NOTE: x-posted to pro_war_liberal

Well, looks like it's official:

The Sunday Times (UK) is reporting in their 23 September edition that "sources in Washington and Jerusalem" have confirmed that "Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month" with U.S ( Read more... )

I've been re-reading bits of Barbara W. Tuchman's Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the run-up to and the first deadly month of World War I, The Guns of August (1962): partly because I stumbled across it in my storage unit whilst looking for other books, and partly out of boredom with all other reading matter I had at hand. (And also partly ( Read more... )

The rush to war with Iran just keeps comin' on.

This past Sunday (16 September), France's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said that "the world should brace for war against Tehran over its controversial nuclear programme" (remarks which did not exactly thrill Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as one might well expect, although he's dismissed ( Read more... )

Last September I noted that Harper's Magazine ran a piece by Daniel Ellsberg (he of The Pentagon Papers fame) citing Philip Giraldi, a former CIA official writing in The American Conservative in 2005 that:

"..Vice President Cheney's office had directed contingency planning for 'a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and ( Read more... )

Huh. Sometimes the radio receiver inside my head works quite well. Frightfully well, even.

Yesterday I posted an entry focusing mainly on Daniel Ellsberg's call to the anonymous analysts and advisers in the Pentagon to leak the administration’s plans to attack Iran, up to and including a first use tactical nuclear strike in an effort to take out ( Read more... )

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, BBC Radio 4 is running a month's worth (?) of Iran-themed programmes under the rubric "Uncovering Iran," in an attempt to provide its listeners with a more balanced, full spectrum look at the country that just maybe maybe might be next up on our fight card. (North Korea?! Fahgeddaboutit! They've already ( Read more... )

(*Subject line taken from a Mad Magazine parody of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" from the early 1970s, titled "When Johnny Goes Marching Off;" the next line is: "I think I'll chicken out next time, go on the lam..." Yet another instance, to my mind, at how like the early 1970s our present times are. And say, wasn't there a bloodless military ( Read more... )

Ian Fleming has earned himself a niche in the hearts of many conspirologists: if not for his tongue-in-cheek, off-the-cuff suggestions to JFK for assassinating Fidel Castro (suggestions that were taken to heart by the irony-deficient President Erect and the CIA, viz. exploding sea shells, exploding cigars, having one of "El Barbo's" mistresses ( Read more... )

Last week I listened to the previous Friday's (3 February) edition of NPR's On the Media radio programme, originated from WNYC-FM in New York City; Boing-Boing co-editor, polyglot, former publishing veep and current tech reporter extraordinaire Xeni Jardin substituted for OtM's regular female anchor (and managing editor), Brooke GladstoneMs. Jardin ( Read more... )

From the Monday, 28 February 2005 Christian Science Monitor:

Russia fuels Iran's atomic bid
Russia signed a deal Sunday for the supply and return of fuel for Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor.

By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

"MOSCOW - Dismissing American concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions, Russia Sunday ( Read more... )