MEMORIAL DAY WARNING

Directive for emergencies apparently gives authority without congressional oversight.

President Bush has signed a directive granting extraordinary powers to the office of the president in the event of a declared national emergency, apparently without congressional approval or oversight.

The "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive" was signed May 9th, notes Jerome R. Corsi in a WND column.

It was issued with the dual designation of NSPD-51, as a National Security Presidential Directive, and HSPD-20, as a Homeland Security Presidential Directive.

The directive establishes under the office of the president a new national continuity coordinator whose job is to make plans for "National Essential Functions" of all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments, as well as private sector organizations to continue functioning under the president's directives in the event of a national emergency.

See this:

Report: Cheney Aide Clearing Path To Bomb Iran

And from IraqSlogger:

Diplomatic Buzz
Bush Blinks or Is the Ante Being Upped?
Anti-Iran/Syria Group Modeled on Earlier Anti-Iraq Unit Shut Down

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By ROBERT Y. PELTON Posted 2 hr. 21 min. ago

The U.S. State Department has announced that it is shutting down the the Iran-Syria Policy and Operations Group it created in March 2006.

The purpose of the group was to damage Iran's economy by pressuring banks to cut credit and limiting their military capability by opposing the sale of military equipment to Tehran's army and supporters.

This comes at a time when rhetoric and actions from Iran has become more strident and forceful. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has pressed forward with both his nuclear enrichment plan, anti-west rhetoric and continuing dismissal of the U.S. intentions in the region.

The shutdown was explained as being part of a reorganization but the Boston Globe reports that;

A senior State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said the group was shut down because of a widespread public perception that it was designed to enact regime change. State Department officials have said the focus of the Iran-Syria group was persuading the two regimes to change their behavior, not toppling them.

The elimination of the group (which only met weekly) coincides with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice launched a major initiative to engage Iran and Syria in a regional effort to stabilize Iraq, reversing longstanding U.S. policy against high-level contact with the countries. Rice will meet with Iranian leaders on May 28th in Baghdad, the first time since the 1979 that Iranian and U.S. officials have met in high level talks.

The Boston Globe's Farah Stockman interviews government researcher Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East specialist who provides insight;

"I think the rationale for that group was promoting regime change, and Rice is going in a much different direction from that," Katzman said. "The regime-change school within the administration has really gotten quite a bit weaker."

In a "good cop, bad cop" move it appears that according to ABC News that President Bush authorized the CIA to begin a "coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions." Despite upcoming talks President Bush called for Rice to convince European nations to impose tougher sanctions on Iran in his May 24th reaction to Iran's nuclear plans.

The reality is that covert elements of Special Forces and CIA paramilitaries have been training insurgents inside and outside Iran for some time. Internal sabotage would be a very effective tool against a country that relies primarily on the shipment of it's petroleum products to outside markets.

David Samuels writing in The Atlantic mentions a laundry list of violent acts that have taken place inside Iraq including a bomb in Zahedan, Baluchistan on February 14; the death of the Iranian scientist Ardashir Hosseinpour, who worked on uranium enrichment at the Isfahan nuclear facility; and "the defection of a high-ranking Iranian general named Ali Asgari, a former deputy minister of defense who was also the Revolutionary Guard officer responsible for training and supplying Hezbollah during its war against the Israelis in southern Lebanon in the 1980s"

Iran has a number of outside enemies in addition to the U.S., chief among them Israel, Saudi Arabia and Sunni regions and Iraq. Despite Iran's stern coordinated outward image similar ethnic, tribal and other structures found inside Iraq can be inside Iran that an outside force could use to crack the monolithic Persian Shia structure. The truth is that ethnic Persians make up only 51% of Iran. It is not surprising that the U.S would take advantage of these ethnic minorities to engage in violent acts inside Iran, and accordingly it is not surprising that Iran would support insurgent groups inside Iraq as payback.

Iran has a history forged by strong enemies ranging from the Greeks to the Romans to the Ottomans to the Iraqis. Its bellicose nature comes from its position as a Shia bastion, a wellspring of unique culture and now being an island in a hostile sea of U.S. influenced nations. Iran is an intensely youthful country with most of its population being under 30 providing a fertile audience for change. These dynamics combined with the strategic importance of Iran's geographical control over middle east oil, its nuclear program and bellicose statements make it a high priority target for the current administration and arguably any future U.S. administrations. it is not surprising that the current petroleum industry savvy leadership of the United States sees the opportunity to overthrow the theocratic government and the need to install a U.S. friendly system as urgent and compelling.

There is a deadline to Rice's diplomatic moves and there is a sense of countdown to dealing with Iran's constant truculence and instransigent resistance in joining the world stage as a modern, non-combative player.

