Provoking a war and then blaming the enemy for carrying out an act of aggression is no longer part of a hidden agenda, a safely guarded secret as in the case of Pearl Harbor (1941) which was used by the FDR administration as a justification for America’s entry into the Second World War. (Michel Chossudovsky, Provoke an Attack on Iran? “Lets Bring it On… At the End of the Day… We Ought to Take ‘Em Out”, October 03, 2012)

Adding another hostile move to its long list of provocations against Iran, the U.S. government removed the terrorist organization Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) from its list of foreign terrorist organizations in late September. For Kourosh Ziabari, this decision shows America’s “unconditional support to the sworn enemies of the Iranian nation straight from the shoulder.”

“The decision was made under the pretext that MKO has not carried out any terrorist operation over the past 10 years”, Zaibari notes, although “[s]ince 2010, it has […] assisted Israel’s Mossad to kill four high-ranking Iranian nuclear scientists in a bid to thwart Iran’s scientific progress”. He adds:

In an article published in New Yorker on April 6, 2012, the renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that how the U.S. government has furtively supported the MKO terrorists. The article entitled “Our Men in Iran?” documented that members of the MKO were trained in communications, cryptography, small-unit tactics and weaponry by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at a base in Nevada starting in 2005. (Kourosh Ziabari, Delisting the MKO. America: A State Sponsor of Terrorism against Iran, Global Research, September 29, 2012.)

This decision to rehabilitate the MKO comes shortly after Netanyahu’s nuclear Iran scare tactic at the UN, similar to that of Colin Powell about Iraq’s non-existent WMDs in 2003, and Barack Obama’s UN speech where he reiterated that his government “will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

Does that include using the newly reprieved terrorists to falsify documents to frame Iran on the nuclear issue? Washington’s Blog reports:

According to U.S. officials, Israel is training and supporting Iranian terrorists who are trying to topple the Iranian government. Those Israeli-funded terrorists have faked documents to falsely indicate that Iran is building a nuclear bomb. (Washington’s Blog, Will Israel Launch a False Flag Against Iran to Start War? Global Research, September 28, 2012)

Fake documents have been used in the past for the same purpose in the form of a mysterious stolen Iranian laptop containing “‘a series of drawings of a missile re-entry vehicle’” which allegedly could accommodate an Iranian produced nuclear weapon.” The drawings were actually depicting “an obsolete North Korean missile system which was decommissioned by Iran in the mid-1990s […] The laptop documents were essential to sustaining America’s position in the UN Security Council.” (Gareth Porter, The Mysterious “Laptop Documents”. Using Fake Intelligence to Justify a Pre-emptive Nuclear War on Iran, Global Research, November 18, 2010)

In March 2012, just as Iran was negotiating visits at Parchin military base with the IAEA, Israeli soldiers were reported to have been “looking for a smoking gun” at Parchin, dressed as Iranian soldiers and driving Iranian military vehicles:

A report published in The Sunday Times on March 25 suggests that “Israel is using a permanent base in Iraqi Kurdistan to launch cross-border intelligence missions in an attempt to find ‘smoking gun’ evidence that Iran is building a nuclear warhead.” (Israeli spies scour Iran in nuclear hunt, The Sunday Times, March 25, 2012)

Western sources told the Times Israel was monitoring “radioactivity and magnitude of explosives tests” and that “special forces used Black Hawk helicopters to carry commandos disguised as members of the Iranian military and using Iranian military vehicles”. The sources believe “Iranians are trying to hide evidence of warhead tests in preparation for a possible IAEA visit”. (Cited in Report: Israeli soldiers scour Iran for nukes, Ynet, March 25, 2012) (Julie Lévesque, FABRICATING A “SMOKING GUN” TO ATTACK IRAN? Israeli Spies Disguised as Iranian Soldiers on Mission Inside Iran, Global Research, March 27, 2012.)

Seeing the unfolding crisis, Russian career diplomat Dmitry Ryurikov declared two years ago:

[T]wo weeks before the last US elections in 2008, Vice President Joe Biden went on record as saying that there were several scenarios for a certain generated crisis, to wit, a war. The Americans will have to tighten their belts. At first they won’t understand why all of that is needed. But they’ll approve everything eventually. Among other places, Biden localized the scenario in the Middle East.

I don’t rule out that the scenario might have included such a thing as a false-flag attack, or, plainly speaking, a provocation…“False-flag attacks” as a war-starting method were time and again used in the 20th Century. (Nadezhda Kevorkova, US may be seeking provocation to launch a war against Iran, Global Research, September 25, 2010.)

More recently joint U.S. and Israeli military exercises were being conducted in the Persian Gulf with underwater drones “making mining more controllable and clandestine”. (American Drones for Covert Underwater Warfare against Iran, Julie Lévesque, September 28, 2012.)

