Covert nuclear war against Iran: Rights violations, profits increasing
Both covert human rights violations against Iran and military-industrial-complex war machine profits predictably increasing as Americans struggle in ‘failing economy’
Voters for Peace reports covert war against Iran has likely begun with drones, Stuxnet, blowing up nuclear facilities and assassinating or kidnapping scientists. Mark Hibbs, nuclear expert at Carnegie Endowment in Germany, reports intensity of the covert war indicates this is where U.S. and Israel are now putting their energy, big business with big profits for war contractors, all despite no evidence that Iran is a nuclear threat and increasing rights violations against Americans struggling in a “failing economy” and “war on terror.”
“If the U.S. or Israel were determined to take Iran’s nuclear installations out they wouldn’t be wasting time pinpointing individual scientists like this,” says Mark Hibbs, nuclear expert at Carnegie Endowment in Germany who points out Israel’s 1981 attack on Iraq’s Osirak reactor was also preceded by assassination attempts on Iraqi scientists.
Iran claims it downed a US stealth drone deep inside its territory and US has acknowledged it ‘lost’ a drone over Afghanistan but no hostile fire was involved according to Sky News that says, “Neither of these statements appear entirely accurate, but both seem to contain some truth, and both show how the covert war between the two countries continues to rage.”
“This is the fourth occasion the Iranians have claimed to have shot down a US drone but they have yet to show any evidence. However, it is the first time they have named the type of drone – a RQ-170 ‘Sentinel’. The Americans haven’t confirmed the type of drone they ‘lost’, but it is known that the Sentinel operates out of Kandahar in Afghanistan.“The RQ-170 can operate above 30,000 feet, but there is no need for such an aircraft for Afghanistan as the Taliban doesn’t have an air force or any surface to air missiles capable of reaching that high. This suggests the real mission for the Sentinel is to fly over places such as Pakistan and Iran.” (Sky News)
Human rights group Voters For Peace reports, “The stakes here are high. Yet there are few voices sounding alarmed that the U.S. flying a stealth drone over Iran is reckless.”
“This has echoes of the May Day 1960 U-2 incident where the U.S. asserted the pilot of a ‘weather plane’ had ‘difficulties with his oxygen equipment’ and crashed. Except today’s RQ-170 drones can do just fine without Gary Powers.”
“When the Soviets recovered the U-2 Powers ejected from nearly intact, the best the U.S. could do was deplore what they imagined their Soviet counterparts in the KGB were doing to Powers in some rat hole Gulag in Siberia. At least the United States of America didn’t do THAT. Now it’s a little tougher to blur the distinction between the tortured and the torturers.
“The Powers incident set back Russian-American relations by years that culminated with the nuclear stand-off with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Depending on what one believes, a steely JFK out maneuvered the war mongers. But does anyone see steel in President Obama when it comes to reigning the war machine in? Was it his pluck and steel that earned him the Nobel?”
Michael Hirsh reports for The Atlantic on the morning of December 5, “Violent incidents between Iran and the West have been increasing.
“Two incidents that occurred on Sunday–Iran’s claim of a shoot-down of a U.S. drone, and an explosion outside the British embassy in Bahrain–may have been unrelated. But they appear to add to growing evidence that an escalating covert war by the West is under way against Iran, and that Tehran is retaliating with greater intensity than ever.”
“Asked whether the United States, in cooperation with Israel, was now engaged in a covert war against Iran’s nuclear program that may include the Stuxnet virus, the blowing-up of facilities and the assassination or kidnapping of scientists, one recently retired U.S. official privy to up-to-date intelligence would not deny it.“‘It’s safe to say the Israelis are very active,’ the official said, adding about U.S. efforts: “Everything that [GOP presidential candidate] Mitt Romney said we should be doing–tough sanctions, covert action and pressuring the international community — are all of the things we are actually doing.“‘Though the activities are classified, a senior Obama administration official also would not deny that such a program was under way. He indicated that the U.S. was not involved in every action, referring to recent alleged explosions at Isfahan and elsewhere. But, he added: ‘I wouldn’t assume that everything we do is coordinated.” (The Atlantic)
Sky News says, “Drones, assassinations, conflict by proxy, mysterious explosions…it’s not war, but neither is it peace.”
Making a killing out of killing
High-tech non-traditional warfare is more covert and more profitable than traditional warfare.
“Just like the taxpayers of mediaeval Italian city-states, we are having our money siphoned off into the business of war,” reports the Sydney Morning Herald today.
“This year the Obama government contracted to pay Xe Services a quarter of a billion dollars for security work in Afghanistan. This is just one of many companies making its profits out of warfare.”
About President Barack Obama’s weapon of choice, drones, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported last month that nuclear physics and defense contractor headquartered in San Diego, California, General Atomics has probably profited most from this first decade of armed drones. The company makes two armed vehicles – Predators and Reapers used by both the UK and US forces.
“Exactly how much it profits from the industry is kept secret as the company, which is a private enterprise incorporated in Delaware, does not publish any financial information, including its annual turnover and profits.”
The recent International Atomic Energy Agency report that provoked outcry against Iran’s nuclear ambitions “contained nothing that proved that Iran was developing nuclear weapons,” reports SMH that says the war on Iran has been “completely predictable.”
“The US government spent a staggering $US687 billion on ”defence” last year. Think what could be done with that money if it were put into hospitals, schools or to pay off foreclosed mortgages.”