From the office of Rep. Dennis Kucinich – 2007-10-26 00:58:09
WASHINGTON, DC (October 25, 2007) — Today, the Bush Administration announced additional sanctions on Iran and labeled the Revolutionary Guard Corps as proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and a unit of the Corps — the Quds Force — as a “specially designed global terrorist.” Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) charged the Administration with drumming up support for a war with Iran.
“The Administration has been dramatically increasing its efforts in the last several weeks to go to war with Iran,” Kucinich said. “This latest stunt is nothing more than an attempt to deceive Americans into yet another war—this time with Iran.”
Last week, President Bush stated in a news conference: “So I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them (Iran) from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”
In a speech Sunday to the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, Vice President Dick Cheney said that if Iran continues on its current course, the United States and other nations are “prepared to impose serious consequences. Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions.”
In announcing the sanctions today, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: “Unfortunately the Iranian government continues to spurn our offer of open negotiations, instead threatening peace and security by pursuing nuclear technologies that can lead to a nuclear weapon, building dangerous ballistic missiles, supporting Shia militants in Iraq and terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, and denying the existence of a fellow member of the United Nations, threatening to wipe Israel off the map.”
“After the lies and deception used to lead us to war in Iraq, the belligerent Bush Administration cannot be given leeway with statements that suggest a preemptive attack on Iran is necessary,” Kucinich said. “We are systematically destroying every available route to restoring peace and security in the Middle East.
“Congress must take back its exclusive authority to declare war from the Bush Administration.”