Still beating the drums of war, the Neocons are calling for the U.S. to provoke Iran:

Recalling the war pretext incidents in US history, including the Lusitania (World War I) Pearl Harbor (World War II) and the Gulf of Tonkin (Vietnam), Patrick Clawson’s “operational recommendation” is to incite an incident which will provoke Iran to firing the first shot, potentially leading us onto the path of World War Three.

“At some point soon, … the window for diplomacy will indeed have closed, and the United States—along with as many international partners as it can mobilize—should move to more forceful action, be it covert or overt, publicly proclaimed or deniable.” (Michel Chossudovsky, Neocon Washington Think Tank: The US should Provoke Iran into “Firing the First Shot”, Global Research, September 26, 2012

All these new developments are pure acts of provocation and clearly indicate the U.S. seeks to trigger a war with Iran as Sarah Flounders explains:

There is growing apprehension that through miscalculation, deliberate provocation or a staged false flag operation, a U.S. war with Iran is imminent.

The dangerous combination of top U.S. officials’ public threats, the Pentagon’s massive military deployment, continued drone flights and industrial sabotage against Iran provides an ominous warning. The corporate media have been more than willing to cheer industrial sabotage, computer viruses and targeted assassinations. War maneuvers with Israel scheduled for mid-January were suddenly postponed Jan. 15 until May or later. (Sara Flounders, Miscalculation, Provocation or a Staged False Flag Op.? Resist U.S. War Threats on Iran, January 21, 2012.)

Will Iran fall into the “provocation” trap laid by the U.S. just like Japan did in World War II? Not unlike the Japanese Empire, Iran has been diplomatically isolated and the series of U.S. sanctions and provocations against the Islamic Republic are reminiscent of Pearl Harbor as Patrick Buchanan explains:

“[T]he attack by the Japanese air force was a carefully laid trap engineered at the highest level in Washington with the coldly premeditated aim of precipitating US entry to World War II.

As Buchanan notes the Japanese “provocation” at Pearl Harbour was preceded by of a series of US provocations against imperial Japan, including severing Tokyo’s oil economy and isolating the country into a diplomatic corner.

“The question was how we should maneuver them [Japan] into firing the first shot…” then US secretary of war Henry Stimson is quoted in records from November 1941. (Finian Cunningham, Pearl Harbor: 70 Years on, Is Iran the New Japan?, December 8, 2011.)

Global Research brings to its readers a list of selected articles on this very serious issue.

For more analysis on this topic, consult our in-depth report IRAN: THE NEXT WAR? and our I-Book WAR PLAN IRAN: Dispelling the Lies, Telling the Truth about Western Aggression in the Persian Gulf.

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Selected Global Research Articles

Provoke an Attack on Iran? “Lets Bring it On… At the End of the Day… We Ought to Take ‘Em Out” Michel Chossudovsky, October 03, 2012

Delisting the MKO. America: A State Sponsor of Terrorism against Iran, Kourosh Ziabari, September 29, 2012

Will Israel Launch a False Flag Against Iran to Start War?, Washington’s Blog, September 28, 2012

American Drones for Covert Underwater Warfare against Iran, Julie Lévesque, September 28, 2012

Neocon Washington Think Tank: The US should Provoke Iran into “Firing the First Shot” , Michel Chossudovsky, September 26, 2012

Obama uses UN Speech to Threaten War against Iran, Bill Van Auken, September 26, 2012

“Warship Diplomacy”: A Prelude to All Out War against Iran?, Prof Michel Chossudovsky, September 26, 2012

Deadly Sanctions Regime: Economic Warfare against Iran, Eric Draitser, September 25, 2012

THE IRAN WAR PATH HAS RESUMED: With Another ‘Colin Powell Moment’? Finian Cunningham, May 16, 2012

FABRICATING A “SMOKING GUN” TO ATTACK IRAN? Israeli Spies Disguised as Iranian Soldiers on Mission Inside Iran, Julie Lévesque, March 27, 2012

Miscalculation, Provocation or a Staged False Flag Op.? Resist U.S. War Threats on Iran, Sara Flounders, January 21, 2012

Pearl Harbor: 70 Years on, Is Iran the New Japan?, Finian Cunningham, December 8, 2011.

Using Fake Intelligence to Justify War on Iran Michel Chossudovsky November 09, 2011

The Mysterious Laptop Documents: “Evidence” of Iran Nuclear Weapons Program May Be Fraudulent, Gareth Porter, November 18, 2010

The Mysterious “Laptop Documents”. Using Fake Intelligence to Justify a Pre-emptive Nuclear War on Iran Michel Chossudovsky, November 24, 2010

US may be seeking provocation to launch a war against Iran, Nadezhda Kevorkova, September 25, 2010