Israel Should be Referred to the ICC for Threats to Attack Iran's Civil Nuclear Power Facilities

Ist July 2008

Ceri Thomas Esq Editor

BBC Radio4 Today

Broadcasting House

LONDON e-mailed: bbc.co.uk/radio4/today

Dear Sir

ISRAEL SHOULD BE REFERRED TO THE ICC FOR THREATS TO ATTACK IRAN'S CIVIL NUCLEAR POWER FACILITIES

On Monday 30th June you allowed an Israeli spokesperson Mr Hertzog to make false accusations against Iran without any balanced response from an Iranian spokesperson. The BBC's world reputation is damaged by this one sidedness and it probably offends against the Charter. It also ramps up the propaganda for war.

As you must know, Israel had over 200 nuclear missiles according to Mordachai Vanunu in 1986 and probably two or three times as many now. These would be considered illegal if it was Iran that had covertly built them outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Condemnation by the UN Security Council would be justified. But Iran as you also know, has signed up as a member of the NNPT. It cannot be right that an NNPT member is punished for developing nuclear power only within the rules whilst a non-member is allowed to go unpunished for building hundreds of nuclear missiles.

The use of nuclear weapons has been outlawed by the International Court of Justice and so the threat to use them, made by Israel and the USA, must be an offence, just as threatening to use an illegal firearm is an offence in the UK.

The insidious false slanders against Iran for ‘lying to the IAEA’ and ‘covering up its nuclear facilities’ fan the embers of distrust which may one day erupt into fire.

You failed to remind the public that every country deceives the IAEA, sadly; most comprehensively the USA, secondly Israel and thirdly the UK. None of these countries has submitted to IAEA weapons inspections.

You ignore the fact that the USA has over 10,000 nuclear warheads. Israel has 400-500. Moreover both these countries have actually threatened Iran with nuclear strikes against her civil nuclear plant. Why were these not mentioned? The USA is the only country to have used nuclear bombs. Why is this not mentioned on the 60th anniversary of the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

In fairness, it is Israel and the USA which should be referred to the UN Security Council under Chapter V11 for threatening nuclear strikes against a non-nuclear-armed country (see attached: Dick Cheney’s Order to STRATCOM leaked by Scott Ritter and Greg Szymanski in patriott2422@aol.com; Uri Mahnaimi in The Times 13th March: and Paul Beaumont in The Observer 12th October 2003).

Nuclear weaponry offends customary international law as it will murder people indiscriminately and its very existence is a terror threat. Nuclear power of any sort is a danger to life on the planet as even the American Depleted Uranium shells used against Iraqis have shown, in birth deformities and leukaemia incidences, concentrated in Basra province where they were most heavily used in 1991.

The conclusion is that if you have nuclear weapons, like N Korea, you are unlikely to be attacked by your enemies. If you don’t, like Iraq and Iran, you are. The behaviour of America and Israel directly incites nuclear weapons to be built and developed.

Perhaps you could make a follow-on programme that corrects the bias which you have perhaps inadvertently stoked in people’s minds?

Yours sincerely

James B Thring, Secretary

The Ministry of Peace is a private initiative to unite the peace lobby against the warmongers

Cheney Orders STRATCOM To Prepare Nuclear Attack Against Iran
Politcal activists and observers have sent out a "world wide red alert' in response to what they called Cheney's "Hitler-like" state of mind.
July 28, 2005

By Greg Szymanski

patriott2424@aol.com

A number of political observers and activists today sounded ‘a red alert’ after reports surfaced this week Vice President Dick Cheney directly ordered Strategic Command (STRATCOM) to make contingency plans for a nuclear strike against Iran in the aftermath of another ‘9/11 type attack' on America.

Cheney’s orders first surfaced in an article by Philip Geraldi in the Aug 1, 2005, issue of The American Conservative. Geraldi was unavailable for comment, but excerpts of the article went on to say:

“Vice President Cheney's office has specifically told the Pentagon that the military should be prepared for an attack on Iran in the immediate aftermath of "another 9-11." That's "not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States," notes Geraldi’s article.

