rigorousintuition.ca

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 9:38 am**

Wasn't it just last week Colin Powell publically regretted his speech at the Security Council, famous for its slide show of Iraqi "weapons sites"? U.S. Deploys Slide Show to Press Case Against Iran By Dafna Linzer Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, September 14, 2005; A07 UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 13 -- With an hour-long slide show that blends satellite imagery with disquieting assumptions about Iran's nuclear energy program, Bush administration officials have been trying to convince allies that Tehran is on a fast track toward nuclear weapons. The PowerPoint briefing, titled "A History of Concealment and Deception," has been presented to diplomats from more than a dozen countries. Several diplomats said the presentation, intended to win allies for increasing pressure on the Iranian government, dismisses ambiguities in the evidence about Iran's intentions and omits alternative explanations under debate among intelligence analysts. The presenters argue that the evidence leads solidly to a conclusion that Iran's nuclear program is aimed at producing weapons, according to diplomats who have attended the briefings and U.S. officials who helped to assemble the slide show. But even U.S. intelligence estimates acknowledge that other possibilities are plausible, though unverified. The problem, acknowledged one U.S. official, is that the evidence is not definitive. Briefers "say you can't draw any other conclusion, and of course you can draw other conclusions," said the official, who would discuss the closed-door sessions only on condition of anonymity. The briefings were conducted in Vienna over the past month in advance of a gathering of world leaders this week at the United Nations. President Bush, who is to address the annual General Assembly gathering Wednesday, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, plan to use the meeting to press for agreement to threaten international sanctions against Iran. The president's direct involvement marks an escalation of a two-year effort to bring Iran before the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions, unless Tehran gives up technology capable of enriching uranium for a bomb. U.S. officials have acknowledged that it has been an uphill campaign, with opposition from key allies who fear a prelude to a military campaign. Several diplomats said the slide show reminded them of the flawed presentation on Iraq's weapons programs made by then-secretary of state Colin L. Powell to the U.N. Security Council in February 2003. "I don't think they'll lose any support, but it isn't going to win anyone either," said one European diplomat who attended the recent briefing and whose country backs the U.S. position on Iran. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091301837_pf.html" target="top">Washington Post</a> Qutb means "axis," "pole," "the center," which contains the periphery or is present in it. The qutb is a spiritual being, or function, which can reside in a human being or several human beings or a moment. It is the elusive mystery of how the divine gets delegated into the manifest world and obviously cannot be defined.

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 10:17 am**

I'm getting a deja-vu. <img src="http://www.voltairenet.org/image/jeudecarte-en/big/!joker2.jpg"/> <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article10622.html">www.voltairenet.org/article10622.html</a>

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 10:19 am**

"A History of Concealment and Deception" brought to you by George Bush and various corporate sponsors. roflmao!

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 11:03 am**

it's 'Colin Powell - The Sequel'

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 11:12 am**

i just flipped on the tv. bush speaking to the UN now. are u catching this act? this sick little fraction can barely contain his smirk as his forked tongue wags on. so far the content of his speech is "day is night and black is white". honestly, this puny horse's ass makes me laugh. there's a quote i can half remember but can't attribute: "truth in the dungeon is truth, still, and lies on the throne are lies, still and truth is always ascending" sumpthin like that look out, georgie. there's something sneaking up on you...

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 11:25 am**

Actually there was no and the audience looked very bored. It's now time to wait for another de Villepin (French foreign minister) who will make a mockery out of the speech and get a standing ovation. Sadly they 'forgot' to air that part after Colin Powell's speech

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 11:45 am**

(ok, but let me fantasize a little) ... what the king feared most was being made a mockery of. I'd like to see some twittering and giggling, and finger-pointing, from these guys.

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 12:24 pm**

it would be a good time to sell t-shirts internationally that read: Go peddle it somewheres else, George Bush, because we aint buying it. ok…so then I flip it over to c-sapn (I’ll leave the typo) and some house republican twit is yammering on about all the progress we’ve achieved in Afghanistan… (spitting coffee) “Geebers, Pal, I missed all the glossy PR photos (that you surely would be showing off, if you had them, right?) ….of all the new houses and schools and hospitals and libraries and factories and office buildings and malls and gardens………oh, and hotels....” This man’s idea of progress you ought to get up and boast about is the fact that because the country is almost entirely illiterate, they’re going to the polls where they will find ballots with pictures of the candidates. I couldn’t make this shit up if you gave me three lifetimes, I swear.

