Remember a little over two years ago when we heard the claims of WMD and how
Iraq was trying to obtain uranium yellow cake from Niger? Also remember how we
heard that the basis of these claims were well founded because most of them came
from a Iraqi defector? Finally, remember how it all was proven wrong after we
had already entered our first pre-emptive war in history?

You think we would of learned something from those harsh lessons. Not only
has those mistakes cost us close to 2,000 American soldiers, hundreds of
billions of dollars, over 10,000 Iraqi live, and alienation from the world, but
they have also put us into the quagmire we call Iraq.

Now we are slowly hearing the same stories repeat themselves, this time not
about Iraq, but involving Iran.

Reuters has a report out today that has a eerie mimic to the reports we
heard in early 2003.

Iranian agents have tried to obtain from South Korea a substance that can
be used to boost nuclear explosions in atomic weapons, an Iranian exile group
said on Thursday.

Wow! Maybe making a claim that it is coming from South Korea would prevent
another Joe Wilson from traveling abroad to find out the truth.

But who are these exiles that are giving us this information? They are the
National Council for Resistance of Iran, a group the state department has had
listed on their terrorist watch list since 2002. They are also a group that
would love nothing more than to see the United States go into Iran and create
the same situation we have done in Iraq.

The NCRI has a
website that lists some of their visions for Iran and their purpose.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCR) was founded in July 1981
in Tehran to oppose the fundamentalist regime ruling Iran and establish a
pluralist democracy. Eventually, the Council moved its headquarters to Paris.
In late 1981 and early 198 2, the NCR drafted, adopted and published its
principal positions and the outline of the future government’s programs after
the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime.1 The council quickly expanded to include
all democratic forces opposed to the Khomeini regime and not responsible for
any crimes during the Shah’s reign. The NCR continues to keep its doors open
to such forces and public figures.

Whoa wait a minute. We consider them terrorists yet they want democracy in
Iran? That means if the administration buys into any of the allegations made
by the NCRI, then they would in fact be supporting terrorism. What other
terrorist style plans do they have

• The National Council of Resistance believes in political pluralism and a
  multi-party system
• The National Council of Resistance believes in the separation of Church
  and State
• The NCR’s economic policy is based upon the free market, recognition of
  national capitalism and the bazaar, private and personal ownership and
  investment
• The National Council of Resistance believes in complete equality between
  women and men
• The National Council of Resistance recognizes the rights of all ethnic
  minorities.
• The NCR’s foreign policy is based on independence, respect for the United
  Nations Charter and international covenants and treaties, good neighborliness,
  peace and international and regional cooperation and non-interference in the
  affairs of other countries

Yup that is defiantly some terrorist style thinking there. So why does the
State Department consider this group a terrorist group? Here is a copy of a
State Department press release from August 2003:

Press Statement
Tom Casey, Acting Spokesman

Washington, DC
August 15, 2003

Designation of National Council of Resistance and
National Council of Resistance of Iran under Executive Order 13224

 

The Secretary of State has
amended the designation, under Executive Order 13224 on terrorist financing,
of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, known as the MEK, to add its aliases National
Council of Resistance (NCR) and National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
That Executive Order blocks the assets of organizations and individuals
linked to terrorism. The decision also clarifies that the designation
includes the U.S. representative office of NCRI and all its other offices
worldwide, and that the designation of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (“PMOI”)
as an alias of the MEK includes the PMOI’s U.S. representative office and
all other offices worldwide.

The Secretary of State designated the MEK as a foreign
terrorist organization in 1997 under the Immigration and Nationality Act,
and again in 2001 pursuant to section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224. That
order (as amended) authorizes the Secretary to designate foreign entities
and individuals that he determines – in consultation with the Secretary of
the Treasury, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security –
to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, acts of
terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national
security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.

The action to amend the Executive Order 13224 designation
of the MEK to include NCR and NCRI is based on information from a variety of
sources that those entities functioned as part of the MEK and have supported
the MEK’s acts of terrorism.

Released on August 15, 2003

So this organization that wants democracy in Iran
has ties to terrorist groups. Does this mean we will throw out all their
allegations? After all they have been making them for years. They use to have an
office in Washington D.C. where they would hold press conferences and make
statements about Iran’s weapons program. We closed that office down right after
this statement was released.

Now hold on. What if we are planning to attack
Iran? Would our President be willing to attack another one of his “axis of evil”
nations? The answer it an alarming yes. From a recent issue of the American
Conservative, intelligence analyst Philip Giraldi
said:

“The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney’s
office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing
up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type
terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air
assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons.
Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including
numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the
targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by
conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the
response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of
terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force
officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications
of what they are doing ­ that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear
attack ­ but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any
objections.”

So old Dicky boy is planning an attack against Iran – this time with real
shock and awe (meaning nuclear weapons). I guess Cheney would never really have
anything to do with a terrorist nation like Iran, or would he? From the
Columbus Free
Press:

Scandal-plagued Halliburton — the oil services company once headed by Vice
President Cheney — sold an Iranian oil development company key components for
a nuclear reactor, say Halliburton sources with intimate knowledge into both
companies’ business dealings.

I guess that would explain why this appeared in the August 27, 2000 edition
of the Washington Post:

…Republican vice presidential candidate, Richard Cheney, has been an
outspoken advocate of ending U.S. economic sanctions against Iran.

So there you have it – a long, profitable history with Iran for the
vice-President that may end in a mushroom cloud. I guess after Bush made his
“axis of evil” speech, it was hard for Halliburton to do any business with Iran
and now they are just a liability instead of being an asset.

The big question still remains if our military can handle another war. I hope
that we would not consider attacking Iran unless we had 100% absolute proof they
were planning to attack us. This time we need true intelligence and not
manipulated intelligence as we had for Iraq. We need a complete oversight of the
President and a Congress that will not give him a blank check for war.
Furthermore, we need to know that this is not being done because of Dick
Cheney’s past business experiences with Iran.

If we do end up going to war with Iran, then we can almost be certain to face
Russia and China on opposite ends of the battle fields. They are allies with
Iran and will most likely come to their aide, which could be the reasons for the
big joint military exercise Russia and China held last week.

This is leading us to even scarier times. We need a President with a knack
for diplomacy, not one with a trigger happy finger.

The Iran War – An In-depth Look