OpEdNews - Diary: A POLITICAL BOMBSHELL FROM ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

"Most stunning and disturbing was his description of a "plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran." It would, he suggested,involve "Iraqi failure to meet the benchmarks, followed by accusations of Iranian responsibility for the failure, then by some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, culminating in a 'defensive' US military action against Iran ..."

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DIANE'S NEWS CLIPS begins here :)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> .ron corvuswire@verizon.net A POLITICAL BOMBSHELL FROM ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI Ex-national security adviser warns that Bush is seeking a pretext to attack Iran By Barry Grey in Washington DC ... 2.2.07 Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser in the Carter administration, delivered a scathing critique of the war in Iraq and warned that the Bush administration's policy was leading inevitably to a war with Iran, with incalculable consequences for US imperialism in the Middle East and internationally. ..........snip......... "it is undermining America's global legitimacy. Its collateral civilian casualties as well as some abuses are tarnishing America's moral credentials. Driven by Manichean principles and imperial hubris, it is intensifying regional instability." Brzezinski derided Bush's talk of a "decisive ideological struggle" against radical Islam as "simplistic and demagogic," and called it a "mythical historical narrative" employed to justify a "protracted and potentially expanding war." "To argue that America is already at war in the region with a wider Islamic threat, of which Iran is the epicenter, is to promote a self-fulfilling prophecy," he said. Most stunning and disturbing was his description of a "plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran." It would, he suggested, involve "Iraqi failure to meet the benchmarks, followed by accusations of Iranian responsibility for the failure, then by some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, culminating in a 'defensive' US military action against Iran ... [snip] This was an unmistakable warning to the US Congress, replete with quotation marks to discount the "defensive" nature of such military action, that the Bush administration is seeking a pretext for an attack on Iran. Although he did not explicitly say so, Brzezinski came close to suggesting that the White House was capable of manufacturing a provocation-including a possible terrorist attack within the US-to provide the casus belli for war. That a man such as Brzezinski, with decades of experience in the top echelons of the US foreign policy establishment, a man who has the closest links to the military and to intelligence agencies, should issue such a warning at an open hearing of the US Senate has immense and grave significance. .....................snip...................... At another point Brzezinski remarked on the conspiratorial methods of the Bush administration and all but described it as a cabal. "I am perplexed," he said, "by the fact that major strategic decisions seem to be made within a very narrow circle of individuals-just a few, probably a handful, perhaps not more than the fingers on my hand. And these are the individuals, all of whom but one, who made the original decision to go to war, and used the original justifications to go to war." None of the senators in attendance addressed themselves to the stark warning from Brzezinski. The Democrats in particular, flaccid, complacent and complicit in the war conspiracies of the Bush administration, said nothing about the danger of a provocation spelled out by the witness. .................snip.................... Full article: http://wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/brze-f02_prn.shtml _________________________________ Excerpted from: http://onlinejournal.com Olmert moves the Separation Wall 5 kilometers eastward from the 1967 borders By Mohammed Mar'i | Online Journal Contributing Writer

RAMALLAH, Occupied Palestine -- Two days before the Quartet's planned February meeting in Washington and a few days after EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged Israel to freeze settlements in the occupied West Bank and to stop constructing the Separation Wall, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has approved the moving of the separation barrier at least five kilometers eastward from the Green Line in the area of the Israeli settlement of Modi'in Ilit, west of Ramallh, in order to take in the settlements of Nili and Na'aleh, according to security sources and a brief submitted by the state to the High Court of Justice. http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1703.shtml ----- The corporate media cover-up of the Najaf massacre By Mike Whitney | Online Journal Contributing Writer So far, there are two things that we can say with certainty about the massacre of the 250 Iraqis outside Najaf on Monday. First, we know that there is no substantiating evidence to support the official version of events. And, second, we know that every corporate media outlet in the United States slavishly provided the government's version to their readers, viewers and listerners without fact-checking or providing eyewitness testimony. http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1700.shtml ----- Christian fascism: The Jesus Gestapo of St. Orwell By Carolyn Baker | Online Journal Contributing Writer New York Times reporter, Chris Hedges, has written an extraordinary book, American Fascism: The Christian Right And The War On America. Having survived