“If Iran was indeed willing to attack a Saudi Ambassador and close confidante of the Saudi King on US soil and countenance the death of 100-150 Americans, then the US has reached a point where it must take action. The President’s National Security Council and intelligence teams led by Thomas Donilon must construct a response that is “more than reactive.” This is time for a significant strategic response to the Iran challenge in the Middle East and globally — and if the US does not take action, then the Saudis will most likely retaliate in ways that will escalate the stakes and tensions with Iran throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies any government involvement in this plot — and there no doubt will be much more that surfaces in coming days. But Iran has officially denied any complicity in this plot and has accused the US of fabricating these claims…….”
No, I don’t think the US government has fabricated the story, not at the highest levels. There was some kind of a plot, but it probably was DOA (as in dead on arrival). It was a plot hatched between some idiotic Iranians and some federal agents. Or maybe it was a plot hatched between some rather clever Iranians and some US federal agents. The Iranians may have had relations to elements in the Tehran regime, or they may have had ties to some Iranian groups outside Iran, like the Mujahideen Khalq. The mullahs are not that stupid, they have never done anything like this before, not on US soil. And they have nothing whatsoever to gain by it, au contraire. And all the open ‘simple’ talk about “it matters not if 100 or 150 Americans are killed in the restaurant” sounds worse than Hollywood-ish: it sounds like a children’s horror story. Almost idiotic. The Iranian regime is brutal, but it ain’t stupid or suicidal.
What is interesting is the outcry for ‘revenge’ right away in the media and on the web. All the closer latent hawks see their glory days returning. No doubt if the Iranian regime was behind it, there should be repercussions. As I told some hasty academic tweeters earlier: shouldn’t there be a waiting period before Slim Pickens rides the bomb (over Iran)?
(Re- Slim Pickens: if you haven’t seen Dr. Strangelove, find a copy and see it). Cheers
mhg
BFF “Shi’ites, who make up over a quarter of Pakistan’s population, are deemed “apostates” by many extremist sectarian Sunni groups. Responsibility for the attack on the long-suffering Hazaras of Baluchistan was claimed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) — a group also suspected of a devastating attack earlier in the week on the home of a senior police officer in Karachi who has a record of taking on the militants. Though little known in the West, LeJ, a sectarian extremist outfit linked to al-Qaeda and to the Pakistani Taliban, is now widely considered Pakistan’s most dangerous terrorist group…….. The army is reluctant to confront its bases with force; the police have failed to protect those it threatens; the judiciary is unable to successfully prosecute its leading members; and some politicians have sought to appease it with shady deals. While al-Qaeda has suffered a series of setbacks after CIA drone strikes killed successive leaders based in Pakistan’s tribal areas, its local affiliate remains unimpeded. LeJ began life as a particularly vicious offshoot of the banned anti-Shi’ite Sipah-e-Sahaba organization. The sectarian group, with its cells seeded throughout the country, held both doctrinal and organizational appeal for al-Qaeda, which used LeJ’s deep and pervasive network to expand its own presence into Pakistan. While al-Qaeda had operational command, LeJ supplied foot soldiers to carry out attacks…………..”
