Donald’s Trump’s Iran deal wrecking, new scandal

This 20 June 2019 video from the USA says about itself:

The Secret Plan to Fake a War with Iran

Donald Trump is not the first person to try to fake a war with Iran.

Before John Bolton‘s oil fire, [George W Bush’s] Vice President Dick Cheney suggested that the United States could fake an incident and take the nation to war.

If the Republicans were willing to go to fake their way into war before what will Trump’s Republicans be willing to do?

From the (conservative) Daily Mail in Britain today:

Trump axed Iran deal to spite Obama: How the British ambassador called the President’s actions ‘diplomatic vandalism’ fueled by ‘personality reasons’ – as revealed in more explosive cables that have sparked a free speech row while Iran tensions mount

Trump’s personal anti-Obama feelings indeed probably have played a role in wrecking the Iran nuclear deal. But there are other, more structural and long-term, causes. United States Big Oil billionaires have aimed to grab Iranian oil for a long time. The United States George W Bush administration was on the brink of war on Iran. During the Obama administration, hawkish politicians, that is, most Republican politicians and sections of Obama’s own Democratic party, like corporate Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer, and some 2020 presidential candidates, opposed the Iran deal.

• Sir Kim Darroch’s 2018 memos accused Donald Trump of ‘diplomatic vandalism’
• The ambassador claims that Trump abandoned Iran deal to spite Barack Obama
• His comments came after Boris Johnson tried to change the US president’s mind
• Then-Foreign Secretary failed to persuade the White House to save nuclear deal

By Isabel Oakeshott and Glen Owen

Published: 21:30 BST, 13 July 2019 | Updated: 05:03 BST, 14 July 2019

Donald Trump abandoned the Iran nuclear deal as an act of ‘diplomatic vandalism’ to spite his predecessor Barack Obama, Britain’s Ambassador to Washington wrote in a bombshell memo to Downing Street.

Sir Kim Darroch’s claim – made after Boris Johnson made a doomed trip to the White House to change the President’s mind – is revealed in leaked cables and briefing notes which led to Sir Kim’s resignation last week.

The new revelation comes after an extraordinary row over the freedom of the press blew up this weekend, with Mr Johnson and [Conservative party] leadership rival Jeremy Hunt leading the condemnation of Scotland Yard over its threats to prosecute this newspaper.

Very ironic that these two (and other) Conservative politicians now pose as defenders of press freedom; while they both support the United States Trump administration in extraditing WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange from Britain to the USA, to persecute him for uncovering war crimes.

Responding to Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu’s incendiary claim that publishing the contents of the documents could be ‘a criminal matter’, Mr Johnson said prosecution ‘would amount to an infringement on press freedom and have a chilling effect on public debate’.

Mr Hunt said that he would ‘defend to the hilt the right of the press to publish those leaks if they receive them and judge them to be in the public interest’.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock goes further today by calling on the police to withdraw Mr Basu’s statement. Writing in this newspaper, he says: ‘The press must be free to publish what it believes to be in the public interest.

Journalists and editors should not be subjected to threats of prosecution or sanction, especially from our own police. Such threats act as a deterrent to journalists doing their jobs – and the ultimate outcome will be an erosion of accountability.’

He was joined by ex-Chancellor George Osborne, who described Mr Basu’s remarks as ‘very stupid and ill-advised’.

In a statement released yesterday, the Met said it had been advised that the publication of the documents could ‘constitute a criminal offence and one that carries no public interest defence’.

In other dramatic developments:

• Spies at the Government’s ultra-secretive GCHQ were poised to joined the hunt for the leaker by targeting email and mobile phone records;
• The Queen’s former private secretary Christopher Geidt was named by Whitehall sources as a frontrunner to replace Sir Kim in Washington;
• Tensions ramped up further between Britain and Iran with the Royal Navy’s £1 billion destroyer HMS Duncan being sent to the Persian Gulf to protect UK vessels against attack by Iranian boats.

Sir Kim’s Iran memo was sent in May 2018, after Mr Johnson – who was then Foreign Secretary – had been dispatched to Washington to make a last ditch plea to President Trump not to abandon the nuclear deal with Iran designed to prevent the regime from building an atomic bomb.

Despite a frantic 26 hours of meetings with Trump’s closest advisers, it became clear that the President was not going to change his mind.

