced the slightest evidence that Iran had anything to do with the September 11 attacks.

If you read the story in Russian or British or Venezuelan or Iranian media or on sites that used the Bloomberg story but added a tiny bit of context, then you learned that Iran had, as far as anyone knows, nothing at all to do with 9/11 (a point on which the 9/11 Commission, President Obama, and pretty much everyone else are in agreement), that none of the al Qaeda hijackers were Iranian, that most of them were Saudi, that the same judge has exonerated Saudi Arabia and declared that nation to have sovereign immunity, that the ideology of al Qaeda puts it at odds with the Iranian government, that the $10 billion is very unlikely to ever change hands, and that -- in short -- this is a story about a crackpot judge operating within a crackpot culture, not a story about criminal justice.

Criminal justice is actually a much better response to 9/11 than endless war, but first you have to properly identify the criminals!

The same judge has done this before, and has based his decisions each time on the claims of ludicrous "experts" that go unanswered by any defense, as Iran declines to dignify such proceedings by showing up to defend itself. Five years ago, Gareth Porter, preeminent debunker of war lies about Iran, noted that in that year's proceedings, "at least two of the Iranian defectors [appearing as witnesses, had] long been dismissed by U.S. intelligence as 'fabricators' and ... the two 'expert witnesses' who were supposed to determine the credibility of those defectors' claims [were] both avowed advocates of crackpot conspiracy theories about Muslims and Shariah law who believe the United States is at war with Islam."

The power of U.S. judges has packed U.S. prisons with innocents, come down far more heavily on dark-skinned defendants, made money into speech, made corporations people, disenfranchised voters, and made George W. Bush president. It's a bit too generous to suggest that Judge George Daniels' actions are simply a matter of proper procedure. That he has other options than making a laughingstock of his country is illustrated by his very different treatment of Saudi Arabia. Daniels operates within a system that gives judges the powers of gods, and within a culture that demonizes Iran at every level.

The United States government has been promoting anti-Iranian propaganda for decades. This poison takes multiple and contradictory forms. Opponents of the recent nuclear agreement falsely claimed that Iran was building nuclear weapons. And many defenders of the agreement also falsely claimed that Iran was building nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, numerous false claims have in recent years been made about alleged Iranian terrorism, while the United States has in fact been sponsoring terrorism in Iran and openly committing the crime of threatening war on Iran. The recent elections in Iran show positive results of the agreement. The U.S. public, on the other hand, is in a worse place in terms of the credence it gives to anti-Iranian lies than it was prior to the nuclear negotiations. This is a grave danger, because many in Washington have not ceased pushing for war.

We're going to see efforts in Congress to tear up the nuclear agreement, to impose new sanctions, and conceivably even to steal the billions of dollars to pay off this court settlement by "freezing" Iranian assets. Reports Bloomberg: "While it is difficult to collect damages from an unwilling foreign nation, the plaintiffs may try to collect part of the judgments using a law that permits parties to tap terrorists' assets frozen by the government."

Who is a "terrorist" of course is defined in the eye of the government official. The history of U.S. trouble with Iran dates significantly to the 1953 overthrow by the CIA of Iran's democratic president, and the U.S. installation of a brutal dictator. The popular revolution that overthrew that dictator was hijacked by theocrats, and today's Iranian government can be severely criticized in many ways. But Iran has spent decades opposing the use of weapons of mass destruction. When Iraq attacked Iran with U.S.-supplied chemical weapons, Iran refused on principle to respond in kind. Iran has not pursued nuclear weapons, and has repeatedly, prior to this agreement, including in 2003, offered to give up its nuclear energy program. It now subjects its energy program to greater inspections than any other country ever has or the United States ever would, going above and beyond compliance with the nonproliferation treaty that the United States flagrantly violates.

In 2000, as revealed by Jeffrey Sterling, the CIA tried to plant nuclear weapons evidence on Iran. Even as Iran offered to assist the United States, post 9/11, the United States labeled Iran part of an "axis of evil," despite its lack of ties with the other two nations in the "axis" and its lack of "evil." The United States then designated part of Iran's military a terrorist organization, very likely murdered Iranian scientists, certainly funded opposition groups in Iran (including some the U.S. also designated as terrorist), flew drones over Iran, launched major cyber attacks on Iranian computers, and built up military forces all around Iran's borders, while imposing cruel sanctions on the country. Washington neocons have also spoken openly about their intentions to overthrow the government of Syria as a step toward overthrowing the government of Iran. It may be worth reminding U.S. audiences that it is illegal to overthrow governments.

The roots of a Washington push for a new war on Iran can be found in the 1992 Defense Planning Guidance, the 1996 paper called A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, the 2000 Rebuilding America's Defenses, and in a 2001 Pentagon memo described by Wesley Clark as listing these nations for attack: Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. In 2010, Tony Blair included Iran on a similar list of countries that he said Dick Cheney had aimed to overthrow.

One common type of war lie about Iran that has helped move the U.S. to the brink of war a number of times in the past 15 years is the lie about Iranian terrorism abroad. These tales have grown more and more outlandish. For the record, Iran did not try to blow up a Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C., an action which President Obama would consider perfectly praiseworthy if the roles were reversed, but a lie that even Fox News had a hard time stomaching. And that's saying something.

Why do some in the U.S. government think the rest of us will find outlandish war plots believable? Because they in fact engage in them. Here is Seymour Hersh describing a meeting held in then-Vice President Dick Cheney's office:

"There was a dozen ideas proffered about how to trigger a war. The one that interested me the most was why don't we build — we in our shipyard — build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats. Put Navy seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up. Might cost some lives. And it was rejected because you can't have Americans killing Americans. That's the kind of — that's the level of stuff we're talking about. Provocation. But that was rejected."

Years later, a U.S. ship was apprehended by Iran in Iranian waters. Iran did not retaliate or escalate, but simply let the ship depart. The U.S. media treated the incident as an act of Iranian aggression.

Let all of this be a lesson -- not of course to reject war lies -- but to make proper accusations. If you're caught robbing a house, accuse the homeowner of attacking your territory. Hope your case if brought before Judge Daniels. And send your legal bills to the Iranian government -- they owe you!

DNC defection: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s Surprise Endorsement Gives Sanders a Chance to Change the Whole Primary Game

dlindorff — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 18:07:06 +0000

By Dave Lindorff

Just as the media, in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s landslide win in South Carolina’s Democratic primary Saturday, are predictably writing the obituary for Bernie Sanders’ upstart and uphill campaign for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) has handed him an opportunity to jolt the American people awake.

US will eventually bomb Iran as it bombed others - foreign policy expert

davidswanson — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 20:05:16 +0000

Tomgram: Greg Grandin, Henry of Arabia

TomDispatch — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 18:52:51 +0000

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.