"I hate all Iranians", US aide tells Brit MPs - Updated

By Cernig

Updated Below

The Bush administration have already issued one of their xeroxed denials about this one...

Three British parliamentarians all say they heard Debra Cagan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Coalition Affairs to Defence Secretary Robert Gates, say that she hates all Iranians.

British MPs visiting the Pentagon to discuss America's stance on Iran and Iraq were shocked to be told by one of President Bush's senior women officials: "I hate all Iranians."

And she also accused Britain of "dismantling" the Anglo-US-led coalition in Iraq by pulling troops out of Basra too soon.

The all-party group of MPs say Debra Cagan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Coalition Affairs to Defence Secretary Robert Gates, made the comments this month.

...The six MPs were taken aback by the hardline approach of the Pentagon and in particular Ms Cagan, one of Mr Bush's foreign policy advisers.

She made it clear that although the US had no plans to attack Iran, it did not rule out doing so if the Iranians ignored warnings not to develop a nuclear bomb.

It was her tone when they met her on September 11 that shocked them most.

The MPs say that at one point she said: "In any case, I hate all Iranians."

Although it was an aside, it was not out of keeping with her general demeanour.

"She seemed more keen on saying she didn't like Iranians than that the US had no plans to attack Iran," said one MP. "She did say there were no plans for an attack but the tone did not fit the words."

Another MP said: "I formed the impression that some in America are looking for an excuse to attack Iran. It was very alarming."

Cagan is a long-term State employee, with a career going back further than the Bush administration. Interestingly, she has also been intimately involved with nuclear non-proliferation issues in the past. Has the UK's Daily Mail inadvertently found one of the leakers of anti-Iran agitprop who keep being identified only by the sobriquet "senior official speaking on the basis of anonymity"?

One things for sure - with people like this in charge, it's no wonder the world gets the impression the administration's out-loud stance of "we prefer diplomacy" is only a CYA for the eventual war.

Update
Huge thanks go out to Newshoggers reader and researcher Kat, who unearthed the interesting fact that, after being the project leader on Project Vinca - a fast-tracked program to clean up the former Yugoslavia's loose nuclear materials - in 2001, Debra Cagan gained the support and patronage of Richard Armitage.

Yes, that Richard Armitage. Neoconservative member of PNAC and the Council On Foreign Relations, Plame leaker, Iran-Contra plotter and board member of CACI International (Abu Graib torturers) and ChoicePoint Inc. (Florida 2000 vote spoilers and NSA data-miners).

It's a small, small world when it comes to the neocons.