Bombing Could Start 17 Days before Mid-Term Elections
Based on stories last month in Time magazine and The Nation, it appears that the U.S.S. Eisenhower Strike Group left Norfolk, Virginia, on Oct. 1 and will reach the shores of Iran at the Strait of Hormuz this Saturday, Oct. 21 — 17 days before the mid-term elections.
According to the mid-September 2006 article in The Nation, the strike group includes:
[The] nuclear aircraft carrier Eisenhower as well as a cruiser, destroyer, frigate, submarine escort and supply ship…
And:
First word of the early dispatch of the “Ike Strike” group to the Persian Gulf region came from several angry officers on the ships involved, who contacted antiwar critics like retired Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner and complained that they were being sent to attack Iran without any order from the Congress.
“This is very serious,” said Ray McGovern, a former CIA threat-assessment analyst who got early word of the Navy officers’ complaints about the sudden deployment orders. (McGovern, a twenty-seven-year veteran of the CIA, resigned in 2002 in protest over what he said were Bush Administration pressures to exaggerate the threat posed by Iraq. He and other intelligence agency critics have formed a group called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.)
Colonel Gardiner, who has taught military strategy at the National War College, says that the carrier deployment and a scheduled Persian Gulf arrival date of October 21 is “very important evidence” of war planning. He says, “I know that some naval forces have already received ‘prepare to deploy orders’ [PTDOs], which have set the date for being ready to go as October 1. Given that it would take about from October 2 to October 21 to get those forces to the Gulf region, that looks about like the date” of any possible military action against Iran. (A PTDO means that all crews should be at their stations, and ships and planes should be ready to go, by a certain date–in this case, reportedly, October 1.)
So why has the president sent the strike group to Iran?
“I think the plan’s been picked: bomb the nuclear sites in Iran,” says Gardiner. “It’s a terrible idea, it’s against US law and it’s against international law, but I think they’ve decided to do it.” Gardiner says that while the United States has the capability to hit those sites with its cruise missiles, “the Iranians have many more options than we do: They can activate Hezbollah; they can organize riots all over the Islamic world, including Pakistan, which could bring down the Musharraf government, putting nuclear weapons into terrorist hands; they can encourage the Shia militias in Iraq to attack US troops; they can blow up oil pipelines and shut the Persian Gulf.” Most of the major oil-producing states in the Middle East have substantial Shiite populations, which has long been a concern of their own Sunni leaders and of Washington policy-makers, given the sometimes close connection of Shiite populations to Iran’s religious rulers.
Aside from the articles in Time and The Nation a month ago, there has been little or no coverage by the Old Media of this provocative, potentially disastrous and politically motivated move by the Bush Administration.
As for Bushie making the song “BOMB BOMB BOMB, BOMB BOMB, IRAN” more than an American expression of outrage over the Embassy hostages being held some 20 odd years ago, I wouldn’t put it past him. I wonder if he’s wondering where’s another embassy hostage crisis when he needed one and also wondering if he could get Iran to revert back to its old tricks of messing around with the embassies and foreign service officials of other countries.
“CRAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, CRAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, CRAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MARILYN, CRAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.” To my sister, Marilyn, it must dare I say it, suck to be you, if Bushie dared to give Iran the “shock and awe” treatment either on or near your birthday, (October 23rd.).
Never place your faith in the hands of a politician. Only in God alone.
To Garry: this is a bit off the subject of Iran, but I was curious about kaneh bosm; googled it (and Henry Ford). No big surprise that it’s cannabis, but even though I didn’t visit the sites, in the Google results there was no reference to the use of cannabis for motor fuel, or to make a super-strong plastic, just etymology and the history of the ancient Near East. Where does your info come from?
to nella: i think what garry is referring to is a diesel substitute. i am suprised you didn’t find anything about the industrial applications for cannabis. its pretty well known the logging industry was opposed to it also because of its extremely cost effective substitution for paper making and building materials.
If Bush spits on the Constitution, the Repigs in the congress would piss on it for good measure…Just because it isen’t written, that they can suspend elections, doesen’t mean they can’t or won’t…After all, they apparently read in it they could suspend habeas corpus without insurrection or invasion….But then again, criminals like this, would see a fair election as insurrection….Woulden’t they?
October 21st is here I wondered if anything vis a vis IRAN had happened yet. Hmmm…………………….