Iran
<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><h3><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline" id="Activity_in_1909.E2.80.931979">=</span></font></h3><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"><b>see iran 2 (bak)</b></span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">bak 819</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">see contra and nuke deal</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">=</span></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">what could possibly go wrong</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trump-blasted-for-naming-war-criminal-and-iran-contra-convict-elliott-abrams-as-iran-envoy"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trump-blasted-for-naming-war-criminal-and-iran-contra-convict-elliott-abrams-as-iran-envoy</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump blasted for naming ‘war criminal’ and Iran-Contra convict Elliott Abrams as Iran envoy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[pix: UCTV WHEN?]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Common Dreams August 7, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Following the resignation Thursday of State Department Iran envoy Brian Hook, President Donald Trump named as his replacement current special representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams, a notorious warmonger and supporter of Latin American death squads who was convicted in 1991 of withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra scandal.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Like most Trump appointees, he is not fit for the position, and will continue to hurt U.S. interests by enacting a failing strategy that will only succeed in spreading chaos and misery.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">—Sina Toossi, National Iranian American Council</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Abrams will now serve in both roles simultaneously, alarming anti-war groups who say someone with a record as blood-stained as his “should be barred for life from government positions and recognized as the war criminal that he is.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“From El Salvador to Guatemala, Nicaragua to Panama, Elliott Abrams’ life’s work has been defined by the worst impulses of U.S. foreign policy: embracing war, ignoring gross human rights abuses, and supporting horrific authoritarian regimes,” said Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War.</font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Abrams’ appointment as special envoy to Iran comes days after he confirmed during a Senate hearing that he is still “working hard” to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Sina Toossi, senior research analyst at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), warned that the Trump administration’s installation of Abrams as the top U.S. diplomat to Iran shows the president and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are “doubling down” on their push regime change in Iran as well.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Like most Trump appointees,” said Toossi, “he is not fit for the position, and will continue to hurt U.S. interests by enacting a failing strategy that will only succeed in spreading chaos and misery.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a statement late Thursday,<b> anti-war group CodePink provided a snapshot of Abrams’ views and record dating back to his time in the Reagan administration:</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the 1980s, he defended the infamous Guatemalan General Efraín Ríos Montt, whose violent crackdown on the indigenous Ixil Mayan people of Guatemala was so brutal that it was classified as genocide by the United Nations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He denied that the Salvadoran military was responsible for the devastating El Mozote massacre where, in 1981, a U.S.-trained battalion murdered more than 500 civilians, slitting the throats of children along the way. Not only did Abrams deny the massacre and push for continued U.S. support for the notoriously brutal Salvadoran government, but he even claimed in a 1994 interview that “the U.S. administration’s record in El Salvador is one of fabulous achievement.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He is vehemently anti-Palestinian and shamelessly supports Israel. As George Bush’s aide on the National Security Council, Abrams did everything he could to thwart peace negotiations. He repeatedly undercut any U.S. pressure on Israel to stop the building of settlements and cited the Holocaust as justification for Israel’s killings of Palestinians (Jews are “a people who had learned from history what happens to Jews without security”). In 2015, he applauded then-Speaker John Boehner’s decision to invite Netanyahu to address Congress without the approval of President Obama. He lauds Evangelical descriptions of Israel such as the belief that “Israel is connected to the idea that God favors and protects Americans.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1991, Abrams pled guilty to withholding information from Congress related to his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal, the secret and illegal scam in the 1980s to siphon profits from Iranian weapons sales to support the right-wing Contra rebels trying to overthrow the Sandinista government.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Abrams was a key supporter of the disastrous invasion of Iraq. In 1998, he submitted a letter to President Clinton encouraging him to depose Saddam Hussein. As Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy during George W. Bush’s second term, Abrams was in charge of promoting Bush’s strategy of “advancing democracy abroad.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Abrams championed the U.S. overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, echoing the tactics used by the neocons for intervention in Iraq.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Abrams’ opposition to the Iran Nuclear Deal is epitomized by his attempts to encourage Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites before negotiations became too serious. He expressed concern that Israel’s capacity to impede the deal was “already being narrowed considerably by the diplomatic thaw, because it is one thing to bomb Iran when it appears hopelessly recalcitrant and isolated and quite another to bomb it when much of the world—especially the United States—is optimistic about the prospect of talks.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In January 2019, Abrams was appointed to be the U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela, and used his position to support an attempted coup, quash diplomatic talks, and increase brutal sanctions, even during the pandemic.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The dangerous conflict resulting from Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear agreement will be exacerbated by a man committed to Washington’s failed policies of regime change,” CodePink said. “Elliott Abrams has made a career of lying and committing criminal acts that have led to the death and suffering of innocent people from Guatemala to Iraq. He embraces militarism, covers up for gross human rights abuses, and has a history of supporting authoritarian regimes.”</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">=</span></font></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="yiv3201549088stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="color: rgb(29, 34, 40); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" min-width="min-width"><tbody><tr><td class="yiv3201549088stylingblock-content-margin-cell" style="border-collapse: collapse; padding: 0px 10px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="yiv3201549088stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="background-color: transparent; min-width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td class="yiv3201549088stylingblock-content-wrapper yiv3201549088camarker-inner" style="border-collapse: collapse; padding: 0px;"><h2 style="font-size: 22px; line-height: 1;"><font color="#1976d2" face="arial black, gadget, sans-serif"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=6052e6d64a51140be4e0999fbaa2cb96af2d2b86c07d423abc4aa878e6284b0d3ab3dfd563d793de75acfe5fb13925e13b541080b0c3c577" title="Fox & Friends was behind Trump's deceitful tweet about an Iran order to the Navy" style="color: rgb(25, 118, 210);"><i>Fox & Friends</i> was behind Trump's deceitful tweet about an Iran order to the Navy</a></font></h2></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="yiv3201549088stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="color: rgb(29, 34, 40); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" min-width="min-width"><tbody><tr><td class="yiv3201549088stylingblock-content-wrapper yiv3201549088camarker-inner" style="border-collapse: collapse; padding: 0px 10px;"><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" /><div style="line-height: 31px;"><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" /><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font color="#4c5157"><i>Fox & Friends</i> ran a series of reports Wednesday morning about Iran launching its first military satellite into orbit. Those reports also referenced an April 15 incident in which 11 Iranian military vessels “repeatedly conducted dangerous and harassing approaches” to U.S. Navy ships in international waters in the Persian Gulf, according to a Navy press release.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font color="#4c5157">After those reports, and after <b>Donald Trump</b> sent a series of tweets referencing other parts of the program, Trump tweeted that, "I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea."</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font color="#4c5157"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=6052e6d64a51140b3ab2b11c368af120d573dbf58a17350d2f8a7deaea76223135e99cbffadd5ecc3b1b62db0bf5013e7525093773154c40" title="It turns out that Trump's tweet was a lie" style="color: rgb(25, 118, 210);">It turns out that Trump's tweet was a lie</a>. The New York Times reported, “a tweet does not constitute a military order, and a Defense Department official said the Navy had not received any formal policy directive from Mr. Trump ordering it to change its criteria for opening fire on Iranian gunboats.”</font></p></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">120 aha</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">kind of scary 6 drivers to war:</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">
</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">1) BO remark there's just a penchant/bias for it in DC</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">2) red calf dominionist lunacy 3 p's?!</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">3) general islamophobia, but boosted by bannon clash of of BS</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">terrorism fear/hyped, vote gop to keep you safe/nat'l security traf BS ploy now breaking down?</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">4) djt accuse BO of wag the dog war, so projection, plus IMPEACHMENT</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">5? legit fear of iran hegemony? why do we care? oil? straits of H?</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/omar-and-lee-announce-war-powers-resolution-to-stop-trump-call-soleimani-assassination-an-act-of-war-without-authorization/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Omar and Lee announce war powers resolution to stop Trump — call Soleimani assassination an ‘act of war’ without authorization</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/omar-and-lee-announce-war-powers-resolution-to-stop-trump-call-soleimani-assassination-an-act-of-war-without-authorization/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/omar-and-lee-announce-war-powers-resolution-to-stop-trump-call-soleimani-assassination-an-act-of-war-without-authorization/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" /></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/jon-queally/" title="Posts by Jon Queally" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Jon Queally</a><span style="text-align: right;">,</span><span style="text-align: right;"> </span><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/the-conversation/" title="Posts by The Conversation" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The Conversation</a></font></font></font></h3></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">mark shield reminds of wmd etc</span></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/worse-than-fake-news-the-arrogance-that-led-us-into-the-war-in-iraq-is-infecting-washington-once-again/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/worse-than-fake-news-the-arrogance-that-led-us-into-the-war-in-iraq-is-infecting-washington-once-again/</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/mike-pence-shows-just-how-much-contempt-he-holds-for-the-american-public-with-tweet-containing-multiple-lies" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/mike-pence-shows-just-how-much-contempt-he-holds-for-the-american-public-with-tweet-containing-multiple-lies</font></a></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Mike Pence shows just how much contempt he holds for the American public with tweet containing multiple lies</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Mark Sumner / Daily Kos January 5, 2020</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump has lied over 14,000 times since taking office. Some of those lies are about the economy, some of them about his political opponents, and a surprising number involve Trump claiming credit for programs actually signed into law by Barack Obama. Trump’s been joined in his lies by members of his White House team, from Kellyanne Conway to Mick Mulvaney to Mike Pompeo, delivering a fat untruth with a sneer seems to be the primary qualification to join Team Trump.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But it’s a tweet posted by Mike Pence on Friday that may be the best illustration of the lies originating from this White House. Because it’s not just a lie, it’s multiple lies. Incredibly lazy lies. Lies so sloppy, with so little attention to history, reason, or anything else, that Pence should be forced to wear them eternally stapled to his massive white forehead.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In defense of assassinating Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, Pence went through a long list of Soleimani’s supposed crimes. Among them “Assisted in the clandestine travel to Afghanistan of 10 of the 12 terrorists who carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The list of reasons why this tweet is ridiculous is far longer than the original tweet. First of all, on the most straightforward point, there were 19 hijackers on 9/11. Not 12. A spokesperson for Pence has since launched a defense for this in saying that Pence was talking about a “subset” of the hijackers who traveled to Afghanistan through Iran. That statement also clarifies how Soleimani “assisted” these hijackers. He “allowed them to land” in Iran. A quick check of the records shows that Soleimani also allowed 4 million other people to land in Iran in 2001 alone. He was apparently a very busy fellow.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As many, many people have pointed out since Pence’s tweet, 15 of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. They didn’t just touch down in Saudi Arabia to change planes on the way to Kabul, they lived there—which would seem to make a lot of Saudi officials more bomb-worthy than Soleimani if that were the real basis of Trump’s action. More importantly, not only were the <b>large majority of the hijackers Saudi, all of them were Sunni. So was all of al-Qaeda. The whole organization is composed of Salafist jihadists, a subset of radical Sunnis who regard Shiite Muslims as heretics worthy of death.</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Attempting to tie the Sunni forces of al-Qaeda to the Shiite government of Iran may just signal that Mike Pence is astoundingly ignorant. </b>But it certainly shows the disdain the whole Trump White House holds for the intelligence of the American public. And it’s not the only way they’re demonstrating their contempt.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here’s the schedule for the top Defense Department officials on Friday.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mark Esper, Secretary of Defense: No public or media events.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Norqust, Deputy Sec. of Defense: No public or media events.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mark Miley, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff: No public or media events.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">John Hyten, Vice chair Joint Chiefs of Staff: No public or media events.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the wake of an event that takes the nation to the brink of war, the Defense Department had nothing to say. The generals left it guys like Pence to distribute lies.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pence isn’t even pretending to have secret intelligence that supports the death of Soleimani. Completely missing from his list of reasons is any detail about the supposed “imminent threat” that the general represented to Americans.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The reason for that is clear enough: The intelligence that Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence and others have been claiming supported the assassination of a foreign official, was just as absurd as Pence’s tweet.</font></font></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></font></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/world-war-iii-trends-as-hawks-rejoice-at-trump-decision-to-assassinate-iranian-military-leader/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/world-war-iii-trends-as-hawks-rejoice-at-trump-decision-to-assassinate-iranian-military-leader/</font></a></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>‘World War III’ trends as hawks rejoice at Trump decision to assassinate Iranian military leader</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams January 3, 2020</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As peace advocates voiced alarm at the very real prospect of all-out conflict with Iran following the assassination Thursday night of that country’s top military leader on orders from U.S. President Donald Trump, war hawks who have had their crosshairs trained on Iran for years enthusiastically celebrated Trump’s decision—and even suggested the president should go further by targeting the nation’s oil refineries.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“To the Iranian government: If you want to stay in the oil business leave America and our allies alone and stop being the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world,” tweeted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a longtime supporter of regime change in Iran.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Republican Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Jim Risch (R.-Idaho), and Ben Sasse (Neb.) joined the chorus of applause, hailing Trump for taking “decisive action.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, tweeted in response to the torrent of praise that “hawks are celebrating [Qassem] Soleimani’s assassination not because they believe it weakened Iran. Or the IRGC. Or that Iran will lose in Iraq. But because they believe we have passed an irreversible point of escalation.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“From here, war is unavoidable, they believe,” Parsi added. “And celebrate.”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The likely unlawful U.S. assassination of Soleimani—and the jingoistic applause it provoked—led many to express fears of a global conflict, briefly catapulting “World War III” to the top of Twitter’s trending list. Trump, for his part, simply tweeted an image of an American flag following the strike:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Donald J. Trump</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">@realDonaldTrump</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Trump’s decision to kill Soleimani, as well as at least six others, with a drone strike in Baghdad came after the Pentagon threatened Iran with preemptive action in response to supposed indications it was planning attacks on U.S. forces in the region.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Though the Pentagon did not offer a shred of evidence that Soleimani or militia groups were planning attacks, corporate media outlets dutifully echoed the Trump administration’s line, leading some commentators to see parallels with the buildup to the Bush administration’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I don’t see any way to stop what is coming, war from the Mediterranean to the Indus and harsh repression in the U.S. that may vitiate the 2020 election,” said Barnett Rubin of the Center on International Cooperation. “This is the test for the Democrats: have our leaders learned anything since 2003? I fear the answer.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Observers warned the U.S. assassination of Soleimani, on top of the Trump administration’s violation of the nuclear accord last year and other aggressive actions, effectively foreclosed the possibility of peaceful negotiations with Iran.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Whatever happens next, understand and never stop pointing out that Donald Trump walked into office with no crisis with Iran,” said Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War. “He then filled his cabinet with warmongers, walked away from a multilateral diplomatic accord, and purposefully engaged in ‘maximum pressure.’ He owns this.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei quickly vowed “harsh retaliation” in response to Soleimani’s assassination, and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif accused the U.S. of committing “an act of state terrorism.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Amid fears of revenge attacks, the State Department on Friday urged U.S. citizens to leave Iraq immediately.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Trump’s Iran policy has been seeking to incite war with Iran since he reneged on the nuclear deal in May 2018,” said Sina Toossi, senior research analyst with the National Iranian American Council. “If a war breaks out, the blame lies squarely with this disastrous policy and its proponents.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“Trump thinks he got his Bin Laden moment in an election year,” Toossi added. “In reality, he’s made the worst strategic mistake by an American leader since the Iraq invasion. The consequences will be felt for years to come.”</b></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">=</span></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a data-ga-action="Home Headlines: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/12/31/headlines/protests_rage_outside_us_embassy_in_iraq_after_us_airstrikes_kill_24" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(241, 242, 243); text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Protests Rage Outside U.S. Embassy in Iraq After U.S. Airstrikes Kill 24</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ir<a data-ga-action="Home Headlines: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/22/headlines/iran_continues_internet_blackout_after_violently_repressing_protests" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(241, 242, 243); text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" font-weight="font-weight" text-align="text-align" center="center">an Continues Internet Blackout After Violently Repressing Protests</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; margin-bottom: 40px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); display: inline !important;"><a class="Homepage-HomepageSubjectSecondaryNode-container" relay="[object Object]" href="https://theintercept.com/2019/08/14/trump-iran-worst-lies/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; margin-bottom: 40px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); display: inline !important;">Here</a></span><a class="Homepage-HomepageSubjectSecondaryNode-container" relay="[object Object]" href="https://theintercept.com/2019/08/14/trump-iran-worst-lies/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; margin-bottom: 40px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); display: inline !important;"> Are Five Lies About Iran That We Need to Refute to Stop Another Illegal War</a></font></div><div><div class="Homepage-HomepageSubjectSecondaryNode-textBlock" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 16px; width: 247.266px; flex: 1 1 100%;"><div class="Homepage-HomepageSubjectSecondaryNode-byline" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="PromoByline-byline PromoByline-light" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: TIActuBetaMono-Regular_web, Consolas, " andale="Andale" mono="Mono" monospace="monospace" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb"><span class="PromoByline-authors" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mehdi Hasan</font></span></div></div></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);">=</font><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);" /><div style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; 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position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);">While most of the focus on online foreign interference in the US has been devoted to Russia, over the past 12 months, <b>Facebook has detected multiple Iranian campaigns targeting the United States.</b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">CNN's Sarah Mucha contributed reporting.</div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);">
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padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238);">Fox News is gearing up for a war. Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed credit for a drone attack that took out a lot of Saudi Arabia's oil processing capability. In the days since, Trump <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=106433587a36291d5024e420bd5f353a0b211ee78d2c539aa46f408b48e0c3dd23882746d67a2137f3bbdd61bc84419c6a2a8721b44d73fc" title="has announced" style=""><font color="#000000">has announced</font></a> that American troops are deploying to Saudi Arabia. It is clear that Fox News personalities want war.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height">Fox & Friends co-hosts <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=106433587a36291d5fc917d018baaf8688eb25013aa23f1000059c8c9b3c7ffcdc41976d9e9a133ab52d46bac16cd3841012744ecc257640" title="pushed" style="">pushed</a> Trump to take direction against Iran this week. It was clear when Tucker Carlson talked Trump out of striking Iran months ago that hawks at the network would only try again -- especially since the approach of Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=106433587a36291ddcbe16118099b85ee2e8e5317e7ea0886b7aa8f1dc0af354e6967fa9b4d7fed23044435ff34807a90c63ac4510b178ce" title="only making the underlying situation worse" style="">only making the underlying situation worse</a>. As <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=106433587a36291ddbbc4eeaeec15a267c789283f57b0e1076c8b38a6612aa5acc20748e4657e77607cd051397590a3616601c75233c0f17" title="I wrote in July" style="">I wrote in July</a>, it's only a matter of time before Trump starts thinking about how the media loves a wartime president.</p></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">drone attacks on maduro and saudi oil (iran shot down one of our disputed airspace)</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/this-not-the-price-of-oil-is-the-real-threat-to-prosperity/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/this-not-the-price-of-oil-is-the-real-threat-to-prosperity/</font></a></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/us-issues-warrant-to-seize-iranian-oil-tanker-as-foreign-policy-expert-warns-bolton-is-desperate-to-start-a-war/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/us-issues-warrant-to-seize-iranian-oil-tanker-as-foreign-policy-expert-warns-bolton-is-desperate-to-start-a-war/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">US issues warrant to seize Iranian oil tanker as foreign policy expert warns ‘Bolton is desperate to start a war’</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> "John Bolton" by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>August 18, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After the Gibraltar Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s effort to stop the release of an Iranian oil tanker seized by the U.K. last month, the Justice Department further escalated tensions with Tehran by issuing a warrant on Friday in a last-ditch bid to seize the tanker before it sets sail.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Bolton is desperate to start a war,” tweeted Quincy Institute executive vice president Trita Parsi, referring to President Donald Trump’s national security adviser.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The warrant, unveiled by the Justice Department Friday night, states that “all petroleum aboard [the Grace 1 tanker] and $995,000.00 are subject to forfeiture based on violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), bank fraud statute, and money laundering statute, as well as separately the terrorism forfeiture statute.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Al Jazeera, “There was no immediate word from Britain or Gibraltar over whether they would act on the warrant, as Iran said it was sending a new crew to pilot the tanker.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Common Dreams reported after British forces seized Grace 1 in waters east of Gibraltar last month, the U.K. alleged the tanker was carrying oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Iran denied the accusations and said the U.K. captured Grace 1 under orders from the Trump administration.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Thursday, the Trump Justice Department filed an appeal to seize the tanker, but the Gibraltar Supreme Court rejected the U.S. effort and ordered the release of Grace 1.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Following the court’s decision, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif accused the Trump administration of a “piracy attempt.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Having failed to accomplish its objectives through its economic terrorism—including depriving cancer patients of medicine—the U.S. attempted to abuse the legal system to steal our property on the high seas,” said Zarif.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Twitter, journalist Gareth Porter said the Trump administration’s warrant issued Friday “perfectly illustrates the U.S. trying to impose its domestic laws on the rest of the world.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It should provoke worldwide outrage,” Porter added.</font></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" text-align="text-align" center="center" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; padding: 0px 0px 23px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.33;"><a data-ga-action="Home Headlines: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/16/headlines/us_puts_pressure_on_crew_of_iranian_oil_tanker_seized_in_july" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">U.S. Puts Pressure on Crew of Iranian Oil Tanker Seized in July</font></a></li></ul></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><a href="https://original.antiwar.com/danny_sjursen/2019/06/03/the-view-from-tehran-americas-sordid-history-of-meddling-in-iran/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://original.antiwar.com/danny_sjursen/2019/06/03/the-view-from-tehran-americas-sordid-history-of-meddling-in-iran/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The </font></div><header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="entry-title" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: 1.27273; hyphens: none; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View From Tehran: America’s Sordid History of Meddling in Iran</font></h1></header><footer class="entry-footer" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.61538; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="byline" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline;"><span class="screen-reader-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); height: 1px; overflow: hidden; width: 1px; position: absolute !important; overflow-wrap: normal !important;">by <a href="https://original.antiwar.com/author/danny_sjursen/" title="Posts by Maj. Danny Sjursen, USA (ret.)" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Maj. Danny Sjursen, USA (ret.)</a></span><b> <span class="posted-on" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span class="screen-reader-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); height: 1px; overflow: hidden; width: 1px; position: absolute !important; overflow-wrap: normal !important;">Posted on</span><a href="https://original.antiwar.com/danny_sjursen/2019/06/03/the-view-from-tehran-americas-sordid-history-of-meddling-in-iran/" rel="bookmark" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;"><time class="entry-date published" datetime="2019-06-03T21:00:24-07:00" style="box-sizing: inherit;">June 04, 2019</time></a></span></b></span></font></footer><div class="entry-content" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-color: rgb(209, 209, 209);"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No war yet! That’s the good news…for now. A few weeks have passed since unhinged National Security Advisor John Bolton – who never saw a regime he didn’t want to change – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/world/middleeast/us-military-plans-iran.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">reportedly</a> ordered the Pentagon to update plans to send 120,000 additional troops into the Persian Gulf. All this preparation and the inherent threat to strike Iran was ostensibly based on vague and unsubstantiated intelligence that Tehran had planned attacks on U.S. troops in the region. Murky and secretive intelligence, preemptive war plans, and <a href="https://original.antiwar.com/danny_sjursen/2019/03/18/empire-of-absurdity-recycled-neocons-recycled-enemies/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">unrepentant</a> neocons sowing fear within the American populace. We’ve all seen this movie before, in Iraq, just sixteen years ago, and it didn’t end well. US troops are <i style="box-sizing: inherit;">still</i> there and may be so indefinitely.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If the purported Iranian threats seem manufactured, its because they likely are. And all the wrongs Tehran allegedly perpetrated against the US are exaggerated and overblown. Sure, Iran is, like all countries, an imperfect actor. The Islamic Republic did hold America’s embassy staff hostage during the Carter years. Tehran has backed Hezbollah and Hamas, both of whom once specialized in suicide bombing attacks on civilians.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Still, its worthwhile – particularly in the serious business of war and peace – to step back, slow down, and walk a proverbial mile in others’ shoes. Let me offer, then, the view from Tehran; to see the world and the US through Iranian eyes. An honest historical appraisal of the complicated U.S.-Iranian relationship demonstrates that it was often Washington and its western allies that meddled in the region and acted as the aggressors.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b style="">Let us begin in 1941.</b> Though Tehran declared neutrality in that war, Russia and Britain jointly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Soviet_invasion_of_Iran" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">invaded</a> and occupied the country to secure control of its oil reserves. Then, in 1953, when a democratically elected prime minister – Mohammad Mossadegh – dared <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/01/31/690363402/how-the-cia-overthrew-irans-democracy-in-four-days" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">nationalize</a> Iranian oil (which had been largely under foreign, Western corporate control) the CIA coordinated a coup with MI6 to overthrow the government. The dictatorial Shah was promptly put in power and ruled with an iron fist for the next 26 years. So much for America’s self-proclaimed title as the "beacon of democracy."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">T<b>hen, in 1980, when Iraq invaded and threatened to destroy Iran, the US openly backed the Saddam Hussein’s aggressive regime</b>. The US <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4859238" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">provided</a> key intelligence in the form of satellite photos to the Iraqi Army, and granted Baghdad over $1 billion in economic aid. President Reagan, in absurd twist of irony, sent a special envoy, Donald Rumsfeld, to meet with Saddam. Their now infamous picture shaking hands is all over the web. Saddam regularly employed poison gas to attack Iranian formations. It is largely <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4859238" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">agreed</a> that U.S.-supplied satellite imagery allowed Iraq to better calibrate these illegal, immoral, chemical attacks. Remember how this was viewed from Tehran: the American superpower, which had already overthrown Iranian democracy, was now backing Saddam in an aggressive war that posed an existential threat to the Islamic Republic.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">During the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, which caused perhaps a million deaths, the US Navy waged an undeclared maritime war in the Persian Gulf. In the "Tanker War," the US again tacitly backed Iraq, flew the stars and stripes on Kuwaiti vessels to protect them from attack, and, finally, overtly <a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1988/may/tanker-war" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">sank</a> the majority of the Iranian Navy in a one-sided sea battle. At the end of the war, a US naval vessel even shot down a civilian Iranian airliner, killing 290 people. The US commander, Captain Rogers, claimed his crew mistook the jet for an Iranian fighter, but even so the plane was fully in Iranian airspace.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a final twist of the diplomatic "knife," then Vice President George H.W. Bush <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/01/george-hw-bush-quotations.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">refused</a>, during a presidential campaign stop, to apologize for the shoot-down. He callously announced<b> "I will never apologize for the United States – I don’t care what the facts are. … I’m not an apologize-for-America kind of guy.</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">" Oh, and as for Captain Rogers – he was awarded the Legion of Merit for "exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service." This, despite the fact that his ship,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> the USS Vincennes, was actually in <i style="box-sizing: inherit;">Iranian</i> territorial waters when it murdered the innocent civilians onboard the flight.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Then, after the 9/11 attacks – which Iran had nothing to do with – Bush the Younger counted Tehran among Iraq and North Korea in an "axis of evil." Soon enough, Bush II illegally invaded Iraq and toppled America’s one-time friend, Saddam Hussein.<b> By 2003, Iran had American armies stationed on its western (Iraq) and eastern (Afghanistan) borders. It felt genuinely threatened, which was understandable given recent American military actions nearby</b> and the fact that administration neoconservatives were <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4122038?seq=1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">itching</a> for regime change in Iran. "<b>Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran,</b>" was a common trope around neocon circles in Washington. Given this history, it becomes rather more understandable that Iran would back militias and seek to keep the US military mired in an Iraqi quagmire. If it didn’t, Iran’s leaders worried – <i style="box-sizing: inherit;">they might be next</i>!</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">None of this sordid history should be misconstrued to obviate Iran of responsibility for its own imperfect foreign affairs, but it does add complexity and nuance to a challenging relationship. Remember that the US<i style="box-sizing: inherit;">still</i> imposes crippling sanctions on Tehran, surrounds Iran with its military bases, and maintains a naval presence along its coastline. Combined with America’s nefarious history of meddling in and threatening Iran, its hard not to empathize with the Iranian point of view.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seen in this light, one understands why an average Iranian sees America as the aggressor in the Mideast. Well, frankly, it sort of <i style="box-sizing: inherit;">is</i>!</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Danny Sjursen is a retired US Army officer and regular contributor to </span><a href="http://antiwar.com/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Antiwar.com</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">. His work has appeared in the </span>LA Times, The Nation, Huff Post, The Hill, Salon, Truthdig, Tom <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Dispatch, among other publications. He served combat tours with reconnaissance units in Iraq and Afghanistan and later taught history at his alma mater, West Point. He is the author of a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Riders-Baghdad-Soldiers-Civilians/dp/1611687810" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Ghostriders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">. Follow him on Twitter at </span><a href="https://twitter.com/SkepticalVet" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">@SkepticalVet</a>.</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/iran-seizes-british-oil-tanker/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/iran-seizes-british-oil-tanker/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Iran seizes British oil tanker</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Matthew Rozsa / Salon July 22, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recently leaked audio reveals a tense conversation between members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and a British naval officer prior to Iran’s seizure of the British oil tanker on Friday.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was heard in the audio saying, “If you obey, you will be safe. Alter your course 3-6-0 degrees immediately,” according to USA Today.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A British naval officer can be heard replying, “I reiterate that as you are conducting transit passage in a recognized international strait, under international law your passage must not be impaired, intruded, obstructed or hampered.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Iranian official attempted to reassure his British counterpart by saying, “No challenge is intended. I want to inspect the ship for security reasons.” Shortly after saying that, however, members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard boarded and seized the oil tanker.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The seizure is likely retribution for a similar act against Iran from the British government two weeks ago. After British marines suspected that an Iranian tanker off the coast of the Iberian peninsula was violating oil sanctions against Syria, the British government seized that Iranian vessel. Iranians reacted with outrage on Friday when a court in Gibraltar ruled that the tanker could remain seized for 30 more days, and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reportedly later told British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt that the seizure of the Stena Impero was a “tit-for-tat” move. Officially Iran has offered a number of explanations for seizing the Stena Impero.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The seizure of the British oil tanker comes at a time of increasing tensions between Iran and the West, with much of that having been brought on by President Donald Trump’s abandonment of the Iranian accord signed during the final years of Barack Obama’s presidency. Zarif hinted at that himself in a tweet on Sunday which said, “Make no mistake: Having failed to lure @realDonaldTrump into War of the Century, and fearing collapse of his #B_Team, @AmbJohnBolton is turning his venom against the UK in hopes of dragging it into a quagmire. Only prudence and foresight can thwart such ploys.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zarif’s comments most likely referred to Trump’s decision last month to hold back on aggressive military actions against Iran after they downed an American military drone, even though he had been urged to pursue them by National Security Adviser John Bolton. Trump also insulted Bolton, who is notoriously hawkish, by saying in an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd that “if it was up to him he’d take on the whole world at one time.” As a result, it is unclear how Trump will respond to Iran’s actions against the United Kingdom, especially given a recent New York Times report indicating that some of Iran’s leaders are considering opening up a line of dialogue with the president.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Mr. Trump is a man of action. He is a businessman and therefore he is capable of calculating cost-benefits and making a decision. We say to him, let’s calculate the long-term cost-benefit of our two nations and not be shortsighted,” former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the Times. He was cited as just one of many examples of Iranian politicians who believe, despite the recent acts of aggression by the Iranian government, that dialogue with Trump could be established.</font></div></div><div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/the-bolton-gambit-succeeded-critics-warn-top-trump-adviser-has-put-the-uk-on-path-to-war-with-iran/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/the-bolton-gambit-succeeded-critics-warn-top-trump-adviser-has-put-the-uk-on-path-to-war-with-iran/</font></a></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>‘The Bolton gambit succeeded’: Critics warn top Trump adviser has put the UK on path to war with Iran</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>July 22, 2019</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With the United Kingdom and Iran in the midst of a tense and dangerous standoff after the tit-for-tat seizure of oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, international observers are warning that the British government has fallen into a trap set by hawkish U.S. national security adviser John Bolton that could lead to a devastating military conflict.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After British commandos earlier this month swarmed and detained Iran’s Grace 1 oil supertanker in waters east of Gibraltar, Bolton applauded the move as “excellent news” and said “America and our allies will continue to prevent regimes in Tehran and Damascus from profiting off this illicit trade.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Simon Tisdall, foreign affairs editor and commentator for The Guardian, wrote over the weekend that “Bolton’s delighted reaction suggested the seizure was a surprise.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“But accumulating evidence suggests the opposite is true, and that Bolton’s national security team was directly involved in manufacturing the Gibraltar incident,” wrote Tisdall. “The suspicion is that Conservative politicians, distracted by picking a new prime minister, jockeying for power, and preoccupied with Brexit, stumbled into an American trap.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Shortly after British forces seized Grace 1, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said the U.K.’s capture of the tanker was carried out under orders from the United States.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Tisdall pointed to a story last week by Spanish newspaper El Pais, which reported that the Iranian tanker “had been under surveillance by U.S. satellites since April.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Although Spanish officials, speaking after the event, said they would have intercepted the ship ‘if we had had the information and the opportunity,’ Spain took no action at the time,” Tisdall wrote. “But Bolton, in any case, was not relying on Madrid. The U.S. had already tipped off Britain. On 4 July, after Grace 1 entered British-Gibraltar territorial waters, the fateful order was issued in London—it is not known by whom—and 30 marines stormed aboard.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The U.K.’s seizure of Grace 1—denounced by the Iranian government as an act of “maritime piracy“—led Iran to counter on Friday by capturing a British tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, ratcheting up tensions in the Persian Gulf and prompting the British government to warn of “serious consequences” if the tanker was not released.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The perilous standoff, Tisdall argued, is precisely the outcome Bolton was seeking.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The Bolton gambit succeeded,” Tisdall wrote. “Despite its misgivings, Britain has been co-opted on to the front line of Washington’s confrontation with Iran. The process of polarization, on both sides, is accelerating. The nuclear deal is closer to total collapse. And by threatening Iran with ‘serious consequences,’ without knowing what that may entail, Britain blindly dances to the beat of Bolton’s war drums.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">”</span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif offered a similar assessment in a series of tweets on Sunday.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Make no mistake:</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Having failed to lure @realDonaldTrump into War of the Century, and fearing collapse of his #B_Team, @AmbJohnBolton is turning his venom against the UK in hopes of dragging it into a quagmire.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Only prudence and foresight can thwart such ploys.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) July 21, 2019</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The<b> B Team </b>is the name Zarif has given to a group of officials that consists of Bolton, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bolton in particular has been at the center of escalating military tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which were sparked by Trump’s decision last year to violate the Iran nuclear accord.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As Common Dreams reported in May, Bolton used the routine deployment of a U.S. bomber task force to the Middle East to threaten Iran with “unrelenting force.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After Iran in June shot down an unmanned U.S. drone that it said violated its airspace, Bolton was among the group of officials urging Trump to retaliate with airstrikes. The president approved the strikes then backed off at the last minute.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, warned Sunday that by following Washington’s orders in the Gulf, the U.K. is repeating the mistakes it made in the lead-up to the U.S.-led invasion if Iraq.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“In 2003, the U.K. broke with the E.U. and foolishly sided with Bush over Iraq. London not only devastated the Middle East, it also undermined the E.U.,” Parsi tweeted. “Now, the U.K. is at it again by doing Bolton’s bidding and allowing him to make the U.K./E.U. collateral damage in his war plans with Iran.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Why did the U.K. agree to Bolton’s request to confiscate an Iranian oil tanker, knowing very well Iran would retaliate by taking a British one in return?” Parsi asked. “Does the U.K. want war? Does E.U. interest not matter to London? Stunned these questions haven’t been asked. Answers are needed.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">kpfa interviw:</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">608 KIA US in iraq b/c of iran; Petreus went after Al-Sadr which led to ctr-attack (IED?); petr spox --> prss--> congress reso? --> dick c pretext for air strikes? opposed by Jt chief?</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><h2 class="yiv8766612272size-17" style="line-height: 26px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-weight: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="line-height: inherit;">IRANIAN BOATS ATTEMPTED TO STEAL BRITISH TANKER </strong>Five armed Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps boats unsuccessfully tried to seize a British oil tanker in the Persian Gulf Wednesday, according to two U.S. officials with direct knowledge. [<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://news.huffingtonpost.com/t/t-l-bjrlilk-ujhdhydjt-b/" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; transition: all 0s ease-in 0s;">CNN</a>]</font></h2></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><table width="720" border="0" cellpadding="5" style="" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" min-height="min-height"><tbody><tr><td width="480" valign="top"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-style: italic;">July 11, 2019</span>
<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=d957d33404&e=8710facb33" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Tomgram: Michael Klare, It's Always the Oil</a></font><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What more did you need to know once Secretary of State Mike Pompeo <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=c4a44a6af3&e=8710facb33" style="">insisted</a> that a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, claimed by the Taliban, was Iranian-inspired or plotted, one “in a series of attacks instigated by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its surrogates against American and allied interests”? In other words, behind the Sunni extremist insurgents the U.S. has been fighting in Afghanistan since October 2001 lurks the regime of the Shiite fundamentalists in Tehran that many in Washington have been eager to fight since at least <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=65bc18eb94&e=8710facb33" style="">the spring of 2003</a> (when, coincidentally enough, the Bush administration was insisting that Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime had significant <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=6705bb4a14&e=8710facb33" style="">ties to al-Qaeda</a>).
