Common Sense

PERHAPS the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason. -Thomas Paine (1737-1809). Common Sense, 1776

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Cause and effect?

Gambling Subpoenas on Wall St . By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and STEPHANIE SAUL, New York Times, Published: January 22, 2007



Outcry as US targets City firms over online gambling, UK bankers issued with Subpoenas, Rhys Blakely, The London Times, January 22, 2007



Threat to New York as centre of finance, By By David Wighton in New York, FT.com, MSNBC



Beijing to diversify investment strategies, By Richard McGregor in Beijing, FT.com (Financial Times), Published: January 21 2007 19:35 | Last updated: January 22 2007 03:21

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Will we use nukes?

According to The Sunday Times, Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran. The article suggests that "the disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack."



Will America be cajoled?



It seems "we" already have been:



Former UNSCOM Chief Weapons Inspector SCOTT RITTER: Look, we're already overflying Iran with unmanned aerial vehicles, pilotless drones. On the ground, the CIA is recruiting Mojahedin-e-Khalq, recruiting Kurds, recruiting Azeris, who are operating inside Iran on behalf of the United States of America. And there is reason to believe that we've actually put uniformed members of the United States Armed Forces and American citizens operating as CIA paramilitaries inside Iranian territory to gather intelligence.



Now, when you violate the borders and the airspace of a sovereign nation with paramilitary and military forces, that's an act of war. That's an act of war. So, when Americans say, "Ah, there's not going to be a war in Iran," there's already a war in Iran. We're at war with Iran. We're just not in the declared conventional stage of the war. The Bush administration has a policy of regime change. They're going to use the military, and the military is being used. --Democracy Now! interview, Oct. 16, 2006



SCOTT RITTER: The bottom line is, within two days of our decision to initiate an attack on Iran, every single one of you is going to be feeling the consequences of that in your pocketbook. And it's only going to get worse. This is not something that only I recognize. Ask Dick Lugar what information he's getting from big business, who are saying, "We can't afford to go to war with Iran."



SEYMOUR HERSH: Final question: given all this, are we going to do it?



SCOTT RITTER: Yes, we're going to do it. --at the ethical culture society oct 2006



P.S. The inaccuracy of headlines: According to MSNBC, Israel denies it’s planning Iran nuclear attack, however, nowhere in that article does an official Israeli spokesperson specifically deny the Times story. This is fairly obviously another well orchastrated Israelie government "psyops," probably designed to "put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action and/or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack.