WUFYS readers have probably seen this already, but I thought it good enough to reprint excerpts…

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Dear Admiral Fallon,

You were removed from command because you thought it unwise to go to war with Iran – but you refuse to discuss the details.

Why?

Do you think forty-one years of service is enough?

It isn’t.

The stakes are extremely high. As Americans start dying in a war with Iran, don’t you want to be able to look into the mirror and say you tried? 

What happened to your oath to defend the Constitution? An Iran attack would be a flagrant violation of our Constitution, which stipulates that treaties ratified by the Senate become the supreme law of the land. One of those treaties was the UN Charter, which the Senate ratified on July 28, 1945 by a vote of 89 to 2. The Senate treaty expressly forbids attacks on other countries, unless those countries pose an imminent danger. Iran does not pose an imminent danger to the USA or its allies, nor does the UN Charter allow any kind of "preemptive" attack.

You know all this. Why do you remain silent?

When I worked for the CIA, I analyzed the Soviet press. Based on my experience, it is obvious that our media have been revving up for war against Iran for quite a while, but now the lies are worse than ever – especially the lie that Iran has caused all the troubles in Iraq.

These lies embarrass all Americans. Example: on April 25, 2008, Adm. Mike Mullen (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) told reporters that Gen. David Petraeus would give a briefing "in the next couple of weeks" that would provide detailed evidence of "just how far Iran is reaching into Iraq to foment instability."

Petraeus' staff then alerted U.S. media to a “major news event,” saying Iranian arms had been seized in Karbala. When American munitions experts in Karbala inspected the “captured Iranian arms,” they found nothing linked to Iran. Nor did Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s special Cabinet committee, which was formed to investigate U.S. claims.

Of course the media ignored this. Therefore Mullen and Petraeus are free to continue searching for a new fable to justify war with Iran.

How can you let them get away with this?

The National Intelligence Estimate released on Dec. 3, 2007 concluded that Iran stopped all weapons-related nuclear research in mid-2003. This conclusion was shared by sixteen intelligence agencies. Now, the Bush regime dismisses them all. 

On 30 April 08, CIA chief Michael Hayden said, "It is my opinion that the policy of the Iranian government, approved to the highest level of that government, is to facilitate the killing of Americans in Iraq. Just make sure there's clarity on that."

Hayden dismisses the findings of his own CIA. Likewise, Robert Gates dismisses the findings of his own DIA. 

Why don’t you contact Gen. Anthony Zinni, who commanded Centcom before you? (1997 to 2000)  Zinni remained silent when he was removed, thereby allowing the juggernaut to war in Iraq.

Ask Zinni how he feels now.

On Aug. 26, 2002, Zinni was honored at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, in which Cheney ranted about the “nuclear threat” from Saddam Hussein. Cheney’s speech launched a seven-month public campaign against Iraq that led up to the invasion. It also set the terms for the Oct. 1, 2002, National Intelligence Estimate, which was fabricated to justify that invasion.

After three and a half years of silence, in which countless Americans and Iraqis had died, Zinni told Meet the Press that he was shocked to hear Cheney’s lies, which were completely different from what Zinni knew. Although Zinni had retired two years before, his role as consultant required him to keep up with intelligence relating to the Middle East.

Gen. Zinni could have helped stop a war of aggression. (The Nuremberg Tribunal described a war of aggression as the "supreme international crime.”)

What about you?

If you can’t speak out against another war, can’t you speak out against individual liars? For example, former CIA director George Tenet’s memoir says Cheney’s Aug. 26, 2002, speech took Tenet completely by surprise. This is nonsense. We know from the Downing Street Minutes, which the British giovernment admitted was authentic, that Tenet spoke to his British counterpart on July 20, 2002 (a month before Cheney’s speech). Tenet confirmed to England that Bush had already decided to invade Iraq, and that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

Or how about Iran-Contra convict Elliot Abrams, who does everything possible to maintain tensions in Palestine, and to vilify Hezbollah? Abrams is a proven liar and a criminal. He pled guilty to two counts of lying to Congress (but was pardoned by President George Bush Senior on Dec. 24, 1992).

Did you enjoy taking orders from liars such as Abrams? Do you enjoy being silent about the liars now?

I know Defense Secretary Robert Gates. I was one of Gates’ first branch chiefs when he was a young, disruptively ambitious CIA analyst. When Reagan's CIA Director William Casey wanted someone to shape CIA analysis to justify Casey’s obsessive conviction that the Soviet Union would never change, Gates leaped at the chance. (Then the USSR collapsed, provong Casey and Gates completely wrong.)

Gates later spoke to the Washington Post's Walter Pincus, and said he watched Casey on "issue after issue sit in meetings and present intelligence framed in terms of the policy that Casey wanted pursued."

Nonetheless, Gates' entire subsequent career shows that he too is a liar. He too dismisses the December 2007 National Intelligence Estimate.  In an interview with a New York Times reporter on 11 April 2008, Gates was asked if he was on the same page as Bush regarding Iran. Gates replied, "Same line, same word."

You know this is all leading to war. Why can’t you let the American people know?

Are you the only general officer who ever resigned on principle? What about Gen. Smedly Butler? What about Brent Scowcroft? When Bush made Scowcroft the chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Scowcroft saw the unfolding of U.S. policy in the Middle East. In an interview with London's Financial Times in mid-October 2004, Scowcroft said Ariel Sharon "mesmerized" Bush. “Sharon just has Bush wrapped around his little finger, and has been nothing but trouble."

Needless to say, Scowcroft was fired and disgraced. The point is that you are not alone in this.

Or what about other liars, such as Bush's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, who repeatedly says Iran "is very much behind" all the woes afflicting the Middle East, from Lebanon to Gaza to Iraq to Afghanistan?

What about the lie that Ahmadinejad threatened to "wipe Israel off the map"? In that 2005 speech, Ahmadinejad quoted the Ayatollah Khomeini from the early 1980s. Khomeini hoped that the unjust Israeli regime would be replaced by a just regime. "The regime occupying Jerusalem much vanish from the pages of time."

A trivial distinction? I think not. Words matter.

If you speak out now, you can at least say you tried.

If you remain silent, you will live with the fact that you freely allowed many more Americans to die.

Respectfully,

Ray McGovern; Steering Group; Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

Source:

http://www.antiwar.com/mcgovern/?articleid=12865
 

(Maybe Fallon fears being suicided.)

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