It couldn’t have made more sense once you thought about it. I don’t mean Pompeo’s claim itself, which was little short of idiotic, but what lurked behind it. I mean the knowledge that, only a week after the 9/11 attacks, Congress had passed an authorization for the use of military force, or <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=b3afad9aa5&e=8710facb33" style="">AUMF</a>, that allowed the president (and any future president, as it turned out) “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons.”
In other words, almost 18 years later, as Pompeo knows, if you can link any country or group you're eager to go to war with to al-Qaeda, no matter how confected the connection, you can promptly claim authorization to do your damnedest to them. How convenient, then, should you be in the mood to make war on Iran, if that country just happens to be responsible for terror attacks linked to the Taliban (which once did harbor al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden). Why, you wouldn’t even need to ask Congress for permission to pursue your war of choice. And keep in mind that, recently, Congress -- or a crew of corrupted, degraded Republican senators -- simply <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=37a1d172db&e=8710facb33" style="">couldn’t muster</a> the votes or the will to deny President Trump the power to make war on Iran without its approval.
Let me hasten to add that the supposed link to al-Qaeda isn’t the only thing the Trump administration has conjured up to ensure that it will be free to do whatever it pleases when it comes to Iran. It’s found various other <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=833a5f5900&e=8710facb33" style="">inventive ways</a> to justify future military actions there without congressional approval. Pompeo and crew have, in that sense, been clever indeed. As <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=d67870f701&e=8710facb33" style=""><em>TomDispatch</em> regular</a><b> Michael Klare, author of the upcoming book <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=3853c9298a&e=8710facb33" style=""><em>All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon’s Perspective on Climate Change</em></a>, </b>points out today, there’s only one word largely missing from their discussions of the increasingly edgy situation in the Persian Gulf, the most obvious word of all. But read him yourself if you want to understand just how, when it comes to Iran and that missing word -- to steal a phrase from the late, great Jonathan Schell -- <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=d19bbfdb4a&e=8710facb33" style="">the fate of the Earth</a>is at stake. <em>Tom</em></font></p><blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>The Missing Three-Letter Word in the Iran Crisis</strong>
<strong>Oil’s Enduring Sway in U.S. Policy in the Middle East</strong>
By <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=819592a5e4&e=8710facb33" style="">Michael T. Klare</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s always the oil. While President Trump was hobnobbing with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G-20 summit in Japan, brushing off a <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=658330d996&e=8710facb33" style="">recent U.N. report</a> about the prince’s role in the murder of <em>Washington Post</em> columnist Jamal Khashoggi, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in Asia and the Middle East, <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=933d9271e3&e=8710facb33" style="">pleading</a> with foreign leaders to support “Sentinel.” The aim of that administration plan: to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. Both Trump and Pompeo insisted that their efforts were driven by concern over Iranian misbehavior in the region and the need to ensure the safety of maritime commerce. Neither, however, mentioned one inconvenient three-letter word -- O-I-L -- that lay behind their Iranian maneuvering (as it has impelled every other American incursion in the Middle East since World War II).</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">it’s true that the United States no longer relies on imported petroleum for a large share of its energy needs. Thanks to the <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=f83e235bdc&e=8710facb33" style="">fracking revolution</a>, the country now gets the bulk of its oil -- <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=fdadb3bd63&e=8710facb33" style="">approximately 75%</a> -- from domestic sources. (In 2008, that share had been closer to 35%.) Key allies in NATO and rivals like China, however, continue to depend on Middle Eastern oil for a significant proportion of their energy needs. </span>As it happens, the world economy -- of which the U.S. is the leading beneficiary (despite President Trump’s self-destructive trade wars) -- relies on an uninterrupted flow of oil from the Persian Gulf to keep energy prices low. By continuing to serve as the principal overseer of that flow, Washington enjoys striking geopolitical advantages that its foreign policy elites would no more abandon than they would their country’s nuclear supremacy.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&id=c3cc968755&e=8710facb33" style="">Click here to read more of this dispatch.</a>]</font></p><table width="720" border="0" cellpadding="5" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 364px;"><tbody><tr><td width="480" valign="top"><blockquote><p /><p style="margin: 11px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This logic was spelled out clearly by President Barack Obama in a September 2013</b> address to the U.N. General Assembly in which he <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/09/24/remarks-president-obama-address-united-nations-general-assembly" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">declared</a> that “the United States of America is prepared to use all elements of our power, including military force, to secure our core interests” in the Middle East. He then pointed out that, while the U.S. was steadily reducing its reliance on imported oil, “the world still depends on the region’s energy supply and a severe disruption could destabilize the entire global economy.” Accordingly, he concluded, “We will ensure the free flow of energy from the region to the world.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To some Americans, that dictum -- and its continued embrace by President Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo -- may seem anachronistic. True,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Washington fought wars in the Middle East when the American economy was still deeply vulnerable to any disruption in the flow of imported oil. In 1990, this was the key reason President George H.W. Bush gave for his decision to evict Iraqi troops from Kuwait after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of that land. “Our country now imports nearly half the oil it consumes and could face a major threat to its economic independence,” he <a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/georgehwbushkuwaitinvasion.htm" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">told</a> a nationwide TV audience. But talk of oil soon disappeared from his comments about what became Washington’s first (but hardly last) Gulf War after his statement provoked <a href="https://libcom.org/history/1990-1991-resistance-to-the-gulf-war" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">widespread public outrage</a>. (“No Blood for Oil” became a widely used protest sign then.</span>) His son, the second President Bush, never even mentioned that three-letter word when announcing his 2003 invasion of Iraq. Yet, as Obama’s U.N. speech made clear, oil remained, and still remains, at the center of U.S. foreign policy. A quick review of global energy trends helps explain why this has continued to be so.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The World’s Undiminished Reliance on Petroleum</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite all that’s been said about climate change and oil’s role in causing it -- and about the enormous progress being made in bringing solar and wind power online -- we remain trapped in a remarkably oil-dependent world. To grasp this reality, all you have to do is read the <a href="https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2019-full-report.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">most recent edition</a> of oil giant BP’s "Statistical Review of World Energy," published this June. In 2018, according to that report,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> oil still accounted for by far the largest share of world energy consumption, as it has every year for decades. All told<b>, 33.6% of world energy consumption last year was made up of oil</b>, 27.2% of coal (itself a global disgrace), 23.9% of natural gas, 6.8% of hydro-electricity, 4.4% of nuclear power, and a mere 4% of renewables.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most energy analysts believe that the global reliance on petroleum as a share of world energy use will decline in the coming decades, as more governments impose restrictions on carbon emissions and as consumers, especially in the developed world, switch from oil-powered to electric vehicles. But such declines are unlikely to prevail in every region of the globe and total oil consumption may not even decline. According to projections from the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its “<a href="https://www.iea.org/weo2018/scenarios/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">New Policies Scenario</a>” (which assumes significant but not drastic government efforts to curb carbon emissions globally), Asia, Africa, and the Middle East are likely to experience a substantially increased demand for petroleum in the years to come, which, grimly enough, means global oil consumption will continue to rise.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Concluding that the increased demand for oil in Asia, in particular, will outweigh reduced demand elsewhere, the IEA calculated in its 2017 <a href="https://www.iea.org/weo2017/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>World Energy Outlook</em></a> that oil will remain the world’s dominant source of energy in 2040, accounting for an estimated <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">27.5% of total global energy consumption. That will indeed be a smaller share than in 2018, but because global energy consumption as a whole is expected to grow substantially during those decades, net oil production could still rise -- from an estimated 100 million barrels a day in 2018 to about 105 million barrels in 2040.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course, no one, including the IEA’s experts, can be sure how future extreme manifestations of global warming like the severe heat waves recently tormenting <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/26/world/europe/europe-heat-wave.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Europe</a> and <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-asia/india-heatwave-temperatures-pass-50-deg-c" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">South Asia</a> could change such projections. It’s possible that <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/greta-thunberg-climate-crisis" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">growing public outrage</a> could lead to far tougher restrictions on carbon emissions between now and 2040. Unexpected developments in the field of alternative energy production could also play a role in changing those projections. In other words, oil’s continuing dominance could still be curbed in ways that are now unpredictable.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In the meantime, from a geopolitical perspective, a profound shift is taking place in the worldwide<strong> </strong>demand for petroleum. In 2000, according to the IEA, older industrialized nations -- most of them members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) -- accounted for about two-thirds of global oil consumption; only about a third went to countries in the developing world. By 2040, the IEA’s experts believe that ratio will be reversed, with the OECD consuming about one-third of the world’s oil and non-OECD nations the rest.</span> More dramatic yet is the growing centrality of the Asia-Pacific region to the global flow of petroleum. In 2000, that region accounted for only 28% of world consumption; in 2040, its share is expected to stand at 44%, thanks to the growth of China, India, and other Asian countries, whose newly affluent consumers are already <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/auto-makers-raise-bets-in-china-despite-market-slowdown-11559986201" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">buying</a> cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other oil-powered products.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Where will Asia get its oil? Among energy experts, there is little doubt on this matter. Lacking significant reserves of their own, the major Asian consumers will turn to the one place with <a href="https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2019-full-report.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">sufficient capacity</a> to satisfy their rising needs: the Persian Gulf.</span> According to BP, in 2018, Japan already obtained 87% of its oil imports from the Middle East, India 64%, and China 44%. Most analysts assume these percentages will only grow in the years to come, as production in other areas declines.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This will, in turn, lend even greater strategic importance to the Persian Gulf region, which now possesses more than 60% of the world’s untapped petroleum reserves, and to the Strait of Hormuz, the <a href="https://www.eia.gov/beta/international/regions-topics.php?RegionTopicID=WOTC" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">narrow passageway</a>through which approximately one-third of the world’s seaborne oil passes daily. Bordered by Iran, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, the Strait is perhaps the most significant -- and contested -- geostrategic location on the planet today.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Controlling the Spigot</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the same year that militant Shiite fundamentalists overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran, U.S. policymakers concluded that America’s access to Gulf oil supplies was at risk and a U.S. military presence was needed to guarantee such access<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. As President Jimmy Carter <a href="https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1977-80v18/d45" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">would say</a> in his <a href="https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/january-23-1980-state-union-address" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">State of the Union Address</a> on January 23, 1980,</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The region which is now threatened by Soviet troops in Afghanistan is of great strategic importance: It contains more than two thirds of the world's exportable oil... The Soviet effort to dominate Afghanistan has brought Soviet military forces to within 300 miles of the Indian Ocean and close to the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which most of the world's oil must flow... Let our position be absolutely clear: an attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To lend muscle to what would soon be dubbed the “Carter Doctrine,” the president created a new U.S. military organization, the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force (RDJTF), and obtained basing facilities for it in the Gulf region. Ronald Reagan, who succeeded Carter as president in 1981, <a href="https://www.centcom.mil/ABOUT-US/HISTORY/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">made</a> the RDJTF into a full-scale “geographic combatant command,” dubbed Central Command, or<b> CENTCOM, which continues to be tasked with ensuring American access to the Gulf today (as well as overseeing the country’s never-ending wars in the Greater Middle East)</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. Reagan was the first president to activate the Carter Doctrine in 1987 when he ordered Navy warships to escort Kuwaiti tankers, “<a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/07/21/Kuwaiti-tankers-reflagged-with-Stars-and-Stripes/5770553838400/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reflagged</a>” with the stars and stripes, as they traveled through the Strait of Hormuz. From time to time, such vessels<strong> </strong>had been coming under fire from Iranian gunboats, part of an ongoing “<a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1988/may/tanker-war" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Tanker War</a>,” itself part of the Iran-Iraq War of those years. The Iranian attacks on those tankers were meant to punish Sunni Arab countries for backing Iraqi autocrat Saddam Hussein in that conflict. The American response, dubbed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Earnest_Will" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Operation Earnest Will</a>, offered an early model of what Secretary of State Pompeo is seeking to establish today with his Sentinel program.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Operation Earnest Will was followed two years later by a massive implementation of the Carter Doctrine, President Bush’s 1990 decision to push Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. Although he spoke of the need to protect U.S. access to Persian Gulf oil fields, it was evident that ensuring a safe flow of oil imports wasn’t the only motive for such military involvement. Equally important then (and far more so now): the geopolitical advantage controlling the world’s major oil spigot gave Washington.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When ordering U.S. forces into combat in the Gulf, American presidents have always insisted that they were acting in the interests of the entire West. In advocating for the “reflagging” mission of 1987, for instance, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger argued (as he would later recall in his memoir <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Peace-Critical-Years-Pentagon/dp/0446392383/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Fighting for Peace</em></a>), “The main thing was for us to protect the right of innocent, nonbelligerent and extremely important commerce to move freely in international open waters -- and, by our offering protection, to avoid conceding the mission to the Soviets.” Though rarely so openly acknowledged, the same principle has undergirded Washington’s strategy in the region ever since: the United States alone must be the ultimate guarantor of unimpeded oil commerce in the Persian Gulf.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Look closely and you can find this principle lurking in every fundamental statement of U.S. policy related to that region and among the Washington elite more generally. My own personal favorite, when it comes to pithiness, is a sentence in a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Geopolitics-Energy-into-21st-Century/dp/0892063688/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">report</a> on the geopolitics of energy issued in 2000 by the <a href="https://www.csis.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Center for Strategic and International Studies</a>, a Washington-based think tank well-populated with former government officials (several of whom contributed to the report): “As the world’s only superpower, [the United States] must accept its special responsibilities for preserving access to [the] worldwide energy supply.” You can’t get much more explicit than that.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course, along with this “special responsibility” comes a geopolitical advantage: by providing this service, the United States cements its status as the world’s sole superpower and places every other oil-importing nation -- and the world at large -- in a condition of dependence on its continued performance of this vital function.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Originally, the key dependents in this strategic equation were Europe and Japan, which, in return for assured access to Middle Eastern oil, were expected to subordinate themselves to Washington. Remember, for example, how they <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/15/world/meast/gulf-war-fast-facts/index.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">helped pay</a> for Bush the elder’s Iraq War (dubbed Operation Desert Storm). Today, however, many of those countries, deeply concerned with the effects of climate change, are seeking to lessen oil’s role in their national fuel mixes. As a result, in 2019, the countries potentially most at the mercy of Washington when it comes to access to Gulf oil are economically fast-expanding China and India, whose oil needs are only likely to grow. That, in turn, will further enhance the geopolitical advantage Washington enjoyed as long as it remains the principal guardian of the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf. How it may seek to exploit this advantage remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that all parties involved, including the Chinese, are well aware of this asymmetric equation, which could give the phrase “trade war” a far deeper and more ominous meaning.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Iranian Challenge and the Specter of War</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">From Washington’s perspective, the principal challenger to America’s privileged status in the Gulf is Iran. By reason of geography, that country possesses a potentially <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/R42335.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">commanding position</a> along the northern Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, as the Reagan administration learned in 1987-1988 when it threatened American oil dominance there. About this reality President Reagan couldn’t have been clearer. “Mark this point well: the use of the sea lanes of the Persian Gulf will not be dictated by the Iranians,” he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/us/politics/trump-iran-tanker-war-persian-gulf.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">declared</a> in 1987 -- and Washington’s approach to the situation has never changed.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In more recent times, in response to U.S. and Israeli threats to bomb their nuclear facilities or, as the Trump administration has done, impose economic sanctions on their country, the Iranians have threatened on numerous occasions to block the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic, squeeze global energy supplies, and precipitate an international crisis. In 2011, for example, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/despite-threats-iran-unlikely-to-block-oil-shipments-through-strait-of-hormuz/2011/12/28/gIQAVSOSMP_story.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">warned</a> that, should the West impose sanctions on Iranian oil, “not even one drop of oil can flow through the Strait of Hormuz.” In response, U.S. officials have vowed ever since to let no such thing happen, just as Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta did in response to Rahimi at that time. “We have made very clear,” he <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-the-nation-transcript-january-8-2012/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">said</a>, “that the United States will not tolerate blocking of the Strait of Hormuz.” That, he added, was a “red line for us.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It remains so today. Hence, the present ongoing crisis in the Gulf, with fierce U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil sales and threatening Iranian gestures toward the regional oil flow in response.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> “We will make the enemy understand that either everyone can use the Strait of Hormuz or no one,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/05/iran-retaliate-us-oil-threats-eu-visit-hassan-rouhani-trump" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">said</a> Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of Iran’s elite <b>Revolutionary Guards,</b> in July 2018. </span>And <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/navy-aware-reports-incident-gulf-oman-n1017066" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">attacks</a> on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz on June 13th could conceivably have been an expression of just that policy, if -- as <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-administration-allies-iran-tanker-pompeo_n_5d072ea3e4b0985c419ff17d" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">claimed</a> by the U.S. -- they were indeed carried out by members of the Revolutionary Guards. Any future attacks are only likely to spur U.S. military action against Iran in accordance with the Carter Doctrine. As Pentagon spokesperson Bill Urban <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/05/iran-retaliate-us-oil-threats-eu-visit-hassan-rouhani-trump" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">put it</a> in response to Jafari’s statement, “We stand ready to ensure the freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce wherever international law allows.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As things stand today, any Iranian move in the Strait of Hormuz that can be portrayed as a threat to the “free flow of commerce” (that is, the oil trade) represents the most likely trigger for direct U.S. military action. Yes, Tehran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and its support for radical Shiite movements throughout the Middle East will be cited as evidence of its leadership’s malevolence, but its true threat will be to American dominance of the oil lanes, a danger Washington will treat as the offense of all offenses to be overcome at any cost.