Hard Rain Journal 7-16-07: Iran Switches to Trading Oil in Yen, Fidel & Ron Paul Concur on Threat of New 9/11 -- Will Recent History Repeat Itself?
By Richard Power
Fidel Castro, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and I probably agree on next to nothing.
But what we do agree on is profoundly disturbing.
Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, said the country is in "great danger" of the U.S. government staging a terrorist attack or a Gulf of Tonkin style provocation, as the war in Iraq continues to deteriorate.
The Texas congressman offered no specifics nor mentioned President Bush by name, but he clearly insinuated that the administration would not be above staging an incident to revive flagging support.
"We're in danger in many ways," Paul said on the Alex Jones radio show. "The attack on our civil liberties here at home, the foreign policy that's in shambles and our obligations overseas and commitment which endangers our troops and our national defense. ." Politico, 7-13-07
Cuban president Fidel Castro said the United States government has all the needed capacity to prevent any attack on its territory, unless for political reasons, “it’s interested that it should happen”.
Writing in the island’s Juventud Rebelde Sunday edition Castro suggested that Washington has deliberately failed to stop terrorist attacks against US citizens because it needed to “deliver a bang” that would justify its war on terror. Mercosur, 7-16-07
Last week, in another delusional act, the US Senate voted 97-0 to pass a resolution sponsored by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), censuring Iran “for what it said was complicity in the killing of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.” (Think Progess, 7-15-07)
Of course, no similar resolutions were offered suggesting a censure of Saudi Arabia for funding the fighters responsible for most US military deaths in the Mega-Mogadishu of Iraq, or a censure of Pakistan for giving cover to Al Qaeda, the Taliban and probably Osama bin Laden himself.
Why the double standard?
Well, the answer is complex and, yes, it too is profoundly disturbing.
But for now just consider this Friday the 13th news, not mentioned by the Sunday morning saber-rattlers:
The dollar was driven down against the Japanese yen this afternoon, hit by the news that Iran had asked Japan to pay for its oil purchases in the Japanese currency and not in dollars.
Iran has sent a letter to Japanese refiners, signed by Ali A Arshi, the general manager of crude marketing and exports for Iran's national Iranian Oil Company, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The letter asks for yen payments "for any/all of your forthcoming Iranian crude oil liftings." The request is for all shipments "effective immediately".
Japan's oil payments to Iran rose 12 per cent last year to 1.24 trillion yen (£5 billion). Times of London, 7-13-07
Saddam Hussein was in the process of switching to the Euro before he was removed from power by the same geopolitical forces that installed him in the first place.
Will you and I witness another 9/11 style attack followed by an attack on Iran, culminating in the seizure of its oil fields, just as 9/11 itself was used as the excuse for for the invasion of Iraq and the occupation of its oil fields?
Lieberman has no credibility.
Why would any resolution with his name on it be allowed to reach the floor of the US Senate?
Unfortunately, while control of the Senate hangs in the balance, Lieberman has undo influence.
The Bush-Cheney national insecurity team has no credibility either.
No military action they propose should receive the support of the US Senate; no good can come from anything they initiate.
They should be removed from power through the means provided for in the US Constitution. And if that course of action is not politically viable, then, at the very least, they must be ostracized for the remainder of their ill-gotten regime.
On that much at least, Castro, Ron Paul and I can probably agree.
Click here for a Words of Power Archive of posts on 9/11, Terrorism, Etc.
September 11th, Joe Lieberman, Ron Paul, 9/11, Cheney, Bush, Iran,Iraq, Terrorism,9/11, Osama Bin Laden, Fidel Castro, Richard Power, Words of Power
