US, Iran and the Girlie Fight
Jan 18th, 2007 by Donagh
Last night Newnight had an extraordinarily revealing piece about an offer made by Iran to the White House in 2003 in which they agreed to terminate their nuclear research program, stop supporting Hezbollah and Hamas and help to suppress the rising insurgency in the recently invaded country. What they wanted in return was US assistance in disbanding The People’s Mujahadeen - known as the PMOI, a small but highly disciplined and organized militia which had been supported and hosted in Iraq by Saddam and who are working vehemently to bring down the Tehran government.
After the invasion the US State department declared the PMOI a terrorist organization, but the Pentagon thought that these self-motivated fighters might come in useful in the future.
And what happened to the offer? Well, it was ignored of course. The State Department under Colin Powell took it extremely serious but the Vice President dismissed it out of hand. ‘We don’t talk to Iran’ was the response, and the Swiss, who brought it to the US Government’s attention, were chided for even thinking that they would.
However, what difference would it have made if they had entered talks? There is no guarantee that Iran would hold up their end of the bargain, the hawks could argue. True, but when it came to talking to Iran about fighting the Taliban it was clear that ‘quid pro quo’s’ were order of the day. And yet, two years later a similar deal, which would benefit both sides, could not be considered.
The suggestion, of course, is that with the recent success of the invasion under their faux military style belts, the neo-cons thought that if they were ever going to talk to the Iranian heads of Government again, it would be with the successors of the existing regime. Once, of course, the next step in the grand plan had come to fruition.
Although it seems patently absurd to attack Iran, the current build up of military floating hardware in the gulf suggests that despite the claims that it is merely to assure friendly neighbors of Iraq you could be forgiven for thinking - if you were of that frame of mind - that it’s the final phase of a ill conceived yet dastardly plan to lockup the Middle East in the US’s favour once and for all. But it couldn’t be, could it?
The piece was based on Newsnight obtaining a copy of the letter. However, it had been written about before. According to a comment on the newsnight website from Paul C, the Washington Post had written about it on the 18th of June 2006.
“Newsnight has uncovered an extraordinary letter written after the invasion of Iraq in 2003…” This letter has been the subject of discussion on several websites and blogs for some time and was reported in the US media early last year (for example see newsday.com “A missed opportunity with Iran” February 19th 2006, and later Washington Post.com “In 2003, U.S. Spurned Iran’s Offer of Dialogue” June 18, 2006). Why has it apparently taken this long to register with Auntie? Whilst the full text of the letter may have only recently been obtained by Newsnight, surely this was a story worth reporting by the BBC some considerable time ago?
Newsnight also had a bit on Celebrity Big Brother, with Jeremy Paxman having the look of man determined to thoroughly wash his mouth out after discussing the whole sorry ‘racist’ reality TV fandango.
Now I can reveal, though not exclusively (TCAL got there first), that Carphone Warehouse has pulled its sponsorship of the show, citing the racist and bullying behaviour of Jade. But that doesn’t interest me.
What does is the news (also from Sky) that those bastions of moral rectitude, the bookies William Hill will not pay out bets taken if Jade Goody wins CBB.
“As far as we are concerned, Jade does not deserve to win and we will not be accepting any bets on her,” said William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams.
However, however (it’s worth repeating) they will shell out notes if Shilpa and Jade come to blows. The odds for that, if you fancy a punt, is 12/1.
Bookies love nothing better than a good cat fight, apparently.
Shilpa’s got a black belt in Karate, and alleged links with the Indian mafia, so Twenty euros on Silly Pooh to win.
What? In a fight between Jade and Shilpa? The Min was right, you are loving this.
Jade’s all flab and no balance. Shilpa would have her on the ground in an instant. Just use Jade’s weight against her. Then she’d make that bully HER bitch. Jade’s obnoxious and thick, what’s what she’s famous for. But really, it’s Danielle who’s the real nasty piece of work. Jade’s jealous of Shilpa, as are the other girls, so a lot of it is school-yard bullying, but Danielle’s got a true rascist streak in her. most of time Big Brother has nothing to do with reality, for all of its ‘reality’ tag - but with this, they’ve hit a raw nerve. Did you see ‘This Week’ last night? The channel 4 news presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy said that Britain was having a mirror pressed against its face with this incident - it was being shown not the BNP type of rascism but the incidious rascism that pervades British (and I would say Irish) society. Oh, I’m voting Jade out for the bullying as well.
How do you think they’ll do it. Channel 4 have got so much flak for this I wouldn’t be surprised if they cancelled it just to avoid a lynching. The placards outside might say something like ’stop revealing us for wot we are, bitch’. If it is Jade I think she should be escorted out the back door, wearing headphones that play her soothing elevator musak. Then, once safely away she can be debriefed, not by Davina, but by a swauve voiced James Mason type figure who might offer her a nice cup of tea and who’d reassure her that everything is going to okay as long as she doesn’t pick up a newspaper or look at the telly for the next four months.
No guarantee that Jade’s walking tonight. She is one of the most popular women in England. and as for flack, well, they’ve lost Carphone it’s true, but viewing figures are up so the premiums for ads during the show will go up as well. and as for flack, Jade was VILIFIED in the press when she was first on Big Brother. Everyone thought she’d had a nervous breakdown or commit suicide, with the SUN running headlines like ‘KILL THE PIG’. This latest spat is nothing.
Big Brother isn’t the cause of racism in English society, nor can it cure it, but it’s certainly brought it onto the front pages. Carphone panicked. and William Hill, as you’ve pointed out, are just whores. Yep! I think it’s great.
Oh. If Shilpa walks tonight instead of Jade, there will be f**king riots on the streets. If Jade walks, it’ll kill the issue for Channel 4 at least.
[…] in 2003, when they made a secret offer to the US in May of that year. I’ve spoken about this before, but the Galbraith article is very even-handed and […]