full-scale war between the US and Iran (2 Viewers)

hugh said:
Okay so I caved in and clicked on the link in the small hope that it would say something different to what I predicted it would and guess what, it didn't i.e. "No this is not balanced and objective coverage from the BBC etc... etc..." so if anyone had taken me up on it I would have won ..... yes?
Click to expand...

after the question article said:
[font=Verdana,]Is this balanced, objective reporting by the BBC?[/font]

[font=Verdana,][/font]

[font=Verdana,]Even as the staggering catastrophe that has befallen Iraq continues to be played out, the BBC and other media are yet again preparing the public mind for war. If the public can be convinced that this latest 'threat' is real, then politicians can again unleash their bombers with impunity.[/font]

[font=Verdana,][/font]

[font=Verdana,]How many more innocent people have to die before journalists wake up to their moral responsibility to protect human life, to treat Third World nations as something more than Western playthings, to challenge warmongering propaganda, and to develop their powers of independent, rational thought?

but hey, whatever...there's more important shit going on...
[/font]
 
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Iran nears nuclear 'point of no return'[/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif] Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
Thursday January 27, 2005
The Guardian

[/font] [font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The Israeli defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, warned yesterday that Iran will reach "the point of no return" within the next 12 months in its covert attempt to secure a nuclear weapons capability. [/font] [font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Tehran denies pursuing a nuclear weapons programme. [/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Speaking in London before a meeting today with Tony Blair, Lieutenant General Mofaz said Iran was the main long-term threat to the world and stressed that it will not be permitted to build a nuclear bomb. "None of the western countries can live with Iran having a nuclear capability," he told reporters. [/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Gen Mofaz, a hawk in the Israeli cabinet, who has said in the past that Israel has operational plans in place for a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, refused to rule out military action. [/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Mr Blair, speaking in the Commons yesterday, said the Iranian issue was serious. Asked by the former Labour minister, Michael Meacher, to give an "unequivocal and categorical assurance" that Britain would not take part in any attack on Iran, Mr Blair said: "I know of no such contemplation by the United States of America." [/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]In an interview with the Financial Times yesterday, Mr Blair refused to rule out the option of using military force. [/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif] [/font] [font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The Israeli and US rhetoric has grown more strident in the last week and could be aimed at pushing Britain, France and Germany into taking a tougher diplomatic approach towards Iran.
The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, said last week that Israel might launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, as it did against Iraq's nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981. [/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Gen Mofaz indicated yesterday that he thought the US rather than Israel should do it: "It is the strongest power that can stop any nuclear power, especially in the hands of an extreme regime." [/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]US officials have confirmed privately a report by the US reporter, Seymour Hersh, in the New Yorker, that US special forces have already been in Iran scouting out its nuclear facilities. [/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1399378,00.html

[/font]
 
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif] Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday February 3, 2005
The Guardian

[/font] [font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]President George Bush last night issued clear warnings to Syria and Iran that they were next in his sights in his declared mission to spread democracy around the world.[/font] [font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The state of the union address to Congress had been billed as reconciliatory, but, along with a series of references to alliances and international initiatives, there were some blunt words. [/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]After recounting the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the president said: "There are still governments that sponsor and harbour terrorists, but their numbers have declined.[/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]"There are still regimes seeking weapons of mass destruction, but they are no longer without attention and without consequence." [/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The president then singled out Syria, which he said "still allows its territory and parts of Lebanon to be used by terrorists who seek to destroy every chance of peace in the region." [/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]"We expect Syria to end all support for terrorists and open the door to freedom," he said, to heavy applause from members of Congress.[/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]He turned to Iran, which he said "remains the world's primary sponsor of terror" and he issued a direct message to Iranians to stand up to the clerical regime in Tehran.[/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]He said the US was working with European states to make clear to Tehran it must give up its uranium enrichment programme, but he also signalled a much broader agenda, aimed at the ultimate removal of the clerical regime itself.[/font]

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]He declared "to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you."
[/font]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1404776,00.html
 
Iran's Supreme Leader Hits Back at Bush Speech

[size=-1] "The Islamic Republic of Iran, because of defending the rights of the oppressed and confronting oppressors, is being attacked by the global tyrants," state media quoted Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying. [/size]

[size=-1] [/size]

[size=-1] "Bush is the fifth U.S. president to want to uproot the Iranian nation and the Islamic Republic," he told university students. [/size]

[size=-1] [/size]

[size=-1] "But he will be as successful as Jimmy Carter, (Ronald) Reagan, (George) Bush senior and (Bill) Clinton," he added, referring to the five previous U.S. presidents who have held office since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
[/size]


