Fool Me Once...

Bush administration gets caught telling the same Saddam-WMD lies about Iran

Dictator Hater
for the Corbett Report

December 11, 2007

Mike McConnell, U.S. Intelligence Chief, in August 2007 informed Bush that he had new information on Iran. I guess Bush didn't think it important enough an issue to bother to ask McConnell exactly what he was talking about according to this statement quoted from this article in the International Herald Tribune. "He didn't tell me what the information was. He did tell me it was going to take a while to analyse," Bush said.

So, we are to believe with all the drum pounding against Iran and all the fear mongering this administration has used against Americans since that hot August day regarding Iran's obtaining nu-CU-lar weapons (as Bush calls them) that he didn't even bother to ask what McConnell knows?

Every single day the absurdities of this administration increase exponentially. Their record for incidences of screw-ups that also happen to enrich their cronies is nothing short of amazing. I sit here with mouth hanging open and eyes bugging out over this latest crap shoveling adventure in which Bush and Co. have tried to lead us into yet another war.

Déjà vu of Iraq anyone? If the American people cannot see that this is the exact path that Bush led us down before and get off their rear ends to protest in mass out in the streets against an attack on Iran, then we deserve whatever comes of it. The only problem is, there are many innocent lives at stake and our dear leaders seem to think that everyone is expendible as long as they get what they want.

While watching this bunch of criminals attempt to lead us into war with Iran over the past couple of years with their rhetoric, I often wondered why they thought they could drag us into another Middle East war while the majority of Americans are already screaming at them to get us out of Iraq. Their arrogance and the blatant insulting of our intelligence has made me both angry and fearful. Angry because I knew they were trying to use the same failed recipe against Iran that they used in Iraq. And fearful because I worried that the American people might actually be brainwashed enough to get behind a war with Iran.

The question is: Are the Americans really sheep or are they going to say no to Bush's next imperial adventure?

Who's lying? Also citing from the article in the link above, it reveals this little gem: "On Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said McConnell told Bush in August that Iran may have suspended its nuclear weapons programme and that the new information might cause the intelligence community to change its assessment on Iran."

So, which is it? Bush didn't ask and McConnell didn't tell? Or did McConnell tell Bush what Dana Perino is quoted as saying?

And here is Bush's response to the new Intelligence Estimate quoted from the same article:

Bush said the intelligence report had not changed his mind about Iran. He emphasized that view on Wednesday with a statement as he arrived for an event in Omaha, Nebraska.

"It is clear from the latest NIE that the Iranian government has more to explain about its nuclear intentions and past actions," Bush said.

"The Iranians have a strategic choice to make, they can come clean with the international community about the scope of their nuclear activities and fully accept the longstanding offer to suspend their enrichment program and come to the table and negotiate, or they can continue on a path of isolation that is not in the best interest of the Iranian people," he said.

It appears that Bush is going to forge ahead against Iran no matter what the intelligence community tells him. After all, what do they know? In contrast to boots on the ground and intelligence operations, Bush's thoughts and actions are guided by God's hand and he prays a lot. I have to wonder to whom he is really praying.

Scott Ritter wrote this article for The Nation in January of 2007 and he offers Congress some very good advice in regards to Iran:

I would strongly urge Congress, both the House of Representatives and the Senate, to hold real hearings on Iran. Not the mealy-mouthed Joe Biden-led hearings we witnessed on Iraq in July-August 2002, where he and his colleagues rubber-stamped the President's case for war, but genuine hearings that draw on all the lessons of Congressional failures when it came to Iraq. Summon all the President's men (and women), and grill them on every phrase and word uttered about the Iranian "threat," especially as it has been linked to nuclear weapons. Demand facts to back up the rhetoric.

Summon the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), or any other lobby promoting confrontation with Iran, to the forefront, so that the warnings they offer in whispers from a back room can be articulated before the American public. Hold these conjurers of doom accountable for their positions by demanding they back them up with hard fact. See if the US intelligence community concurs with the dire warnings put forward by these pro-war lobbyists, and if it doesn't, ask who, then, is driving US policy toward Iran? Those mandated by public law and subjected to the oversight of Congress? Or others, operating outside any framework representative of the will of the American people?

Who is it that is really whispering in Bush's ear?

What the American people need to understand is that Iran has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and those who are pushing the U.S. to attack Iran behind the scenes have not done so. Israel's safety and security is the issue here, not the interests of the people of the United States of America. They have admitted to having nukes and I don't see anyone making a stink about that. Oh, but they're our friends. (Ask the men on the U.S.S. Liberty how friendly Israel is to the United States when it suits them not to be so.)

Here is the proof that this war with Iran would be for Israel's interests in Bush's own words cited in this Reuter's article dated November 7, 2007:

Bush told a news conference last month that preventing Iran from building nuclear weapons would be a means of avoiding a new global conflict.

The reason I said that is because this is a country that has defied the IAEA — in other words, didn't disclose all their program — have said they want to destroy Israel," Bush said in the interview with German broadcaster RTL.

"If you want to see World War Three, you know, a way to do that is to attack Israel with a nuclear weapon," Bush added. "And so I said, now is the time to move. It wasn't a prediction, nor a desire."

Israel has been making a racket for quite a while now that if the U.S. doesn't take care of Iran, they will. See this article in the Jerusalem Post dated way back in 2006.

And here's another little gem that disproves Bush's claim that Iran defied the IAEA:

"We are discussing with Iran its request for withdrawing the designation of certain safeguards inspectors," IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said, in response to an email query from RAW STORY.

"It should be noted however," she added, "that there are a sufficient number of inspectors designated for Iran and the IAEA is able to perform its inspection activities in accordance with Iran's Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement."

Fleming did not say Iran had barred inspectors. She added, "Details of inspector designation is a confidential matter between the IAEA and the country concerned."

Sources within the IAEA told the German Press Agency (dpa) that while the ban was not a normal daily occurrence, there were still 150 designated inspectors for Iran, and that other countries had also, on occasion, withdrawn designations.

I guess we shall see in the coming months if the mainstream media slutz will suddenly decide to do their jobs properly in following up honestly on the situation in Iran or if they will be guilty of collusion with the Bush administration once again.

I have no faith that any of them will do the right thing. The safest thing for the American people to do is impeach Bush and Cheney now and purge Congress of the warmongers who dwell on both sides of the aisle. They are all equally complicit no matter what party they claim. Incompetence is no longer an excuse I am willing to swallow, are you?