SHOCKED! Shocked I Say! US Documents on Iran Nukes Forged? (Juan Cole)

H/t and all credit to Juan Cole @ Informed Comment:

Monday, November 10, 2008

US Documents on Iran Nukes Forged?

I'm shocked, shocked that allegations are emerging at the International Atomic Energy Agency that US-supplied "documents" from a laptop acquired in 2004 indicating a secret Iranian weapons program were probably forgeries.

The IAEA clearly hopes that the Obama administration will end the previous administration's attempts to undermine it and will stop the Washington habit of using forged documents as a basis for aggressive military responses to nuclear programs and instead will opt for diplomacy.

Source



Since I've got your attention... A comparison is in order... to those Colombian FARC laptops the CIA and the Colombian military killed a number of people over (including a hostage negotiator and a number of Mexican college students) in a high tech (beyond the capabilities of the Colombian military) raid earlier in 2008:

"Using their forensic tools, they (the Interpol experts) found a total of 48,055 files for which the timestamps indicated that they had either been created, accessed, modified or deleted as a result of the direct access to the eight seized exhibits by Colombian authorities between the time of their seizure on 1 March 2008 and 3 March 2008 at 11:45 a.m.

"The actual seizure of the eight computer exhibits occurred between 5:50 a.m. and 7:50 a.m. (local time at the place of seizure, GMT -5:00) on Saturday, 1 March. However, it was not until more than 48 hours later that the eight seized exhibits were given to the computer forensic specialists of the Colombian Judicial Police," the report goes on to say.

"Access to the data contained in the eight FARC computer exhibits between 1 March 2008, when they were seized by Colombian authorities, and 3 March 2008 at 11:45 a.m., when they were turned over to…the Colombian Judicial Police, did not conform to internationally recognised principles for handling electronic evidence by law enforcement.

Source, IPS News

Or, to put it graphically:

Stan Goff, Feral Scholar - "There are some obstacles, the greatest being the attitude that we should give Obama a chance before we start hectoring"

Before everyone gets TOO enthusiastic...
This Viral Video appeared during the election campaign.
It pretty much sums up the problem:

"We have some serious evils in our faces right now; and if we are going to confront them, then we need to list them, organize against them, and make that opposition felt in the principalities and powers.

Big pharma.

Big food.

Big war.

Big oil.

Big banks.

Big prisons.

And the big-dick culture of me-first domination and revenge.

I have a litmus test, if anyone is interested.
Let’s see if Guantanamo is closed in the first month of the new administration."

Excerpted from the comments:

Susan/catlady:

Obama’s transition website, change.gov, is set up for citizens to make suggestions to the new administration.There are several pages under “Agenda,” listing current policy.

A search for “Guantanamo” comes up zilch.

A Look Under the Hood at the (Potential) Obama Administration
7th November 2008, 05:35 am
by Stan

[Hat tip to Lisa… this one merits a post.]

By Joshua Frank

November 06, 2008 — - Tuesday’s celebration hangovers have finally started to wear off, and the pieces are beginning to fall into place. Change will be coming to Washington in January, but it is difficult to decipher what form it will take. Early clues, however, suggest that Barack Obama’s administration will prove unlikely to alter the fundamental political machinery that has led us into war and economic turmoil. Below is a brief summary of Obama’s potential choices for a few key roles in his administration.
Chief of Staff

Obama’s key White House position will go to Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois. While Emanuel knows his way around the corridors of Washington, qualifying him in the traditional sense, this alone doesn’t mean he’s the guy you want drawing up Obama’s policy papers day after day.

For starters, Emanuel is a shameless neoliberal with close ties to the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), even co-authoring a strategy book with DLC president Bruce Reed. Without Emanuel, Bill Clinton would not have been able to thrust NAFTA down the throats of environmentalists and labor in the mid-1990s. Over the course of his career, Emanuel’s made it a point to cozy up to big business, making him one of the most effective corporate fundraisers in the Democratic Party. He’s also a staunch advocate of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

Emanuel’s shining moment came in 2006 as he helped funnel money and poured ground support into the offices of dozens of conservative Democrats, expanding his party’s control of the House of Representatives. Emanuel, who supports the War…

FULL

Stan: The best analog we have in history here is the administration of FDR, where the president was compelled by the perils of increasing popular discontent to provide the space for popular power. It was a development paradigm, eg, the TVA, so there is an ecological apsect to this that is completely and critically different.

Barring the revolutionary transformation of society in one fell swoop, the system is going to require some duct tape and bailing wire to hold it together for the time being, or folk will literally starve. This will likely require a Keynesian intervention of some kind (or it all goes over a cliff, and Obama’s administration is counted by history as more of the same shit). Key here is a public works jobs program; and if we don’t fight like crazy for one that focuses on reparing biospheric damage, then shame on every one of us.

Just as urgently, however, we have to rebuild an antiwar movement worthy of its name.

There are some obstacles, the greatest being the attitude that we should give Obama a chance before we start hectoring.

That’s dead wrong… immoral in fact.

Every day that these occupations go on is a terrible sin; and our silence and forebearance are forms of complicity.

In Full @ Feral Scholar

Russell Means Of Lakotah Republic With Some Thoughts On A Rejuvenated, Humane America

If I were U.S. President


Video Coutesy of BBC, Sky News

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