The Anti-Empire Report
August 4th, 2010
by William Blum
www.killinghope.org

So please tell me again: What's the war about?

When facts are inconvenient, when international law, human rights and history get in the way, when war crimes can't easily be justified or explained away, when logic doesn't help much, the current crop of American political leaders turns to what is now the old reliable: 9/11. We have to fight in Afghanistan because ... somehow ... it's tied into what happened on September 11, 2001. Here's Vice-President Joe Biden: "We know that it was from the space that joins Afghanistan and Pakistan that the attacks of 9/11 occurred." 1

Here's Sen. Lindsay Graham R-SC : "This is the place [Afghanistan] we were attacked from 9/11." 2

Rep. Mike Pence, the third-ranking House Republican, asserted that the revelations in the Wikileaks documents do not change his view of the Afghan conflict, nor does he expect a shift in public opinion. "Back home in Indiana, people still remember where the attacks on 9/11 came from." 3

Here's President Obama a year ago: "But we must never forget this is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans." 4

And here is the president, two days after the release of the Wikileaks documents, referring to Afghanistan and Pakistan as "the region from which the 9/11 attacks were waged and other attacks against the United States and our friends and allies have been planned". 5

Never mind that out of the tens of thousands of people the United States and its NATO front have killed in Afghanistan not one has been identified as having had anything to do with the events of September 11, 2001.

Never mind that the "plot to kill Americans" in 2001 was devised in Germany and Spain and the United States more than in Afghanistan. Why hasn't Washington bombed those countries?

Indeed, what actually is needed to plot to buy airline tickets and take flying lessons in the United States? A room with some chairs? What does "an even larger safe haven" mean? A larger room with more chairs? Perhaps a blackboard? Terrorists intent upon attacking the United States can meet almost anywhere, with Afghanistan probably being one of the worst places for them, given the American occupation.

There are many people in Afghanistan and Pakistan — the ones still living — who deeply resent the US presence there and the drones that fly overhead and drop bombs on their houses, their wedding parties, their funerals, their life. As in Iraq, the American "war on terrorism" in Afghanistan regularly, routinely, and conspicuously creates numerous new anti-American terrorists.

The only "war of necessity" that draws the United States to Afghanistan is the need for protected oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea area, the establishment of military bases in this country that is surrounded by the oil-rich Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf regions, and making it easier to watch and pressure next-door Iran. What more could any respectable imperialist nation desire? Oh, did I mention that the military-industrial-security-intelligence complex and its shareholders will be further enriched?

But the war against the Taliban can't be won. Except perhaps by killing everyone in Afghanistan. The United States should negotiate the pipelines with the Taliban, as the Clinton administration tried to do, without success, then get out, and declare "victory". Barack Obama can surely deliver an eloquent victory speech.

USrael and Iran
If and when the United States and Israel bomb Iran marking the sixth country so blessed by Barack Obama and this sad old world has a new daily horror show to look at on their TV sets, and we then discover that Iran was not actually building nuclear weapons after all, the American mainstream media and the benighted American mind will ask: "Why didn't they tell us that? Did they want us to bomb them?"

The same questions were asked about Iraq following the discovery that Saddam Hussein didn't in fact have any weapons of mass destruction. However, in actuality, before the US invasion Iraqi officials had stated clearly on repeated occasions that they had no such weapons. I'm reminded of this by the recent news report about Hans Blix, former chief United Nations weapons inspector, who led a doomed hunt for WMD in Iraq. Last week he told the British inquiry into the March 2003 invasion that those who were "100 percent certain there were weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq turned out to have "less than zero percent knowledge" of where the purported hidden caches might be. He testified that he had warned British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a February 2003 meeting — as well as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in separate talks — that Hussein might have no weapons of mass destruction. 6

In August 2002, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told American newscaster Dan Rather on CBS: "We do not possess any nuclear or biological or chemical weapons." 7

In December, Aziz stated to Ted Koppel on ABC: "The fact is that we don't have weapons of mass destruction. We don't have chemical, biological, or nuclear weaponry." 8

Hussein himself told Rather in February 2003: "These missiles have been destroyed. There are no missiles that are contrary to the prescription of the United Nations [as to range] in Iraq. They are no longer there." 9

Moreover, Gen. Hussein Kamel, former head of Iraq's secret weapons program, and a son-in-law of Saddam Hussein, told the UN in 1995 that Iraq had destroyed its banned missiles and chemical and biological weapons soon after the Persian Gulf War. 10

There are yet other examples of Iraqi officials telling the world that the WMD were non-existent.

If you don't already have serious doubts about the mainstream media's devotion to questioning the premises and rationales underlying American foreign policy, consider this: Despite the two revelations on Dan Rather's CBS programs, and the other revelations noted above, in January 2008 we find CBS reporter Scott Pelley interviewing FBI agent George Piro, who had interviewed Saddam Hussein before he was executed:

PELLEY: And what did he tell you about how his weapons of mass destruction had been destroyed?

PIRO: He told me that most of the WMD had been destroyed by the U.N. inspectors in the '90s, and those that hadn't been destroyed by the inspectors were unilaterally destroyed by Iraq.

PELLEY: He had ordered them destroyed?

PIRO: Yes.

PELLEY: So why keep the secret? Why put your nation at risk? Why put your own life at risk to maintain this charade? 11

Would it have mattered if the Bush administration had fully believed Iraq when it said it had no WMD? Probably not. There is ample evidence that Bush knew this to be the case, as did Tony Blair. Saddam Hussein did not sufficiently appreciate just how psychopathic his two adversaries were. Bush was determined to vanquish Iraq, for the sake of Israel, for control of oil, and for expanding the empire, though it hasn't all worked out as the empire expected; for some odd reason, it seems that the Iraqi people resented being bombed, invaded, occupied, and tortured.

The result of Bush's Iraqi policy can be summed up by saying that it would be difficult to cite many other historical examples of one nation destroying another so completely, crushing and perverting virtually every aspect of their society and humanity.

Now Israel presses Washington relentlessly to do the same to Iran — not that the US necessarily needs much prodding — primarily because Israel is determined to remain the only nuclear power in the Middle East; this despite Iran telling the United States and the world many times that it is not building nuclear weapons. But if Iran is in fact building nuclear weapons, we have to ask: Is there some international law that says that the US, the UK, Russia, China, Israel, France, Pakistan, and India are entitled to nuclear weapons, but Iran is not? If the United States had known that the Japanese had deliverable atomic bombs, would Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been destroyed? Does USrael believe that there is not already enough horror and suffering in the news?

In what could be part of the preparation for an attack on Iran, 47 members of the House of Representatives recently put forth a non-binding resolution declaring Iran to be "an immediate and existential threat to the State of Israel". To illustrate this threat, the resolution quoted Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on several occasions avowing sentiments like: "God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism" ... calling for "this occupying regime [Israel] to be wiped off the map" ... "Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation" ... "I must announce that the Zionist regime, with a 60-year record of genocide, plunder, invasion, and betrayal is about to die and will soon be erased from the geographical scene" ... "Today, the time for the fall of the satanic power of the United States has come, and the countdown to the annihilation of the emperor of power and wealth has started".

Pretty damning stuff, isn't it? N'est-ce pas? Nicht wahr? But there's a lot less here than meets the eye. Notice that it doesn't quote Ahmadinejad in a single specific, explicit threat of an Iranian attack upon Israel or the United States. No mention or indication that "I" or "We" or "Iran" is going to do any of this, carry out any act of violence. And I would say that that's because it's not what he meant. In another quote, which the resolution fails to cite, the Iranian president in December 2006 said: "The Zionist regime will be wiped out soon, the same way the Soviet Union was, and humanity will achieve freedom." 12 Obviously, the man is not calling for any kind of violent attack upon Israel, for the dissolution of the Soviet Union took place very peacefully. Furthermore, in June 2006, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stated: "We have no problem with the world. We are not a threat whatsoever to the world, and the world knows it. We will never start a war. We have no intention of going to war with any state.13 Why didn't the authors of the congressional resolution quote that one?

I think that one can derive a better understanding of the Iranian president's statements by seeing them as metaphor, as bragging, as wishful thinking, as well as poor translation for example: "wiped off the map" 14 , coming from a man foolish enough to publicly claim that there are no gays in Iran.

But more significantly, the resolution offers no reason why Iran actually would attack Israel or the United States. What reason would Iran have to use nuclear weapons against either country other than an irresistible desire for mass national suicide? Indeed, the very same question could have — and should have — been asked before the invasion of Iraq. Of the many lies surrounding that invasion, the biggest one of all was that if, in fact, Saddam Hussein had had those weapons of mass destruction the invasion would have been justified.

With all the lies exposed about the American Iraqi misadventure, I and many others had allowed ourselves the luxury, the hidden pleasure, of believing that the United States government and media had learned a lesson which would last for some time. They'd been caught and exposed. But it's the same all over again with the lies about Iran and Ahmadinejad. No, he's not even a Holocaust denier.

In any event, Israel probably doesn't believe its own propaganda. In March of last year, the Washington Post reported: "A senior Israeli official in Washington" has asserted that "Iran would be unlikely to use its missiles in an attack [against Israel] because of the certainty of retaliation." 15 This was the very last sentence in the article and, according to an extensive Nexis search, did not appear in any other English-language media in the world.

And earlier this year we could read in the Sunday Times of London: "Brigadier-General Uzi Eilam, 75, a war hero and pillar of the [Israeli] defence establishment, believes it will probably take Iran seven years to make nuclear weapons. The views expressed by the former director-general of Israel's Atomic Energy Commission contradict the assessment of Israel's defence establishment and put him at odds with political leaders." 16

If any country in this world is a threat to use nuclear weapons with remarkably little regard for the consequences it's Israel. Martin van Creveld, an Israeli professor of military history, and loyal Israeli citizen, remarked in 2002: "We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that this will happen before Israel goes under." 17 Think of the closing scene of "Dr. Strangelove". That's Israel sitting astride the speeding nuclear missile waving the cowboy hat.

There's no business like show business
She played Mozart's Piano Concerto in D Minor.

And accompanied the one and only Aretha Franklin.

A gala benefit performance in Philadelphia.

At the home of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Before 8,000 people.

And they loved it.

How many of them knew that the pianist was a genuine, unindicted war criminal?

Guilty of crimes against humanity.

Defender of torture.

With much blood on her pianist hands.

Whose style in office for years could be characterized as hypocrisy, disinformation, and outright lying.

But what did the audience care?

This is America.

Home of the Good Guys.

She was fighting against the Bad Guys.

And we all know that the show must go on.

So let's hear it, folks ... Let's have a real all-American hand ... Let's hear it for our own darling virtuoso ... Miss Condoleezza Rice!

Notes
1. State Department Documents and Publications, March 10, 2009 ?
2. Face the Nation, CBS, July 4, 2010 ?
3. Washington Post, July 27, 2010 ?
4. Talk given by the president at Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, August 17, 2009 ?
5. White House press release of Obama's remarks of July 27, 2010 ?
6. Associated Press, July 28, 2010 ?
7. CBS Evening News, August 20, 2002 ?
8. ABC Nightline, December 4, 2002 ?
9. "60 Minutes II", February 26, 2003 ?
10. Washington Post, March 1, 2003 ?
11. "60 Minutes", January 27, 2008. See also: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting [FAIR] Action Alert, February 1, 2008 ?
12. Associated Press, December 12, 2006 ?
13. Letter to the Washington Post from M.A. Mohammadi, Press Officer, Iranian Mission to the United Nations, June 12, 2006 ?
14. See Anti-Empire Report, October 1, 2008, second part ?
15. Washington Post, March 5, 2009 ?
16. Sunday Times London , January 10, 2010 ?
17. Originally in the Dutch weekly magazine, Elsevier, April 27, 2002, pages 52-3; picked up in many other international publications ?
–

William Blum is the author of:

Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2
Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir
Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire
Portions of the books can be read, and signed copies purchased, at www.killinghope.org

Previous Anti-Empire Reports can be read at this website.

To add yourself to this mailing list simply send an email to bblum6 [at] aol.com with "add" in the subject line. I'd like your name and city in the message, but that's optional. I ask for your city only in case I'll be speaking in your area.

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Any part of this report may be disseminated without permission. I'd appreciate it if the website were mentioned.

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YES, I know, I’m not supposed to be interested in Michaele Salahi. I’m supposed to just ignore her until she goes away. But I’ve tried that with reality stars before, and sometimes they just get more famous while I’m trying not to look. And the truth is, I find Michaele Salahi fascinating.

The woman who became a household name by crashing a White House state dinner is now getting more of the fame she craves in Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of D.C.’’ The show premiered last week to surprisingly good reviews....

The Goldman Sachs folks at least had the good grace to look uncomfortable during their drubbing before Congress. The amazing thing about Michaele Salahi, the trait that makes her so watchable, is the way she seems impervious to scorn. No matter the venue, she wears the same look she had in that photo from the White House state dinner, sheathed in a designer sari, her arm draped around Joe Biden. Simply by being happy, she gets her way. For now.

Related: Secret Service Sends Obama Signal

Yes, she’s infuriating, and anger can get the best of us. Backstage last week at “The View,’’ Whoopi Goldberg came at Salahi with a four-letter word, which launched another flurry of publicity.

Really? I didn't hear or see a word.

But anger isn’t the right response.

Says the agenda-pushing paper!

We just need to sit back and wait.

What a surprise that they would counsel such a thing, huh?

The bills will come due, one after another, and we’ll all get to watch that, too. It’ll be good practice.

For what?

By Yusuf Fernandez | Al-Manar – TV | August 10, 2010

US weaponry laid entire Lebanese communities to waste in 2006 - Photo credit Amelia Opalinska

On August 4, US State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley said that Lebanese armed forces firing on Israeli troops near the Israel-Lebanon border the previous day, which killed two Lebanese soldiers and one Lebanese journalist as well as one Israeli officer and seriously wounded another, was “totally unjustified and unwarranted.” Shortly before, Israeli Ambassador in Washington, Michel Oren, held talks with US senior officials to demand a harsh US response.

Some US congressmen warned Lebanon that the US could reassess its aid to the Lebanese Army. “To start shooting as they did -one person killed, one seriously injured– is a very serious move by the Lebanese army,” Florida Representative Ron Klein, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Jerusalem Post.“It certainly is going to come up in our conversations in the Congress about the continued support of the Lebanese Army,” he said. Klein ignored the three Lebanese victims and the Israeli actions that provoked the incident.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee AIPAC , the main organization of the Zionist lobby, reportedly circulated a memorandum claiming that the Lebanese Army was cooperating with Hezbollah, and stating that unless this stops, “Washington must reevaluate its relationship with the Beirut government and the Lebanese Armed Forces – the recipient of significant American military aid.” A State Department representative declined to respond to a Jerusalem Post question about whether the incident could affect American aid to Lebanon.

According the Israeli daily Haaretz, in the past five years, the Lebanese Army has been the second largest recipient of US military assistance per capita after Israel. A State Department press release from late 2008 noted that between 2006 and 2008, the Lebanese Army received 10 million rounds of ammunition, Humvees, spare parts for attack helicopters, vehicles for its Internal Security Forces “and the same frontline weapons that US military troops are currently using, including assault rifles, automatic grenade launchers, advanced sniper systems, anti-tank weapons and the most modern urban warfare bunker weapons.”

Since 2006, the US has provided Lebanon some 500 million dollars in military assistance. Last year, the US approved 100 million dollars in assistance to the Lebanese military. The Obama administration has requested the same levels for 2011, with small increases for anti-terror and military training programs.

However, the border incident of August 3 highlighted the fact that the US Administration does not consider that its military aid should be used to protect Lebanon against its only real enemy: Israel. “We have no indication that US equipment played any role in this incident earlier this week,” Crowley said. “In any US-origin equipment that has been provided to Lebanon, we have very strong end-use monitoring to make sure it is used appropriately.”

“Used appropriately” means that US aid must only be used against other Lebanese parties, especially the Resistance. According to Lebanon’s As-Safir newspaper, in written testimony to Congress, Obama´s nominee to head the US Central Command, General James Matthis, claimed that the relationship between US Central Command and the Lebanese Army is focused on building the latter´s capabilities “to preserve internal stability”. US Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow, who has recently visited Beirut and the South of Lebanon, said that continued US aid and training to the Lebanese Army would allow it to “prevent militias and other nongovernmental organizations” from “undermining the government”.

One State Department spokesperson made the quid pro quo clearer: if the Lebanese Army hopes for equipment, even spare parts, it will have to first focus on “using its military to keep Hezbollah in check and to control southern Lebanon and Palestinian refugee camps in order to prevent them from being used as bases to attack Israel”. This point was underscored by US officials interviewed by International Crisis Group who “implied” that “the Lebanese must be trained and equipped to meet Hezbollah´s, not Israel´s, challenge.” Therefore, US military aid for Lebanon seeks to protect Israel, the real enemy of Lebanon, and the Lebanese Army should become a mercenary force to implement US and Israeli schemes in Lebanon and the Middle East. Significantly, the US has not given the Lebanese Army anti-aircraft, anti-tank or anti-ship missiles that could be used against Israel.

The second goal of US aid, according to the US Central Command, is to “protect borders”, which means to prevent the Resistance from receiving weapons from abroad in order to protect the country against the Israeli enemy. However, the Jerusalem Post complained, “the Lebanese Army has taken no actions to seal off that border from weapons transfers to Hezbollah” and has done “nothing while Syria and Iran have been arming Hezbollah´s army with tens of thousands of missiles.”

At a White House meeting in December 2009, President Barack Obama asked Lebanese President Michel Sleiman to stop the flow of weapons being allegedly sent to the south of Lebanon “that potentially serve as a threat to Israel”. He warned that a failure to do so could lead to another invasion by Israel. Vice President Joe Biden went further, telling Sleiman that Israel could invade Lebanon and go all the way to Beirut to destroy Hezbollah´s weapons if the government failed to rein in the organization.

Of course, massive US military aid to Israel, which includes all kind of weapons, including the most advanced ones in the US arsenal, is something normal and nobody has the right to question it. However, when Syria, Iran or Lebanon acquire any kind of weapons adequate to protect their countries against US or Israeli attacks or threats this becomes a universal scandal.

The US aid is not supposed be used to protect Lebanon from Israeli spies either. Recently, Los Angeles Times complained that the US-supported Lebanese Internal Security Forces had used US signals equipment to help Hezbollah “ferret out Israeli agents.” According to the Times, “a strengthening Lebanese government is helping Hezbollah bust alleged spy cells, sometimes using tools and tradecraft acquired from Western nations eager to build up Lebanon´s security forces as a counterweight to the Shiite group.” Once again, Hezbollah was the target, not Israel.

In this way, US and Israeli outrage is easy to understand. The Lebanese have not used US weapons to crush Hezbollah but to defend Lebanon and this is an unbearable reality for Israelis and pro-Zionist circles in Washington. For Washington and Tel Aviv, the truth is simple: the Lebanese Army is not supposed to protect Lebanon from Israeli violations of the Lebanese sovereignty and, thus, it shot at whom did not have to.

More and more Lebanese are now questioning the value of US aid that can only used in an internal conflict. Agriculture Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hasan has called for preventing the US from controlling the army through its ill-intentioned support, the National News Agency said. He claims that American military and security assistance does not benefit Lebanon.

SUPPORT FOR ISRAELI WARS ON LEBANON

Lebanese people also remember that the US role has gone much beyond trying to turn the Lebanese Army into an internally oppressive security force. Washington has been an accessory to all Israeli attacks and aggressions against Lebanon. For example, a great portion of the American equipment stored in Israel was used for combat in the 2006 July war in Lebanon. Moreover, the US sent Israel all kinds of weapons and ammunition during the conflict.

Moreover, Washington politically supported the Israeli assault and blocked all efforts for an immediate halt to a war that killed more than 1,300 Lebanese, wounded more than 4,000 and drove 900,000 from their homes. A third of the Lebanese dead were children under the age of 12.

This US stance outraged the Lebanese population. “We did not use to be against the Americans, but now we are. They are against us,” said Fatima Haider, a Lebanese who lived in the district of Ein el-Mreiseh in Beirut, to Reuters at that time. Her home was destroyed by US-made Israeli bombs. “It is clear America´s support for Israel during the 34 days of bombing will not be forgotten,” said Fawaz Gerges, a professor at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, to ABC News.

As the Lebanese newspaper Daily Star said: “American complicity in these Israeli plans is clear: the Lebanese middle class has witnessed the carnage and destruction of their country with US approval, and the killing of innocent women and children with advanced American weaponry that mutilated their bodies into pieces.” Even naïve Lebanese that had believed for a moment that the US Administration could have a sincere interest in promoting democracy in its country got indignant about American support for the Israeli aggression.

1. Boycott is a tactic, not a principle.

This concept was most eloquently detailed by Nelson Mandela. A boycott is initiated to create change. It is not a tool of rejection, retribution, punishment, or disgust. When workers go on strike, it is not because they hate their employers and want to kill them; it is because they seek improvement in their working conditions. A boycott works the same way.

When an individual refuses to purchase a product due to ethical considerations, that is a principled stand. The stand by itself does not create change. However, when a call for boycott is instituted and a movement begins that refuses to participate in the consumption of an item, then it becomes a tactic for creating change, with consumer power as its weapon.

2. Boycotting Israel does not preclude doing anything about anything else anywhere.

Boycotting Israel does not mean one cannot engage in any other activism, nor does it imply that boycotting is the only viable tactic in the world. There are many causes in the world and many ways to address those causes. Boycotting Israel does not prevent anyone from engaging in other causes. Likewise, other important causes should not be exploited simply to prevent doing something about the Palestine/Israel conflict, in which we are complicit.

3. The BDS movement on Israel is international, it’s grassroots, it’s growing, and it’s working.

The movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions BDS began in 2005, when over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations working both in Palestine and Israel issued an international call for participation in nonviolent action to compel Israel to abide by international law and end human rights abuses. The call has been picked up internationally. This new BDS movement has been endorsed and/or practiced by prominent figures such as Desmond Tutu, Arundhati Roy, Rigoberta Menchu, Shirin Ebadi, Eduardo Galeano, Alice Walker, Gil Scott-Heron, and Elvis Costello.

Additionally, it is endorsed by several organizations, including Code Pink, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Boycott from Within Israel , Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, Palestinian Queers for BDS, Central Única dos Trabalhadores, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and Fédération Syndicale Unitaire.

The Olympia Food Co-op’s boycott in particular has been publicly endorsed by Naomi Klein, Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin Code Pink , Ann Wright, Richard Falk UN Special Rapporteur , Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, nomy lamm, Anthony Arnove, Yonatan Shapira Israeli Air Force captain and co-founder of Combatants for Peace , American Jews for a Just Peace, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, and many more.

Israel is taking the growing BDS movement seriously. It has arrested Palestinian leaders who endorse BDS. The Knesset is now considering legislation that would make it illegal for Jewish Israeli activists to endorse BDS.

4. We were already taking sides before the Co-op boycott was instituted.

By stocking Israeli goods in the midst of an international call for boycott, and for the Co-op to continue to do so after a working member requested the honoring of the boycott two years ago, the Co-op was already taking sides. This is in addition to the US government being the primary enabler of Israel, giving Israel $3+ billion a year, which is equal to or more than the total amount of US aid given to all of sub-Saharan Africa. The US government also provides diplomatic cover and political support for Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.

With these tenets in mind, here are some frequently posed arguments, in the form of frequently asked questions.

Does the Co-op boycott call for the destruction of Israel?

No. The boycott calls for compliance with international law and human rights.

Many protesters claim that the Co-op Board of Directors is intent on destroying Israel through the boycott. One of the signs held by a protester claimed that the boycott would be in effect until “Israel ceases to exist.” A call to action by the anti-Arab/anti-Muslim organization StandWithUs claims the boycott calls for “nothing less than the disbanding of Israel as a Jewish state.” These claims exploit common fears. Nothing in the Co-op’s boycott calls for the destruction of Israel.

According to the Co-op’s Israel boycott policy, the conditions for ending the boycott cite the conditions outlined in the Palestinian Civil Society call for BDS. According to the Palestinian call, this requires Israel to “meet[] its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully compl[y] with the precepts of international law.”

Thus the conditions for ending the boycott are based on international law. International law does not call for the destruction of Israel. The Palestinian BDS call requires that Israel “end[] its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands….” As recognized by international law, these occupied Arab lands refer to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, with the acceptance of “minor” and “mutual” adjustments to the borders under UN Security Council Resolution 242.

The Palestinian BDS call also requires Israel to “respect[], protect[] and promote[] the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.” Protesters claim that allowing Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland from which they were expelled by Israel would mean the destruction of Israel. This is akin to white people who feared that the end of slavery in the US would mean the destruction of the South, or Afrikaners who feared that the end of apartheid meant the death of South Africa. However, respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of refugees to return home is simply what it says. Article 11 of UN General Assembly Resolution 194 also acknowledges that compensation for refugees is a viable alternative for those choosing not to return home.

Israel to this day refuses to accept any responsibility for the 1947-8 expulsion of Palestinians from what is now Israel — either blaming the Palestinians for deciding to leave, justifying the act as a reward for conquest, or in effect stating “finders keepers, losers weepers.” Despite attempts by Israel to delegitimize Palestinian refugee rights, international law remains clear on the issue.

The final stipulation of the Palestinian BDS call requires Israel to “recognize[] the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality.” Such a requirement would not be possible if the expectation was that Israel cease to exist.

There is nothing in the Co-op’s boycott policy nor in international law that calls on Israel to “cease[] to exist.” Opposition to the stated requirements is simply opposition to existing international law and basic human rights, while reframing the message to imply that abiding by international law and human rights standards is somehow harmful to Israel, with no acknowledgement of how Israel’s noncompliance is oppressive to Palestinians.

Why didn’t the Co-op board consult with its membership before honoring the boycott?

The Co-op has established policy guidelines and protocols for observing boycotts. The Israel boycott fit those guidelines. No previous boycott has ever been presented to Co-op members prior to implementation. In fact, the original request for a boycott was made by a Co-op working member in 2008.

If the Co-op had addressed the potential Israel boycott to the entire membership prior to implementation, it would have been instituting a double standard-one in which Israel’s actions are given greater license than those of China, Norway, or even Colorado.

The Co-op makes many decisions without conferring with the entire membership. However, those decisions are based on clear policy guidelines. For instance, the Co-op has product selection guidelines that relate to a product’s packaging. According to these guidelines, “[t]he Co-op will not carry products whose retail packaging is deemed exploitive or oppressive. Such determination may be made by the department manager, the merchandising team or the staff as a whole.” Items have been removed from the shelves when they were determined to violate the packaging guidelines and done without informing the entire membership.

But that’s a very undemocratic way of running a Co-op, isn’t it?

One could make that argument. Obviously, not all Co-op decisions can be put to a member-wide vote. The Co-op boycott policy has been posted on the Co-op’s website for years, and its previous boycotts have not drawn the type of criticism that the Israel boycott has evoked. The reaction to the Israel boycott enforces the concept that Israel is a country beyond reproach, or at least one that must be treated differently from all others.

Many people protesting the board’s decision have decided to institute a boycott against the Co-op. There are also threats to boycott local businesses that advertise in the Co-op newsletter. On one hand, it demonstrates that these protesters have faith in the power of boycotts. On the other hand, it demonstrates a confusion of priorities. While these boycotters decry the board’s “undemocratic” boycott policy, they have sidestepped the democratic option enshrined in the Co-op’s policies.

That is, opponents to the boycott can overrule board decisions or other Co-op decisions through a member-initiated ballot. They still have this democratic option within the Co-op’s guidelines. Yet their first reaction was to institute a boycott rather than take the most direct and democratic option available.
If only it were that easy with Israel.

The Co-op is singling out Israel! Why doesn’t the Co-op boycott China?

The Co-op does have a longstanding boycott on China. This has not deterred people from assuming that the Co-op “singles out Israel.” Some people, having learned that the Co-op has observed boycotts on China and Norway, then resort to arguing, “Why does the Co-op only boycott China, Norway, and Israel?”

The fact is that any criticism of Israel is perceived as singling out Israel. For some people, any criticism of Israel feels amplified. Even Amnesty International, which reports on human rights abuses around the world, has been accused of singling out Israel. For example, see the article “Amnesty Is Not Out To Get Israel” in the June 19, 2005, Jerusalem Post.

The “singling out” argument is both meaningless and circular. In order to address China’s abuses, the Co-op had to have singled out China. In order to address Colorado’s anti-gay legislation, the Co-op had to have singled out Colorado. In order to fight apartheid in the 1980s, one had to single out South Africa.