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 12:33 pm**

Anna mentioned <blockquote>Quote:<hr>all the new houses and schools and hospitals and libraries<hr></blockquote>and yes, we've heard about these Halliburton/Brown and Root contracts for buildings. That other part of the story, which hasn't been talked about much, is that there's NO money to hire staff, teachers, buy books/medical supplies, anything beyond the buildin itself. And even if there were, who's gonna send their children onto the unsafe streets to go to school? And aren't hospitals regularly bombed, so that the "official" body count doesn't get reported by doctors and such? Remember, a successful lie starts with a kernal of truth. Just because a school has been built (with foreign labor, don't forget), doesn't mean it's a GOOD thing. --MaryK

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 1:33 pm**

great point, maryk. i wonder how much of what they have built is still standing. i know i read the warlords were knocking new things down left and right a while back, in their own insane pursuit of power. as for the UN, i think i'm missing something here. i just don't think there's any way the US could really go into either Syria or Iran right now, and i think even Dumsfeld knows that. (i don't really think he's dumb, i just like to call them names and make fun of them.) so what's with these aggressive noises they're making? maybe to be seen poking the beast with a sharp stick so you can claim it was them fer sure that bit you when you, umm, get bit? i suggested a couple of weeks ago that mebbe the shrub has reached his use-by date as far as the wealthpowerful are concerned, and others here have also mused on this. hmmm. are they setting up the "Iran had reason to do this assasination" scenario, in an attempt to garner world support they can't get any other way? hmmm.

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 2:12 pm**

which is scheduled to be operational in March 2006 It is reckoned that the Iran Oil Bourse would be set up in Euros (see <a href="http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?page=article&id=1704">www.thetrumpet.com/index....le&id=1704</a> ). This would then threaten the US Petrodollar hegemony, as it was the case with Iraq (& look what happened there - see <a href="http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RRiraqWar.html">www.ratical.org/ratville/...aqWar.html</a> ). I think that the 'Nuclear' issue is a smokescreen - Iran is a signatory to the NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty), which is more than Israel has done. (see also <a href="http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/17450)">usa.mediamonitors.net/con...ull/17450)</a> The date for the General Conference meeting of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Authority) Member States is set for 26-30 September 2005 in Vienna. This is strange, because only a couple of weeks ago, the date was set for 19th September. Upon checking of the conference Agenda (see <a href="http://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/GC/GC49/Documents/index.html">www.iaea.org/About/Policy...index.html</a> ) THERE IS NO MENTION OF ANY AGENDA ITEMS IN REGARD TO IRAN!!! With all the current fuss being raused by Bush, wouldn't you think it would be on there!! The IS HOWEVER the following agenda topic: Israeli Nuclear Capabilities and Threat of which the Israelis have written a letter of complaint. Check it out, I reckon there will be some interesting changes/developments between now & then!!

