The long shadow of the Chihuahua

"Other intelligence officials indicated that while there was no evidence of other Iranian plots in the United States, Mr. Clapper’s remarks were intended to put both the Iranians and the American intelligence community on notice that high priority would be given to ferreting out information about possible plans to stage attacks in this country.

Mr. Clapper said that the suspected assassination plot “shows that some Iranian officials — probably including supreme leader Ali Khamenei — have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime.”"  NY Times

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I did enjoy seeing Petraeus sitting in a subordinate position at the table.  That must have hurt.  But, on the other hand, Clapper is clearly covering his a-s against the possibility of an Iranian action in the US.  Feinstein is, of course, against whomever Bibi is against.

The now almost legendary suspected  plot against Adil (the chihuahua) Jubeir remains a very doubtful thing.  It has Zimmerman telegram written all over it.  To use THAT for evidence of Iranian intentions towards the US is enabling of deep suspicion.

At the same time the judgment that AQ has been largely disemboweled gets little play.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/world/intelligence-chief-sees-al-qaeda-likely-to-continue-fragmenting.html

Comments

[PS]

Is it any surprise that the Iranians are thinking about attacking U.S. territory when they believe that the US is behind - or at least supporting - the assasination of Iranian nuclear scientists? If car bombs were going off in Los Alamos, what would we be doing?

[B. D. Warbucks]

pl,

Concur with PS's comments, above. I thought the warning statements about possible Iranian attacks inside the U. S. during yesterday's hearing were fine examples of IC bureaucratic ass covering.

Too bad the press chose not to cover the rest of the "declarative" statements about other threats in the same manner as they covered Iran.

[The beaver]

Interesting bit:
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/diplomania/dennis-ross-red-line-to-the-white-house-1.410054

Dennis Ross is still the "influencer'

In the meantime, looks like "bombing" Iran from Israel has hit a hitch:
http://presstv.com/detail/223729.html

[Morocco Bama]

Iran's not going to attack anything in the U.S. If they were inclined to attack anything, it would be something much closer to home, and much more strategic, rather than symbolic. The Mullahs may be many things, but they're not unintelligent. Such a move, even if it was preemptive, would be counter to its intent, and would certainly justify an attack on Iran in the world of public opinion.

[Morocco Bama]

Surely the crashed Israeli drone can be linked to from a more objective source, if only ever so slightly more objective, than presstv. Last time I checked, presstv was an Iranian entity, so I hardly think any reporting regarding Israel is going to be fair and balanced, and must be measured with a grain of salt. Reuters would have sufficed.

Case in point, take a look at some of the comments at that presstv link. It looks like the same bunch that comments at Information Clearing House.

[Russ]

Hi Pat,
It has been nearly 50 years since I read Tuckman's book on the Zimmerman Telegram but I think that threat was more credible.
Regards,
Russ

[The beaver]

It's been on other newspaper/media , including Jerusalem Post, Reuters, CNN and some UK ones

[Phil Giraldi]

I read the same article with the same jaundiced eye as Colonel Lang and did a short piece on it over at The American Conservative:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/blog/2012/02/01/dewey-defeats-truman/

The deceptive headline is what makes it choice.

[Roy G.]

Otoh, Iran already has a US drone in hand, and it's irrelevant whether it was shot down or if it was 'driver error.'

Understandably, this was downplayed in the US State Media, MSM division, as the ignominity of Obama asking the Iranians to please return our drone was too much to bear.

[Frabjous]

Today’s WaPo piece on this gave more balance to the diminution of AQ. Though it was titled “US Spy Agencies see new Iran Risk”, it said “On other fronts, U.S. intelligence officials said that al-Qaeda has been badly degraded…”

I honestly think our best tactic with the Iranians would be full-court engagement on the cultural, economic and political levels. The Iranian people have no problem with us (and US), and the mullahs maintain their mafia in part by flogging the discord with “the west”.

Kinda hard to do that when other parties are demonizing them as Manichaean maniacs bent on confrontation with the west in general and the other parties in particular.

Mark

[Cesar]

All this talk of Iran plotting an attack on U.S. soil is nonsense. It would be a suicidal act on an international level. Everyone must know that it would force our hand and have the U.S. military attack Iran, most likely their nuclear facilities. Maybe Israel is part of that "everyone"....

[turcopolier]

Cesar

Once is enough. pl

[Jake]

What a sad state of affairs....

[The Twisted Genius]

And now the leaked report out of Bagram about the Taliban remaining confident that they will be back in control of Afghanistan soon after NATO leaves is followed by Panetta's announcement that our combat forces will stack arms next year rather than in 2014. Why we think prancing around with Iran will turn out any better is beyond me.

[jonst]

It is great to come to a site where the author references the Zimmerman Telegram with no accompanying text. And most (or even, some) get it! Love it.

[Charles I]

Experience!

Didn't we just have a bit in here touting a giant land force so that its officers could learn to drive it?

Same diff.

[Carl O.]

It's amazing what members of Congress will believe even when the duly constituted intelligence agencies provide them no reason to believe those things.