Below is yet another item concerning the grotesque imbalance of power in the Middle East, this time focusing upon the nuclear weapons issue. For bringing this unpleasant subject up, the BBC will be on the receiving-end of spitballs from Tel Aviv. The truth will always be denounced by those seeking to hide it.

The colossal hypocrisy of Washington's taskmaster, who, in possession of a formidable nuclear arsenal but not allowing any international inspections, has been the instigator of the U.S. attack upon Iraq, employing the bogus issue of WMD and is now doing the same with respect to Iran for its alleged nuclear weapons program--all this is certainly not lost on the world outside the United States.

Within the United States, it is another story: the depths of ignorance and the near-total lack of concern at being used by a third party to advance a self-serving agenda of military occupation and intimidation in the Middle East is stupefying, but no longer surprising.

Iran is certainly the next stationary target of the Sharon-Bush tag team, as well as the primary target, the secondary one being a defenseless Syria. Recent reports strongly indicate that Washington has informed NATO and Turkey of its intentions to strike Iran. Has anybody bothered to figure out how actually Bush might proceed with his next fire-on-gasoline enterprise? Will he first seek to get authorization from Congress, as he did with Iraq?

The answer has occurred to me. Bush may not go to Congress at all, but just notify it after the fact. Note how Bush & Company justifies its illegal, unauthorized domestic spying and wiretaps. The President affirms, with a straight face, that his wiretaps were implicitly green-lighted by the 2002 Congressional resolution (Public Law 107-243) which authorized Bush, or whoever is controlling Bush, to attack Iraq anytime he (or those controlling him) felt like it.

"Operation Iraqi Freedom" was promoted as part of the "war on terrorism", don't forget. Iran is part of the same war, the same enemy, the "clash of civilizations", please understand. So Bush is just carrying through with his sworn responsibility to protect America, employing domestic wiretaps and God knows what else, don't you see? Moreover, since we are "at war", G. W. Bush is now presto a "War President" and as such possesses the Constitutional power to do anything he damn well pleases, at least according to the blockheads in the White House. Neat, isn't it?

Well, we have been hijacked and railroaded into war, all right, as we were in WWI and WWII. In this instance, there are no apparent limits to what Bush, Jr. and his "neocon" co-conspirators think they can get away with in pursuit of their goals. FDR and Woodrow Wilson and their inner circles felt the same way at an earlier hour of our lost Republic.

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Israel considers protesting BBC show on `secret weapons'

By Sharon Sadeh, Haaretz, Tel Aviv

Program focuses on country's nuclear program

LONDON - Israel is considering lodging a vehement protest after the BBC airs a national program Sunday about the country's nuclear program, dubbed "Israel's secret weapon." The program reportedly examines the "double standard" of the international community with regard to Israel's and Iraq's unconventional weapons.

The program allegedly claims the army used some form of unidentified chemical weapons against Palestinians in February 2001. It focuses on efforts made by Israel to cover up its development of unconventional weapons, among other things referring to Mordechai Vanunu, serving an 18-year term for passing information about Israel's nuclear program in Dimona to a British newspaper, and the trial of Brig. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Yoav, who was convicted of showing two unpublished book manuscripts, one fictional and the other a memoir, to unauthorized people.

The producers tried to meet with former workers from the Dimona nuclear reactor who in the past claimed they fell ill as a result of their work. But the program says the workers refused to be interviewed because they were frightened by the Shin Bet.

Former prime minister Shimon Peres was interviewed for the program, rejecting any comparison between Israel and Iraq, but apparently evading questions about Israel's efforts to conceal its nuclear weapons program.

A spokesman for the BBC said "the program was produced against the background of developments in the Vanunu case and tries to examine the double standards of the international community, particularly the United States, with regard to Israel's unconventional weapons programs compared to those of Iraq."

The spokesman denied the program was produced for political reasons. He said the defense ministry refused to comment on the program, but that efforts were still underway to get a defense ministry comment. The Israeli embassy said “the producers did not ask the foreign ministry or the IDF Spokesman's Office for a reaction and we will respond after the program is aired.”