It appears that as the Bush administration comes to the end of its functional life and at a time that the U.S. military infrastructure has been stressed the diplomatic option becomes more appealing. But there is no guarantee that a navy and air based attack on Iran's infrastructure combined with Special Forces led uprisings could not be a desperate "Hail Mary" move to shift attention from a failed 5 year expedition to pacify Iraq.

From the Blogosphere....Strat-Sphere:

Imagine Iran & al Qaeda With Nukes

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A very influential voice has come out and emphasized the danger of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, given their current alliance with both Shiia and Sunni terrorists. The voice is that of a UN weapons inspector:

Al-Qaeda is searching for ways to create nuclear weapons for mass destruction, a former UN weapons inspection chief said during a press conference at an international convention ways to prevent a nuclear catastrophe being held in Luxembourg.
Rolf Ekeus, currently High Commissioner at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and formerly Director of the UN Special Commission on Iraq, told reporters that the threat of a nuclear attack on a European city by al-Qaeda was tangible, and that steps are being taken to protect nuclear facilities from which terrorists can obtain enriched uranium.
…
Addressing the brewing crisis surrounding the Iranian nuclear program, Ekeus said Iran’s non-compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was a major cause for concern over its intentions.
“Iran has obviously not fulfilled NPT organizations,” he said. “That is enough of a reason for concern. Iran acquiring nuclear weapons will have a tremendous effect on the whole region. I am deeply engaged with this issue,” he added.

The idea that sectarian differences are greater than Islamo Fascists’ hate of the West, and in particular America, is naive. The Shiia and Sunni fascists are right now joining forces to rid the ME of The Great Satan. They hope they could rid the world of us. Iran is brewing nuclear fuel and al Qaeda wants to kill people in a massive scale. How much clearer can this be? al Qaeda is on the ropes in Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan - not to mention unable to gain a footing in Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. As their frustrations grow, so does their threats. Take the action in Lebanon:

A group calling itself al Qaeda’s wing in the Levant vowed to carry out bombings in Lebanon and attacks on Christians unless Beirut pulled its army away from Palestinian refugee camps.
“We warn you for the last time, after which there will be nothing apart from seas of blood,” said a speaker identified as the military leader of the group in a video posted on Friday by a media arm used by Islamist groups including Qaeda in Iraq.
“What we want is that you order the Christian Lebanese army to pull its men from around all Palestinian camps and the Nahr al-Bared Camp in particular,” he said addressing Maronite Christian Partiarch Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir.
“If you do not stop we will wrench out your hearts with … bombs,” said the speaker whose face was covered with a checkered head dress and who had rifle magazines around his torso.

al Qaeda cannot fight head to head. They can only slink into civilian groups and lay bombs. The great Muslim warrior is now represented by some brain washed kid who blows up women and children. So when they are in a fight, the response is typically cowardly. But that could all change with nuclear weapons. The problem is they are being propped up by Iran - which has its own agenda. Iran is expanding its terrorist army beyond Hezbollah. Iran has been training the terrorists we see in Iraq who who have no ties whatsoever to Hezbollah:

"The reality is that covert elements of Special Forces and CIA paramilitaries have been training insurgents inside and outside Iran for some time. Internal sabotage would be a very effective tool against a country that relies primarily on the shipment of it's petroleum products to outside markets."
And one must remember Iran has a very limited petrochemical and oil refinery industry. Take out their plants, and leave their docks and pipelines undisturbed.
If they cannot make their own gas,petroleum products such as lubricants,oils, and a host of petrochemicals that then are used in hundreds of process, and the Europeans and Russians can be convinced not to send any of these products to them, they shut down.
Once all the goons are forced out, treaties signed, and a new form of government is put in, then they can get aid to rebuild all the destroyed plants. The sea port facilites,oil pipelines and drilling rigs not being destroyed, will then allow them to get back into the business again.
The only draw back is a few years of oil shortages world wide that of course would raise the cost of all oil derived products, including of course gasoline.
One does not have to invade them to put the Mullahs permenantly out of business and herold in a new form of government that will scorn the Islamic world and side with the west. Of course the military will then side with the US. We will get them back on track, new weapon systems etc..
They will have no enemies willing to invade them on their borders or otherwise. Iraq will further settle down. Things in the ME will be climbing up roses.
This taint a pipe dream. It can be done given very carefull planning and just the right amount of air/sea power applied, with a well organized internal super short insurgency to oust the repub guard, as the coup de grace, in routing out the regiem resistors.
But would the Europeans have the will to allow their companies to lose money by not selling refined products and gasoline to the Iranians, and at the same time take big hits on the amount of oil they can expect shipped out of the gulf. That remains to be seen.

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