The statement was then distributed widely over the internet as a number of political observers have issued “world wide” warning statements,” declaring Cheney’s order to be interpreted as “sounding the bell for World War III.”

In response to Cheney’s order, outspoken political activist and former candidate for U.S. President, Lyndon La Rouche, Wednesday issued a “world wide” internet warning covering the time period of August 2005, saying:

“Vice President Dick Cheney, with the full collusion of the circles of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, to unleash the recently exposed plans to stage a preemptive tactical nuclear strike against Iran.

“The danger of such a mad, Hitler-in-the-bunker action from the Cheney circles would be even further heightened, were the United States Congress to stick with its present schedule, and go into recess on July 30 until September 4. With Congress out of Washington, the Cheney-led White House would almost certainly unleash a "Guns of August" attack on Iran.”

In the warning distributed widely throughout the world on July 27, LaRouche based his alarming assessment on a series of factors reported to him over the recent days, beginning with the qualified report, from a former U.S. intelligence official, published in the American Conservative magazine.

The report claims that Cheney already ordered the Strategic Command to prepare contingency plans for a conventional and tactical nuclear strike against hundreds of targets in Iran, in the event of a "new 9/11-style attack" on the United States.

And as reported several months ago, La Rouche said the Bush Administration, under CONPLAN 8022, had already placed the relevant "mini-nukes" under the control of theater military commanders, as part of a new Global Strike doctrine, a doctrine originally conceived when Dick Cheney was Secretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s.

“The recent bombings in London have provided Tony Blair with his own "Reichstag fire" incident, and the full resources of the British "liberal imperial" faction can now be expected to weigh in behind the brutish Cheney circles in Washington, added La Rouche.

“The most compelling evidence of this "Guns of August" plan in discussions I’ve had with colleagues is the pattern of eyewitness reports of Dick Cheney's state of mind. Cheney is living out an American version of "Hitler in the bunker," lashing out at Republican Senators who have dared to resist his mad tirades, accusing anyone who fails to follow his orders—including senior members of the United States Senate—of being "traitors" and worse.”

For more informative articles, go to www.arcticbeacon.com

Revealed: Israel plans strike on Iranian nuclear plant

Uzi Mahnaimi 

03/13/05 "The Times" - - ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear programme. 

The inner cabinet of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, gave “initial authorisation” for an attack at a private meeting last month on his ranch in the Negev desert. 

Israeli forces have used a mock-up of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant in the desert to practise destroying it. Their tactics include raids by Israel’s elite Shaldag (Kingfisher) commando unit and airstrikes by F-15 jets from 69 Squadron, using bunker-busting bombs to penetrate underground facilities. 

The plans have been discussed with American officials who are said to have indicated provisionally that they would not stand in Israel’s way if all international efforts to halt Iranian nuclear projects failed. 

Tehran claims that its programme is designed for peaceful purposes but Israeli and American intelligence officials — who have met to share information in recent weeks — are convinced that it is intended to produce nuclear weapons. 

The Israeli government responded cautiously yesterday to an announcement by Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, that America would support Britain, France and Germany in offering economic incentives for Tehran to abandon its programme. 

In return, the European countries promised to back Washington in referring Iran to the United Nations security council if the latest round of talks fails to secure agreement. 

Silvan Shalom, the Israeli foreign minister, said he believed that diplomacy was the only way to deal with the issue. But he warned: “The idea that this tyranny of Iran will hold a nuclear bomb is a nightmare, not only for us but for the whole world.” 

Dick Cheney, the American vice-president, emphasised on Friday that Iran would face “stronger action” if it failed to respond. But yesterday Iran rejected the initiative, which provides for entry to the World Trade Organisation and a supply of spare parts for airliners if it co-operates. 

“No pressure, bribe or threat can make Iran give up its legitimate right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes,” said an Iranian spokesman. 

US officials warned last week that a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities by Israeli or American forces had not been ruled out should the issue become deadlocked at the United Nations. 

Additional reporting: Tony Allen-Mills, Washington 

Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.