[ExI] israelis defeat physics

[Jeff Davis]

On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 6:23 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

>... if you think those were hard, wait till you see the next eight.  The
> 00s in retrospect will look like a Sunday picnic once several of the middle
> eastern hardliners get nukes.

Pakistan's got 'em, and that situation is sumpin else!  But I think
that's not what you're talking about.  You're talking about Iran.

Which gives me an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

The Piro 60 minutes interview: a big pile of nothin'.

Piro spent a whole bunch of time with Saddam, who was (I'm guessin'
here) largely isolated from other human contact, certainly "friendly"
arabic-speaking contact.  Piro built up a rapport, (as is to be
expected and is the basis for lawful and effective -- re getting
reliable info -- interrogation) and Saddam opened up to him.
(Thoroughly discrediting the Bush/Cheney "darkside" approach.  Though,
to be "fair", if you're under a time constraint for actionable
intelligence. a blowtorch to the genitals might speed things up a bit,
though frankly, I find it difficult to think or speak clearly when my
balls are on fire.  YMMV.)

So far so good.  Which, after setting aside Pelley's tone and MSM
presumptions, and Piro's self-congratulatory glow, leaves us with what
breathtaking accomplishment?  Saddam revealed at long last -- praise
Hallellulah! to the FBI and the US of A -- that the UN inspection team
had destroyed the preponderance of his WMDs and that he, Saddam, had
destroyed the rest. (Gasps of astonishment!)  The iraq war was
unnecessary!!!! (The scales fall from my eyes, and tears of despair
course down my cheeks!)  How shocking!  How awful!

Then Scott Pelley asks Piro breathlessly and in disbelief --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ua8udRUOt4 -- why Saddam kept their
destruction a secret.   At which point we begin to here the echo
chamber calling.

Pelley's question suggests that Saddam kept the WMD destruction a
secret, but is that anything like true.  Saddam said before the war
and after, that the WMDs were gone, and the UN weapon's inspectors
confirmed, so how exactly can it be claimed that he kept it a secret?
Oh, now I remember.  The we-must-have-a-war-with-Iraq crowd claimed
that Saddam was lying, and still had a secret stash of  WMDs. And of
course that meant it was true.  Until finally, after the glorious and
heroic efforts of Piro and the FBI to sweet-talk the truth out of
Saddam, we find out that he was telling the truth all along, and that
the secret Iraqi nukes existed only in the minds of the neo-con
intelligence fabricators and their careerist victims in the Western
Intelligence Community echo-chamber.

Finally the "I was afraid of Iran" gambit, or its retread "The
Iranians are gonna get a nuke, and then "We're doomed!, We're all
doomed!".   Puleeeese!  The neo-cons want us to go to war with Iran.
Yet another war paid for by Americans to keep the mideast safe for
Israel.  We just had one of those in Iraq, and as Dr. Phil likes to
say, "How's that workin' out for you?"

Sure Saddam was afraid of the Iranians.  He was a ruthless paranoid
megalomaniac who attacked everyone within reach.  What's he gonna
think, that the Iranians want to invite him over for kababs and
hummus?  But does his paranoia make the "Iranian threat" real, or just
a projection of his own savage impulsiveness?  Your call, but here's a
hint about how to approach this.
For some idea how Iranians may act in the future, maybe, just maybe,
start by looking at how they have acted up to now, and what would be
in their interest.  Who have they attacked/invaded and when?  (Answer:
no one, for the last two hundred years.)  Who has attacked and
brutalized them?  (Answer: The Brits.  The US.  Saddam, backed by the
US.)  In this little club of horrors, who recently and currently has
been threating to attack whom?  (Answer:  Israel and the US have been
unrelenting in their threats, even threatening to use nukes.)

So, summary re the Piro 60 Minutes piece: The FBI, desperate for some
good PR, puts up "the Saddam interrogation" as some kind of masterful
accomplishment (in contrast to all those ridiculous terror plot
arrests; shhhhh!), when in fact it's just old news which NEVER had any
"actionable" value at all.  And the Iran bit?, a gratuitous crumb, a
bit of Saddam paranoia turned into a limp Iran smear.

To be frank, Spike, I hadn't seen the Piro piece before popping off at
you earlier, and I was prepared for something substantial that would
inflict severe embarrassment on me and force an elaborate apology and
a supersized feast on McCrow burgers.  Not!


******************************************************

Nevertheless, we do live in interesting times, and the next few years
look to be quite exciting politically, economically, and (my favorite)
 scientifically.

Best, Jeff Davis

  "And I think to myself, what a wonderful world!"
                        Louie Armstrong