Bush's Climate Charade

Meanwhile, Tim Shipman writes in the Telegraph: "American diplomats have been ordered to compile a dossier detailing Iran's violations of international law that some fear could be used to justify military strikes against the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.

"Members of the US secretariat in the United Nations were asked earlier this month to begin 'searching for things that Iran has done wrong', The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

"Some US diplomats believe the exercise -- reminiscent of attempts by vice-president Dick Cheney and the former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld to build the case against Saddam Hussein before the Iraq war -- will boost calls for military action by neo-conservatives inside and outside the administration."

Ros Taylor writes for the Guardian: "John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, told Tory delegates today that efforts by the UK and the EU to negotiate with Iran had failed and that he saw no alternative to a pre-emptive strike on suspected nuclear facilities in the country."

Added Bolton: "If we were to strike Iran it should be accompanied by an effort at regime change. . . . The US once had the capability to engineer the clandestine overthrow of governments. I wish we could get it back."

Harry Shearer blogs for Huffingtonpost.com: "Is Bolton just a wondrously goofy free-lancer? Or, in taking him semi-seriously, do the Brits perceive something we don't, that he's the unrestrained, uninhibited id of the Bush administration, wishing for what his brethren still in power are planning?"

Freedom's Watch's Next Campaign

Don Van Natta Jr. writes in the New York Times: "Freedom's Watch, a deep-pocketed conservative group led by two former senior White House officials, made an audacious debut in late August when it began a $15 million advertising campaign designed to maintain Congressional support for President Bush's troop increase in Iraq.

"Founded this summer by a dozen wealthy conservatives, the nonprofit group is set apart from most advocacy groups by the immense wealth of its core group of benefactors, its intention to far outspend its rivals and its ambition to pursue a wide-ranging agenda. Its next target: Iran policy.

"Next month, Freedom's Watch will sponsor a private forum of 20 experts on radical Islam that is expected to make the case that Iran poses a direct threat to the security of the United States, according to several benefactors of the group. . . .

"The idea for Freedom's Watch was hatched in March at the winter meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Manalapan, Fla., where Vice President Dick Cheney was the keynote speaker, according to participants."

Jim Kuhnhenn writes for the Associated Press about the group: "Many in its inner circle of strategists and donors are close to Vice President Dick Cheney or held high posts at the White House. . . .

"The group's donors include Mel Sembler, a friend of Cheney's and longtime Republican fundraiser. Sembler was chairman of the legal defense fund for I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff who was convicted of lying and obstruction of justice in the investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity. Another donor is Kevin E. Moley, a former U.S. ambassador to international organizations in Geneva and a senior aide to Cheney during the 2000 presidential campaign."