NEWS: Scott Ritter says US attack on Iran planned for June

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http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2295/

 

 

 

 

NEWS: Scott Ritter says US attack on Iran planned for June

 

 

 

Written by Mark Jensen

Saturday, 19 February 2005

 

On Friday evening in Olympia, former UNSCOM weapons inspector Scott

Ritter appeared with journalist Dahr Jamail. -- Ritter made two

shocking claims: George W. Bush has " signed off " on plans to bomb Iran

in June 2005, and the U.S. manipulated the results of the Jan. 30

elections in Iraq....

 

SCOTT RITTER SAYS U.S. PLANS JUNE ATTACK ON IRAN, `COOKED' JAN. 30

IRAQI ELECTION RESULTS

By Mark Jensen

 

United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)

February 19, 2005

 

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.

 

--

 

NOTE: Dahr Jamail will make three more appearances in the Puget Sound

area this weekend: (1) SATURDAY, FEB. 19, 7:00 p.m., at the Kirkland

Congregational Church, 106 5th Avenue, Kirkland WA. Admission $5 --

Sponsored by Evergreen Peace & Justice; (2) SUNDAY, FEB. 20, 1:00 p.m.

at the Vashon Land Trust. Vashon Islanders for Peace will be hosting

Dahr Jamail and Bert Sacks on the subject of Exit Strategies from

Iraq. For more information, contact: Kate Hunter, 206-463-5117; (3)

SUNDAY, FEB. 20, 7:30 p.m. at UW Kane Hall, Room 120. Hosted by the

Interfaith Network Of Concern for the people of Iraq (INOC), the

University of Washington -- Department of Communication, the Iraqi

Community Center of Seattle (ICCS), and the United Nations

Association, Seattle. For more information contact the Rev. Richard

Gamble at Keystone United Church of Christ 206 632-6021.

 

--Mark Jensen is a member of United for Peace of Pierce County.

 

Last Updated ( Saturday, 19 February 2005 )