On Iran: Mind Your Sources

The rhetoric revolving around the Iran situation has been racheted up to massive proportions this past week as the world waits for the UN Security Council to determine how it will handle the situation. And on this Easter Sunday, the celebration of the resurrection of the Christian Prince of Peace, international newspapers are replete with stories and editorials to make the case for or against yet another Middle Eastern war.

If there's one painful lesson we all learned from the Iraq war debacle, it is this: mind your sources. Unfortunately, we have reached a place where we no longer know who to trust. Politicians all have their agendas. Newspapers rely on their anonymous sources. Television newscasts can only take a few minutes to summarize what has become a very complex situation. And blogs on all points of the political spectrum present us with persuasive commentary based on their biases.

The facts often get lost in the noise and the suppression of the truth, which was long ago sacrificed to the gods of power, has left us wanting one thing: clarity. So, it falls upon those of us who are left to examine this mess to carefully wade through the flood of propaganda in order to present the best possible picture to those who rely upon us to bring that clarity forward.

Here's a roundup of the news about Iran:

Perhaps the most significant piece of news today comes from an article in The Washington Post, "Pentagon Preps for Iran", written by a remorseful William Arkin who proclaims regret for "not delving deeply enough into the details of the war plan for Iraq." In response to White House reactions to last week's Seymour Hersh story about plans for nuclear strikes against Iran, which Bush called "wild speculation" and Rumsfeld summarily blew off, Arkin brings to light project TIRANNT which was set up in 2003 to examine specific war plans for a future confrontation with Iran. (This one is a must read).

Now that this planning has been revealed, once again the White House and the Pentagon are in a no-win situation. If they admit the plan exists, they damage their credibility one more time and must call for heads to roll over the leak. If they deny the plan, there are obviously whistleblowers ready in the wings to discredit them. Stay tuned for Monday's White House press briefing.

Depending on who you choose to believe, Iran is anywhere from 16 days, 2.5 years, or up to 10 years from developing a nuclear bomb.

Some unknown "Iranian officials" have told the UK's Sunday Times that "40,000 trained suicide bombers are ready for action" and, according to "western officials", Iran's Revolutionary Guard has a "secret nuclear weapons programme designed to evade the scrutiny of the International Atomic Energy Agency." Also, "According to sources inside Iran, the Revolutionary Guards were constructing underground sites that could be activated if Iran's known nuclear facilities were destroyed." This ran in conjunction with a Reuters story about newly released satellite photos from the Institute for Science and International Security which show that Iran has built a new tunnel into one of its facilities that is used to enrich uranium. This tunnel, the article notes, could be an effort by Iran to protect its assets or to expand its capabilities.

Security and counterterrorism experts Richard Clarke and Steven Simon wrote an op-ed for the Sunday New York Times warning congress and the White House over the proposed bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.

Meanwhile, The Telegraph reveals the end-time, prophetic rationale they believe is driving Iran's president. That should sound familiar to anyone who has followed the coverage of Bush's "messianic" fantasies and the belief by some of his more extreme, right-wing Christian supporters that Bush is their chosen one to bring about the apocalypse.

In other news, Britain's Tony Blair has reportedly informed Bush "that Britain cannot offer military support to any strike on Iran, regardless of whether the move wins the backing of the international community". That should come as a huge setback on the international front for Bush.

So, as you can see, all sides are definitely seeking the spotlight as tensions continue to rise rapidly all over the world about the fate of Iran. And that's just an overview of today's news! One thing is sure: this march to war will be more heavily scrutinized than the Iraq misadventure, but all of the news coming out needs to be seen in its entirety in order to understand where this story might eventually be headed.

There you have it. Mind your sources. No single source has a hold on the entire truth.

Update: Monday's New York Times is running a story about Iranian ties to the notorious AQ Kahn (remember him?) and the possibility that he sold the country plans to build an advanced "P2 centrifuge", which could escalate Iran's nuclear development.