As the U.S. accuses Iran of attacking civilian ships while offering
scant evidence, grave historical parallels are emerging with the Gulf of Tonkin
incidents in 1964 that were manipulated to justify Lyndon Johnson's dramatic escalation
of the war in Vietnam. California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna is preparing legislation aimed
at stopping an attack on Iran, and he says he would not put it past national security
adviser John Bolton to manipulate evidence. . . .
Non-Proliferation Treaty (July 1, 1968)
- Forbids the five member states with nuclear weapons from transferring them to any other state
- Forbids member states without nuclear weapons from developing or aquiring them
- Provides assurance through the application of international safeguards that peaceful nuclear energy in NNWS will not be diverted to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices
- Facilitates access to peaceful uses of nuclear energy for all NNWS under international safeguards
- Commits all member states to pursue good faith negotiations toward ending the nuclear arms race and achieving nuclear disarmament.
[AUDIO:
Fifty years ago, in a bold and far-reaching covert operation, the CIA
overthrew the elected government of Iran. Although the coup seemed
successful at first, its "haunting and terrible legacy" is now becoming
clear.
Operation Ajax, as the plot was code-named, reshaped the history of Iran,
the Middle East and the world. It restored Mohammad Reza Shah to the Peacock
Throne, allowing him to impose a tyranny that ultimately sparked the Islamic
Revolution of 1979.
The Islamic Revolution, in turn, inspired fundamentalists throughout the
Muslim world, including the Taliban and terrorists who thrived under its
protection.
In his new book "All The Shah's Men," New York Times correspondent Stephen
Kinzer asserts "It is not far-fetched to draw a line from Operation Ajax
through the Shah's repressive regime and the Islamic Revolution to the
fireballs that engulfed the World Trade Center in New York."-- Stephen
Kinzer, "All
The Shah's Men," NPR On Point, August 20, 2003]
[The CIA's Roosevelt and Wilber now traveled to London with the coup proposal they had
drafted together in Cyprus. After meetings with MI6, a reworked version emerged. The
plans were next submitted to the Americans at the famous June 25 meeting mentioned
earlier. Churchill greenlighted the operation on July 1, and President Eisenhower on
July 11. . . . Wilber instigated what he described as "a war of
nerves," with the help of two Iranian assets, code-named Nerren and Cilley. A CIA
courier arrived with a large number of anti-Mossadeq cartoons and posters that enabled
Wilber to launch a massive propaganda campaign aimed at discrediting Mossadeq's
government. Articles stressing the Communist threat were planted in the foreign and
local press. Intelligence networks were meshed, and agent provocateurs, specialists in
inciting trouble that could be blamed on the Communists, were hired. Weapons were
distributed to the tribes. An armed gang kidnapped, tortured, and killed Tehran chief of
police. The Grand Ayatollah conveniently issued fatwahs against the Communists. (p. 334)
In America, generations of schoolchildren have been bred on textbooks suggesting that
not once - not in Mexico, Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, Samoa,
Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic,
Chile, or Iran - did the United States promote violence or wage a war of aggression.
Indeed, even the evilest empires profess similar virtue: Hitler concocted a Polish act
of aggression to justify Germany's declaration of war in 1939, and all of Stalin's wars
were purportedly in defense of the Soviet socialist motherland. And even when empires
cease to exist, their political heirs stubbornly resist acknowledging human rights
abuses long past, as is the case with Japan regarding war crimes in China and Korea, or
with Belgium regarding Emperor Leopold's offenses in the Congo, or with Turkey regarding
the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire (p. 413)--Shareen Blair Brysac and
Karl E. Meyer, "Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East, W. W. Norton &
Company; 1st Edition edition (June 17, 2008)]
[JCPOA imposes more restrictions on Iranian enrichment capabilities and stockpiles, and
on inspection and monitoring of compliance, than has been imposed on any country in the
course of the entire nuclear era.--"The NPT, Iran, and Israel's Hypocrisy," The
Wisdom Fund, October 16, 2013]
[The Iranians certainly have a strange method of bomb disposal if they carry it out
using unarmoured personnel, with as many as possible crammed into a small boat in
immediate contact with the "mine."--Craig Murray, "The
Ugly View of Western Democracy," consortiumnews.com, June 18, 2019]
[shutting down the Strait of Hormuz would destroy the American economy by detonating the
$1.2 quadrillion derivatives market; and that would collapse the world banking system,
crushing the world's $80 trillion GDP and causing an unprecedented depression.--Pepe
Escobar, "Iran goes for 'maximum counter-pressure'," strategic-culture.org,
June 20, 2019]
[Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
aerospace force, posed with debris that officials said was pulled from the sea near the Straits
of Hormuz--Richard Sisk, "Iran Makes Show of Drone Wreckage After Trump
Calls Off Retaliatory Strike," military.com, June 21, 2019]
[U.S. and Iran are parties to the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation,
which provides "that every State has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the
airspace above its territory."--Marjorie Cohn, "Iran
Had the Legal Right to Shoot Down US Spy Drone," truthout.org, June 21, 2019]
[A country that has virtually one major wealth-producing base (ie oil) and just a few
desalination plants that pump fresh water into its major cities, is a very soft target
indeed.--Ghassan Kadi, "Iran vs Saudi Arabia:
it's game-over," thesaker.is, September 19, 2019]
[Hassan Ali Al-Emad, Yemeni scholar and the son of a prominent tribal leader with
ascendance over ten clans, begs to differ. "From a military perspective, nobody ever
took our forces in Yemen seriously. Perhaps they started understanding it when our
missiles hit Aramco."--Ghassan Kadi, "How Yemen's Houthis are bringing down a Goliath," asiatimes.com,
September 25, 2019]
[Fact is that Trump is following the plan of the Foundation For The Defense of Democracy
(FDD) . . . FDD advisor Richard Goldberg was appointed to National Security Council to
push for attacking Iran. FDD continued to pay his salary. FDD was tasked by Israel to
instigate a U.S. war on Iran.--"The Revenge For The Assassination Of Qassem Soleimani ,"
moonofalabama.org, January 4, 2020]
Red Lines Live: US & Israel pushing Iran to brink of war, November 29, 2020
[Iran has requested the international police organisation to arrest Trump and 47 other
American officials identified as playing a role in the assassination of top general
Qassem Soleimani last year.--Maziar Motamedi, "Iran issues Interpol notice for 48 US officials including
Trump," aljazeera.com, January 5, 2021]
How The US-UK-backed Iranian Coup of 1953 Birthed The US Iran Rivalry, RT, February 1, 2021