The Bush Admin Whack Iran Lobby (Mother Jones and others)

[chill_wind]

AKA "The Iran Directorate" aka "The Iran Steering Group" ?

Who they are-- and what they are up to.

This is a repost of a journal entry I made in September. Seems timely as ever and worth re-visiting for those interested who hadn't read it.

DU discussion in more detail:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2871945

original article:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2006/09/iran.html

Exiles peddling back-channel intelligence, upstart advocacy groups pressing for regime change, administration hawks intent on remaking the Middle East—the scene in Washington is looking eerily familiar as the Iran standoff grows more tense. Instead of Ahmad Chalabi, we have the likes of Iran-Contra arms-dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar. A new Iran directorate inside the Pentagon features some of the same people who brought you the Iraq intel-cherrypicking operation at the Office of Special Plans. Whether calling for outright regime change or pushing “democracy promotion” initiatives to undermine the Iranian government, an expanding cast of characters has emerged to promote confrontation between the U.S. and Iran. What follows is an abridged list of the individuals and organizations agitating to bring down the mullahs.

(....)

And you thought the OSP was defunct........

U.S. Moves to Weaken Iran

A campaign to promote democracy and fund dissidents prompts speculation that the administration's goal is to change the regime.

By Laura Rozen
Special to The Times
5/19/06 "Los Angeles Times"


(...) The State Department also is planning to send 15 foreign service officers to countries neighboring Iran and to capitals with large Iranian exile populations to serve as "Iran watchers."

At the Pentagon, the new Iranian directorate has been set up inside its policy shop, which previously housed the Office of Special Plans. (snip)

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable declined to name the acting director of the new Iran office and would say only that the appointee was a "career civil servant." Among those staffing or advising the Iranian directorate are three veterans of the Office of Special Plans: Abram N. Shulsky, its former director; John Trigilio, a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst; and Ladan Archin, an Iran specialist.



full story: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13111.htm

[chill_wind]

1. White House Ministry of Information has been blocking op-ed criticism

by guys like this (noted earlier in December):

INTELLIGENCE -- WHITE HOUSE CENSORS OP-ED CRITICAL OF ADMINISTRATION'S IRAN POLICY: Middle East analyst Flynt Leverett, who served under President Bush on the National Security Council and is now a fellow at the New America Foundation, revealed last week that the White House has been blocking the publication of an op-ed he wrote for the New York Times. The column is critical of the administration's refusal to engage Iran. (For more, see Leverett's new policy brief, "Dealing with Tehran: Assessing US Diplomatic Options Toward Iran.") The CIA had confirmed that the op-ed contained no classified information, but the White House intervened. Leverett explained, "I've been doing this for three and a half years since leaving government, and I've never had to go to the White House to get clearance for something that I was publishing as long as the CIA said, 'Yeah, you're not putting classified information.'"

more: http://irannuclearwatch.blogspot.com/

noted: "Carah Ong is the Iran Policy Analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation."

[No Exit]

2. Fool us twice, SHAME ON US! If Americans let this happen AGAIN,

I will never again love my country.

[No Exit]

3. I see Elizabeth Cheney is on the list, and also MICHAEL LEDEEN

(gad, am I sick of HIM) of the American Enterprise Institute.

Hey! Isn't The American Enterprise Institute the "think tank" that sponsored the McCain-Lieberman press conference of last Friday? By George, it is!

How stupid are we going to be this time?? Is this not as obvious as obvious can be? And I also notice that they have something called the "IPG", whose policy is to encourage any discontented groups/protests within Iraq. To those here who get testy when I meet their posts of "student demonstrations in Iran" with cynicism--this is WHY I am cyncical.

[chill_wind]

4. Right. And front groups all over the place (again)

Point of interests about some of those..


http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:War_in_Iran

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Iran_Freedom_Foundation

See also my mention of Corsi in my DU link above.

Corsi allegedly helped Santorum draft the IFSA act (which Congress passed with very little scrutiny in November.)

[chill_wind]

5. Well well!! Elizabeth is not just a member of the Club-- she's the PRESIDENT!

according to this:

Iran-Syria Operations Group

The Iran-Syria Operations Group (ISOG) appears to be an extension of the Office of Iranian Affairs (OIA), which, in turn, is a reincarnation of the Office of Special Plans (OSP).

The OIA, "apparently housed in the same Pentagon offices inhabited by its predecessor and involving some of the same slimy personnel," including Abram Shulsky, head of the OSP under Douglas Feith. OIA staff report to "none other than Elizabeth Cheney, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and daughter of the Vice President," Gary Leupp wrote May 29, 2006, in Dissident Voice.

The purpose of ISOG, likewise headed by Elizabeth Cheney, is "to encourage regime change in Iran. It's no secret that Cheney has over $80 million at her disposal to promote democracy in Iran. But ISOG isn't simply about promoting democracy. It's about helping to craft official policy, doing so not with one but two countries in its sights, and creating a policymaking apparatus that parallels--and skirts--Foggy Bottom's suspect Iran desk," Lawrence F. Kaplan wrote April 10, 2006, in The New Republic Online.

"The question is whether democratic reform can be achieved before Iran becomes a nuclear power," which is "Cheney's job," Sarah Baxter wrote March 5, 2006, in the UK's Times. "In the State Department she is referred to as the 'freedom agenda co-ordinator' and the 'democracy czar' for the broader Middle East."

more: Iran-Syria Operations Group


(...)

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Iran-Syria_Operations_Group




Oh snap! No wonder the Pentagon didn't want divulge details. (see posts above).

[seemslikeadream]

6. ISOG appears to be an extension of the Office of OIA, which in turn is a reincarnation of the OSP

Thanks chill_wind :hi:

[chill_wind]

7. Correct! And they've been playing by a few other aliases as well

(see above)it seems.

Didn't we close this OSP stench down once already?? Where's Congress? Cut the money off for these fekkers NOW!!!

[chill_wind]

8. Cooking the Intelligence Again (suhprise, suh-prise!)

http://irannuclearwatch.blogspot.com/2006/09/cooking-intelligence-again.html

UN inspectors investigating Iran's nuclear program sent a letter to the Bush administration and to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Michigan) on September 13 regarding a recent House committee report on Iran's capabilities. The letter called parts of the document "outrageous and dishonest" and offered evidence to refute its central claims. The report, Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States, was written by Frederick Fleitz, a former CIA officer and John Bolton’s former Chief of Staff and henchman at the State Department

more: http://irannuclearwatch.blogspot.com/2006/09/cooking-intelligence-again.html

[TacticalPeek]

9. "Nothing could be a more serious violation of public trust

Nothing could be a more serious violation of public trust than to consciously make a war based on false claims.

Wesley Clark - October 04, 2003

http://www.politicalstrategy.org/2003_10_04_weblog_archive.php

[chill_wind]

10. Meanwhile, the Stennis (carrier group) ships out on Tuesday..

while Congress postures and fiddles.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3112067