As Israeli PM Netanyahu Discusses Iran’s Nukes, Let’s Not Forget His Lies About Iraq’s WMD’s

September 27, 2012

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Source: The Bilzerian Report

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently taken to the American airwaves to warn about the danger that a nuclear Iran poses to the world. Netanyahu’s fear-mongering rhetoric should come as no surprise to those who remember his infamous 1992 wolf-cryingcomments about Iran being ”three to five years away from acquiring a nuclear weapon”; or his testimony before Congress in the lead up to the Iraq war, in which Netanyahu showed an almost superhuman capacity to shamelessly lie to the American public in a successful effort to drag them into war. When Americans consider Benjamin Netanyahu’s current plea to attack Iran, they must not forget the eerily similar lies and purposefully deceptive intelligence that Netanyahu and his government gave to American officials about Saddam Hussein’s mythical “Weapons of Mass Destruction”. The video below shows some highlights from Netanyahu’s September 12, 2002 testimony before the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.

In the video, Netanyahu tells Congress, “There is no question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking and is working and is advancing to the development of nuclear weapons. No question whatsoever…. Two decades ago it was possible to thwart Saddam’s nuclear ambitions by bombing a single instillation, but today nothing less than dismantling his regime will do.”In his testimony, Netanyahu repeatedly said there was “no question” Saddam was working to increase his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. He also fanatically said, “Every indication we have is that he is pursuing, pursuing with abandon, pursuing with every ounce of effort the establishment of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons.”

When questioned about why the 250 international inspectors found “no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq,” Netanyahu falsely told the Congressional body that Saddam was burying these nuclear centrifuges in tunnels. One can not watch Netanyahu’s testimony and conclude anything other than these two fundamental truths: 1. Netanyahu’s testimony was perjurious, and 2, The Israeli intelligence provided to the US government was a purposeful deception to get America to attack Iraq.

Aside from lying to the American public and Congress about Iraq’s WMD’s, Netanyahu and the Israeli government used their lobby in America (AIPAC) to mercillessly campaign for war in Iraq. As the single most powerful lobby in America, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s greatest “accomplishment” in the last two decades was its successful, behind the scenes lobbying for sanctions and wars in Iraq, Libya, Iran, and Syria. In 2000, AIPAC distributed a letter asking members to put pressure on the US Congress and the President to ramp up sanctions on Iraq and block the oil for food program, which was providing Iraqi civilians with much needed food and medicine. In 2003, AIPAC/Israel attempted to block a bill that would have allowed US companies to export food and medicine to Iraqi civilians. Israel/AIPAC took the position in this case that the food and medicine would not help the Iraqi people, which is obviously untrue, and that the bill would hasten Saddam’s effort to procure weapons of mass destruction. Saddam was of course not building weapons of mass destruction, and the Israeli/AIPAC efforts ended up murdering thousands of Iraqi civilians.

In January 2003, AIPAC executive director Howard Kohr stated, “quietly lobbying Congress to approve the use of force in Iraq” was one of “AIPAC’s successes over the past year.” Jeffrey Goldberg reported during a profile piece of AIPAC’s policy director Steven J. Rosen that, “AIPAC lobbied Congress in favor of the Iraq war.”

Flash forward to today; Netanyahu and AIPAC are now pushing hard for another, potentially disastrous American war with Iran. Does Iran have a nuke? No, of course not. In fact, almost every single senior military and intelligence official from America and Israel have said on record that there is no evidence that Iran is even attempting to build nuclear weapons at this time, and even if they did, it would not pose an existential threat to Israel.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said that Iran is not yet building nuclear weapons.
The Chairman of the Chief Joints of Staff Admiral Martin Dempsey said in a CNN interview that it is unclear whether Iran is attempting to make a nuclear weapon, called Iran a rational actor, and also warned against a destabilizing strike on Iran.
The former head of the US Central Command General John Abizaid said that a nuclear Iran could be contained, or in other words– Iran does not pose an existential threat to the US or Israel.
Israel’s former security chief Yuval Diskin said he doesn’t trust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who Diskin believes is misleading the Israeli people about Iran. Diskin also said in the interview that the Iranian leadership would not go the extra mile to acquire nuclear weapons because they are rational.
The head of the Israeli Mossad Meir Dagan said he had no idea if Iran has made the decision to acquire a nuke. In another interview, Dagan said the prospect of attacking Iran was the “stupidest thing I have ever heard.”

Netanyahu, in his thirst for war, refuses to acknowledge the fact that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has issued a fatwa, or a religious edict, banning nuclear weapons. If the Iranian leadership broke this edict it would undermine their entire regime because its authority is based on its religious credibility. This has, of course, not stopped Netanyahu from badgering President Obama to declare a “red line” on Iran, which is really nothing more than an agreement to attack because Iran will not give up its peaceful nuclear program, and Israel sees the existence of such a program as a red line. On the Republican side, Sheldon Adelson, a huge supporter of Netanyahu, has pledged up to $60 million to Romney’s campaign, and has been rewarded with Romney’s adoption of Netanyahu’s position on Iran.

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