a Christian fundamentalist background myself, I marvel at the timely urgency of Hedges' book, but also, at the obtuse disconnect most Americans have with the pivotal thesis of his book: the power of the religious right in the United States to bring forth a nation whose totalitarian repression could dwarf that of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. http://snipurl.com/1984v ----- Open letter to Giorgio Napolitano, the president of the Italian Republic By Manno Mauro | Online Journal Guest Writer Mr. President, from what I can read on RAI's (Italian television) teletext service, you are supposed to have stated: "No to anti-Semitism even when it is disguised as anti-Zionism." http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1707.shtml ----- Big gifts should not allow donors to dictate university policy By George Beres | Online Journal Guest Writer Higher education nationally is in a bind. Tax revenues no longer are adequate to supply necessary funding for state colleges and universities. That feeds a cancer eating away at academic independence as major donors increasingly throw around their weight where it should not be: deciding school policies. http://snipurl.com/19cqh _________________________________ Excerpted from: http://www.truthout.org Robert Parry | Bush Is Hiding the Ball on Iran http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020407G.shtml "George W. Bush is again guiding the nation toward a preemptive war - this time with Iran - without allowing anything like a full debate of the underlying facts, probable consequences of the conflict or peaceful alternatives," writes Robert Parry. --- Frank Rich | Why Dick Cheney Cracked Up http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020407D.shtml Frank Rich writes: "In the days since Dick Cheney lost it on CNN, our nation's armchair shrinks have had a blast. The vice president who boasted of 'enormous successes' in Iraq and barked 'hogwash' at the congenitally mild Wolf Blitzer has been roundly judged delusional, pathologically dishonest or just plain nuts. But what else is new? We identified those diagnoses long ago. The more intriguing question is what ignited this particularly violent public flare-up." --- Life Harsher in New Guantanamo Unit http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020407E.shtml Abdul Helil Mamut's good behavior earned him a spot in a medium-security compound at the Guantanamo Bay prison, where he slept in a barracks, shared leisurely meals with other prisoners and could spend more than half the day in an outdoor recreation area. But in December, the detainee was among dozens transferred from Camp 4 to the maximum-security Camp 6, the newest section of Guantanamo Bay's military prison. Wells Dixon, who also represents Uighurs held at Guantanamo, predicted the lack of human interaction in Camp 6 will cause detainees to lose their grip on reality. --- Soldiers in Iraq View Troop Surge as a Lost Cause http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020407C.shtml While senior military officials and the Bush administration say the president's decision to send more American troops to pacify Baghdad will succeed, many of the soldiers who are already there say it's a lost cause. --- War Opponents Express Pain, Not Vindication http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020407F.shtml Sweet vindication. Who wouldn't want it? To be right. To be free of criticism and upheld by evidence, by actual proof, that one's predictions about a controversial war were correct. But on Iraq, the vindicated are pained. There is no gloating - not with thousands of people dead, Americans and Iraqis; not with the Iraq war precipitating an ongoing foreign policy crisis that has left the United States' global image in tatters. --- FOCUS | In DC, Contractors Are the "Fourth Branch of Govt." http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020407Z.shtml In June, short of people to process cases of incompetence and fraud by federal contractors, officials at the General Services Administration responded with what has become the government's reflexive answer to almost every problem. On the rise for decades, spending on federal contracts has soared during the Bush administration, to about $400 billion last year from $207 billion in 2000, fueled by the war in Iraq, domestic security and Hurricane Katrina, but also by a philosophy that encourages outsourcing almost everything government does. --- FOCUS | US Attorney Firings Set Stage for Congressional Battle http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020407Y.shtml A little-noticed provision passed last year allows Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to appoint interim US attorneys indefinitely without seeking approval from the Senate. Fearing an attempted end run around Congressional prerogatives, both House and Senate Democrats have introduced legislation to repeal the provision. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the issue Tuesday. --- US Takes Over NATO in Afghanistan http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020407B.shtml --- Military Admits Four US Helicopters Were Shot Down http://snipurl.com/19cnh _________________________________ http://jablankfort@earthlink.net Members of Congress express fear of The Lobby to Michael Lerner Regarding the on-going debate about the degree of the Israel Lobby's influence on US foreign policy, and whether US support for Israel is consistent with any definition of US interests, Prof. Ed Herman sends along this interesting statement by Michael Lerner. JB Ed Herman wrote: What is most interesting about this Lerner piece is his statement on the foreign policy effects of the Lobby campaign: "But the most destructive impact of this new Jewish Political Correctness is on American foreign policy debates. We at Tikkun have been involved in trying to create a liberal alternative to AIPAC and the other Israel-can-do-no-wrong voices in American politics. When we talk to Congressional representatives who are liberal or even extremely progressive on every other issue, they tell us privately that they are afraid to speak out about the way Israeli policies are destructive to the best interests of the United States or the best interests of world peace-lest they too be labeled anti-Semitic and anti-Israel. If it can happen to Jimmy Carter, some of them told me recently, a man with impeccable moral credentials, then no one is really politically safe." Ed Herman >> http://www.portside.org/?q=showpost&i=1974 _________________________________ Missed? Dept. By Anne Mendenhall Cloned Animals In Our Food Supply? Contact FDA Action is urgently needed to stop unlabeled marketing of cloned livestock milk and meat. http://snipurl.com/19bel ----- By Lee Shelton Our Escalating "Victory" In Iraq After nearly four years, it looks as if the Bush administration will be declaring victory in Iraq a little while longer. http://snipurl.com/19ben ----- By Mike Adams Mainstream Media Criticizes Wikipedia Because It Decentralizes Their Information Monopoly >> http://snipurl.com/19beo ----- By Rosa Schmidt Azadi Six Lies You Shouldn't Believe About Iran, Especially Since, Hey, There's People Down Here. An American living in Iran describes six lies that are being used to convince the American public that it is necessary to attack Iran. >> http://snipurl.com/19bep ----- By Sherwood Ross Wild U.S. Spending Against Bioterror Attack May Not Actually Be "Defensive" As Claimed The stunning $43-billion President Bush is pouring into biotech labs is creating offensive germ warfare capability for the Pentagon. >> http://snipurl.com/19beq ----- By Mike Whitney The Corporate Media Cover-up Of The Najaf Massacre >> http://snipurl.com/19ber _________________________________ Note from Diane: CLIFFS NOTES PANDEMIC Most candidates, congresspersons, senators, repeat time and again how they've made their 'decision' to support the attack and war on Iraq based on the "intelligence available at the time." Who's the guy in the commercial? ... "Wrooong." They didn't do their homework and not much has changed. Cliffs notes are still the way to go and this is why we have this type of 'leadership' in important posts in government and industry; lazy, incompetent 'leadership,' except when it comes to corruption 101 and beyond, (way beyond;) except when it comes to manipulating favorable, (with help from media,) public face outcomes, when what you see through your lying eyes couldn't be more dire. There is a bottom line, a serious one -- it's how long citizens, overwhelmed and therefore, distracted, (but not from the fear rapidly growing in this dark like mushrooms, of this White House's continued policy,) will continue to allow these thugs to control the yard. You know what they say about bullies, stand-up to them or be very ready to give up your right to freedom of choice and worse. And, it is happening here. Everyone who holds office needs to be INUNDATED AT THE LOCAL LEVEL by their constituents, ( that's you and me, guys,) so they will understand that their reelection is not a done deal; whatever it takes, if only one phone call per day, letter to the editor, your own action group does not have to be large, but do SomeTHING or deserve the coming final dismantling of what was an American way of life -- while you still have a choice. Earth is spinning faster on its axis and each day fades into the next even sooner than the last, or haven't you noticed?

_________________________________ http://www.underreported.com | http://english.aljazeera.net | http://www.truthdig.com _________________________________ THIS WEEK'S FOCUS: Recover deleted files >> http://snipurl.com/197rt Most of us have deleted the wrong files at one time or other. After all, it takes only a couple of clicks. I'll tell you about a program that can bring back unintentional deletions. Be sure to listen to me Monday through Friday. Use my map to find me near you http://www.komando.com/listen/index.aspx _________________________________ eHEALTHY NEWS Take Pounds Off Without Losing Any Weight With a Natural, Pain-Free System - This cutting edge, natural image enhancement system can easily be taught to anyone. http://tinyurl.com/29yc5j ----- Food Labels May be Inaccurate, Despite FDA Inspections - The FDA only checked to see if nutritional information was present, not whether or not it was accurate. http://snipurl.com/19cux ----- Do You Really Need an Implantable Birth Control Device? - Six years after Norplant was removed from the market due to health risks, the FDA has approved a new implantable contraceptive, Implanon. http://snipurl.com/19cuz _________________________________ VIDEO: Scary Mary Poppins 1:06 12/7/2006 - What if Mary Poppins was a horror movie? Come to think of it, Mary Poppins was always a little scary. http://www.break.com/index/scary_mary_poppins.html _________________________________ NationalGeographic.com http://lava.nationalgeographic.com/pod/ _________________________________ NASA Astronomy picture of the day http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html _________________________________ "It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error." ~ U.S. Supreme Court in American Communications Association v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382,442 _________________________________ Link to: Diane's News Clips http://www.opednews.com/author/author2300.html?entry=diary