Moreover, if the Co-op did not have a boycott on China, the Co-op’s boycott policy made it possible for any member to request the boycott. Rather than complaining about a supposed lack of boycott on China, one could have requested it.

Still, isn’t it hypocritical for us to be boycotting Israel when our own government has committed tons of atrocities? Why don’t we boycott the US?

As stated, boycott is a tactic, not a principle. The above questions assume that a boycott is a way to express hatred of or retribution for past deeds. Rather, the boycott is to produce change. Boycotting the US for its past atrocities is not asking the US to change.

As for boycotting the US for its current crimes, it is difficult to boycott the US while living inside the US, and thus tactically unsound. At the same time, Israeli activists are calling for an international boycott on Israel. They themselves cannot participate in the boycott because they live in Israel, but they challenge their own government in ways that are only possible for Israeli citizens to do. They hope that an international boycott will buttress the work that they do from the inside. This is no different than the Arizonans who are asking for a boycott of Arizona.

For a boycott to achieve its goals, it requires a campaign. Even if the Co-op were to successfully boycott the US, it would mean nothing if there weren’t a whole campaign to back it up with a unified message and broad support. An Israel boycott is worthwhile because it is backed by an international movement. Trade unions, pension funds, European supermarkets, celebrities, and others are participating in the boycott. The Israeli government is aware of the campaign including the Co-op boycott and its goals.

Boycotting Israel does not mean that one cannot protest the United States for change. Boycott should be employed where the tactic seems possible to affect change. It doesn’t mean you boycott everything that you disagree with. Living in the United States gives us the privilege to protest our government’s actions in many ways. Boycotting the US from within the US is generally not one of those ways.

Different protests require different tactics. Employing one tactic for one cause does not commit one to employing the same tactic for all causes. Nor does it preclude employing different tactics for different causes.

Finally, we must acknowledge that the United States is instrumental in keeping the Palestine/Israel conflict going. The US provides massive aid, diplomatic cover, and political encouragement to Israel to continue its abuses and forestall a just settlement. Addressing Israel’s occupation is resisting our own government’s complicity. For decades, people inside the US have been working for change through demonstrations, lobbying, mobilizing, education, and direct action. This work continues, but it should not preclude further action in the form of boycotts. All these tactics work together.

But Israel is not the worst human rights violator in the world. Why don’t you go after [insert China or some Arab or African country here]?

This question implies that it is hypocritical to work for change anywhere unless one works for change everywhere. Or else, it implies that only the absolute worst violations in the world should ever be addressed.

The problem is that the argument can be applied to just about any activism, not just activism on Israel/Palestine. That is, one can level these arguments against doing anything about Arizona, or about immigration in general, or about civil rights, queer rights, environmental justice, racism, sexism, apartheid, AIDS, poverty, Iraq, Afghanistan, health care, etc.

No matter what cause you engage in, there is always some other cause that could be deemed “more worthwhile.” Someone can always point to a greater atrocity or more dire situation elsewhere.

In other words, the question implies that you have to address all the problems in the world, or else you’re a hypocrite. The only way to not be a hypocrite then is to do nothing at all. Thus the argument promotes apathy as the morally superior option.

For some reason, this question is often posed to say that a true activist’s priority is some random Arab or African country. Ironically, the person who poses this question is never engaged in working for change in the region that they cite. Thus the Arab or African atrocity is used only to deflect criticism of Israel. That in itself is exploitive.

The question before deciding to engage in a cause is not “Is it the worst thing in the world?” Rather, the questions should be:

1. Is it bad enough to do something about?
2. Is it a problem that you can do something about?
And bonus points for this question:
3. Is it a problem that you are already complicit in?

Was South African apartheid the worst problem in the world? No. Was it worth fighting against? Yes.

Is the situation in Palestine comparable to or worse than apartheid? If you ask prominent South Africans who suffered under apartheid, such as Desmond Tutu, Willie Madisha, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, Fatima Hassan, and Mondli Makhanya-or even if you ask the entire Congress of South African Trade Unions-the answer is yes.

If South African apartheid was bad enough to warrant boycott, divestment, and sanctions BDS , and if the situation in Palestine is comparable to or worse than apartheid, then isn’t BDS a viable nonviolent option for peace and justice in Palestine/Israel?

It’s hypocritical to criticize Israel’s expulsion of the Palestinians since the US did the same to the Indians here. A variation of this argument is expressed as, “Are you going to give up your home for the Native Americans? I didn’t think so!”

This argument is flawed in several ways:

1. It is a cynical and offensive exploitation of the genocide of the indigenous peoples of this land, evoking it only to excuse the expulsion of another people.

2. It attempts to justify the expulsion of Palestinians by claiming that ethnic cleansing is not something new and was practiced here. Thus it excuses ethnic cleansing everywhere. Although ethnic cleansing is not new, that does not make it an excusable “tradition.”

3. It implies that the Native population here simply wants to take over everyone’s homes, and it does nothing to address the real issues of oppression that Native people currently face.

4. The expulsion of the Palestinians began in 1947 and continues to this day. Refusing to address our own complicity in the ongoing expulsion of Palestinians from their lands, for fear of being called a hypocrite, does nothing to help Palestinians nor Native peoples here.

5. As with related arguments, this argument of supposed hypocrisy can be used to promote inaction anywhere. That is, one cannot criticize anyone or anything because the US is not without sin.

If you’re going to boycott Israel, then you better stop using your cell phone because Israel invented the cell phone.

Believe it or not, this has been one of the most prevalent arguments against boycott received, indicating that various pro-Israel groups have been pushing this argument as the major talking point. Unfortunately, it has two major flaws:
1. It’s not true.
2. It doesn’t make sense.

Recall that boycott is a tactic, not a principle. The point is not to reject all things Israeli. The point is to employ nonviolent consumer-based activism within an international campaign in order to induce Israel to change its destructive policies.

Israel did not invent the cell phone, as is commonly argued. But even if it did, it would not mean we would necessarily reject cell phones. Nor does inventing the cell phone make it okay for Israel or the US where the cell phone was actually created to commit human rights abuses.

The first heart transplant was performed in apartheid South Africa. That did not make a boycott of South Africa any less relevant, nor did it mean that opponents of apartheid had to reject heart transplants.

Other commonly evoked inventions of Israel include the cherry tomato, voice mail, AOL Instant Messenger ! , and some ambiguous medical device that saved your life at some point. 99% of these claims are untrue, but they would be irrelevant even if they were true.

A boycott is so negative. Can’t we encourage change in the Middle East through positive energy? The Israeli government will change if we are nice to it.

A boycott is not a negative action. It is proactive action. It was not negative during the Civil Rights movement, and it was not negative during South African Apartheid. It was people taking action, nonviolently, where their governments failed or were complicit. The argument is often made that Israel simply requires positive encouragement. This was the same argument that the Reagan administration used to reject BDS against South Africa. They termed it “constructive engagement,” and it failed miserably. During the period of constructive engagement, the apartheid government increased its repression against black South African resistance, knowing that it could get away with it. Popular pressure eventually forced the Reagan administration to abandon constructive engagement and embrace BDS.

With Israel, the US has provided every gift imaginable, from the largest lump of US aid in the world, to UN Security Council veto power, to diplomatic cover, to concessions of every kind. This has only encouraged Israel to act with impunity. That is why the Israeli government was not afraid to humiliate the Obama administration with a “slap in the face” by declaring settlement expansion during Joe Biden’s visit in March. The Netanyahu government finally agreed to a temporary settlement freeze but then proceeded to violate that freeze.

Netanyahu has been caught quoted been as saying, “I know what America is. America is something that can easily be moved…80% of the Americans support us. It’s absurd.”

“Constructive engagement” enables Israel to act with impunity. The only recent time that the US has pressured Israel significantly was in 1992 when Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir refused to cease settlement expansion. Bush Sr. then rejected Israel’s request for $10 billion in loan guarantees. This was viewed as a monumental event and is credited with causing Shamir’s Likud party to lose to Labor in the subsequent Israeli elections.

Israel has been shown to only respond to international pressure. BDS is nonviolent international pressure.

I’m progressive on the Israel/Palestine issue, and I disagree with this boycott.

Many people consider themselves progressive or liberal or leftist on the issue, but it is insignificant where people stand on the political spectrum. What matters is what people are willing to do to help end the conflict in which we are complicit. Boycott is a nonviolent option for justice that we can all participate in. It is being utilized internationally. It is an alternative to the violence that is so common in the region. It is endorsed by prominent South Africans because they understand the value of the international BDS movement in ending apartheid. Opponents to the boycott have so far offered no viable alternatives for working toward peace. We need to stop congratulating ourselves for our political positions and start considering things we can actually do to work for change.

Is this boycott calling for a one-state or two-state solution?

The boycott calls for neither two states nor one state. It calls for respecting international law and human rights.

As Omar Barghouti, an outspoken Palestinian promoter of BDS, explains, “The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement takes no position on the shape of the political solution. It adopts a rights-based, not solutions-based, approach.”

Unfortunately, at this stage, it is not worth talking about a one-state or two-state solution, because Israel allows neither. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims to support a two-state solution, but refuses to cede Israeli control over the Jordan Valley, the major settlements, any part of Jerusalem, and even West Bank airspace. Thus Netanyahu’s concept of a two-state solution does not support any semblance of an actual Palestinian state.

Regardless of the debate over two states or one, Israel needs to abide by international law and human rights standards.

Is the Co-op boycotting Jews?

Some people are claiming that the Co-op is boycotting Jews. The Co-op does not discriminate against Jews. It carries products marketed for observant Jews. It carries products produced by Jews.

When the Co-op instituted its China boycott, it was not construed as boycotting Chinese people or Asian-Americans. This is despite the fact that Olympia has a history of discrimination against Asians. In the late nineteenth century, Chinese immigrants living in Olympia were subjected to racist attacks and were driven out of town. During World War II, Japanese Americans in the area were imprisoned in internment camps. The only explicitly racially motivated killing in recent times was that of an Asian-American teenager who was stabbed and beaten to death by two neo-Nazi skinheads in downtown Olympia in 1992. Despite this history, it was understood that a China boycott was not more “anti-Chinese” or “anti-Asian” sentiment. People recognized that the China boycott was directed at the abhorrent actions of the Chinese government, and nobody complained that Chinese-Americans were not consulted before the boycott was instituted.

I’m not Jewish, so as an ally, I must take my cue from Jews on this issue.

To borrow from Martin Niemöller:
“When they came for the Palestinians,
I did not speak up because I was not a Jew.”

This is a mistaken application of an anti-oppression framework. It is tokenizing, stereotyping, and racist.

To illustrate, ask yourself if you’re not Chinese : would you ask a Chinese-American for permission to criticize China over its treatment of Tibet?

Would you ask a white Arizonan for permission to criticize Arizona for its racist, anti-immigrant policies?

Let’s break down the problems with this thinking:

1 Jews are not monolithic. There are Jews on “both sides” of the issue. One cannot judge the breadth of “Jewish opinion” and assess a “Jewish consensus” merely through one’s Jewish friends.

Moreover, Jews who support the boycott have been marginalized the most. They have been marginalized by non-Jews who claim that their support of the boycott is not a “real” Jewish opinion. And they have been marginalized by other Jews who have accused them of being “self-hating Jews” and “kapos”-essentially race traitors. Pro-boycott Jews have been told by other Jews by a local rabbi, even that they do not belong to “the Jewish community.” They have also been accused of misrepresenting Jews to the gentiles by being outspoken.

The greatest and most anti-Semitic attacks have been committed by anti-boycott Jews against pro-boycott Jews. The Jewish voices that worry about anti-Semitism from the boycott are not coming to the defense of these Jews.

2 It is tokenizing and reductive to consider Jews in one’s community to be the arbiters of acceptable discourse and action on Palestine/Israel.

3 Granting Jews the role of arbiters ignores the thoughts and feelings of Arabs and Muslims in the community who also have a stake in the issue. Jews in the community have been featured prominently in news articles about the Co-op boycott, while Arabs and Muslims in the community have complained about being ignored-or worse, demonized. Supporters of the boycott have been accused of supporting terrorists, Jew-killers, jihadists, Islam-o-fascists, the stoning of women, and female genital mutilation-all sorts of racist and Islamophobic stereotypes.

4 As most Jews in the United States are white while acknowledging that there are many Jews who are not white , and as mainstream US perception of Jews are as whites, this stance gives deference to Jews via white privilege. There is a greater affinity to white Jews within the US mainstream due to shared Judeo-Christian heritage regardless of the existence of Palestinian Christians and greater positive exposure or at least more well-rounded exposure in the media. Thus Jews are easier to identify with than Palestinians, who are viewed as foreign, oriental, exotic, and other. Consequently, the Palestinian stake in the conflict is less perceptible, less understood, and considered less relevant.

5 In fact, Palestinians are rarely mentioned at all in mainstream articles about the boycott, despite the fact that the boycott call originated from Palestinians. The Co-op boycott then becomes a matter that is only relevant to Jews.

6 Jews are perceived as having strong feelings about the boycott, while Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims are not considered to have feelings at all. If their feelings are ever registered, they are dismissed as biased.

7 It reduces the conflict to a Jewish affair-one in which Jews are expected to sort out.

8 Human rights is not strictly a Jewish issue. One should not have to seek Jewish consent before addressing human rights.

The fact that this very article is written by a Vietnamese-American immigrant and not by a white Jew-regardless of my exposure to the Palestine/Israel conflict-may make this article less relevant to some people. This is a difficult discussion to have, particularly coming from a “gentile” like myself. Unfortunately, Palestinian rights and dignity cannot be put on hold until Jews work this out among themselves. To do so only perpetuates the notion that discourse of the Palestine/Israel conflict is “owned” by Jews.

This is also a catch-22 for organizers of the boycott. In order to dispel the notion that a boycott of Israel is inherently anti-Semitic, the organizers had to stress that Jews were closely involved in the organizing. Unfortunately, this meant voices of Palestinians and of Arab and Muslim organizers were marginalized. If Arab and Muslim voices had been stressed, the boycott would be viewed with more skepticism and subjected to more accusations of anti-Semitism-not to mention being subjected to greater racist vitriol on the web.

This does not delegitimize the feelings of Jews who may feel anti-Semitism or who feel uncomfortable at the thought of a boycott. Those feelings are real by virtue of them being felt. The trauma and pain of a legacy of anti-Semitism cannot be dismissed. Yet the problem is when discourse begins and ends with the feelings of Jews-and in particular the feelings of Jews who occupy a certain political position-to the neglect of the feelings of other people, and especially to the feelings of Palestinians who are physically oppressed, and who live and die by the consequences of our actions.

We need to be sensitive to the feelings of people historically oppressed, but that should never be used to ignore or excuse the sufferings of others.

For more frequently asked questions, visit www.olympiabds.org.

Today in Palestine: [if gte mso 9]>-->

Land and Property Theft and Destruction/Ethnic Cleansing

Jerusalem report documents wave of demolitions
Jerusalem – Ma’an – The Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights released a report on Thursday, documenting the demolition of several greenhouses, a car wash and a grocery in the town of Hizma during the two previous days. On Tuesday and Wednesday of the same week, the report said, demolitions were carried out on homes and agricultural buildings, many of which were paying fines for or were in the process of appeals around charges of illegal construction in the area northeast of Jerusalem.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=303692

UN envoy says acts in Jerusalem 'provocative'
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Robert Serry, the UN special envoy to the Middle East peace process, condemned the takeover by armed settlers of a building in occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday. Two Jewish families, protected by Israeli police, entered the building, home to nine Palestinian families, with documents claiming that they owned the property. Israeli National Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said police were examining the documents “to determine whether they are accurate or not."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=303634

Israeli police working with settlers to occupy Palestinian home in the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City, Amanda Klonsky
Yonatan Shapira has sent me the following account of events unfolding at the Kirresh family home in the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem. Settlers from the fanatical group Ateret Cohanim, have taken over the home of a Palestinian family of more than 50 people. The settlers are being protected by Israeli police, who guard the door while the Kirresh family sits outside in the street with no protection.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/israeli-police-working-with-settlers-to-occupy-palestinian-home-in-the-heart-of-jerusalems-old-city.html

More than 200 demonstrate against the buffer-zone near Gaza’s Nahal Oz crossing
Five International Solidarity Movement volunteers participated in a demonstration against the bufferzone near Nahal Oz border crossing, east of Gaza City on Wednesday July 28th . The march had a big turn out of over 200 people and was organised by the Popular Campaign for the Security in the Buffer Zone, an umbrella group which includes organisations representing farmers and local people living near the border. Members of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front PPSF , a grass-roots organisation heavily involved in the protests against the buffer-zone, waved prominent large white flags.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/07/13340/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29

Facing annexation, the West Bank village of al-Walaja looks to ‘Budrus’ for inspiration, Joseph Dana
In the cool summer evening air of the Jerusalem hills last Tuesday evening, hundreds of Palestinians and Israelis descended on the small village of al-Walaja for a screening of the critically acclaimed documentary Budrus. The screening was jointly organized by Israelis and Palestinians who are working to non-violently resist the construction of Israel’s separation barrier on the village’s land.The screening bore special significance for the people of al-Walaja as the film follows the story of a West Bank village’s unarmed struggle against the construction of Israel’s separation barrier on its farmland and its subsequent success in having the route of the wall changed.
http://josephdana.com/2010/07/facing-annexation

‘a bad country’, Philip Weiss
Adam posted this video last night. It's the most important thing on this site, and it's only 2-1/2 minutes long. What else is there to say, besides, Please watch it. And look at the soldiers' Centurionlike shields, and their black getup...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvD-2BsPAQU&feature=player_embedded

Interview with Khalil Alamour, organizer of protest at demolished village
http://theonlydemocracy.org/2010/07/interview-with-khalil-alamour-organizer-of-protest-at-demolished-village/

The Silence of The Bedouins
|The road to al-Hadidiya village in the northeastern West Bank district of Tubas is dotted with boulders etched with a warning in Hebrew, Arabic and English: “Danger - Open Fire Area”. The boulders arrived about six months ago, and are positioned at the entrance to Palestinian villages, indicating that chunks of the Jordan Valley have become a closed military zone claimed by the Israeli army. They signal a further squeeze on the Bedouin communities here. Shepherd Abdul Rahim Bsharat, 59, and his family have lived and farmed in al-Hadidiya since the 1960s. At that time, he said, there were 400-500 families there. Now, there are 17, who stay on despite having no access to water or electricity. Every building in the village has an Israeli demolition order on it. On 21 June, the Israeli military gave Bsharat notice that his house and animal shelters could be destroyed at any time. When Bsharat's house was previously demolished in 2002, his water tank was confiscated too. “If they destroy my property again, I'll come back and rebuild it again. This is my land,” he said.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1498

Solidarity/Activism/Boycott, Sanctions & Divestment
Three Injured 2 Arrested As Troops Attack Wall Protests In The West Bank
Ghassan Bannoura - PNN - Israeli troops attacked on Friday anti wall protests that were organized at a number of locations in the West Bank. Israeli and international supporters joined Palestinian villagers in Bil’in, Nil’in an Nabi Saleh in the central West Bank in addition to Ertass and Al Ma’ssra in the southern West Bank. Israeli troops used tear gas, sound grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets to suppress the protests at several locations. At all four locations protests kicked- off shortly after the midday prayers on Friday and headed towards the Israeli separation wall.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8599

Hundreds to protest razing of Arab village
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Residents and supporters of the Al-Araqib village, where 35 homes were demolished on Tuesday, were preparing for demonstrators on Friday, following calls for a mass protest against the demolitions. Residents say 250 men, women and children were left homeless by the move, when Israeli tractors accompanied by an estimated 1,500 police officers entered the Bedouin village and destroyed homes it said were built illegally.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=303530

Groups urge Clinton to intervene in case of jailed rights defender
Madame Secretary, we respectfully request that your office investigate the arrest, unlawful treatment, and detention of Mr. Makhoul and use its considerable diplomatic influence to bring an end to his arbitrary detention and to ensure that Israel, a leading recipient of US military and economic aid, comply with its commitment under US law and international legal norms.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11431.shtml

We can't turn a blind eye to Israeli human rights abuses
When we talk about the Israel/Palestine conflict, we cannot talk about it in the third person. It is our conflict, as it is our taxpayer dollars that supply Israel’s weapons of war and our diplomatic cover that allows war crimes and human rights abuses to thrive.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/07/29/1281497/we-cant-turn-a-blind-eye-to-israeli.html#ixzz0v7wDaiH4

Jubilation and a symbolic act of resistance to the siege: the Gaza boat race
“I call to the whole world to treat us like everybody else, to break the blockade of the sea and of the whole Gaza Strip, so that people will be able to make a living from the sea again”, states the happy winner of the first Gaza boat race, Jamal Baker. On the 26th July 2010, the race took place near the port of Gaza city, with ten boats participating. The boats sped through three laps, always staying near the coastline from where a cheering crowd followed the action.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/07/13352/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29

Violence and Aggression
Israeli soldiers shoot at 2 Palestinians, injure 1, near checkpoint
Bethlehem – Ma'an - Undercover Israeli soldiers shot at two Palestinians, injuring one, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, witnesses said. According to the witnesses, the undercover forces blocked a car near Atarah checkpoint, shot at two young Palestinian men, and then arrested them.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=303699

Report: Settler violence continues in south Hebron hills
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Israeli settlers destroyed a field of vegetables in a Bedouin village in the southern West Bank on Wednesday night, international peace groups reported. During the night, a report said, a Palestinian farmer from Um Al-Kher village in the south Hebron hills heard noises from his garden, and thought there were animals inside. On inspection, he saw settlers walking through his field, but did not approach them for fear they were armed, he told Christian Peacemaker Teams and Operation Dove, who maintain a presence in the area.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=303761

Shocked by the story behind the headline
Bethlehem – Ma'an – "It was not at all rational, the way it's written in the news; it was chaos," a member of Ma'an's TV crew said after being caught up in the middle of Tuesday's settler violence near Nablus. "With the settlers, you just don't know what they're going to do, who they'll target," she said. A Ma'an van was en route to Nablus to film an episode of a quiz show and had just passed a checkpoint when those inside were introduced firsthand to the unpredictable violence in the northern West Bank.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=303237

Retaliation
Ashkelon Struck By Missile Fire
Qatar’s al-Jazeera network are reporting that a missile fired from the Gaza Strip has struck the south of the Israeli city of Ashkelon.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59214

The Siege Gaza & West Bank /Humanitarian and Human Rights/Restriction of Movement
Two Palestinians injured in a Gaza tunnel
Two Palestinian tunnel workers were injured on Friday during their work inside the tunnel to smuggle essential goods for the besieged Gaza Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Q

U.N. rights body tells Israel to end Gaza blockade
GENEVA Reuters - Israel must lift its military blockade of the Gaza Strip and invite an independent, fact-finding mission to investigate its raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, a United Nations rights body said on Friday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE66T0KY20100730?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

Israel's Barak, UN chief to discuss Gaza, settlements AFP
AFP - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will meet UN chief Ban Ki-moon here Friday to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip and Israel's settlement policy, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said Thursday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100729/wl_mideast_afp/mideastdiplomacyisraelun

Palestinian refugee appeals to Abbas from Jordan
Bethlehem – Ma’an – A Palestinian refugee in Jordan in need of heart surgery asked Palestinian leaders to help. Manar Issa Eid wrote to Ma'an from the Al-Hussein Hospital in Amman, where he is waiting for financial support for surgery, appealing to President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and the health minister to intervene to save his life.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=303737

Israel allows new cars into Gaza
After holding Gaza under siege for more than three years, Israel has said it will finally allow new cars and spare parts into the strip. Residents were relieved, because they have had to buy damaged cars and parts from tunnel smugglers. But a month after the announcement, nothing has arrived because of a dispute between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Some car dealers are also angry because they could be stuck with over-priced inventory brought to Gaza through smuggling which they will not be able to sell. Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston reports from Gaza.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRT1SQuSs00&feature=youtube_gdata

War Crimes
Qana…Where Jesus’s 1st Miracle Turns Bloody
30/07/2010 “We have lived through hell,” Qana resident, Fawzeya Atwi cried. “The people were chopped into pieces by the Israeli bombs. They bleed these people. You should have seen the heads.” “Do you know what the dogs did at night after the killings? They were hungry and I saw them in the ruins eating fingers and pieces of our people,” Atwi said about the Qana massacre during the July 2006 Israeli War on Lebanon. Head of the Red Cross in Tyre Sami Yazbak, who was helping to pull bodies from the ruins, told The Guardian that the first call about the bombing was received at 7 a.m., 6 hours after the bombing took place. He said that previous shelling on the road to Qana had delayed the arrival of Red Cross personnel. Yazbak said that “many of the children who were sleeping inside were handicapped.”
http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=148433&language=en

Israel's Arab Helpers and Friends
Egyptian police shoot Eritrean migrant at border
ISMAILIA Egypt, July 29 Reuters - Egyptian police shot dead an Eritrean migrant as he tried to cross the Egyptian-Israeli border, medical and security sources said on Thursday. In the second killing this week, the 28-year-old migrant was shot twice in the chest after he ignored orders to stop and fled towards Israel along the central Sinai border, the sources said.
http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFLDE66S23V20100729

Egyptian security says arms store seized
Al-Arish – Ma'an – Egyptian security forces said officers located a weapons storehouse in the northern Sinai south of Al-Arish on Friday, and said they believed the goods were destined for the Gaza Strip. Police uncovered what a report described as a three-meter deep hole near a small warehouse, and said the hole was filled with munitions and weaponry. The store was found in the Beir Lahfan area in the northern Sinai, which police said was being searched as a routine action, as the area is known as a smuggling hotbed.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=303764

MESS Report / From lynch to escort - cooperating with the PA is bearing fruit
Radical change in level of security coordination between Israel and the PA in the West Bank has allowed the government to make more confidence-building gestures tot he Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/mess-report/mess-report-from-lynch-to-escort-cooperating-with-the-pa-is-bearing-fruit-1.304895?localLinksEnabled=false

Jordan Trade Unions Slam Visit of “Criminal” Netanyahu
28/07/2010 Jordan's trade unions on Wednesday strongly condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Jordan, describing him as a "criminal." "At a time when the Zionist enemy is killing our people in Palestine and destroying their homes, as well as planning schemes against Jordan's security, officials receive Netanyahu the criminal in Amman," head of the unions' council Ahmad Armuti said in a statement. "The trade unions completely reject this visit and hold the government responsible for its political and public responsibilities, in line with the constitution." Netanyahu held a two-hour meeting with King Abdullah II on a surprise visit to Jordan on Tuesday in a bid to convince Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to upgrade Middle East peace talks.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=148200&language=en

Political/Other Developments
Hamas slams Arab backing for Israel talks AFP
AFP - Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal slammed Arab leaders for endorsing the resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, in comments published by Al-Jazeera on Friday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100730/wl_mideast_afp/mideastdiplomacyarabisraelhamas

'Abbas to give negotiations green light by September'
Western diplomats estimate Palestinian president to reverse position, agree to direct talks within month. 'What he says in public is not necessarily what he says in private,' official source states.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3927234,00.html

Abbas resists US pressure for immediate talks with Israel
Arab nations yesterday backed the Palestinian President's refusal to immediately restart direct talks with Israel despite heavy US pressure.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/abbas-resists-us-pressure-for-immediate-talks-with-israel-2039090.html

US 'encouraged' by Arab support for Mideast talks AFP
AFP - The United States said Thursday it was "encouraged" by signs of Arab support for the resumption of direct Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100729/pl_afp/mideastdiplomacyarabisraelus

Arab League wants US guarantees
The Arab League has declined to endorse an immediate resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, saying it needs further guarantees from the United States before approving talks. Arab foreign ministers said at a meeting in Cairo on Thursday that they agreed in principle to the direct talks, but only subject to certain "measures and conditions". "There is agreement, but [it is] agreement over the principles of what will be discussed and the manner of the direct negotiations," said Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, the Qatari foreign minister. Amr Moussa, the Arab League secretary-general, said that direct negotiations should be preceded by "written guarantees" from the United States, particularly on the subject of Israeli settlements.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2010/07/2010729131010374952.html

