Restore The Constitution

The Bryant Park Project, March 14, 2008 · Contradicting the Bush administration’s main case for the war in Iraq, the Defense Department for the first time has formally concluded that Saddam Hussein had no direct ties to al-Qaida. The Pentagon now says the former Iraqi president’s regime sheltered and supported terrorist groups, but Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida was not among them.

The report is significant because it is based on the Pentagon’s own review of 600,000 pages of original documents seized in Iraq after the United States-led coalition invaded the country in 2003, says Warren Strobel, a foreign affairs reporter for McClatchy newspapers.

Strobel says the report is not the first to state definitively that there was no operational link between Saddam and al-Qaida — a 2005 C.I.A. report came to a similar conclusion. But Strobel stresses that the Pentagon’s own reporting probed giant Iraqi treasure trove of source material. He says that after years of statements by influential military leaders — including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who once suggested there was “bulletproof evidence” for an Iraq-al-Qaeda link — the military apparatus has discredited the thinking that helped lead America into war.

“It’s there in black and white,” Strobel says. “If there was [a connection], they would have found a hint of it in 600,000 pages.” MORE

By Dave Lindorff
3-15-8

(This Can’t Be Happening) — Every horror movie has that “Oh Shit!” moment, when the hero or heroes are huddled in some creepy hideout, and suddenly something happens that tells you that the monster is just around the corner, or just about to attack. In “Jurassic Park” it was the pulsing ripples in a cup of water, heralding the arrival of a T-Rex. In “Jaws” it was the deep base music, letting you know that a monstrous shark was about to attack.

Well, we just got our “Oh Shit!” moment with the just-announced resignation of Admiral William J. Fallon, the military commander of US Middle East operations.

Adm. Fallon, 63, famously said that an attack on Iran would not happen “on my watch,” and is widely believed to have already threatened, along with a number of other top generals and admirals, to quit the service if the Bush administration were to launch an air attack on Iran.

Put the pieces together. We know that the vice president is obsessed with a desire to attack Iran, and has been since before he even took office. Bush has repeatedly stressed that Iran cannot be permitted to continue with its nuclear processing (he calls it their “nukular” bomb program, though there is no evidence that the country has a nuclear bomb development program, and in fact the last National Intelligence Estimate on Iran said there was not and hadn’t been since 2003). And Fallon has now quit.

The Eisenhower nuclear aircraft carrier strike force has departed for stationing off Iran, joining forces already in place there, and loaded to the brim with strike aircraft, Tomahawk missiles, and even nuclear weapons. It was long ago reported that stealth bombers had been put in place in come of the countries of the old Soviet Union north of Iran, as well as on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

All the elements, that is to say, are in place for a massive air assault on Iranian targets, designed to destroy its nuclear program, cripple its military command and control, and–at least this is a stated Cheney goal–to lead to the overthrow of the Iranian government by its own people.

It is, of course, the strategy of madmen.

The US has no forces to send into Iran. All they can do is bomb it. And bombing a country doesn’t lead its people to rise up. It leads them to rally ’round the flag. Especially when the civilian casualties of our not-so-”smart” bombs start to soar.

If such an attack were to happen, we can kiss goodbye to six years of domestic peace, such as we’ve had. The Iranians have considerable capability to inflict damage on US targets of interest, both overseas and here in the domestic US using assymetrical warfare techniques. The worse part is, they’d be completely justified in doing so, since any attack on them would be a crime against peace–the gravest of all international crimes.

American troops already mired and pinned down in a war in Iraq, would find themselves suddenly under attack by Shia forces there, who for several years now have been largely leaving them alone.

And oil, which just bumped up against $110 a barrel, an all-time record, will double in price overnight, as the whole Persian Gulf becomes a war zone.

We can expect massive launches of small boats armed with missiles and torpedoes, as well as sophisticated anti-ship missiles from shore batteries, all fired at US ships in the Gulf, and it would be astounding if some or even many vessels of the US fleet weren’t sunk.

Meanwhile, tanker traffic in the Gulf, which accounts for 20% or more of the world’s oil, will cease as insurance rates for those vessels goes through the roof.

The monster of war will be unleashed, and will not easily be defeated. That’s why Adm. Fallon was so opposed to the whole idea. He knows that it will be a disaster for the US militarily, economically and politically.

The worst part is that Cheney knows this, too. He just doesn’t care. This is the man’s parting shot as he leaves office–to put the country into the throes of a war so vicious that no one will think of pursuing him for his long list of crimes against the nation and the Constitution.

He is guessing–and he may be right–that the American public will, sheep-like as always, rally to the cause, with a new round of yellow magnet “ribbons” on their cars. He is hoping–and he may be right– that war will be a boon for the candidacy of Republican John McCain and for embattled Republicans running for Congress.

It’s a kind of political Hail Mary.

Oh Shit! Here it comes… Source

Adm. William Fallon, the head of the US Central Command, may lose his job for opposing President Bush’s plans to wage war against Iran.

According to a new Esquire article by Thomas Barnett; Admiral Fallon may be prematurely ‘relieved of his command’ as soon as this summer to be replaced with a more ‘pliable’ commander.

“If that were to happen, it may well mean that the president and vice-president intend to take military action against Iran before the end of this year and don’t want a commander standing in their way,” says the article which will be published on March 12.

Admiral Fallon, who has been named as ‘one of the best strategic thinkers in uniform today’ by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, opposed the troops surge in Iraq and has consistently battled with President George W. Bush to avert confrontation with Iran.

The Navy admiral has vowed that an attack on Iran would ‘not happen on his watch’, calling the White House warmongering echelons ‘not helpful’.

Washington and its allies are at loggerheads with the Islamic Republic over the country’s nuclear standoff with the West.

The Bush administration accuses Iran of pursuing nuclear weaponry, while Tehran maintains its uranium enrichment will only provide fuel for the country’s under-construction nuclear power plants.

President Bush insists the military option against Iran remains on the table, while his top military experts, including Admiral Fallon, urge the White House to choose a diplomatic approach towards Tehran.

In a Thursday White House press briefing, spokeswoman Dana Perino was asked about the Esquire piece and refused to confirm whether Fallon’s position is secure until the end of his tenure. Source
Here is the spin, according to other Military sources, there will be No War in Iran and George Bush is no longer in control. The Office of Naval Intelligence is now in control of the U.S. government, they will uphold their Oath of Office to defend America against enemies foreign and Domestic. There is a major battle ensuing internally for control of the remnants of the scarred American Republic. The Navy is not in control of the media and they know the American people would not understand a Coup by the U.S. Military; actually a counter Coup. The first Coup d’etat, being the takeover of the U.S. government by the Neo-Cons with the Sept. 11th black flag attack on America by Mossad and Traitors within the U.S. government. The source is definitely not the N.Y. Times.