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 3:03 pm**

Jeez, world leaders have a ready 'solution' to BushCo's arrogant self-important puffery and dangerous contempt for International Law -- simply ignore 'im and the whole ediface of American 'leadership' that is the culmination of forty-years of increasingly lawless, reckless, adventuring Imperialism by way of lies and intimidation and war. It's pathetic how the world community maintains a pose of fawning obsequiesious servility to President (sic!) Bush and his incestuous gang of corrupt ass-kissing sycophants -- Why don't they all, or those Nations and their officials, who have serious disagreements with the course of US Foreign Policy and contempt for the US's national/state officials just ignore and shun them -- turn their backs, refuse totalk to or listen, and LEAVE any function where Bush or US officials are speaking. No phone calls, no teleconferences, returned mail, blocked e-mail accounts (Sender: Your e-mail was blocked by this account), cancelled meetings (We're sorry, but the scheduled meeting must be cancelled as (the Party) must stay home that week and defrost his refridgerator), and etc. Just Snub the Shrub! It's very likely this would have tremendous traction among the nation's citizens, at least among those who aren't completely braindead or analytically numb or disconnected from politics and world affairs, as they realize the world is effectively showing that the oxymoron of American 'leadership' stands revealed for the immense lie that it is, and that contempt for America's officials and their failure has become widespread and near-universal. For it should apparant to the world's leaders that America's current officials are totally incapable of or unwilling to negotiate or compromise or respect international agreements and conventions, ignoring its own horrendous human rights abuses and gross frauds and organized criminality while pointing to incidents of others, essentially largely exaggerated or contrived. Such hypocritical conceit deserves nothing less than concerted, principled contempt. Snub the Shrub! Shun the bum! Ban the Boob! Ignore the boor! Fire the liar! Impeach the Leach! Spurn the worm! Imprison the Moron! Dunk the punk! Indict the parasite! Cook the Crook! Indict the Idiot! (etc.) But of course, that someone as thoroughly repugnant and hypocritical and dangerously destructive as Bush could become the president of the world's most powerful (and unaccountable) nation is really just a symptom of the virulent poison of unrestrained arrogance, greed and violence that has infected America and which threatens to overwhelm the very last tenuous protections of oversight checks and balances put in place by our nation's founders -- and one could easily make a case that those protections have already been subverted by an out-of-control Executive having assumed dictatorial powers, a corporate bought-and-paid-for Legislature, and a corrupted Judiciary. The insidious nature of such a --by now-- thoroughly corrupted system based on a ruthlessly mercenary profit-oriented economy that places property values above human values tends to make us all complicit, sacrificing principles of justice and compassion and decency for pragmatic, immediate considerations. The system we now find ourselves in, in which we are mere pawns, is nothing less than utterly evil. To the extent that people don't even want to deal with it and can't face acknowledging it, the system has acquired a self-perpetuating momentum. Once someone's eyes have been opened to how foul and corrupted our society has become it's impossible not to see signs of it everywhere -- and so it remains an enigma that so many are apparently blind to what SHOULD be abundantly self-evident. -- DAMN but I've become cynical, I absolutely detest what has been happening in the world due to failed leadership and powerful interests and those who profit from catastrophes and wars of opportunity. Too much awareness is a difficult thing alright. Starman **** Our democratic values are imperiled because too many people of reason are willing to appease irrational people just because they are pious. Republican moderates tried appeasement and survive today only in gulags set aside for them by the Karl Roves, Bill Frists and Tom DeLays. Democrats are divided and paralyzed, afraid that if they take on the organized radical right they will lose what little power they have. Trying to learn to talk about God as Republicans do, they're talking gobbledygook, compromising the strongest thing going for them -- the case for a moral economy and the moral argument for the secular checks and balances that have made America "a safe haven for the cause of conscience." -- Bill Moyers, <a href="http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/006847.html#1046376">www.blogforamerica.com/ar...ml#1046376</a>

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 3:30 pm**

While looking for the réseau voltaire playing card set, I read some of their English pages because it's a very good site but sadly they only have a small section in English. There was a piece from the Tehran Times about the European efforts in trying to solve the Iranian question and that's a report which you don't often read. In short the Iranian perspective is that Europe will ultimately fall in line with the US as always. The other articles on that page from the Russian newspapers already show that Iran will / has aligned itself with Russia and China, so nothing has changed for the past 50 years... <blockquote>Quote:<hr> “Old Europe fades away from the stage” by Hassan Hanizadeh, Tehran Times, September 2, 2005. Europe’s failure to gain Iran’s confidence and the doubtful attitude of the continent in relation to international issues, particularly the Iranian nuclear one, have led eastern countries to revise their links with the EU. Since September 11, the US has treated all international issues with the security prism and that magnifies tensions. It is regrettable that “old Europe”, to quote Donald Rumsfeld’s expression, has been unable to suggest an alternative. Europe blindly follows Washington’s policies and the EU is only an instrument of the US being thus stripped of all capacities to solve the Middle East problems. Once a power in the region, Europe has given up its regional influence to the U.S. Jacques Chirac’s proposal of taking the Iranian issue to the UN Security Council clearly shows the pressure the French President has suffered from the Zionist French and international lobby. The French President decided instead to sacrifice France and Iran good relations to calm down the US and the Zionist regime. Had France, the U.K. and Germany genuinely attempted to settle the crisis, they would have recovered their lost influence in the region. But rather than establishing a good-will dialogue with Iran, the three European giants politicized the issue. Muslim countries will not forgive Europe for that and Iran is going to find new allies to confront the U.S. <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article127894.html">www.voltairenet.org/article127894.html</a> <hr></blockquote> I can't resist to paste this quote from Starman... Snub the Shrub! Shun the bum! Ban the Boob! Ignore the boor! Fire the liar! Impeach the Leach! Spurn the worm! Imprison the Moron! Dunk the punk! Indict the parasite! Cook the Crook! Indict the Idiot! Hmmm. That feels so good. Baby hit me one more time...