Clinton “burning up phone lines” to Middle East
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been “burning up the phone lines” the past five days to try and lay the groundwork for a transition from indirect to direct Israel-Palestinian peace talks, aides say. Clinton’s phone calls with Arab and Israeli leaders come in advance of a meeting Thursday of Arab foreign ministers to decide if they will give their blessing to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for direct talks with the Israelis, rather than U.S.-mediated proximity talks.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/laurarozen/0710/Clinton_burning_up_phone_lines_to_Middle_East_.html?showall

Mash'al: International parties against conciliation
Gaza – Ma'an – Hamas prefers not to bow to international pressure, it will remain steadfast and work to change the rules of the game, the party's politburo chief in Damascus Khalid Mash'al told reporters in Qatar on Thursday. Accusing "international parties" of being opposed to Palestinian unity, Mash'al brushed off the Arab League's decision to support direct peace talks between the Fatah-lead government in the West Bank and Israel, saying it was a move to boost the standing of the league in the west.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=303798

Other News
Blair's undisclosed business dealings conflict with Quartet role
Tony Blair's relationship with one of the world's richest men poses a clear and significant conflict of interest with his duties as Quartet envoy. Adri Nieuwhof reports.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11424.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29

East Jerusalem's perfect spot for secret spy meetings
Considered one of the best boutique hotels in the Middle East, the American Colony has served for decades as a meeting place for politicians, journalists, diplomats and spies.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/east-jerusalem-s-perfect-spot-for-secret-spy-meetings-1.304887?localLinksEnabled=false

Gaza children set new kite flying world record
7,202 children fly as many kites to enter Guinness Book of World Records as part of UN-run summer camp.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/gaza-children-set-new-kite-flying-world-record-1.304873?localLinksEnabled=false

Hip-hop, breakdancing and parkour: Gaza's underground youth culture
Creativity is blooming, sometimes clashing with traditional Gaza social codes or Hamas' standards of acceptable behavior.
http://www.haaretz.com/culture/hip-hop-breakdancing-and-parkour-gaza-s-underground-youth-culture-1.304763

If they were Muslim, the New York Times would cover these items
Anti-gay protesters: Sick perverts - get out of Jerusalem
Eighth Jerusalem Gay Pride parade marches amid growing tensions with rightist protesters.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/anti-gay-protesters-sick-perverts-get-out-of-jerusalem-1.304824?localLinksEnabled=false

Sokolow's niece 'not Jewish enough' to marry here
After being told she needed to prove the Jewishness of her maternal lineage for four generations, Hillary Rubin is questioning her decision to move to Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/sokolow-s-niece-not-jewish-enough-to-marry-here-1.304882

Rabbi clashes with Israeli embassy in Washington over Western Wall arrest
Modern Orthodox rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld enraged by Israeli silence over arrest of woman whose crime was holding a Torah scroll.
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/rabbi-clashes-with-israeli-embassy-in-washington-over-western-wall-arrest-1.304852?localLinksEnabled=false

Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest
Don't deny our rights: open letter to Mahmoud Abbas
No Palestinian institution or leader has ever accepted an exclusive Jewish claim to Palestine, which is irreconcilable with the internationally recognized rights of the Palestinian people. Our rights inhere in us as a people; they are not yours to do with as you please.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11433.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29

Gaza -- only appeals
Managing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the failure of peace negotiations topped the agenda in Cairo this week. Dina Ezzat assesses prospects for movement on either track
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/1008/eg1.htm

What's in a name? In a racist society, everything
A young Jewish Israeli woman and a young Palestinian Jerusalemite had consensual sex. Afterwards, the Jewish woman discovered that her partner was in fact not Jewish at all, but horror of horror, a Palestinian. But there was more, the Palestinian had called himself "Dudu," his nickname, but one most often used by Israeli Jews, and from this the young woman concluded she had been deliberately deceived and in fact raped. Richard Irvine comments for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11432.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29

A barely tolerated minority
All Palestinian political activity more radical than a Cub Scout meeting is illegal in East Jerusalem.
http://www.haaretz.com/magazine/week-s-end/a-barely-tolerated-minority-1.304982

Some Israelis celebrate what Bernadotte’s murder achieved, Philip Weiss
Larry Derfner has a great piece in the JPost laying out the hypocrisy of Israel's extolling terrorists while condemning Palestinians when they do the same. It's a wonderful argument, but for me what leaped out was the Bernadotte bit. Consider, that Count Bernadotte, who saved Jews from the Nazis during the war, wanted to internationalize Jerusalem, as Herzl had promised it would be, and get the Palestinian refugees back to their homes, and more equitably divide historical Palestine than the division created by the armistice. Well Bernadotte was killed; and as you can see in this piece, some Israelis love it that he was killed. And of course we are still dealing with the injustice of the resulting arrangement.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/some-israelis-celebrate-what-bernadottes-murder-achieved.html

The rich tapestry of Israeli apartheid, Jonathan Cook
The recent announcement that Palestinian communities in Israel will be provided with a bus service for the first time since Israel’s founding – that is, in 62 years – surprised observers who had not realised second-class citizenship also extends to being deprived of a bus line. People often object to the comparison of Israel within the Green Line to apartheid South Africa. After all, there are no segregated park benches or buses apart from those kosher lines that the Haredi vigilantes patrol . True enough, but who needs to segregate buses on an ethnic basis if they are simply not provided to Palestinian communities in the first place? A couple of interesting elements to this story, however, have been missed in the telling.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/the-rich-tapestry-of-israeli-apartheid.html

In ‘FT,’ Oxford chancellor calls on EU to step in before strangulation of Palestine leads to ‘further disaster’, Philip Weiss
Lord Chris Patten, chancellor of Oxford University, president of Medical Aid for Palestinians, has an important piece in the Financial Times describing the cruel reality built by the peace process. Patten is consummate British establishment: Britain's former EU commissioner, the last governor-general of Hong Kong. And a Tory. A real indication of the deep shift underway in global opinion. There's a firewall/registration at the FT. I've excerpted a lot of the piece below.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/ft-author-calls-on-eu-to-step-in-before-strangulation-of-palestinian-society-leads-to-further-disaster.html

Not a Palestinian to be seen in W. Post piece on Occupied West Bank, Philip Weiss
You want two states? You get a gold star! But it's one state right now, folks. A Washington Post piece on a baptismal site for Christians in the Jordan River in the Occupied West Bank quotes only Israelis, Gidon Bromberg, and Eli Dror of "Israel's Nature and Parks Authority", who treat the site as part of Israel.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/not-a-palestinian-to-be-seen-in-w-post-piece-on-occupied-west-bank.html

Fida Qishta’s film about Gaza, Philip Weiss
An essential part of breaking the siege on Gaza, Gelman went on, is allowing Palestinians to tell us the Gaza story, and then she introduced a young Gazan named Fida Qishta, and her film about the attack on Gaza of 08-09 called "Where Should the Birds Fly."
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/fida-qishtas-film-about-gaza.html

Twilight Zone / Taybeh revisited, Gideon Levy
The Taybeh American Association holds its annual convention in the West Bank, with hundreds of Palestinian-Americans exploring their roots in the Christian village. Taybeh looks very small, they say, compared to Los Angeles
http://www.haaretz.com/magazine/friday-supplement/twilight-zone-taybeh-revisited-1.303603

I’m going back to Gaza, Susan Johnson
The night before my group departed from Gaza in June 2009, I talked about not being ready to leave. And I wasn't. It took me another two months after I got back to pull out of my "Gaza Haze" and begin to function again. I met with my Congressman's Director of Outreach, and he advised me to talk, talk, talk about my experience in Gaza. A year ago I put together a presentation and began speaking before groups. I thought about Gaza numerous times throughout the day, and still do. The devastation in Gaza was a shock. I wasn't prepared for how total the destruction was. I continue to wonder how the people of Gaza manage with so much loss: jobs, homes, farms, schools, hospitals, fire stations, police stations, play grounds, stores...and most difficult loss of all, people-- family, friends, neighbors.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/im-going-back-to-gaza.html

We shall be as dreamers, Yossi Sarid
Haaretz "The Palestinians` starting position is better than ours: They have fulfilled most of their obligations under the road map peace plan, while we have not removed even one of the illegal outposts we were supposed to dismantle."
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/we-shall-be-as-dreamers-1.304919

DAM: between bombs and beats
We are living in Palestine. Our history, our culture, our everything is Palestinian. — Mahmoud Jreri of DAM, “I see myself as a fisherman,” says Suhell Nafar, a member of DAM, the leading Palestinian hip-hop group. “Today, I fished a few fish who didn’t know anything and now know a little thing. Maybe now when they see the TV news, they will think differently about it. Maybe they will go on the Internet and learn about it.” Suhell was speaking at last weekend’s WOMAD music festival, minutes after DAM had given a passionate performance in front of a big crowd. “There were thousands of people at the concert screaming ‘Free Palestine’. Most of them have never heard about Palestine, and now they know something.”
http://pulsemedia.org/2010/07/29/dam-between-bombs-and-beats/

The press baron who's making news in Israel
It is the brash upstart on the Israeli media scene with money to burn and already with a reputation it's trying to shed. Israel Hayom, a free newspaper that for the first time has stormed to the front of Israel's circulation battle, is such a strong backer of the prime minister that its critics call it "Bibiton" – a play on the nickname of Benjamin Netanyahu. In addition to the editorial line, the impression is compounded by the fact that founder and financier, the US Jewish billionaire Sheldon Adelson, is one of the premier's close friends.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-press-baron-whos-making-news-in-israel-2039091.html

Iraq
Thursday: 34 Iraqis Killed, 60 Wounded
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said he is wagering that sectarian violence will not surge after a massive reduction of U.S. combat troops next month. Ahead of that withdrawal, the violence continues. At least 34 Iraqis were killed and 60 more were wounded across the country. Security forces were targeted in several cities.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/07/29/thursday-34-iraqis-killed-60-wounded/

Vying for top government post delays formation of new Iraqi government
Disagreements on who should be the next prime minister are delaying the formation of the new Iraqi government. The winners and losers of the last general elections held four months ago want to have the post of the prime minister, according to Addnan al-Shamkhani,]]> http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/wiki-leaks-is-israel.html Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:33:00 +0200 MSM Monitor http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/ http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/wiki-leaks-is-israel.html Wiki-Leaks is Israel like we all didn’t know

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
Veterans Today

Now “Wiki-Leaks” is busy selling phony bin Laden stories, having the long dead Osama humiliating the CIA by running around villages in Afghanistan selling vacuum cleaners. What is our “leak” site really about? This is a dead news cycle. The World Cup is over, lots of people on holiday and no major stories. Only in a dead news period like this, as Oliver Stone pointed out, could the Israeli controlled media dump a pile of lame rumors mixed in with box loads of chickenfeed, passing it off as the story of the century.

Even the cover story, the mysterious Assange fleeing the murderous CIA, working to save the world is lame. WikiLeaks is lame. Please, everyone, go to the site and read everything there. I have seen more confidential information on a weather report. Assange is hardly a James Bond figure. Woody Allen is masculine in comparison.

Journalists all get leaks, and frankly, we don’t print most of them. Some we can’t trust. Some are just too dangerous. Some are simply illegal. Some are blatantly self serving Israeli propaganda coated with a veneer of anti-Americanism. This is “Wiki-leaks” material. What is important is what they don’t print. The only things that come out about Israel, the country most vulnerable to leaks, the country always up to the most skullduggery, is an occasional harmless story like their major leak on East Jerusalem settlements. It hit the New York Times first.

When you read Mr. Assange’s output, you are looking at one of the Mossad games, nothing more. They send some stories to Fox News, some to CNN, some to the Washington Post or London Times. They have their pick as their friends and co-workers own those outlets and so many more. The game today is using Wikileaks, given its 15 minutes of fame for trashing the US in Iraq with the helicopter video, to spread imaginary stories about Pakistan, the only nuclear power in the Middle East capable of standing up to Israel and the enemy of India.

India is what it is all really about. Israel is playing India for a fall, drawing them into their games the way they did with the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. India will wake up with their government bought off, blackmailed, up to their neck in wars and insurgencies at home and fighting Israel’s enemies abroad. India is the next real target for rape, destruction, destabilization by Israel and our “Wiki-leak” is part of that game.

[NB: If you aren’t already aware: India is by far Israel’s strongest ally in that hemisphere. Do your research; you’ll be shocked by the plethora of joint manufacturing and development programs currently going on between these two countries. Oh, and the Mumbai bombing: Absolutely a Mossad-RAW-CIA false flag]...

Another chosen victim, of course, is the United States, hated enemy of Israel, not for public consumption, however. Check the names of those who looted the American economy. In the top dresser drawer of 80% of those who took the US into bankruptcy, you will find an Israeli passport.

Did anyone ask why nothing was reported in 90,000 pages regarding the massive drug dealing in Afghanistan? With stories in the press around the world reporting that President Karzai and his brother are the biggest druglords in the world, why would this not be mentioned? Is it because Karzai is a good friend of the Indo-Israeli alliance that runs Wiki-leaks?

Classified Army documents are filled to the brim with reports that the CIA and their private contractors are involved in drug operations with Karzai but also other names are named including many prominent Americans, some members of congress. I won’t leak their names but I know they are in the documents. If Wiki got what they say they got, then most of their documents would have reported corruption, drug dealing, governments of a dozen countries would have been mentioned.

If real leaks were made public and we did something about it, first by arresting the gangsters and spies filling congress, the White House and every federal agency, we might balance our budget but who would be left to do the Sunday morning talk shows? If you want the names of those who would really be on leaked documents, check your TV listings. It isn’t a coincidence. Those chosen to lie on television are also being paid for other duties as well.

Israel would have been cited for laundering drug money for the Taliban. It is in the documents. I didn’t release them. That is illegal.

BG Asif Haroon Raja of Pakistan, former Attache to Egypt and respected intelligence analyst had the following to say about the Wiki barrage:

“Unsubstantiated and fabricated allegations against Pakistan and its premier institutions are so absurd and decayed that it gives nausea to the reader. Only ones who enjoy the stale jokes are its manufacturers or the game players. ISI-Taliban closeness has been drummed up in such a manner as if it is the biggest sin ever committed. Each time it is presented with a new flavor to make it look more breathtaking. This unholy practice has been going on systematically and incessantly for the last six years to condition the minds of the world audience and to convert falsehood into truth. Story of this nature is routinely published in western media every fortnightly.

In the last few months write ups on this subject have suddenly gained impetus. Previously, accusations were in the form of allegations made by newspapers and think tanks. Now top US civil and military officials have jumped into the arena with loins girded up and have started using high handed tactics openly without caring for diplomatic decorum. Propaganda assault together with verbal assaults by visiting officials and drone attacks have become a norm. They have become xenophobic and overbearing. This can be gauged from the mood of the three US visitors who visited Islamabad recently.
Prickly Hillary Clinton can see ghost of Osama sauntering in Pakistan each time she lands in Pakistan . Through her lens she sees ISI in cahoots with Taliban. She again reminded our harried rulers that any attack on US homeland with connection to Pakistan would have devastating consequences upon Pak-US relations. She conceitedly dangled few carrots to make them do more. Grim looking Holbrooke and tense ridden Adm. Mike Mullen harbored similar ideas. The trio wanted Pak Army to cut off its entire links with Taliban, consider Indians as friends and to promptly launch an operation in North Waziristan to chase out Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba LeT , the two outfits most dreaded by USA . LeT has been put on the hit list to please India .

Wikileaks is a follow up of London Report and some of the objectives behind it are to keep Pakistan pressured and cornered, authenticate Indian allegations about ISI’s involvement in various acts of terror in Afghanistan, demonise LeT and defame ISI, exert pressure on Obama Administration to affect a change in its policy of softness towards Pakistan, reconciliation with Taliban and withdrawal of coalition forces. India together with Northern Alliance and pro-war American senior officials are possibly behind the Wikileaks scandal. This report is less harmful for Pakistan and more injurious for USA since source reports on Pakistan mostly provided by RAAM and RAW agents were never taken seriously by the receivers. Receiving officers have been noting their remarks on such reports as lacking in authenticity, biased and devoid of credibility. Moreover, such manipulated leakages would further widen rather than build trust gap between USA and Pakistan .”

By ANTHONY DIMAGGIO, CounterPunch

The European Union is imposing more severe sanctions on Iran, while U.S. leaders debate whether they should officially support an Israeli military attack. The cavalier nature of “debates” concerning Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons development assume that it is the right of the U.S. and its allies to do whatever they want to Iran, whenever they want, however they want. This is a recipe not only for criminal aggression, but devastation and imperial terror on a massive scale.

European sanctions against Iran seek to target the country’s energy, trade, and banking industries by blocking dozens of individuals and companies from doing any business with the country. The sanctions are described by the BBC as some of “the most far reaching sanctions adopted by the EU against any country.” The export of equipment and technology needed for refining and producing natural gas are prohibited, while money transfers from European countries to Iran of more than 10,000 Euros will be subject to the approval of national officials.

Republicans in the House of Representatives have introduced a new bill that would grant “support for the State of Israel’s right to defend Israeli sovereignty, to protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, and to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the use of military force if no other peaceful solution can be found within reasonable time.” Those who are unsure about a looming attack will no doubt remind Americans that speculation over U.S. or Israeli attacks on Iran have been commonplace for years. This is no doubt true, although it ignores the fact that a Congressional bill represents a new precedent – it’s a radical, yet formal step, toward making war with Iran a reality. Also, war may be one step closer in light of comments from Democratic Vice President Joe Biden, who announced this month that “Israel won’t attack Iran before sanctions [are] allowed to work.”

As Haaretz reports, the former CIA chief, Michael Hayden, is also now warning that "military action against Iran now seems more likely because no matter what the U.S. does diplomatically, Tehran keeps pushing ahead with its suspected nuclear program." In his own words, Hayden explained that during the Bush years, "a strike was way down on the list of options," but now such an attack "seems inexorable....In my personal thinking, I have begun to consider that that [a military strike] may not be the worst of all possible outcomes."

The “soft” approach to dealing with Iran – as represented by the EU sanctions – is likely to further worsen relations with the country, preventing any effective future negotiations. Suzanne Maloney, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution warns that “It’s almost impossible to find anyone here in Washington who believes sanctions will make any difference…the Iranian leadership has demonstrated that under pressure they are most averse to compromise.” Of course, “compromise” through “negotiations” has never been the U.S. goal, either under Bush or Obama.

The Bush administration long maintained that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program would not move forward unless Iran agreed in advance to end its enrichment of uranium currently being developed to power its first nuclear power plant, which is still in development . Obama also initially made the suspension of enrichment a precondition for negotiations once assuming office. These expectations on the part of Bush and Obama were always unrealistic and appear designed to derail negotiations. As former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix argued, Iran was faced with a “neocolonial attitude” on the part of U.S. officials: “Iranians have resisted all the time saying, no, we are willing to talk about the suspension of enrichment, but we are not for suspension before talks. I would be surprised if a poker player would toss away his trump card before he sits down at the table. Who does that?”

The “halting uranium enrichment in advance of talks” precondition was dropped in April 2009, and by late in the year Obama was pushing a new round of “negotiations” in which U.S. officials demanded that Iran ship its uranium to Russia and France for enrichment prior to returning it for use in Iran’s civilian program. Of course, these “negotiations” were disingenuous in that at no point did the U.S. promise that the shipping of Iran’s uranium would be accompanied by a reduction or end to sanctions. Quite the contrary, the talk in late 2009 was always geared toward promoting stronger sanctions. As the Washington Post reported in October, preliminary talks between Iranian and American officials were seen merely as “reduc[ing] for now the threat of additional sanctions, which has been made repeatedly by the United States and others over the past weeks.”

Further obstacles to negotiations should be obvious enough, although they’ve been ignored by U.S. officials and journalists. The continued U.S. and Israeli threats to bomb Iran were never removed during the “negotiations,” meaning that Iran was essentially being forced into concessions at the point of a gun. Additionally, the U.S. talk of intensifying sanctions shortly before the meeting, and subsequent support for additional sanctions leveled this year by the EU, are hardly signs that it is serious about pushing for reconciliation or a meeting of the minds.

U.S. assumptions that Iran should concede on major points of negotiation prior to an agreement, in order to remove the threat of regime change and escalating sanctions, are nonsensical at a time when Iran’s only bargaining chip is its continued enrichment of uranium. Why would Iranian leaders give up their only leverage point without an explicit promise to end the sanctions? Why end the enrichment of uranium if U.S. officials aren’t willing to concurrently end threats of a military strike? These questions should be addressed by anyone who wants to have a serious discussion about U.S.-Iranian relations. That these questions are ignored in U.S. discourse is a sign of how far our intellectual culture has deteriorated under the umbrella of U.S. nationalism and imperial expansion.

Anthony DiMaggio is the editor of media-ocracy www.media-ocracy.com , a daily online magazine devoted to the study of media, public opinion, and current events. He is the author of When Media Goes to War 2010 and Mass Media, Mass Propaganda 2008 . He can be reached at: mediaocracy@gmail.com

The mayhem serves as a stark warning that insurgents are trying to make a comeback....

A day before the Azamiyah attack, Vice President Joe Biden predicted there would not be an extreme outbreak of sectarian violence in Iraq as all but 50,000 US forces leave the country at the end of August. He said the American troops left behind would be more than enough to help Iraqi forces maintain security.

“I can’t guarantee anything, but I’m willing to bet everything that there will be no such explosion,’’ Biden said on NBC’s “Today’’ show.

Well, he would know!

CIA calling off the "CIA-Duh" dogs, Joe?

Still, the Obama administration is keeping a wary eye on Iraq’s security. White House officials said Biden is sending two of his top national security advisers to Baghdad this weekend to help push along Iraq’s stalled political process in a sign of impatience and concern that sectarian tensions could escalate as the American forces withdraw.

It has been more than four months since Iraq’s March 7 election, with little indication that a government can be formed before the Muslim holiday of Ramadan begins in mid-August and brings a halt to business in much of the Middle East.

We have to learn more about these Muslim holidays, America.

Whadda ya' mean business comes to a halt? Unimaginable!

As politicians bicker, Iraqis point to such violent attacks as yesterday’s as a clear indication that terror groups are trying to use the instability to regroup....

Uh-huh.

--more--"

Gee, AmeriKa's jewspapers seem like "Al-CIA-Duh" all the time, huh?

Well, I'm sick of the tune.

CAIRO — Egypt said yesterday that it has received US assurances that may help in restarting direct peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel.

Suleiman Awwad, Egyptian presidential spokesman, did not disclose details of the US assurances, which were made on the eve of a crucial Arab League meeting to determine the future of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president, is under intense international pressure to restart direct peace talks with Israel frozen in 2008.

Yeah, by USrael!

Arab foreign ministers will meet today to consider the matter of direct talks, potentially adding more pressure on the Palestinian president.

Abbas has insisted he will upgrade the current US-mediated indirect talks with Israel only if it agrees to halt settlement construction and accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.

Not happening, so we will see if Abass bends to USraeli will and shreds what little cred he had left with Palestinians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has refused to be pinned down on a framework for negotiations.

Well, sort of:

"all of the homes being built are in large settlement blocs that Israel expects to retain under any future peace deal"

"Netanyahu’s coalition.... opposes any division of Jerusalem."

Aren't those PRECONDITIONS?

This week the Associated Press obtained a Palestinian document that revealed that Mitchell warned Abbas that if he does not agree to direct talks, President Obama will not be able to help the Palestinians achieve a state of their own....

Yeah, the PALESTINIAN gets the WARNING!

Awwad said President Hosni Mubarak has received a letter from Obama, followed by calls from Vice President Joe Biden and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, all signaling a US commitment to establish a Palestinian state....

Netanyahu, in a speech Tuesday in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said a Palestinian state must be demilitarized and recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

So WHEN is ISRAEL going to DEMILITARIZE, huh?

Related: Israel's Occupation Forever

That is the whole point of all this BS!

He also demanded undefined security arrangements....

But HIS DEMANDS and UNDEFINED PRECONDITIONS illicit NO WARNING from the U.S.

After about two and a half years during which the danger of war between the US and Iran was at a relatively low level, this threat is now rapidly increasing. A pattern of political and diplomatic events, military deployments, and media chatter now indicates that Anglo-US ruling circles, acting through the troubled Obama administration, are currently gearing up for a campaign of bombing against Iran, combined with special forces incursions designed to stir up rebellions among the non-Persian nationalities of the Islamic Republic. Naturally, the probability of a new fake Gulf of Tonkin incident or false flag terror attack staged by the Anglo-US war party and attributed to Iran or its proxies is also growing rapidly. The moment in the recent past when the US came closest to attacking Iran was Aug-Sep 2007, at about the time of the major Israeli bombing raid on Syria. See: Webster Tarpley, Cheney Determined To Strike In US With WMD This Summer, Jul 21 2007 . This was the phase during which the Cheney faction in effect hijacked a fully loaded B-52 bomber equipped with six nuclear-armed cruise missiles, and attempted to take it to the Middle East outside of the command and control of the Pentagon, presumably to be used in a colossal provocation designed by the private rogue network for which Cheney was the visible face. It was very significant that US institutional forces acted at that time to prevent the rogue B-52 from proceeding on its way towards the Middle East. The refusal to let the rogue B-52 take off reflected a growing consensus in the US military-intelligence community and the ruling elite in general that the Bush-Cheney-neocon policy of direct military aggression towards all comers had become counterproductive and very dangerous, running the risk of a terminal case of imperial overstretch. A prominent spokesman for the growing disaffection with the neocons was Zbigniew Brzezinski, who had been a national security director in the Carter administration. Brzezinski argued that no more direct military attacks by the US should be made for the time being, and that US policy should rather focus on playing off other states against each other, while the US remained somewhat aloof. Brzezinski’s model was always his own successful playing of the Soviet Union against Afghanistan in 1979, leading to the collapse of the Soviet empire a decade later. A centerpiece of Brzezinski’s argument was evidently the claim that color revolutions on the model of Ukraine 2004 were much a better tool than the costly and dangerous US bombing and US invasion always championed by the monomaniacal neocons. There was clearly an implication that Brzezinski could deliver a color revolution in Iran, as he had done in Ukraine.

Brzezinski formulated his critique of the neocon methods of aggression and imperialistic geopolitics in his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Feb 2007, going so far as to point out the likely scenario of a false flag event or Gulf of Tonkin incident designed to embroil the US in direct military hostilities with Iran. The heart of Brzezinski’s analysis was this:

If the US continues to be bogged down in a protracted bloody involvement in Iraq, the final destination on this downhill track is likely to be a head-on conflict with Iran and with much of the world of Islam at large. A plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran involves Iraqi failure to meet the benchmarks; followed by accusations of Iranian responsibility for the failure; then by some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran; culminating in a “defensive” US military action against Iran that plunges a lonely US into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Today we could add Lebanon and Syria to that list, plus perhaps Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, and some others in central Asia. The factors contributing to the current increased danger level include three major trends:

I. The US-sponsored Green Movement in Iran has now demonstrably failed in its project of overthrowing the Ahmadinejad government. Back in 2006-2007, the Brzezinski-Nye-Trilateral “soft power” or “smart power” group attacked the stupidity of the neocon plan for a direct US military attack on Iran by pointing out the opportunities for staging a color revolution in Iran, just as the Brzezinski faction had successfully staged the Orange Revolution to install NATO puppets in Ukraine. Why attack Iran directly, argued Brzezinski and his friends, when a US puppet regime in Teheran could be used against Russia and China in much the same way these same people had played Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, with catastrophic results of the latter? The apex of these subversion efforts came in Jun 2009, with the so-called Twitter Revolution, which was celebrated with hysterical gloating in the Anglo-US media. The Mousavi-Rafsanjani faction left no doubt about its CIA and MI6 parentage with its signature chant of “Death to Russia, Death to China.” The illusion of an easy coup in Iran has died hard in Washington and London. But by Jun 2010, the impotence of the Green forces in Iran had become evident. Hillary Clinton is even complaining that Ahmadinejad now represents a military-backed government which has marginalized the mullahs, whom the US has demonized in public but privately relied on to prevent the economic modernization of Iran. This gives rise to the tendency to fall back on the previous neocon plan for some combination of direct military attack by Israel and the US, combined with escalated subversion efforts among the Baluchis, Azeris, Arabs, Turkmen, and Kurds of Iran.

