by F. William Engdahl
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Obama Presidential agenda is how little anyone has questioned in the media or elsewhere why at all the United States Pentagon is committed to a military occupation of Afghanistan. There are two basic reasons, neither one of which can be admitted openly to the public at large.
Behind all the deceptive official debate over how many troops are needed to “win” the war in Afghanistan, whether another 30,000 is sufficient, or whether at least 200000 are needed, the real purpose of US military presence in that pivotal Central Asian country is obscured.
Even during the 2008 Presidential campaign candidate Obama argued that Afghanistan not Iraq was where the US must wage war. His reason? Because he claimed, that was where the Al Qaeda organization was holed up and that was the “real” threat to US national security. The reasons behind US involvement in Afghanistan is quite another one.
The US military is in Afghanistan for two reasons. First to restore and control the world’s largest supply of opium for the world heroin markets and to use the drugs as a geopolitical weapon against opponents, especially Russia. That control of the Afghan drug market is essential for the liquidity of the bankrupt and corrupt Wall Street financial mafia.
The second reason the US military remains in Afghanistan long after the world has forgotten even who the mysterious Osama bin Laden and his alleged Al Qaeda terrorist organization is or even if they exist, is as a pretext to build a permanent US military strike force with a series of permanent US airbases across Afghanistan. The aim of those bases is not to eradicate any Al Qaeda cells that may have survived in the caves of Tora Bora, or to eradicate a mythical “Taliban” which at this point according to eyewitness reports is made up overwhelmingly of local ordinary Afghanis fighting to rid their land once more of occupier armies as they did in the 1980’s against the Russians.
The aim of the US bases in Afghanistan is to target and be able to strike at the two nations which today represent the only combined threat in the world today to an American global imperium, to America’s Full Spectrum Dominance as the Pentagon terms it. [China & Russia]
2. Iran nuclear fuel deal 'agreed'
Iran and three world powers have been handed a draft agreement aimed at reducing international concerns over Tehran's nuclear programme.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which proposed the plan after talks in Vienna, wants an answer by Friday.
Details are yet to be confirmed, but the plan is believed to involve Iran exporting uranium to be enriched in France and Russia.
Iran's chief negotiator has not commented on the uranium export plan.
The negotiations have involved the UN, Iran, France, Russia and the US.
read more @ bbc3. jpost: 'israelis, iranians met to discuss nukes'
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256150023246&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Israeli and Iranian officials discussed nuclear issues in the Middle East during a Cairo conference last month, according to media reports Thursday morning.
Israel Radio, however, quoted an Iranian nuclear official as denying the report. He said that there was no meeting, direct or indirect, between Israeli and Iranian officials. Reuters reported that the brief meeting took place during at Middle East disarmament conference on September 29-30. An Israeli official quoted by Reuters said that the exchange had taken place during an open session, when Iranian delegate Ali Ashghar Soltanieh had asked his Israeli counterpart, Meirav Zafary-Odiz a question about Israel's nuclear capabilities.
"She gave her answers, and later the Israeli delegation addressed a question in the same vein to the Iranians, which was answered," the official was quoted as saying. AFP quoted Israeli Atomic Energy Commission representative Yael Doron as confirming the meeting, which she said took place during a session organized by Australia. "These meetings were held behind closed doors," Doron was further quoted as saying. She did not give any additional details.
Also Thursday, French Defense Minister Herve Morin said that the French and Israeli armies regularly swap information on Iran's nuclear program. "We have to know what's going on, so we exchange our information," Morin said. Morin was responding to a question on RTL radio Thursday about a reported Paris meeting two weeks ago between the French, Israeli and US armies. He did not respond directly to that claim, saying only that France consults "happily" with its partners. Morin's comments, and news of the Israeli-Iranian meeting, broke a day after reports that Iranian negotiators had expressed support for a deal that - if accepted by their leaders - would delay Teheran's ability to build nuclear weapons by sending most of its known existing enriched uranium to Russia for processing. Both the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry had no comment on the development, saying it was premature to discuss, since all that was being talked about at this time was a draft.
