War with Iran? We’ve Seen this Movie Before

–by James M. Rockefeller with Jeff Gates

When advisers to Donald Trump persuaded him to pardon four Blackwater operatives convicted of wantonly killing Iraqis in Baghdad, they triggered a foreseeable reaction: 21 missiles were fired into the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad. Iran was quickly blamed and a “red line” proclaimed: if an American is killed, the U.S. will respond with an attack on Iran or its forces. This is a re-run of a bad movie.

As with the war in Iraq, war with Iran entails “preparing the mind” of a public aware that earlier ill-advised war required a provocation (9/11), false intelligence (WMD) and insecurity (“We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”). Without 9/11, there would have been no U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to ally U.S.-armed Sunni Muslim royals with the U.S.-armed Israeli Right against Shia Iran. Other than Zionist extremists, who benefitted? Is that who is trying to make war with Iran appear in our interest?

Who benefitted when, in May 2018, the role of cybersecurity czar was eliminated? News flash: Israel’s Unit 8200 has 5,000-plus cyber-soldiers at its command. Whose interests were served when, on December 8, history’s most extensive cyber-espionage operation was revealed? Russia? Really? Was it in Moscow’s interest to invite a retaliatory response just as Joe Biden begins a presidency committed to reopen negotiations on nuclear weapons? Or was this an attention-diverting crisis as the nuclear-armed Israeli Right “prepares our minds” for a war with Iran for Greater Israel?

On November 10, 34-year old Iran hawk Ezra Cohen-Watnick was appointed Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. Were our national security interests served when, one week later, senior cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs was fired? Whose interests are served when the Biden transition team reports that it faces “transition ‘resistance’ from the Pentagon”?

Who benefitted when, on November 27, Iran’s top nuclear scientist was assassinated, complicating Biden’s commitment to revive the Trump-disavowed Iran nuclear accord? On December 6, senior Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal reinforced Saudi King Salman’s support for a two-state solution and described Israel as a “Western colonizing power” holding Palestinians in “concentration camps”. Was it really in Tehran’s interest to attack a tanker in Saudi waters on Dec. 14 after Riyadh announced in September that the Saudi-led 2002 Arab Peace Initiative is the only acceptable path to peace in the region?

As my father pointed out in 1964 during his second of four terms as Governor of New York, well-timed crises are standard operating procedure for extremists. With Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Right killed 1400 Palestinians in an assault on Gaza that began two days after Christmas 2008 and ended two days before the Obama inaugural on January 20, 2009. Sound familiar? Haven’t we seen this movie before?

With Operation Trojan, Israel placed a transmission device in Tripoli to make it appear Libyan leader Gadhafi was ordering terrorist attacks. Reagan was advised to threaten retaliation if an American was killed. Sound familiar? When two U.S. soldiers died in a terrorist incident in Berlin, he was advised to order the bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi on April 16, 1986. That attack, in turn, helped catalyze the anti-U.S. extremism that erupted in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, leading to the death of four Americans.

Working through asset Donald Trump and his pro-Israel advisers, the U.S. is edging closer to a war with Iran long sought by the Israeli Right with support from the Zionist Christian Right. Those complicit include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from the American Bible Belt who assured Israeli journalists in March 2019 that he believes it “possible” Donald Trump was sent by God to protect Israel from Iran.

A decade ago, Kansas Congressman Pompeo assured friends he would not withdraw from public service until Iranian General Qassem Suleimani was killed. On January 3, 2020, Trump followed Pompeo’s advice (after Pompeo consulted with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu) and ordered the Iranian leader assassinated on his arrival in Iraq where Suleimani had emerged as the most effective military leader in combating ISIS.

ISIS, in turn, emerged in reaction to our invasion of Iraq, igniting a long-simmering Shia-Sunni conflict. Iraq’s former Republican Guard emerged as the Sunni extremists of ISIS financed, in large part, by billions of U.S. dollars air-lifted on pallets into Iraq that were diverted to acquire vehicles, arms and munitions. In effect, the U.S. was induced by the Israeli Right to create, fund, equip and then fight ISIS. Meanwhile, Tel Aviv used the threat of ISIS to align its interests with the wealthy Sunni monarchies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In terms of probabilistic game theory warfare, today’s outcome was assured.

The only reason for denying the Biden team real-time defense intelligence is because the pre-staging of a pretext for war is ongoing by pro-Israel extremists inside our government. That’s also why competent Pentagon personnel were replaced with political hacks loyal to Trump who is loyal only to his own self-interest and the interests of the Israeli Right whose agenda he has faithfully advanced: disavowing the Iran nuclear accord, designating Jerusalem the capital, approving settlements, ceding the Golan Heights, etc.

Perhaps the greatest “tell” that a pretext for war is underway was the December 30 return to Israel of their super-spy Jonathan Pollard who received a hero’s welcome from Netanyahu after flying in on the private jet of Trump mega-donor Sheldon Adelson. Ten days prior to the war-catalyzing provocation of 9/11, Israel announced a $1 million grant to Pollard who did more to damage U.S. national security than any spy in history. This is an example of how our “special friend” communicates with its operatives: “If you get caught, we’ll take care of you.” Watch for an “incident” that can be plausibly blamed on Iran.

The pre-staging for war is complete. The “preparing the mind” component began in earnest on May 7 when Pompeo canceled a high-profile meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and made an unscheduled stop in Baghdad reliant on Israeli intelligence reporting that “a stockpile of Iranian ballistic missiles” had been found in Iraq. Similar to the false WMD intelligence that induced us to wage a disastrous war in Iraq long sought by the Israeli Right, that intelligence also was false and traced to Netanyahu—as confirmed by Channel 12 in Tel Aviv.

Nevertheless, we dispatched a nuclear-armed aircraft carrier to the region and began flyovers with nuclear-capable B-52 aircraft. In mid-December, Israel sent a submarine through the Suez Canal, signaling Tehran that the U.S. stands “shoulder to shoulder” with Netanyahu and other extremists on the Israeli Right.

What Israel is doing will force the incoming Biden administration to deal with a crisis created to ensure he does not focus on evidence confirming that Israel is an enemy within. It may not work but that’s why we’ll see more crises in the U.S. and worldwide, just like the war in Iraq was pre-staged with the crisis of 9/11. Who, really, is the greater threat—Islamic extremists without nuclear weapons? Or a Zionist Christian Secretary of State who, while a U.S. Congressman, welcomed the “rapture” in an End Times sermon he delivered in June 2015 at his evangelical Summit Church in Wichita, Kansas? Pompeo and the self-obsessed Trump pose a far greater threat than a terrorist with explosives.

As experience proves, the Israeli Right exerts virtual control over the Congress through their lobby that includes ~600 pro-Israel affiliates (see Big Israel, 2018). The true traitors are not dual-loyalty pro-Israelis but Members of Congress who for far too long have allowed the expansive Israel lobby to operate unregistered as foreign agents even while pressing us to wage wars in Iraq, Libya, Syria and now Iran.

What’s now being staged resembles the re-run of a cheap B movie. We’ve seen this movie before.

Mr. Rockefeller is an international businessman. Mr. Gates is former counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. See www.hiddentaxonhumanity.com