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If the United States goes to war with Iran, you are unlikely to hear the word “oil” uttered by top Trump administration officials, but make no mistake: that three-letter word lies at the root of the present crisis, not to speak of the world’s long-term fate.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 20.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michael T. Klare, a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176570/tomgram%3A_michael_klare%2C_fighting_the_next_war%2C_not_the_last" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">TomDispatch regular</a>, is the five-college professor emeritus of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and a senior visiting fellow at the Arms Control Association. His most recent book is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250023971/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The Race for What’s Left</a>. His next book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1627792481/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon’s Perspective on Climate Change</a> (Metropolitan Books) will be published in November.</font></p></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">...</span></font></div><div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Mr. Papadopoulos</b>, t<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">he 28-year-old campaign adviser, did not know this when he met in the cafe of the London hotel with Mr. Putin’s “niece” (he has no niece) and an obscure Maltese professor in late March. The academic had taken an interest in Mr. Papadopoulos when he joined the campaign.</span></font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>F.B.I. agents have identified the professor, Joseph Mifsud, as a likely cutout for Russian intelligence</b>, sent to establish contact with Mr. Papadopoulos and possibly get information about the direction of the Trump campaign. He disappeared after his name surfaced last October, and his whereabouts is unknown. At one point he changed his WhatsApp status to a simple, if cryptic, message: “Alive.”</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Professor Mifsud arranged an email introduction between Mr. Papadopoulos and a Russian foreign ministry official. The American also exchanged emails with Olga Polonskaya, the woman in the cafe. “We are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump,” she wrote in one message, and the two discussed a possible meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump.</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over time, though, Mr. Papadopoulos came to question whether the messages were actually from Ms. Polonskaya. The woman he had met in the cafe barely spoke English. The emails he received were in nearly perfect English.</font></span></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I even remember sending her a message asking if I’m speaking to the same person I met in London because the conversations were so strange,” he said during an interview this month.</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In late April, <b>Mr. Trump gave his first major foreign policy address in the ballroom of a historic Washington hotel. Some of the speech was a familiar litany of Republican policy positions — hawkish warnings to<u> Iran </u>and pledges to be tough on terrorism</b>. But midway through the speech, as Russia’s ambassador to the United States watched from the front seats, Mr. Trump pivoted and said the United States and Russia should look for areas of mutual interest.</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Common sense says this cycle, this horrible cycle of hostility, must end, and ideally will end soon,” he said....</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-hveid="CAgQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFSgAMBl6BAgIEAA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.54;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /></font><h3 class="LC20lb" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.33;"><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAZegQICBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Putin warned US before drone was shot down not to attack Iran</a></font></font></font></h3><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:nKLAfFv9orYJ:https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/+&cd=26&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:nKLAfFv9orYJ:https://nypost.com/2019/06/20/putin-warned-us-before-drone-was-shot-down-not-to-attack-iran/%2B%26cd%3D26%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQIDAZegQICBAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.54; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.54;">Jun 20, 2019 - </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Putin</span> warned US before drone was shot down not to attack <span style="font-weight: bold;">Iran</span> ... <span style="font-weight: bold;">Putin</span> acknowledged that US and EU sanctions had cost <span style="font-weight: bold;">Russia</span> an estimated ...</font></span></a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; 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text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-putin-trump-analysis/under-pressure-from-trump-opec-embraces-putin-idUSKCN1TX287" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-putin-trump-analysis/under-pressure-from-trump-opec-embraces-putin-idUSKCN1TX287&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAaegQIBhAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-putin-trump-analysis/under-pressure-from-trump-opec-embraces-putin-idUSKCN1TX287" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-putin-trump-analysis/under-pressure-from-trump-opec-embraces-putin-idUSKCN1TX287&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAaegQIBhAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-putin-trump-analysis/under-pressure-from-trump-opec-embraces-putin-idUSKCN1TX287" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-putin-trump-analysis/under-pressure-from-trump-opec-embraces-putin-idUSKCN1TX287&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAaegQIBhAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-putin-trump-analysis/under-pressure-from-trump-opec-embraces-putin-idUSKCN1TX287" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-putin-trump-analysis/under-pressure-from-trump-opec-embraces-putin-idUSKCN1TX287&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQFjAaegQIBhAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Under pressure from Trump, OPEC embraces Putin - Reuters</a></font></font></font></h3><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.54; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.54;">1 day ago - </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Iranian</span> Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh initially expressed outrage about <span style="font-weight: bold;">Russian</span> President <span style="font-weight: bold;">Putin's</span> pre-announcement of the extended output cuts.</font></span></a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.54; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Relations between the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Persian Empire (<span style="font-weight: bold;">Iran</span>), officially ..... Following the JCPOA agreement, President Vladimir <span style="font-weight: bold;">Putin</span> lifted the ban in 2015 and the delivery of the S-300 missile defense system to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Iran</span> was agreed ...</font></span></a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%25E2%2580%2593Russia_relations+iran+russia+putin&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQHzAbegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"></font></a></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%25E2%2580%2593Russia_relations+iran+russia+putin&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQHzAbegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%25E2%2580%2593Russia_relations+iran+russia+putin&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQHzAbegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /></a></font></font></font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%25E2%2580%2593Russia_relations+iran+russia+putin&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQHzAbegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> ‘Trump Doctrine’ is sinking fast — here’s why</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> White House</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">written by Common Dreams<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>June 30, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tehran resident Dariush is exactly the kind of person that the Trump Administration claims to be supporting. He is a middle-class businessman who hates the clerical regime. The White House thinks Iranians like Dariush would welcome the overthrow of their government. But when I talked to Dariush by phone, he was more angry at President Donald Trump.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dariush’s mother requires regular injections of medicine. The cost of the drug has increased threefold in the past year, and he must buy it for her on the black market. He blames inflation on the US sanctions: “They are just hurting normal people.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I ask his reaction to Trump’s on-again, off-again threats of war against Iran. “If a war happens,” he says, “I will defend my country. I don’t like my government, but I will fight.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over the past several weeks, the Trump Administration has managed to infuriate ordinary Iranians, traditional US allies, and US war hawks. The emerging “Trump Doctrine” uses economic sanctions and tariffs to bully other countries, accompanied by fiery threats of military action without actual attacks. Not only is the doctrine foolhardy, it isn’t working.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of ships and drones</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since May, six oil tankers in the Persian Gulf area have come under attack. The Trump Administration immediately blamed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps for attaching mines to the ships, and provided grainy video as evidence. Iran denies attacking the tankers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then, on June 20, Iran shot down a US Global Hawk surveillance drone, which cost an estimated $130 million. The US claimed the drone was flying over international waters. Iranian officials said the drone entered Iranian airspace and displayed drone wreckage at a press conference to bolster their argument.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The next day, in a bizarre sequence of events, Trump ordered the Pentagon to attack an Iranian missile battery, and then called back the planes at the last minute. He claimed this was because he had learned the raid could cause 150 Iranian casualties, but an investigation by The Daily Beast revealed he had known the body count prior to green-lighting the attack.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Rightwing hawks in the US criticized Trump for calling off the attack.</b> Liberal Democrats pointed out that he started the whole mess by withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Trump supporters tried to pass off the flip flop as a brilliant tactical move that threw the Iranians off balance.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, the Iranian government saw Trump’s vacillation as a sign of weakness, according to a Tehran journalist with close government ties, who is not authorized to speak to the media.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Iran was ready to retaliate on an unbelievable scale,” the journalist tells me in a phone interview. “After the first US missile launch, Trump wouldn’t be able to control the consequences, not only in the Persian Gulf but from Saudi Arabia to Israel.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So, instead of dropping bombs on Iran, Trump announced new sanctions claiming toseize financial assets of top officials such as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Since the sanctioned leaders don’t have western bank accounts or other such assets, the sanctions mean nothing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet they were an insult not only to Iran but to Shia Muslims, according to William Beeman, an Iran expert at the University of Minnesota.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Ayatollah Khamenei is Iran’s spiritual leader,” he says. “Trump is attacking Shia Islam itself with this move, and that is how it will be interpreted in Iran.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump Doctrine</font></b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now the Trump Administration is caught in a bind of its own creation. It would have great difficulty invading and occupying Iran because of the huge financial cost and potential for an astronomical death toll on both sides. So-called limited military strikes can destroy installations, but they also rally people to support their government.</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unilateral sanctions won’t work either because, among other reasons, no European or Asian country supports them. Harsh sanctions can cause a lot of human suffering, but they won’t lead Iranians to rise up and install a pro-US regime.</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So Trump is stuck trying to come up with new sanctions and ever more bombastic ways to threaten military assaults without actually doing so. Trump has turned Teddy Roosevelt’s famous slogan on its head: talk loudly but carry a teensy-weensy stick.</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course it’s possible that Trump’s ultra-right wing advisors will persuade him to launch an attack, according to Professor Foad Izadi, an expert on US-Iran relations at the University of Tehran. If he did, he tells me by phone, “There would be a major military response.” Iran can’t afford to look weak, he says. “The US must understand the cost is high.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More crises ahead</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The European signers of the nuclear accord, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, object to the US pulling out of the 2015 nuclear accord and oppose unilateral US sanctions. But they haven’t done anything in practice to live up to the legally binding agreement.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Iran has given those countries until July 8 to lift their de facto sanctions on Iran, specifically, to facilitate trade in Iranian oil and gas. Russia and China have taken such steps, so could Europe.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If nothing changes by July 8, Izadi says, Iran will take a number of calibrated steps to increase the amount of enriched uranium used for generating electrical power, and increase the level of enrichment to as high as 60 percent. That would bring Iran closer to the 90 percent level needed to produce a nuclear bomb. Even with enough uranium for a bomb, however, experts say Iran has no ability to build one. Iran would increase production as a bargaining chip.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How Trump could end the crisis</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In keeping with Trump’s doctrine of avoiding large troop commitments, I offer the following<b> handy hints on how to resolve the Iran crisis:</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fire National Security Adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other hawks whose bankrupt policies will lead to yet another war in the Middle East.</span>The US now has acting heads of the Defense Department, Homeland Security and dozens of other agencies. Nobody will notice a new acting National Security Advisor or a missing Secretary of State;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Declare that his campaign of “maximum pressure” is a great success and has forced Iran not to build nuclear weapons. Then rejoin the 2015 nuclear accord, which does exactly that;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In further celebration of the US victory and Trump’s brilliant tactics, lift all unilateral sanctions imposed on Iran; and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a man-to-man summit with President Hassan Rouhani, Trump should sit down for serious negotiations on a grand bargain. The comprehensive agreement could create a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, pull all foreign troops out of Syria, normalize US-Iran diplomatic relations and help combat terrorist organizations such as ISIS.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You don’t think such plans would work? Hey, they have no worse chance than Trump’s current policy plans.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">* * * </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Remember Trump’s “plan of the century” that would solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict once and for all? Well, the White House finally revealed the plan this week at a meeting in Bahrain. The plan promises Palestinians economic improvements through $50.7 billion in foreign aid and private investments, although the US would provide no funds.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s no mention of the key political issues such as creating a Palestinian state, stopping settlements and returning occupied West Bank land, the status of Jerusalem or returning the Golan to Syria. The plan was denounced by all Palestinian political parties and leaders. The plan is an insult to the Palestinians and everyone else in the Middle East.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But when it comes to Trump grand plans, what else is new?</font></div></div><div><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%25E2%2580%2593Russia_relations+iran+russia+putin&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQHzAbegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"></font></a></div></div><div><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%25E2%2580%2593Russia_relations+iran+russia+putin&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBwMOzsJnjAhW5Ap0JHWm3AQkQHzAbegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></a></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/the-hybrid-war-against-iran/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/the-hybrid-war-against-iran/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The hybrid war against Iran</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">written by Vijay Prashad / Independent Media Institute<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>June 25, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">U.S. President Donald Trump sat in the White House and contemplated a war against Iran. His army had been sending surveillance aircraft along the Iranian coastline, teasing Iranian radar, which tracked these manned and unmanned planes as they skirted the 12 nautical mile limit of Iranian sovereignty. Last week, the United States had two planes alongside Iran’s coast—an unmanned Global Hawk drone and a manned P-8 spy plane.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Iranian air command radioed the U.S. forces to say that both the drone and the spy plane had come inside Iranian territory. The P-8 shifted course to leave Iranian airspace, while the Global Hawk continued. Iranian officials say that it was because the Global Hawk remained in Iranian airspace that it was shot down last Thursday morning at 4 a.m.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump and his team threatened to retaliate. They wanted to shoot at Iranian radar and anti-aircraft facilities. At the 11th hour, Trump said, he decided not to fire at Iranian targets. The Pentagon had warned him that this would threaten U.S. troops in the area. It was to protect these troops that Trump did not launch a strike.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sanctions</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump might not have sent in a suite of missiles to hit Iran last week, but the United States has—of course—already opened up a certain kind of war against Iran. A few days before the drone was shot down, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council—Ali Shamkhani—gave a talk in Ufa, Russia, on security matters. In his talk, Shamkhani said that the United States had squashed the sovereignty of a number of countries. The U.S. Treasury Department, he said, had become a kind of financial CentCom (Central Command). Shamkhani said that the policies pursued by the United States should be considered to be “economic terrorism.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">U.S. unilateral sanctions are at the heart of this “economic terrorism.” The United States is able to use sanctions as an effective instrument against other countries because it has such enormous power over the world financial and monetary system. The U.S. dollar is the main reserve currency and the main currency of international trade. Reliance upon the U.S. dollar and on U.S. financial systems means that most countries are unwilling to stand up against U.S. pressure.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sanctions have meant that Iran—reliant upon the export of oil and natural gas—has seen its external revenues collapse. The domination by the United States over the world financial system—including the international financial institutions (the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank) has meant that Iran has not been able to raise credit on the international market. Difficulty in importing medicines and food has produced grave challenges for the Iranian people.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hybrid War</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Since the Western media continues to set the terms of international understanding, Washington’s interpretation of events around Iran predominates. Iran has never attacked the United States, but the U.S. has in fact intervened several times in Iran.</b> In 1953, the U.S.—with the UK—overthrew the democratically elected government of Mohammed Mossadeq and over the course of the next two decades provided full support to the unpopular government of the shah of Iran. When the Gulf Arabs pushed Saddam Hussein to attack Iran in 1980, it was the U.S.—and Western Europe—that provided Iraq with arms and money for a bloody eight-year war. All of this context is lost to the Western media, which hyperventilate about fantasy stories such as Hezbollah in Venezuela or Iranian control over the Houthis. It is always Iran that is the aggressor, even when it has been Iran at the receiving end of U.S. aggression.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Iran is seen as the cause of the problem; the idea that Iran is a rogue or terrorist state is hard to shake off. This is part of the information war that Iran faces, unable—even with a sophisticated foreign minister (Javad Zarif)—to argue its case that it has not been belligerent, but it has been at the receiving end of threats and sanctions from Washington.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Between 2010 and 2012, four Iranian nuclear scientists were killed. These scientists—Masoud Alimohammadi, Darioush Rezaeinejad, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan and Majid Shahriari—were killed either by Israeli intelligence, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) or U.S. intelligence, or some combination of all of them. These scientists were killed inside Iran, in broad daylight. It sent a chill through the scientific community. A U.S. and Israeli created computer worm—Stuxnet—hit Iranian computer systems in 2010, creating damage to Iran’s computers that held part of its nuclear work. It was announced that more such attacks were possible. These took place before the nuclear deal was agreed upon in 2015. But the stench of such attacks remains.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Iran’s minister of information and communications technology—Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi—said that Iran has built a firewall that protects its facilities from any cyber-weapon thrown at it by the U.S. and Israel. This firewall is built by Iranian computer scientists.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is this combination of attacks—the sanctions, the information war, the sabotage—that comprises the “hybrid war” against Iran (for more on the concept of “hybrid war,” see the dossier on Venezuela from Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research). This hybrid war continues, with the threats of war as part of the arsenal wielded by Washington against Iran. Even Trump’s statement that he withdrew the order to bomb Iran just minutes before the attack began is part of this information war, this attempt to terrify Iranians into the belief that the U.S. is dangerous enough to drop bombs at any time. The hybrid war tightens the noose around Iran.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Group Against Sanctions</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is not easy to untangle the reliance of the world economy to the U.S. dollar and to U.S. financial systems. Even talk of multilateralism is premature. It is one thing to call for it and another to recognize that it will take at least a decade to create the institutions and instruments for multilateralism. Confidence in the Chinese yuan, for instance, will need to be built. So will confidence in alternative systems to transfer money and to reconcile trades. The European Union said openly that it wanted an alternative mechanism to pay Iran for oil, one that would not run through U.S. sanctions. But such an instrument could not be created. It will take time.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Meanwhile, on the political plane, about 25 countries have come together to create a platform against sanctions.</b> These countries, says Iran’s senior parliamentarian Mohammad Ali Pourmokhtar, will stand together against the “inhumane” U.S. sanctions regime. It is not clear what this group will be able to do, but it is certainly the case that they will conduct a political campaign against the kind of harsh sanctions that are currently on Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is significant that China and Russia will be involved with this club. In Tehran, Russia’s Ambassador Levan Dzhagaryan said that China, Iran and Russia will form a trilateral group to fight against the U.S. unilateral war on Iran.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The group of 25 will struggle against sanctions and the group of three will try to prevent a U.S. war—but whether they can prevail is a serious question. The United States—under Trump—is utterly unreliable, its military arsenal ready to be unleashed, its hybrid war already unfurled. These are dangerous times.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He is the chief editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He has written more than twenty books, including The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World (The New Press, 2007), The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South (Verso, 2013), The Death of the Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution (University of California Press, 2016) and Red Star Over the Third World (LeftWord, 2017). He writes regularly for Frontline, the Hindu, Newsclick, AlterNet and BirGün.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">iran better at proxy eg hezbollah (and sort of houti in yemen) than saudis</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">