II. During the time that the neocons were attempting to launch aggression against Iran, that task was rendered much more difficult by pervasive uncertainty about the possible reaction of Russia. One of the targets of any bombing campaign against Iran would necessarily be the Bushehr nuclear reactor, being built by Russian technicians. Neocon war planners had to worry about events like the visit to Tehran of Russian Pres Putin on Oct 16 2007. During the Putin era, Russian media and figures like Gen Ivashov took the lead in calling attention to sudden increases in US-UK war preparations, as in the case of Operation Byte, the attack on Iran proposed for Apr 6 2007. See: Webster Tarpley, Operation Bite Apr 6 Sneak Attack By US Forces On Iran Planned, Russian Military Sources Warn, Mar 25 2007 . While it was thought very unlikely that Russia would risk general war as a result of an attack on Iran, there remained nevertheless the question as to what Russia actually would do. This dangerous uncertainty was a very serious obstacle for the pro-war agitation by the neocons. In this way, Putin was able to make a decisive contribution to the maintenance of world peace during the years after 9/11. As of mid-2010, it would appear that the foreign policy of Russian Pres Medvedev is momentarily evolving away from the fierce independence and Russian nationalism championed by Putin, and is placing more value on projects of cooperation with the NATO countries, sometimes obtained by unilateral concessions to the US. Part of this can be ascribed to the increasing influence of the free market ideologue Anatoly Chubais, the architect of the nomenklatura privatization of Soviet state property during the 1990s, whose concept of the modernization of the Russian economy depends very heavily on information technology, in which he portrays the US as being in the lead. Roger McDermott, in Kremlin Contemplates a Seismic Shift in Russian Foreign Policy, Newsweek, May 31 2010, has reported the approval of a new foreign policy outline drafted by the Russian foreign ministry which has allegedly gained provisional approval by Medvedev. This document is entitled “Program for the Effective Exploitation on A Systemic Basis of Foreign Policy Factors for the Purposes of the Long-Term Development of the Russian Federation.” The main immediate effect of the reported new Russian policy is the apparent willingness of the Kremlin to make important foreign policy concessions to the US with very minimal returns. This in turn means that key unknowns surrounding a US attack on Iran have become less of a concern for the resurgent neocon war faction in Washington. This adds up to a situation in which an attack on Iran is now more likely.

III. It is a grave error to imagine that normal relations with the Anglo-US financiers can be obtained in the current world depression through conciliatory behavior. The US-UK are experiencing cataclysmic instability in the form of a financial breakdown crisis, and this crisis impels these powers towards irrational, adventuristic, and aggressive behavior. A key lesson of the 1930s is that, when imperialist financier elites are faced by a disintegration of their fictitious speculative bubbles, they often respond with strategic flights forward of the most lunatic sort. In the wake of the 2007-2008 disintegration of the Anglo-US banking system, the New York and London elites have shown signs of going collectively bonkers, although these clinical tendencies have been primarily expressed in the area of their reactionary domestic socioeconomic policies. The specific form assumed by this tendency after the second half of 2008 involves the severe weakening of the US dollar as the world reserve currency by the creation of a $24,000b credit line by the Federal Reserve, US Treasury, and FDIC for the purpose of bailing out the Wall Street zombie banks. This tidal wave of dollars led to a severe weakening of the US greenback on international markets during most of the second half of 2009. In late 2009 and early 2010 a group of Anglo-US hedge funds around Soros, Paulson, David Einhorn, and others launched a speculative attack against the government bonds of Greece, Spain, and Portugal, with the goal of using a crisis in the southern tier of the euro to bring on a panic flight of hot money out of the euro, thus collapsing that currency to Third World levels. Partly because of the countermeasures instituted by the German government, including the banning of naked credit default swaps on Euroland bonds and naked shorts of German stocks, and partly thanks to direct support from China, the planned Anglo-US blitzkrieg against the euro has now bogged down after eight months of effort, with the euro currently oscillating at a price of about $1.25-$1.30. This means that, unless the city of London and Wall Street can come up with a new plan, the forces of world economic depression represented by $1,500,000b of bankrupt and kited derivatives may now find a new victim, most likely in the form of either the British pound or the US dollar. The immediate threat of a pound or dollar currency collapse is leading the ruling financier factions to reconsider a very dangerous flight forward in the form of an attack on Iran, precisely because such an aggression would likely lead to a blocking of the Straits of Hormuz, or in any case to a serious disruption of one third of the world’s tanker traffic. Following the tested model of the Kippur war/oil boycott of Oct 1973, the US-UK financiers would bid up the price of oil to $500 or $1000 per barrel, thus creating enough demand for dollars to soak up much of the dollar overhang and prop up the greenback, at least for a time. As Réseau Voltaire’s Jean-Michel Vernochet has pointed out in La guerre d’Iran aura-t-elle lieu?, the likely Iranian retaliation for the looming attack in terms of interdicting Hormuz and the Gulf is actually built into the US-UK war plan as a positive contribution towards saving the dollar by massively driving up the price of oil, which is of course still quoted mainly in dollars. Energy and Capital editor Christian DeHaemer, an oil market analyst, warned in his newsletter:

The last oil price shock in the Middle East was in 1990, when the US invaded Iraq for invading Kuwait. The price per barrel of oil went from $21 to $28 on Aug 6 to $46 by mid-October. The looming Iran War is not priced in.

He added that Iran has the third-highest oil reserves in the world and is second only to Saudi Arabia in production. If any action prevents the flow of Iranian oil, the price of “black gold” would soar.

One important prerequisite for US aggression grows out of the Trilateral group’s strategy, starting from the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group of 2006, of forming a block of the Sunni Arab nations against the Persian-speaking Iranian Shiites and their allies in the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas, as well as Syria. The Anglo-US hope for this tactic of divide and conquer is that hostility between Arabs and Persians will eclipse the more recent enmity between Jews and Arabs. Jeffrey Goldberg wrote on the Atlantic’s website:

The Jews and Arabs have been fighting for one hundred years. The Arabs and the Persians have been going at it for a thousand.

With many reports that the UAE and Saudi Arabia are ready to support the US aggression, great importance must be attached to the current struggle over the future shape of the government of Iraq. Here the secular Shi’ite Allawi is a US puppet, while his rival Maliki prefers Iran. Sadr and his Mahdi army, closely linked to Iran, represent a key stumbling block for US intentions. The US requires an Iraqi puppet state which will pursue at least a pro-US neutrality in case of war, and above all prevent Iranian special forces or guerrillas from cutting the long US supply line alone Route Tampa from Kuwait City. This is why the question of the Iraqi government was so important that Biden had to make a special trip to Iraq in the vain hope of quickly setting up a suitable puppet regime there. If the Iraq army turns against US, the situation of US forces could become extraordinarily critical.

Over recent days, warnings about imminent war and direct calls for war have been proliferating in the world media. The veteran Cuban leader Fidel Castro gave his most detailed media interview since the beginning of his illness several years ago, apparently for the express purpose of issuing a warning about US aggressive plans for Iran, and also for North Korea. According to an AP dispatch of Jul 12:

The 83-year-old former president talked about how tension between the US and both North Korea and Iran could ultimately trigger a global nuclear war. Castro warned that an attack on Iran would be catastrophic for the US, saying: “The worst is the resistance they will face there, which they didn’t face in Iraq.”

On Jul 11, former Malaysian PM Mahathir stated:

Once again, the US at the instigation of Israel has compelled the UNSC to impose crippling sanctions to weaken the resolve of the Iranians to resist Israel’s aggressive designs. We can observe a pattern in the war preparations from recent examples, namely Iraq and Gaza. Broad sanctions were imposed on Iraq and Gaza to starve and weaken the people before the military invasion in 2003 and 2008 respectively. If the past is a precedent, then it is a matter of time before the war criminals in Israel and the US launch another war of aggression, once Iran has been weakened by sanctions.

Around the same time, former Sen Chuck Robb and former NATO deputy commander Gen Wald issued an editorial call for the US to begin preparing an attack, in Sanctions alone won’t work on Iran, WaPo, Jul 9 2010. Their argument was that the fourth round of economic sanctions extorted by the US from the UNSC on Jun 9 would never be effective, and that military action had to be geared up in parallel to these sanctions. They also warned that the Cold War doctrine of deterrence would not work in regard to Iran:

Absent a broader and more robust strategy, however, sanctions alone will prove inadequate to halt Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Current trends suggest that Iran could achieve nuclear weapons capability before the end of this year, posing a strategically untenable threat to the US. Contrary to a growing number of voices in Washington, we do not believe a nuclear weapons-capable Iran could be contained. We cannot afford to wait indefinitely to determine the effectiveness of diplomacy and sanctions. Sanctions can be effective only if coupled with open preparation for the military option as a last resort. Indeed, publicly playing down potential military options has weakened our leverage with Tehran, making a peaceful resolution less likely. Instead, the administration needs to expand its approach and make clear to the Iranian regime and the US people that, if diplomatic and economic pressures do not compel Iran to terminate its nuclear program, the US military has the capability and is prepared to launch an effective, targeted strike on Tehran’s nuclear and supporting military facilities. The stakes are too high to rely on sanctions and diplomacy without credibly preparing for a potential military strike as well.

One of the most blatant calls for war with Iran comes from the former CIA agent and neocon ideologue Reuel Marc Gerecht. The Weekly Standard, the central organ of the neocon warmonger party, devotes the cover story of its current issue to urging the Israelis to put an end to Obama’s dithering by mounting the attacks themselves, thus presenting the feckless tenant of the White House with a fait accompli. In the inimitable style of neocon Kenneth Adelman, who notoriously promised a cakewalk in Iraq the last time we went down this road, Gerecht impatiently dismisses a series of arguments against such a fateful act of incalculable folly, and does not miss the opportunity to settle accounts with Brzezinski, whose alternative model of imperialist management is now losing support within the ruling elite. Gerecht writes:

Concerns about an Israeli bombing are no more persuasive. Hezbollah would undoubtedly unleash its missiles on Israel after a preventive strike. Hundreds of Israelis could die from Hezbollah’s new and improved store of missiles. Israel might have to invade Lebanon again, which would cost more lives and certainly upset the “international community.” The Obama administration might fume, but it is hard to imagine the president, given what he has said about the unacceptability of Iranian nukes, scolding Jerusalem long. He might personally agree with his one-time counsel, Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, that Israel has become a pariah state, but politically this won’t fly.

Three years ago, Brzezinski had the upper hand and the neocons were in disarray, but now the tables have been turned to a significant extent. There is nothing to worry about, Gerecht assures us, since the Iranians are a paper tiger and the results will be a cakewalk:

US fear of Iranian capabilities in Iraq and Afghanistan has been exaggerated. The US is leaving Iraq; within a year, most of our troops are due to be gone.

Back in 2002-2003, the neocon line was that Saddam Hussein was so powerful that he had to be attacked. This time around, their field is reversed, and the main argument is that the Iranians need to be attacked because they are a pushover:

If the Iranians tried their mightiest, they could give us only a small headache compared with the migraine we’ve already got courtesy of the Pakistanis, who are intimately tied to Afghanistan’s Taliban. And the Israelis know the US Navy has no fear of Tehran’s closing the Strait of Hormuz. If Khamenei has a death-wish, he’ll let the Revolutionary Guards mine the strait, the entrance to the Persian Gulf. It might be the only thing that would push Obama to strike Iran militarily. Such an escalation could quickly leave Khamenei with no navy, air force, and army. The Israelis have to be praying that the supreme leader will be this addle-headed.

The tried and true ‘cakewalk’ argument is neither the first nor the last notorious neocon trick which is being brought back these days. But what about the awesome threat of Iranian state-sponsored terrorism, the danger which these same neocons have been incessantly harping on for the past decade? No problem, says Gerecht. All we would need to do at that point is to issue a bloodcurdling thermonuclear ultimatum to Iran about incinerating that country with nuclear missiles, perhaps killing tens of millions of Iranians. As a matter of fact, Gerecht suggests, the US had better start issuing this sort of threat right now, without any further dithering:

It is entirely possible that Khamenei would use terrorism against the US after an Israeli strike. That is one of the supreme leader’s preferred methods of state action, which is why he should not be permitted a nuclear weapon. The correct response for the US is to credibly threaten vengeance. Obama might be obliged to make such a threat immediately after an Israeli surprise attack; whether the Iranians would believe it, given the US record, is more difficult to assess.

Note carefully that these statements amount to the public advocacy of aggressive war, a behavior which may run afoul of the Nuremberg precedents of 1945. The Iranians are crazy, says Gerecht, so the old-fashioned nuclear deterrence of Mutually Assured Destruction will never work. There is no point in wasting time any longer, and it is time for the Israeli missiles and bombers to fly:

It is possible the Israelis have waited too long to strike. Military action should make a strategic difference. If we’re not at the end of the road, then the Israelis probably should waste no more time. Khamenei is still weak. He’s more paranoid than he’s ever been. The odds of his making uncorrectable mistakes are much better than before. Any Israeli raid that could knock out a sizable part of Iran’s nuclear program would change the dynamic inside Iran and throughout the Middle East. Unless Jerusalem bombs, the Israelis will soon be confronting a situation without historical parallel. In the best case scenario, if things were just “normal” in Tehran, Israel would likely be confronting Cuban Missile Crisis-style brinkmanship on a routine basis.

The reactionary writer Michael Barone makes the apt comparison of Obama to the Morgan puppet Woodrow Wilson, who cynically got himself re-elected in 1916 on a platform of “he kept us out of war,’ and then demanded the US entry into WW1 about a month into his second term. Obama campaigned for the presidency quite explicitly as a warmonger in regards to Afghanistan, although his constant claim to have opposed the Iraq war left many voters with the false impression that he was less bellicose than Bush. In reality, Obama was always adamant about his desire to bomb and invade Pakistan in pursuit of the phantomatic “Osama bin Laden.” In Rising speculation about bombing Iran’s nukes, San Francisco Examiner, Jul 21 2010, Barone comments:

It would be ironic if the professorial Barack Obama launches a military attack when his supposedly cowboy predecessor George W Bush declined to do so. But I take it seriously when nonhawks say Obama might bomb Iran.

The Sunni terrorist organization known as Jundullah, which operates in Baluchistan on both sides of the Pakistan-Iran border, is notoriously a creature of Anglo-US intelligence, as Brian Ross documented in The Secret War Against Afghanistan, ABC News, Apr 3 2007. Earlier this year, the Iranians, acting with the help of Pakistan, succeeded in capturing the Jundullah leader Rigi, whom they then executed this month. Rigi, according to Wayne Madsen, had been on his way to a meeting with US envoy Holbrooke at the US air base in Kyrgyzstan. Retaliation from Jundullah soon followed in the form of a murderous attack on Iranian territory which killed 21 persons, including members of the Pasdaran Revolutionary Guard. Iranian leaders were quick to denounce this action as the latest in a long series of acts of war against Iran by the US using terrorist proxies. Majlis Speaker Larijani condemned this attack, which occurred in Zahedan, while explicitly blaming the US. Tehran Times reported on Jul 18 2010:

Larijani asserted that Iran has ample evidence that the Jundullah terrorist group has links to the US. “The US should know that they have started a game that will not end well for them,” he said in Tehran. The terrorist group Jundullah, which Iranian officials say enjoys US support, has claimed responsibility for the attacks. In a statement posted on its web site, Jundullah described the attacks as retaliation for Iran’s Jun 21 execution of the group’s former ringleader, Abdolmalek Rigi. Larijani said that the US cannot invent an excuse for the bombings. “They may get away with other issues, but not with this one,” he added.

One of the main policy goals of the Brzezinski faction in the US has always been to maneuver Russia into a position of hostility against Iran. The hope has always been to foment conflicts between these two Caspian powers. Unfortunately, the policy of attempting to placate the US on certain issues pursued by Pres Medvedev has now created a Moscow-Tehran relationship in which elements of acrimony coexist with gestures of cooperation. On Jul 12, Medvedev made an important verbal concession to the emerging US-neocon theory of Iranian nuclear weapons. An RIA-Novosti dispatch read:

Iran is about to acquire the capability to make nuclear weapons, Russian Pres Medvedev warned on Monday. He urged Russian ambassadors and permanent representatives to move away from “simplistic approaches” toward Iran’s nuclear problem.

On Jun 20, Medvedev had expressed concern about US secret intelligence data that Iran has enough enriched uranium for construction of two nuclear bombs, saying at a news conference after the G8 and G20 summits in Canada:

As for this information, it needs to be verified but in any case such information always worries. Today the international society does not acknowledge the Iranian nuclear program as transparent. If the information from the US secret services is confirmed it would make the situation more tense and I do not exclude that this issue would require extra consideration.

US intelligence regarding Iran is notoriously unreliable, and distorted by political agendas inside the US intelligence community. It is even possible that some of the material which Medvedev was shown during his time in North America came from the alleged defector Shahram Amiri, whose credibility is gravely in question. In response to Medvedev’s allegations about an Iranian nuclear weapons program, leaders in Teheran responded with vigorous denials. On Jul 13, RIA Novosti reported:

Iranian officials on Tuesday angrily dismissed Russian Pres Medvedev’s remarks that Tehran was on the verge of acquiring military nuclear capability, the Fars News Agency reported. “These remarks are at odds with reality,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki said during a press conference at the Iranian embassy in Madrid, stressing that Tehran has always sought only peaceful uses for nuclear technology.

During the preparation of the Iraq war, Russia was very skeptical of the explanations offered by the Bush regime, including at the UNSC. This time around, it would appear that parts at least of the Russian government are lending credibility to the US charges. In response to these Iranian objections, Medvedev returned to the issue on Jul 15, reiterating during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Merkel in Yekaterinburg:

Russia possesses information indicating that Iran is continuing to develop its nuclear technology. The information that is being received comes both from open sources and from special services that deliver relevant reports and shows that these programs are being developed.

The Russian government has issued sharply conflicting statements about whether the sale of modern Russian S-300 surface-to-air missiles would be blocked by the new round of UN sanctions. It is generally thought that, if Iran can finally take delivery of these missiles, any design for air attacks against Iran would have to reckon with extravagant losses among the attacking aircraft. On Jun 11, RIA Novosti reported:

A Kremlin source said on Friday the sale of S-300 air defense systems fall under the new UNSC sanctions against Tehran, but the Russian foreign minister said it was up to the president to make the final decision.

Ironically, this reading of the sanctions was less favorable to Iran then what the US State Dept was saying on the same day. On Jun 11, the State Dept opined:

The delivery of Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran is not against the recently imposed UN sanctions.

In the face of criticism, the Kremlin characterized its position as evenhanded. On May 26, RIA Novosti reported that presidential aide Prikhodko had argued:

Russia’s position on Tehran’s nuclear program is neither pro-US nor pro-Iranian. The statement comes after Iranian Pres Ahmadinejad said in a televised interview earlier in the day that Russia’s support for UN sanctions against Tehran was “not acceptable to the Iranian nation.”

Russia also expressed no enthusiasm for an expansion of the so-called five plus one group, composed of the five permanent members of the UNSC plus Germany, which had been negotiating the nuclear issue with Iran. The arbitrary nature of this five plus one grouping had been pointed out by many countries, and inevitably arose after the initially successful mediation of the Iranian nuclear fuel enrichment issue by Turkey and Brazil. Why have Turkey and Brazil not joined the five plus one? The addition of these two states would obviously make the negotiating group less hostile to Iran. But the Russian Foreign Ministry was not interested. On Jul 19, RIA Novosti reported:

Turkey and Brazil are not joining talks led by the Iran Six group of international mediators on Tehran’s nuclear program, the Russian foreign minister said Wednesday. “There have been no discussions on the issue,” Lavrov said. Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki said Tuesday that the Islamic Republic wanted Turkey and Brazil to participate in the talks.

Criticism of Iran keeps coming from numerous Russian diplomats. On Jul 14, Russia’s UN ambassador Churkin said there was “still cause for concern about Iran’s nuclear program as signals from the Islamic Republic have been far from encouraging. “The signals I have heard from Iran are not encouraging,” he said. “Iran continues to set out terms, make excuses and say that it will persist in enriching uranium to 20%.”’ At the same time, Russia continued to assist Iran in the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power reactor, which should come on line and start generating electricity within a few months. The Iranians also operate research reactors. On Jul 12, Iran announced that nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor will be ready in Sep 2011. Ali Akbar Salehi of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran was quoted by Fars News Agency as saying:

God willing, we will deliver the fuel to the Tehran reactor next September. At present we have produced about 20kg of 20%-enriched uranium and we are now producing fuel plates.

The Anglo-USAians have tried to make this 20% enrichment a virtual casus belli, despite the fact that weaponization requires far higher percentages, well above 90%. Russia appeared inclined to defy the US on some issues. There were indications that Russia was willing to help Iran frustrate the UNSC ban on other nations’ selling refined gasoline to Iran, which is one of the centerpieces of the latest US-backed sanctions offensive. Iran produces abundant oil, but lacks refineries to make that oil into gasoline and other products. Here was an ideal way to get around this gasoline embargo. According to RIA Novosti:

Russian Energy Minister Shmatko said that Russian companies are ready to supply oil products to Iran despite US sanctions punishing companies that sell motor fuel to Iran or help it rebuild its refining capabilities, which have been degraded by years of international isolation.

According to Vernochet of the Réseau Voltaire, the Russian policy ‘appears to reflect a certain schizophrenia at the highest level of the state, or an openly diverging policy with two heads, with a presidency a priori more pro-Western than Prime Minister Putin.’ McDermott agrees about this latent conflict, noting:

There is also the thorny issue that Prime Minister Putin has a group of foreign policy aides managed by Yuriy Ushakov functioning as a “little” foreign ministry: which represents the single greatest barrier to adopting such policy concepts.

The net result of these developments is that the aggressive forces inside the US think they have a much freer hand with Iran than they did during the time of the Putin presidency. As already noted, the Brzezinski-Nye-Trilateral faction is losing ground to the neocons, who have been mightily strengthened by the ascendancy of their chosen factional figurehead and presidential candidate for 2012, Gen Petraeus. The planned color revolution in Iran has not materialized, and therefore the neocon recipes for aggression are winning by default, especially given the systemic hysteria induced by the financial breakdown crisis. The Brzezinski-Nye-Trilateral group had been early supporters of Obama, and growing public awareness of Obama’s weakness, fecklessness, dithering, and treachery are also weakening his backers. Obama’s appointment of Petraeus as the new commander in Afghanistan, succeeding McChrystal, is an act of supreme political folly. By appointing Petraeus, Obama has focused new adulation by the political class on his most formidable opponent for the presidency in 2012, as seen in Petraeus’ 99-0 confirmation vote by the US Senate. It should be evident that Petraeus is not likely to have accepted this new command without having extracted certain binding policy commitments from Obama in advance, and one of these is likely to have been a more truculent US stance against Iran, to say nothing of Pakistan and other states. Obama had been the savior, but Petraeus now assumes the role of the savior of the savior, and it is the neocon faction and its strident war program which is the beneficiary. See: Webster Tarpley, Towards the Eighteenth Brumaire of General David Petraeus?, Jun 23 2010 . During the declining years of the Bush regime, one of the most important signals of a general ruling class consensus that the US attack on Iran should be taken off the table was the national intelligence estimate issued in Dec 2007, which concluded that Iran no longer had a functioning nuclear weapons program. This simply meant in practice that the neocons, for the moment, were out of power. This finding was opposed tooth and nail by the neocons, and was directly contradicted by the claims of Israeli intelligence. The way in which this new NIE is being rigged, with the facts and intelligence being fixed around the desired war policy, is reflected in a recent rare interview by CIA Director Panetta. The new phony NIE is now guaranteed to repudiate the previous finding, and to accuse Iran of actively seeking nuclear bombs. This was in fact Panetta’s first network news interview since taking over the CIA in early 2009. According to Newsweek’s New Iran Nuke NIE Still Not Ready, Jun 28 2010:

In an ABC News interview Sunday, CIA Director Panetta alluded to a fact that was reported by Newsweek months ago: US intelligence agencies have revised their widely disputed 2007 conclusion that Iran had given up its efforts to design or build a nuclear bomb. That shift is expected to be reflected in an update of the controversial 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which was supposed to have been completed months ago, but according to three counter-proliferation officials, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, the formal update still is not finished and may be delayed for months to come. Even when it’s done, officials have said, the Obama administration is expected to keep the revised report’s contents officially secret.

Panetta, a political hack, has claimed that Iran is working on weaponization of fissile material, which has been a central issue in the dispute within the US intelligence community. With this, Panetta clearly joins the warmonger camp. According to the NYT’s David Sanger, in US Presses Its Case Against Iran Ahead of Sanctions Vote, Jun 7 2010, US diplomats at the UN were already beginning to prepare the other members of the UNSC for a complete volte-face on the question of Iranian nukes compared to the Dec 2007 NIE. In Dec 2007 there were no nukes, but now there are some again, the US in effect argued. One imagines that UN Ambassador Rice took special satisfaction in an Orwellian reversal of this type. Sanger wrote:

The US briefings, according to foreign diplomats and some US officials, amount to a tacit admission by the US that it is gradually backing away from a 2007 National Intelligence Estimate. It is using new evidence to revise and in some cases reverse conclusions from that estimate, which came to the much disputed conclusion that while Iran had stepped up its production of nuclear fuel, its leadership had suspended its work on the devices and warhead designs needed to actually build a weapon.

The neocons are already mobilized to skew the new NIE in the direction they want. An example of their effort is the op-ed by Gabriel Schoenfeld of the arch-reactionary Hudson Institute appearing in the WSJ on Jul 19. Schoenfeld’s first goal is to perform the Orwellian exercise of expunging the Dec 2007 NIE:

In Dec 2007, our intelligence agencies put out a National Intelligence Estimate, which in its opening sentence baldly declared that “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.” In a stroke, this authoritative pronouncement eliminated any possibility that President Bush, then entering his final year in office, would order a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Perhaps even more significantly, it undercut White House and international efforts to tighten sanctions on Iran. After all, if the Iranian nuclear program had been halted in 2003, what would be the point? Behind the scenes, the intelligence services of Germany, Great Britain, France and Israel all took issue with the NIE. It became the subject of fierce criticism in Congress and the press. It is now clear that while the US dithered, Tehran forged ahead. Evidence has surfaced that the flawed 2007 NIE was the result of political cookery. Since late last year, US intelligence has been preparing a new estimate of Iran’s nuclear program. The critical question is whether the forces that led to politicization in 2007 have been eradicated. Will the drafters of the new Iran NIE call the shots as they are, or will they once again use intelligence as a political lever?

Notice that, for this neocon doublethinker, ‘politicization’ is anything which delays or avoids war, while objectivity is identified exclusively with the warmonger position. Schoenfeld is obsessed with counting how many months remain before Iran stages their first nuclear detonation. Israel says there may be as few as twelve months left! How to focus public attention on this issue? Schoenfeld has an answer ready:

That is why a neutral outside panel should be brought in to scrutinize the discredited 2007 NIE and the entire estimating process in this sensitive arena.

This sounds very much like an old neocon trick: Team B, the panel of apocalyptic dissident ideologues created by Bush the elder in 1975-76 to prepare an alarmist estimate of Soviet intentions in contradiction to the findings of the official CIA. In such a contest, neocon Strangeloves proclaiming dramatic doomsday messages have an easy time marginalizing colorless bureaucrats with their plodding prose. It is the neocons who are the iron chefs of cooking intelligence. As Sir Richard Dearlove, the boss of MI6, informed Tony Blair and his ministers in Jul 2002, ‘the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy’ by Washington in the runup to the Bush-Cheney aggression against Iraq. One leading US expert on Iranian affairs is Flynt Leverett, who worked on Iran during his time in the Bush 41 National Security Council. In a Jul 18 radio interview transcribed on Leverett’s website, Race for Iran, which is also by run by Hillary Mann Leverett, an important Iran expert in her own right. The former official stated:

To the best of my knowledge, there is no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. I haven’t been working in a classified environment for a number of years now and I certainly wouldn’t claim to know everything that the US intelligence community might have. My very strong impression is that we know that the Iranians have been working on a dedicated fuel cycle program focused on uranium enrichment for a long time. Could they have at some point looked into other kinds of technical or engineering problems that you would need to solve if you were actually at some point going to build a nuclear weapon? Yeah, that’s possible, but I’ve never seen what I would consider clear and convincing evidence of it.

