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Iran: Is Iran Next? OMJP Forum: Potential War Against Iran Friday, May 20, 2005 7:00 to 9:00 PM Olympia Community Center [Map] 222 Columbia St. NW, Room B Speakers: Larry Mosqueda, on Project for the New American Century; Michael Tempke, peak oil; and Alice Zillah, nuclear issues. Film Clip: "Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire," narrated by Julian Bond, Media Education Foundation, 2004. See summary and study guide. The forum will address signs of a possible impending attack against Iran; why the Bush administration has developed these plans; why such plans are illegal under international law; and how these aims fit into the broader context of US policy in the Mid-East as developed by the Project for a New American Century in the late 1990’s. Speakers will also address the issues of peak oil and nuclear nonproliferation, followed by a question-and-answer period. 
 OMJP Meeting 4/13/05—At the February Support the Truth event, Scott Ritter said that the
Bush administration is planning to attack Iran in June. Despite the fact
that the corporate press is not covering this issue, there are indications
that an attack could happen. Israel PM Ariel Sharon has also said that June
is the "point of no return". The US and Israel state that Iran wants to
develop a nuclear bomb. Iran has said its uranium enrichment activities are
allowed under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. If Iran is in fact
developing a bomb, it's probably in response to the 100-200 nuclear warheads
that Israel has and the thousands of nukes that the US has. Sadly, many
countries see acquiring a nuclear bomb as a "logical response" to the
military threat posed by the US and other nuclear states.
However the nuclear issue is probably a smokescreen for the real issue: the huge oil and natural gas reserves that Iran has, and the fact that it is selling oil and gas to China and India, competitors of the US. US sanctions prevent US companies from doing business with Iran. The Bush administration would therefore like to either 1) extend these sanctions to all foreign companies through the UN, which would not be possible because of China's veto; or 2) achieve "regime change" in Iran so that a government more friendly to US interests would come in to power. John Bolton is the person who has called for a "robust" military attack on Iran if it doesn't stop its uranium enrichment. Some analysts think Bolton was nominated for UN Ambassador to help enable a US attack on Iran. Defeating Bolton's nomination is one way to prevent an attack.—Alice Zillah
Oil, Geopolitics, and the Coming War with Iran by Michael T. Klare CommonDreams April 11, 2005 Michael T. Klare is professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and the author of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Oil (Metropolitan Books).
ARTICLES ON IRAN The Coming Wars What the Pentagon can now do in secret by Seymour Hersch The New Yorker January 24 and 31, 2005 http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050124fa_fact Journalist: U.S. planning for possible attack on Iran CNN Report January 17, 2005 http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/16/hersh.iran/ Scott Ritter Says U.S. Plans June Attack On Iran by Mark Jensen Information Clearing House February 19, 2005 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8130.htm Also at United for Peace and Justice Pierce County at http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2295/ Sleepwalking to Disaster in Iran by Scott Ritter CommonDreams April 16, 2005 http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0330-31.htm If Not Now, When? Condoleezza Rice says the US has no plans to attack Iran 'at this point in time'. But recent history suggests otherwise by James C Moore The Independent (UK) February 6, 2005 http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0206-26.htm http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=608179 Bush's Plan to Hit Iran [Audio file] A radio interview with Scott Ritter on Air America by Charles Goyette Antiwar.com April 02, 2005 http://www.antiwar.com/av/?articleid=5433 Nukes, Neo-Cons, and the Bush Who Cried Wolf Again Part I: Four More Wars by Steve Weissman Truthout.org November 25, 2004 http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/112504A.shtml Will Iran Be Next? Soldiers, spies, and diplomats conduct a classic Pentagon war game—with sobering results by James Fallows The Atlantic Monthly December 2004 http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200412/fallows Articles posted by Veterans For Common Sense:
by Jim Lobe Antiwar.com December 22, 2004 http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=4200 Iran: Déjà Vu All Over Again by Charles V. Peña CATO Institute June 12, 2003 http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3125 US military routinely updating Iran war plan International Relations and Security Network February 11, 2005 http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=10754
ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON IRANIAN ISSUES Amnesty International http://web.amnesty.org/library/eng-irn/index AntiWar.com http://www.antiwar.com/regions/regions.php?c=Iran Iranian Red Cresent [International Red Cross] http://www.rcs.ir/en/index.php Parstimes.com Large collection of military and defense information at http://www.parstimes.com/defence/ See also Iran Index UNICEF http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/iran.html US Department of Energy Country Analysis Brief: Iran http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/iran.html US Department of State Background Note: Iran http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5314.htm US Library of Congress Iran, and A Country Study: Iran World Bank Women for Peace and Justice in Iran http://www.women4peace.org/
LEAFLET [plain text] An OMJP sub-group developed a half page informational leaflet, text below. The leaflets are available at Media Island International at 816 Adams St, across from the downtown Olympia library, on the front porch to the left under "Event Information." IS IRAN THE NEXT TARGET IN THE ADMINISTRATION’S SIGHTS? On Feb. 18, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter told an Olympia audience that the Bush administration has plans to attack Iran in June of 2005. “The Pentagon was told to be prepared to launch a massive aerial attack against Iran, Iraq's neighbor to the east, in order to destroy the Iranian nuclear program.” There are other indications: In late March three warships with 6,300 sailors and Marines were deployed to the Persian Gulf. Bush has repeatedly said publicly that “all options are on the table” in regards to Iran. Commentator Charles Goyette says, “That the US might attack Iran in June is one of our worst-kept secrets.” The Bush administration is saying the same things about Iran that they said about Iraq: it has a secret weapons program, ties to Al Qaeda, and represents a threat to the US. But last month an official US Presidential Commission stated that virtually every report on Iraq from the intelligence community was “dead wrong.” These dead wrong reports were used to justify a war that has resulted in the deaths of over 1560 Americans and 100,000 Iraqis. Americans have spent over $200 billion on this war and there is no end in sight. No More Excuses for War! Now is the time to act. Call your congressperson and ask them to vocally oppose an attack on Iran, and to support the Woolsey resolution calling for the troops to be brought home from Iraq. Congressman Brian Baird – (360) 352-9768 or (202) 225-3536 Congressman Adam Smith – (888) 764-8409 or (202) 225-8901 Senator Patty Murray – (206) 553-5545 or (202) 224-2621 Senator Maria Cantwell – (888) 648-7328 or (202) 224-3441 For more information on the possibility of an Iran war see: www.commondreams.org/views05/0411-21.htm www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050124fa_fact www.ufppc.org/content/view/2295/
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