The tale of two NCRIs (one a "global terrorist organization") and White House desperation

deja vu all over again...

An Iranian exile group accused Tehran on Tuesday of pursuing efforts to develop nuclear weapons, dismissing as incomplete a U.S. intelligence report that Iran's nuclear arms program was frozen in 2003.

[...]

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which first exposed Iran's nuclear fuel program in 2002, said it published information three years ago alleging that Tehran had restarted weapons-related work after a short break.

NCRI officials said they checked back with sources inside Iran after the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) was released, and those informants reported that work on nuclear weapons was still being pursued at three sites.

remember how we were set up by this group...?

The Iraqi National Congress (INC) was created at the behest of the U.S. government for the purpose of fomenting the overthrow of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The INC has been funded since 1992. An unnamed INC offical told the New York Times in 2004 that INC had received $27 million in the last four years. [1].

In May 1991, following the end of Operation Desert Storm, then-President George H.W. Bush signed a presidential finding directing the CIA to create the conditions for Hussein's removal. The hope was that members of the Iraqi military would turn on Hussein and stage a military coup. The CIA did not have the mechanisms in place to make that happen, so they hired the Rendon Group, a PR firm run by John Rendon, to run a covert anti-Saddam propaganda campaign.

"The Iraqi National Congress, and its most famous spokesperson Ahmad Chalabi, are entirely the creation of a media strategy company (Rendon Group) doing the bidding of the United States government." [2]

and this man...?

Dr. Ahmed Chalabi (also spelled "Ahmad") is part of a three-man leadership council for the Iraqi opposition group, the Iraqi National Congress (INC), which was created at the behest of the U.S. government for the purpose of fomenting the overthrow of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Chalabi, a secular Iraqi Shiite Muslim and mathematician by training, previously served as chairman of the Petra Bank in Jordan, where he engaged in various cloak-and-dagger operations that ended abruptly in August 1989 when he fled the country "under mysterious circumstances" and in 1992 was convicted in absentia for embezzlement, fraud and currency-trading irregularities, sentencing him to 22 years' hard labour. [1],[2]

so, why would we want to pay the slightest bit of attention to THESE people...?

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) was founded in 1981 in Tehran upon the initiative of Massoud Rajavi (Leader of the Iranian Resistance) and is closely linked to the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK); according to their website the NCRI "is the parliament-in-exile of the Iranian Resistance."

"The NCRI is a broad-based political coalition comprising five opposition political organizations and parties and more than 550 well-known political, cultural and social figures, specialists, artists, intellectuals, sports champions, scientists, and military officers.

"Every part of the spectrum of Iran's social and political mosaic is represented in the NCRI, including those of religious, secular, liberal and nationalist persuasions, as well as the representatives of ethnic minorities, namely Kurds, Baluchis, Turkmens, and Arabs, Sunni Moslems, and members of smaller religious communities, such as Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians. Half of the members of the NCRI are women." [1]

In its two-day plenary session in November 2002, NCRI adopted a plan to form the "National Solidarity Front to Overthrow Religious Dictatorship in Iran." :The front was designed as a platform to encompass all Iranian republicans who "are campaigning for a democratic, independent and secular regime." [2]

In August 1993, the NCRI unanimously elected Mrs. Maryam Rajavi as President. [3] (She is now president elect)

The President and official spokesman of the National Council of Resistance is Massoud Rajavi. [4]

In 1992 Mohammad Mohaddessin was assigned chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance, a post he has held ever since. [5]

On August 15, 2003, the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to the Specially Designated Global Terrorist list.

putting any credence in the "intelligence" of groups like this is absurd... if you ask cheney if the u.s. should bomb iran, what is he going to say...? if you ask israel if the u.s. should bomb iran, what do you think they will say...? when the NCRI (Iraq version) was asked if the u.s. should attack and overthrow saddam, what do you think they said...? if you ask the ncri (iran version) if we should attack iran and overthrow the current regime, what do you think they will say...? the fact that the iran ncri, despite the fact that the u.s. has declared them a "specially designated global terrorist" organization, is being given prime u.s. media space to air their own version of "intelligence," suggests to me the level of desperation of the bush administration... why else would be be seeing an effort, once again, to establish a basis for an attack on iran... it must really suck to be them...

