Iran: Targeted in Many Ways

Cries for war with Iran are again rising. In November,
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), under a new director and heavily
pressured by the US State Department, released a report implying that Iran is
developing nuclear weapons.  Iran’s civilian
nuclear program is heavily monitored by the IAEA, which has repeatedly
confirmed that the level of enrichment is consistent with civilian uses and no
nuclear materials have been diverted. The information on which this report is
based is no different than the last report from Mohammed El Baradei’s IAEA in
2009.

Iran is
surrounded by US bases and military forces in Iraq,
Kuwait, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is targeted by US
missiles in Europe and Israel.
Repeated upgrades of international sanctions have left Iran without
parts to repair their aging civilian airlines or high tech medical equipment
parts that are readily available in western countries. Despite its vast oil
reserves, Iran
imports refined petroleum products like gasoline and heating oil, because sanctions
have made it impossible to repair the oil refineries destroyed during the
Iran-Iraq War.

War Has Begun

The last decade has seen a cyclical escalation of threats and
sanctions against Iran by Israel and the United States. The US currently has two aircraft carrier fleets in
the Persian Gulf, while Iranian forces conduct
defensive military exercises in international waters off their own coast. At
the same time, the escalating program of covert sabotage ratchets up pressure
inside Iran, and an
increasing stream of accusations comes from the US mainstream press and the Israeli
and European press.

Numerous instances of sabotage and assassination have
occurred inside Iran,
all attributed to the Mossad, CIA or M16. On January 11, nuclear scientist
Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed by a magnetic bomb attached to his car from a
passing motorcycle. He was the fourth Iranian scientist assassinated in the
last two years; a fifth scientist survived an attack. Last November, an
explosion killed 30 in a Tehran
missile base. A couple of weeks later, another explosion occurred in a nuclear
storage site in Isfahan, and in December yet
another explosion rocked a nuclear site in Yazd.

These attacks were likely perpetrated with the assistance of
the Mujahedin-e-Khalk (MEK) a terrorist organization that has lived under US protection on a base in Iraq near the
Iranian border since the beginning of the Iraq War. Shortly after the Islamic
Revolution, the MEK bombed the offices of Imam Khomeini’s political party,
killing more than 30 members of the Iranian Parliament and Cabinet, including
senior clerics. The MEK fought with Saddam Hussein against Iran in the
Iran-Iraq War, and since 2003 has worked openly with the Mossad and the CIA.

There are also strong indications that the US worked with Israel
to unleash the Stuxnet virus on Iran’s
nuclear enrichment facilities. Israeli sources have more or less taken credit
for many of these operations, while the US consistently denies involvement.
But George W. Bush designated millions for covert operations in Iran. One might
ask, “Where did it go?” The most recent sanctions against Iran include a
prohibition against diplomacy with Iranian officials. This leaves us with a
covert war and no mechanism for reconciliation. What could possibly be gained
by such a restriction?

No Iranian Retaliation

It is interesting that Iran has not significantly
retaliated for these actions. Iran
remains active in regional diplomacy, with a history of encouraging regional
cooperation through trade and mutual support systems. The hype in the
mainstream press over Iranian terrorism and the dreaded Iranian bomb seems
oddly disconnected from reality. Even when attacked by Saddam’s chemical
weapons during the 80s, Iran
did not reciprocate in kind. Oil is often cited as the reason for this campaign
of terror against Iran.
And, Iran is designated a
‘state sponsor of terrorism’ for actively supporting and advocating the
Palestinian right to self-determination and condemning Israel’s ethnic cleansing in Palestine.  

But I believe there is something more going on here. The US is a little
over 200 years old. Israel
is just over 60. Iran
has been around for over 3000 years as a center of culture and civilization. It
has a cultural identity deeply rooted in its society.   Over millennia, the Persian Empire has
expanded across the Arab world, India
and southwest Asia. Iran has a Jewish population that
goes back to biblical times, supports Kurdish and Arab populations, and has
recently absorbed influxes of Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian refugees.
Iranians know who they are. This kind of integrity is stunning when you first
encounter it. I imagine it is terrifying to the contemporary proponents of
American hegemony.

Judy Bello, who recently spent 3 days in jail in Syracuse for
her role in the Hancock 38 (see article), led a Fellowship of Reconciliation
Civilian Peace Delegation to Iran last May, her second to that land.