The neocons' next war - By Sidney Blumenthal

[kpete]

By secretly providing NSA intelligence to Israel and undermining the hapless Condi Rice, hardliners in the Bush administration are trying to widen the Middle East conflict to Iran and Syria, not stop it.

By Sidney Blumenthal

Aug. 3, 2006 | The National Security Agency is providing signal intelligence to Israel to monitor whether Syria and Iran are supplying new armaments to Hezbollah as it fires hundreds of missiles into northern Israel, according to a national security official with direct knowledge of the operation. President Bush has approved the secret program.

Inside the administration, neoconservatives on Vice President Dick Cheney's national security staff and Elliott Abrams, the neoconservative senior director for the Near East on the National Security Council, are prime movers behind sharing NSA intelligence with Israel, and they have discussed Syrian and Iranian supply activities as a potential pretext for Israeli bombing of both countries, the source privy to conversations about the program says. (Intelligence, including that gathered by the NSA, has been provided to Israel in the past for various purposes.) The neoconservatives are described as enthusiastic about the possibility of using NSA intelligence as a lever to widen the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and Israel and Hamas into a four-front war.

...................

Having failed in the Middle East, the administration is attempting to salvage its credibility by equating Israel's predicament with the U.S. quagmire in Iraq. Neoconservatives, for their part, see the latest risk to Israel's national security as a chance to scuttle U.S. negotiations with Iran, perhaps the last opportunity to realize the fantasies of "A Clean Break."

By using NSA intelligence to set an invisible tripwire, the Bush administration is laying the condition for regional conflagration with untold consequences -- from Pakistan to Afghanistan, from Iraq to Israel. Secretly devising a scheme that might thrust Israel into a ring of fire cannot be construed as a blunder. It is a deliberate, calculated and methodical plot.

more at:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/08/03/mideast/index.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. And they are working desperately to kick this off...

before the 2006 elections.

I want to live long enough to piss on their graves. Their graves in a prison yard.

[Kolesar]

8. Waving the bloody shirt

just like the gop from 1865 - 1900

[Reckon]

2. I think everyone has it backwards.

When G-d speaks, Bu$h listens. Understand?

[Dr.Phool]

3. Just think how much more sigint Israel could get

If they hadn't blown the shit out of the USS Liberty.:sarcasm:

[bleever]

4. "NSA intelligence" would include everyone in the U.S.

Unless I'm being too cynical.

[tbyg52]

7. No such thing as *too* cynical

Generally, as cynical as possible will get it right on the nose.

Speaking of cynical, I'm sure they *are* trying to kick off another war before November. Can't win the election if you can't frighten the voters and call your opponents unpatriotic.

[bleever]

9. Agreed.

And welcome to DU!

[bananarepublican]

5. The "War Party" is ruling the roost! What can Joe Public do?

Can a poll be done on how many people are in favour of world war? Second question... What would you do if your government brought one about?

Unfortunately, these days, huge standing armies - generated from the civilian population - are no longer necessary. Bush and Co. can win any war with nukes.

Will Russia, China, (and France) go along? If not, the odds of "winning" diminish somewhat.

[Kablooie]

6. But they must still love their children.

What do I mean by that?

... uh ...

Hell, I don't know.
Someone take this keyboard away from me please.

[Junkdrawer]

10. "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" (link)

http://www.iasps.org/strat1.htm