http://207.44.245.159/article8130.htm
Scott Ritter Says U.S. Plans June Attack On Iran
By Mark Jensen
02/19/05 --United for Peace of Pierce County (WA) - - Scott Ritter,
appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday in Washington State, dropped
two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to a packed house in Olympia's
Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons inspector said that
George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and
claimed the U.S. manipulated the results of the recent Jan. 30 elections in
Iraq.
Olympians like to call the Capitol Theater "historic," but it's doubtful
whether the eighty-year-old edifice has ever been the scene of more
portentous revelations.
The principal theme of Scott Ritter's talk was Americans' duty to protect
the U.S. Constitution by taking action to bring an end to the illegal war in
Iraq. But in passing, the former UNSCOM weapons inspector stunned his
listeners with two pronouncements. Ritter said plans for a June attack on
Iran have been submitted to President George W. Bush, and that the president
has approved them. He also asserted that knowledgeable sources say U.S.
officials "cooked" the results of the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.
On Iran, Ritter said that President George W. Bush has received and signed
off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran planned for June 2005. Its
purported goal is the destruction of Iran's alleged program to develop
nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the administration also
expected that the attack would set in motion a chain of events leading to
regime change in the oil-rich nation of 70 million -- a possibility Ritter
regards with the greatest skepticism.
The former Marine also said that the Jan. 30 elections, which George W. Bush
has called "a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in the
advance of freedom," were not so free after all. Ritter said that U.S.
authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to reduce the
percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from 56% to
48%.
Asked by UFPPC's Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an official
involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would soon be
reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major metropolitan
magazine -- an obvious allusion to New Yorker reporter Seymour M. Hersh.
On Jan. 17, the New Yorker posted an article by Hersh entitled The Coming
Wars (New Yorker, January 24-31, 2005). In it, the well-known investigative
journalist claimed that for the Bush administration, "The next strategic
target [is] Iran." Hersh also reported that "The Administration has been
conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last
summer." According to Hersh, "Defense Department civilians, under the
leadership of Douglas Feith, have been working with Israeli planners and
consultants to develop and refine potential nuclear, chemical-weapons, and
missile targets inside Iran. . . . Strategists at the headquarters of the
U.S. Central Command, in Tampa, Florida, have been asked to revise the
military's war plan, providing for a maximum ground and air invasion of
Iran. . . . The hawks in the Administration believe that it will soon become
clear that the Europeans' negotiated approach [to Iran] cannot succeed, and
that at that time the Administration will act."
Scott Ritter said that although the peace movement failed to stop the war in
Iraq, it had a chance to stop the expansion of the war to other nations like
Iran and Syria. He held up the specter of a day when the Iraq war might be
remembered as a relatively minor event that preceded an even greater
conflagration.
Scott Ritter's talk was the culmination of a long evening devoted to
discussion of Iraq and U.S. foreign policy. Before Ritter spoke, Dahr Jamail
narrated a slide show on Iraq focusing on Fallujah. He showed more than a
hundred vivid photographs taken in Iraq, mostly by himself. Many of them
showed the horrific slaughter of civilians.
Dahr Jamail argued that U.S. mainstream media sources are complicit in the
war and help sustain support for it by deliberately downplaying the truth
about the devastation and death it is causing.
Jamail was, until recently, one of the few unembedded journalists in Iraq
and one of the only independent ones. His reports have gained a substantial
following and are available online at dahrjamailiraq.com.
Friday evening's event in Olympia was sponsored by South Puget Sound
Community College's Student Activities Board, Veterans for Peace, 100
Thousand and Counting, Olympia Movement for Justice & Peace, and United for
Peace of Pierce County.
Mark Jensen is a member of United for Peace of Pierce County.
http://www.ufppc.org/
I tend to think that Ritter is a douche, but there's always the what if. I'm torn on war with Iran; on one hand, it'll put the Chinese in check and destroy a major bastion of international terrorism, but our resources are also stretched enough as it is.