Netanyahu accused of blindsiding Obama
A group of American former intelligence officers is warning that Prime Minister Netanyahu plans to attack Iran in the next month - without President Obama's approval - and is urging Obama to take action to prevent a war with Iran. Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) said on Tuesday that "comments by senior American officials, you included, reflect misplaced trust in Israeli Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu" and that Obama's friendly tone with Netanyahu "was distinctly out of tune with decades of unfortunate history with Israeli leaders."Wikipedia has an entry about this group here. Most of the names are not exactly famous. If anyone knows something significant about them, please feel free to drop it in the comments.
The VIPS letter quoted Obama as saying about Netanyahu “neither of us try to surprise each other," adding that the president "may wish to ask Vice President Biden to remind you of the kind of surprises he has encountered in Israel."
VIPS is a group of former intelligence professionals of current and former US intelligence officials that was founded in 2003 to protest the use of faulty intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq. It is headed by former top officials from the CIA, State Department, Department of Deffense, US military and other agencies.
The organization accused Israel of consistantly deceiving the US: "Blindsiding has long been an arrow in Israel’s quiver. During the emerging Middle East crisis in the spring of 1967, some of us witnessed closely a flood of Israeli surprises and deception, as Netanyahu’s predecessors feigned fear of an imminent Arab attack as justification for starting a war to seize and occupy Arab territories...We had long since concluded that Israel had been exaggerating the Arab 'threat.'"
VIPS then quotes Ha'aretz columnist Gideon Levy, who called Netanyahu “a con artist … who thinks that Washington is in his pocket and that he can pull the wool over its eyes."
The letter also accuses the "Likud Lobby" of having a disproportionate influence on American policy, citing a recent visit by Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joseph Lieberman as proof. VIPS quotes Lieberman as saying that Congress would use "military actions if we must" to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power, and Graham as saying "Congress has Israel's back." The organization then adds that 47 House Republicans have signed a declaration of “support for Israel’s right to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran … including the use of military force.”
Unless something big happens, an attack in the next month seems unlikely.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:46 AM
3 Comments:
These people sound ridiculous. According to them, in order to make the U.S. happy and not blindside them, Israel should allow the neighbors to slaughter their citizens, whether in '67 or '10. According to them, the U.S. will do nothing or will aim all actions toward U.S. interests (as the U.S. should), and Israel should operate solely as State 51 forward base, fly paper, and buffer zone rather than as a country of innovation full of civilians. .They are creepy.
Carl - you should see the ad on an obscure group called goalsforAmericans.org. Quite a few people are afraid the Joos will start another war these days. Gee, I would why that would be?
Heh
i don't think it's unlikely.
i mean, if you're going to attack, you need to have thee element of surprise. in the case of israel, that surprise is needed (in my opinion) not only to the enemies but for the allys too (u.s, "europe" ).
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