we saw that...

The 48 Hour Media-blitz for War with Iran

By Mike Whitney

03/10/06 "ICH" -- -- In the last 48 hours all the major players in the Bush administration have issued statements warning of the impending danger of Iran.

Cheney blasted the Islamic regime saying there would be “meaningful consequences” if it refuses to comply with international demands to stop its nuclear program.

Condoleezza Rice said, “We face no greater challenge from a single country than Iran… This is a country that seems determined, it seems, to develop a nuclear weapon in defiance of the international community that is determined that they should not get one.”

Donald Rumsfeld warned at a press conference on Wednesday, “I will say this about Iran. They are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq. We know it, and it is something that they, I think, will look back on as having been an error in judgment.”

Bush chimed in too, “Iran must not have a nuclear weapon. The most destabilizing thing that can happen in this region and in the world is for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

And then there was Bolton, the most vehement of all, saying that the Security Council should issue a “vigorous response” to Iran’s nuclear ambitions or the United States might have to consider other steps.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said, “It’s going to be incumbent on our allies around the world to show that they are willing to act.”

Congress also added their support led by Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) “Iran’s quest for nuclear arms requires us to do two things: squeeze Iran’s economy as much as possible and do so without delay.” Lantos claims that more than 300 lawmakers will support sanctions.

Israel’s Defense Minister joined the chorus as well,” If the UN Security Council is incapable of taking action to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Israel will have no choice but to defend itself.”

Bush, Cheney, Bolton, Rice, Rumsfeld, Burns, Congress, and Israel.

Whoa! That’s quite a line-up.

All in the last 48 hours!

Was it spontaneous or a calculated public-relations campaign?

Beyond the political speechmaking are literally hundreds of articles, full of the same predictable fictions and demagoguery which have mischaracterized Iran’s nuclear program from the get-go; fueling the hysteria for another preemptive war.

Did Iran become nuclear superpower overnight?

Apparently, so. But, just for the sake of argument, let’s remember that according to the IAEA there is “no evidence of a nuclear weapons program or any diversion of nuclear material.”

That is the judgment of the Nobel Prize-wining chief of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, Mohammad ElBaradei. ElBaradei warned that there were no nuclear weapons programs in Iraq and he has drawn the very same conclusion in Iran.

“No evidence” still means “no evidence” except in Washington, DC, where it is a mere stumbling block for a massive media-blitz to manipulate public perceptions and whip the masses into war-fever.

It’s hard not to be impressed by the sudden ratcheting-up of inflammatory statements and spurious claims that blast from every media-soapbox across the country. Who could have imagined 4 years ago how utterly corrupted our media really is?

Try this: do a Google search through the 2,400 articles on Iran right now on and see what you find.

You’ll find that all 2,400 articles reiterate the same bland deceptions and wearisome lies as all the others. You’ll see that the forth estate provides neither facts, nor context, nor analysis, just the endless, repetitive fear-mongering of administration officials.

That’s it; just manipulation through state-sponsored demagoguery 24-7.

You won’t find anything about the IAEA inspection team that rummaged through Iran’s nuclear sites for the passed two years in the most thorough examination of any country in the history of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) You won’t hear anything about the “go anywhere, see anything” inspections that allowed officials from the IAEA to investigate any location or facility they felt was suspicious. You won’t hear that the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) predicted that it would take 10 years for Iran to build a nuclear weapon. (If, in fact, that is even their intention) You won’t hear that Iran temporarily sacrificed its legal right to enrich uranium and accepted “additional protocols” because it trusted the EU-3 (Germany, France and England) who, it turns out, were simply acting as Washington’s agents. You won’t find one single article that clarifies the most fundamental issue of the entire confrontation; that Iran has an “inalienable right” to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes unless it can factually established that it has not complied with the terms of its agreement.

It has complied. There is no violation. That is why there will be no “punitive action”.

Instead, the United States is hoping for a “presidential statement”; a bogus “slap on the wrist” from the Security Council because the individual members can’t muster the courage to do their duty and defy the US.

Perhaps, the Security Council could offer a “supplemental presidential statement” at the same time, condemning the Bush administration, for developing a new regime of low-yield, bunker-busting “usable” nukes, and for its involvement in poisoning the groundwater and great swaths of the Iraqi countryside with Depleted Uranium; ensuring environmental devastation, cancer and birth defects will continue into perpetuity.

Will the Security Council have time to reprimand the real nuclear terrorist or will it limit itself to the imaginary villain who refuses to prostrate itself to Washington?

Iran has weathered this farce with great dignity. They understand the gravity of the situation when the media begins swarm to their victim. They know that there are Carrier groups in the Gulf and AC-130s in bases in Iraq. They know that Israeli commandoes have infiltrated the countryside and are scoping out potential targets. They know that satellites and unmanned drones have mapped out every square inch of territory from Iraq to Pakistan and the B-52s are tucked away close by where they can “liberate” another 100,000 or so Iranians.

How do they know?

Because it is the same lame script that was used in the lead up to the war in Iraq.
The Iran Bourse

On March 20 the Iran Bourse will formally open and allow countries to break to US monopoly on oil purchases in petrodollars. The central banks across Europe and Asia will trade in part of their stockpiles of greenbacks for euros, and dollars will come flooding back to the homeland. $3 trillion of American cash and securities are owned by people or institutions outside of the United States. If just a small portion of them pour back into the US, Depression will follow.

Is the impending war with Iraq merely an effort to shore up the debt-ridden greenback? (which is now underwritten by $8.2 trillion in debt)

If not, then how do we explain the Federal Reserve’s surprise announcement that it would stop releasing the M-3 in late March, 2006 coinciding with the opening of the bourse? (The M-3 provides the aggregate statistics on US dollars around the world)

Don’t you think the American people would like to know when the central banks begin tossing their stockpiles of greenbacks overboard?

And won’t this “weakening of the dollar” curtail Washington’s ability to print unlimited amounts of money to fund a powerful standing army and provide lavish tax cuts to the wealthy?

The Iran bourse is a direct threat to the present economic system of extorting labor and resources from the developing world for worthless paper.

The Bush administration will do everything in its power to defend that system.

Berkshire-Hathaway chief, Warren Buffet recently noted, “Right now, the rest of the world owns $3 trillion more of us than we own of them. In my view, it will create political turmoil at some point. …Pretty soon, I think there will be a big adjustment.”

“Political turmoil”?"big adjustment”?…”Pretty soon, I think”?

‘nuff said.