“The Iranians are about to commit an “offense” far greater than Saddam Hussein’s conversion to the euro of Iraq’s oil exports in the fall of 2000. Numerous articles have revealed Pentagon planning for operations against Iran as early as 2005. While the publicly stated reasons will be over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, there are unspoken macroeconomic drivers explaining the Real Reasons regarding the 2nd stage of petrodollar warfare – Iran’s upcoming euro-based oil Bourse.” –Global Research (2004)
In 2004, The Iranian government anounced a plan to compete with both NYMEX (New York) and IPE (London) for international oil trades, using the Euro instead of the US dollar (USD). This commodities market announced by Iran is known as the Iranian Oil Bourse (IOB), as was opened on February 17, 2008. Put quite simply, the Euro would be directly competing with the USD and in a fair position to replace it in the oil market, unless of course the US intervenes and stops this from getting out of hand.
Why would the US and PTB care? You see, the entire US consumer-based economy and strength of the dollar itself, relies heavily on the fact that the USD is used to trade international commodities, particularly oil. This also allows the US and US based companies to manipulate the market.
In fact, in the fall of 2000, Iraq had converted over to the Euro for all of their oil exports and arguably, this could have been the reason (or one of them, anyway) for the invasion that soon followed. What Iraq did against the USD is not nearly as bad as what Iran is doing, from the perspective of the elites. Iraq simply slapped the dollar while Iran is trying to murder it.
Of course, the US is stating the case against Iran to be the country’s nuclear program but most people who have researched the situation, realize that Iran is pursuing a peaceful nuclear program. Some people may argue that Iran can easily turn its peaceful program into one in which weapons are made, though such a conversion isn’t easy at all.
Initially, Iran was enriching uranium to about 5%, then in February of this year, they announced that they had enriched 17kg of uranium to 20%. While 17kg of 20% enriched uranium sounds like a lot, it isn’t anywhere close to the amount needed for a weapons program, nor is 20% enrichment even close to the purity level (U235) needed for a weapon. For a nuclear weapon, you need uranium enriched to at least 90% and for a weapons program, you need far more uranium than 17kg. The process for enriching uranium to the grade needed for a nuclear explosive, is much more difficult than enriching it to the 20% that they are currently doing.
Furthermore, Iran has been transparent and cooperative with the IAEA and this organization would know if Iran were trying to enrich their uranium to the weapons grade of at least 90%. The sad fact of the matter is that the US government and PTB know that Iran doesn’t pose a direct or imminent threat for their nuclear program. It simply serves as an excuse to dismantle their plans for trading oil in Euros as opposed to dollars.
Along with stating Iran’s nuclear program as their motive for a possible war with Iran, all of the usual suspects are coming together to demonize the government that is pursuing this alternative commodities market that threatens the supremacy of the USD. We had Bush & Co. (to include the CFR) saying that Iran was supplying the insurgency in Iraq with weapons and supplies, when the bigger and main problem was really the Sunni ethnic groups being supplied by Saudi Arabia, not the Shia being supplied by Iran.
We also have the MSM constantly vilifying the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as if he is some self appointed dictator, such as those that the US likes to put in power and support. Not only do they vilify the Iranian government, but they also like to put words in his mouth, particularly statements that he didn’t make.
For instance, the MSM was/is saying that Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be wiped off the map, when he never said anything of the sort. What was said?
Farsi: “Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad.”
English: “The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time”.
Israel, wiped off, wipe out, map, world, Earth, face, are all words that were not used, nor did Ahmadinejad threaten Israel in anyway what-so-ever.
This is only but one example of the spin and propaganda being turned out by the American media, in an obvious effort to influence the American public’s opinion of Iran and her democratically elected government. Sort of the same way that they did it to Saddam Hussein before the invasion of Iraq.
In addition, we have what seems to be the CIA instigating civil unrest after the elections that kept Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as head of the Iranian government. In fact, the protests in Tehran after the reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, were much smaller than the protests after the election of Bush, yet the MSM would have us believe that the entire country was up in arms over some corrupt election. The truth of the matter is that Iran elected Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and unlike the US, Iran doesn’t have unaccountable electronic voting machines, nor do they probably have dirty tactics to cheat the electoral system, as we do.
The MSM also likes to refer to Iran’s nuclear program as a “nuclear weapons program”, implying that it is accepted that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, when the IAEA has nothing to support such a claim. Don’t hold your breath on the MSM giving such a notion any attention. We all know that most people will never even attempt to fact check and so it is easy for the MSM to imply certain things and the public will buy it.
So, we have the US government telling us over and over again that Iran is a threat and we have the MSM propagating lies and spin about the nation and the American public is eating it up hook, line and sinker, without the slightest inkling to fact check what they are being told. In fact, many Americans, if not most, falsely believe that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a dictator, as opposed to the democratically elected President.
When you think about Iran and TPTB’s campaign to demonize the democratically elected government of Iran, it is more than clear that a huge bullseye has been painted across their chest. Many people think it could be for the oil but the oil is already leaving Iran and although American companies could get it much cheaper, it doesn’t seem worth the effort and cost spent on manipulating public opinion. However, if the IOB is successful, it could put an end to the USD as a standard for trading commodities and ultimately ending the supremacy of the USD around the globe. That, my friends would seem well worth the effort spent on demonizing Iran and her government.
I suggest reading this article, as well as the links below.
Further reading on Iraq ditching the dollar:
www.thirdworldtraveler.com…
en.wikipedia.org…
energybulletin.net…
Further reading on Iran ditching the dollar:
www.upi.com…
www.omantribune.com…
www.dailymail.co.uk… www.guardian.co.uk…
www.mortgagebrokers.ie…
Sources:
AIRSPOON 