The mendacious process by which National Intelligence Estimates are manufactured on sensitive issues like Iran is much illuminated by the case of the Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri. Amiri, it will be recalled, issued a Youtube video in which he alleged that he had been kidnapped by the US while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, and was being held in Arizona. Later, he issued another videotape, this one better produced, in which he reassured the public that he was fine, studying physics in Arizona of his own free will. A third tape went back to asserting that he had been kidnapped. Amiri at length appealed to the Iranian interest section of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, and soon returned to Iran. So what is the truth about Amiri? We need to recall the examples of the anonymous source “Curveball” and of Ahmed Chalabi, two Iraqi adventurers assiduously courted by the neocons and plied with large sums of US taxpayer money in order to make fantastic allegations about the allegedly threatening programs of weapons of mass destruction being pursued by Saddam Hussein. If the CIA had really brought Amiri to the US and offered him $5m, it is a pretty good guess that he was being paid to provide the lurid details of an Iranian nuclear weapons program which many qualified experts, as we have just seen, conclude to be nonexistent, just as the US government officially stated in Dec 2007. The Leveretts stress that Amiri was never a top official of the Iranian science establishment, and it is therefore very likely that his opinions about the alleged Iranian nuclear weapons program are worthless. As the Leveretts wrote on Jul 15:

We warned in April that Amiri could not possibly be the highly valuable intelligence source that some Western officials and the National Council for Resistance in Iran claimed him to be: a source who “had worked on sensitive nuclear programs for at least a decade” and was now revealing the inside story on Iran’s alleged clandestine nuclear weapons program. We were appalled that the WaPo was reporting these claims without the most minimal, common-sense follow-up questioning. Now we learn that the CIA apparently tried to pay Amiri $5m. Along with trying to figure out the details of Amiri’s trajectory over the last year, journalists ought to be focusing on what the Agency’s willingness to pay $5m to a hyped-up source signals about the US Intelligence Community’s desperation to make a prosecutor’s case against the Islamic Republic. Indeed, the CIA and the rest of the Intelligence Community seem sufficiently desperate to make their case that they will pay taxpayer dollars to gotten-up defectors who might be prepared to say for the right price what Washington elites want to hear. As we noted in our April piece, if the CIA and its partners in the Intelligence Community are unable to make a case against Iran, how could Washington argue for intensified sanctions against the Islamic Republic, much less keep the military option ‘on the table’?

Press comments on Panetta’s ABC News interview suggest precisely this: Amiri was brought in to provide fodder for a campaign of mass brainwashing designed to show that Iran is on track to build nuclear bombs. On the ABC website we read:

Panetta did not directly confirm that the controversial 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iranian nukes was under revision. But other officials have confirmed to Declassified that an update has been in the works since late last year. They say its completion has been postponed several times while agencies evaluate new intelligence reporting which has surfaced over the last few months. At least some of that fresh input is believed to have come from one or more Iranian nuclear insiders, including Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist who disappeared about a year ago while on a religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Earlier this year, ABC News reported that Amiri had defected to the US. Although government sources have acknowledged that they are aware of Amiri’s defection and of information that he might have provided, they do not confirm that he defected to the US.

Now that Amiri has fled back to Iran, another possibility opens up for the US mindbenders: they might now argue that the Dec 2007 NIE which concluded there was no Iranian nuclear weapons program had been based on falsified information procured by Amiri and others like him, who had been recruited to espionage by the US, but who later proved unreliable, as shown by Amiri’s flight back to Iran to rejoin his family there. All of these points represent good reasons not to believe the contents of the new NIE when its contents are reported in the press in the very near future. It is guaranteed to be a tissue of lies. The last word from Amiri seems to be a statement that there is no Iranian nuclear weapons program after all. This has been established by CIA veteran Philip Giraldi based on leaks from his networks inside the agency. As Gareth Porter of IPS reported in Amiri Told CIA Iran Has No Nuclear Bomb Programme, Jul 19 2010:

Contrary to a news media narrative that Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri has provided intelligence on covert Iranian nuclear weapons work, CIA sources familiar with the Amiri case say he told his CIA handlers that there is no such Iranian nuclear weapons programme, according to a former CIA officer. Philip Giraldi, a former CIA counterterrorism official, told IPS that his sources are CIA officials with direct knowledge of the entire Amiri operation.

But mere facts have never prevented the neocon mythographers from pressing for aggression. Maybe they will now re-create the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans, which was responsible for a series of whoppers in 2002-2003. In the wake of the new round of sanctions in June, top officials of the Obama regime have begun to suggest that sanctions will be inadequate to stop the nuclear weapons development which they will soon claim is going on, leaving the obvious conclusion that direct military attack is the only option. CIA Director Panetta told ABC News on Jun 27:

Will sanctions deter them from their ambitions with regards to nuclear capability? Probably not.

Sec Def Gates is taking special pains to argue against the idea that Iran could be held in check by traditional nuclear deterrence of the time-honored Cold War type, even if Tehran were to procure nuclear weapons. This is an argument which has been endorsed by some leading US military officers, who are obviously not eager to go into the Iranian meatgrinder. Gates told Fox News on Jun 20:

We do not accept the idea of Iran having nuclear weapons. I don’t think we’re prepared to even talk about containing a nuclear Iran. I think our view still is we do not accept the idea of Iran having nuclear weapons. And our policies and our efforts are all aimed at preventing that from happening. Actually, what we’ve seen is a change in the nature of the regime in Tehran over the past 18 months or so. You have a much narrower based government in Tehran now. Many of the religious figures are being set aside. As Sec Clinton has said, they appear to be moving more in the direction of a military dictatorship. Khamenei is leaning on a smaller and smaller group of advisors.

Gates had been skeptical in public about the Iran attack, in conformity with his Brzezinski pedigree; his joining the extreme war party thus means the bureaucratic situation is deteriorating. The US argument against the Iranian regime used to be that Iran was bad because it was a theocratic dictatorship of the mullahs, who were the bearers of Islamic fundamentalism. Gates and Clinton now argue that Iran is bad precisely because it is no longer a theocratic dictatorship of mullahs, but an authoritarian military dictatorship. The only constant is the desire for war and confrontation. In order for the US to assemble an Arab-Sunni front in the Middle East to oppose the chosen Persian-Shiite adversary, it was considered advantageous to get the Israelis to make a few concessions to the Palestinians with a view to creating the illusion of progress towards an overall peace settlement between these two parties. Because the politics of economic depression has produced a marked heightening of the extremist elements of Israeli politics, the Netanyahu regime has refused to make any concessions, and has acted out defiance of Obama for domestic political consumption. This dynamic gave rise to the hostile and heated atmosphere of Netanyahu’s previous White House visit. This time, the atmospherics were kept more conciliatory. In any case, Netanyahu’s demand for US military attack on Iran is a constant refrain. As the Leveretts pointed out on Jul 11:

It is the Prime Minister’s remarks on Iran that deserve special attention, for these remarks suggest that Netanyahu is embarked on an extremely dangerous course. Netanyahu is pushing the US to take eventual military action against Iran, a confrontation that would have predictably disastrous consequences for US interests and regional stability, and for which Israel and the pro-Likud community in the US will be blamed, because they will have led the charge to war. Such a scenario would be far more damaging to Israel and the US Jewish community than anything Iran might conceivably do. Netanyahu argued that the Islamic Republic’s “irrational regime” cannot be allowed to develop nuclear weapons capability, because “you can’t rely on the fact that they’ll obey the calculations of cost and benefit that have governed all nuclear powers since the rise of the nuclear age after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

Netanyahu, it is argued, is also trying to force the US to take the lead in attacking, which is less convenient for Washington than being dragged into war by a supposed breakaway ally:

While preserving the option of Israeli military strikes against Iranian nuclear targets, Netanyahu is shifting the onus for forestalling the further development of Iran’s nuclear capabilities onto the prospect of US military action.

Many reports stress that the political leadership of Saudi Arabia and the UAE are issuing strident demands that the US make the attack on Iran, thus abandoning all hypocritical pretenses of Arab solidarity. One piece of evidence in this regard is the outburst of the UAE ambassador to the US during a panel discussion in Aspen, Colorado during the first week of July. In response to a question about Iran, UAE ambassador to the US al-Otaiba issued a remarkable open call for US military aggression in regard to Iran, despite the likely serious negative side effects which his own country would experience because of its close geographical propinquity to a theater of war. Al-Otaiba said:

I think it’s a cost-benefit analysis. I think despite the large amount of trade we do with Iran, which is close to $12b, there will be consequences, there will be a backlash and there will be problems with people protesting and rioting and very unhappy that there is an outside force attacking a Muslim country; that is going to happen no matter what. If you are asking me, ‘Am I willing to live with that versus living with a nuclear Iran?’, my answer is still the same, ‘We cannot live with a nuclear Iran.’ I am willing to absorb what takes place at the expense of the security of the UAE.

Al-Otaiba was soon called home for consultations. His formulation is reminiscent of French President Sarkozy’s cynical comment that the only thing worse than bombing Iran is Iran with a bomb. According to Joe Klein in An Attack on Iran: Back on the Table, Time, Jul 15 2010, the demand for war by the Saudis and the Gulf states is pushing the US rapidly down the path to military conflict. One senses that alibis are being prefabricated for Obama and his officials for when the body bags begin to come home. Klein writes:

One other factor has brought the military option to a low boil: Iran’s Sunni neighbors really want the US to do it. When UAE Ambassador al-Otaiba said on Jul 6 that he favored a military strike against Iran despite the economic and military consequences to his country, he was reflecting an increasingly adamant attitude in the region. Senior US officials who travel to the Gulf frequently say the Saudis, in particular, raise the issue with surprising ardor. Everyone from the Turks to the Egyptians to the Jordanians are threatening to go nuclear if Iran does. That is seen as a real problem in the most volatile region in the world: What happens, for example, if Saudi Arabia gets a bomb, and the deathless monarchy there is overthrown by Islamist radicals?

We should stress that the rulers of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states represent some of the most extreme and backward feudal relics to be found anywhere on this planet, having survived through the 20th century mainly thanks to the fact that these were British imperial puppet states for most of that time. The idea that a gaggle of titled feudal reactionaries can talk the US into a catastrophic war shows how far gone the current situation actually is. The clamor for war from the Saudi and Gulf potentates is also the theme of a recent article in the online edition of Der Spiegel, where we read:

Israel and the Arab states near the Persian Gulf recognize a common threat: the regime in Tehran. A regional diplomat has not even ruled out support by the Arab states for a military strike to end Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Never have the strategic interests of the Jewish and Arab states been so closely aligned as they are today. While European and US security experts consistently characterize a military strike against Iran as “a last option,” notable Arabs have long shared the views of Israel’s ultra-nationalist foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman. If no one else takes it upon himself to bomb Iran, Saudi cleric Mohsen al-Awaji told Spiegel, Israel will have to do it. “Israel’s agenda has its limits,” he said, noting that it is mainly concerned with securing its national existence. “But Iran’s agenda is global.”

One who rejoiced that the UAE was now ready to fight the Iranians to the last USAian was the notorious philodoxer Bernard-Henri Lévy, who had already done yeoman service for the Anglo-USAians over many years as an all-purpose warmonger on the subject of Iraq. Here is part of Lévy’s remarks in the HuffPost:

The UAE has chosen to side with the camp of those who apply to the letter the new UN resolution of Jun 9 that provides for further intensification of sanctions against Iran. We might as well say that The Emirates’s decision is truly a blow to the regime. Better still, it’s a cold shower of truth destined for the suckers who believed in an alliance that is against na]]> http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/trip-through-arlington.html Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:50:00 +0200 MSM Monitor http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/ http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/trip-through-arlington.html I would only ask the reader to remind themselves they are all dead over lies.

"Arlington officials knew of desecration" by Christian Davenport, Washington Post | June 24, 2010

WASHINGTON — Officials at Arlington National Cemetery said Tuesday that they were aware that discarded tombstones were lining the banks of a small stream on the grounds for more than a decade but left them in the mud....

Actually, that is the way the AmeriKan leaders view and treat the troops.

Otherwise, they would stop telling war-mongering lies.

An Army investigation released this month found a “dysfunctional’’ and chaotic management system that led to the mislabeling of more than 200 graves and the dumping of at least four urns in a dirt pile.

Why not? Living soldiers are treated like dirt anyway.

The cemetery’s top two leaders — superintendent John Metzler and his deputy, Thurman Higginbotham — were reprimanded and replaced.

The Virginia cemetery, home of the Tomb of the Unknowns and the burial site of John F. Kennedy, is a national symbol of sacrifice and a popular tourist destination.

I've seen it in person.

News that tombstones had apparently been used for erosion control outraged family members of the deceased and others....

Well, I think the whole nation on this one.

Where do you put the flowers?

--more--"

"Survey urged of all graves at Arlington after mistakes" by Washington Post | July 1, 2010

WASHINGTON — An investigation by the Army inspector general unveiled last month found 211 discrepancies between burial maps and grave sites, as well as cases in which funeral urns were dug up and dumped in an excess dirt pile.

In addition, the investigation found a dysfunctional management system.

They finally looked in the mirror, huh?

That's the entire war machine, btw.

--more--"

Better get some more stones set, America:

"2d shooting clouding Afghan security bid; New concerns over rush to expand army" by Heidi Vogt, Associated Press | July 22, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — The second shooting of Western troops by one of their Afghan counterparts this month has highlighted the potential hazards of a push to speedily expand Afghanistan’s army and police forces in the next few years.

Time to leave.

On Tuesday, an Afghan Army sergeant opened fire at an army base in northern Afghanistan, killing two American civilian trainers before being shot dead....

The shooting started with an argument during a weapons-training exercise at a firing range on an Afghan army base outside Mazar-e-Sharif. The Afghan soldier turned his weapon on the American civilian trainers and shot two before being gunned down, the Afghan Defense Ministry said. Another Afghan soldier was killed in the crossfire.

NATO suspended training throughout the country after the shooting but resumed full operations yesterday, said US Brigadier General Gary Patton, deputy commander of the training mission. It was unclear what the argument was about, and the Afghan government and NATO have launched a joint investigation....

Yeah, I'll be waiting with bated breath on the edge of my seat for the results.

That followed an attack in the south on July 13, when a soldier killed three British troopers, including the company commander, with gunfire and a rocket-propelled grenade in the dead of night.

Military commanders have described the two attacks as isolated events, and it is indeed rare for an Afghan soldier to turn on NATO forces. Still, they feed on larger doubts about the ongoing massive recruiting among a largely illiterate population — many of whom are used to holding a gun but not to rigid military discipline.

Sort of like a Zionist Zettler, 'eh, jewsmedia?

The concerns include possible infiltration by the Taliban and the professionalism of the forces at a time when NATO hopes to expand the Afghan army....

NATO has six large training sites across the country....

Colonel Stuart Cowen, a spokesman for the NATO training mission, said that there is a strict program for vetting recruits before enlistment, including drug tests, physical exams, and a check against a database of known insurgents. Potential recruits also have to get their community elders to vouch for them in a written letter....

Even so, there are Afghan soldiers who light up hashish or marijuana during patrols and Afghan police officers who use checkpoints mainly to shake down motorists for bribes.

That is why the TALIBAN is RESURGENT!

Say what you want about them, but they DID ROOT OUT CORRUPTION and they FROWN UPON THIS SORT of THING!!!!

NATO is trying to get troops and police through regular retraining programs, but this process moves slowly....

Whatever, MSM. I've HAD IT with the F***ING EXCUSES, 'kay?

TIME for the troops to COME HOME and for YOU to TELL the TRUTH!

Good luck on both, America.

--more--"

Also see: Four More Years in Afghanistan

Obama's Open-Ended War

Better start mass-producing them.

And it's not just Afghanistan:

"Car bomb outside Iraqi mosque kills 15" by Associated Press | July 22, 2010

BAGHDAD — A car bomb outside a Shi’ite mosque in a village north of Baghdad killed 15 people yesterday, the third deadly attack in the region in as many days, and a US soldier was killed in a separate bombing in the same province, Iraqi officials and the US military said.

The blast in a shopping area in the village of Abu Sayda also left 21 wounded, Ghalib al-Karkhi, a police spokesman in Diyala Province, said. Diyala was once an insurgent stronghold, and the three consecutive days of violence there underscores the fragile nature of Iraq’s security as insurgents persist in trying to reignite sectarian bloodshed....

You are just going to have to stay then, AmeriKa.

The US soldier, who was not identified pending notification of next of kin, was killed by a roadside bomb that struck his vehicle as he was traveling through Diyala, the US military said in a statement.

The car bombing was the third attack in and around about 35 miles north of Baghdad, since Monday. On Tuesday, a car bomb near a roadside restaurant north of killed one person. A day earlier, a car bomb exploded near a Baqubah restaurant, killing six people.

--more--"

And there have been other attacks:

"48 killed in Iraq suicide bombings; Sunnis targeted; Most victims were guards awaiting pay" by Ernesto Londono, Washington Post | July 19, 2010

MAHMOUDIYAH, Iraq — Two suicide bombings yesterday targeting members of local guard forces left at least 48 people dead and heightened concern about the future of the groups as the number of US troops in the country is reduced.

The deadliest attack occurred at approximately 7 a.m. outside an army base in Radwaniya, a district southwest of Baghdad, where dozens of members of the Sunni groups known as awakening councils were lined up waiting to collect their monthly salaries, officials said. That bombing killed at least 45 people and wounded nearly 50.

Shortly afterward, a militant stormed into a meeting of awakening council leaders in al-Qaim, a town near the Syrian border, and detonated explosives, killing at least three people, Iraqi security officials said.

A third explosion in a village near Radwaniya targeting a house that Iraqi soldiers were using as a temporary base killed two officers and three soldiers, police said.

The attack in Radwaniya, the deadliest in Iraq since the spring, incensed members of the armed groups. Leaders say the groups, once backed and financed by the US military, are withering because of continuing insurgent attacks and the slow pace at which the government is moving them into civilian ministries.

Bush's SURGE FAILED, America -- and the MSM has been telling you it's been a success for three f***ing years!

Related: Obama Says Bush Was Right

Some change.

“The Iraqi government is responsible,’’ Khadum Feiad Mezel, 63, said outside the Mahmoudiyah hospital, where most of the wounded were transported, as he awaited news about a nephew who was at the site. “There is no other side we blame.’’

I CERTAINLY BELIEVE THAT!

American officials have sought with mixed results to get the Iraqi government to care for the members of the awakening councils, which were instrumental in turning the tide on a worsening war during the 2007 US troop surge.

Pffft!

Yesterday’s attacks marked one of the deadliest days in Iraq this year, underscoring fears that insurgents are exploiting a period of political impasse. Iraqi lawmakers have bickered since the March 7 parliamentary election over who will form the next government and many worry the stalemate could drag on for months.

Vice President Joe Biden said yesterday that the political dispute will not affect US plans to draw down to 50,000 troops by the end of August. “There is a government in place that is working,’’ Biden said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.’’ “Iraqi security is being provided by the Iraqis, with our assistance.’’

Then why didn't we leave way back when?

I mean, the number of Iraqis killed by the surge alone was around 300 per day, 10,000 per month -- with 1.2 million Iraqis dead since the invasion must be nearly TWO MILLION by now .

Related: Story Iraq: MSM Lied About Death Tolls

Memory Hole: 600,000 DEAD!

Occupation Iraq: One Million Dead Iraqis

Of course, look what happens to you when you tell the truth.

That is the only time the Lancet's credibility has been called into question.

Also see: Occupation Iraq: Biden Bombs

Yeah, whatever, Joe.

At the Mahmoudiyah hospital yesterday afternoon, electricity from generators was insufficient to power most wings, forcing doctors and nurses to work in sweltering rooms, using flashlights to study charts.

We SHATTERED the place and NEVER BUILT IT BACK UP!

Related: Occupation Iraq: The Reconstruction Rip-Off

And YOU PAID FOR IT ALL, America!!

The US military established the armed Sunni groups in 2006 and 2007 in an effort to wean the Sunni insurgency of recruits and local support. The groups, which included thousands of former insurgents, turned on Al Qaeda in Iraq, an insurgent group that had come to control large parts of western Iraq and predominantly Sunni areas of Baghdad and surrounding villages.

Al Qaeda in Iraq has killed scores of awakening council members because they see them as traitors for siding with American forces.

Yeah, well, which "Al-CIA-Duh" would that be, huh?

The made-up "Al-CIA-Duh?"

Or the "Al-CIA-Duh" CREATION for the COURTROOM!?

Related:

Prop 101: Al-CIA-Duh and the OSI

Prop 101: Al-CIA-Duh's Greatest Hits

Prop 101: The "Terrorism" Business

New York Times Admits War on Terror is U.S. Creation

Oh, AmeriKa's MSM KNOWS ALL ABOUT and yet STILL PUSHES the CHARADE, huh?

Also see: Occupation Iraq: Israel's IEDs

Occupation Iraq: Israelis Killing U.S. Troops

Occupation Iraq: Israeli-Trained Death Squads

Plan B

Prop 101: Al-CIA-Duh and the OSI

Prop 101: Al-CIA-Duh's Greatest Hits

Prop 101: The "Terrorism" Business

Prop 102: Iraq and Government Lies

Al-CIA-Duh

Who Invented "Al-CIA-Duh?"

"Al-CIA-Duhs" Catch-and-Release Program

Asymmetrical Warfare Group

Operation Gladio

Operation Northwoods

Occupation Iraq: British Bombers

Occupation Iraq: America's Roadside Bombs

'The Salvador Option'

Special Police Commandos

Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group

Prop 201 tutorial

FRU

Islam's 9/11

Who is Bombing in Iraq? Are the bombers Al-Qaeda, the CIA or Israel?

How much more evidence do you need?

Israeli Mossad Role in Turkey Coup Plot Revealed

Israel funded "terrorist" groups through BCCI

AMIA was Mossad False-flag Operation

Mossad Agent killing Oz Tourists to steal their identity to use in fake Al-Qaeda operations

‘Mossad capable of US attack’: US Army officials

Iran hangs "terrorist" linked to Mossad

Montreal Averts Israeli Mossad Terrorist Attack

Israeli Mossad = al Qaeda?

Judiciary starts work on case of Mossad-linked terror group

Assassins caught on video reveals possible Mossad-Fatah link

Mossad funded Abu Nidal through BCCI

Mumbai: The Mossad Angle

Hamas Was Founded by Mossad

Israeli officer sells weapons to terrorists in Iraq

MOSSAD FALSE FLAG TERRORIST ATTACKS

Revealing information on Mossad terrorist acts worries Europeans

Mossad and Moving Companies: Masterminds of Global Terrorism?

Group that took credit for "Bandini Bomber" linked to Mossad.

MARRIOTT BOMB:Mossad pulls off another false-flag operation

Mossad Exposed in Phony`Palestinian Al-Qaeda' Caper

Mossad orchestrated Christmas Day bomb plot

British Broadsheet Links Mossad to 9/11

How Mossad Deceived the U.S. Military on 9/11

A Look at the Mossad's Assassination Squads

Army Captures 'Terrorist Ring' Working for Mossad

Lebanon's Army captures Israeli Mossad 'Terrorist Ring'

A bumbling Mossad hand suspected in Dubai assassination

Mossad stealing passports in Australia and NZ

Mossad supporting "Radical Muslim" groups.

Mossad-Linked Cell Arrested in South Lebanon

Mossad links to 1986 Berlin disco bombing

HUNDREDS OF MOSSAD AGENTS CAUGHT RUNNING WILD IN AMERICA!

Mossad-backed terror network in Lebanon

Mossad was found to be propping up 'Islamic terrorist' groups in mid-east.

Mossad implicated in a coup plot in Turkey, a NATO country

Mumbai Terror Attacks: The Mossad Angle

Mossad linked to "Jundollah" attacks, and kidnapping of Iranian border guards

Mossad behind Hindu terror group

Israeli Mossad Links To World Trade Center Attack

Abu Nidal - Mossad terrorist

'Terror' group in Iran linked to Mossad, CIA

Attack On US Embassy In Yemen Linked To Mossad

Mossad Black Ops and False Flags

Mossad linked to "Crotch Bomber"

Mossad linked to 9/11 attacks: Report

9-11 Mossad Agents Admit Mission: "Our Purpose Was To Document The Event"

Only people actually arrested on 9-11 were Israelis

Mossad Link Found to One of Key 9-11 Hijackers

Bush Administration Ignores Mossad-Al Qaeda Terrorist Link

Al Qaeda are really Mossad

Mossad linked to Ergenekon plot

Hezbollah infiltrated by Mossad, does Israel's bidding. Attacks when Israel needs excuse to invade Lebanon

Is Hizbullah a Mossad front?

Israel tricked the US into attacking Libya

When Israel attacked the USS Liberty they tried to frame Egypt for it.

The Lavon Affair: Israel has a history of faking terror attacks.

Israel creates and aids terror groups.

If HAMAS is so bad why did Israel create it? To demonize Palestinians?

Israel stages all these "terror" attacks to trick America into hating Israel's enemies.

That enough for you?

In 2008, the US military stopped paying Sons of Iraq after Iraqi officials agreed to give them salaries and gradually put guards into civilian ministry jobs.

The government has not made good on its promise to move at least 20 percent to police and army jobs. Among those who have been put into civilian ministries, former fighters complain they are often paid late — if at all.

Hey, it IS an AmeriKan-created government!!!

“I haven’t been paid in four months,’’ said Ayed Mohammed Bahar, 38, a former awakening council member in Radwaniya who was offered a job at the Health Ministry in Baghdad. “Right now we are consumed by worry. We are relying on these salaries. We have nothing else but these jobs.’’

Can you say seven years of failure, America?

While violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq over the past two years, security forces remain a favorite target for insurgents trying to destabilize the country and its Shi’ite-led government.

Yeah, who is trying to do that?

Also yesterday, the former Iraqi foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, and several other members of Saddam Hussein’s regime appeared in court just days after their handover from the United States to Iraqi custody, an Iraqi official said....

See: Occupation Iraq: U.S. Shuffles the Deck of Cards

Looks like Iraq got a bad hand.

--more--"

But don't worry, soldier.

Uncle Obama is going to fix things -- if you make it home.

"Obama eases rules for veterans seeking PTSD aid; US promises faster diagnosis, access to benefits" by Roger Runningen, Bloomberg News | July 11, 2010

WASHINGTON — President Obama said the government this week will make it easier for thousands of US veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder to obtain benefits.

“This is a long-overdue step that will help veterans, not just of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, but generations of their brave predecessors who proudly served and sacrificed in all our wars,’’ Obama said yesterday in his weekly radio and Internet address.

The disorder, known as PTSD, is brought on by wartime trauma. The hidden and emotional scars may leave victims battling intense fear, helplessness, and feelings of horror years after their combat roles have ended....

One reason our soldiers are killing themselves at a record rate-- the other being the fact that we are the Nazis of the 21st-century.

--more--"

Related: Denying the Troops

Of course, if you are still in the field:

"In turnaround, Pentagon seeks less money for service members; Fears spending amid two wars is not sustainable" by Craig Whitlock, Washington Post | May 8, 2010

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon, not usually known for its frugality, is pleading with Congress to stop spending so much money on the troops.

Through nine years of war, service members have seen a healthy rise in pay and benefits, leaving most of them better compensated than their peers in the private sector.

What a LOAD of HORSE SHIT!

Sorry, but CONTRACTORS PAY WAY MORE than the military!

That is why SERVICE MEMBERS LEAVE and JOIN CONTRACTORS!

"Each full-time KBR employee earns about $8,425 a month in pay and benefits"

Wow, about $2,100/week!

What do our soldiers get paid? $500?

Actually, it comes out to about $350/week.

Also watch: Iraq for Sale

How does it feel to be LIED TO by the Washington Post, America!!?

Congress has been so determined to take care of troops and their families that for several years running it has overruled the Pentagon and mandated more generous pay raises than requested by the Bush and Obama administrations. It has also rejected attempts by the Pentagon to slow soaring health care costs — which Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said are “eating us alive’’ — by hiking co-pays or raising premiums.

Yeah, you service folk are really making out great!

Now, Pentagon officials see fiscal calamity.

Related: 9-11 Research: Missing Trillions

Following Zakheim and Pentagon trillions to Israel and 9-11

Not too worried about that are they, soldiers?

In the midst of two long-running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, defense officials are increasingly worried that the government’s generosity is unsustainable and that it will leave them with less money to buy weapons and take care of equipment.

Yeah, this government is so generous.

That's why you have trouble getting any benefits once you are no longer useful on the battlefield and why they ignore the health effects of depleted uranium munitions and the chemical poisoning of contractors.

See: Occupation Iraq: KBR and the West Virginia Guard

War Looter's Wednesday: Electrifying Bonus

Occupation Iraq: KBR Keeping On

Occupation Iraq: War Looters Still Working

Occupation Iraq: Congress Confused About Contractors Continuing

Yup, if they PAY YOU TOO MUCH they won't have enough for the WAR-PROFITEERING WEAPONS MANUFACTURERS after having LIED YOU INTO these MASS-MURDERING, MEAT-GRINDER EXERCISES and OCCUPATIONS!!

