Propaganda ministers of U.S. Government, Fox News, ramp up war talk.
HANNITY: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez have been quite chummy this week in Venezuela. Is this the new axis of evil in the world? And what sort of threat does this unholy alliance pose to the United States?
Now this Saturday night right here on the FOX News Channel, we’ll be airing a special called “Iran: The Ticking Bomb.” It is a special investigation into the role that Iran plays in the attacks on our troops in Iraq and it includes exclusive information about American plans to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat. You don’t want to miss it. This Saturday night at 9:00. Joining us now, the host of that special, FOX News contributor Dan Senor is with us.
All right. Dan, I’m watching this world. I think we’re literally back in 1939. This guy is telegraphing to the world his evil intention and it seems that there is a significant portion of the world that wants to ignore him.
DAN SENOR, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, I think that’s right.
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SENOR: Yes, I think you are, Sean. We are dealing with a man who denies the first Holocaust, the Holocaust in Europe, and advocates a second one. I mean, if you consider what the implications of what he is saying is. And if you listen to his speech at the U.N. General Assembly last week, he said that not only does Iran have the right to have nuclear capabilities, it’s a fait accompli that they have nuclear capabilities, and they have the right to distribute that technology to anybody they want to in the world.
It’s a pretty dangerous scenario. I mean, I just want to make one point. If you look back and if you look at the pattern of rhetoric that came out of Nazi Germany in the lead-up to the Second World War and the Holocaust, if historians look back and say, what — you had this trail there for you, why didn’t you deal with it? And we have a similar pattern today.
HANNITY: And that raises the question, because that pattern is what I think the world is ignoring here. You know, when you have General Petraeus tell the American people that he is fighting and Iran is fighting a proxy war against the United States, and your investigation this Saturday night will get into this, they’re providing the weaponry killing American soldiers, how long can they get away with that before there is not indignation among the American people and a demand that you can no longer kill American sons and daughters?
SENOR: Well, that’s one of the things we take a close look at in this special is, is the American military, is our government really cognizant of the extent to — our military is, the question is, is our government cognizant of which Iran is penetrating Iraq.
HANNITY: But they have to be, Dan, I mean, don’t they?
SENOR: Look, I agree. I mean, I think they are. I think there is such a sense right now. There is such a sense of fatigue about whether or not the American public, whether or not the American system can tolerate a second military engagement somewhere in the region. So we’re trying to sort of do everything else we can do to put pressure on Iran and hope it changes its behavior.
The reality is though, Sean, is we’re not doing enough. There is more we could be doing. It’s one of the things we look at in tomorrow’s show. There is more we could be doing to put the economic squeeze and certainly diplomatic squeeze on Iran to make it the pariah, to borrow your phrase, that it should be. And that could hopefully, potentially get it to change course…
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COLMES: You were part of the Bush administration that misled us into war with Iraq, demonized Saddam Hussein, made him into someone who had intentions against the United States that it turns out we could never prove that he had. And now you’re ramping up the same kind of rhetoric and ginning up the same kind of emotion against Iran.
Isn’t it true that Ahmadinejad isn’t even the commander-in-chief? He doesn’t have the kind of power the clerics have. He doesn’t have the kind of power you’re claiming he has. He doesn’t make the political decisions in Iran. And you’re imbuing him with more power than he actually has in his own country.
SENOR: OK. Well, Sean, let me address those things point — I’m sorry, Alan. Of course. Let me address those point-by-point. One, you’re right, we don’t know if Ahmadinejad is really in charge in Iran. We don’t. It may be Khamenei, the supreme leader. But if you look at his rhetoric, and one of the things we look at in the documentary is we look at allegations from the Argentinean government about Khamenei’s role in terrorist attacks in Latin America 15 years ago.
So even if Ahmadinejad isn’t really in charge, Khamenei, the other guy who could be in charge, the supreme leader, is potentially equally as dangerous.
COLMES: As a matter of fact, what has been reported is that Khamenei and the clerics in Iraq have actually put the kibosh on many of the things Ahmadinejad has wanted to do. Don’t you think we should have some proper intelligence before we start ramping up emotions, talking about a war with Iran, talking about bombing another country, talking about going into another country militarily? Knowing exactly what is going on before we.
SENOR: Alan, let me respond to that. Let’s take Ahmadinejad at his own word. This is actually very different from Iraq. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein was articulating something different from what the U.N. inspectors was. He was saying he didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. Here Ahmadinejad has said he has passed the crucial threshold to enrich uranium, because he has got 3,000 centrifuges.