[size=-1] SEVEN-HEADED DRAGON [/size]

[size=-1] [/size]

[size=-1] Comparing the United states to "one of the heads of a seven-headed dragon," Khamenei said Bush had been put in the White House by "Zionist and non-Zionist capitalists to serve their interests."
[/size]

[size=-1]http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050203/pl_nm/bush_iran_dc_2
[/size]
 
Europeans warn Iranians over nuclear fuel cycle work

Wednesday February 9, 2:47 AM

 Officials from European heavyweights Britain, France and Germany were warning Iran about activities that verge on breaches of a deal to freeze nuclear fuel cycle work in talks that opened in Geneva, diplomats said.

Britain, France and Germany were "to read the riot act to the Iranians," a diplomat close to the talks, which is aimed at getting Iran to guarantee that it is not developing nuclear weapons, told AFP.

The European trio, who are leading the negotiations for the European Union, are following advice from UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei "who has warned Iran in two letters in December and January" about quality control work on centrifuge parts despite an agreed freeze on nuclear fuel cycle work, said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.

In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that the Europeans were "serious" in their hope for a diplomatic solution and that "seriousness on both sides is necessary."

But Iran was warning that it is running out of patience in talks that began in December on suspending uranium enrichment in return for possible cooperation in atomic technology, regional security and nuclear verification.

The talks are to lead to a high-level meeting in March, and Iran wants to see movement by then toward receiving those incentives.

"If the talks are not progressing, we are not obliged to continue," top Iranian national security official Hassan Rowhani told state television in Tehran.


http://sg.news.yahoo.com/050208/1/3qfwq.html
 
DUBAI (Reuters) - An unknown aircraft fired a missile on Wednesday in a deserted area near the southern city of Dailam in the province of Bushehr where Iran has a nuclear power plant, Iranian state television said.

"A powerful explosion was heard this morning on the outskirts of Dailam in the Bushehr province. Witnesses said that the missile was fired from an unknown plane 12 miles from the city," Iran's Arabic language Al-Alam said.
Click to expand...

http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=AJJA4Y4TRGEHWCRBAE0CFFA?type=topNews&storyID=7647548
 
here look, what can the yanks possibly say about going in a whompin' and a stompin' into Iran? I mean, the case for Iraq was flimsy enough, but this is daft. "They've got nukes". Well so do the US. I mean, I obviously understand what their real reasons are, but what will they assert, like what'll they use as an excuse? They've no mad ass murderous dictator this time. It all seems a bit crazy this time, a bit more yeehaw. Can Tony Blair really go into battle side by side with the US again? How can he possibly make a case to the British people. And without Britain, can the US really go it alone?
 
Iran Threatens to Shoot Down U.S. Drones
Wed Feb 16, 8:11 AM ET
[size=-1]By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer[/size] TEHRAN, Iran - [size=-1] Iran's intelligence chief on Wednesday accused the United States of flying spy drones over its nuclear sites and threatened to shoot down the unmanned surveillance crafts.
[/size]

[size=-1] Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi comments backed a report in The Washington Post on Sunday that quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying the drones have been flying over Iran for nearly a year to seek evidence of nuclear weapons programs. [/size]

[size=-1] [/size]

[size=-1] "U.S. spying activities over Iranian airspace have been going since a long time ago," Yunesi told reporters. [/size]

[size=-1] [/size]

[size=-1] "Most of the shining objects that our people see in Iran's airspace are American spying equipment used to spy on Iran's nuclear and military facilities," the minister told reporters. [/size]

[size=-1] [/size]

[size=-1] He said they would not reveal anything the United States doesn't already know. [/size]

[size=-1] [/size]

[size=-1] "Our nuclear activities are open and very transparent. Our military activities are all legal," Yunesi said. He spoke while visiting a prison for dissidents under the Shah that has been turned into a museum. [/size]

[size=-1] [/size]

[size=-1] The Washington Post reported the drones had been flying over Iran from U.S. military bases in Iraq (news - web sites) and were equipped with air filters to pick up traces of nuclear activity.
[/size]

[size=-1]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=5&u=/ap/20050216/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear_12
[/size]
 
snakybus said:
here look, what can the yanks possibly say about going in a whompin' and a stompin' into Iran? I mean, the case for Iraq was flimsy enough, but this is daft. "They've got nukes". Well so do the US. I mean, I obviously understand what their real reasons are, but what will they assert, like what'll they use as an excuse? They've no mad ass murderous dictator this time.
Click to expand...