Clifford Stanley, the undersecretary of defense for personnel, told a Senate committee in March that rising personnel costs could “dramatically affect the readiness of the department’’ by leaving less money to pay for operations and maintenance. Overall, personnel expenses constitute about one-quarter of defense spending.

Then NO WAR with IRAN or ANYONE ELSE, right?

And we can COME HOME, right?

With Washington confronting record deficits, the Pentagon is bracing for an end to the huge increases in defense spending over the past decade.

Related:

"Obama has proposed a freeze on most domestic agency budgets, though he exempts homeland security and veterans programs. But he is calling for an $18 billion, 3 percent increase for the Pentagon."

Senate Spends $1.5 Trillion on Wars and Bank Bailout

Don't you JUST LOVE WaPo LIES?

Today, Gates is scheduled to give a “hard-hitting’’ speech in Kansas on fiscal discipline, in which he will warn military leaders http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/four-more-years-in-afghanistan.html Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:30:00 +0200 MSM Monitor http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/ http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/four-more-years-in-afghanistan.html I wanted OUT four years ago!!

"Kabul meeting to lay ground for 2014 deadline" by Robert H. Reid, Associated Press Writer | July 19, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan --The strategy sits for now on a table in a locked-down Afghan capital: Hand over security in all 34 provinces to the government by the end of 2014 -- more than three years after President Barack Obama's date for the start of an American troop drawdown.

I'm glad I never took that 2011 talk seriously.

By Tuesday, it will be adopted at a one-day international conference, giving war-weary Americans and Europeans a date for when their involvement in Afghanistan may begin to come to an end....

Isn't that the damn truth -- and no false-flag "terror" event will make us feel otherwise.

In fact, THAT WILL BACKFIRE as well because it will PROVE that the WARRING FAILED and thus they will have to STOP!!

How can they come back to us again and ASK US to AGAIN SUPPORT a POLICY that has FAILED so ABYSMALLY?

The conference comes at a time of growing anxiety in the U.S. and Europe about the course of the war -- concerns underscored by Taliban attacks on Monday that killed six Afghan police and two American soldiers. A major security operation virtually shut down Kabul for the conference in which some 60 nations will focus on the postwar transition....

Yeah, leaders tend to get anxious when wars start turning against them.

Corruption and mismanagement that have bolstered the Taliban in the eyes of many ordinary Afghans.

Yes, contrary to the daily dose of diarrhea we receive in the newspaper here in AmerikA, the Taliban are now viewed as defenders of the people. That kind of thing usually happens when you send missiles into an area and kick down doors.

Talk of lofty development goals will take place against the backdrop of rising casualties, especially in the Taliban strongholds of the south and east.

Mindful that public patience is running out, the delegates will endorse the goal of gradually turning over security to Afghan forces by the time Karzai leaves office at the end of 2014, according to a draft communique obtained by The Associated Press....

It is not running out, it's been exhausted for some time.

And that's what AP calls taking a government handout now?

Obtaining? Like they actually did some work?

Did you know I obtained a Boston Globe today?

If NATO follows the model used in Iraq, the coalition will likely keep substantial numbers of troops in Afghanistan through much of the transition to help train Afghan forces and to intervene if the Afghans cannot control security and prevent the Taliban from mounting a comeback in provinces cleared of major insurgent forces.

Oh, great, they are BASING the POLICY on the FAILED SURGE in IRAQ!

Have you SEEN IRAQ'S POLITICS LATELY?

Never mind the FAILED RECONSTRUCTION and NEAR NONEXISTENT SOCIAL SERVICES!

Although Obama said in December that U.S. troops would begin coming home in July 2011, he did not say how many troops would leave then.

Yeah, the fact that he is just as big a liar as the last guy has been a real bummer over here.

Of course, nowhere near the same as it has been for the targets of Obomber's empire.

Critics complained that the date signaled to the Taliban that all they had to do was hold out until the Americans and their allies were gone....

One year, four years, what's the difference?

The Taliban have already lasted nine years and they are the strongest they have ever been.

TIME to COME HOME, America!

The WAR is NO LONGER worth the LIE, is it?

Ahead of the conference, representatives of Britain and Afghanistan's neighbor, Pakistan, said some troops may have to remain past 2014 to help train Afghan forces....

Oh, so EVEN THAT is a DAMN LIE PARADED before the American people so we will calm down, huh?

Underscoring the security challenge, bombs killed six Afghan policemen in the biggest southern city of Kandahar and two American troops in the south, Afghan and U.S. officials said. The American deaths brought to 42 the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this month....

You may notice that I am none too concerned about allied deaths these days.

My attitude is f*** 'em; they are all choosing to die for the lie and I'm exhausted after four years of hollering for an end and now they are holding out another carrot.

--more--"

Related: Afghanistan exit strategy under scrutiny By Richard A. Oppel Jr., New York Times

You are welcome to read the stinking PoS that I glanced at.

So what do you have to look forward to for the next four years, allies and all?

"NATO attack mistakenly kills 5 Afghan soldiers; Communication failure possible" by Rahim Faiez and Kay Johnson, Associated Press | July 8, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — A botched NATO airstrike killed five Afghan soldiers after they were mistaken for insurgents early yesterday, highlighting continued weak coordination between international troops and the local security forces they are striving to build.

Great start, huh?

Any coincidence it comes as Petraeus takes over?

An Afghan defense official condemned the “friendly fire’’ deaths in the eastern province of Ghazni. They came as three more American troops were reported killed in the south and Britain announced it would turn over control of a violence-plagued southern district to US forces.

US General David Petraeus, the newly arrived commander of international forces in Afghanistan, offered personal condolences to the families of the dead Afghan soldiers, a spokesman said.

A joint Afghan-international investigation was continuing into how the mistake happened, NATO spokesman Brigadier General Josef Blotz said....

I'll bet Afghans are tired of hearing it.

Training and working with the Afghan army and police is one of the cornerstones of NATO’s counterinsurgency strategy, which the alliance is counting on to beat back insurgents’ gains, nearly nine years after US-backed forces toppled the Taliban’s hard-line Islamist regime.

The aim is to win over the population by limiting Afghan casualties while securing new areas, eventually turning control over to local army and police and allowing foreign troops to withdraw....

When you have read BS so many times....

So many Afghan security forces are being recruited and trained so fast that coordination is bound to lag behind, Afghan analyst Haroun Mir said.

Did I mention I have run out of patience for war-promoting excuse-makers?

Related: Afghanistan's Invisible Army

If we keep killing them they will be.

Yesterday’s airstrike is unlikely to damage NATO’s relations in Afghanistan as much as unintended civilian deaths do, said Mir, director of the Afghan Center for Research and Policy studies. That’s because soldiers understand that “friendly fire’’ is an inevitable part of war, he said.

Are you flipping kidding me?

The Afghan soldiers were launching an ambush before dawn against insurgents, who were reportedly on the move, when NATO aircraft began firing on them without warning, said General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman.

Five Afghan soldiers died and two were wounded in the airstrike in Ghazni’s Andar district, he said.

Violence has been increasing across Afghanistan, coinciding with the arrival of thousands of American soldiers for a new push to try to establish Afghan government control in the south, the Taliban’s strongest area of influence.

NATO said three American troops were killed by a roadside bomb in the south Tuesday. It did not identify them or give any other details.

Britain said it will withdraw its troops from the Sangin valley in Helmand province, which has been the deadliest area for British forces, accounting for 99 of its 312 soldiers killed since 2001.

Britain’s military said US forces would move into Sangin in October. Britain has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, most based in Helmand.

Yup, not only are YOU STAYING LONGER, America, but you are TAKING OVER MORE OCCUPATION AREAS while the "coalition" leaves -- just like the Iraq surge!

--more--"

"Coalition forces capture Taliban commander" by Associated Press | July 10, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — International and Afghan troops captured a Taliban commander responsible for bringing Pakistani militants across the border to launch attacks, the alliance said yesterday as US-led forces intensify their pursuit of insurgent leaders.

The coalition is hailing a string of successes in capturing or killing dozens of key militant leaders since April, but it has not managed to reduce violent insurgent attacks across the country.

Yup, the MORE WE WIN the MORE we are LOSING!

WTF?!?!

Two NATO service members died yesterday in separate roadside bombs in the south, and an explosion ripped into a convoy of NATO and Afghan forces in an eastern province, killing one civilian and wounding nine others. Last month was the most deadly of the nearly nine-year-old war for international troops, with 103 foreign forces killed....

Then LEAVE and NONE of them WILL DIE!

While international forces patrol new areas to try to protect the population, their comrades in special forces, working with elite Afghan commandos, have been staging raids almost every night trying to weaken the insurgents’ operational capacity.

On Tuesday, coalition and Afghan special forces arrested a Taliban commander in the eastern province of Nangarhar. NATO officials said the man — whom they would not identify for security reasons — facilitated an influx of operatives for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militia accused in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks and suspected in a string of more recent attacks in Afghanistan....

Yeah, whatever, MSM. You haul him up out of a grave like the rest of them?

Joint Afghan-international raids have led to the arrest of more than 100 Taliban figures since April, NATO says. In the past two weeks, at least 23 mid- and senior-level insurgent leaders and 217 lower-level fighters have been captured or killed, it says.

Makes you wonder why and how it is all getting worse, huh?

Also see: The Boston Globe's Invisible Ink: False Flags Flying High in Afghanistan

Whassat?

“We’ve stepped up operations over the last six months,’’ said NATO spokesman Colonel Wayne Shanks. “What this is, is directly targeting the insurgent network, their leadership, their facilitators who bring in either weapons, supplies, money, resources.’’

The campaign against the Taliban leadership echoes a strategy used successfully against both Sunni and Shi’ite insurgents in Iraq.

I love conventional myths posing as news and being endlessly repeated, don't you?

--more--"

"6 US troops die in Afghan attacks; American toll for the month increases to 23" by Kay Johnson, Associated Press | July 11, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — A wave of attacks killed six US troops and at least a dozen civilians yesterday in Afghanistan’s volatile south and east, as American reinforcements moving into Taliban-dominated areas face up to the fierce resistance they expected....

In yesterday’s deadliest attack, in the eastern border province of Paktia, unidentified gunmen killed 11 Pakistanis who had crossed into Afghanistan to buy supplies, said Rohullah Samon, spokesman for the provincial governor.

More "friendly" fire?

Samon said 11 Shi’ite minority Muslim tribesmen died and three people were wounded in the ambush of their minibus in Chamkani district.

I'm sorry, but I no longer buy the sectarian bull pushed forth by my agenda-pushing MSM newspaper -- especially after they lived together and intermarried for centuries until we got there.

Elsewhere in Paktia, Afghan and international forces also said a combined commando unit killed a Taliban operative and captured eight others in a raid, though local villagers later staged a small protest, saying the men were innocent civilians.

As they ALL ARE since the reason for being there is a DAMNABLE INSIDE JOB!

Another, larger protest in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif involved another night raid that killed two security guards near a market earlier last week.

Really winning them over, huh?

A crowd of more than 1,000 crowd chanted “Death to America! Long live Islam!’’ Protesters said the security guards were unjustly killed when combined Afghan and international forces landed by helicopter at the bazaar before dawn Wednesday.

And started shooting, huh?

What, did they think they were Israelis boarding an aid flotilla?

NATO spokesman Colonel Wayne Shanks said the two guards were shot when they raised their weapons at the commandos and refused orders to put them down.

Yeah, they didn't know who the hell was coming at them, but....

Hey, it ain't like they live there or anything.

He said the raid succeeded in capturing a Taliban-allied operative who supplied bomb-making material.

Like the U.S. military has any credibility left.

The international coalition has been aggressively stepping up such raids, trying to break up Taliban leadership and operations capability in a renewed push....

And yet the SITUATION CONTINUES to GET WORSE!!

--more--"

"Official, 11 Afghan police die in attacks; Once-calm north sees violence rise" by Associated Press | July 12, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — Militant attacks in once-calm northern Afghanistan killed at least 11 police officers and a government official whose car was hit by a remote-controlled bomb, officials said yesterday.

In the south, a combined NATO and Afghan patrol killed a senior Taliban commander and a dozen other insurgents who were discovered planting a homemade bomb on a road, the alliance said. It also said a US service member died yesterday after an insurgent attack....

International and Afghan commandos have been conducting near-nightly raids to capture or kill insurgents, while the Taliban has launched attacks on army bases and local officials and planted thousands of roadside bombs.

Insurgents in Kunduz province overran a checkpoint near the northern border with Tajikistan on Saturday, killing at least six of the nine border police stationed there, said the provincial deputy police chief, Abdul Rahman Aqtash.

Some reports said the guards were poisoned before the attack to make it easier for the insurgents, said Mahbobullah Sayedi, a spokesman for the provincial government....

Aqtash tried yesterday to go to the site of the attack, but was forced to turn back when another gun battle on the road to the border made it unsafe to travel, he said by telephone.

Northern Afghanistan was once relatively calm, but Taliban and other militants have become increasingly active in the past two years.

Yeah, is this thing ever going DOWNHILL FAST, America!

--more--"

So let's get in deeper:

"Afghan soldier flees after killing 3 Britons" by Associated Press | July 14, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan soldier killed three British service members with gunfire and a rocket-propelled grenade in the middle of the night, a betrayal that highlights the difficulties in rapidly building Afghan security forces so that foreign troops can go home.

Maybe it was just friendly fire?

Don't Brits accept this as an inevitable part of war like Afghans?

Related: Afghanistan's Invisible Army

Yeah, it is lies all the way around in an AmeriKan newspaper.

The soldier fled after carrying out the attack in southern Afghanistan early yesterday, leaving his motive unclear.

But the Taliban claimed he was a militant sympathizer who was taken in by insurgents after the assault, one which could further weaken support in Britain for an unpopular war that has now taken the lives of 317 Britons.

In London, Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the killings as appalling but insisted they should not change NATO’s strategy of working alongside the Afghan Army. Four other British service members were wounded in the attack on a base in Nahr-i-Saraj district of Helmand Province that is home to members of the First Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles.

Hey, your guy wants to stay there so f*** ya!

It was the second time in eight months that an Afghan turned against British troops partnering with local security forces. In November, an Afghan policeman killed five British soldiers at a checkpoint in Helmand.

Then LEAVE and they WON'T DO THAT!

Afghan police in the past have also attacked American soldiers and their own police stations, though such intentional attacks are rare.

Whatever you say, MSM.

--more--"

"Eight US troops killed as violence rises in southern Afghanistan" by Kay Johnson, Associated Press | July 15, 2010

Gee, Americans being WASTED over there EVERY DAY, huh?

KABUL, Afghanistan — In a brutal 24-hour period, eight American troops were killed in attacks including an audacious Taliban raid on a police compound in the key southern city of Kandahar, officials said yesterday.

The United States and its coalition allies have warned that violence and casualties could mount this summer as thousands of new forces fan out across southern insurgent strongholds in a bid to turn around the nearly nine-year-long war.

However, a top US commander in the south said yesterday that the new operation should start reducing violence in coming months.

That thumping you hear is Orwell rolling over in his grave.

So far in July, 45 coalition troops have died in Afghanistan, 33 of them Americans, continuing the upward trend of the previous month, which was the war’s deadliest for the NATO-led force, with 103 international soldiers killed.

A suicide attacker slammed a car bomb into the gate of the headquarters of the elite Afghan National Civil Order Police late Tuesday night in Kandahar, the international force said. Minutes later, insurgents opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Three US troops, an Afghan policeman, and five civilians — three interpreters and two security guards — died in the attack, but NATO said the insurgents were prevented from entering the compound.

Four more American troops were killed elsewhere in the south by a roadside bomb, while another service member died the same day of wounds from a gun battle, also in the south. NATO gave no further details of those attacks.

The special Civil Order Police had only recently sent 600 more officers to Kandahar to set up checkpoints along with international forces to try to secure the south’s largest city, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.

Also in Kandahar, a progovernment cleric and member of a local people’s council was gunned down in a mosque yesterday.

Haji Khalifa, a member of the Pajawai district shura, or council, was shot dead as he prayed, said provincial shura member Agha Haji Lalai.

I'm sorry, but not even the most pious Taliban does that.

That's a CIA hit team right there.

Also see: Petraeus' Private Eyes

Or whoever.

He said assassinations have increased in Kandahar as insurgents make the point they can still operate despite the extra security.

--more--"

"Health team kidnapped in volatile Afghan area" by Associated Press | July 16, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — Gunmen kidnapped five Health Ministry employees in Afghanistan’s volatile Kandahar Province while insurgents killed a district official elsewhere, reportedly on the orders of the Taliban supreme leader, officials said yesterday.

Also in the south, two US service members were killed in a roadside bombing, NATO said. No more details were released.

Insurgent bombings, gun battles, assassinations, and abductions have been increasing this year as thousands of American troops partnered with Afghan forces fan out in the militants’ southern strongholds to try to wrest back control and establish effective local government....

The kidnappers were not identified, but Taliban insurgents have been on a spree of assassinations and abductions of government workers. The campaign of fear is especially intense in Kandahar....

See why I am getting sick of reading this s***?

Kandahar is the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban, which follows an extreme form of Islam that it imposed on Afghanistan during its five years in power before the regime was toppled by US-backed forces.

Yeah, never mind the U.S. helping to install them with no problem.

--more--"

"NATO strike targets Taliban; Afghan organizer of USAID attack killed, police say" by Kay Johnson, Associated Press | July 17, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — A NATO airstrike killed a Taliban commander responsible for a suicide attack on a US aid program in northern Afghanistan, police said, while a raid killed another insurgent who smuggled in foreign fighters through Iran, officials said yesterday.

Related: Everything is Iran's Fault

I'm just wondering why they almost went to war in the 1990s, but that is just me.

Yeah, I am smelling something.

International troops working with Afghan forces say they have killed or captured dozens of senior insurgent figures since April as they aggressively step up operations against Taliban leadership.

However, those successes have not slowed the pace of militant attacks, which continue daily, killing dozens of people each month.

How many are the foreign invaders killing?

In the northern province of Kunduz, a precision airstrike killed a local Taliban commander who used the alias Qari Latif, the provincial police chief said.

Yup.

Latif died along with 12 other insurgents while they met Thursday in a field under a tree outside the provincial capital, police chief Abdul Razaq Yaqoubi said.

NATO confirmed an airstrike targeted a senior insurgent commander who was at a meeting to choose a new Taliban “shadow governor’’ in a Kunduz district, but the alliance said in a statement it was still investigating the outcome of the airstrike.

The international force said the insurgent chief had boasted of being behind a suicide car bomb on a US Agency for International Development station in Kunduz city earlier this month that killed two civilians and wounded seven others.

In western Farah Province, next to Iran, international and Afghan forces also raided a militant training camp Thursday, killing another Taliban commander and several more insurgents, NATO said.

The slain insurgent leader, identified as Mullah Akhtar, was responsible for bringing foreign fighters into Afghanistan from Iran, a statement said.

Since May 1, at least 12 Taliban commanders have been killed or captured in the southern province of Helmand, NATO said. Several more key insurgents have been taken out in neighboring Kandahar province, an insurgent stronghold.

And yet the Taliban just keep getting stronger.

--more--"

Better hide it in a brief, Boston Globe:

"Roadside bombs kill 5 NATO troops

KABUL — Five NATO troops died in roadside bombings in Afghanistan, the alliance said yesterday, as international forces announced that they had foiled a terrorist attack on an upcoming conference in Kabul to be attended by leaders from more than 60 nations. Security is being tightened across the capital for Tuesday’s conference, which is attracting the heads of NATO, the United Nations, and diplomats, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. AP ."

They didn't stop the next one:

"Bomber hits Afghan market despite heightened security; Taliban attacks rise as US troop strength grows" by Rahim Faiez, Associated Press | July 19, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber slipped through the Afghan capital’s tight security ring yesterday, killing three civilians near a busy market two days ahead of an international conference hosting officials from about 60 nations, officials said.

An American service member died in a roadside bombing in the south and other weekend attacks left 14 Afghans dead, reports said. The Taliban have met the arrival of thousands more US troops this year with a rising tide of violence.

The Kabul bomber was walking near the market and his target was unclear, police official Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada said.

Hospitals reported three civilians killed, including a child, public health official Kabir Amiri said. About 45 people were wounded.

Security has been tightened across the capital in advance of tomorrow’s Kabul Conference, which will be attended by the heads of NATO and the United Nations and top diplomats, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Every time those pukes show up bombs start going off.

The meeting, held nearly nine years after US-backed forces toppled the Taliban’s radical Islamist regime, is to discuss the country’s reconstruction and eventual handing over of all security to the Afghan government.

At the conference, the Afghan government will ask international donors to put 80 percent of aid money behind programs that the Afghans — not foreign capitals — deem important to development. The government wants to show the world leaders attending that it is making strides toward running its own affairs.

Thousands of Afghan police were patrolling Kabul trying to prevent any insurgent attack on the meeting or its delegates. Afghan and international officials said Saturday that authorities had arrested a Taliban bomb-maker involved in a separate plot to attack the conference, but they gave no details.

In May, the Taliban briefly disrupted a national peace conference in Kabul with rocket-propelled grenades that landed about 100 yards from the site of the gathering, and insurgents also waged a gun battle with police outside the meeting. Three civilians were wounded.

The NATO-led international force is being bolstered by 30,000 more American troops this year, and allied forces say they have captured or killed dozens of Taliban leaders in recent months. However, their tactics have not been able to reduce insurgent attacks, which have intensified across the country.

An intercepted memo from Afghan Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar indicates the Islamist militants are gearing up for a long fight.

Omar, who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan, urged his followers to obtain more heavy weapons and to assassinate or kidnap any Afghans, especially women, working with President Hamid Karzai’s government, NATO said yesterday.

I'm out of patience with the propaganda, sorry.

That's what NATO liars said, huh?

Taliban fighters yesterday battled government forces for a fourth day in remote Nuristan in the northeast, as insurgents who briefly took over the district of Barg-e-Matal two months ago launched another offensive.

"Another?"

The governor of Nuristan, Jamaludin Badar, denied Taliban claims they had retaken the area.

Then they must be true.

He said 18 insurgents and two police officers have died and thousands of the district’s residents have fled north. Bombings and gun battles that killed and wounded Afghan police were reported in Kandahar and other districts, according to the Ministry of Defense.

Vice President Joe Biden said yesterday that the rising US death toll does not mean that the new counterinsurgency strategy for the war is failing.

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,’’ Biden said most military strategists expected the summer months to be especially deadly because coalition forces are more frequently engaging the insurgents. He said the surge in troops should be given time to work.

The LAST ADMINISTRATION said the SAME about IRAQ!

I thought we GOT RID of them in 2008 and yet HERE THEY ARE AGAIN!!!!

--more--"

Aaaaaah, to hell with it:

"Fallen Vermont soldier is laid to rest; Hundreds recall Guardsman killed in Afghanistan" by John Curran, Associated Press | July 18, 2010

ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. — His mother in tears, his 6-year-old daughter proudly singing from the altar, his flag-draped casket carried by an honor guard, a Vermont National Guard soldier was buried yesterday, two weeks after being killed by a roadside bombing in Afghanistan.

Specialist Ryan Grady, 25, was remembered as a big man with a big heart who wanted to serve his country and ended up paying the ultimate price for it....

All over a damn lie.

Grady’s mother, Debbie Hudacek, recalled talking with him online while he was serving.

“I didn’t see [any] action yet,’’ he said in one exchange.

“Maybe that’s God’s way of keeping you safe,’’ she replied.

“But I want to see action,’’ he said.

“And then this happened,’’ Hudacek, of Muskogee, Okla., told the congregation, sobbing.

Earlier that day, Grady had a meal with his brother Kevin, who is also a Vermont National Guard member serving in Afghanistan, according to Major General Michael Dubie, the Guard’s commander.

Grady’s father, James Grady, is a Guard member, too.

Dubie called Grady a patriot, “in the truest sense of the word.’’

“You may ask yourself: What kind of people join the military after Sept. 11? People like Ryan Grady. People who know they may have to serve their country in harm’s way. To me, they are the next ‘greatest generation’ of Americans, that’s what they are,’’ Dubie said at the service.

Is that why they are killing themselves in record numbers?

His brother Jim Grady Jr. said Grady’s size — he was about 6-foot-4 and weighed more than 240 pounds — sometimes intimidated people, but said anyone who met him quickly could tell he had a warm heart. As a soldier, he would sign off on notes with the words “saving the world one mission at a time,’’ his brother said....

--more--"

Oh, yeah, one more thing:

"UN considers dropping 10 from sanctions list" by Associated Press | July 13, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — The names of 10 individuals or entities with alleged links to the Taliban are being considered for removal from a UN sanctions list, the top UN official in Afghanistan said yesterday.

Staffan De Mistura said the 10 names, submitted by Afghan officials, were being forwarded to the UN Security Council, which will decide whether to take them off the blacklist that freezes assets and limits travel.

I foresee a U.S. veto.

The list includes the names of 137 individuals and entities — businesses, groups, and organizations — with alleged ties to the Taliban or Al Qaeda.

Does that list include the CIA?

President Hamid Karzai has pushed for the removal of some Taliban figures from the blacklist as a way to encourage militants to stop fighting or enter peace talks....

Those peace talks must be a bunch of whispers because I rarely read of them.

We are there until at least 2014, haven't you heard?

--more--"

Related: U.N. Says Taliban Not Terrorists

I already knew that; they are simply people who live there and want to be left alone.

]]> http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/occupation-iraq-biden-bombs.html Sat, 17 Jul 2010 23:25:00 +0200 MSM Monitor http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/ http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/occupation-iraq-biden-bombs.html Both literal and figurative:

"Biden visits Baghdad amid political impasse; Will meet with country’s leaders, offer assurances" by Leila Fadel, Washington Post | July 4, 2010

Remember, readers, the Washington Post is the CIA 's newspaper so this is straight from the horse's mou..., well, try the other end.

BAGHDAD — Vice President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Baghdad yesterday for the Fourth of July holiday in the midst of a political deadlock nearly four months after Iraq’s national election.

Biden arrived at a time when many question whether the US policy in Iraq is adrift.

Who is questioning it? Many?

They say they worry that with a shift of attention toward America’s other war, in Afghanistan, and so much attention on the planned drawdown and ultimate withdrawal of US troops, the United States is focused only on its exit and not the success of a still very shaky democracy in Iraq....

Oh, so the PEOPLE WHO WANTED TO STAY are the ones RAISING QUESTIONS -- and having the agenda-pushing MSM megaphone it for them.

Biden’s visit may be a signal to Iraq that the US administration is still engaged.

Translation: We are NEVER LEAVING, America.

A White House statement said Biden would celebrate the holiday with the troops, “reaffirm’’ the US “long-term commitment’’ to Iraq....

Translation: We are NEVER LEAVING, America.

There an echo in here?

Related: Occupation Iraq: Why We Must Stay

And LOOK WHO ELSE was also in Iraq!

Biden and his wife, Jill, were greeted by US Ambassador Christopher Hill, General Ray Odierno, the top US military commander in Iraq, Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, and two other senior military commanders. Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, Joe Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, were also in Iraq on an unrelated trip; they greeted the vice president later, before he went into meetings....

They are like Siamese triplets!

--more--"

A few others popped off while he was there, of course!

"Biden presses Iraqis to work together; Suicide bombers strike during visit" by Rebecca Santana, Associated Press | July 5, 2010

BAGHDAD — Vice President Joe Biden urged rival Iraqi politicians yesterday to end months of delays and select new leaders for their wobbly democracy, predicting a peaceful transition of power even as suicide bombers struck government centers in two major cities.

The attacks in Mosul and Ramadi underscored persistent fears that insurgents will exploit Iraq’s political uncertainty to stoke widespread sectarian violence. Four people were killed and 25 injured in the two blasts, which occurred hundreds of miles apart.

The explosions illustrated the vexing nature of the US involvement in Iraq and its efforts to nudge the country toward stability and democracy.

See: Occupation Iraq: Up and Down "Al-CIA-Duh"

You like being a yo-yo, 'murkn?

At least five mortar rounds also fell in the Green Zone late yesterday when Biden was there, said Iraqi police officials. The Green Zone is the sprawling protected area in the heart of Baghdad that is home to the US Embassy as well as the Iraqi parliament and prime minister’s office.

