It was with disappointment, but not surprise, that I recently found out that the Monterey Institute’s Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) is on board with the Neocons in hyping up the Syria/Iran nuclear claims of the Bush Administration. In the L.A. Times, Leonard Spector of the CNS, in conjunction with Avner Cohen, wrote on May 4: “In the Syrian case (as with the release last year of part of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear program) the intelligence community was unnecessarily cautious, and thereby underestimated the threats posed by Syria and Iran.”

What?! A leading researcher from the Monterey Institute (from which I graduated) is repeating Neocon talking points? How could this be?

I went on a Google search to try and find other articles by Spector. I did not have to go very far to discover Mr. Spector’s own words betray him as a purveyor of black propaganda for at least five years. Read this article from 2003, entitled “Iran’s Secret Quest for the Bomb.”

With so a bold title, one would assume that Mr. Spector presented actual evidence that Iran was seeking a nuclear weapon in 2003. But the ‘proof’ given by Spector in his piece is the usual jumble of conjecture about hypothetical facilities into which uranium was hypothetically introduced (but somehow, no one in the intelligence services can find), combined with mindreading Iranian intent to withdraw from the NPT once it has full uranium enrichment capabilities. Oh, yes, and there is a hat tip to the usual speculation that “Iran has natural gas, why do they need nuclear power?”

It’s a shame that such a fine institution as the CNS at Monterey Institute, through Mr. Spector and others has become just another mouthpiece for the Cheney cabal.

From Ritter’s interview with Amy Goodman yesterday:

“But let’s just assume for a second that the data is in fact accurate. I have to take exception with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when he says that the alleged activities are against international conventions. Actually, they’re not. If Syria had in fact been constructing the reactor they’ve been accused of, they were in total conformity with international law. The nonproliferation treaty, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which Syria is a signatory, requires that facilities be declared to the IAEA only when nuclear materials are to be introduced to these facilities, that a facility under construction is not a declarable item. ”

…and…

“I don’t know what was going on at this site. If the images are accurate, it appears that Syria was producing a very, very small research reactor. But it is not a reactor usable in a nuclear weapons program. Syria was not violating the law. “

Associated Press Writer Pamela Hess writes, “At the same time, the administration’s release of the intelligence shines light on alleged malfeasance by Syria, which has signed an international treaty requiring it to disclose nuclear interests and activity, and vindicates Israel’s decision to destroy the suspect site.”

Of course, this ‘intelligence’ is still being withheld from the public. The WH is supposed to make a public statement later today. Hopefully, Dana Perrino can further enlighten us as to exactly what proof exists for this allegation.

Should we give the CIA the benefit of the doubt?   After all, the intelligence agencies have pushed back against the NeoCons and Cheney on their claims about an Iranian nuclear weapons program .  Why would they lie about Syria?

The above notwithstanding, I have not forgotten the bogus CIA “intelligence” that helped justify the Iraq war and will assume the allegations against Syria are another lie until real proof is forthcoming

The only thing worse than a right wing hawk is a left wing hawk…

Read this.

My favorite line : “The Democratic position — embraced particularly by Sen. Barack Obama but also by Sen. Hillary Clinton  — is that we need to make haste for the exits. ”

Huh?  Hillary and Obama want a total unconditional withdrawal from Iraq?  You coulda fooled me mister…

Here.

Great.  We’ve won the war.  It must be time to leave then, right?  Let’s bring the troops home.

Article.

Looks like momentum is shifting against the Neocons and Likudniks.    Let’s hope that trend continues.

Question: What do drug addicts and Wall Street investors have in common?

Answer: They both need an injection of drugs to keep them going until one day they become corpses. In the case, of investors, the drug of choice is ‘cheap and easy’ money from their street corner dealer, Ben Bernanke.