Der Spiegel: White House Leak - Cheney's Plan For Iran Attack Starts w/ Israeli Missile Strike

[Hissyspit]

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/66157

White House Leak: Cheney's Plan for Iran Attack Starts With Israeli Missile Strike

By Gregor Peter Schmitz and Cordula Meyer, Der Spiegel. Posted October 26, 2007.

High-ranking military experts say an attack would lead to world economic chaos, or even what Bush calls 'World War III.'

US Vice President Dick Cheney -- the power behind the throne, the eminence grise, the man with the (very) occasional grandfatherly smile -- is notorious for his propensity for secretiveness and behind-the-scenes manipulation. He's capable of anything, say friends as well as enemies. Given this reputation, it's no big surprise that Cheney has already asked for a backroom analysis of how a war with Iran might begin.

In the scenario concocted by Cheney's strategists, Washington's first step would be to convince Israel to fire missiles at Iran's uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Tehran would retaliate with its own strike, providing the US with an excuse to attack military targets and nuclear facilities in Iran.

This information was leaked by an official close to the vice president. Cheney himself hasn't denied engaging in such war games. For years, in fact, he's been open about his opinion that an attack on Iran, a member of US President George W. Bush's "Axis of Evil," is inevitable.

Given these not-too-secret designs, Democrats and Republicans alike have wondered what to make of the still mysterious Israeli bombing run in Syria on Sept. 6. Was it part of an existing war plan? A test run, perhaps? For days after the attack, one question dominated conversation at Washington receptions: How great is the risk of war, really?

Grandiose Plans, East and West

In the September strike, Israeli bombers were likely targeting a nuclear reactor under construction, parts of which are alleged to have come from North Korea. It is possible that key secretaries in the Bush cabinet even tried to stop Israel. To this day, the administration has neither confirmed nor commented on the attack.

Nevertheless, in Washington, Israel's strike against Syria has revived the specter of war with Iran. For the neoconservatives it could represent a glimmer of hope that the grandiose dream of a democratic Middle East has not yet been buried in the ashes of Iraq. But for realists in the corridors of the State Department and the Pentagon, military action against Iran is a nightmare they have sought to avert by asking a simple question: "What then?"

The Israeli strike, or something like it, could easily mark the beginning of the "World War III," which President Bush warned against last week. With his usual apocalyptic rhetoric, he said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could lead the region to a new world war if his nation builds a nuclear bomb.

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[Skidmore]

1. If nothing else, Cheney should be impeached.

Stripped of his office and exiled to Alcatraz. This is a vile and evil man.

[lligrd]

3. I'm Thinking Maybe We Should Bring Stockades Back

just for Cheney and gang.

[Tesha]

11. Alcatraz these days is much too nice a place fror him.

How about a special prison built in some hell-hole
that Cheney has created? Perhaps in Baghdad? Or
maybe well under sea level in the Ninth Ward of
NOLA?

Tesha

[spanone]

17. after all his CHEIF OF STAFF WAS CONVITED OF OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

[bdamomma]

19. he has to be reckoned with really he is really a madman.

and if those people like Admiral Mike Mullen does not stand his ground forget it, we are done.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. With the current congress

not gonna happen

And at this point I no longer wonder about it... they are in cahoots

[Megahurtz]

28. Somebody Better Hurry!

[lligrd]

2. Let's Hope That The Leaks And Their General Ineptness

stymies this plan just like it did their planting of WMD's.

[gateley]

4. It's the "leaked by an official close to the vice president" that makes me

cautious about believing this. Not that I don't think this is right up Cheney's alley, but it's just so difficult to sift out what's accurate and what's not these days.

I'm cautious, but I'm mostly believing it. Rec!

[bananarepublican]

5. Cheney should be declared an enemy combatant! Let's hope his phones are being...

... tapped by the NSA in an effort to close the domestic insurgency he seems to be leading.

Let's not forget about the 'unauthorized' transport of several nuclear bombs over the U.S mainland to an air force base which serves as a staging area for Middle East 'operations'.

All of this suggests that a powerful rogue element within the U.S government has been enabled by Bush Administration, neocon, f-wits!

[leftchick]

6. yikes

<Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and now a Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution, agrees. A war against Tehran would be "a disaster for the entire world," says Riedel, who worries about a "battlefield extending from the Mediterranean to the Indian subcontinent." Nevertheless, he believes there is a "realistic risk of a military conflict," because both sides look willing to carry things to the brink.>

:scared:

[spanone]

18. i'm sure chenee sees war against tehran as a disaster for the next democrat in the WH

[bdamomma]

22. next democrat in the WH???

or this is his way of saying no elections.:tinfoilhat:

[shadowknows69]

7. The secrecy around the Syrian strike was a test

to see if they could keep it covered up. When Israel does strike Iran I bet the first we hear of it, if at all, is when we see footage of Iranian missles hitting Tel Aviv. Horror ensues after that.

[Skidmore]

8. The neocons and Israel are jonesing for war in the worst way.

They have been given carte blanche to do whatever they wish over the past few years with little or no opposition in circles of power. I fully expect that the world will be plunged into a bloody nightmare.

[shadowknows69]

9. As deluded as our President is

I can't believe Israel is aching for this. For its citizenry the middle east blowing up will create hell on earth for them.

[Skidmore]

10. Israelis could demonstrate this by denouncing the

those among themselves who use the Christian fundamentalists here, like Hagee, broker power and support for them here. It is these nutjobs that are pushing for war here to hasten the end times. It is a sick death wish and suicide pact.