</span></font></div><div><a href="https://kpfa.org/episode/upfront-june-24-2019/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://kpfa.org/episode/upfront-june-24-2019/</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/gops-tom-cotton-calls-for-unauthorized-retaliatory-strike-on-iran-with-the-fire-and-fury-of-the-military/" style="font-weight: 700; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="font-weight: normal;">GOP’s Tom Cotton calls for unauthorized ‘retaliatory strike’ on Iran with ‘the fire and fury of the military’</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">
</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">POMPEO playing gulf of tonkin card hard</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">
</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"><div>no lnx many pix</div><div>
</div><div>If there were any lingering hopes that the corporate media learned from its role in perpetuating the lies that led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and would never again help start a Middle East war on the basis of false or flimsy evidence, the headlines that blared across the front pages of major U.S. news websites Thursday night indicated that such hopes were badly misplaced.</div><div>
</div><div>The U.S. military late Thursday released blurry, black-and-white video footage that it claimed—without any underlying analysis or further details—showed an Iranian patrol boat removing an unexploded limpet mine from the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous, one of the oil tankers damaged in attacks in the Gulf of Oman.</div><div>
</div><div>Here’s how CNN presented the U.S. military’s video:</div><div>
</div><div>Iran has denied any involvement in the attacks, and Yutaka Katada—the owner of the Kokuka Courageous—contradicted the Trump administration’s account during a press conference on Friday.</div><div>
</div><div>“Our crew said that the ship was attacked by a flying object,” Katada said. “I do not think there was a time bomb or an object attached to the side of the ship.”</div><div>
</div><div> </div><div>Independent critics were quick to call for extreme skepticism in the face of U.S. government claims, given the quality of the “evidence” and the warmongering track records of those presenting it.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Trita Parsi</div><div>?</div><div>@tparsi</div><div> A serial liar is President. </div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A warmonger and a serial fabricator who helped get us into the disastrous Iraq war and who has sabotaged numerous attempts at diplomacy is the NatSec Advisor.</span></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>But go ahead, Media, treat Pompeo's accusations as "evidence"...#OilTanker #GulfOfOman</b></div><div>
</div><div>405</div><div>12:33 PM - Jun 13, 2019</div><div>Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div>203 people are talking about this</div><div>But the media displayed no such caution.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Just taking a random sample of screenshots after the news broke Thursday night, major outlets largely did the Pentagon’s dirty work by posting uncritical headlines that took the claims at face value.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Washington Post used the word “purported” in its headline, but erroneously reported that the video was taken “before” the explosion on the vessel, not after. The headline was later changed, but was made no more critical of the military’s claim:</span></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>The U.K.-based Guardian also offered a simple “U.S. says” headline construction:</div><div>
</div><div>In the New York Times rendition—which appeared prominently on their homepage—the claim of what the U.S. military intelligence “believed” the video to show was framed with the more objective-sounding and vague phrase “what analysts believed”:</div><div>
</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Like the Guardian, Politico made no attempt to go beyond the “U.S. says” framework:</b></div><div>
</div><div>Fox News, of course, went further than most by characterizing the Pentagon video as a “major clue” to who was behind the alleged attack:</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>CNN, meanwhile—specifically in the subhead of the headline story that appeared at the top of their page late Thursday night—took the military’s claim of what the video showed as actual fact:</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>The Hill‘s version, similar to the error made by the Post, reported that the video was taken before the explosion—a detail likely to leave readers much more suspicious of Iran’s involvement than if one of its vessels had approached the ship in the wake of the incident:</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Though no single headline could be construed as explicit pro-Pentagon propaganda on its own, the uncritical nature of the coverage and ensuing echo chamber effect—or what is sometimes referred to as “propaganda reinforcement”—is one of the ways that the U.S. government and its intelligence agencies are empowered to turn a flimsy claim into a pervasive and widely-accepted fact.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Media Lens</div><div>@medialens</div><div> Classic BBC propaganda reinforcement: </div><div>
</div><div>'The footage released by the US on Thursday is rather more convincing...'</div><div>
</div><div>And ascribe doubts *solely to the accused 'Bad Guys': </div><div>
</div><div>'There will likely be doubts in Tehran as to whether this video is genuine.' https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48633016 …</div><div>
</div><div>125</div><div>3:51 AM - Jun 14, 2019</div><div>Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div>Iran's Isna news agency published an unverified image of what it said was a burning tanker in the Gulf of Oman</div><div>US footage shows 'Iran removing unexploded mine'</div><div>Iran has strongly denied the US allegation that it was behind attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday.</div><div>
</div><div>bbc.com</div><div>107 people are talking about this</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a blog post on Friday, historian and Middle East expert Juan Cole wrote that the Trump administration’s narrative that Iranians were removing an unexploded mine from the damaged oil tanker “doesn’t make any sense at all” and said the video footage released by the U.S. “needs to be carefully analyzed” before any conclusions are drawn.</span></div><div>
</div><div>“[Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo alleged that only the Iranians had the expertise to deploy these mines,” Cole wrote. “We heard this crock for 8.5 years in Iraq—all shaped charges had to be Iran-backed, even those of al-Qaeda, because Iraqis didn’t have the expertise…. Sure. Had to be Iran, helping those hyper-Sunni al-Qaeda. Very likely story.”</div><div>
</div><div>On Twitter, Sina Toossi, research associate at the National Iranian American Council, echoed Cole’s call for skepticism and an investigation.</div><div>
</div><div>“What we need is an impartial investigation,” Toossi wrote, “and to be highly skeptical of claims and intel assessments from Bolton/Pompeo.”</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Sina Toossi</div><div>@SinaToossi</div><div> Head of the tanker says two drones caused the damaged, contradicting this “dozen men on a boat” narrative. </div><div>
</div><div>What we need is an impartial investigation & to be highly skeptical of claims & intel assessments from Bolton/Pompeo.</div><div>
</div><div>Bloomberg</div><div>?</div><div>@business</div><div>American officials released images they said show that Iran was involved in an attack on an oil tanker near the entrance to the Persian Gulf on Thursday https://bloom.bg/2IdpiIh </div><div>
</div><div> Embedded video</div><div>361</div><div>4:26 AM - Jun 14, 2019</div><div>
</div><div>In a column published last month as the U.S. aggressively escalated military tensions with Iran and pushed the two nations to the brink of all-out war, The Intercept‘s Mehdi Hasan asked a straightforward question that remains relevant in the present: “Do U.S. reporters, anchors, and editors really want more Middle Eastern blood on their hands?”</div><div>
</div><div>“If not,” Hasan wrote, “they need to fix their rather credulous and increasingly hawkish coverage of Iran and the Trump administration—and fix it fast.”</div></span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">an 519</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">no lnx</span></font></div><div><span class="mw-headline"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>written by Terry H. Schwadron / DC Report<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>May 27, 2019</div><div>With problems mounting at home, Trump rattles his sabre at a long-time foe.</div><div>Here we go.</div><div>
</div><div>In words that sounded remarkably like the build-up to the war in Iraq, Pentagon officials were finishing plans for presentation to the White House this morning seeking a presidential decision to send up to 10,000 troops to the Middle East to stymie any ill plans by Iran.</div><div>
</div><div>As widely reported in the news media, the plans were extremely fuzzy, as has the explanation for what exactly the need is, what has constituted provocation from Iran.</div><div>
</div><div>According to The Associated Press, the military will present plans for up to 10,000 more troops to the Middle East, additional Patriot missile batteries, more ships and increased equipment to monitor Iran. No decision has been made, and, of course, with as mercurial a president as Trump, it is unclear whether any or all of the requests will be approved.</div><div>
</div><div>As recently as Tuesday, Trump said he did not want war with Iran. Then he told a rally that any provocation would be the “end” of Iran. You decide.</div><div>
</div><div>Iran Steamed</div><div>
</div><div>Meanwhile, Iran is reportedly pretty steamed over all the war talk, and, diplomats speaking to The Washington Post are telling all they need to abandon a strategy of restraint and start pushing back against the White House.</div><div>
</div><div>Apparently, that means that in the face of tightened economic sanctions and military threats, “Iran is now seeking to highlight the costs it could also impose on the United States — for instance, by disrupting the world’s oil supply — without taking actions likely to trigger an all-out war.”</div><div>
</div><div>The chances of a misstep, a mischaracterization, a misreading of moves make the Middle East suddenly seem much more a tinderbox than usual.</div><div>
</div><div>Congress Confused</div><div>
</div><div>Meanwhile, Congress members who were briefed by the administration this week, frankly, left informational meetings confused about what had been old Iranian abuses, older complaints about Iran or fresh signs of war-like provocation.</div><div>
</div><div>In light of all of this, here’s what occurs to me:</div><div>
</div><div>Trump campaigned against unwanted and unneeded wars in the Middle East. He has taken glee in withdrawing all troops from Iraq, only to then turn around and keep some, and hastening the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. He made belligerent remarks about North Korea, Venezuela and Iran, then withdrew all. As commander-in-chief, he is at best someone interested in the appearance of strength as if boasting can chase away actual military issues. Promises made, promises kept? How about Promises made, love the local strongman unless he is blocking our way to more oil?</div><div>Trump’s America First foreign policy has isolated the United States as it approaches the Iranian problem. Even if he deploys an estimated 120,000 troops – to do what, exactly? – the United States needs more troops from its usual coalition partners, the same partners he has criticized and distanced from the United States.</div><div>Trump is isolated at home even more than among overseas allies. He lacks real congressional allies outside of Republicans who fear that he will undercut their re-election, by choice, he lacks a full bench of thinkers and strategists in the White House, he will be blocked at every turn by Democrats who think the president is less than fully rational. So, he is relying on gut and on the voices of John Bolton, who has wanted war with Iran for a generation, an acting defense secretary and perhaps Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who may be doing what he thinks Trump wants.</div><div>Trump dumped the nuclear weapons agreement with Iran, which he says now he really wants, but only if Iran also stops all other forms of aggression in the region, something for which there is now zero chance.</div><div>Under severe political pressure from multiple House investigations; probes by the state of New York, the Southern District of New York and Eastern Virginia; and scrutiny by 24 Democratic presidential candidates, Trump is lashing out like a treed cat.</div><div>Trump, who has decried intelligence agencies from his first week in office, now finds that he must rely on exactly those agencies to make a decision about deploying U.S. troops, the exact deployments he campaigned against as a waste of human and financial resources for no real purpose.</div><div>Under those combined circumstances, you and I are supposed to accept a decision that may start rolling out today about deploying our sons and daughters to fight a war with no clear guidelines or goals, based on evidence that apparently is funky and flaky.</div><div>
</div><div>Is this how we Make America Great?</div></span></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><p class="yiv0972791634headline3" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" margin="margin" padding="padding"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click1.e.alternet.org/jrtfmzncndswsmkkwtjnnwnkktwkcvqpfdnsjbzvrrm_xvgvdcsctdrrsjscpjb.html?a=&b=239&c=21989&d=2" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">‘This is big’: 76 retired US generals and diplomats warn Trump against war with Iran</font></a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" color="color" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump often says he listens to military generals…</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/dont-fall-for-it-arizona-congressman-and-former-marine-who-gets-the-same-intel-as-tom-cotton-warns-some-gopers-are-exaggerating-the-iran-threat/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/dont-fall-for-it-arizona-congressman-and-former-marine-who-gets-the-same-intel-as-tom-cotton-warns-some-gopers-are-exaggerating-the-iran-threat/</a>
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">B<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">efore Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona pursued a career in politics, he served in the United States military: Gallego was a Marine infantryman in Iraq in 2005. And the 39-year-old Democratic congressman is warning that the push for a military confrontation with Iran in 2019 is full of</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/18/i-get-same-intel-iran-threat-exaggerated-by-gop-hawks-rep-gallego-says/?utm_term=.2ae7b434d373" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">misleading assertions</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></div><div class="p1_6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gallego, now a member of the House Armed Services Committee, received a classified briefing on May 17—and the following day, he told the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Washington Post</em>, “What I saw was a lot of misinterpretation and wanting conflict coming from the administration and intelligence community. Intel doesn’t show existential threats. Even what it shows, it doesn’t show threats to U.S. interests.”</font></p><div class="p2_6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="alt_ad_block story-page-in-content-graph-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The claim that Iran poses a major threat to the U.S. in 2019, according to Gallego, is mainly being advanced by National Security Adviser John Bolton and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. On Saturday, Gallego took to Twitter and warned, “I get the same intel as Cotton. He is greatly exaggerating the situation to spur us to war. Don’t fall for it.”</font></p><div class="p3_6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump has been highly critical of President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State John Kerry on Iran policy, terminating their arms agreement with the Iranian government. But Trump has, at times, been quite critical of neocons as well. And according to the Washington Post, Trump has reportedly become <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-frustrated-by-advisers-is-not-convinced-the-time-is-right-to-attack-iran/2019/05/15/bbf5835e-1fbf-4035-a744-12799213e824_story.html?utm_term=.e209ad9ea25a&tid=a_inl_manual" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">frustrated with Bolton</a>as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over Iran—believing them to be unnecessarily hawkish with that country.</font></p><div class="p4_6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Deterrence is important to contain bad actors like Iran, but there has to be a fine line between deterrence and escalation,” Gallego told the Washington Post. “We can’t automatically go to war because a 17-year-old fires an AK-47 at U.S. interests.”</font></p><div class="p5_6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After serving in the Arizona State Senate for four years, Gallego was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014 and was reelected in 2016 and 2018.</font></p><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">gulf war 3?</span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">
</span></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/the-trump-administration-beats-the-drum-for-conflict-with-iran-as-republicans-call-for-unity-in-an-easy-war/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/the-trump-administration-beats-the-drum-for-conflict-with-iran-as-republicans-call-for-unity-in-an-easy-war/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Wednesday morning,<b> the State Department</b></span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/iraq-travel-advisory.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">issued a “Do Not Travel” advisory </a></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>for Americans considering going to Iraq, ordered nonessential personnel to leave the country, and warned of a “high risk for violence and kidnapping.”</b> This action comes after the United States indicated that Iran was behind attacks on four oil tankers just outside the Persian Gulf. Iran has denied those accusations, but as tensions in the region increase, Republicans are lining up to spread the message that war with Iran</span><a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/05/14/1857682/-#%C2%A1#*@!+%C2%A7-Sen-Tom-Cotton-suggests-war-with-Iran-would-be-a-cakewalk" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"> would be easy</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, and that it’s time for</span><a href="https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1128619127755689985" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"> everyone to get behind Donald Trump</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></div><div class="p1_12" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On Tuesday, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton declared that the United States could win a war in Iran with just “Two strikes: the first strike and a last strike.” This is completely at odds with the evaluation of military strategists. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There is little doubt about the ability of the U.S. military to overcome that of Iran in the field, but the military of Iran is <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">much </em>more capable than that of Iraq, where the “easy” victory has been followed by well over a decade of low-grade warfare, bombings, and terror attacks in which over 4,400 U.S. soldiers have lost their lives and over 31,000 have been wounded—often severely. In addition, estimates of civilian deaths range from 150,000 to over 650,000. In addition, the war in Iraq generated an increase in international terrorism, including acting as a primary factor in the rise of ISIS. And that was a war that was supposed to be a walkover on all counts.</span></font></p><div class="p2_12" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Iraq’s military <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/iraq-iraqs-prewar-military-capabilities" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">was a fraction</a> of what it had been before the 1991 Gulf War when the U.S. invaded in 2003. Its fleet of armored vehicles was aging, short on parts, and completely outmatched by American tanks. The tiny Iraqi Air Force had not one plane from later than the 1980s, and in fact not a single plane got off the ground to challenge the U.S. in the air. None of these things is true of Iran. Not only is the Iranian military generally modern and in good repair, but the nation has also conducted an aggressive program of missile development, including short-range missiles that can be fired from mobile platforms. Included in this are a number of special anti-ship missiles developed especially because Iran <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">expected </em>to be threatened by U.S. carriers. In addition, Iran sports a fleet of “midget” submarines especially designed to create havoc in the Gulf and act against both military and civilian craft. While there is little doubt the U.S. would overcome organized opposition quickly, it’s much less clear that this could be done without significant losses of equipment and lives, as well as a major disruption of the world economy.</font></p><div class="p3_12" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The current increase in tensions with Iran is directly related to Donald Trump’s precipitous unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear treaty—an action that was definitely not supported by other signatories to that treaty. And if the United States believes it will have a coalition of allies going into Iran … it had better think again.</font></p><div class="p4_12" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a title="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/world/middleeast/trump-iran-threats.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The New York Times </em>reports</a> that a British military official—who also happens to be the deputy commander of the coalition fighting ISIS—has stated that he sees “no increased risk from Iran or allied militias,” but the U.S. has fired back to say there are “identified credible threats” that generated the State Department warnings. That’s not to say that European officials and coalition members aren’t seeing aggressive moves in the Middle East. It’s just that those moves have “originated not in Tehran, but in Washington.”</font></p><div class="p5_12" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There is an increasing fear that Trump, spurred on by <b>national security adviser John Bolton, thinks that a conflict with Iran could give him a Gulf War-style popularity boost going into 2020</b>. Republicans aren’t making that theory look any weaker by not just manufacturing a case for war, but arguing—already—that it’s time to have Trump’s back in this not-yet-conflict.</font></p><div class="p6_12" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Wednesday, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio issued<a title="" href="https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1128631766078709760" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"> a series of tweets</a> that started with a claim that the “U.S won’t start a war with Iran, but it will win one that Iran starts.” Rubio continued through a set of statements claiming that “Iran’s proxy forces” in Yemen and Iraq “plan to attack Americans with the intent of inflicting mass casualties,” and that Iran has “spent years” building the ability to attack America through these proxy forces. He provided no evidence for this extraordinary claim.</font></p><div class="p7_12" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rubio then jumped to a new level of odd in spinning a pre-propaganda statement warning that “internal political divisions” in the United States, and the legacy of the Iraq War, will lead “a substantial percentage of Americans” to blame Trump for any war. Because, he says, Iran will use social media to spread this message. Sure, says Rubio, some people might argue that Trump’s pulling out of the treaty without justification might have started this whole series of actions, but just ignore that. Instead, it’s time to show Iran that we are “united.”</font></p><div class="p8_12" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Shorter Rubio: If a war starts, it’s not our fault. And even if it is our fault, why are we arguing about whose fault it is anyway? Just support it.</font></p><div class="p9_12" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The facts are that Donald Trump has profoundly destabilized not just the Middle East, but the entire world, by showing that America cannot be trusted to abide by the international agreements that it has signed. Pulling out of that treaty not only sparked a potential conflict, but it also all but guaranteed that the United States would go into any such conflict alone.</font></p><div class="p10_12" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Any war in Iran should be expected to be an order of magnitude worse than the experience in Iraq—both in the immediate execution and in the aftermath. And no one will be cheering on the United States or providing troops and assistance.</font></p><div class="p11_12" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Except, of course, for Saudi Arabia, which is ecstatic about the possibility of Trump taking out its major rival. It appears that someone in the region really has learned about using proxy forces to inflict mass casualties.</font></p><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">
