Headlines for 10-07-07

Petraeus steps up accusations against Iran The U.S. military commander in Iraq stepped up accusations over the weekend that Iran was inciting violence there and said Tehran's ambassador to Baghdad was a member of the Revolutionary Guards Qods force. Making the case for war.


Iran rejects nuclear program talks


Report: Britain to back U.S. air strikes on Iran ** British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has agreed to support U.S. air strikes against Iran if the Islamic country orchestrates large-scale attacks by militants against British or American forces in Iraq, a British newspaper said on Sunday.


US accuses Iran's envoy to Iraq The top US military commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, has accused Iran's ambassador of belonging to an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards......Gen Petraeus said he had no doubt Iran was behind attacks that had led to the deaths of US soldiers. Making the case for war.


Brown aide plays down US talk of Iran threat ** Diplomatic relations between Britain and the United States over Iran are under increasing strain after Gordon Brown's special security adviser warned that American claims about Tehran's military capability should be taken 'with a pinch of salt'.......More recently Freedom's Watch took out ads describing Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as 'a terrorist'. According to the New York Times, anonymous benefactors told the paper that the group plans to sponsor a private forum of experts on Islam to make the case that Iran poses a direct threat to the US.......But it is the link with Cheney that is the strongest, leading to the widespread view that the organisation is in effect his own creature


The fallout from an attack on Iran would be devastating ** Just as in the runup to the invasion of Iraq, the Washington air is thick with unsubstantiated claims about weapons of mass destruction; demonisation of the country's president has reached bizarre proportions; intelligence leaks about links with al-Qaida and attacks on US and British targets are now routine; demands for war from the administration's neoconservative outriders are becoming increasingly strident; the pronouncements of George Bush and his vice-president, Dick Cheney, are turning ever more belligerent - and administration sources claim that the British government is privately ready to play ball......despite the populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ugly remarks about the Holocaust, it is the nuclear states America and Israel that now threaten and have the capacity to attack Iran, not the other way round.


Making the Same Mistake Twice ** Certainly all of the negative comments about Iran that are coming from Israel, its lobby and its foot-kissers in Congress, and from the White House and the Pentagon, look remarkably like a buildup for a new war.


Turkish FM talks up Syrian role in Assad meeting Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Damascus had an important role to play in settling conflict across the Middle East following talks on Sunday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.


Archbishop of Canterbury speaks of 'harrowing plight' of Iraqi Christians In another encounter, the Archbishop met with Palestinian refugees at the Dibayeh camp outside Beirut. Most had lived there, or in other camps, all their adult lives, some since 1948. Others had been born and raised their own children in the camp. Despite the best efforts of some of aid agencies, support for the camps was drying up. The Archbishop will raise the question of better coordination of aid to the camps with aid agencies.


Turkey says not to let airspace be used against Syria Visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said on Sunday in Damascus that his country would not let Israel use its airspace to launch attack against Syria as tension remains high after an air raid by the Jewish state into deep Syria last month.


Turkish FM visits Israel Turkey's foreign minister visited Israel to diffuse regional tension over last month's air strike against Syria.


Israel fears Syrian proxy strike Syria could use proxies to retaliate for Israel's air strike on its territory last month. So, if Syria doesn't directly attack Israel, then some other attack will be blamed on them - likely making the case to include Syrian targets during the forthcoming US attack on Iran.


Shield Law Perils . . . Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider a "shield law" for journalists that would radically alter the way national security investigations are conducted. Unlike state shield laws, a federal shield law poses unique obstacles to the protection of national security. We must know whether the proposed law squarely addresses a real problem before taking such a significant step. After having allowed a journalist to lambaste him a few months back over the Libby trial, the Washington Post prints an op ed by Patrick J. Fitzgerald. Question: What, no photo op with this piece, Paddy? ....


Israel fighter jets breach Lebanese airspace Israeli fighter jets breached Lebanese airspace on Friday and flew over southern Lebanese areas and the Bekaa Valley, the official National News Agency(NNA)reported.


Mystery Achievement All that blather about how the Israelis hit a "nuclear site" or a site with "nuclear materials" in Syria the other week was really just a lot of hooey,