There were no reported casualties, said the officials, who did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to reporters. Mortars and rockets are periodically fired into the Green Zone but rarely result in casualties or damage.

On his fifth trip to Iraq since he was elected, Biden sat down separately with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shi’ite who is struggling to keep his job after his party lost the March 7 election, and his chief challenger, former premier Ayad Allawi....

Like I give a crap that he sat down with Stooge A and Puppet B.

Earlier, talking to US troops, Biden said: “When the new government is formed, it will mark something absolutely extraordinary: a peaceful transition of power encompassing all the people of Iraq, maybe for the first time in their history.’’

At the cost of HOW MANY MILLIONS, Joe?

How can he call it a "peaceful" transfer?

Oh, btw, CIA helped out on a couple of those.

Biden met first with Allawi, where he was kept waiting for a few minutes at the home of Deputy Prime Minister Rafia al-Issawi, an Iraqiya lawmaker.

That's a signal to Joe! Allawi not happy.

After the hourlong, closed-door talk, Allawi said that Biden offered no specific proposals to end the impasse “but there was an interest in Iraq’s stability, and that the forming of the government should not be prolonged.’’

Allawi called the discussion “frank and constructive.’’

Several hours later, Maliki spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Biden warned the prime minister in their 90-minute meeting that delays in forming the government “will bring crisis in Iraq, and the political alliances should make an effort to avoid this crisis.’’

Looks like a THREAT to me.

Dabbagh, who attended part of the meeting between the two, said Biden also expressed fears by the Obama administration over “the regional interference in Iraq.’’ That generally refers to Iranian meddling, but Dabbagh said Biden did not single out any nation.

Yeah, right, everything is Iran's fault.

Not worried about those Mossad bases in Kurdistan, 'eh, Joe?

--more--"

And as far as the politics:

"Iraq mired in political impasse over Maliki’s role" by Rebecca Santana, Associated Press | July 13, 2010

BAGHDAD — Hopes that Iraq’s parliament could convene this week fell apart yesterday as the country stumbled into its fifth month with no new government and the prime minister hitting a brick wall with his nominal Shi’ite allies, some of whom deeply oppose his staying in his post.

And I guess we will just have to stay until they get it sorted out, huh?

The heads of the main political blocs met yesterday in the latest attempt to find common ground, but with no resolution on filling top posts in sight, they decided to delay the next session for two weeks, said the acting parliament speaker, Fouad Massoum.

That means more backroom negotiations as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tries to cobble together a coalition that will back him for a new term, while his rivals press for him to step down, all against a backdrop of the US military preparing to withdraw all combat troops by September and all forces by the end of next year.

I will BELIEVE IT WHEN Iraqis SEE IT!

Shi’ite parties appeared to have made a breakthrough in early May when Maliki’s State of Law and the Iraqi National Alliance, a Shi’ite bloc backed by Iran, announced a coalition that seemed to give them a sure hand to form the government. But they have since been deadlocked over Maliki, as some alliance members staunchly reject a new term.

Related: Occupation Iraq: Sadr Crowns Maliki King

I was wondering what happened to that deal.

So who did the U.S. pay off to pull out?

“They seem to be totally stalemated, and they’re totally stalemated because nobody wants Maliki to be prime minister,’’ said Marina Ottoway, from the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, based in Washington.

The deadlock is so tough that the prime minister is now flirting with his archrival, Ayad Allawi, a secular Shi’ite who leads the mainly Sunni coalition, Iraqiya. But that political combination has its own challenges.

To be sure, no one thought seating a new government would be easy....

Then BUSH'S SURGE FAILED!!!

It was SUPPOSED to PAVE the WAY for POLITICAL RECONCILIATION and it HAS NOT!!

Members of the Iraqi National Alliance, which includes followers of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have vehemently opposed Maliki continuing as prime minister.

Am I supposed to believe that coming from the MSM?

Maliki jailed thousands of Sadr’s supporters during US-Iraqi offensives in their strongholds of Basra and Baghdad’s Sadr City.

Yeah, somehow that is all forgotten -- as well as it taking IRAN to make the PEACE between them!

The Shi’ite alliance was more about keeping Allawi from power rather than any desire to work together, said Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurdish politician....

Oh, so THAT is why it fell apart -- says the Kurd from up north!

Officials from both parties in the alliance said other objections to Maliki included poor relations with the Arab world and a tendency to act without consulting others outside his inner circle, pushing members of his Dawa Party into government posts and appointing members of the armed forces loyal to him....

You know, the SAME THINGS Saddam did!

--more--"

Also see: Occupation Iraq: Government Hit Squad Killed Reporters

Occupation Iraq: Maliki Shuts Down News Media

Occupation Iraq: Maliki Drains the Marshes

Occupation Iraq: Hiring Hussein's Henchmen

Occupation Iraq: Resurrecting Saddam Hussein

Meet the new boss, Iraqis -- same as the old boss!

Only problem is the Saddam times are the GOOD OLD DAYS to Iraqis now.

No wonder NO ONE WANTS Maliki BACK as PM!!

]]> http://niqnaq.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/shit-for-brains-throughout/ Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:56:37 +0200 Niqnaq http://niqnaq.wordpress.com http://niqnaq.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/shit-for-brains-throughout/ Gates agrees to work on war message in meeting with GOP senators
Alexander Bolton, The Hill, Jul 16 2010

Obama has a problem with mixed messages about when Us troops will leave Afghanistan, Gates told Senate Republicans. At a meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Republicans complained about inconsistency among political, policy and military leaders in the administration, telling Gates this cast doubt on US military resolve. Gates agreed and pledged to do what he could to fix the problem. One GOP senator said:

He said he was frustrated with the mixed messages coming from the administration and was doing everything he could to fix that. But he did not say what the official position is.

The senator said he and his colleagues don’t know how many troops will be withdrawn or whether the goal to begin withdrawing troops next July is fixed or depends on conditions in the war theater. A second senator who was there said Gates did not raise the subject of the administration’s mixed messages but agreed that the complaint was valid and needed to be addressed. The second senator said:

In answer to a question, he acknowledged mixed messages and said he was doing his best to make the messages consistent.

Pentagon press secretary Morrell said Gates acknowledged that some in the administration have sent mixed messages about the withdrawal deadline but the secretary told Republicans that Obama has always been clear about his policy. Morrell said:

There’s been no confusion within the administration over policy because the president has been very, very clear. July 2011 marks a transition in our military posture. It doesn’t mean we’re running for the exits. How the drawdown proceeds and from where and how many forces will be determined by conditions on the ground. It won’t be driven by politics or arbitrary determinations.

Gates was appointed to his post atop the Pentagon by Bush 43 in 2006. Obama decided, immediately after winning the Nov 2008 presidential election, to retain Gates. Gates’s Tuesday meeting covered a range of national security topics, but chief among them was the timing of withdrawal from Afghanistan. One lawmaker said he was reassured by Gates, who indicated that troops would not be withdrawn arbitrarily. the senator said:

He gave a more nuanced answer; he said it was not a hard-and-fast deadline.

The Obama administration has been criticized for a lack of consistency since the president last year announced his plan for withdrawing troops. During a December speech at West Point, Obama said he planned to “begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in Jul 2011.” But Gates and Sec State Clinton later qualified that target. A day after Obama’s speech, Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee that administration officials and military leaders would meet in December to evaluate “whether we believe we will meet that objective.” At the same hearing, Clinton added to the ambiguity. Clinton told the committee:

I do not believe we have locked ourselves into leaving, but what we have done is to signal very clearly to all audiences that the US is not interested in occupying Afghanistan.

Vice President Joe Biden was quoted by Jonathan Alter as predicting a major withdrawal of troops. Biden is quoted as saying:

In Jul 2011, you’re going to see a whole of people moving out, bet on it.

But Gates later contradicted that prediction in a television interview. Petraeus signaled mixed feelings about the July date when he testified before the Armed Services panel last month. When Chairman Carl Levin D-Mich asked him whether his statement of support for the withdrawal date represented his best “personal” and “professional judgment,” Petraeus took an unusually long time to answer. Petraeus hedged:

In a perfect world, Mr Chairman, we have to be very careful with timelines. There was a nuance to what the president said that was very important, that did not imply a race for the exits.

He was testifying in his capacity as leader of CENTCOM. He has since taken over the job of senior commander in Afghanistan, replacing McChrystal, fired last month after he and his aides gave a series of interviews to Rolling Stone magazine in which they questioned the administration’s handling of the war. Sen. Pat Roberts R-Kan , a former Marine, said:

This administration can’t have one person speaking to a political element and others speaking to the military situation and others speaking to the geopolitical element; we’ve got to get the team working together and have one person talking about it, and it should be the president.

Roberts said there are different messages coming from officials within the administration who want to assure the liberal Democratic base that the war will end soon and military experts who argue the conflict requires patient commitment. Levin said the administration has become more unified in its message on the war strategy. Levin said:

The administration voices have gotten more consistent. There was one moment when there was a lack of consistency, but that was gone weeks ago and the administration has been strong and consistent.

Michael O’Hanlon, a national security and defense policy expert at the Brookings Institution, said an ambiguous policy is helpful to the president. O’Hanlon said:

Obama wants the flexibility. Because he’s reserving the option to essentially declare the mission a failure and pull out next year, he’s not going to eliminate the ambiguity. Senate Republicans are putting too much stock in this one issue. The weakness of the Afghan government is a much more fundamental problem.

Gates urged Republicans at the meeting to support a supplemental military spending bill to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, warning that it was difficult to shift Pentagon funds to keep troops supplied. He also asked Republicans to ratify the START nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia. One lawmaker asked how the administration would pay the $5b in estimated implementation costs. The lawmaker, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said there is not enough room in the DoD budget to cover the treaty without taking crucial funds away from important programs.

]]> http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/obamas-weekend-get-away.html Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:55:00 +0200 MSM Monitor http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/ http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/obamas-weekend-get-away.html I'm sure they are glad to have him.

Can you FEEL the FEAR, readers!?

"For Obamas, a vacation on island that’s seen it all; Maine town, long an A-list enclave, unfazed by visit" by David Filipov, Globe Staff | July 16, 2010

BAR HARBOR, Maine — When President Obama arrives on Mount Desert Island today for a weekend family vacation, he can expect a reception as cool as the light salt breeze that wafts over Frenchman’s Bay. And that should suit Obama just fine. The president guards his family’s privacy jealously during personal down time. No public events are scheduled; the White House has said only that the Obamas will be spending a lot of time outdoors and doing some hiking....

A presidential visit means lots of attention, which is good for business....

But if this presidential family and this island 3 1/2 hours north of Portland were made for each other, some of the other people who chose to spend their vacations here are worried that the Obamas’ quest for peace and quiet — and the closed roads, security checkpoints and other restrictions that come with a presidential visit — might put a damper on their own retreats....

I'm SOOOOO GLAD he is not coming to our armpit.

Still, others see the visit as a presidential nuisance.

Yup -- and a contribution to the global-warming problem on taxpayer dime. I'd rather he stay in the WH.

Some fear that Wi-Fi will be turned off on the island; by yesterday evening, that had not happened.

Is FEAR really the CORRECT WORD there?

Maybe CONCERN would be a better fit?

Some fear road closings will wreak havoc in the already crowded tourist attractions of downtown....

Again with the FEAR!!

I'm thinking ANNOYED and ANGRY, MSM!!!

Lodgers at the Bar Harbor Regency Hotel, where the Obamas are reportedly staying, fear that they might have to give up their bay-view rooms....

Wouldn't they be HONORED? The president stayed in my room?

The last sitting president to visit the island was William Howard Taft, who infamously shot a 27 on a single hole at the Kebo Valley Golf Club in 1911; now locals are wondering if Obama might play a round there....

Perhaps the Obamas might stop by the Bar Harbor Hemporium, where actors Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon bought hemp paper and where John Malkovich has shopped for beads?

Or maybe the Obamas will....

Who gives a f***?

--more--"

I'm more interested in these things:

"Senate Democrats propose cutting $14b from Obama budget

WASHINGTON — The differences between the parties are tiny....

Obama has proposed a freeze on most domestic agency budgets, though he exempts homeland security and veterans programs. But he is calling for an $18 billion, 3 percent increase for the Pentagon.

The Pentagon would receive a smaller budget increase in the range of 2 percent under the Senate Democratic plan.

WAR and TYRANNY ALWAYS sees an INCREASE, notice that?

"Obama hails construction of Mich. car-battery plant

HOLLAND, Mich. — Seeking to boost economic spirits, President Obama yesterday hailed the construction of another car-battery plant as a symbol of a made-in-America rebound from desperate times.

Said the president to workers: “You are leading the way in showing how manufacturing jobs are coming right back here to the United States of America.’’

Please stop lying to us, sir.

Obama’s day trip to Michigan sought to give attention to the electric vehicle battery industry — and to the White House’s effort to spur job creation in a growing field — with financial help from taxpayers.

Related: Boston Battery-Maker Drained

Game Report: Mass. Loses to Michigan

Not As Easy as One-Two-Three

What else can you call it but stimuloot?

With millions of people still looking for work and frustrated, Obama is under pressure to demonstrate progress....

--more--"

Thus we are served so much bulls***:

"New WH report claims more jobs from stimulus bill

WASHINGTON --The White House asserted Wednesday that the $862 billion stimulus law has been even better for the economically-struggling country than previously advertised.

Updating its estimate of the impact the controversial new law has had, the White House now projects that the vast spending act has created or saved between 2.5 million and 3.6 million jobs.

There really is no limit to the level of disingenuous distortions and lies this White House is willing to tell, is there?

Obama will start getting gray real soon; never-ending lies and constant submission to Israel will do that to a president.

That's up from the estimate of 2.2 million to 2.8 million jobs that was released in the first quarter of the year from the White House Council of Economic Advisers. The new estimate says the act is on track, if it hasn't already reached, the promise that the stimulus act would save or create 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010.

Related: Setting AP Straight on the Stimulus

All clear now, readers?

A growing body of independent economic analysis suggests the law has boosted jobs and kept people off the unemployment line. Yet exactly how many jobs is a matter of dispute, particularly at a time when the national jobless rate continues to hover perilously close to 10 percent.

That is being kept artificially low for political reasons.

Much of the stimulus money went to programs -- like tax breaks, Medicaid and unemployment insurance -- that don't lend themselves to easy head counts.

Meaning they MAKE the NUMBERS UP, Americans.

In other words, THIS WHITE HOUSE is LYING TO YOU just like the LAST ONE -- as Obama enjoys the fun and sun of New England.

Good thing I can't get thar from h're.

Christina Romer, head of the council, and Vice President Joe Biden released the new quarterly report at a White House event. President Barack Obama and his team are mounting a summertime campaign to show people that the costly stimulus act is working to invigorate the economy.

IF IT WERE we would NOT NEED to be PROPAGANDIZED!!

"There's obviously a lot of uncertainty about any jobs estimate," Romer said. "And I suspect the true effects of the act will not be fully analyzed or fully appreciated for many years."

Then IT FAILED!!!!

What a WASTE of BORROWED-UPON TAXPAYER MONEY!!!!

The White House analysis estimates that every $1 spent as part of the stimulus bill is matched by $3 in private money.

Obama has traveled the country telling voters that as bad as things are, they'd be worse without the stimulus.

We are TIRED OF HEARING that LIE, sir! PLEASE STOP IT!

He acknowledges that message is a tough sell.

Well, BULLSHIT always is!

Obama travels Thursday to Michigan to promote batteries for electric cars, one element of his agenda to create jobs.

--more--"

Yeah, look where they are doling out some of the loot:

"$7.4m awarded for energy research" by Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff | July 13, 2010

Two Massachusetts energy companies and a university were awarded a total of $7.4 million in federal stimulus money to do research about how the United States generates, stores, and uses energy. The awards are part of $92 million being handed out to 43 projects nationwide through the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.

The Energy Department has a DARPA?

Working with two partners, Beacon Power in Tyngsborough is getting $2.25 million to develop a next-generation flywheel system that uses a spinning wheel to capture electricity as kinetic energy.

See: Obama Stimulus Giveaway to Corporations

General Compression Inc. of Newton will study a process that uses compressed air to store energy with its $750,00 award. And researchers at MIT will partner with other academics to look at how to improve energy-efficient lighting, funded by a $4.4 million award.

Is that REALLY the BEST USE of the money to CREATE JOBS?

--more--"

So what else does the dip have to say?

"Obama praises growth in exports; President says US on track to double foreign sales by ’15" by Tom Raum, Associated Press | July 8, 2010

WASHINGTON — Moving trade to a front burner, President Obama said yesterday that the United States was on track to meet his goal of doubling exports in the next five years.

That includes all the jobs never coming back, right?

While many economists and business leaders see that target as overly ambitious, the president has been increasingly linking trade with job creation, and trying to blunt a brewing business revolt against his policies ahead of midterm elections.

That is the SAME CRAP that we have been hearing for DECADES!

Please, sir, STOP LYING TO US!!

And NOW YOU SEE why his POLL NUMBERS are CAVING!

Obama named 18 business, labor, and government leaders to a new export advisory council....

Among those named to the panel is Richard L. Friedman, chief executive of Carpenter & Co., a commercial real estate firm based in Cambridge, Mass.....

Need I even type it?

Yet while the Commerce Department said exports of goods and services from January through April were up 16.9 percent, imports rose even more — up by 19.6 percent.

The early 2010 surges in exports and imports reflected a rebound in global trade from its deep swoon in 2008 and early 2009 at the downturn’s depth.

But the manufacturing gains and inventory restocking that drove the early stages of the recovery have begun to fade.

Just like his polls and presidency.

With shell-shocked consumers unlikely to power the economic recovery by returning to their free-spending ways, White House officials are counting on trade and business investment to contribute a larger role....

Then there REALLY WAS NO RECOVERY, and the s*** MSM is going to say it is ALL YOUR FAULT, unemployed and foreclosed-upon American -- just as this blog predicted months and months ago!

Obama has drawn criticism from business groups for not doing more to promote trade, allowing to languish free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea....

And THAT is why his poll numbers are dropping because he has been on the skids with the American people since sending health care up our poop shoots.

Oh, yeah, the ESCALATING MILITARISM has not helped, either!

--more--"

And about those import-exports:

"Trade gap near two-year high; Rising imports top exports by $42.2b" by Christine Hauser, New York Times | July 14, 2010

The US trade deficit grew in May to more than $42 billion, its widest gap in nearly two years, mostly because of a rise in imports of consumer goods, according to government figures....

The deficit expansion exceeded the estimates of analysts, who suggested that companies rebuilding their inventories accounted for a large part of the increase in imports.

“Under the surface it has been very good,’’ said Joshua Shapiro, the chief US economist for MFR Inc. “Trade flow is growing in both directions. But how that will survive in terms of growth rates is the question.’’

Analysts said the outlook depended on whether consumer demand picked up in the months ahead — an uncertainty given the shaky jobs market — and how the economy fared after government stimulus expired.

Your fault, tapped-out Amurkn consumer!

“We need to keep a close eye on the inventory cycle and that is cooling off as an economic driver,’’ Shapiro said. “It is going to be more of a final demand story, and the signs are not particularly auspicious.’’

Paul Dales, the US economist for Capital Economics, said his firm was revising second-quarter growth downward, to 3.5 percent to 4 percent, from a previous estimate of 4.5 percent, but....

We call them LIES in these parts!

--more--"

Maybe this will cheer the bidness lobby up:

"So far this year, retail sales growing at fastest pace in 4 years" by Cotten Timberlake, Bloomberg News | July 8, 2010

WASHINGTON — US retailers’ sales are growing at the fastest pace in four years, a sign consumers may be overcoming concern about unemployment and depressed home values.

Sales probably expanded....

PROBABLY?

June sales probably came in at the high end....

PROBABLY?

The sales growth has been driven by a 4.2 percent increase at wholesale clubs, excluding gasoline sales, and an 8 percent jump at luxury chains this year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers trade group. Wealthy consumers tend to “come out of hibernation’’ first after a recession, and the clubs are luring value-seeking customers, said Michael Niemira, the trade group’s chief economist....

Yeah, THEY DID GREAT while the rest of America went to discount chains -- another great thing according to the elitist newspaper!

Retailers may have bucked last month’s drop in consumer confidence, which is threatening to temper the rebound....

Yeah, if the economy fails it is YOUR FAULT, American!

The potential spoiler remains a lack of jobs. US employment fell in June for the first time this year, reflecting a drop in federal census workers and a smaller-than-forecast gain in the private sector, the Labor Department said last week....

Translation: You are CONSTANTLY BEING LIED TO, America!!

Retailers are well-positioned for profitability....

Then EVERYTHING is FINE, huh?

But retail chains’ numbers don’t tell the whole picture because some retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest, and New York-based Tiffany, don’t post figures monthly, and the reports don’t include all spending online.

Yeah, it is EVEN BETTER than what the liars and your nose is telling you, dear AmeriKan newspaper readers!!

The industry’s latest gains look better partly because they are coming off steep declines a year earlier, and while the growth rates have improved, many retailers haven’t recovered their earlier sales volumes, Niemira said.

But that doesn't stop the MSM from shoveling s*** headlines.

--more--"

How you doing, shopper?

"Shoppers still spending cautiously; Retail sales fall again in June" by Martin Crutsinger and Anne D’Innocenzio, Associated Press | July 15, 2010

WASHINGTON — A second straight month of declining retail spending will likely keep unemployment high and help weaken the recovery.

That is NOT WHAT I READ a WEEK EARLIER!!!!!!!

Not everyone is suffering, though. Shoppers with stable jobs and steady pay can find lots of bargains.

Once again the PoS paper descends to INSULTS!!!

The economy is bleaker for anyone seeking a job or at risk of losing one. Still, Americans as a group are spending less, and that threatens the pace of the recovery....

I'm SORRY, but I HAVE NO MONEY to SPEND!

I budget $5/day for my stinking Globe and rot-gut coffee from the corner store.

It is the ONLY LUXURY ? I allow myself!

One encouraging sign for the economy is that companies are spending more on technology.

PFFFFFT!

The Globe could find a corn kernel in a pile of s***.

Intel, the world’s No. 1 semiconductor company, this week reported its biggest quarterly net income in a decade.

Yeah, I'm sure the SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY is going to SAVE US ALL!!

The company’s second-quarter earnings figures showed that large corporations are now buying more computers that use Intel’s most expensive chips.

That is WHO this ECONOMY is FOR!

Consumers who have the extra cash are able to take advantage of discounts.

Yeah, WHERE is that?

David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York, said consumers with jobs were responding to bargains. It just does not show up in retail sales statistics, which are not adjusted for price changes.

Some retailers showed signs of strength in June. Department stores sales posted a 1.1 percent gain. Stores like Wal-Mart also posted a slight increase.

--more--"

Lot of EMPTY STOREFRONTS at the MALL, huh?

"Commercial property sales still slow" by Bloomberg News | July 8, 2010

NEW YORK — Private equity real estate funds have a record $104 billion of equity available for US deals, London-based Preqin Ltd. reported last month. Blackstone Real Estate Advisors has the most to invest, with Goldman Sachs second.

Now you know where all that loan liquidity went, taxpayers.

Much of the money raised by private equity firms was in anticipation of a rush of foreclosure sales that failed to materialize, said Sam Chandan, Real Capital’s chief economist.

Don't worry; just wait for the next wave like a surfer would.

In cities such as New York and Washington, owners who owe more than their properties are worth are instead finding new sources of equity and lenders are willing to restructure their loans, he said.

Yes, HOW ODD that they are NOT DOING THAT for HOMEOWNERS!!!

So BUSINESS got a BREAK, huh?

In less attractive markets, banks have been extending loans, waiting for higher prices so they don’t record losses.

Record-low interest rates make it easier for owners to hold a distressed property, said Tom August, chief executive of Equity Office Properties, a unit of Blackstone Group.

“The Armageddon scenario that several people predicted two or three years ago just hasn’t occurred,’’ August said.

NOT for COMMERCIAL BUSINESSES anyway -- or so the Wall Street liars tell us.

Demand for properties is strongest in Boston, New York, Washington, and San Francisco, “where domestic and foreign investors alike have sought to acquire high-quality assets,’’ Chandan said....

That is a FANCY WAY of saying the GLOBAL ELITE are buying up properties for pennies on the dollar!!!!

--more--"

What does the Fed have to say about all this?

"Fed considers steps as economy sputters" by Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press | July 15, 2010

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve officials cut their forecasts for growth this year and signaled they stood ready to take new steps to keep the recovery alive if the economy worsens....

If the recovery were to deteriorate, Fed policy makers have options. They could revive programs to buy mortgage securities or government debt. They could lower the rates banks pay for emergency Fed loans. The Fed also could create a new program to spark more lending to businesses and consumers in a bid to lure them to ratchet up spending and grow the economy....

Yeah, except they ALREADY DID ALL THOSE THINGS and they OBVIOUSLY FAILED if we are RIGHT BACK WHERE WE WERE!!!

There’s little relief in sight for high unemployment....

--more--"

Yeah, how are you doing, worker?

How appropriate you are last and at the bottom.

"US says 4.5m workers added under tax plan; It’s unclear how many jobs would have been gained without break" by Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press | July 13, 2010

Where? China and India?

WASHINGTON — Businesses have hired 4.5 million workers under a new program that provides tax breaks for hiring unemployed workers, the Treasury Department said in a report yesterday.

It is unclear, however, how many of those workers would have been added without the tax break....

Nigel Gault, chief US economist for IHS Global Insight, said, “Nobody knows.... we just don’t know.’’

*******

Many businesses also cut jobs during the period, though there was a net increase of about 993,000 jobs from February through May, according to the government’s business payroll survey.

You expect me to believe those liars?

The economy shed 125,000 jobs in June, according to the survey....

--more--"

Sorry to ruin your weekend, 'bomber.

At least I didn't ruin a nation.

]]> http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iShXVYMQZtk/ Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:50:48 +0200 TorrentFreak http://torrentfreak.com http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iShXVYMQZtk/ Hot on the heels of recent threats from Vice President Joe Biden and Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel directed at sites offering unauthorized movies and music, last month U.S. authorities targeted several sites they claimed were connected to the streaming of infringing video material.

‘Operation In Our Sites‘ targeted several sites including TVShack.net, Movies-Links.TV, FilesPump.com, Now-Movies.com, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org, ZML.com, NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net. In almost unprecedented action, the domain names of 7 sites were seized and indications are that others – The Pirate Bay and MegaUpload – narrowly avoided the same fate.

Fears remain, however, that this action is only the beginning, and that more sites will be targeted as the months roll on. Indeed, TorrentFreak has already received information that other sites, so far unnamed in the media, are being monitored by the authorities on copyright grounds.

Now, according to the owner of a free WordPress platform which hosts more than 73,000 blogs, his network of sites has been completely shut down on the orders of the authorities.

Blogetery.com has been with host BurstNet for 7 months but on Friday July 9th the site disappeared. The following Monday the owner received an email from BurstNet:

Due to the history of abuse and on going abuse on this ‘bn.***********’ server.

We have opted to terminate this server, effective immediately. This termination applies to: bn.affiliateplex.com

Abuse Department
BurstNET Technologies, Inc

Further correspondence received the following response:

Bn.xx*********** was terminated by request of law enforcement officials, due to material hosted on the server.

We are limited as to the details we can provide to you, but note that this was a critical matter and the only available option to us was to immediately deactivate the server.

…and a later clarification:

Please note that this was not a typical case, in which suspension and notification would be the norm. This was a critical matter brought to our attention by law enforcement officials. We had to immediately remove the server.

“We notified him [the Blogetery owner] when we terminated it [the server], and we refunded him his money to his account, because he has other servers with us If he wants the refund to his card, we can easily do that. However, it should be the least of his concerns,” A BurstNet representative later confirmed.

“Simply put: We cannot give him his data nor can we provide any other details. By stating this, most would recognize that something serious is afoot.”

Due to the fact that the authorities aren’t sharing information and BurstNet are sworn to secrecy, it is proving almost impossible to confirm the exact reason why Blogetery has been completely taken down. The owner does, however, admit to handling many copyright-related cease and desists in the past, albeit in a timely manner as the DMCA requires.

Nevertheless, a couple of quick Google searches which are likely to turn up blogs which link to copyright material appear to do just that – here, here and here. That said, on any network this large this type of activity is bound to happen. Many thousands of blogs on the same platform would have been perfectly legal.

“All of the users are without service just like when the Pirate Bay raids happened and all the people who were on the host sites were also taken down,” pointed out an annoyed Blogetery user who contacted TorrentFreak. “I have lost my personal site also and I don’t have any way to contact the owner since his contact info was on the blogetery.com site & that was the only way to contact him.”