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The Iranian time travel program

i sure like the way tom tomorrow thinks...



tom tomorrow is no doubt inspired by the neocons' truly amazing ability to take even the basest of lies and spin it to the benefit of their born-loser masters, as so clearly illustrated in the following...

Yesterday on Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol claimed that the reason Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in mid-2003 was because of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. "I believe we invaded a neighboring country in 2003 and removed their dictator and that sent shock waves through the region and at the time people were quite worried," said Kristol, later adding, "This is yet another feather in the cap for the invasion of Iraq." NPR's Juan Williams responded by calling Kristol the "iron glove," asking, "So you want us to start invading everybody everywhere? That'll stop all nuclear proliferation?" Kristol replied that if it works, it's "a pretty good thing."

the brilliant, long-term, highly strategic, and faultless tactical execution of the bush administration simply WILL NOT BE DENIED...

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Olbermann's latest Special Comment

keith's usual straight-from-the-shoulder, tell-it-like-it-is, absolutely invaluable perspective...



(thanks to captain quahog 3.0...)

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Laughing so hard, the tears are rolling down my face

i wasn't going to post on this, but i realized, after i caught myself laughing out loud so hard that tears were rolling down my cheeks, it was simply too good to resist...

Last night on PBS’s Charlie Rose, former senator Fred Thompson added his own conspiracy theory to the mix, stating that Iran may have deliberately “leaked” the information on their lack of nuclear program to distract the U.S. “Nobody knows” if Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, he declared:

We’re just going to have to wait and see, why they would start it up and they would move away without telling anybody.

oh, my freaking lord... why "would they move away without TELLING anybody...?" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... oh, fred, you flaming, bag'o'shit, moron... they TOLD EVERYBODY, REPEATEDLY, ZILLIONS OF TIMES, AND NOBODY IN THE WHITE HOUSE WAS LISTENING... go back to tennessee, you fool...!

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smell those red herrings

Here's a little more information shedding light on that recent contrivance, the National Intelligence Estimate:

from Pravda: "Russia and USA sign secret defense memorandum"

Deputy Defense Minister of the Russian Federation, General Yury Baluyevsky and his counterpart, U.S. Admiral Michael Mullen, signed a memorandum on defense cooperation in Washington.

The memorandum specifies the plan of defense cooperation and the compatibility of the armed forces of the two countries in 2008. It was a very fruitful, productive discussion that both parties benefited from, and the chairman desires to keep the content of those discussions between him and his counterpart,” Navy Captain John Kirby, a spokesman for Mullen, said."

It was former world chess champion Garry Kasparov that disclosed on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher that:

[Russian President Vladimir] Putin makes an open friendship with Iranian President Amadenijad because Putin has but one item in his geo-political agenda: He needs high oil prices and tensions in the Middle East help him to keep oil prices at an all time high. So that's why he sells nuclear technology to Iran, he sells missiles to to Hezbollah and Hamas via Syria, because it helps Putin to stay in power. If the oil price goes down, the Putin regime goes down."

And from Garry Kasparov's WSJ op ed:

Opposition activists--or just those who happen to be in the way of the [Putin] administration--are harassed and arrested on false charges of drug possession, extremism, or the latest trend, for owning illegal software."

It is clear the 5th Estate has every intention of foisting the Telcom Immunity down our throats. It was clear that the PATRIOT Act was similarly concocted long before 911. It is clear that file-sharing is to be the next big bugaboo, like the drug laws against marijuana or the First Amendment abridgments against child pornography.

Striking a deal with Russia to target file-sharing as equivalent to Terrorism, would account for why the US Intelligence Community is willing to issue an NIE now admitting that Iran is of no imminent nuclear threat to the US. Such a secret deal is not beyond consideration. Yet the timing also reeks of a red herring to distract us from the Telcom Immunity shenanigans the 5th Estate is currently up to, including Sen. Arlen Specter's S. 2402, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Substitution Act.

Government and corporations have clearly already been invading privacy to snoop for private concerns such as the likes of RIAA and MPAA. The specter of making file sharing a giant bugaboo like government creates out of whole cloth in so many other areas, shows us well, what they are already likely up to.

Enough information has already been leaked to create a reasonable belief that virtually all electronic communications are already being intercepted, diverted and mined at some point for myriad purposes - most of which probably have little to do with preventing acts of terrorism, but rather intend to work all manner of machinations to serve ever-increasing political control by those who are already Haves.

