@@ Cock & bull story adds to jew campaign to demonize Iran @@
Arash
July 8 2005
Books add to rightwing campaign to demonize Iran
Two new questionable books in the U.S., "Countdown to Terror: The Top-Secret Information
that Could Prevent the Next Terrorist Attack on America... and How the CIA has Ignored it"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0895260050?v=glance) by republican
congressman Curt Weldon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curt_Weldon , Email: curt.weldon AT
mail.house.gov), and "Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1400053684?v=glance) by Kenneth Timmerman
(http://www.sw-asia.com/People/Bio897.htm , email: timmerman.road AT verizon.net / email:
ktimmer AT bellatlantic.net / email: exec AT iran.org), accuse an incompetent Central
Intelligence Agency of failing to recognize the potentially catastrophic threat posed by
Iran through its "allegedly" intimate ties with the fugitive Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
Serialized in the conservative media and popularized on talk-shows, the questionable books
have arrived in the midst of a rightwing campaign to demonize Iran - and expose the CIA -
at the same time as the Bush administration is exploring ways of funding and backing
anti-Iranian terrorist groups.
In Countdown to Terror, Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania republican congressman and
vice-chairman of the House armed services committee, charges that Iran will carry out the
next attack on the U.S., and has a bomb that can kill more than 100,000 people, and is
giving refuge to Mr. bin Laden.
Congressman Weldon's information comes from "Ali", said to be a former senior official
during the Shah of Iran's rule, whom he first met in Paris in April, last year.
Congressman Weldon says he was driven to write his book after the CIA dismissed "Ali" as a
fraud even though, Congressman Weldon claims, many of his predictions came true.
Congressman Weldon's secondary target is George Tenet, the former CIA boss, and what he
calls the old intelligence community elite. Congressman Weldon accuses this elite of
waging a propaganda war against George W. Bush in the run-up to the 2004 presidential
election.
Congressman Weldon strongly defends his old friend Porter Goss
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_Goss), who replaced Mr. Tenet last year, and his
efforts to purge the agency. He concludes that the U.S. would be "justified" in launching
a pre-emptive war against Iran. But since this is not feasible, Congressman Weldon argues
that the U.S. should give financial support to anti-Iran terrorist groups preparing for
regime change.
The ferocity of Congressman Weldon's accusations have driven Bill Murray, the former CIA
station chief in Paris, to go public with his side of the story - that "Ali" was a
fraudster well known to the agency. The CIA has responded by declassifying a letter to
Congressman Weldon, in which it says "Ali" was a fabricator who embellished press reports.
"He has provided no information to date worthy of follow-up", it said, adding that it
spent hundreds of man hours evaluating his claims.
Mr. Bill Murray told the Financial Times that he had informed Congressman Weldon that
"Ali" was a known fabricator who just wanted money.
http://stygius.typepad.com/stygius/2005/06/curt_weldon_and.html
He said "Ali" was "totally dependent" on "Manouchehr Ghorbanifar"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghorbanifar), an anti-Iran arms dealer, and Israeli agent;
discredited by the CIA for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s.
James Woolsey (http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/woolsey/woolsey.php), a close ally of
Israel, and a friend of Congressman Weldon and former CIA director, praises the book as "a
case study of an intelligence failure in the process of happening, with potentially
catastrophic consequences for the United States". Mr. Goss has not commented on it in
public.
The CIA has not commented on it in public, and neither has the CIA responded to Countdown
To Crisis: the Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran, by Kenneth Timmerman
(http://www.mdtaxes.org/archives/board_bios/timmerman-bio.html), an author with close ties
to exiled anti-Iran terrorist groups (http://www.iran-interlink.org /
http://www.irandidban.com). A CIA spokesman said the agency was too busy to read it.
Kenneth Timmerman, quoting "alleged" high-level defectors from Iranian intelligence
organizations, says Iran plotted the September 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. together with
al-Qaeda, and is also protecting Mr. bin Laden. "Because of the arrogance and willful
blindness of our nation's top intelligence officers, America's leaders were misled about
the threat from Iran until it was too late".
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/929d2c9e-ef44-11d9-8b10-00000e2511c8.html
Comedy Central - June 17, 2005
Daily Show with Jon Stewart: interview with Kenneth Timmerman
Iran is out to get us, which is the argument they made about Iraq so they were only one
letter off.
http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=15750
New York Sun - June 29, 2005
Book: Iranian Warned CIA Before 9/11
http://www.nysun.com/article/16229