“Admiral Mullen accuses Pakistan’s ISI of treachery, but says let’s keep talking…….The chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff said to the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday that Pakistan’s
intelligence agency was in the background of the recent attack on our embassy,
as well as a bunch of other assaults. But he seems happy to keep on chatting
with them……….”Media (Sept 23, 2011)
What was all the ‘Western” talk about the dangers of nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands through “extremist” states? Cheers
mhg
““I totally understand the frustrations the Palestinians have. We are all frustrated in this situation. We want to see progress toward peace, toward the two-state solution,” Blair told Reuters Insider in an interview marking the 10th anniversary of the September 11 al Qaeda attacks on U.S. cities. “The problem is you have always got to say, well what happens the day after (a bid for U.N. recognition)?'” the former British prime minister said. “Any gestures that are done by way of unilateral declaration, they are expressions of frustration and they may be understandable for that reason but they don’t deliver a Palestinian state,” he said………”
Tony Blair is consistent in his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian peace. He believes in a four track policy to achieving that peace: (1) keep him as the special envoy (btw: whose envoy is he?), (2) stop attempts at UN to declare a Palestinian State, (3) resume negotiations, and (4) start a war against the Iranian mullahs (wtf). I am not sure how another Western war in the Middle East will help the peace process, but Tony is strongly for it and often mentions it. Maybe because it pleases his Middle Eastern benefactors and friends, or maybe he has always had a love-hate, poodle-banshee relationship with George W. Bush and the American neoconservatives. Maybe it is a New Labor thing. Tony has now joined the Western campaign to stop a United Nation action on a Palestinian state, although he doesn’t say at whose behest. I suspect Tony is also angling for a Nobel Prize (in Peace not in WMD). If the Palestinians, all of them, and the Israelis, all of them, reach a real peace deal, not a half-assed one like in the past two decades. Why, Tony will finally step out from the shadows of W, finally become his own poodle, so to speak. But he won’t get it, even in the highly unlikely event of a peace deal between the Jewish fundamentalists of Likud and the Muslim fundamentalists of Palestine. (I bet some of you did not know that the PA of Fatah is on its way out, to be replaced with more Hamas types. It is an unfortunate byproduct of the current Arab turmoil. Not that I’ll miss the corrupt schmucks of Fatah anymore than I like the fundamentalist quasi-theocrats of Hams). Cheers
mhg
BFF ““Israel is not responding,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said earlier this week when asked if his country had been involved in the latest slaying of an Iranian nuclear scientist. It didn’t exactly sound like a denial, and the smile on his face suggested Israel isn’t too bothered by suspicions that it is responsible for a series of murders of physicists involved in the controversial Iranian nuclear program. There is little doubt in the shadowy world of intelligence agencies that Israel is behind the assassination of Darioush Rezaei. “That was the first serious action taken by the new Mossad chief Tamir Pardo,” an Israeli intelligence source told SPIEGEL ONLINE. On July 23, Rezaei became the latest victim in a mysterious series of attacks over the past 20 months which has seen the virtual decimation of the Islamic republic’s elite physicists. The 35-year-old died after being shot in the throat in front of his daughter’s kindergarten in east Tehran………According to the Associated Press, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna has since confirmed what had already been reported by the Israeli media — namely that the physics student had worked on the development of high-voltage switching systems, a key component that is crucial to setting off the explosions needed to trigger a nuclear warhead…………..”
Barak’s reaction does not necessarily mean the (post-Dubai) Mossad did it. Even the Der Spiegel “contacts” could be, almost certainly are, part of a campaign of misinformation. They Israelis may have been involved, or they may be protecting other Western governments (they have less to lose). Yet I am not sure about this ‘scientist’. He was reported as an academic, then a scientist, then a student. The latest Iranian report claimed he was a student who was killed by mistake, that they mistook him for a scientist. The Israelis now say he was a student who was crucial for a high-voltage switching system, etc, etc. Maybe he was, maybe not. Both sides, nay all three sides, have an interest in fudging things, misleading everybody else. The Mossad, and the comparable Western services, also have an interest in not looking foolish, killing a student instead of a nuclear scientist (either one would be considered a terrorist action against a civilian in front of his family if committed in Israel or the West). Cheers
mhg
BFF “Iran must not be allowed to develop its nuclear program, Quartet envoy Tony Blair said Tuesday during a panel discussion as part of the three-day Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem. “If we allow Iran to develop nuclear capabilities, there will be consequence, therefore we must not let that happen,” Blair said.…… During the panel discussion entitled, “Nation, Interests and Ethics in the Journey Toward Tomorrow,” Blair said he sees Israel as a model for the region. “Through it’s (sic) belief in the creativity and endeavor of the human spirit, Israel can be seen for what it is as a country of hope and human values,” he said. Commenting on moral decisions that leaders must take, Blair said “If we fail to intervene where people are being killed, that is a decision that has consequences,” and gave Sierra Leone as an example. “…….”
Regardless of the Iran issue, Blair hardly has any claim to morality. During the Egyptian uprising in January-February, Tony (the Poodle) Blair famously said something like “we should try and manage the Egyptian uprising”. Now his petroleum princes are trying to take his advice and manage the Egyptian and other revolutions (Libya, Syria, Yemen). They are also trying to kill other Arab uprisings (Bahrain, Jordan). Speaking of “morality: it has not been Tony Blair’s strong suit for many years now. Cheers
mhg
Rattlesnake Ridge 
BFF