[I]n conjunction with the beefing up of America's Italian bases and the acquisition of anti-missile defence bases in the Czech Republic and Poland, the Balkan developments seem to indicate a new phase in Bush's global war on terror. Sofia's news of advanced war preparations along the Black Sea is backed up by some chilling details. One is the setting up of new refuelling places for US Stealth bombers, which would spearhead an attack on Iran. "The USAF's positioning of vital refuelling facilities for its B-2 bombers in unusual places, including Bulgaria, falls within the perspective of such an attack."

Liar:

Before the end of March, 3000 US military personnel are scheduled to arrive "on a rotating basis" at America's Bulgarian bases.

Liar:

Last week, the Bucharest daily Evenimentual Zilei revealed the USAF is to site several flights of F-l5, F-l6 and Al0 aircraft at the Kogalniceanubase. Admiral Gheorghe Marin, Romania's chief of staff, confirmed "up to 2000 American military personnel will be temporarily stationed in Romania".

Liar:

Last week, Mirek Topolanek, the Czech prime minister, and the country's national security council agreed to the siting of a US anti-missile radar defence system at Nepolisy. Poland has also agreed to having a US anti-missile missile base and interceptor aircraft stationed in the country.

Liar:

[M]aybe the spark for a wider conflict is just what the increasingly desperate President Bush seeks. His fixation on Iranian activities in Iraq cannot be explained by his cover story, which is that Tehran is supplying weapons to forces that kill U.S. troops. To date, no hard evidence that the Iranian government is sending high-powered weaponry into Iraq has been made public, and no credible proof may be forthcoming. [...]

Some of the reports of "thousands" of Iranian agents in Iraq come from the Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist group, which is made up of Iranian expatriates who display a cultlike devotion to their leader, Maryam Rajavi. [...]

That the U.S. is in search of a rationale for a wider conflict is supported by the fact that it has arrested Iranian officials inside Iraq on two occasions in the past six weeks. [...]

Any leaders of a failing war effort are always tempted by a strategy of escalation. Announcing open hunting season on all Iranian visitors to Iraq is like playing Frisbee with nitroglycerin. Bush has gone looking for trouble and is likely to find it.

Liar:

[T]he Bush administration seems intent on provoking Iran, with hostile rhetoric, the assignment of an aircraft carrier group to the waters near Iran, and - as reported Friday by The Washington Post - a new policy of killing Iranian agents found to be aiding militias in Iraq.

Liar:

Bush singled out Iran and Syria as countries aiding "terrorists". He warned that the United States "will seek and destroy the networks" that were allegedly training and arming "our enemies in Iraq". A few days after, American soldiers entered the Iranian liaison office in Irbil, in the Kurd-dominated part of northern Iraq, and arrested five Iranian diplomats on charges of helping the insurgency. The Sudanese embassy in Baghdad was also raided. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, himself a Kurd, criticised the arrests, saying that the Iranians were providing valuable services to Iraqis.

The "Irbil incident", according to observers, was staged to provoke the Iranian government. Teheran, while issuing a strong statement, is not willing to walk into a diplomatic or military trap at this juncture. For the last year and a half, the Bush administration has alleged that Iran is supplying the Iraqi resistance with arms and military expertise. These allegations have not been taken seriously as most of the fighting against the occupation forces is being carried out by Sunni resistance fighters.

Liar:

In 1996, in a report on strategy prepared by the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (a think-tank created by AIPAC) and titled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," future advisors to the Bush-Cheney administration (Perle, Feith, Wurmser, etc.) proposed "removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq," and then to go on "engaging Hizballah, Syria, and Iran."

Liar:

In the overall flow of information coming from the Middle East, there are increasingly frequent reports indicating that within several months from now the US will deliver nuclear strikes on Iran. For example, citing well-informed but undisclosed sources, the Kuwaiti Arab Times wrote that the US plans to launch a missile and bomb attack on the territory of Iran before the end of April, 2007. The campaign will start from the sea and will be supported by the Patriot missile defense systems in order to let the US forces avoid a ground operation and to reduce the efficiency of the return strike by “any Persian Gulf country”. “Any country” mostly refers to Iran. The source which supplied the information to the Kuwaiti paper believes that the US forces in Iraq and other countries of the region will be defended from any Iranian missile strikes by the frontier Patriots. [...]

The information that a second US aircraft-carrier is due to arrive at the Persian Gulf till the end of January makes it possible to analyze the possible evolution of the war situation. Attacking Iran, the US will mostly use air delivery of the nuclear munitions. Cruise missiles (carried by the US aircrafts as well as ships and submarines) and, possibly, ballistic missiles will be used. Probably, nuclear strikes will be followed by air raids from aircraft carriers and by other means of attack. [...]

Within weeks from now, we will see the informational warfare machine start working. The public opinion is already under pressure. There will be a growing anti-Iranian militaristic hysteria, new information leaks, disinformation, etc.

I take direct issue with General Ivashov on only one point (indirectly I pray he is wrong about the use of American nuclear weapons). We have already seen the the opening salvos of the disinformation campaign about Iran from the Bush administration and the Pentagon. I've been reporting on it with incresing frequency here at Booman Tribune for the last few months.

No plan to attack Iran, Mr. Bush?

You are a Liar! Even some conservatives think so:

Everything is in place for an attack on Iran. Two aircraft carrier attack forces are deployed to the Persian Gulf, US attack aircraft have been moved to Turkey and other countries on Iran’s borders, Patriot anti-missile defense systems are being moved to the Middle East to protect oil facilities and US bases from retaliation from Iranian missiles, and growing reams of disinformation alleging Iran’s responsibility for the insurgency in Iraq are being fed to the gullible US Media.

War with Iran is coming. Bush has already circled the date on his calendar. Let's hope saner people in the military can prevent this insanity from happening, because I don't trust Congress to do anything.

Iran Iraq Iran Plans George W. Bush Iraq War