Endgame in Pakistan?

As most of you are probably aware by now, last week US helicopter gunships crossed the border into Pakistan and attacked an outpost of the Pakistan army, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers, and wounding 13 more. There can be little doubt that this was a deliberate attack, ordered and approved at the highest levels of the Obama administration. It is virtually certain that the President himself approved the attack.

How do we know this? Well, consider the fact that as soon as the attack started, the Pakistanis radioed NATO command, and told them that their helicopters were attacking an outpost of the Pakistan army. The gunships then broke off their attack and left. But, fifteen minutes later, they returned to renew the attack. How do you explain that as an accident?

This was done after a blunt warning from the Chinese a few months ago, to the effect that any US attack on Pakistan could lead to war.

And a similar blunt warning from General Hamid Gul, former head of the ISI, (think Pakistan's CIA), in May of this year, as seen in the video below.



(Open Salon readers can watch the video here)

If you're short on time and patience, drag the slider to 10:00 and watch the last 2 minutes of the video.

Now, with regard to General Gul. As a former head of the ISI, there can be no doubt that he has bloody hands up to his armpits. I'm not suggesting for one moment that he is an angel, or a nice guy. But I cannot help but respect him for his strategic acuity, and most of all for his willingness to state the blunt truth. After all, dear reader, this was the man who had the courage to say openly that the "War on Terror" was nonsense, and entirely a product of George Bush's imagination.

So, having said all that, the obvious remaining question is, what the fuck is going on is Washington? Have they succumbed to the Bush-era thinking that "we are an empire now; we create our own reality"? Are they utterly stark, raving insane? Or are they pursuing a dark agenda which has not yet become apparent, even to those of us who attempt to sift through the mega-tons of media bullshit, and follow events in the world outside our borders?

In all truth, dear reader, I do not have a clue. Your guess is as good as mine.

War on Iran: Follow Up

As a follow up to my last scribble, from the 9th of this month, about the campaign to launch a war against Iran, let me offer you another video from Press TV.

Again, remember that this is an Iranian news agency, but note that the vast majority of the video consists of an interview with Jeffrey Steinberg, editor of the Executive Intelligence Review in Washington DC.

The reason why I continue to monitor Press TV, and post their videos here, is because their reports do not simply consist of propaganda, but rather in large part of interviews with Americans who do not support the establishment view. In what seems to be almost a variation on the classical Socratic Method, Press TV is very fond of interviewing Westerners, asking them the relevant questions, and letting their audience be explained to by people who look like us, talk like us, dress like us, and therefore have more credibility with us.

In this interview, note carefully how Mr Steinberg points up the parallels between the propaganda that led up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the blatant war propaganda being directed at Iran by the Zionist Lobby today.



Open Salon readers can view the video here

Iran: The Other Side Of The Story

Once again, the War Drums are being beaten hard and loud against Iran, beaten by the Israel Lobby and its paid lackeys.

First came the farcical accusation of a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, a story so patently threadbare that even reliably conservative establishment media outlets questioned its credibility.

Now we have hysterical accusations from the new US-sponsored head of the IAEA, (International Atomic Energy Agency), to the effect that Iran is working on a nuclear weapons program. Let us remember, at this point, that the US spent years trying to get the IAEA under al-Baradei to issue such an indictment. But al-Baradei was, (and is), his own man, and stated repeatedly that there was no evidence of Iran attempting to build a nuclear weapon.

So, in detail, what do these accusations consist of? They consist of two things.

First, an accusation that the Iranians have attempted to create a computer model of an atomic weapon. Excuse me, but, how many game companies have done the same thing? Attempting to create a computer model of something is not the same as making the thing itself.

Second, IAEA under Amano, its new puppet boss, has accused Iran of doing preliminary design work on a metal casing which could possibly be used to contain a nuclear weapon, if one was ever constructed.

And so, dear reader, do you begin to see how incredibly contrived and insubstantial these accusations are? And is it coincidence that this is all happening, in the IAEA which is now coltrolled by the United States, and in the US media which is largely controlled by Zionists, at the same time that Israel is openly threatening to attack Iran? Right, of course it is! Why, you'd have to be crazy to suggest some sort of conspiracy...

But all is not rosy for the Zionist plan. France has issued its usual strongly-worded caution against military aggression, (as they hose the dust of Libya off their warplanes), but France isn't really going to do anything.

Russia, on the other hand, has issued a blunt warning that any attack on Iran, "could have severe consequences and even lead to war". This is Russia's backyard, let us remember, and a region with a long history of Russian interest and intervention, a record going back to the Czars.

So, what are the Iranians themselves saying about all this? Below is a video from Press TV examining the subject at some length. Press TV is an organ of the Iranian government, so by all means keep your salt shaker handy. But while their opinions, (as reflected in their choice of adjectives), is definitely slanted, I have never caught them in an outright falsehood. In my experience, when Press TV cites hard facts, those facts are accurate. Which is certainly more than one can say for Fox News.




(Open Salon readers can watch the video here)