US plans to attack seven Muslim states

[Gman]

From Al-Jazeera...

<snip>
Presidential hopeful General Wesley Clark says the White House devised a five-year plan after the 9/11 strikes to attack seven majority-Muslim countries.

A former commander of NATO's forces in Europe, Clark claims he met a senior military officer in Washington in November 2001 who told him the Bush administration was planning to attack Iraq first before taking action against Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan.

The general’s allegations surface in a new book, The Clark Critique, excerpts from which appear in the latest edition of the US magazine Newsweek.

Clark says after the 11 September 2001 attacks, many Bush administration officials seemed determined to move against Iraq, invoking the idea of state sponsorship of terrorism, “even though there was no evidence of Iraqi sponsorship of 9/11 whatsoever”.
</snip>

http://english.aljazeera.net/Articles/News/GlobalNews/US+general+attacks+Bush+war+plan.htm

Clark's going to be another one that needs to stay away from traveling on small aircraft.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

1. gloves are off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The tide is turning folks. I can't wait to see this whole misAdministration take the perp walk they are so fond of.

[demnan]

2. And away from hotel rooms

Can we put a 24 hour guard on this guy now? Otherwise I'm afraid for his life.

[Ediacara]

3. I would be more excited if this wasn't on al Jazeerah

but if, as they claim, it is going to be in Newsweek, then fuck.... Bush may as well just go to prison now...

[fertilizeonarbusto]

4. i like that idea

Can we do it?
:evilgrin:

[stopthegop]

5. no...

there won't be any actual proof

[damnraddem]

18. No, we shouldn't do it ...

that should be the province of the World Court -- which institution, by the way, Chirac noted in his UN speech today as having universal jurisdiction.

[Minstrel Boy]

10. Here ya go: from MSNBC

Clark's words:

I WENT BACK through the Pentagon in November 2001, and one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia, and Sudan. So, I thought, this is what they mean when they talk about “draining the swamp.” It was evidence of the Cold War approach: Terrorism must have a “state sponsor,” and it would be much more effective to attack a state than to chase after individuals, nebulous organizations, and shadowy associations.

He said it with reproach—with disbelief, almost—at the breadth of the vision. I moved the conversation away, for this was not something I wanted to hear. And it was not something I wanted to see moving forward, either.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/969671.asp?0sl=-13

[Don_G]

20. We Don't Have To Believe It

The questions are will the Islamic fundies in the Middle East believe it and how much more bloodshed will it create in an unstable region?

[On the Road]

6. Wow, Clark's Talking!

At some point, the floodgates will open and many others will come out. The people will repudiate it. There's hope.

[Bushfire]

7. A kick for sanity

thanks for speaking out General, even if I don't vote for you in the primary.

[lostnfound]

8. Only 7? As Jon Stewart says 'So many countries, so little time' n/t

[Ediacara]

9. Also telling is this:

The two nations that appear to be the biggest supports of al Qaida terrorists aren't on that list:

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan..

[Chico Man]

12. They are probably on the list for "phase 2"

Once we control those 7, we could easily swamp Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.. :eyes:

[qwlauren35]

15. If ever there was confirmation!

The fact that we claim Saudi & Pakistan as allies, and would never go to war with them, EVEN THOUGH they frequently harbor dissidents AND terrorists just reinforces my belief that our business in Iraq was never justifyable as part of the "War on Terror".

[baby_bear]

11. Here is the Newsweek link

http://www.msnbc.com/news/969671.asp#BODY

s_m

[DuctapeFatwa]

13. The regime has been very candid about its plans to seize the Middle East

That plan goes back a while, and is the basic reason behind the maintenance of the Israel weapons depot.

[underpants]

14. LBN? Once again folks JINSA-Iraq is tactical pivot, Egypt is the goal

"Iraq as the tactical pivot, Saudi Arabia as the strategic pivot Egypt as the prize."
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020902&s=vest&c=1

On no issue is the JINSA/CSP hard line more evident than in its relentless campaign for war--not just with Iraq, but "total war," as Michael Ledeen, one of the most influential JINSAns in Washington, put it last year. For this crew, "regime change" by any means necessary in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority is an urgent imperative. Anyone who dissents--be it Colin Powell's State Department, the CIA or career military officers--is committing heresy against articles of faith that effectively hold there is no difference between US and Israeli national security interests, and that the only way to assure continued safety and prosperity for both countries is through hegemony in the Middle East--a hegemony achieved with the traditional cold war recipe of feints, force, clientism and covert action.

For example, the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board--chaired by JINSA/CSP adviser and former Reagan Administration Defense Department official Richard Perle, and stacked with advisers from both groups--recently made news by listening to a briefing that cast Saudi Arabia as an enemy to be brought to heel through a number of potential mechanisms, many of which mirror JINSA's recommendations, and which reflect the JINSA/CSP crowd's preoccupation with Egypt. (The final slide of the Defense Policy Board presentation proposed that "Grand Strategy for the Middle East" should concentrate on "Iraq as the tactical pivot, Saudi Arabia as the strategic pivot Egypt as the prize.") Ledeen has been leading the charge for regime change in Iran, while old comrades like Andrew Marshall and Harold Rhode in the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment actively tinker with ways to re-engineer both the Iranian and Saudi governments. JINSA is also cheering the US military on as it tries to secure basing rights in the strategic Red Sea country of Eritrea, happily failing to mention that the once-promising secular regime of President Isaiais Afewerki continues to slide into the kind of repressive authoritarianism practiced by the "axis of evil" and its adjuncts.

[neverforget]

16. Iraq has smacked the Bushies in the face with reality. We have no

troops or money for these adventures and the American people certainly don't have the stomach for this. This grand plan went out the window when the Iraqis decided not to play according to the neocons fantasy of being greeted with flowers.

[The Magistrate]

19. That Is True, Sir

The eyes have proved bigger than the stomach. Greedy as these fools be, with the worst will in the world they have not the power to achieve this design.

[damnraddem]

17. We're going to attack seven majority-Muslim states ...

but this isn't an anti-Islam crusade. That should play really well in the Middle East.

[Mari333]

21. Bush sends Troops in to Battle Evildoers

Scouts unload, ready to roust evildoers out of their caves