</span></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/this-right-wing-senator-just-said-the-u-s-could-quickly-win-a-war-against-iran-with-two-strikes/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/this-right-wing-senator-just-said-the-u-s-could-quickly-win-a-war-against-iran-with-two-strikes/</font></a></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">=</span></font></div><div style=""><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.3em; letter-spacing: 0px; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">Tr<a title="Trump administration designates Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization — but report links group to his Azerbaijan hotel" href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/trump-administration-designates-irans-revolutionary-guard-as-a-terrorist-organization-but-report-links-familys-azerbaijan-hotel-to-the-group/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.3em; letter-spacing: 0px; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">ump administration designates Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization — but report links group to his Azerbaijan hotel</a></font></h3></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4/19</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">alt fact post truth:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/john-bolton-threatens-iran-over-debunked-pursuit-of-nuclear-weapons/255032/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.mintpressnews.com/john-bolton-threatens-iran-over-debunked-pursuit-of-nuclear-weapons/255032/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" 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Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx twit</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>As Iranians this week mark the 40th anniversary of their country’s 1979 revolution, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton declared in a message to Iranian leaders on Monday that he doesn’t think they will “have many more anniversaries to enjoy”—a comment that was immediately perceived as a direct threat of war.</div><div>
</div><div>In a video posted to the White House’s official Twitter page on Monday, Bolton echoed false assertions and repeatedly debunked claims by the Trump that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons and described the Iranian government as the “central banker of international terrorism.”</div><div>
</div><div>Responding to Bolton’s video, Sen. Chris Murphy warned in a tweet on Tuesday that Trump’s hawkish national security adviser is knowingly lying to build momentum for a U.S. military attack on Iran.</div><div>...</div></div></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">=</span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">1/18 green activists ngo arrested, killed alleged suicide; kpfa 11/2/18</span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">=</span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/drugs/never-believe-what-country-enacted-meaningful-drug-reform-iran">https://www.alternet.org/drugs/never-believe-what-country-enacted-meaningful-drug-reform-iran</a></span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/cia-coup-set-stage-conflict-iran">https://www.alternet.org/cia-coup-set-stage-conflict-iran</a></span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">medea b:</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times 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size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Before the theocratic government of today's Iran, there was the brutal Shah. Before the Shah, the CIA overthrew a pro-Western government that had been democratically elected. Mohammad Mossadegh was the prime minister and his US-backed downfall in 1953 was the spark that set in motion the conflict with Iran today. In this interview, Medea Benjamin sheds light on this seminal incident with Iran. She also explores the nation's history and politics.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>Mark Karlin: How did the 1953 coup that re-installed the Shah relate to keeping the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company from being nationalized?</div><div>
</div><div>Medea Benjamin: In 1934, the Shah had signed a contract with the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company giving it exclusive rights over the nation's oil for the next 60 years. The public ire over the giveaway of the nation's resources culminated in 1951 with the election of Mohammad Mossadegh as prime minister. Mossadegh introduced a bill to nationalize the oil, a bill that was unanimously approved by Parliament. The British then convinced the US government that nationalization was unacceptable, leading to a CIA coup that reinstated the Shah and ensured that the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later renamed BP) could continue to exploit Iran's resources.</div><div>
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</div><div>What was the impact of the coup?</div><div>
</div><div>The CIA coup that overthrew Iran's democratically elected government, while deemed successful at the time, has had a tragic impact on the Iranian people and US-Iranian relations. The Shah was put back in charge with even more dictatorial powers. He built a terrifying internal security force called SAVAK that "disappeared," tortured and killed political dissidents. All the secular parties and organizations that had opposed the Shah were dismantled and banned. The only important institution that maintained some independence and could still speak with moral authority to the concerns of the public was the Shi'ite clergy, setting the stage for the 1979 Islamic Revolution. And thanks to the constant US meddling in Iran's internal affairs, the 1979 Revolution was not only anti-Shah, but anti-American.</div><div>
</div><div>Since then, the US policy has been one of trying to economically strangle the government through a variety of sanctions and trying to foment a counter-revolution. It was only during the Obama administration that there was some rapprochement with the signing of the Iran nuclear deal, but this deal was opposed by Donald Trump.</div><div>
</div><div>Can you briefly explain the conflict between Sunni Arab Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Persian Iran?</div><div>
</div><div>The religious division between Sunni and Shia dates back to Islam's founding in the 7th century, but Sunni and Shia have coexisted without significant conflict for much of the history of the Middle East. It was only after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran that the rivalry exploded. The new Iranian leaders challenged the legitimacy of the Saudi royal family, claiming that Islam was incompatible with hereditary monarchies. The Saudi rulers' response was to denounce Iran's revolution as a power play by heretical Shi'ites. In essence, the Saudi-Iran rivalry is less about religion than it is about power and politics.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>From your trips to Iran, what did you find, in general, that the people you met thought of the United States?</div><div>
</div><div>Most Iranians I met were resentful of the American government for the sanctions that have made their lives difficult, but they love the American people. My experience is that Iranians are better than Americans at distinguishing between governments and people. While Americans tend to see Iranians as their enemies (Trump's Muslim Ban plays into this narrative), Iranians tend to have a favorable view of Americans. This is especially true of younger Iranians, who are well-educated and have direct access to US culture through social media.</div><div>
</div><div>How are women treated in Iran?</div><div>
</div><div>Westerners who think of Iranian females as passive, hijab-clad women relegated to the confines of their homes are quite misinformed. Yes, Iranian women are oppressed by government restrictions and conservative interpretations of Islamic principles -- the mandatory dress code of the hijab is a visible sign of government interference in their lives. But Iranian women enjoy far greater freedoms than women in many other countries in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia, where women live under a much stricter male guardianship system. Iranian women are well-educated, involved in all aspects of society and are powerful agents of change who continuously fight for their rights, even at great personal risks.</div></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/world/trumps-quiet-meeting-saudi-arabia-and-israel-portends-dangerous-collision-course-iran">https://www.alternet.org/world/trumps-quiet-meeting-saudi-arabia-and-israel-portends-dangerous-collision-course-iran</a></span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">
</span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline"></span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">obama deal sticks in craw</span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">
</span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">=</span></font></div><div style=""><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">they're baaaaack</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On</font><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ce upon a time there were hopes that Donald Trump as president might pursue a different kind of American foreign policy; call it non-interventionist, or isolationist, or transactional.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He certainly broke with conventional Washington discourse. When the foreign policy establishment of Washington almost unanimously urged President Obama in September 2013 to punish the Syrian government for a chemical gas attack, Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/375577511473983488" style="text-decoration-line: none;">tweeted</a>, “Do not attack Syria” three times in two days.</font></p><div id="TeadsNative" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump denounced previous administrations, Democratic and Republican, for casting America as the "policeman of the world.” He criticized President George W. Bush even more harshly than many liberal critics did. ...No longer. For the first year of his presidency, Trump <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/29/how-donald-trump-learned-to-love-war-in-2017/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">intensified U.S. military action</a> in every war theater he inherited from Obama. He sent more troops to Afghanistan. He dropped more bombs on Somalia than Obama and Bush combined. He loosened the rules of engagement in Syria. And he supplied Saudi Arabia with the bombs to besiege the civilians of Yemen. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Only on the issue of Iran did Trump exercise a degree of restraint. While he repeatedly disparaged the 2015 international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, he deferred to the triumvirate of his national security advisers: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They all told Trump that international inspectors confirm Iran is abiding by the terms of the deal, and the results serve American security interests by blocking Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon at least until 2025.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Tillerson’s "<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/08/tillerson-iran-jcpoa/535602/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">differences</a>" with Trump on Iran chafed the president and finally cost Tillerson his job.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Neo-Continuity</font></strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"When you look at the Iran deal, I thought it was terrible,” Trump said of Tillerson Tuesday. “He thought it was okay. I wanted to either break it or do something, he felt a little differently.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump is now moving toward renouncing the deal in May, a move Pompeo has long advocated. Along the way, Trump is adopting the worldview of the neoconservatives he once scorned.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“For anybody who thought that Trump was bluffing about his May 12 deadline to fix the deal or nix it, the appointment of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state should be a wake-up call,” said Mark Dubowitz, an executive at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which has close ties to the Trump administration.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The foundation, created in 2001, embodies the continuity between the neoconservative policies of the Bush administration and the Trump administration. Founded by a “group of visionary philanthropists and policymakers who understood the threat facing America, Israel and the West,” the foundation's advisers include former Sen. Joe Lieberman, columnists Bret Stephens and Charles Krauthammer, and neoconservative guru William Kristol.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">The personnel has changed—Kristol is now a Never Trump conservative—but the song of “regime change” in Iran remains the same.</span>Even before the invasion of Iraq, the foundation’s ideologues were dreaming of invading Iran. “Everyone talks about going to Baghdad,” said one British official of the neoconservatives. "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/18/opinion/things-to-come.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Real men talk about going to Tehran</a>."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The potential for a democratic transition exists in Iran, where such aspirations have been growing for over 100 years,” Reuel Marc Gerecht, senior fellow at the foundation, wrote last week in the Wall Street Journal. “As regime-shaking street protests have repeatedly revealed, the country is a volcano. We want it to erupt. For the U.S. and the Middle East, sooner is better than later.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ostensible goal of reaching a better agreement with Iran cannot conceal a larger ambition. In 2016, Pompeo said, “Congress must act to change Iranian behavior, and ultimately, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/mike-pompeo-said-all-muslims-are-potentially-complicit-terrorism-he-ncna856531" style="text-decoration-line: none;">the Iranian regime</a>."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pompeo, much more than Tillerson, identifies with Israel, which has sought to kill the Iran agreement even while it was being negotiated. He was much more energetic than Tillerson in cultivating the Persian Gulf oil states that feel most threatened by Iran.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jim Lobe notes that Pompeo <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/world/gcc/saudi-s-king-salman-discusses-relations-with-cia-chief-pompeo-1.688905" style="text-decoration-line: none;">met</a> with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia in December to promote an anti-Iran coalition of Israel and the Gulf Arab states. The Jerusalem-Riyadh axis wants to enlist the United States in their campaign to confront and disrupt Iran.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We absolutely need Sunni partners,” Pompeo said <a href="https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/180123-AEI-Intelligence-Beyond-2018.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">in a talk</a> at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute. “This administration has broadly reached out to Sunni countries all throughout the Middle East to form coalitions… not only against ISIS, but against Iran as well.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Enter Bolton?</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Tillerson’s dismissal has also deepened speculation about the departure of the national-security adviser, General H. R. McMaster,” <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/with-mike-pompeo-at-the-state-department-are-the-uber-hawks-winning" style="text-decoration-line: none;">says</a> Robin Wright of the <em>New Yorker.</em> “The former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, an über-hawk on foreign policy, visited the White House last week; Republicans in previous administrations told me that he is an increasingly likely candidate to replace McMaster, whose long-winded lectures Trump has grumbled about.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bolton's policy goals are not subtle. In a 2015 <em>New York Times</em> opinion column, he advocated <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/opinion/to-stop-irans-bomb-bomb-iran.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">bombing Iran</a> immediately.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s firing of Tillerson and his chumminess with Bolton is a reminder that the president once harbored the belief that instigating war with Iran would be a good move for a president in need of a boost at the polls. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2011 and 2012, Trump tweeted six times that Obama was going to attack Iran in order to win the election.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...[tweets]</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/return-neoconservatives-trump-administration">https://www.alternet.org/return-neoconservatives-trump-administration</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">=</span></font></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Global-Viewpoint/2013/0305/Argo-helps-Iran-s-dictatorship-harms-democracy/(page)/2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Global-Viewpoint/2013/0305/Argo-helps-Iran-s-dictatorship-harms-democracy/(page)/2</font></a></span></div><div style=""><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px 1.8em;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="dateline" class="eza-dateline all_caps" style="text-transform: uppercase;"> </span>It was not my intention to write about the film “Argo.” I initially viewed it as another Hollywood movie that aimed to keep an audience on its toes through some combination of fact and fantasy, in order to cash in at the box office. It is, indeed, a well-made movie. However, when first lady <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Michelle+Obama" target="self" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Michelle Obama</a> presented its director, <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Ben+Affleck" target="self" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Ben Affleck</a>, with the Oscar for Best Picture at this year’s <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Academy+Awards" target="self" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Academy Awards</a>, it also<b> </b>communicated a more political message that the film was approved by <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Barack+Obama" target="self" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">President Obama</a> himself. I then felt that I needed to make my views of the movie clear, particularly as it mentions me.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.8em 0px;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Near the start, the film correctly cites a quotation from me that I believed the Americans who were being held in the embassy would be freed very soon. That information was based on a conversation with <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Ayatollah+Ruhollah+Khomeini" target="self" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Ayatollah Khomeini</a>, in which he had said that they would be released within the following three to four days.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.8em 0px;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The movie, however, presents this statement in an atmosphere which gives viewers the impression that the Iranian government supported the occupation of the embassy and that I was a lone voice in opposing it. This could not be further from the truth.</font></p><div class="promo_link_wrapper ezc-csm_list_article" style="" open="Open" sans="Sans" arial="Arial" helvetica="Helvetica" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-weight="font-weight" font-stretch="font-stretch" normal="normal" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em" line-height="line-height" padding="padding" border-left="border-left" solid="solid"><div class="ezc-csm_list_article promo_link" data-target="/Commentary/Opinion/2012/0620/4-ways-US-and-Iran-can-make-nuclear-talks-work" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span class="recommended_designation" style="margin-right: 0.3em; font-weight: normal;">Recommended:</span><a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;"><span class="kicker" style="display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.4em; text-transform: uppercase;">OPINION</span></a><a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2012/0620/4-ways-US-and-Iran-can-make-nuclear-talks-work/Better-understand-assumptions" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;"> 4 ways US and Iran can make nuclear talks work</a></font><div class="clear" style="clear: both;"><p style="margin: 1.8em 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For a start, soon after the occupation of the American Embassy, then-Foreign Minister Ebrahim Yazdi told the Council of Revolution (a transitional council operating prior to the formation of the post-revolutionary parliament) that he assumed the occupation of the embassy was an Israeli-CIA coup. Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan’s entire administration was against the occupation.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.8em 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Soon after the occupation of the embassy, Bazargan resigned and I became responsible for the Foreign Ministry for a short while. During this time, I called all the ambassadors from the European and North American countries and told them that the occupation of the embassy was in fact a strike against the Iranian government; it was we who were being held hostage. I asked them to help us end it.Indeed, in the early days there was no talk of hostage-taking. The occupation was initially regarded as a short-term protest against the shah’s admittance to the <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/United+States" target="self" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">United States</a>, as the memory of the 1953 coup against Mohammad Mossadegh was still fresh in public memory. But as the event began to play a more important role in domestic<b> </b>Iranian and American foreign politics, the protest was transformed into a hostage-taking that lasted for 444 days and had catastrophic consequences for Iran, the US, and international politics.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.8em 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Soon after, Iran had a presidential election. I openly opposed the hostage-taking throughout the election campaign, telling students that occupying an embassy in the heart of <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Tehran" target="self" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Tehran</a> was a sign of cowardice rather than courage – that through revolution the Iranian people had forced US interference out the door, but that this act brought it back through a window.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.8em 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By this time, the clergy who were struggling to control the state had begun to support the occupation. One of their leaders in the Islamic Republican Party, Hassan Ayat, criticized me for defining the hostage-taking as illegal, inhumane and illegitimate. Despite this, I won the election with over 76 percent of the vote. </font></p><p style="margin: 1.8em 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other candidates also were openly against hostage-taking, and overall, 96 percent of votes in that election were given to candidates who were against it. Hence, the movie misrepresents the Iranian government’s stand in regard to hostage-taking. It also completely misrepresents Iranians by portraying us as irrational people consumed by aggressive emotion, in contrast to the “Western” Americans, who were, as <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Edward+Said" target="self" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Edward Said</a> once wrote, constructed as “rational, peaceful, liberal, logical” ... etc.