After Mr Johnson returned to London, Sir Kim told No 10 in a ‘diptel’ (diplomatic telegram) that Mr Trump’s Administration was ‘set upon an act of diplomatic vandalism’. The Ambassador wrote that Mr Trump appeared to be abandoning the deal for ‘personality reasons’ because it had been agreed by his predecessor Barack Obama.

Sir Kim suggested there were splits among the President’s closest advisers and said the White House lacked a ‘day-after’ strategy on what to do following withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the deal was called.

This newspaper’s cache of leaked memos from Sir Kim dominated headlines on both sides of the Atlantic last week, after Trump reacted furiously to Sir Kim describing the White House as a ‘uniquely dysfunctional environment’ and ‘diplomatically clumsy and inept’.

The President called Sir Kim a ‘pompous fool’ and declared that he would no longer deal with him.

Sir Kim resigned on Wednesday shortly after Mr Johnson refused to say during a televised Tory leadership debate whether he would keep the Ambassador in his job if he became Prime Minister.

The leak infuriated the Foreign Office and No 10. Their determination to catch he culprit is indicated by the fact that – according to a Government source – the cyber-experts at GCHQ are about to be brought in to target a shortlist of suspects drawn up by civil service investigators. The spooks have far-reaching powers to intercept communications.

The freedom of the press row erupted after Assistant Commissioner Basu said that Scotland Yard was investigating alleged ‘criminal breaches of the Official Secrets Act’ and warned the media that they could be committing an offence by publishing further details. He said: ‘I would advise all owners, editors and publishers of social and mainstream media not to publish leaked government documents that may already be in their possession, or which may be offered to them, and to turn them over to the police or give them back to their rightful owner, Her Majesty’s Government’.

The Met’s Counter Terrorism Command has taken charge of the investigation as it is in charge of any allegations of criminal breaches of the Official Secrets Act. …

Mr Johnson added that he disagreed with former Defence Secretary Michael Fallon

Sir Michael Fallon had to resign is disgrace about a sexual harassment scandal.

– tipped as possible Foreign Secretary under Mr Johnson – for saying that the media should hand back documents to ‘their rightful owner’. …

And Liberal Democrat leadership contender Ed Davey said: ‘Press freedom has never been so under attack in my lifetime. There are alarming signs of a creeping police state tearing down the ancient democratic pillar of a free press, which is essential to hold government to account.’ …

A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘A police inquiry into the totally unacceptable leak of this sensitive material has begun. The perpetrator should face the consequences of their [sic] actions. It’s not news that the US and UK differ in how to ensure Iran is never able to acquire a nuclear weapon; but this does underline that we do not shy away from talking about our differences and working together.

‘That is true of the current tensions in the Gulf where we, the UK, are in close contact with our American and European allies to de-escalate the situation.’

What a British Conservative government newspeak: ‘de-escalating’ by sending warships.

London’s Metropolitan Police threatened journalists with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act last Friday in an unprecedented attack on media freedom. Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu announced that Counter Terrorism Command would investigate alleged breaches of the Official Secrets Act over publication of leaked diplomatic telegrams written by Sir Kim Darroch: here.

TRUMP CLAIMS U.S. WARSHIP DOWNED IRANIAN DRONE  Trump told reporters Thursday that a U.S. warship has downed an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz. The incident is a further escalation of tensions that have resulted in Trump approving ― and then canceling ― airstrikes against Iran last month. [HuffPost]

In a further ratcheting up of tensions in the Middle East, US President Donald Trump alleged Thursday that a warship destroyed an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz. The latest alleged clash comes in the wake of a long list of provocations over recent months, including last week’s supposed confrontation between a British frigate and an Iranian patrol boat: here.

For a long time, Germany, France and Great Britain acted as if they wanted to save the nuclear agreement with Iran. But the more the US pushes ahead with its preparations for war against the country, the louder are the voices in Europe urging military action. It is becoming clear that the Europeans were never concerned about peace, stability or the like, but rather about pursuing their own naked imperialist interests: here.

Trump meets with security council on Iran war plans. By Bill Van Auken, 20 September 2019. Washington has yet to produce a shred of evidence of Iran’s responsibility for the Saudi attacks, which have been seized upon as a pretext for escalating a war for regime change: here.

As Trump threatens war on Iran: Chelsea Manning imprisoned without charge for six months for refusing to testify against Julian Assange: here.

US prepares to deploy thousands more troops against Iran: here.