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 3:50 pm**

Reading further on the IAEA website, the 49th Annual Regular Session (IAEA Annual Conference) has received a request from the Arab states that are members of the IAEA, for the inclusion of an item entitled “Israeli nuclear capabilities and threat” in the agenda of the September 2005 Conference. In their Explanatory Memo, the request states that…. Whereas all Arab States have acceded to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Israel continues to defy the international community by refusing to become a party to the Treaty or to place its installations under the Agency’s comprehensive safeguards system, thus exposing the region to nuclear risks and threatening peace. Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons is likely to lead to a destructive nuclear arms race in the region, especially if Israel’s nuclear installations remain outside any international control. On further reading the their Explanatory Memo (<a href="http://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/GC/GC49/Documents/gc49-10.pdf">www.iaea.org/About/Policy...c49-10.pdf</a> ) it appears that this request has been made at each of the annual conferences in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004!!!! How come Israel is never taken to task for being outside the NPT, despite numerous requests over the years ??? There appears to be no direct agenda discussion relating solely to Iran, only the resolution GC(49)/18 - Application of IAEA Safeguards in the Middle East. So we get Bush complaining about Iran (who as far as I am aware, have not broken any IAEA resolutions (only, in 2004, being found guilty of clandestinely dealing with ‘networks’ supplying sensitive nuclear technology and information – most probably USA’s reluctant buddy in the War against Terror – Pakistan (There was a recent British TV documentary on this subject – Iran HAD to deal ‘under the counter’ as it were because there were sanctions and blockades put in place by OTHER members of the IAEA)

