Bob Dylan | Idiot Wind
Iran and EU officials failed yesterday to resolve a standoff over Iran's nuclear work before a United Nations atomic watchdog meeting Monday that may lead to Security Council action. In his book, State of War, James Risen includes the startling claim that the U.S. actually handed Tehran the blueprints for an atomic bomb in 2000. The CIA scheme was to introduce intentional flaws in the design plans that would delay or derail Iranian work. ... Risen is the reporter who revealed a secret domestic U.S. wiretapping surveillance program exists in the United States.
Toronto Star | CIA used A-bomb plan as bait
It seems I credit the C.I.A. and U.S. intelligence apparatus with a damned side more professionalism than do most newspapers. And it seems most newspapers credit their readers with very little in the way of gray matter. Then again... Early in January, under the somewhat cumbersome headline "George Bush insists that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. So why, six years ago, did the CIA give the Iranians blueprints to build a bomb?" the Guardian published a similar or identical extract from James Risen's "...explosive new book." I questioned its veracity then and I do so now.
Given its muted reception — I mean, the man's saying the C.I.A. gave Iran the Bomb, George his excuse to go to war with that country, and threw in a list of C.I.A. Iranian assets to boot — why the hell should I believe it? Nobody else appears to have done so. Lending Risen's story credence makes about as much sense as failing to credit the Bush administration with criminal complicity in 911.
And were the C.I.A. and U.S. federal government as dumb as they enjoy making themselves out to be, I should have expected boatloads of blood-crazed, saber-wielding Arabs in traditional regalia to have levelled the land of the brave and home of the free by now (yes, neither brave nor free, the phrase now borders on bathos). Instead, not one act of so-called terror has been committed on American soil by anybody since September 2001.
In yesterday's entry, wherein I credit the Bush administration with enough nous to carry through a comprehensive Middle Eastern Divide and Rule strategy (dividing even its own intuitively cunning support base), I illustrate the administration's intent by dredging up a link to a story written during Clinton's tenure, A Nuclear War Feared Possible Over Kashmir, co-authored by one of Risen's former colleagues, Judith Miller.
Yes, that Judith Miller. The article, citing "...officials with access to ... secret intelligence", was written in August 2000, around the same time as the C.I.A. was allegedly sending lists of its Iranian assets to Tehran and posting plans of nuclear bombs to the minions of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
"Several analysts who took part in drafting the assessment said the report had succeeded in underscoring the importance of working to ease political tensions between two rivals that have fought three wars in the 50 years since their independence. In the past, the administration had focused mainly on trying to stop the development and spread of nuclear weapons on the subcontinent,"...writes Miller. In deciding to sell nuclear weapons expertise to India, George W. Bush appears to have eschewed diplomacy in favor of the best form of defense being attack.
Never mind. Back then, in 2000, it seems threats of a nuclear holocaust proved as interesting to the U.S. public as they do today. But it didn't matter. 911 and Judith Miller came to the Bush administration's rescue. Or vice versa. Whatever... Interestingly, Judith Miller's co-author of the Kashmir article was James Risen, who uses the piece to tell us...
"...Mr. Clinton and other top officials have urged senior Indian and Pakistani officials in public and private meetings to open a direct political dialogue and give up their nuclear programs, warning them of the growing peril of an accidental or deliberate nuclear exchange."Despite the Clinton administration's urging...
"India continues to see its nuclear arsenal as necessary for its status as an emerging power and to deter not only Pakistan but also neighboring China, a Pakistani ally. Pakistan, less populous and poorer than India, sees its nuclear force as essential to counterbalance its rival's larger conventional forces."
One cannot fault the logic now that we see the U.S. again putting the squeeze on Pakistan. What I do question is Risen's familiarity with "officials with access to ... secret intelligence", his relationship with Miller, his supposed knowledge of Iran's more-than-easy acquisition of nuclear blueprints at that time — a supposed knowledge he has withheld for an indeterminate period (as he did in withholding the NSA wiretap story), and his motivation for giving George W. Bush, the man now backing India against Pakistan, the reason he believes he needs to bomb Iran — not that he need do so immediately now he has New Delhi in his pocket.The only conclusion I can draw is that James Risen, serving 'a higher cause' than his profession and neatly positioned to the left (with the ageing NSA wiretap story to lend him credibility), is another paperback whore and Fourth Estate novelist aspiring to become Iran's Judith Miller.
Motel Money Murder Madness | Let's change the mood from glad to sadness | Mr. Mojo Risin', Mr. Mojo Risin' | Mr. Mojo Risin', Mr. Mojo Risin' | Got to keep on risin'
Doors | L.A. Woman
