-------------------------------------------------------- From: "Brian Hill" <•••@••.•••> Subject: FW: [toeslist] U.S. Strategic Command & the Impending Attack on Iran Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 22:30:11 -0800 Organization: Institute for Cultural Ecology -------Original Message------- From: •••@••.••• [mailto:•••@••.•••] On Behalf Of Alanna Hartzok Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 8:58 PM To: •••@••.•••; •••@••.••• Subject: [toeslist] U.S. Strategic Command & the Impending Attack on Iran -------Original Message------- From: <mailto:•••@••.•••>Global Network Date: 02/16/07 09:46:28 To: <mailto:•••@••.•••>Global Network Against Weapons Subject: U.S. Strategic Command & the Impending Attack on Iran FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FEBRUARY 15, 2007 International Media Advisory on U.S. Strategic Command And the Impending Attack on Iran Reports of a possible U.S. air assault against Iranian nuclear facilities have been circulating in the media for more than a year and a half now. Former CIA agent Philip Giraldi (The American Conservative, 8/1/05), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh (New Yorker Magazine, 4/17/06) and most recently, investigative reporter Craig Unger in the March 2007 Vanity Fair, have all warned of the White House¹s plans for an air- and sea-based strike against Iran. But such an assault has been in the planning since before November 2003, when U.S. Strategic Command near Omaha, Nebraska completed its preparations for waging offensive and preemptive strikes against Iran and North Korea (William Arkin, Washington Post, 5/15/05). Under ³CONPLAN 8022² (Contingency Plan 8022), the Omaha-based command center is now commissioned to strike anywhere in the world within minutes of detecting a target deemed a threat to the United States¹ national security. And the projected attack against Iran‹which could well include nuclear as well as conventional weapons‹will be planned, launched and coordinated by StratCom. For over half a century, the seemingly remote Omaha Air Force Base in the American heartland served exclusively as the command center for the U.S.¹s nuclear deterrent. After 9/11, however, StratCom underwent a significant transformation of its role and mission, becoming in effect the Œwar room¹ for waging the White House¹s ³War on Terror.² StratCom retained its historic responsibility for overseeing the largest nuclear weapons arsenal in the world. But it acquired the additional charges of ³full-spectrum global strike² (staging offensive, preemptive attacks); combating weapons of mass destruction; space and computer warfare; ballistic missile defense; and surveillance and reconnaissance (the ³warrantless wiretaps² conducted by the National Security Agency, for instance, were a StratCom project). According to the Vanity Fair article, StratCom could be ready to launch a ³massive² aerial attack against the hundreds of nuclear facilities in Iran as soon as the end of this month (February). The possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons to penetrate the reinforced bunkers protecting the Iranian nuclear research facilities is also apparently real. Today, U.S. Strategic Command in Bellevue, Nebraska (a suburb of Omaha) is the most dangerous place on the face of the earth. To thwart this wrong-headed and potentially catastrophic assault on Iran by StratCom will require nothing less than a mobilization by the world community. The Bush/Cheney Administration must be publicly challenged in the court of world opinion, and international media coverage of StratCom¹s leading role is integral to rallying opposition. Can you imagine the public reaction‹particularly in the Muslim world‹if the war plans taking shape at StratCom were common knowledge? Here we have the command center for the world¹s largest nuclear arsenal orchestrating an unprovoked attack (possibly even with nuclear weapons) on a non-nuclear Muslim nation, in order to prevent that country from even developing nuclear power for civilian purposes, for fear it might someday make a bomb. StratCom¹s policy promotes a morally repugnant double standard. And it is begging to be turned into a Œbully pulpit,¹ from which opponents can expose its hypocritical behavior. Under international law, were the United States again to launch an unprovoked attack against a Muslim nation‹ as it did with Iraq‹it would be acting illegally. But if the U.S. were also to use tactical nuclear weapons on Iran, it would be only the second time in over 61 years that a nuclear weapon has been used militarily. And on each of those occasions, it will have been the United States that used them. The role and mission of StratCom has changed so dramatically in the past five years that most of the world has little idea of what is currently going on there. At this critical moment in history, the international media could provide no greater service to the world community than to publicize the acts being plotted at StratCom. We urge you to give this Œnews tip¹ your full consideration. We may not have much time before something irrevocable in human affairs occurs. I would personally be willing to assist you any way I can in getting this story out to an international audience. I can be reached directly at 402-475-7616 and at my personal email address of <mailto:•••@••.•••>•••@••.•••. Thank you for your prompt attention. Tim Rinne State Coordinator, Nebraskans for Peace Nebraskans for Peace is the oldest statewide Peace & Justice organization in the United States, and has been working for more than 35 years to alert the public about U.S. Strategic Command. Check out our website at: <http://www.nebraskansforpeace.org>www.nebraskansforpeace.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 652 Brunswick, ME 04011 (207) 443-9502 <http://www.space4peace.org>http://www.space4peace.org <mailto:•••@••.•••>•••@••.••• <http://space4peace.blogspot.com>http://space4peace.blogspot.com (our blog) -- -------------------------------------------------------- Escaping the Matrix website http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website http://cyberjournal.org Community Democracy Framework: http://cyberjournal.org/DemocracyFramework.html subscribe cyberjournal list mailto:•••@••.••• Posting archives http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/