Posted: **Wed Sep 14, 2005 5:43 pm**

God-DAMN Goddamn GoddAMN !!! The hypocrisy here is just over-the-top insane. It's like a never-ending treadmill of idiocy, double-standards, contemptuous arrogance, stupidity, reckless posturing, and aggressive irresponsibility. The US has consistently sabotaged Iranian arms-limitation proposals, as well as confounding all efforts towards European negotiation and compromise -- while falsely claiming it is 'committed' to diplomacy. The point is -- all those self-absorbed brain-dead Republican apologists who support Bush's corrupt, duplicious and inherantly traitorous administration, stubbornly fixated on warmongering, are essentially complicit in sacrificing American security and placing the world's people at risk of global conflict. Global Justice and Peace MUST begin in one's own country -- That the US cannot, will not acknowledge the undeniable fact of its having illegally --and unwisely-- interfered for most of the last fifty years in the domestic political and economic affairs of most of the Middle East's sovereign nations causing untold suffering and death, and directly provoking reactionary regimes in response, is an unambigious sign of America's failed leadership. I would suggest that before the US condemn Iran for having unacceptable nuclear ambitions, that the US must first make a thorough and complete accounting for uts role in fomenting civil conflict, organizing coups, illegally arming and supporting brutal, danagerous regimes, endorsing and encouraging the murder of many tens of thousands of political 'undesireables', ie., suspected Communists, provoking regional and covert tensions and mounting secret false-flag terrorist ops to keep Arab nations from organizing a cohesive alliance of shared interests, and supporting brutal autocrats. Head of the list must be the war-criminal Brezinski (sp?), followed by Kissinger and most if not all the US's presidents since Eisenhower, and including many of the nation's top officials in the Dept. of State, Pentagon, Attorney General, and Presidential Cabinets. But of course, that's not likely to happen. Instead, US sword-rattling and duplicious posturing distracts attention from failed leadership and lack of courage and imagination. The Us COULD withold the many billions of dollars in cash and loans and grants and military equipment it (we) gives Israel every year until Israel either disarms its nuclear arsenal OR agrees to be bound by Nuclear oversight regs, thus showing committment to a policy of peace and diplomacy instead of conflict in the region. But inexplicitly, American policymakers seem committed to pursuing a very dangerous and troubling course that threatens further escalation of tension and conflict. Nutz. Starman *** From: <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0224-24.htm">www.commondreams.org/views05/0224-24.htm</a> Iran Nuclear Program Creates a Furor Likely to Be Futile by Stephen Zunes Feb. 24, 2005 --excerpt-- Indeed, whatever the extent of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and whatever the outcome of the ongoing talks, the United States is in a poor position to take much leadership in the cause of nonproliferation. Throughout the 1970s, the U.S. government encouraged American companies to sell nuclear reactors to the Iranian government, then under the dictatorial rule of the shah. Even more so than the mullahs now in power, the shah’s megalomania led many to fear his ambitions to divert the technology for military purposes. Despite the subsequent rise of an anti-American regime in that country, the United States is still obligated under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to allow signatory states in good standing to have access to peaceful nuclear technology. At the same time, given Iran’s enormous reserves of oil and natural gas, valid questions can be raised as to why it would need a nuclear energy program, particularly given the enormous expense and serious environmental risks of such technology. Even if we are to assume that Iran desires nuclear weapons, however, it would be a mistake to assume that the Islamic Republic would use them for aggressive designs. Indeed, the Iranians may have good reasons to desire a nuclear deterrent: In early 2002, Iran was among three countries -- the others being Iraq and North Korea -- labeled by President George W. Bush as part of “the axis of evil.” Iraq, which had given up its nuclear program over a decade earlier and later allowed IAEA inspectors back in, was invaded and occupied by the United States. By contrast, North Korea, which reneged on its agreement and has apparently resumed production of nuclear weapons, has not been invaded. The Iranians may see a lesson in that. In addition, soon after coming to office, the Bush administration decided to unfreeze its nuclear weapons production and launch a program to develop smaller tactical nuclear weapons for battlefield use. It is important to remember that the only country to actually use nuclear weapons in combat is the United States, in the 1945 bombings of two Japanese cities, a decision that most American political leaders defend to this day. Furthermore, the U.S. government is allied with Pakistan, which borders Iran on the east, and possesses nuclear weapons and sophisticated delivery systems. The United States is also a strong ally of Israel, located just 600 miles to the west, which has the capability of launching a nuclear strike against Iran with its long-range missiles in a matter of minutes. This is not to say that a nuclear-armed Iran would not be a matter of concern. Over two decades ago, America’s Catholic bishops recognized that possessing nuclear weapons, even for the sake of deterrence, was immoral. Many Islamic scholars have reached similar conclusions. It is important to note, however, that Iran has called for the establishment of a nuclear-free zone for the entire Middle East, where all nations of the region would be required to give up their nuclear weapons and weapons programs and open up to strict international inspections. They have been joined in that effort by Syria as well as by U.S. allies Jordan and Egypt. The Bush administration has rejected such a call, however, insisting that the United States has the right to decide which countries get to have such weapons and which ones do not, effectively demanding a kind of nuclear apartheid. Not only are such double standards unethical, they are ineffective: Any effort to impose a regime of haves and have-nots from the outside will simply make the have-nots try even harder. The only realistic means of curbing the threat of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East is to establish a region-wide program for disarmament in which all countries -- regardless of their relations with the United States -- must be a part. And, ultimately, the only way to make the world completely safe from the threat of nuclear weapons is the establishment of a nuclear-free planet, for which the United States, as the largest nuclear power, must take the lead. Stephen Zunes is a professor of politics and chair of the Peace & Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco.

rigorousintuition.ca

Oh no - Here comes the Iran Slide Show!

Oh no - Here comes the Iran Slide Show!

Did they set up the link to Al-CIA-da already?

Re: Oh no - Here comes the Iran Slide Show!

Oh no !

exactly what you'd expect

Did you notice the standing ovation?

back in the good ol' days...

My dialogue with the tv

Re: My dialogue with the tv

Re: My dialogue with the tv

It's all about the Iran Oil Bourse...

Iranian Sanctions pending, Bush speaking to the UN ...

Re: Iranian Sanctions pending, Bush speaking to the UN ...

More info on IAEA conference Agenda

Nuclear Iran