If that wasn’t enough to concern anyone reading this article, there’s even more, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans on urging the Arab nations on Saturday to help in keeping-up the pressure on Iran, and if I were in Iran, I’m sure the pressure coming in from so many sources has to have an unimaginable effect on the general populace and the actual leadership of Iran, and when so much pressure is coming in from all sides, it raises the possibility of rhetoric turning into a full-blown conflict or war:
Gates urges Gulf region to counter IranBy LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press
Defense Secretary Robert Gates planned to tell Gulf countries Saturday they must work together to help the U.S. counter Iranian threats, including Tehran’s ballistic missiles and meddling in Iraq.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States still wants new sanctions.
Gates, ending a weeklong trip to the region, intended in his keynote speech at an international security conference in Manama to urge Gulf allies to cooperate more as part of a broader strategy for containing Iranian influence, according to U.S. officials traveling with Gates on Friday.
Gates’ speech was to follow Rice’s assertions Friday in Brussels, Belgium, that Washington would continue along a two-track strategy, pressing for new sanctions against Iran while holding talks to persuade Tehran to come clean about its nuclear program.
But Russia ignored her calls to punish Iran. MUCH MORE
The last words I was able to find this evening were from the CNN Wire:
Pentagon says new Iran intelligence not affecting military planning
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Pentagon says its contingency planning for potential military action against Iran has not changed, despite the latest intelligence assessment that Iran has halted its nuclear weapons program, a senior military planner said Friday.
At a Pentagon briefing, Marine Lt. Gen. John Sattler, strategic plans director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said his office is factoring the new National Intelligence Estimate into its mission, but it has not changed the planning.“I can state that there has been no course correction, slowdown, speed-up given to us inside the Joint Staff based on the NIE. That’s about — and I’ll just leave it right there.”
While insisting the military option always “remained on the table,” Pentagon officials have consistently downplayed the idea the United States is planning for a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. –From CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre (Posted 4:11 p.m.) LINK
We need to remember that Seymour Hersh predicted exactly what is happening in the various articles that lend credence to this article as listed above, and if I remember correctly, it was Seymour Hersh or another investigative reporter that stated we would know when time was growing short when the United States began upgrading the B-1 Bomber base at Diego Garcia. Below is the reference to Seymour Hersh:
CNN: Seymour Hersh ‘vindicated’ by new Iran intel estimate
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Reporter believes Cheney ‘kept his foot on the neck of’ report
