...the neocons had to betray it? Granted, Rolling Stone also published crap by RFK, Jr. But there are some public-domain facts to back up the Rolling Stone article's claim that several neocons tried to prevent a detente with Iran by leaking classified information to Israel (including several indictments). From the Rolling Stone:
At the far end of that room, on the morning of February 12th, 2003, a small group of eavesdroppers were listening intently for evidence of a treacherous crime. At the very moment that American forces were massing for an invasion of Iraq, there were indications that a rogue group of senior Pentagon officials were already conspiring to push the United States into another war--this time with Iran...But an attack on Iraq would require something that alarmed Franklin and other neoconservatives almost as much as weapons of mass destruction: detente with Iran. As political columnist David Broder reported in The Washington Post, moderates in the Bush administration were "covertly negotiating for Iran to stay quiet and offer help to refugees when we go into Iraq."
Franklin--a devout neoconservative who had been brought into Feith's office because of his political beliefs--was hoping to undermine those talks...
Now, unwilling to play by the rules any longer, Franklin was taking the extraordinary--and illegal--step of passing on highly classified information to lobbyists for a foreign state. Unable to win the internal battle over Iran being waged within the administration, a member of Feith's secret unit in the Pentagon was effectively resorting to treason, recruiting AIPAC to use its enormous influence to pressure the president into adopting the draft directive and wage war against Iran.
It was a role that AIPAC was eager to play. Rosen, recognizing that Franklin could serve as a useful spy, immediately began plotting ways to plant him in the White House--specifically in the National Security Council, the epicenter of intelligence and national-security policy. By working there, Rosen told Franklin a few days later, he would be "by the elbow of the president."
I don't know which is crazier: leaking the information, or thinking that Iran was "a house of cards ready to be pushed over the precipice." And those of us who opposed this war, we were the treasonous ones? If we end up doing something really stupid towards Iran, don't accept the argument that events forced our hand: these bozos want us to go to war with Iran. Insane.
Read the whole piece and discuss.
an aside: the FBI couldn't find its way out of a paper bag. Who tipped them off to Franklin?
another aside: Let's not forget that Valerie Plame's job at the CIA was to monitor nuclear weapons proliferation in the Middle East, including...wait for it...Iran.
- Log in to post comments
Whenever I look at that dog, my angst and anger, worry and fury leak away.
Our leaders continually tell us that the final solution is at hand, that a fresh dose of bombs and boots on the ground will free us of fear for all time.
Then I look at the dog again and feel my worry turning furry. A moment's welcome respite.
'Ths structure is rotten, all we have to do is kick in the door and the whole structure of bolshevism will come crashing down' - Adolf Hitler, June 1941.
I know that Hitler comparisons are slightly over the top - it's not as if the Neocons would open a concentration camp (*cough* Guantanamo) - but the combination of magical thinking with military might is awfully similar, it's just that the neocons still have legal restraints.
Do they not understand, at any level, just how much the threats against Iran legitimise and strengthen the hardline elements of the Iranian leadership? Or just how bad such a war would be for absolutely everyone, including us?
thanks for all
thanks for all