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John Bolton uses the Karl Rove tactic on the Iran NIE

you all know the karl rove tactic, i'm sure... that's where, on the biggest public platform you can find, using the biggest megaphone around, you point-blank accuse someone else of doing precisely what you routinely do yourself... it's jaw-droppingly effective because it's the essence of the "BIG LIE..." when you hear it, you can only shake your head and marvel at the incredible chutzpah of someone who could lie like this... here's one of the principal "POLITICIZERS" of intelligence in the entire world, one of the neocon vampires who lied us into an illegal war in iraq, accusing people in the intelligence community of POLITICIZING intelligence... it's breathtaking...

I really think the House and Senate Intelligence Committees have to look at how this NIE was put together because there are a lot unexplained points in here. […]

I think there is a risk here, and I raise this as a question, whether people in the intelligence community who had their own agenda on Iran for some time now have politicized this intelligence and politicized these judgments in a way contrary to where the administration was going. I think somebody needs to look at that.

so, WTF does having "their own agenda" mean...? is that an agenda that calls for NOT wanting to go to war...? NOT bombing another country back into the stone age...? does "contrary to where the administration is going" mean "contrary to death and destruction"...?

please, dear lord, spare me from this kind of man and this kind of thinking...

(thanks to think progress...)

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Biden on Bush and the Iran NIE

i'm no biden fan, but this is the kind of statement that every member of congress ought to be making, out loud, in public, from every platform available...

For many reasons, war with Iran is not just a bad option, it would be a disaster. So I want to be crystal clear on this: if the President takes us to war with Iran without Congressional approval, I will call for his impeachment.

i know this isn't the first time he's said this, but i don't think it can be repeated too often... i just wish he'd take action to impeach the s.o.b. anyway...

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Bomb-crazy Podhoretz sees conspiracy in Iran NIE

here was the thought i offered yesterday about norman podhoretz' reaction to the release of the nie stating that iran was not pursuing nuclear weapons...

talk about a gut shot to darth and his bomb-mad buddy, norman podhoretz...

here's podhoeretz today...

Podhoretz — who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004 — aired a nasty conspiracy theory yesterday, attacking the authors of the NIE and accusing the intelligence community of deliberately “leaking material calculated to undermine George W. Bush:”

I must confess to suspecting that the intelligence community, having been excoriated for supporting the then universal belief that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, is now bending over backward to counter what has up to now been a similarly universal view (including as is evident from the 2005 NIE, within the intelligence community itself) that Iran is hell-bent on developing nuclear weapons. […]

But I entertain an even darker suspicion. It is that the intelligence community, which has for some years now been leaking material calculated to undermine George W. Bush, is doing it again. This time the purpose is to head off the possibility that the President may order air strikes on the Iranian nuclear installations.

well, ya know, norm - can i call you norm? - i agree with you... i believe the intelligence community was doing exactly that, releasing the nie to undermine george bush and throw a monkey wrench into the insane plans of this administration to engage us in another illegal war...

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HOT from the NYT: U.S. intelligence says Iran NOT working on nuclear weapons [UPDATE: "A miracle"]

and HASN'T been since 2003... holy crap...! talk about a gut shot to darth and his bomb-mad buddy, norman podhoretz... THIS oughta cause a tsunami among the rest of the neocons too...

A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb.

The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to be major factor in the tense international negotiations aimed at getting Iran to halt its nuclear energy program. Concerns about Iran were raised sharply after President Bush had suggested in October that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to “World War III,” and Vice President Dick Cheney promised “serious consequences” if the government in Tehran did not abandon its nuclear program.

The finding also come in the middle of a presidential campaign during which a possible military strike against Iran’s nuclear program has been discussed. The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran’s ultimate intentions about gaining a nuclear weapon remain unclear, but that Iran’s “decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs.”

wow...! somebody in u.s. intelligence must be damn tired of being asked to sling bullshit or this would never have seen the light of day...

here's the white house spin from stephen hadley, spinner extraordinaire...

Today’s National Intelligence Estimate offers some positive news. It confirms that we were right to be worried about Iran seeking to develop nuclear weapons. It tells us that we have made progress in trying to ensure that this does not happen.

But the intelligence also tells us that the risk of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon remains a very serious problem. The estimate offers grounds for hope that the problem can be solved diplomatically — without the use of force — as the Administration has been trying to do. And it suggests that the President has the right strategy: intensified international pressure along with a willingness to negotiate a solution that serves Iranian interests while ensuring that the world will never have to face a nuclear armed Iran.