[bdamomma]

25. Israel did the US's bidding when they bombed Lebanon

and where did that get Israel?? did those attacks help Isreal, hopefully Israel will not bite.

[spinbaby]

12. Link to the orginal Speigel article

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,513572-2,00.html

[FourScore]

13. Der Spiegel is an excellent source.

Thank you for posting this Hissyspit.

Cheney is such a dangerous man. It has taken me a while, but I am beginning to wonder if he didn't have a hand in 911 even.

k&r

[bdamomma]

23. of course Cheney did, he is on the darkside and very secretive.

[Eurobabe]

14. IMPEACH, IMPEACH, IMPEACH ALREADY!!!

Darth Cheney is a vile, rotten, evil man who only cares about himself.

[Hissyspit]

15. .

[seafan]

16. Cheney, the Neocons and the Bush Enablers need to go, NOW. Before The Iran Attack.

The window of opportunity is slamming shut for Cheney and the Neocons, just as it is for those of us seeking a peaceful world.


From Spiegel

.....

In Washington, Bush has 15 months left in office. He may have few successes to show for himself, but he's already thinking of his legacy. Bush says he wants diplomacy to settle the nuclear dispute with Tehran, and hopes international pressure will finally convince Ahmadinejad to come to his senses. Nevertheless, the way pressure has been building in Washington, preparations for war could be underway.

In late September, the US Senate voted to declare the 125,000-man Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. High-ranking US generals have accused Iran of waging a "proxy war" against the United States through its support of Shiite militias in Iraq. And strategists at the Pentagon, apparently at Cheney's request, have developed detailed plans for an attack against Tehran.

.....

Conservative think tanks and pundits who sense this could be their last chance to implement their agenda in the Middle East have supported and disseminated such plans in the press. Despite America's many failures in Iraq, these hawks have urged the weakened president to act now, accusing him of having lost sight of his principal agenda and no longer daring to apply his own doctrine of pre-emptive strikes.

.....

The notion of war with Iran has spilled over into other circles, too. Last Monday Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the US House of Representatives, made it clear that the president would first need Congressional approval to launch an attack. Meanwhile, Republican candidates for the White House have debated whether they would even allow such details to get in their way. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney said he would consult his attorneys to determine whether the US Constitution does, in fact, require a president to ask for Congressional approval before going to war. Vietnam veteran John McCain said war with Iran was "maybe closer to reality than we are discussing tonight."

Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has also adopted a hawkish stance, voting in favor of the Senate measure to classify the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. Her rivals criticized Clinton for giving the administration a blank check to go to war.

.....

The US military is building a base in Iraq less than 10 kilometers (about six miles) from Iran's border. The facility, known as Combat Outpost Shocker, is meant for American soldiers preventing Iranian weapons from being smuggled into Iraq. But it's also rumored that Bush authorized US intelligence agencies in April to run sabotage missions against the mullah regime on Iranian soil.
Gary Sick is an expert on Iran who served as a military adviser under three presidents. He believes that such preparations mark a significant shift in the government's strategy. "Since August," says Sick, "the emphasis is no longer on the Iranian nuclear threat," but on Iran's support for terrorism in Iraq. "This is a complete change and is potentially dangerous."

.....

Cheney derives much of his support from hawks outside the administration who fear their days are as numbered as the President's. "The neocons see Iran as their last chance to prove something," says analyst Riedel. This aim is reflected in their tone. Conservative columnist Norman Podhoretz, for example -- a father figure to all neocons -- wrote in the Wall Street Journal that he "hopes and prays" that Bush will finally bomb Iran. Podhoretz sees the United States engaged in a global war against "Islamofascism," a conflict he defines as World War IV, and he likens Iran to Nazi Germany. "Is it 1938 again?" he asks in a speech he repeats regularly at conferences.

Podhoretz is by no means an eccentric outsider. He now serves as a senior foreign-policy adviser to Republican presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani. President Bush has also met with Podhoretz at the White House to hear his opinions.

.....

Podhoretz to Bush on bombing Iran: "You’re the only one with the guts to do it.", October 1, 2007


Mideast Hawks (Norman Podhoretz, Daniel Pipes, Michael Rubin) Help to Develop Giuliani Policy, October 25, 2007



Just WHO is running this debacle??

[bdamomma]

24. you know even if Iran did not have nuclear capabilities I still

think this regime would go in because of oil.

[L. Coyote]

21. Why did this get leaked? To distract from Iraq, of course. Do you trust WH leakers?

If you trust a leak out tho the Bushco Junta, I have a bridge to nowhere in Alaska for you!

In politics, like in the magic show, don't watch the hand they want you to watch.

[AntiFascist]

26. It seems like the war drums are beating again...

I don't usually watch Faux News, but I was sitting in a waiting room today where they had it on. It was all: terra, terra, terra, terra, al Qaida, terra, terra, terra, terra, Iranian threat, terra, terra, terra, Israel bombing Syrian nuclear facilities....

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[Thickasabrick]

27. I don't think Israel will bomb Iran. They are not that stupid. n/t

[LynnTheDem]

29. But don't ANYONE mention Hitler!!!

The bUsh Cartel; worse than Hitler. Only dumber.

[Strelnikov_]

30. "grandiose dream of a democratic Middle East"

Grandiose dream of placing the Middle East's oil in the hands of their cronies is more like it.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

31. The Ugly War Mongering Brutal Nation With No Regard For Human Life

We are the leader folks... it is so very sad and and and :cry: