This article is part of the series: The coming war against Iran
[ 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 - 31 - 32 - 33 - 34 - 35 - 36 - 37 - 38 - 39 - 40 - 41 ]

Obama continueert Iranbeleid Bush - 3

Gerelateerde serie van DeepJournal: Het Andere Gezicht van Barack Obama.

Door Daan de Wit

'America's Pro-Israël Lobby' zoals AIPAC zichzelf noemt, houdt gisteren, vandaag en morgen in Washington de grootste conferentie in z'n geschiedenis. 'This year, the lobby has built its annual conference, and its entire lobbying agenda around the issue of Iran', schrijft Haaretz. AIPAC is oppermachtig en er is ontzag in Washington voor de lange arm van de lobby. Een van de middelen die het inzet is het Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI). Grant Smith, de directeur het Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy vergelijk het TFI met het OSP, het roemruchte Office of Special Plans ten tijde van George W. Bush in de aanloop naar de Irakoorlog.

Zoals Amerika Israël nodig heeft, heeft AIPAC Washington nodig, voor steun en financiële middelen. Zeker met betrekking tot het probleem Iran. 'When AIPAC activists mount the buses March 23 to go meet their representatives on Capitol Hill, they'll be carrying an advocacy message that emphasizes Iran as the immediate and current concern. In lobbying meetings following the conference, AIPAC will also ask members of Congress to complete the new Iran sanctions bill, which has passed both chambers and is now awaiting reconciliation between the two versions in the conference committee, schrijft Haaretz. De krant schrijft ook dat AIPAC er bij Congresleden op zal aandringen een brief aan het Witte Huis te ondertekenen. Daarin wordt de VS opgeroepen voorbij te gaan aan de VN Veiligheidsraad door sancties tegen Iran in te stellen.

Het Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence
Een van de manieren waarop druk wordt uitgeoefend op Iran is het TFI, het Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. Grant Smith, de directeur van IRmep, het Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy schrijft dat 'AIPAC and its associated think tank, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), were instrumental in lobbying the president for the creation of the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence unit early in 2004'. Deze eenheid zet financiële middelen in als breekijzer tegen de verdediging die Iran probeert op te houden.

Smith vertelt in een interview (4'25) dat het Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) sinds 2004 is gehuisvest in het ministerie van Financiën. Het wordt geleid door de door Bush aangestelde, en de door Obama gehandhaafde Stuart Levey. De Wall Street Journal schrijft: '[...] Stuart Levey, will travel to Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. "We are pointing out that they face dramatic risks by doing business with Iran," Mr. Levey said in an interview Tuesday'. Smith: 'It looks as though what it's trying to do is to surround and encompass Iran and maybe, if they're really lucky, get them to leave the Non Proliferation Treaty so that Iran can become an even easier target. [...] It's rapidly proven itself to be mainly a sharp edged tool for setting a lot of these trip wires'.

'Het TFI is als het OSP, het Office of Special Plans'
Smith vergelijk het TFI met het OSP, het Office of Special Plans. Dat was de in het Pentagon gehuisveste beruchte geheime dienst die in de aanloop naar de Irakoorlog direct toegang had tot het Witte Huis. Het bureau had tot doel de gewogen inlichtingen van de CIA over Irak te vervangen met ruwe data. Die werd als bewijs van de kwade bedoelingen van Irak gepresenteerd, met alle gevolgen vandien. De ironie was dat het de CIA was die achteraf de zwarte piet kreeg toegeschoven. DeepJournal heeft over het OSP toentertijd uitgebreid gerapporteerd.
Het is vertontrustend dat Smith claimt dat onder Obama soortgelijke praktijken worden uitgevoerd. Smith zegt: 'All of the things we saw before the Iraq war... If you were an Antiwar-listener and knew a lot about the Office of Special Plans, you knew it was essentially a black box that had very little public disclosure into what it was doing around the world. You knew that it was hard wired to the Israel lobby and you knew it was also diverting the institution it was housed in [the Pentagon] away from it's mandate [... The TFI is] even less transparent than the Office of Special Plans'.

McGovern: Israël is de olifant in de kamer
Smith schrijft : 'Invited guests and members of WINEP have received many intimate briefings from TFI officials and consultants —possibly more than the entire US Congress'. Toch werd bij een recente bijeenkomst in de Amerikaanse Senaat over Iran bijna met geen woord gerept over wat voormalig CIA-inlichtingenanalist Ray McGovern de spreekwoordelijke olifant in de kamer noemt: Israël.

Het negeren van de olifant vindt volgens McGovern zijn wortels in de 'time-worn “passionate attachment” of U.S. leaders to Israel's short-term interests as if they were identical to those of the United States'. Om het in de woorden te zeggen van de Amerikaanse vice-president Joe Biden, begin deze maand uitgesproken in Israël: 'The cornerstone of the relationship is our absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel's security.  Bibi, you heard me say before, progress occurs in the Middle East when everyone knows there is simply no space between the United States and Israel.  There is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel's security.  And for that reason, and many others, addressing Iran's nuclear program has been of -- one of our administration's priorities'.

Volgens McGovern houdt Israël met betrekking tot Iran de VS in een houdgreep. Zijn oplossing: 'This politically super-sensitive issue needs to be addressed openly and without fear'. 'Otherwise, there is virtually no prospect of lessened tensions, and a near-term prospect that things can get dramatically worse — an Israeli provocation and/or a preventive strike on Iran, for example'.

Fight against Damascus and Tehran a threat to Russian and Chinese interests

Not the entire world is wishing for a different Iran, although it does seem like that at times. Superpowers China and Russia are charting their own course, and in spite of their modern relationships with the West, there are still a lot of differences.

read more

Preparations for a war against Iran in full gear

News reports on Iran are now following each other in rapid succession, and together they form a new step towards a military conflict. [...] What follows is an analysis of these fast-moving developments

read more

NATO and CIA covertly arming Syrian rebels in order to weaken Iran

It is clear that all the pieces are being put into place for a war against Iran. It is a long-term project demanding many years worth of preparation, and the ultimate goal is getting closer all the time. One component of this preparation is the covert arming of Syrian rebels.

read more

Israel and the U.S.: Iran not working on a nuclear weapon

While the world is getting the impression that a war with Iran has drawn a few steps closer, representatives of Israel and the U.S. are making some remarkable statements about the Islamic Republic. These statements are remarkable in part because, at the same time, the build-up to a military confrontation would seem to be continuing apace.

read more

Economist Albert Spits: the euro is gone by the summer of 2012

De Wit: No, but it’s going to cost an awful lot of money to reprint all of those currencies and make the switch.
Spits: Sure, but it’s going to cost a lot more money to try and save the euro, which cannot be saved.

read more