In an alarming exposure of the acceleration and
urgency of the American war party's push towards catastrophic war with Iran,
Philip Giraldi, former CIA counter terrorism officer, in an interview [1] on
24th July with Anti War Radio debunked the NeoCons' repeated myth of Iran's
support for AlQaeda as a pretext for war. Whilst acknowledging Iran's
helpfulness in trying to establish security in both Afghanistan and Iraq,
Giraldi spoke of the United States' hypocritical and illegal support for
terrorist separatists groups inside Iran, and various plans and scenarios which
have been drawn up to destroy Iran's military and economic infrastructure by
massive bombardment, with the use of nuclear bombs a real and stated
possibility.
Giraldi refuted the assumption that sharing
hostilities towards the US, placed Iran and AlQaeda in the same camp and sharing
similar agenda, arguing that Iran followed a very different agenda in its
dealings with the US. He emphasised both the fact of Iranians' helpfulness in
Iraq, in terms of pushing for greater stability, and also their help and
cooperation in Afghanistan, as well as the reality of the deep hostilities
between Shiia Iran and Sunni extremism of AlQaeda. Giraldi recalled the major
attack against the Iranian consulate general in Afghanistan by the Taliban, a
close ally of AlQaeda, in which 11 Iranian diplomats were killed, and the
regular AlQaeda violent attacks against Shiia population in Iraq, and concluded
that a Shiia Iranian-AlQaeda alliance was not a plausible
possibility.
He described the recent New York Sun's allegation
[2] that AlQaeda prisoners in Iran led terrorist operations inside Iraq under
the advice of the Iranian government, as one of many propaganda pieces making a
case for war. He said how in 2003, the Iranian government, through the Swiss
embassy, had offered to hand over the six AlQaeda prisoners kept in Iran, which
includes Osama Bin Laden's son, in exchange for the US ceasing its support for
the MEK, and how this offer was rejected by the US. He said of the MEK that it
was sheltered and armed by Saddam against Iran, and now supported and armed by
Pentagon against Iran.
Highlighting what he called American "ultimate
hypocrisy", Giraldi explained how the US government is supporting terrorist
groups and ethnic division in Iran and charging the Iranians in Iraq for what
the US was doing in Iran itself and with a lot more evidence. Giraldi talked of
US's support for Jundullah which he described as a Sunni Baluchi separatist
group in eastern Iran that has launched deadly terrorist attacks inside Iran. He
also spoke of US support for separatists amongst the Arab minority which is
closer to the border with Iraq.
Giraldi repeated the alarm call he first made in
his revelations in the American Conservative Magazine in 2005 that Dick Cheney,
who has no authority under the constitution, had ordered the air force to draw
up plans for air strike against Iran that even included the use of nuclear
weapons. He said he thought there was a lot of evidence since then to suggest
that nuclear weapons are still very much on the table and named Republican
Senators such as McCain, Gilliani and Romney who had not "flinched at all" in
the debate about the prospect of using nuclear weapons against
Iran.
He spoke of various war scenarios cooked up by the
war party. One scenario was of the automatic use of the nuclear weapons in order
to reach and destroy the Iranian nuclear sites buried under ground. Another
scenario was to use the nuclear threat if the "Iranians continue to fight back
after we staged our attack", the idea being "that's what the nukes are for, our
nukes that everybody knows that we in fact do have, is to tell them, listen, you
are going to sit there and take it while we bomb you for a week or two and you
are not going to fight back and if you do fight back then we will use nuclear
weapons on you", and he cited the example scenario of Iranians resisting by
staging attack in the Strait of Hormouz or destabilising
Afghanistan.
Setting out the horrifying context of the
possibility of the US using nuclear strikes against Iran, under the pretext of
destroying Iranian nuclear bombs which do not exist and Iran's cooperation with
AlQaeda, another propaganda fabrication, Giraldi drew attention to the recent
warning to Iran and the threat of war issued by AlQaeda for Iran's support for
the Shiia government in Iraq, as well as AlQaeda's constant horrific attacks
inside Iraq targeting Shiia population and mosques.
Prof. Abbas Edalat of CASMII said today:
"Giraldi's revelations is consistent with and confirms the emergence of a shift
in the dynamics of the American foreign policy decision making away from
dialogue and in favour of the war. The reality of the shared strategic interests
between Iran and the US in stabilising Iraq and the possibility and great
benefits for both countries in reaching a rapprochement in their bilateral
relationship, based on mutual respect and cooperation rather than threat and
coercion, is persistently obscured and sabotaged by the fanatical warmongers of
Cheney camp and the Israeli lobby, who are relentlessly pushing for
war".
It is incumbent upon the media and journalists to
give active voice to informed and conscientious individuals like Giraldi who
have well-established connections within the intelligence community and are
warning the international community about the impending catastrophic war against
Iran.
Notes
... Payvand News - 7/28/07 ... --