'scuse ME...?!?! "solved diplomatically — without the use of force — as the Administration has been trying to do...??" you're a bald-faced liar, hadley... we would ALREADY have bombed iran, probably with tactical nukes, and the middle east would ALREADY be engulfed in mass destruction, had there not been so much resistance and very likely covert sabotage WITHIN the administration ranks... the only reason there has been ANY diplomatic effort at all is because that resistance left little choice...

[UPDATE]

ray mcgovern's take...

For those who have doubts about miracles, a double one occurred today. An honest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear program has been issued and its Key Judgments were made public.

With redraft after redraft, it was what the Germans call “eine schwere Geburt”—a difficult birth, ten months in gestation.

i'm still thinking that some people in the intelligence community are working feverishly to short-circuit what i'm sure is the still-very-much-alive plan to bomb iran... commenter ed from liberal doomsayer thinks it's about a feeble attempt to burnish bush's "legacy..." i disagree... while i think that's precisely the spin that hadley is attempting to put on it, i think this juicy little revelation caught the white house completely flatfooted and, now that it's out there, there isn't a damn thing they can do about it except pretend they're all for it...

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McClatchy honors its motto

particularly in light of the pandering headlines generated by other media outlets (see previous post), perhaps mcclatchy takes journalism and its pledge, "truth to power," seriously...

Top Story
New Iraq plan recalls strategies past
By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers

The President declared success and said troops were coming home despite a range of government reports that says Iraqi civilian casualties remain high and that Iraqi security forces remain incapable of taking control.

[...]

There was no mention of a range of government reports, from a National Intelligence Estimate to a Government Accountability Office report and even the testimony this week of U.S. Iraq commander Army Gen. David Petraeus, that has said Iraqi civilian casualties remain high and that it will be years before Iraqi security forces can take control.

Other reports have stressed that Iraqis continue to flee their homes looking for safety at unprecedented rates and that Shiite militias continue to force Sunni Muslims from their homes. Baghdad residents complain that their city has become even more segregated than before the surge, divided now by hastily erected concrete walls to keep rival sects separate.

good on mcclatchy...

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A headline that says it all

from today's wapo roundup of the nation's op-ed pages...

Today's Hot Topic: Rebooting the War on Terror

and just in case you had any doubt about what they might mean by that, here's the paragraph that 'splains it all...

War on Terror: After the release of the new National Intelligence Estimate on terror threats this week, the WaPo argues that the most urgent decision to be made is what to do about al-Qaeda's sanctuary in Pakistan. "If Pakistani forces cannot -- or will not -- eliminate the sanctuary, President Bush must order targeted strikes or covert actions by American forces, as he has done several times in recent years," the editors write ... the LAT argues that the report should reinvigorate Americans' interest in the war on terror. "The passage of time without another terrorist outrage on American soil has inspired complacency about continuing dangers and a reluctance to address issues -- such as the proper balance between liberty and security in an age of terror -- that are certain to recur," the editors write ... the WSJ argues that the report is "a stark reminder that al Qaeda and other radical Islamist groups continue to pose an urgent threat to our security, and that 9/11 was not the terrorist one-off that some liberals wish it were so they can switch the subject to global warming and after-school programs."

it's hard to believe that these major media outlets are, once again, playing willing pawns to bushco fear-mongering... just look at the verbiage...

must order targeted strikes or covert actions

well, hey...! while we're at it, let's not stop with pakistan... we've got all that military firepower just sitting around in the gulf, let's go for a two-fer and bomb iran at the same time...

and these...

• reinvigorate Americans' interest in the war on terror

• terrorist outrage on American soil

• continuing dangers ... that are certain to recur

• stark reminder

• continue to pose an urgent threat

• 9/11 not the terrorist one-off"

and what would fear-mongering be without a wsj dig at the al qaeda-loving, dirty fucking hippie liberals...

so they can switch the subject to global warming and after-school programs

after all that's been revealed, discussed and written about, to still adopt these fear-mongering positions when it's patently clear that the "war on terror" has been the biggest manipulation of average citizens in modern history, is totally baffling to me... the only thing i can possibly imagine is that we're being set up for another terrorist attack so that these fine people can then say, "well, we told you so..."

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