Bush has set up Iranian Office of Special Plans

It was the setting up of the Office of Special Plans which convinced many of us that Bush was intent on invading Iraq, as the unit seemed formulated with one purpose in mind: the removal of Saddam Hussein.

As former CIA officer Larry C. Johnson said at the time, the OSP was "dangerous for US national security and a threat to world peace. [The OSP] lied and manipulated intelligence to further its agenda of removing Saddam. It's a group of ideologues with pre-determined notions of truth and reality. They take bits of intelligence to support their agenda and ignore anything contrary. They should be eliminated."

It is therefore something of a shock to realise that the US have already formulated a similar unit, only this time their focus is on Iran.

The group, known as the Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group, or ISOG, is also coordinating a host of other actions, which include covert assistance to Iranian dissidents and building international outrage toward Iran by publicizing its alleged role in a 1994 terrorist attack in Argentina, according to interviews with half a dozen White House, Pentagon, and State Department officials who are involved in the group's work.

The existence of ISOG reflects an intensification of the Bush administration's planning on Iran. Syria, which has linked itself to Iran through military pacts, is a lesser focus for the group. Its workings have been so secretive that several officials in the State Department's Near Eastern Affairs bureau said they were unaware it existed.

The United States has repeatedly said its policy is not to overthrow the Iranian regime, but one former US official who attended a meeting during ISOG's initial phase eight months ago said in an interview that he got the impression that regime change was a key goal of many of the meetings' participants.

The existence of this group can only heighten fears that Bush has plans to attack Iran at some point in the near future and further emphasises just how much he intends to ignore the Baker Report's suggestion that Iran and Syria need to be included in any settlement of the Iraq war.

"Iran is the key to everything at the strategic level -- the biggest problem we have faced in a long time," said a senior State Department official involved in ISOG, citing Iran's negative impact on Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories. "These are all things they are doing because they sense weakness [on the part of the United States]. The best thing for us to project is strength, not 'please talk to us.' "

The lunatics are still running the asylum and they have not yet tired of failed military ventures. That should be a worry to all of us.

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Iran: Is it Really the Next War?

In November 2003, Rumsfeld approved a plan known as CONPLAN 8022-02, which for the first time established a pre-emptive-strike capability against Iran. That was followed in 2004 by a top-secret "Interim Global Strike Alert Order" that put the military on a state of readiness to launch an airborne and missile attack against Iran, should Bush issue the command. "We're now at the point where we are essentially on alert," said Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, commander of the 8th Air Force. "We have the capacity to plan and execute global strikes in half a day or less."

tag: war on terror, Iraq war study group, James A Baker, foreign policy, Iran, neo-cons, Bush, Ahmadinejad, Office of Special Plans,