4. jpost: officials fear Iran 'buying time' as inner cabinet mulls strategy
shorter: "oh fuck fuck fuck fuck that twerp sarkozy better come through or we gotta go to plan b" - bibi & co.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256150026472&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Israeli assessments regarding a nuclear deal under negotiation with Iran is that it benefits mainly the Islamic regime as it allows Teheran to "buy time" and gives the republic legitimacy to enrich uranium, Israel Radio reported on Thursday.
In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened his seven-member inner cabinet to mull Israel's strategy regarding the deal, which, if accepted by Iranian leaders, would delay Teheran's ability to make nuclear weapons by sending most of its known existing enriched uranium to Russia for processing. [and France, they didn't mention France!] However, Iran's deputy parliament speaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying Iran "doesn't accept" the offer, drummed up at a nuclear meeting in Vienna. Bahonar's remark is the first reaction on the draft in Teheran. But he does not speak for the government, which is to decide on the matter. Iran proposed the deal on the presumption that in exchange for transferring what it considers to be a relatively small amount of uranium to be enriched abroad, it would receive legitimacy to enrich uranium on Iranian soil, officials reportedly told Israel Radio. The unnamed officials were quoted as saying that they believe that under the cover of this legitimacy, Teheran would be able to pull off almost any trick, as Iran knows that international supervision is not efficient enough to reach every underground facility and every hidden batch of centrifuges. In this way, the officials maintained, Iran hopes to gain more time and support from the public in Western countries. But Israel fears that at a certain point, the Islamic republic could return to enriching uranium at full capacity because according to the deal, the arrangement is limited in both time and amount. The Israeli assessment is that the Americans are supporting the deal although they are not naïve and are aware of the Iranian deceptiveness, the Radio reported. But Washington is interested in taking confidence-building steps and in engaging diplomatically with Iran until this option is exhausted. The administration of US President Barack Obama is taking this path to ensure that eventually, it would be able to demand extreme measures and supervision of Iran to prevent it from achieving a nuclear military capability, Jerusalem officials reportedly said. According to the report, officials have refrained from publicly commenting on the subject because the government's policy was to maintain contact at the inter-governmental level, and not issue public statements that could potentially harm the complicated American campaign. Also speaking on Israel Radio, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Shlomo Brom, a senior research associate at the Institute for National Security Studies and former director of the Strategic Planning Division in the Planning Branch of the General Staff, explained that the understandings reached between Iran and the West mean the Iranian nuclear threat will not be imminent. "As a result of the initial agreement, the urgency of the threat will be reduced, because the biggest concern was that Iran would take all of the low-grade uranium in its possession, a considerable amount, and enrich it to a military grade within a short time, enabling it to build a nuclear bomb," Brom said. "The amount [of uranium] that would be left in Iran [after it transfers uranium to be enriched abroad] would not be sufficient to build a bomb." When asked how the deal may affect the possibility of a military strike on Iran, Brom predicted that "the US and Israel will not strike Iran's nuclear facilities in the near future, but the military option was not completely off the table." Brom said that while there was "good reason" not to trust the Iranians, he believed it was "important to give this a try and see if Obama's new attitude will work." "Israel's policy should be waiting to see if this path works, while continuing to improve its intelligence on Iran," he concluded. and finally.... plan b
5. ISRAEL NEEDS TO FIND NEW CASUS BELLI FOR FINAL CONFRONTATION AGAINST IRAN.
excerpt:All of their efforts have now come to nothing. The Israelis and the neoconservatives will, of course, continue the propaganda that Iran is still secretly processing uranium despite the new arrangements, [see above - ed.] but they know that this alone will not be enough to convince the world that it would justify an attack against Iran. The ploy is now unlikely to work though that won’t stop them trying.
Some other ploy will now be necessary to create the casus belli the Israelis and the neocons need to affect the regime change in Iran that is required to allow the Israelis to defeat Hezbollah and Hamas. This means that there will be a return to provocation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and heightened tensions over Lebanon in order to create, yet again, the conditions required to launch another war against the Palestinians and Arabs that might draw in Iran thus creating a strong enough casus belli to launch a regime changing attack against Iran based on their support for Hezbollah and Hamas.
Once again, the ball is now well and truly in Israel’s court.
read more @ damian lataan
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