This is what they've been saying for the past couple of years:
January 2002 Ship carrying arms to Palestinian Authority seized
Israeli commandos seize the Karine A, a ship carrying 50 tons of arms that officials say were supplied by Iran and en route to the Palestinian Authority. Officials say that the delivery of weapons -- which include powerful Katyusha rockets, antitank missiles, and plastic explosives -- would escalate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to a new level.

January-March 2002 'Axis of evil' and its aftermath
In his first State of the Union address, U.S. President George W. Bush says that Iran, Iraq, and North Korea are part of an "axis of evil." "Iran aggressively pursues these weapons [of mass destruction] and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom," Bush says.

April 2002 Rumsfeld denounces Iran's alleged role in West Bank
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld links three countries -- Iran, Iraq, and Libya -- to suicide bombing attacks in Israel and says that the countries are "inspiring and financing a culture of political murder and suicide bombing."


and from David Frum (Bush's speechwriter, the guy who alledgedly coined the 'axis of evil' phrase:


"As you well know, getting into Iran is no joke. Iran is not separated from Afghanistan by the Himalayas the way Pakistan and Afghanistan are. And Pakistan, of course, is cooperating with the United States in the hunt for members of Al Qaeda who may have slipped across the border and are hiding in the mountains.

That's not the situation with Iran. It is not [that] people [are] hiding out inside Iran. They seem to have been given refuge inside Iran. Iran has been providing weapons and other forms of assistance to subvert the hopes for good order and tranquility and peace in the western part of Afghanistan, because they have an eye to preventing the consolidation of a benign moderate representative government in Afghanistan. The last thing they want to see is a peaceful, orderly, open, pro-Western government in Afghanistan on their eastern border. That is very, very dangerous to them.

This is one of the most repressive regimes in the world. It's a regime that is hated by its own people. It's a regime that is truly terrified of the prospect of a revolution inside its own boundaries. To have regimes nearby that offer the example and hope of a better life, particularly Afghanistan, the Western part of which is so culturally Iranian, is a very frightening thing to the present rulers of Iran. ...


The American army of liberation in Afghanistan sent a tremendous message of hope to people in Iran. It showed them that regimes like the Taliban are not here forever, that they can't last, that liberty is powerful. That has to be a terrifying thing to the mullahs. And that may explain why they have, almost from the beginning, tried to sabotage and destroy the American mission in Afghanistan -- because they're frightened of the power of the liberating example of that army.

There are now American troops elsewhere in the region. And wherever the American armed forces go, wherever the American flag flies, there's a message of hope and liberation. For a regime that is trying to snuff out hope and fasten oppression on its people forever, that message of hope and liberation is very, very disturbing.


... Iran has made itself the armory of the suicide bombers in the West Bank. It is now outfitting people who are firing missiles into Israel from across the Lebanese border. It is acting as the powder monkey of what may be the most dangerous conflict in the entire world. It is acquiring missile technology from China. It is developing nuclear warheads. ... Iran is a state that is pushing the region in the world toward ever more radical, more violent, more terrifying conflict. ...

The explanation for the reaction of the United States and other democracies to Iran is Iran's own behavior. That is the source of the problem the world has with Iran. It is a state that relies on murder as a tool of foreign policy, that has threatened to commence a nuclear war against Israel. This is a very dangerous regime to Iran's neighbors. It is also cruel and oppressive to its own people. ..."


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tehran/interviews/frum.html
 
snakybus said:
here look, what can the yanks possibly say about going in a whompin' and a stompin' into Iran? I mean, the case for Iraq was flimsy enough, but this is daft. "They've got nukes". Well so do the US. I mean, I obviously understand what their real reasons are, but what will they assert, like what'll they use as an excuse? They've no mad ass murderous dictator this time. It all seems a bit crazy this time, a bit more yeehaw. Can Tony Blair really go into battle side by side with the US again? How can he possibly make a case to the British people. And without Britain, can the US really go it alone?
Click to expand...

Of course the US can use "They've got nukes" as an excuse to attack Iran. They used the WMD excuse to attack Iraq, when America has the largest stockpile of WMDs in the world. They're dicks, face it.
 
I don't think they are going to attack Iran (at least in the full-scale war sense) because (a) they don't even have the troops to hold down Iraq and (b) the only reason Iraq is not in full-scale insurgency/anarchy is 'cos the Shias are playing ball with the yanks (led by Sistani) and an attack on Iran would mean that that would be over. Isolated Clinton-style missile strikes on selected targets is a possibility though (especially if they got the Israelis to do it for them as they could then say "Hey! It wasn't us Mr Sistani!").
 
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