U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden last Saturday outlined the Obama administration’s continuation of the Bush administration’s foreign policy towards Iran. Reiterating the Bush policy of loosely defined “preventive” warfare outlined in Bush’s National Security Strategy, he said that the “U.S. will strive to act preventively to avoid having to choose…
The IAEA's latest report on Iran's nuclear program was circulated to the Board of Governors this week. It has not been released to the general public, but it is widely being hailed as a damning condemnation of Iran by the mainstream media.…
Der Spiegel reports that “The Israeli government no longer believes that sanctions can prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. A broad consensus in favor of a military strike against Tehran’s nuclear facilities — without the Americans, if necessary — is beginning to take shape.” In a standard line, Spiegel reports…
The EU offered incentives to Iran this week in an effort to convince it to stop enriching uranium. Iran responded by once again declaring that it had no intention of stopping enrichment and that its right to do so for nuclear power was guaranteed as a member of the NPT…
The threat of military attack against Iran has continued to escalate as the European Union this week conceded to pressure from the US to implement stricter sanctions against Iran for refusing to cease from enriching uranium for its nuclear program. Earlier this week, Israeli transport minister Shaul Mofaz threatened, “If…
Israel once again threatened to attack Iran over its nuclear program this week. Speaking to Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, transport minister Shaul Mofaz threatened, “If Iran continues with its programme for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective. Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear…
When the International Atomic Energy Agency sent its follow-up report on the implementation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Safeguards Agreement in Iran to the United Nations Security Council on May 26, the response from the U.S. media was pretty much along predictable lines. The next day, The New York…
The IAEA delivered a report to the UN earlier this week outlining remaining areas of concern with Iran’s nuclear program. The Western media has characterized this report as a damning criticism of Iran’s lack of cooperation and as presenting information supporting the US intelligence community’s assessment that Iran had an…
This month saw yet another escalation of the U.S. policy of isolating and pressuring Iran as the White House announced its intention to add Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. There is something to be learned from this about the nature of U.S. foreign policy…
There is a very narrow and rigidly defined framework within which discussion of U.S. policy towards Iran is confined in political discourse and mainstream media. This framework effectively precludes the possibility that there could be a change of foreign policy which would produce more positive results than the present status…
A recent op-ed in the Washington Post offers an instructive example of elite opinion towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the kind of logic, or lack thereof, which guides U.S. policy. Richard Cohen, in an article entitled, “They Honor Us With Their Hate”, begins by reminding his readers of news that…
Prior to the military invasion of Iraq in 2003, the government and media, for whatever various motives, had engaged in a propaganda campaign that effectively deceived the American people on a massive scale. The propaganda continues to this day, such as the implausible denial that there ever was such a…
It wasn’t too long ago, and one might still remember the propaganda campaign the U.S. government and media engaged in prior to the invasion of Iraq, in which misinformation bolstering administration claims was propagated while the facts, presenting a serious challenge to the official position, were systematically self-censored from the…
The US government has stepped up its rhetoric against Iran this week with a presentation held in Baghdad designed to support the claim that, as worded by President Bush last month, “Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops.”[1] US officials said that weapons were being smuggled into…
[Correction: I stated in the following article that "Uranium, of course, cannot be 'transformed' into plutonium." In fact, radioactive isotopes can decay into other elements, which is what occurs when uranium isotopes become plutonium. I regret the error.] Iran, an op-ed in the The New York Times reported yesterday, began…
When asked what the U.S. response would be the news that North Korea has detonated a nuclear device, President George W. Bush said that he would not use force because “diplomacy hasn’t run its course,” thus implying that he believes that the use of force should be a last resort.…
During President Bush’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, he referred to the recent conflict in Lebanon, saying, a “group of extremists deliberately provoked a terrible conflict in Lebanon.” He was referring to the abduction of Israeli soldiers by Hamas and then again by Hezbollah. Irrelevant is the…
There’s no shortage of debate in the political arena. But examining critically the framework within which the debate on any particular issue is limited may be instructive. Take debate about U.S. foreign policy and, more specifically, war. Typically, the limits of the framework are defined by groups falling into a…
Last week, Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said, “Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury. Any who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world…As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map.”[1] British…
“What are our global obligations? To give terrorists no support, no sanctuary.” – President Clinton, speaking before the United Nations on terrorism in 1998[1] “We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.” – President Bush, September 11, 2001[2] Ostensibly, the United…
Jeremy R. Hammond is an independent political analyst and a recipient of the Project Censored Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism. He is the founding editor of Foreign Policy Journal (www.foreignpolicyjournal.com) and can also be found on the web at JeremyRHammond.com. His new book, "Ron Paul vs. Paul Krugman: Austrian vs. Keynesian economics in the financial crisis", is now available at Amazon.com.
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