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.8em 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We must ask why the film is based on this false dichotomy, and what political need is served by putting Iranians in such a bad light.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.8em 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I was deposed in June 1981 as a result of a coup against me. After arriving in <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/France" target="self" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">France</a>, I told a <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/British+Broadcasting+Corporation" target="self" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">BBC</a> reporter that I had left Iran to expose the symbiotic relationship between Khomeinism and Reaganism.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.8em 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ayatollah Khomeini and <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Ronald+Reagan" target="self" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Ronald Reagan</a> had organized a clandestine negotiation, later known as the “October Surprise,” which prevented the attempts by myself and then-<a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Jimmy+Carter" target="self" class="inform_link" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">US President Jimmy Carter</a> to free the hostages before the 1980 US presidential election took place. The fact that they were not released tipped the results of the election in favor of Reagan.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.8em 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two of my advisors, Hussein Navab Safavi and Sadr-al-Hefazi, were executed by Khomeini’s regime because they had become aware of this secret relationship between Khomeini, his son Ahmad, the Islamic Republican Party, and the Reagan administration.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.8em 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Apart from this, I have a deeper concern about the way the film legitimizes clandestine CIA operations. The refusal of the CIA officer (Tony Mendez, played by Mr. Affleck) to abandon the plan to rescue the Americans hiding in the Canadian embassy in light of information that a military operation was under way is reminiscent of the first attempted coup against Mossadegh’s democratic government in 1953.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.8em 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When this failed, the CIA asked its master spy, Kermit Roosevelt, to return to the US. He refused and, with the help of monarchists and some clergymen, organized a second successful attempt three days later. This coup ended democracy in Iran and replaced it with what was to become 25 years of the shah’s dictatorship. This resonance makes one wonder whether the film could ultimately, <a href="http://consortiumnews.com/2013/02/25/the-shortsighted-history-of-argo/" target="blank" rel="noopener nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">as some critics have suggested</a>, “tilt the balance of U.S. public opinion toward war” should the ongoing nuclear negotiations fail.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.8em 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">....</font></p></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline">==</span></font></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.6px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Hillary Clinton also weighed in on the controversy surrounding a Republican letter to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.democracynow.org/topics/iran" style="text-decoration: none; outline: 0px none;">Iran</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>aiming to undermine the ongoing nuclear talks. An open letter from 47 Republican senators warned the Iranian government the deal could be nixed by a Republican Congress or future Republican president.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><blockquote style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 3em; direction: ltr; overflow: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.6px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<p style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><strong style=" font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;">Hillary Clinton</strong>: "The recent letter from Republican senators was out of step with the best traditions of American leadership. And one has to ask: What was the purpose of this letter? There appear to be two logical answers. Either these senators were trying to be helpful to the Iranians or harmful to the commander-in-chief in the midst of high-stakes international diplomacy. Either answer does discredit to the letters’ signatories."</font></p>
</blockquote><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.6px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">According to the website Lobe Log, the senator who spearheaded the letter, freshman Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, received nearly $1 million in donations to his election campaign efforts last year from the Emergency Committee for Israel, run by neoconservative pundit Bill Kristol. The Intercept reports Cotton was set to appear at a secretive meeting of weapons contractors one day after sending the letter on Monday.<span class="mw-headline" id="Activity_in_1909.E2.80.931979" /></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline" id="Activity_in_1909.E2.80.931979">==</span></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>Council for a Democratic Iran</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(CDI) is a U.S.-based organization that "seeks to raise global awareness about the absence of democracy and human rights in Iran." Its website states, "We believe there is an alternative between military confrontation with the current regime and accommodation. There is another way which will lead to the development of the free and peaceful Iran sought by millions of Iranians inside and outside of the country, and that is by enabling the Iranian people to decide their own future."<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#cite_note-0" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; white-space: nowrap;">[1]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><table id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249); padding: 5px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><tbody><tr><td>
<div id="toctitle" style=" direction: ltr; text-align: center;">
<h2 style="background-image: none; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: medium none; width: auto; display: inline;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Contents</font></h2><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="toctoggle"> [<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">hide</a>] </span></font></div>
<ul style=" line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none; text-align: left;">
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#Lobbying_and_public_relations" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;"><span class="tocnumber">1</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="toctext">Lobbying and public relations</span></a></font></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#Personnel" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;"><span class="tocnumber">2</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="toctext">Personnel</span></a></font></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#Contact_information" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;"><span class="tocnumber">3</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="toctext">Contact information</span></a></font></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#Articles_and_resources" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;"><span class="tocnumber">4</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="toctext">Articles and resources</span></a>
</font><ul style=" line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none; text-align: left;">
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#Related_SourceWatch_articles" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;"><span class="tocnumber">4.1</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="toctext">Related SourceWatch articles</span></a></font></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#References" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;"><span class="tocnumber">4.2</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="toctext">References</span></a></font></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#External_resources" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;"><span class="tocnumber">4.3</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="toctext">External resources</span></a></font></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#External_articles" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;"><span class="tocnumber">4.4</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="toctext">External articles</span></a></font></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</td></tr></tbody></table><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline" id="Lobbying_and_public_relations">Lobbying and public relations</span></font></h2><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In the third quarter of 2008, CDI spent $300,000 on the lobbying and PR firm<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/The_Livingston_Group" title="The Livingston Group" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">The Livingston Group</a>. Its Livingston Group lobbyists include former Congressman<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Robert_Livingston" title="Robert Livingston" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Robert Livingston</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Lauri_Fitz-Pegado" title="Lauri Fitz-Pegado" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Lauri Fitz-Pegado</a>. Fitz-Pegado previously worked at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Hill_%26_Knowlton" title="Hill & Knowlton" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Hill & Knowlton</a>, where she helped promote the first Gulf War for the government of<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Kuwait" title="Kuwait" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Kuwait</a>, using the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Front_group" title="Front group" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">front group</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Citizens_for_a_Free_Kuwait" title="Citizens for a Free Kuwait" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Citizens for a Free Kuwait</a>."<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; white-space: nowrap;">[2]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">According to Lobbyists.info, CDI's other Livingston lobbyists are<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Steven_L.Kreseski&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Steven L. Kreseski (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Steven L. Kreseski</a>,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=J.Allen_Martin&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="J. Allen Martin (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">J. Allen Martin</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_L._Rodgers&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Richard L. Rodgers (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Richard L. Rodgers</a>. Until October 2008, CDI previously retained the firm<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Cyber_Security_Research_Consultants&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Cyber Security Research Consultants (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Cyber Security Research Consultants</a>, whose<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Geoff_Gleason&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Geoff Gleason (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Geoff Gleason</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>lobbied on behalf of CDI.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; white-space: nowrap;">[3]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline" id="Personnel">Personnel</span></font></h2><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">From CDI's website:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; white-space: nowrap;">[4]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><ul style="line-height: 19.2px; list-style-type: square; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaauaaaancamaaabw4ls6aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaaazqtfrfafkm="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAUAAAANCAMAAABW4lS6AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAAZQTFRFAFKM" qiuk9qaaaaj0uk5t="QIUK9QAAAAJ0Uk5T" wdltzbkaaaagkleqvr42mjgbaegokggbjbgbxbxsbqaaamachwald5r8ygaaaaasuvork5cyii="); font-size: 12.8px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" xmlns:data="data">
<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Dr.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Behrooz_Behbudi" title="Behrooz Behbudi" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Behrooz Behbudi</a>, Founder</font></li>
<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Amir_Abbas_Fakhravar" title="Amir Abbas Fakhravar" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Amir Abbas Fakhravar</a>, Director of International Affairs</font></li>
<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sean_Woo&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Sean Woo (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Sean Woo</a>, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel</font></li>
</ul><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline" id="Contact_information">Contact information</span></font></h2><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Council for a Democratic Iran
8300 Boone Boulevard, Suite 525
Vienna, VA 22182</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Website:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://futurefreeiran.com/" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">http://futurefreeiran.com</a>
Blog:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://councilforademocraticiran.blogspot.com/" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">http://councilforademocraticiran.blogspot.com/</a></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Telephone: (703) 848-9278
Fax: (703) 848-9286</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline" id="Articles_and_resources">Articles and resources</span></font></h2><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><h3 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline" id="Related_SourceWatch_articles">Related SourceWatch articles</span></font></h3><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><ul style="line-height: 19.2px; list-style-type: square; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaauaaaancamaaabw4ls6aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaaazqtfrfafkm="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAUAAAANCAMAAABW4lS6AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAAZQTFRFAFKM" qiuk9qaaaaj0uk5t="QIUK9QAAAAJ0Uk5T" wdltzbkaaaagkleqvr42mjgbaegokggbjbgbxbxsbqaaamachwald5r8ygaaaaasuvork5cyii="); font-size: 12.8px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" xmlns:data="data">
<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Amir_Abbas_Fakhravar" title="Amir Abbas Fakhravar" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Amir Abbas Fakhravar</a></font></li>
<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Behrooz_Behbudi" title="Behrooz Behbudi" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Behrooz Behbudi</a></font></li>
<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Iran" title="Iran" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Iran</a></font></li>
<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/The_Livingston_Group" title="The Livingston Group" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">The Livingston Group</a></font></li>
<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Robert_Livingston" title="Robert Livingston" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Robert Livingston</a></font></li>
<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Lauri_Fitz-Pegado" title="Lauri Fitz-Pegado" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Lauri Fitz-Pegado</a></font></li>
</ul><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><h3 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span></font></h3><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><ol class="references" style="line-height: 19.2px; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 3.2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<li id="cite_note-0" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#cite_ref-0" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">↑</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="reference-text">"<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://futurefreeiran.com/about.htm" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">About CDI</a>," Council for a Democratic Iran, accessed October 2008.</span></font></li>
<li id="cite_note-1" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#cite_ref-1" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">↑</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="reference-text">"<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/1022iran_livingston.html" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">Iranian Exile Group Pays $$$ to Livingston</a>,"<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>O'Dwyer's PR Daily</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(sub req'd), October 22, 2008.</span></font></li>
<li id="cite_note-2" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#cite_ref-2" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">↑</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="reference-text">"<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.lobbyists.info/detail.cfm?organization_id=38361&page=1&RequestTimeout=1500" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">The Council for a Democratic Iran</a>," Lobbyists.info (sub req'd), accessed October 2008.</span></font></li>
<li id="cite_note-3" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran#cite_ref-3" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">↑</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="reference-text">"<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://futurefreeiran.com/ss7/index.php" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">About CDI: Leadership</a>," Council for a Democratic Iran, accessed October 2008.</span></font></li>
</ol><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><h3 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline" id="External_resources">External resources</span></font></h3><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><h3 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline" id="External_articles">External articles</span></font></h3><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><table style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0.57em 0.5em 0.7em; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: rgb(255, 250, 205); border: 1px solid rgb(218, 210, 109);"><tbody><tr><td style=" width: 860.7999877929688px; padding: 0.25em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>This article is a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SourceWatch:Find_or_fix_a_stub" title="SourceWatch:Find or fix a stub" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">stub</a>.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>You</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>can<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SourceWatch:Find_or_fix_a_stub" title="SourceWatch:Find or fix a stub" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">help</a></b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>by<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Council_for_a_Democratic_Iran&action=edit" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">expanding it</a>.</font></td></tr></tbody></table><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><h3 style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline" id="Activity_in_1909.E2.80.931979">==</span></font></h3><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><h3 style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline" id="Activity_in_1909.E2.80.931979">Activity in 1909–1979</span></font></h3><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><div class="thumb tright" style="">
<div class="thumbinner" style=" width: 202px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BP_Motor_Spirit,_1922.jpg" class="image"><img src="/ed670ec6-c94a-5750-ad4c-28d74632ad7c.jpg"/></a>
</font><div class="thumbcaption">
<div class="magnify"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BP_Motor_Spirit,_1922.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"><img brain="false" src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.18/common/images/magnify-clip.png" alt="" width="15" height="11" /></a></font></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
A 1922 BP advertisement</font></div>
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</div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In May 1901, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Knox_D%27Arcy" title="William Knox D'Arcy">William Knox D'Arcy</a> was granted a concession by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qajar_dynasty" title="Qajar dynasty">Shah of Iran</a> to search for oil, which he discovered in May 1908.<sup id="cite_ref-bio_16-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-bio-16"><span>[</span>17<span>]</span></a></sup> This was the first commercially significant find in the Middle East. On 14 April 1909, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Persian_Oil_Company" title="Anglo-Persian Oil Company">Anglo-Persian Oil Company</a> (APOC) was incorporated as a subsidiary of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmah_Oil" title="Burmah Oil">Burmah Oil Company</a> to exploit this.<sup id="cite_ref-bio_16-1" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-bio-16"><span>[</span>17<span>]</span></a></sup> In 1923, it employed future Prime Minister, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill" title="Winston Churchill">Winston Churchill</a> as a paid consultant, to lobby the British government to allow Burmah to have exclusive rights to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran" title="Iran">Persian</a> oil resources, which were successfully granted.<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-17"><span>[</span>18<span>]</span></a></sup> In 1935, it became the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Iranian_Oil_Company" title="Anglo-Iranian Oil Company" class="mw-redirect">Anglo-Iranian Oil Company</a> (AIOC).<sup id="cite_ref-bio_16-2" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-bio-16"><span>[</span>17<span>]</span></a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Following World War II, AIOC and the Iranian government initially resisted nationalist pressure to revise AIOC's concession terms still further in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran" title="Iran">Iran</a>'s favour. But in March 1951, the pro-western Prime Minister <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Razmara" title="Ali Razmara" class="mw-redirect">Ali Razmara</a> was assassinated.<sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-18"><span>[</span>19<span>]</span></a></sup> The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majlis_of_Iran" title="Majlis of Iran" class="mw-redirect">Majlis of Iran</a> (parliament) elected a nationalist, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Mossadeq" title="Mohammed Mossadeq" class="mw-redirect">Mohammed Mossadeq</a>, as prime minister. In April, the Majlis <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalization" title="Nationalization">nationalised</a> the oil industry by unanimous vote.<sup id="cite_ref-NYTRoots_19-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-NYTRoots-19"><span>[</span>20<span>]</span></a></sup> The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Iranian_Oil_Company" title="National Iranian Oil Company">National Iranian Oil Company</a> was formed as a result, displacing the AIOC.<sup id="cite_ref-BPHistory_20-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-BPHistory-20"><span>[</span>21<span>]</span></a></sup> The AIOC withdrew its management from Iran, and organised an effective boycott of Iranian oil. The British government – which owned the AIOC – contested the nationalisation at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Court_of_Justice" title="International Court of Justice">International Court of Justice</a> at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hague" title="The Hague">The Hague</a>, but its complaint was dismissed.<sup id="cite_ref-Sztucki_21-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-Sztucki-21"><span>[</span>22<span>]</span></a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">By spring of 1953, incoming US President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower" title="Dwight D. Eisenhower">Dwight D. Eisenhower</a> authorised the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Intelligence_Agency" title="Central Intelligence Agency">Central Intelligence Agency</a> (CIA) to organise a coup against the Mossadeq government with support from the British government.