A ‘Gulf of Tonkin Incident’ May Be Looming on Capitol Hill

May 19, 2019 (EIRNS)—On May 21 the House and Senate will be briefed separately and secretly on “Iran threat intelligence” by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan, CIA Director Gina Haspel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, reports the Wall Street Journal from “two sources familiar with the issue.” Despite President Trump’s statement May 16 that he wants negotiations with Iran and not war, war provocations may be embedded in the “secret intelligence,” being shepherded by National Security Adviser John Bolton and Pompeo to suggest Iran may attack.

A classified briefing already given to the Congressional party leaders and Intelligence Committee co-chairs on May 16, produced dark mutterings from Democrats like Sen. Mark Warner (“It’s very important that more Members hear this story”) and threats from Republican Senate Whip John Thune and Sen. Marco Rubio

(“But if we are attacked by Iran’s proxies, we are going to respond against those proxies and hold Iran responsible. And they’re going to pay a price for that as well. Who could disagree with the notion that if we are attacked, we have a right to defend ourselves and respond?”).

For now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi echoed Sen. Rand Paul’s statements, saying “I hope that the President’s advisers recognize that they have no authorization to go forward in any way.” But unlike Paul and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Pelosi is not challenging the drive for confrontation with Russia, which really drives threats of war with Iran.

Gabbard on “Face the Nation” Sunday, May 19, warned of nuclear war resulting:

“The needless escalation of tensions with nuclear-armed powers like Russia and China—and it’s come from the Administration but also from the Democratic Party—has brought the country closer to nuclear war now than in many years.... I will de-escalate those tensions, and seek cooperation rather than conflict with other great powers.”

This “secret intelligence” process began May 10 with an unusual and unexplained visit to the CIA, and meeting with CIA analysts, by Bolton, who has been demanding war with Iran since at least 2004. Vice President Dick Cheney made several such visits to CIA analysts when the Iraq “weapons of mass destruction” secret intelligence was being manufactured. For several days after May 10, Pompeo scurried to Brussels, to Iraq and to London about “secret intelligence” on Iran, before being restrained by President Trump and directed to Moscow for discussions of cooperation to preserve peace in the world. The “secret intelligence” process continues unabated this coming week.

This is occurring after three years of an attempted coup to remove President Trump from office, continually fed by leaks of such “classified intelligence” originating from British intelligence and “Five Eyes” networks. Those networks wanted war confrontation with Russia and China; Trump wanted cooperation with the other great powers. It is evident from the dramas now unfolding around “secret intelligence” about Iranian actions, that the monster of faked intelligence—driving elected officials before it like lemmings over a cliff—still has to be slain.