Just Elvia

The report "Time to Talk: The Case for Diplomatic Solutions on Iran" is available from: http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/831.pdf or http://media.ft.com/cms/e064fc48-b4ed-11db-a5a5-0000779e2340.pdf. See also: FT report, BBC report. The reality of the danger can be seen from Zbigniew Brzezinski`s evidence (pdf) to the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on February 1st 2007. If the United States continues to be bogged down in a protracted bloody involvement in Iraq, the final destination on this downhill track is likely to be a head-on conflict with Iran and with much of the world of Islam at large. A plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran involves Iraqi failure to meet the benchmarks; followed by accusations of Iranian responsibility for the failure; then by some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the U.S. blamed on Iran; culminating in a "defensive" U.S. military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A mythical historical narrative to justify the case for such a protracted and potentially expanding war is already being articulated. Initially justified by false claims about WMDs in Iraq, the war is now being redefined as the "decisive ideological struggle" of our time, reminiscent of the earlier collisions with Nazism and Stalinism. In that context, Islamist extremism and al Qaeda are presented as the equivalents of the threat posed by Nazi Germany and then Soviet Russia, and 9/11 as the equivalent of the Pearl Harbor attack which precipitated America`s involvement in World War II. This simplistic and demagogic narrative overlooks the fact that Nazism was based on the military power of the industrially most advanced European state; and that Stalinism was able to mobilize not only the resources of the victorious and militarily powerful Soviet Union but also had worldwide appeal through its Marxist doctrine. In contrast, most Muslims are not embracing Islamic fundamentalism; al Qaeda is an isolated fundamentalist Islamist aberration; most Iraqis are engaged in strife because the American occupation of Iraq destroyed the Iraqi state; while Iran -- though gaining in regional influence -- is itself politically divided, economically and militarily weak. To argue that America is already at war in the region with a wider Islamic threat, of which Iran is the epicenter, is to promote a self-fulfilling prophecy. Notice that he is almost explicitly saying that he expects a false manufactured pretext to be used by the US to provoke a war against Iran. See also: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/brze-f03_prn.shtml.

Past Peak also discusses Brzezinski`s evidence to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. See also: http://disruptive.org.uk/2007/02/06/crisis_action_report.html http://rigint.blogspot.com/2007/02/monolith-monsters.html.

Police investigating the alleged terrorist plot to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier in Birmingham have accused the UK government of exploiting their operation to divert the press away from the current investigation into the "cash for honours" scandal that has seen British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, interviewed twice by police. Whitehall officials briefed journalists early on Wednesday before all of the suspects had been found, with the result that lurid details of the alleged plot were broadcast while one suspect remained at large. At least one tabloid newspaper had even been tipped off the night before the dawn raids, and its reporters put on standby to race to Birmingham. Read more in this "New Criminologist" story. Now two of the suspects have been released and according to this Times story: said they left custody today "without any better understanding of why they were there than when they first arrived". "They have left the police station without any better understanding of why they were there than when they first arrived seven days ago," Ms Peirce said. "Not a word was ever mentioned to either of them about a plot to kidnap or the grisly suggestion of a beheading or even of a soldier at all. "Both have been met with a consistent refusal over seven days for any explanation for their arrest. So I`m afraid this looks like just another staged "media event", like the "liquid bomb plot" and the Forest Gate raid. See also: http://winterpatriot.blogspot.com/2007/02/two-suspects-released-without-charge-in.html.