Chris Matthews does not know how to play hardball. When he interviewed Sal Russo (Move America Forward), Chris Matthews proved that he could toss softballs better than Larry King does.
Move America Forward’s blog contains postings from its blogger that she went to Paris, in June 2007 to meet with Maryam Rajavi, leader of the Iranian Communist MEK (MKO, PMOI, NCRI, Rajavi Cult, or Pol Pot of Iran) terrorists. The MEK is a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The MEK has murdered American military officers, Rockwell International employees, and large numbers of Iranians and Iraqis. The MEK has committed a terrorist act in New York City . The American government is prosecuting MEK members who collected large amounts of money at Los Angeles International Airport for the MEK.
Chris Matthews limited his questions to Sal Russo (Move America Forward, ) and to Jon Soltz (Vote Vets) to whether war with Iran is really on the table.
Russo called Iran a sponsor of terrorism. Russo failed to mention (and Chris Matthews failed to ask) that the White House’s September 2002 background paper on Iraq listed the MEK as one of three of Saddam Hussein’s sponsored terrorist organizations in Iraq. In September 2002, the White House used the MEK as a pretext for the Iraq War. In 2003, American and coalition military forces attacked Camp Ashraf, , killing some of the MEK terrorists.
Russo claimed that President Reagan bankrupted the Soviet Union and ended communism. Russo did not mention (and Chris Matthews failed to ask) that Move America Forward’s blogger is promoting Iranian communist terrorists.
Russo told Jon Soltz that Vote Vets is a Democratic Party organization wanting to pick on Vice President Dick Cheney. Soltz responded that Russo is a Republican communications specialist.
Russo claimed that it will take years for Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Hence, Russo concluded that a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities will be the task of the next President. However, Chris Matthews and Jon Soltz were unable to obtain any criticism by Russo of Cheney’s neo-conservative (neo-Trotskyite) desires for war with Iran .
Soltz framed the issue as not Democrat versus Republican but as whether Russo is willing to sign a stop war on Iran petition. Russo did not respond that he would sign any such online petitions.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20297013/
In the future, Chris Matthews can start asking presidential candidates and other guests whether they have signed a stop war on Iran petition. The following is an example of such an online petition:
Stop the war on Iran before it starts!
In Farsi En Espaol
Sign the statement View signers
It is with grave concern that we observe the growing threat of a new US war–this time against the people of Iran .
The media is filled with reports of an alleged nuclear threat posed by Iran and the assumed need for the US to take military action. These reports recall the”Weapons of Mass Destruction”stories issued in the months leading up to the war on Iraq.
In the lead up to the illegal invasion of Iraq , the Bush Administration asserted that Iraq possessed massive stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and that it was capable of launching an attack – nuclear, chemical and biological – on U.S. the within 45 minutes.
President Bush said that the had to attack immediately, and could not”wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”We all know now that this propaganda campaign was a complete fabrication created to justify a war of aggression.
Now we see reports that are all too similar being made to justify military action against the people of Iran. Taking Iran to the UN Security Council is a prelude for unilateral action. Just as in the case of Iraq, none of the claims made by the U. S. government stand up to unbiased scrutiny. Iran has submitted to the most intrusive and humiliating inspections, above and beyond what is required by Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). None of the inspections have found any evidence that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons program.
There is only one government that has used nuclear weapons against civilian populations, and that same country has the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction on the planet. Most dangerous and incredible it is at this very moment developing a new generation of tactical nuclear weapons that it intends to use, not merely to threaten. That country is, of course, the United States. Shouldn’t any real discussion of the dangers of nuclear weapons include the weapons stockpiled by the Pentagon and the history of U. S. aggression and interventions?
Iran has suffered greatly at the hands of the U.S. We recall the U. S. overthrew the democratically elected government of Dr. M. Mossadegh and returned the Shah to the Peacock Throne “ the proudest achievement of the CIA”. For 25 years the Shah ruled Iran with an iron fist for the benefit of U. S. oil corporations before the people of Iran, in the millions, overthrew his tyranny at a terrible cost in lives. For the past 27 years U. S. sanctions have impeded Iran’s right to development and brought great suffering to the people.
It is essential that all voices opposed to the devastation of a new war in the Middle East speak out now. We urge an immediate end to Washington’s campaign of sanctions, hostility, and falsehood against the people of Iran. We oppose any new aggression against Iran. We need funds for human needs, not endless war for empire.
http://www.stopwaroniran.org/statement.shtml
As a former elected member of the Los Angeles County Republican Central Committee and as a former Republican candidate for California State Assembly (endorsed by the California Republican Assembly, http://www.californiarepublicanassembly.com/ and co-endorsed by United Republicans of California, http://www.unitedrepublicansofcalifornia.org/), I have signed this Stop War on Iran statement and am opposed to the neo-conservative (neo-Trotskyite) values of chickenhawk Vice President Dick Cheney.
Future Republican candidates need to be aware that real Republicans will not contribute to or vote for any future Republican candidates promoted by Move America Forward or by Sal Russo.
Real Republicans do not promote communist terrorists.
Move America Forward and Sal Russo have proven that ‘s worst enemies are not in the Middle East .
Paul Sheldon Foote, August 16, 2007