Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate office announced this afternoon that Mrs. Clinton, along with 29 other Democratic senators, had signed a letter to President Bush expressing “serious concerns” about the administration’s posture toward Iran and its strategy to stop that nation from developing nuclear weapons.
Mrs. Clinton has been under fire on Iran from her rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination — chiefly, that she voted for a Senate resolution last month that (according to the rivals) could be read as emboldening Mr. Bush to take military action against Iran. The vote, which had support from 76 senators, urged Mr. Bush to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.
Senator Barack Obama, who was away campaigning and did not vote on the resolution, and former Senator John Edwards have criticized Mrs. Clinton’s vote, saying it showed that she had not learned to mistrust Mr. Bush and avoid giving him leverage despite her 2002 vote authorizing military action against Iraq.
Mrs. Clinton has said that she did not vote in 2002 to go to war, but rather to continue weapons inspections, and that Mr. Bush misused the authority given by the Senate.
As for the latest vote on Iran, Mrs. Clinton has said that nothing in the resolution grants the Bush administration any authority to take military action against Iran. The letter today makes that point: “We wish to emphasize that no congressional authority exists for unilateral military action against Iran.”
Some senators who opposed the Senate resolution on Iran signed today’s letter, including Christopher J. Dodd, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination. Mr. Obama did not sign the letter; his campaign spokesman, Bill Burton, sent over this explanation:
“Senator Obama admires Senator Webb and his sincere and tireless efforts on this issue. But it will take more than a letter to prevent this administration from using the language contained within the Kyl-Lieberman resolution to justify military action in Iran. This requires a legislative answer and Senator Obama intends to propose one.”
Resolution introduced today by Senator Obama.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also did not sign the letter, nor did the Democratic chairmen of the Senate armed services and foreign relations committees, Carl Levin and Joseph Biden (himself a presidential aspirant, who also voted against the Iran resolution).
The text of the letter follows:
Location of Iran
A top US commander said yesterday that the United States is not planning a preemptive attack on Iran despite increasing rhetoric from Washington, D.C. The United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also denied that an attack was imminent, stating that there is no Congressional authorization for military action against Iran.

The denials came as ''The Observer'' ran a report saying that US personnel involved in interrogating insurgents in Iraq are under "huge" pressure to find evidence against Iran.  It quoted Micah Brose, a privately contracted interrogator working for the US military there, as saying that information on Iran is "gold".

"They push a lot for us to establish a link with Iran", Brose claimed in the interview, adding that "it feels a lot like, if you get something and Iran's not involved, it's a let down." He further claimed that people have said to him that "they're really pushing the Iran thing." Brose denied being asked to manufacture evidence, but stated that "if a detainee wants to tell me what I want to hear so he can get out of jail ... you know what I'm saying."

The US has in the past been accused of using exaggerated and fabricated evidence to build its case against Iraq prior to the war.

The article by the British based newspaper said most military intelligence officers refused to comment but that one said "The message is, 'Got to find a link with Iran, got to find a link with Iran.' It's sickening."
A strike is "not in the offing" - William J. Fallon
On Monday, Admiral William J. Fallon, the commanding officer of United States Central Command which is responsible for the Middle East, East Africa and Central Asia, speaking in ''Financial Times'', said that a strike against Iran is "not in the offing."

"None of this is helped by the continuing stories that just keep going around and around and around that any day now there will be another war which is just not where we want to go," Fallon continued. "Getting Iranian behavior to change and finding ways to get them to come to their senses and do that is the real objective. Attacking them as a means to get to that spot strikes me as being not the first choice in my book."  Despite saying this, he refused to rule out a strike against Iran in the future.
"The question is, why will Tehran not talk to us?" - Condoleezza Rice
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on ABC's ''This Week'' on Sunday, saying that a Senate resolution designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization does not authorize military action.

"There is nothing in this particular resolution that would suggest that from our point of view. And, clearly, the president has also made very clear that he's on a diplomatic path where Iran comes into focus," Rice said.

"This resolution is saying that there needs to be strong measures taken against Iran, which we have definitely done," Rice continued. "And if the Iranians suspend their enrichment and reprocessing, I'm prepared to meet my counterpart anyplace, anytime, anywhere. So the question isn't why will we not talk to Tehran. The question is, why will Tehran not talk to us?"
"No congressional authority exists for unilateral military action against Iran" - Hillary Clinton
Senator Hillary Clinton, who is running for President, voted for the resolution. She has said that the resolution could not be used to justify war, but rather it seeks to escalate diplomatic efforts. "We wish to emphasize that no congressional authority exists for unilateral military action against Iran," she said in an open letter on November 1, 2007.
Attack on Iran would be a "nightmare" - Joschka Fischer
Last week, former Foreign Minister of Germany, Joschka Fischer said that he was worried that the upcoming US Presidential election could heighten tensions between the US and Iran. He found particularly worrisome a statement by Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani in October that "If I am President of the United States, I guarantee you, we will never find out what they will do if they get nuclear weapons, because they are not going to get a nuclear weapon ... the military option is not off the table."