October 7, 2007 (LPAC)--In the latest move in the British campaign to push the U.S. into war on Iran, the London Telegraph today, reports, citing unnamed Pentagon officials, that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised Bush in July that Britain would support U.S. air strikes on Iran if they could be justified as a counter-terrorist operation. "The White House and Downing Street would justify such an attack as a defensive move to protect allied troops in Iraq," says the Telegraph.

The Telegraph adds that the U.S. would need help from the British and Dutch after the attack, for mine clearing in the Straits of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf.

In other coverage, the Telegraph points to Defense Secretary Robert Gates as the man "who has taken charge of the forces in the American government opposed to a U.S. military attack on Iran." Lyndon LaRouche responded that there is an element of truth in that report. "It is somewhat spun around, but approximately true."

Gates is about to appoint John Hamre, who was a Deputy Secretary of Defense under Clinton, to the post of Chairman of the Defense Policy Board, according to the London Times. This is the position earlier held by neocon Richard Perle. Hamre has been critical of Bush-Cheney war policies, and skeptical about the "surge."