Say Anything Blog

Interesting...

The United States government reportedly began coordinating with NATO its plans for a possible military attack against Iran.

The German daily Der Spiegel collected various reports from the German media indicating that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are examining the prospects of such a strike.

According to the report, CIA chief Porter Gus, in his last visit to Turkey on December 12, requested Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to provide military bases to the United States in 2006 from where they would be able to launch an assault.

The German news agency DDP also noted that countries neighboring Iran, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, and Pakistan were also updated regarding to supposed plan. American sources sent to those countries apparently mentioned an aerial attack as a possibility, but did not provide a time frame for the operation.

Although Der Spiegel could not say that these plans were concrete, they did note that according to a January 2005 New Yorker report American forces had entered Iran in 2005 in order to mark possible targets for an aerial assault.

This seems like more of an attention-getting tactic by the Bush administration than any real ramp-up for war in Iran. That the media is reporting on American special forces missions into Iran tells me that the information was probably leaked intentionally to the press in an effort to show Iran, and the world, just how serious America is taking things.

Also, it is interesting that we're going to NATO instead of the UN Security Council. This is probably a good thing as the UN Security Council (with members China and Russia likely to refuse any authorization for force or sanction against Iran) is a worthless option at this point.