<sup id="cite_ref-NYTIntro_22-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-NYTIntro-22"><span>[</span>23<span>]</span></a></sup> On 19 August 1953, Mossadeq was forced from office by the CIA conspiracy, involving the Shah and the Iranian military, and known by its codename, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax" title="Operation Ajax" class="mw-redirect">Operation Ajax</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-NYTIntro_22-1" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-NYTIntro-22"><span>[</span>23<span>]</span></a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Mossadeq was replaced by pro-Western general <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazlollah_Zahedi" title="Fazlollah Zahedi">Fazlollah Zahedi</a><sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-23"><span>[</span>24<span>]</span></a></sup> and the Shah, who returned to Iran after having left the country briefly to await the outcome of the coup. The Shah abolished the democratic Constitution and assumed autocratic powers.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">After the coup, Mossadeq's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Iranian_Oil_Company" title="National Iranian Oil Company">National Iranian Oil Company</a> became an international consortium, and AIOC resumed operations in Iran as a member of it.<sup id="cite_ref-BPHistory_20-1" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-BPHistory-20"><span>[</span>21<span>]</span></a></sup> The consortium agreed to share profits on a 50–50 basis with Iran, "but not to open its books to Iranian auditors or to allow Iranians onto its board of directors."<sup id="cite_ref-24" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-24"><span>[</span>25<span>]</span></a></sup> AIOC, as a part of the Anglo-American coup d'état deal, was not allowed to monopolise Iranian oil as before. It was limited to a 40% share in a new international consortium. For the rest, 40% went to the five major American companies and 20% went to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell" title="Royal Dutch Shell">Royal Dutch Shell</a> and Compagnie Française des Pétroles, now <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_S.A." title="Total S.A.">Total S.A.</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-25"><span>[</span>26<span>]</span></a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The AIOC became the British Petroleum Company in 1954. In 1959, the company expanded beyond the Middle East to Alaska<sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-26"><span>[</span>27<span>]</span></a></sup> and in 1965 it was the first company to strike oil in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea" title="North Sea">North Sea</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-27"><span>[</span>28<span>]</span></a></sup> In 1978 the company acquired a controlling interest in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil_of_Ohio" title="Standard Oil of Ohio">Standard Oil of Ohio</a> or Sohio, a breakoff of the former Standard Oil that had been broken up after anti-trust litigation.<sup id="cite_ref-sohio_28-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#cite_note-sohio-28"><span>[</span>29<span>]</span></a></sup> In 1967 there was the disaster of the giant oil tanker, the Torrey Canyon, which founded off the English coast, even though the ship was flying the well known flag of convenience, that of Liberia. the ship was in fact operated on behalf of B.P. the Prime Minister of that time, 1967, had the ship bombed by RAF jet bombers, in an effort to break it up and sink it, in regard to the final oil spill it was futile, and the method has not been repeated. It continued to operate in Iran until the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution" title="Iranian Revolution">Islamic Revolution</a> in 1979. The new regime of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatollah_Khomeini" title="Ayatollah Khomeini" class="mw-redirect">Ayatollah Khomeini</a> confiscated all of the company’s assets in Iran without compensation, bringing to an end its 70-year presence in Iran.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">===</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">11/52 Kermit E trying to cover for UK agents trying to topple Iran PM (W Churchill want to keep oil_pre WWI converted UK navy to il, has 51% share; uk, russ, turky troops caised famine that killed 2 mil!? 81 --> Cossack cmder Reza Khan, proclaimed shah 1925. Opposed by Mossadeq; uk cheated, so germans welcome (UK USSR invaded 1941) UK op boot --> ajax (off name, wend made, killed sheep then self) coup busted day 1; khomeini watched riots 91 shah mil law 3 yrs, set up secet poice SAVAK, cia hoped to spy on USSR, but just oppressed 92 ashes</font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">===</font></p><h3 style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline" id="Post-1980">Post-1980</span></font></h3><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">See also: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War" title="Iran–Iraq War">Iran–Iraq War</a></font></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
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Damage to a mosque in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoramshahr" class="mw-redirect" title="Khoramshahr">Khoramshahr, Iran</a></font></div>
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</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Following this period, Sunni–Shia strife has seen a major upturn,
particularly in Iraq and Pakistan, leading to thousands of deaths. Among
the explanations for the increase are conspiracies by outside forces to
divide Muslims,<sup id="cite_ref-guardian-2007_87-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-guardian-2007-87">[87]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-mideastwire.com_88-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-mideastwire.com-88">[88]</a></sup> the recent Islamic revival and increased religious purity and consequent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takfir" title="Takfir">takfir</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-nasr-2006-106_89-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-nasr-2006-106-89">[89]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-nasr-2006-148_90-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-nasr-2006-148-90">[90]</a></sup> upheaval, destruction and loss of power of Sunni caused by the US invasion of Iraq, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sectarianism" title="Sectarianism">sectarianism</a> generated by Arab regimes defending themselves against the mass uprisings of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring" title="Arab Spring">Arab Spring</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-NYRB-Ruthven_91-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-NYRB-Ruthven-91">[91]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><dl style=""><dt><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Outside conspiracies</font></dt></dl><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Many explain the bloodshed as the work of conspiracies by outside
forces—"the forces of hegemony and Zionism which aim to weaken [Arabs]" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akbar_Hashemi_Rafsanjani" title="Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani">Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_al-Qaradawi" title="Yusuf al-Qaradawi">Yusuf al-Qaradawi</a>),<sup id="cite_ref-mideastwire.com_88-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-mideastwire.com-88">[88]</a></sup> unspecified "enemies" (Iran president <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad" title="Mahmoud Ahmadinejad">Mahmoud Ahmadinejad</a>),<sup id="cite_ref-iht-2007_92-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-iht-2007-92">[92]</a></sup> or "oppressive pressure by the imperialist front." (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad" title="Mahmoud Ahmadinejad">Mahmoud Ahmadinejad</a>).<sup id="cite_ref-guardian-2007_87-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-guardian-2007-87">[87]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><dl style=""><dt><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Islamic revival</font></dt></dl><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Others lay the blame for the strife at a very different source, the unintended effects of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_revival" title="Islamic revival">Islamic revival</a>. According to scholar <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vali_Nasr" title="Vali Nasr">Vali Nasr</a>, as the Muslim world was decolonialised and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_nationalism" title="Arab nationalism">Arab nationalism</a>
lost its appeal, fundamentalism blossomed and reasserted the
differences and conflicts between the two movements, particularly in the
strict teachings of Sunni scholar <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Taymiyyah" title="Ibn Taymiyyah">Ibn Taymiyyah</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-nasr-2006-106_89-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-nasr-2006-106-89">[89]</a></sup>
The Iranian Islamic revolution changed the Shia–Sunni power equation in
Muslim countries "from Lebanon to India" arousing the traditionally
subservient Shia to the alarm of traditionally dominant and very
non-revolutionary Sunni.<sup id="cite_ref-nasr-2006-148_90-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-nasr-2006-148-90">[90]</a></sup>
"Where Iranian revolutionaries saw Islamic revolutionary stirrings,
Sunnis saw mostly Shia mischief and a threat to Sunni predominance."<sup id="cite_ref-93" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-93">[93]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Although the Iranian revolution's leader, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatollah_Khomeini" class="mw-redirect" title="Ayatollah Khomeini">Ayatollah Khomeini</a>,
was very much in favor of Shia–Sunni unity, he also challenged Saudi
Arabia, in his view an "unpopular and corrupt dictatorship" and an
"American lackey" ripe for revolution. In part because Saudi Arabia was
the world's major international <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamism#Saudi_Arabian_funding" title="Islamism">funder</a>
of Islamic schools, scholarships, and fellowships, this angered not
only Saudi Arabia but its many fundamentalist allies and benefactors
throughout the Arab world, according to Nasr.<sup id="cite_ref-Nasr.2C_Vali_2006_p.143-4_94-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-Nasr.2C_Vali_2006_p.143-4-94">[94]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Another effect noted by political scientist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Kepel" title="Gilles Kepel">Gilles Kepel</a>, is that the initial attraction of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolution" class="mw-redirect" title="Islamic Revolution">Islamic Revolution</a>
to Sunnis as well as Shia, and Khomeini's desire to export his
revolution motivated the Saudi establishment to shore up its "religious
legitimacy" with more strictness in religion (and with jihad in
Afghanistan) to compete with Iran's revolutionary ideology.<sup id="cite_ref-GKJTPI2002:137_95-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-GKJTPI2002:137-95">[95]</a></sup> But doing so in Saudi meant a more anti-Shia policies because Saudi's own native Sunni school of Islam is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabism" title="Wahhabism">Wahhabism</a>,
which includes the prohibition of Shia Islam itself, as strict Wahhabis
do not consider Shia to be Islamic. This new strictness was spread not
only among Saudis in the kingdom but thousands of students and Saudi
funded schools and international Islamist volunteers who came to
training camps in Peshawar Pakistan in the 1980s to learn to fight jihad
in Afghanistan and went home in the 1990s to fight jihad. Both groups
(especially in Iraq and Pakistan) saw Shia as the enemy.<sup id="cite_ref-GKJTPI2002:142-3_96-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-GKJTPI2002:142-3-96">[96]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Gonzalez-2009-78_97-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-Gonzalez-2009-78-97">[97]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Murphy-2013-97_98-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-Murphy-2013-97-98">[98]</a></sup>
Thus, although the Iranian revolution's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, was
very much in favor of Shia–Sunni unity, and "the leadership position
that went with it",<sup id="cite_ref-99" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-99">[99]</a></sup> his revolution worked against it.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">From the Iranian Revolution to 2015, Shia groups in Lebanon, Iraq,
Syria, Yemen, supported by Iran have recently won "important political
victories" which have boosted Iran’s regional influence.<sup id="cite_ref-CFR-SSD_100-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-CFR-SSD-100">[100]</a></sup> In Lebanon, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah" title="Hezbollah">Hezbollah</a>, the Lebanese Shia militia and political movement is the "strongest political actor" in the country. Since the 2003 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Iraq" class="mw-redirect" title="Invasion of Iraq">invasion of Iraq</a> removed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein" title="Saddam Hussein">Saddam Hussein</a>
from power and instituted elected government, the Shia majority has
dominated the parliament and its prime ministers have been Shia.<sup id="cite_ref-CFR-SSD_100-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-CFR-SSD-100">[100]</a></sup>
In Syria, a Shia minority—the heterodox Alawi sect that makes up only
about 13 percent of the population—dominate the upper reaches of the
government, military and security services in Syria, and are the
"backbone" of the forces fighting to protect the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashir_al-Assad" class="mw-redirect" title="Bashir al-Assad">Bashir al-Assad</a> regime in Syria’s civil war.<sup id="cite_ref-CFR-SSD_100-2" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-CFR-SSD-100">[100]</a></sup> In Yemen, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houthis" title="Houthis">Houthi</a> rebels have expanded their territory south of Saudi Arabia, and become the country's "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houthi_insurgency_in_Yemen" title="Houthi insurgency in Yemen">dominant power</a>".<sup id="cite_ref-CFR-SSD_100-3" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-CFR-SSD-100">[100]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_Roy_%28professor%29" title="Olivier Roy (professor)">Olivier Roy</a>, research director at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_National_Centre_for_Scientific_Research" class="mw-redirect" title="French National Centre for Scientific Research">French National Centre for Scientific Research</a>,
sees the "Shia awakening and its instrumentalisation by Iran" as
leading to a "very violent Sunni reaction", starting first in Pakistan
before spreading to "the rest of the Muslim world, without necessarily
being as violent." According to Roy, "two events created a sea change in
the balance of power between Shia and Sunnis: the Islamic revolution in
Iran and the American military intervention in Iraq" in 2003. "Today,
Azerbaijan is probably the only country where there are still mixed
mosques and Shia and Sunnis pray together."<sup id="cite_ref-101" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-101">[101]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">From 1994 to 2014 satellite television and high-speed Internet has
spread "hate speech" against both Sunni and Shia. Fundamentalist Sunni
clerics have popularized slurs against Shia such as "Safawis" (from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safavid" class="mw-redirect" title="Safavid">Safavid</a> empire, thus implying their being an Iranian agents), or even worse <i>rafidha</i> (rejecters of the faith), and <i>majus</i> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrian" class="mw-redirect" title="Zoroastrian">Zoroastrian</a> or crypto Persian). In turn, Shia religious scholars have "mocked and cursed" the first three caliphs and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisha" title="Aisha">Aisha</a>, Mohammed’s youngest wife who fought against <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali" title="Ali">Ali</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-CFR-SSD_100-4" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-CFR-SSD-100">[100]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><dl style=""><dt><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">US invasion of Iraq</font></dt></dl><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Among those blaming the US invasion of Iraq are Fawaz Gerges, who writes in his book <i>ISIS: A History</i>,</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><blockquote style="">
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">By destroying state institutions and establishing a sectarian-based
political system, the 2003 US-led invasion polarized the country along
Sunni-Shia lines and set the stage for a fierce, prolonged struggle
driven by identity politics. Anger against the United States was also
fueled by the humiliating disbandment of the Iraqi army and the
de-Baathification law, which was first introduced as a provision and
then turned into a permanent article of the constitution.<sup id="cite_ref-NYRB-Ruthven_91-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-NYRB-Ruthven-91">[91]</a></sup></font></p>
</blockquote><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Malise Ruthven writes that the post invasion <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-Ba%27athification" title="De-Ba'athification">de-Ba'athification</a>
by the US occupiers deprived Iraq of "the officer class and
administrative cadres that had ruled under Saddam Hussein, leaving the
field to sectarian-based militias".<sup id="cite_ref-NYRB-Ruthven_91-2" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-NYRB-Ruthven-91">[91]</a></sup> Many of officers joined the anti-Shia takfiri <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISIL" class="mw-redirect" title="ISIL">ISIL</a> group.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The US-led invasion also “tilted the regional balance of power
decisively" in favor of Shia Iran, alarming Sunni and leading to talk of
a “Shia Crescent”.<sup id="cite_ref-NYRB-Ruthven_91-3" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-NYRB-Ruthven-91">[91]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><dl style=""><dt><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Counter-revolutionary tactic</font></dt></dl><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Lynch" title="Marc Lynch">Marc Lynch</a> in his book <i>The New Arab Wars: Uprisings and Anarchy in the Middle East</i>, argues that as old regimes or political forces sought to control "the revolutionary upsurge" of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring" title="Arab Spring">Arab Spring</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sectarianism" title="Sectarianism">sectarianism</a>
became “a key weapon” to undermine unity among the anti-regime masses.
Christians were pitted "against Muslims in Egypt, Jordanians against
Palestinians in Jordan, and, above all, Sunnis against Shi’ites wherever
possible.”<sup id="cite_ref-NYRB-Ruthven_91-4" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-NYRB-Ruthven-91">[91]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><h4 style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-headline" id="Iraq">Iraq</span></font></h4><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Main articles: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia_Islam_in_Iraq" title="Shia Islam in Iraq">Shia Islam in Iraq</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Iraq" title="Islam in Iraq">Islam in Iraq</a></font></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Shia–Sunni discord in Iraq starts with disagreement over the relative
population of the two groups. According to most sources, including the
CIA's <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Factbook" title="The World Factbook">World Factbook</a></i>, the majority of Iraqis are Shia <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Muslims" title="Arab Muslims">Arab Muslims</a> (60%-70%), and Sunni <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Muslims" title="Arab Muslims">Arab Muslims</a> represent between 32% and 37% of the population.<sup id="cite_ref-102" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-102">[102]</a></sup> However, Sunni are split ethnically between <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_people" class="mw-redirect" title="Arab people">Arabs</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdish_people" class="mw-redirect" title="Kurdish people">Kurds</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Turkmens" title="Iraqi Turkmens">Turkmen</a>. Many Sunnis hotly dispute their minority status, including ex-Iraqi Ambassador Faruq Ziada,<sup id="cite_ref-103" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-103">[103]</a></sup> and many believe Shia majority is "a myth spread by America".<sup id="cite_ref-104" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-104">[104]</a></sup> One Sunni belief shared by Jordan's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_II_of_Jordan" title="Abdullah II of Jordan">King Abdullah</a> as well as his then Defense Minister Shaalan is that Shia numbers in Iraq were inflated by Iranian Shias crossing the border.<sup id="cite_ref-105" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-105">[105]</a></sup> Shia scholar Vali Nasr believes the election turnout in summer and December 2005 confirmed a strong Shia majority in Iraq.<sup id="cite_ref-106" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-106">[106]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The British, having put down a Shia rebellion against their rule in
the 1920s, "confirmed their reliance on a corps of Sunni ex-officers of
the collapsed Ottoman empire". The British <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism" title="Colonialism">colonial</a> rule ended after the Sunni and Shia united against it.<sup id="cite_ref-107" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-107">[107]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Shia suffered indirect and direct <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Shia_Muslims" class="mw-redirect" title="Persecution of Shia Muslims">persecution</a> under post-colonial Iraqi governments since 1932, erupting into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Shia_revolts_1935%E2%80%931936" class="mw-redirect" title="Iraqi Shia revolts 1935–1936">full-scale rebellions</a> in 1935 and 1936. Shias were also persecuted during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba%27ath_Party" title="Ba'ath Party">Ba'ath Party</a> rule, especially under <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein" title="Saddam Hussein">Saddam Hussein</a>. It is said that every Shia clerical family of note in Iraq had tales of torture and murder to recount.<sup id="cite_ref-108" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-108">[108]</a></sup> In 1969 the son of Iraq's highest Shia Ayatollah <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhsin_al-Hakim" title="Muhsin al-Hakim">Muhsin al-Hakim</a> was arrested and allegedly tortured. From 1979–1983 Saddam's regime executed 48 major Shia clerics in Iraq.<sup id="cite_ref-109" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-109">[109]</a></sup> They included Shia leader <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Baqir_al-Sadr" class="mw-redirect" title="Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr">Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr</a>
and his sister. Tens of thousands of Iranians and Arabs of Iranian
origin were expelled in 1979 and 1980 and a further 75,000 in 1989.<sup id="cite_ref-110" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-110">[110]</a></sup></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Shias openly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_uprisings_in_Iraq" title="1991 uprisings in Iraq">revolted against Saddam</a> following the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War" title="Gulf War">Gulf War</a>
in 1991 and were encouraged by Saddam's defeat in Kuwait and by
simultaneous Kurdish uprising in the north. However, Shia opposition to
the government was brutally suppressed, resulting in some 50,000 to
100,000 casualties and successive repression by Saddam's forces.<sup id="cite_ref-111" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-111">[111]</a></sup> The governing regimes of Iraq were composed mainly of Sunnis for nearly a century until the 2003 Iraq War.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><ul style=""><li><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Iraq War</font></li></ul><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Some of the worst <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sectarian_violence" title="Sectarian violence">sectarian strife</a> ever has occurred after the start of the Iraq War, steadily building up to the present.<sup id="cite_ref-Civil_War_18-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-Civil_War-18">[18]</a></sup> The war has featured a cycle of Sunni–Shia revenge killing—Sunni often used car bombs, while Shia favored <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_squad" title="Death squad">death squads</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-112" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations#cite_note-112">[112]</a>
</sup></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><sup>....</sup>
</font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
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