"When it came to pinning the terrorist label on the Saddam Government," Dilip Hiro wrote in 2004 ("Secrets and Lies," p. 381), "all the Bush administration had to do was point a finger at the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, People's Mujahedin). An anticlerical Iranian group opposed to the regime in Tehran, the MKO, placed on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations in 1997, had located its headquarters in Baghdad since 1986. Its National Liberation Army was trained and armed by the Iraqi military, and it engaged in self-confessed terrorist activities against the Iranian government."
Self-confessed terrorist activities against the Iranian government? Hmm. Who is it that is currently proposing to engage in some of those? Wait, don't tell me. Oh, yeah: the Bush administration. That's right: the same religious fanatics who pointed to the MKO as a justification for attacking Iraq are now preparing to attack Iran - the same activity the MKO was guilty of.
Well, that and being pleased by the attacks of September 11. Hiro continues:
"where guess who else was rejoicing? Whose entire agenda had been set on hold until a new Pearl Harbor?
Remember this?
"[T]he process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event""like a new Pearl Harbor."
""Rebuilding America's Defenses, Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century," Project for a New American Century, September 2000
And this?
"The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today."
""Diary entry of President George W. Bush, September 11, 2001
That's right. The magical justification for everything from illegal wars to tax cuts for the wealthy had just arrived in the form of mass murder.
There are a lot of theories out there about who was behind 9/11, but what I don't understand is the lack of interest in documented evidence about who is behind the proposed conflict with Iran.
James Risen just won a Pulitzer Prize for work at the New York Times that was only forced into that paper because Risen published it in a book called "State of War," a book with several other major stories (other than illegal spying) that have never seen the light of newsprint or television.
One story Risen reports in his book is a detailed account of how the CIA gave Iran plans to build a nuclear bomb.
Do I have to say that again? The CIA gave Iran plans to build a nuclear bomb. And now the Bush administration is proposing to attack Iran because (1) September 11th happened and that justifies anything, damn it, and (2) Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb.
Ironically, if we can stand any more irony here, U.S. intelligence says it'll take Iran 5 to 10 years to get there, even if its president's recent bragging and threatening proves true. He apparently understands that coming clean about how far away he is from having WMDs won't save him from a U.S. attack; his only hope is to bluff that he's already got the bomb.
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