Backlash Builds Against Cheney's 'Guns Of August'

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Tue, 9 Aug 2005 21:11:35 -0700 (PDT)

Backlash Builds Against Cheney's 'Guns Of August'

 

 

 

Backlash Builds Against Cheney's 'Guns Of August'

By Jeffrey Steinberg

8-9-5

 

 

 

As millions of copies of Lyndon LaRouche's July 27 " Cheney's Guns of

August " statement circulate worldwide (see www.larouchepac.com

), a Washington policy brawl has erupted into public view, over the

Bush Administration's now-confirmed contingency plans to stage a

pre-emptive military strike against Iran-possibly using nuclear

weapons. The report that Vice President Dick Cheney had tasked the

Strategic Command (STRATCOM) to develop military contingencies for a

massive aerial bombardment campaign against Iran, in the event of a

new 9/11 attack, was first revealed in The American Conservative

magazine's Aug. 1 edition. The story highlighted the likely use of

nuclear weapons, and the widespread military opposition to the

pre-emptive nuclear war scheme.

 

 

 

Since that initial story by former CIA officer Philip Giraldi, this

news service has confirmed the accuracy of the report from a

significant number of horrified U.S. government officials-from

Senators on both sides of the aisle, to military officers, diplomats,

and spies. One former U.S. ambassador in the Persian Gulf reported

that he had received angry reports from officials of the Central

Command (CENTCOM), who have been tasked as part of the contingency

planning.

 

 

 

Another military source suggested that there are probably

pre-positioned tactical nuclear weapons at the U.S. military base at

Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, under the new military

reorganization, which created a " Global Strike " plan for rapid,

massive assaults anywhere on the planet.

 

 

 

The bottom line: Vice President Cheney, the architect of the

pre-emptive nuclear attack plan, has gone stark raving mad, and is

prepared to bring the world to the brink of chaos, before he is driven

from power. Democratic Party figure Lyndon LaRouche describes Cheney's

state of mind as " like Hitler in the bunker. "

 

 

 

White House De Facto Confirms

 

In response to a question from EIR's White House correspondent Bill

Jones, Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan let the cat out of the

bag on July 28. Asked by Jones about the American Conservative report

on the bombing contingencies, McClellan pointedly chose not to deny

the charges, and instead, after telling Jones he " appreciated the

question, " went into a discussion of Iran's alleged secret nuclear

program, threatening United Nations sanctions and other actions,

should Iran fail to shut down its nuclear reprocessing efforts.

 

 

 

In response to a follow-up question by CBS reporter John Roberts about

whether an attack on Iran might fall under the Bush Doctrine of

pre-emptive action against " terror states, " given the new Iranian

President's former position in the Revolutionary Guard, McClellan

again refused to reject the possibility, reminding the press that the

Administration still considered Iran a " state sponsor of terrorism. "

 

 

 

It should be recalled that on Jan. 20, 2005, the day of the

Bush-Cheney second inauguration, the Vice President appeared on the

Don Imus show on MSNBC cable TV, to target Iran. Using language

identical to his earlier lies about Iraq, Cheney accused Iran of

pursuing " a fairly robust nuclear program " and of sponsoring

terrorism. " That combination is of great concern, " he declared,

warning that Israel could be expected to launch preventive bombing

attacks on Iran's alleged nuclear weapons sites, if the Iranians don't

abandon those supposed nuclear efforts.

 

 

 

NIE Leaked

 

One of the most dramatic signs of the ferocious behind-the-scenes

fight was the Aug. 2 lead story of the Washington Post, which leaked a

recent National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluding that, far from

being on the verge of achieving a nuclear bomb, Iran was at least ten

years away from such a capability. The story, by staff writer Dafna

Linzer, noted that " the carefully hedged assessments, which represent

consensus among U.S. intelligence agencies, contrast with forceful

public statements by the White House. Administration officials have

asserted, but have not offered proof, that Tehran is moving

determinedly toward a nuclear arsenal. "

 

 

 

The last time an NIE was prepared on Iran, it was estimated that Iran

was five years away from obtaining a nuclear bomb, and that was in

2002. When Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited President Bush

at his Crawford, Texas ranch this past April, his top military aide,

Gen. Yoav Galant, presented an Israeli assessment that Iran had a

" very advanced " nuclear weapons program, could have a bomb within

12-18 months, and was near to reaching a " point of no return, " when

" it could not be any longer stopped. "

 

 

 

The leak of the NIE, which was carefully prepared over a six-month

period, beginning in January of this year, was widely hailed as a

direct factional move, from high-level intelligence community circles,

against the Cheney madness. One former Cabinet official noted that the

mass circulation of LaRouche's " Guns of August " statement had created

the necessary political conditions for the leak to occur, seriously

undermining Cheney and the neo-conservatives' race to a new

confrontation with Tehran.

 

 

 

The National Intelligence Council, the coordinating body of the 15

agencies that comprise the U.S. intelligence community as a whole, is

now housed in the office of Director of National Intelligence John

Negroponte. Just days before the leak to the Washington Post,

Negroponte's deputy, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, had testified before the

House Intelligence Committee about the overhaul of the NIE process, to

assure that there would be no repetition of the horrid mistakes made

in the October 2002 Estimate on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

That rushed October 2002 NIE vastly overstated and misrepresented

Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program, particularly its purported

nuclear weapons program, and was a large contributing factor to the

U.S. Congress's capitulation to Bush and Cheney, in sanctioning the

Iraq pre-emptive invasion-even as United Nations weapons inspectors

were continuing their inspections with minimal interference from the

Saddam Hussein regime, and were stating that no nuclear weapons

production was to be found.

 

 

 

Hayden emphasized that the Estimates would now reflect the views of

all the relevant intelligence agencies, would be much more " nuanced, "

and would not be released without a thorough review process, including

an assessment of the quality of the sources of key intelligence

findings. According to the New York Times's Douglas Jehl, " Other

government officials said the standard had already been applied, to a

recent highly classified intelligence report on Iran. "

The Usual Suspects

 

More- http://rense.com/general67/gunsofaug.htm