IRAN: Brzezinski: Bush seeks pretext to Attack Iran

WSWS: A political bombshell from Zbigniew Brzezinski

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser in the Carter administration, delivered a scathing critique of the war in Iraq and warned that the Bush administration’s policy was leading inevitably to a war with Iran, with incalculable consequences for US imperialism in the Middle East and internationally.

Most stunning and disturbing was his description of a “plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran.” It would, he suggested, involve “Iraqi failure to meet the benchmarks, followed by accusations of Iranian responsibility for the failure, then by some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, culminating in a ‘defensive’ US military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.” [Emphasis added].

This was an unmistakable warning to the US Congress, replete with quotation marks to discount the “defensive” nature of such military action, that the Bush administration is seeking a pretext for an attack on Iran. Although he did not explicitly say so, Brzezinski came close to suggesting that the White House was capable of manufacturing a provocation—including a possible terrorist attack within the US—to provide the casus belli for war.

IRAN: The Path to War

Toronto Sun: Fight against Iran too familiar
by Eric Margolis

While the Bush/Cheney administration seems hell-bent on provoking war with Iran, Americans appear far more alarmed by the dangers of global warming. Many of them must regret not voting for "Ecological Al" Gore in 2000.

While icebergs melt, the U.S.-Iran confrontation is getting very dangerous. The heaviest concentration of U.S. naval strike forces since the 2003 war against Iraq is concentrating off Iran.

IRAN: Nuclear Scientist assassinated by Mossad

Sunday Times: Iranian nuclear scientist ‘assassinated by Mossad’

A PRIZE-WINNING Iranian nuclear scientist has died in mysterious circumstances, according to Radio Farda, which is funded by the US State Department and broadcasts to Iran.

An intelligence source suggested that Ardeshire Hassanpour, 44, a nuclear physicist, had been assassinated by Mossad, the Israeli security service.

Hassanpour worked at a plant in Isfahan where uranium hexafluoride gas is produced. The gas is needed to enrich uranium in another plant at Natanz which has become the focus of concerns that Iran may be developing nuclear weapons.

IRAQ: Sadr City Showdown?

Channelnewsasia: Tanks, troops deploy in east Baghdad

BAGHDAD : Iraqi and US forces are preparing to launch a massive crackdown in Baghdad to end the sectarian carnage pushing Iraq toward civil war as at least another 30 people died in a surge of violence.

The sustained bloodshed came after nearly 200 people were killed over the weekend, mostly in the war-torn capital.

Iraqi soldiers and National Guard police were deployed on Baghdad's main eastern highway leading to the Shiite bastion of Sadr City, a repeated insurgent target, he said.

IRAQ: Resistance downs US Helicopter

Reuters: Website shows helicopter crash

Feb. 4 - A video alledgedly showing a U.S. helicopter being shot down in Iraq has been shown on an Islamic militant website.

The U.S. military says it is adjusting its tactics in Iraq after four helicopters were shot down over the past two weeks, killing 21 servicemen and private contractors.