Indeed, 73,000 blogs is a significant number to take down in one swoop, regardless of what some users of the site may or may not have been doing. Time will tell if it was indeed a copyright complaint that took down the service but the signs are certainly there. Not so long ago the conclusion that this type of action could be taken on copyright grounds would have been dismissed out of hand, but the current atmosphere seems to be changing.

Update: Apparently there was “terrorist material” hosted on one of the blogs.

Article from: TorrentFreak.

]]> http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/bibis-blackmail-of-obama.html Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:56:00 +0200 MSM Monitor http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/ http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/bibis-blackmail-of-obama.html With the AmeriKan MSM serving up a smokescreen of s***.

"US nudge on nuclear arms catches Israel off guard" by Mark Landler, New York Times | July 4, 2010

WASHINGTON — It was only one paragraph buried deep in the most plain-vanilla kind of diplomatic document, 40 pages of dry language committing 189 nations to a world free of nuclear weapons. But it has become the latest source of friction between Israel and the United States in a relationship that has lurched from crisis to crisis over the last few months.

You know, the kind of thing that got Kennedy killed.

At an annual meeting to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in May, the United States yielded to demands by Arab nations that the final document urge Israel to sign the treaty — a way of spotlighting its historically undeclared nuclear weapons.

Israel believed it had assurances from the Obama administration that it would reject efforts to include such a reference, an Israeli official said, and it saw this as another sign of unreliability by its most important ally.

So Bibi is coming to DELIVER a THREAT!!!

In a recent visit to Washington, Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, raised the issue in meetings with senior American officials.

With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scheduled to meet President Obama at the White House Tuesday, the flap may introduce a discordant note into a meeting that both sides are eager to portray as a chance for Israel and the United States to turn the page after a rocky period.

Don't worry, the MSM SCREEN will do a great job!

Other things have changed notably for the better in American-Israeli relations since Netanyahu called off his last visit to the White House to rush home to deal with the crisis after Israel’s deadly attack on a humanitarian aid flotilla sailing to Gaza in late May. His agreement to ease the land blockade on Gaza, which came at the request of the United States, has helped thaw the chill between the governments, American and Israeli officials said.

Meanwhile, the raft of new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, after the passage of the UN resolution, has reassured Israelis, who viewed Obama’s attempts to engage Iran with unease. Obama signed the American sanctions into law Thursday.

“The overall tone is more of a feel-good visit than we’ve seen in the past,’’ said David Makovsky, director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a research group. “It has been more focused on making sure that the Ides of March have passed.’’

He was referring to the dispute during a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden in March, when Israel approved plans for Jewish housing in East Jerusalem. Obama was enraged by what he perceived as a slight to Biden, and when Netanyahu visited a few weeks later, the While House showed its displeasure by banning cameras from recording the visit.

Related: Israel Biden Their Time on Iran

Usraeli Food Fight

See why I do not take the fighting flap seriously?

Despite the better atmospherics, some analysts said the nuclear nonproliferation issue symbolizes why Israel remains insecure about the intentions of the Obama administration.

In addition to singling out Israel, the document calls for a regional conference in 2012 to lay the groundwork for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.

Which is something Israel simply will not have!

--more--"

Related:

"Gate crashers make waves

WASHINGTON — The publicity-hungry couple were in a limousine that was stopped by a Secret Service officer blocks from the White House on Wednesday night as the Obamas’ second state dinner was underway inside. Their driver was ticketed about 8 p.m. after running a red light and signaling an intent to turn into a restricted area near the Ellipse, located behind the White House, according to Edwin Donovan, Secret Service spokesman....

--more--"

Just a REMINDER to Obama that THEY CAN GET TO HIM!!!

Shouldn't have gone to the bathhouse, 'bamer.

"Settlement freeze on minds of Obama, Netanyahu; US likely to seek policy’s extension when leaders meet" by Nicole Gaouette, Bloomberg News | July 6, 2010

WASHINGTON — President Obama will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today at a moment when US-Israeli ties are improving. Further warming may depend on whether Israel extends a settlement-building freeze due to expire in September.

Related: Israel razes 6 East Jerusalem sites

Talk about s***ting in his face.

The United States sided with Israel in the face of international criticism following its raid on a Gaza aid flotilla in May and persuaded the United Nations to impose additional sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program last month.

Those actions helped reverse a downturn in relations that developed over Israel’s plan to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem.

Translation: The U.S. APPROVES of ISRAEL'S ACTIONS!

Dan Shapiro, senior director at the White House for the Middle East and North Africa, told reporters last week that the freeze on building new homes in West Bank settlements, announced by Netanyahu on Nov. 25, has helped advance efforts toward the goal of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

And the RAZING just KNOCKED 'EM DOWN AGAIN!

“There has been a distinct improvement in the White House relationship with Israel since the last meeting’’ between Obama and Netanyahu on March 23, said Jonathan Spyer, a political scientist at Israel’s Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. “Obama will be looking for a payback,’’ perhaps in the form of an extension to the settlement freeze, Spyer said.

Paid back with a poop in the puss?

The stakes are potentially high for both leaders. Obama has expended political capital on reviving the peace negotiations, beginning with indirect talks intended to lead toward direct ones, something that aides to the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, say won’t happen unless Israel halts all settlement building.

Maybe Obama should deal with the disdain his own citizens have for him at his fellatio of Israel.

They KILLED an AMERICAN CITIZEN and HE DOESN'T CARE!

Netanyahu could lose his parliamentary majority if he extends the settlement freeze beyond the Sept. 26 expiration.

GOOD -- not that it will matter much. Another crop of Zionist war criminals will just replace them.

Other than that, I couldn't give any less of a s*** about Bibi's political prospects.

The Obama administration is “very keen to see the moratorium extended,’’ said Roger Danin, a senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. “That’s a very difficult issue they will probably not be able to resolve during this visit.’’

Shapiro said the focus of the discussion between the leaders would be “on making that transition into direct talks’’ and on what has been covered through the indirect talks.

US officials say that relations between the two countries have improved considerably since March, when Israel’s announcement of the East Jerusalem housing plan in the midst of a visit by Vice President Joe Biden drew criticism from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

I covered those above, and what a contrast to what the NYT was reporting only a few days ago!!!

Obama shielded Israel from international censure at the UN, after Israeli forces killed nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists aboard a ship trying to breach a naval blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Yeah, never mind that one was an American and the pro-Palestinian designation implies anti-Israel.

So be it then. What human being could ever be pro-Israel?

In May, the president requested $205 million from Congress to fund a medium-range missile-defense system for Israel.

Un-f****ing-believable!!

Like we have money to spare for that s***!

The system is intended to protect Israel from rockets and mortars from Gaza and Lebanon.

Yup, that is WHO THIS GOVERNMENT WORKS FOR!

In their meeting, the two men will also discuss Iran’s nuclear program, which Israeli officials call an existential threat.

Yeah, that is the MAIN TOPIC behind this MSM COVER STORY about "peace" with the Palestinians!

US relations could sour again if Netanyahu sticks to his pledge to renew settlement building when the freeze ends on Sept. 26. The Israeli leader is under pressure to lift the West Bank construction ban from allies in his coalition and members of his Likud party.

Oh, I DOUBT IT VERY MUCH!

--more--"

You can SEE WHO CALLS the SHOTS:

The two leaders took pains yesterday in Washington to show their unity to the world. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Awww, shucks, massa!!!

"United front for Obama, Netanyahu; Israeli pledges ‘robust’ steps to revive peace effort" by Ben Feller, Associated Press | July 7, 2010

WASHINGTON — Eager to show unity to the world, President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel dismissed talk of a rift yesterday as wildly unfounded....

Then the AmeriKan MSM is full of liars, huh?

In a warm, yet carefully choreographed White House embrace, the two leaders took pains to convince allies and enemies alike that a deeply important relationship is doing just fine.

The two nations clearly felt that was necessary. The meeting occurred five weeks after Israel’s deadly raid on a flotilla that was trying to break the Israeli blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. That raid brought international outrage and tested US support for Israel’s security steps.

He pass the test?

But the images and words of yesterday’s visit all sent one message: unshaken cooperation.

Netanyahu emerged with promises from Obama that the United States is committed to Israel’s security....

Translation: We will attack Iran or let you and then back you up.

Where there was agreement, such as on Iran’s nuclear ambitions or the promise of Mideast peace, Obama and Netanyahu emphasized it yesterday.

It is going to be one hell of a hot summer!

That's why he was here, not this peace pullover as a cover.

Where tensions remain, such as on Israeli settlements or the attack on the aid flotilla, there was little public mention.

“The bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable,’’ Obama said near the start of his comments in the Oval Office, with Netanyahu at his side.

Translation: THEY HAVE ME by the BALLS!!!

By the time the two leaders took questions from reporters, including one that asserted Obama had distanced himself from Israel, the leaders were ready.

“The premise of your question was wrong, and I entirely disagree with it,’’ Obama said calmly. Even in times of tough conversations with Netanyahu, he said, “the underlying approach never changes, and that is, the United States is committed to Israel’s security. We are committed to that special bond.’’

Netanyahu added a flavor of Mark Twain: “The reports about the demise of the special US-Israel relationship aren’t just premature. They’re just flat wrong.’’

I'm not laughing.

The president commended the Israeli government for showing “restraint’’ over the past several months....

Why don't you just let him publicly screw you in the ass, 'bamer?

In one last touch, the Israeli prime minister invited Obama and his wife, Michelle, for a visit to Israel.

Easier to kill him and blame a Muslim, huh?

“It’s about time,’’ Netanyahu said.

I'd cancel the trip. Please cancel the trip, Mr. President.

You may be a tool, but tools can turn on their wielder.

I sure as hell do not want another dead president.

Said a smiling Obama: “We look forward to it.’’

You have a death wish or something?

--more--"

]]> http://machetera.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/collateral-abuse-in-the-russian-agent-case/ Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:46:05 +0200 Machetera http://machetera.wordpress.com http://machetera.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/collateral-abuse-in-the-russian-agent-case/ Collateral Abuse in the “Russian Agent” Case

Machetera

Traducido a español por Manuel Cedeño Berrueta y Manuel Talens, de Tlaxcala

Elian González with his father, Juan Miguel González

It’s a well known fact that for a child, emotional trauma is every bit as damaging as the physical kind and often considerably more difficult to treat, given the fact that it leaves no physical marks. In the news about the tenth anniversary of Elian’s return to his father in Cuba there was a remarkable quote from Elian himself. Speaking about the Miami relatives who put him on display like a miniature human trophy and spared no effort to prevent his return to the father he’d been taken from without permission, he said, “Even though they didn’t support us in everything…I have no bitterness.” For Elian to emerge without bitterness after such suffering is a testament to the family who raised him and the society surrounding them.

Thinking of perfectly avoidable childhood trauma, one has to wonder about the U.S. government’s motivations in its warp-speed roundup of accused Russian agents, the majority of whom were also parents.

Eight of the accused were parents of young children and teenagers. The youngest children were only 1 and 3. At least two of them, Lisa and Katie Murphy, 7 and 11, were present when the FBI marched their parents away in handcuffs. The youngest were reportedly placed with social service agencies while their parents’ accusers performed background checks on the designated caretakers. Vicky Peláez was the only one granted bail to return to her 17 year old son; bail that the government vowed to contest and in the end became irrelevant as a plea bargain crafted by the Attorney General’s office was forced on the accused before their hasty deportation.

This kind of behavior is nothing new for the United States – the Rosenbergs were not only arrested but executed while their sons were 6 and 10 – and in Miami in 1998, the dual U.S./Cuban citizen René González was dragged away by a SWAT team in full view of his wife and young daughters, one just an infant, and then denied permission to see them again for an entire year. Adriana Pérez O’Connor, who has herself been denied permission for 13 years to visit her own husband, Gerardo Hernández also dragged off by a SWAT team , described René’s situation:

They didn’t allow them to visit him in prison, unlike the families of other prisoners. One year later they allowed him to see his daughters, and they were very cruel about it, because they kept him chained to a chair. His littlest daughter who had never seen anything like it, confused him for a dog, because he was chained, but her mother told her that her father was not the dog, that the dogs in that place were the guards.

René González with daughters Irma and Ivette

It’s worth recalling that against the accused Russian agents, there was never any charge of espionage despite the New York Times’ hankering for one , simply the charge of conspiracy to work as foreign agents. And despite provocative press reports about safe deposit boxes filled with $100 bills, the accused were not charged with money laundering either. Only conspiracy to launder money.

But this was not a minor detail. As Vicky Peláez’s attorney pointed out, the current political climate in the United States is such that the presumption of innocence has vanished, especially where immigrants are concerned, and this made a terrible plea bargain preferable to a rubber-stamp trial that would surely conclude with long prison sentences.

Gerardo Hernández is a living testament to the fact that a conspiracy charge is a very effective way to incarcerate a person under extremely harsh conditions without having to prove their connection to a crime.

Gerardo Hernández

Hernández was an unregistered Cuban agent who was collecting information on Miami terrorist groups that were bombing tourist attractions in Cuba throughout the 1990′s. He reported to Cuba, but the FBI was also monitoring these same groups, reporting to the United States.

Similar to the Russians, Hernández was first arrested on the charge of being an unregistered foreign agent. Seven months after his arrest, an additional charge was thrown in: conspiracy to commit murder. The charge was a combined attempt by the families of the downed fliers and the U.S. government to avenge the downing of two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft that had penetrated Cuban airspace 20 times over the previous 25 months and were finally shot down. The Cuban government had given the fliers unambiguous warnings of the danger.

Close to the time of the downing of the aircraft, Hernández had sent a message to Cuba saying that it had been an honor for him to contribute to the success of a particular mission. The prosecutors knew very well which mission he was referring to, and it was not the shootdown, with which he was completely unconnected. But they selectively excerpted this message and others, to paint a picture for the jury of a conspiracy that suggested the opposite. And they succeeded. The jury, which had been hectored by the Miami community and media, some of whom were also on the government payroll, convicted Hernández of conspiracy to commit murder. As a result, he remains in a maximum security prison in California under a double life sentence, plus 15 years.

So the money laundering that the Russians had not actually performed? No problem. All the government would have had to do was selectively present the conversations it had taped denying the defense access to the rest, under cover of national security , to convince a jury that at some point there was a plan to engage in it, and voilá. Goodbye children.

One also has to wonder in what other country besides the United States of America, could people be arrested this way? In Venezuela, where international agencies are dumping $40 – $50 million annually to fund opposition to the Chávez government – not simply sending agents down with a few thousand dollars and an assignment to “develop ties with policymaking circles,” as the U.S. Government contended in this case – has there been a single instance of a foreigner being forcefully hauled away in full view of children who were then turned over to government social service agencies? In Bolivia? In Cuba, Alan Gross was detained at the airport, but he went there alone, and it is impossible to imagine that had he been accompanied by small children, he would ever have received the treatment meted out to René González in Miami or Richard and Cynthia Murphy Lydia and Vladimir Guryev in New Jersey.

Neighbors of the Russian couple reported seeing their 11 year old daughter Katie returning from a pool party just in time to see her parents being taken away while she was left standing on the front lawn holding a balloon animal. One of the neighbors told the press: “There’s sadness for the kids, who seem completely innocent and absolutely lovely…You wonder how parents can get so caught up into that kind of life. Look at the damage they’ve done to the children.”

But does anyone seriously believe that the CIA only hires single, unattached, childless agents to do its work outside the country?

Winston Scott

Leaving aside present suspected CIA agents, let’s think for a moment about past known agents, like Winston Scott, CIA station chief in Mexico City between 1956 and 1969. Jefferson Morley’s excellent book on Scott, “Our Man in Mexico,” details how the CIA man had the Mexican president, interior minister, and secret police chief on the CIA payroll at the same time Mexican students were being slaughtered at Tlatelolco. Scott was also, ironically, a devoted family man. His high-level Mexican connections ensured that he would never have had to trouble himself with worries about arrest, but put that aside for a moment and imagine the scandal that would have erupted if the tables were turned and he’d been frogmarched out the family mansion in Chapultepec with his wife and son looking on? Scott was most certainly not registered in his real capacity as a spy with his hands on the levers of Mexican power.

The FBI toiled away for ten years on the “Russian agent” case, and still not coming up with anything beyond comparatively small amounts of money in safe deposit boxes and clicking noises picked up by hidden bugs, finally concluded that ten years was long enough. One official leak to the press suggested that the timing was based on the fear that some of the Russians were ready to move on. But in the current context, with ratification of the START nuclear arms treaty pending, and Russian support recently achieved at the U.N. Security Council on sanctions against Iran, the U.S. administration Obama particularly would seem to have more to lose than gain by a high profile display of police power and cold war xenophobia against its new Russian best friend. Possibly, as the Wall Street Journal suggested, the Oval Office was convinced that the arrests were unavoidable and the bizarre Russian/Russian swap was planned months ago to neutralize the damage. Or perhaps Obama believed the arrests could actually perform a useful function, sending a peculiar reminder to Russia about who is calling the shots. Or maybe it was out of his hands. It’s impossible to know.

Anna Chapman

What is certain is that as with the case of the Cuban 5, the media kept to their well scripted calendar. The first stories were full of shock and outrage, quickly followed by others about the “spies” as bumblers, fabricators and who knew?! deceivers. And finally, in the most transparent revelation of the executive spin that would soon be parroted by official U.S. media that of U.S. victoriousness , Joe Biden was sent to Hollywood to deliver pathetic jokes to Jay Leno’s aging audience: “It wasn’t my idea to send [Anna Chapman] back…We got back four really good ones. And the 10, they’ve been here a long time, but they haven’t done much.”

Four so good that two of them were dropped off in the streets of London, halfway through their all expense paid voyage to the U.S.

If the 10 hadn’t “done much,” why again, the theatrics, the threats, the totally unnecessary trauma inflicted on the children? While most of the children have finally been reunited with their parents in Russia after enduring several weeks of completely avoidable anxiety, Vicky Peláez’s son, Juan Lázaro Jr., remains in New York, homeless, parentless, reportedly dependent on Red Cross assistance. Meanwhile the press is salivating over the upcoming federal auction of his former home and all its contents.

Collateral damage, that sanitizing, desensitizing term to which we’ve become so accustomed, doesn’t touch the issue; it’s not meant to. This is collateral child abuse facilitated by the U.S. government, and whether it happens to one child, or the thousands of anonymous children whose parents have been snatched away in equally propagandistic immigration raids, there’s no excuse for it, and it’s nothing to joke about.

Machetera, Manuel Cedeño Berrueta and Manuel Talens are members of Tlaxcala, the international network of translators for linguistic diversity. This article may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the author, source and translators are cited.

]]> http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/new-electric-fence-in-al-walajah-will-cage-the-village-like-a-zoo-animals.html Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:00:20 +0200 Mondoweiss http://mondoweiss.net http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/new-electric-fence-in-al-walajah-will-cage-the-village-like-a-zoo-animals.html --> Land theft and destruction/Ethnic cleansing Israel To Expropriate 30 Dunams Near Hebron The Israeli Authorities decided to illegally expropriate 30 Dunams of Palestinian lands that belong to villagers of Beit Ola, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. ...]]>

And other news from Today in Palestine:

[if gte mso 9]>--> Land theft and destruction/Ethnic cleansing
Israel To Expropriate 30 Dunams Near Hebron
The Israeli Authorities decided to illegally expropriate 30 Dunams of Palestinian lands that belong to villagers of Beit Ola, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59113

Mayor: Israeli forces confiscate land near Hebron
Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli soldiers issued orders barring residents of four small villages in the southern West Bank from their land, mayor Suleiman Al-Adam said Sunday. The orders declared the agricultural land a closed military zone, and ordered farmers and others working on the land to evacuate. The soldiers also confiscated farming equipment, a statement by Beit Ula’s mayor said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=298497

Palestinian villagers battle plans to wall them in AFP
AFP - Omar Hajaj says he will soon be caged "like a zoo animal," with an electric fence encircling his house and his village hemmed in by the notorious West Bank barrier.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100711/wl_mideast_afp/mideastpalestinianconflictbarrier

Senior Palestinian calls Jerusalem a "time bomb" Reuters
Reuters - A senior Palestinian figure said on Sunday that rising tension with Israel over settlement building in the Jerusalem area was a "time bomb" that was eroding trust between the two sides.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100711/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_jerusalem

Tibi: Destroy the wall
Jerusalem – Ma'an – Palestinian Knesset member Ahmad Tibi called on international rights groups to take immediate action against Israel's disregard for the International Court of Justice's opinion on the illegality of the wall Friday. Tibi and fellow MK Mohammad Barakeh had participated in the hearing six years ago at the Hague, where he said it was "obvious that the wall has tear apart Palestinian lands ... The wall has divided the Palestinian families as it was built between them.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=298084

Israeli court extends Abu Tier detention
Bethlehem - Ma'an - The detention of Jerusalem lawmaker faced with deportation Mohammed Abu Teir was extended until Wednesday by an Israeli district court, during the PLC member's afternoon hearing. The official was stripped of his Jerusalem residency rights in late June, and was given until 2 July to leave his native city or be deported. Two days later he was detained by Israeli forces, and remains in Israeli custody.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=298669

Switzerland presses Israel to cancel expulsion: Hamas legislator
RAMALLAH, July 11 Xinhua -- Switzerland is pressing Israel to cancel its decision to expel three Hamas-aligned lawmakers and a former Hamas minister from East Jerusalem, one of the four legislators revealed on Sunday. Ahmed Atwan, the legislator, told Xinhua that a Swiss delegation visited his colleagues and him in the protest tent they erected in East Jerusalem and informed them of the pressure they practice on Israel to annul the expulsion order.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-07/11/c_13394754.htm

Israeli FM to Palestinians: Take Israel's Arabs
Israel's foreign minister says a peace deal with the Palestinians should include handing areas where Israel's Arabs live over to Palestinian control. Avigdor Lieberman said a peace accord should be based on "population exchanges, not land for peace." The Palestinians claim the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem for a state, but they have indicated readiness to swap some land in the West Bank for territory in Israel.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/07/11/113628.html

93% of Likudniks support continued Falash Mura aliya

The overwhelming majority of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party support the continued aliya of the Falash Mura community from Ethiopia and more than half believe that delays to their immigration over the past few years stem from discrimination and racism, according to a report received by The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=181085

Israel's Outrageous Settlement Enterprise, Stephen Lendman
B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, addressed it in its July 2010 report titled, 'By Hook and By Crook: Israel's Settlement Policy in the West Bank', ahead of a July 6 meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Obama, their fifth - a shameless love fest endorsing Israeli crimes, Obama saying Israel has "got to be able to respond to threats or any combination of threats in the region," ones it manufactures to pursue ruthless, lawless policies, nonviolent civilians the victims.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16126

Solidarity/Activism/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Hebron Palestinians: Go dance on your own streets
Leftists, Palestinians protest against IDF soldiers' mock dance during patrol in West Bank city, which became YouTube hit.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3917831,00.html

Hebron ‘dance protest’ against Israeli soldiers and settlers
Over 100 Palestinians together with international solidarity activists gathered in Hebron this Saturday to protest against the closure of Shuhada street. As a response to the infamous Youtube video of soldiers dancing near the illegal settlement of Tel-Rumeida, some protesters staged a dance protest: three dancers took the role of soldiers and searched and “arrested” three Palestinians.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/07/12892/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29

Irtas rally marks the sixth anniversary of the International Court of Justice ruling against the Wall
July 11th, 2010-- the popular committee against the Wall and settlements in The village of Irtas organized a protest which commemorated the 2004 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice which ruled that Israel’s construction of the Wall was illegal under international law.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2318.shtml

6 years after the ICJ ruling: Ni'lin still steadfast against the Wall
On Friday July 9th, 2010, the village of Ni’lin’s weekly protest against the Wall and settlements commemorated the sixth anniversary of the International Court of Justice’s ruling which declared Israel’s construction of the Wall illegal under international law.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2316.shtml

'Unprecedented police brutality' at East Jerusalem protest
Left-wing activists protest weekly alongside Arab residents of Sheikh Jarrah over settlers' takeover of locals' homes.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/unprecedented-police-brutality-at-east-jerusalem-protest-1.301039?localLinksEnabled=false

Separate sit-ins in Ramallah
Ramallah – Ma’an – Two sit-ins demonstrations are scheduled to be held in the central West Bank city of Ramallah in front of the headquarters of the Palestinian Legislative Council. The first is organized by the nongovernmental committee which monitors elections to call on President Mahmoud Abbas to cancel his decision to postpone local elections. The second is organized by the Union of Bus Companies to ask the transportation minister to stop a decision to establish 35 new private bus companies.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=298642

Jordanian workers urged to avoid dealing with Israeli, U.S. goods
AMMAN, July 10 Xinhua -- A top anti-normalization Jordanian committee grouping opposition parties and professional associations on Saturday urged the Jordanian general federation of trade unions to boycott and not to cooperate with Israel and the United States. The committee urged Jordanian workers to shun from loading or unloading Israeli goods at all Jordanian land and sea ports and airports and called on them to refuse to deal with ships heading to Israel.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-07/10/c_13393769.htm

Libya preventing Gaddafi Jr. from joining ship
Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reports country's authorities have restricted takeoff of private flights in bid to prevent Libyan leader's son from joining aid vessel attempting to reach Gaza.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3918530,00.html

Jordanian activists plan Gaza aid convoy
AMMAN — Jordanian activists and trade unionists plan to head to Gaza on Tuesday through the Egyptian border town of El-Arish carrying aid relief and medical supplies to the blockaded Palestinians, organisers said. “More than 150 people and 30 vehicles with aid, medicines and clothes will leave Amman for Gaza on Tuesday morning,” Wael Saqqa, head of the Jordan Engineers Association, told AFP on Sunday.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2010/July/middleeast_July179.xml&section=middleeast&col=

32 faculty, 200+ students sign Penn State petition condemning flotilla raid, Philip Weiss
Today on NPR Martin Indyk told Scott Simon that during his last visit to Israel he saw Israelis feeling isolated by world opinion over the flotilla raid and wanting their government to respond to the criticism not with force. And Indyk concludes, lobbyistically, that the answer is for Obama to cultivate Netanyahu and the Israelis all the more. Why? when people are responding to savage conditions for Palestinians. The isolation of this conduct is the achievement of the grass roots. Here's the Penn State petition, with signatories many of the names Jewish, by the way
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/32-faculty-200-students-sign-penn-state-petition-condemning-flotilla-raid.html

BDS campaign wants Israel to abide by international law
Boycott Divestment and Sanctions strategy arises from realisation that the occupation will not end unless Israelis understand it has a price.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/11/israeli-academic-boycott-commentary

Barghouthi: Resistance our strategic choice
Palestinian National Initiative leader Mustafa Barghouthi said Saturday that talks with Israel have failed, speaking at a rally calling for the reopening of Ash-Shuhada Street in Hebron. "We are here in Hebron to stress that resistance is our strategic choice as negotiations with the right-wing Israeli government have failed," Barghouthi told party members, residents, and international peace activists gathered for the demonstration.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1479

Violence and Aggression
Gaza farmers face live fire
As a Libyan backed aid ship sails for the Gaza Strip, another group of international activists has been defying the blockade, but this time on the land. Foreigners acting as human shields have been helping farmers in Gaza harvest their crops. About 30 per cent of Gaza's arable land is on the border with Israel and the area has been declared a buffer zone by the Israeli army. Palestinian farmers risk being shot with live fire for working their fields. Nicole Johnston reports from Bani Salah.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYS5EYEb91s&feature=youtube_gdata

Druze protesters clash with police searching restaurant in Golan village

Several Druze residents from the Golan village of Majdal Shams were wounded Sunday evening in clashes with Israel Police, according to eyewitnesses ... According to the head of the northern district unit police force, "20 officers attempted to carry out a search and were attacked by hundreds of village residents."
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/druze-protesters-clash-with-police-searching-restaurant-in-golan-village-1.301306?localLinksEnabled=false

Israel army to investigate death of Palestinian protester
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Israel's military will investigate the 2009 shooting death of an unarmed Palestinian protester in the occupied West Bank, Israeli activists said Monday. Major General Avichai Mandelblit ordered the Military Police Investigation Unit to investigate the death of Bassem Abu Rahma, 30, who was killed when a high-velocity tear-gas canister struck him during an anti-wall demonstration in the village of Bil'in, near Ramallah, in April 2009.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=298708

PCATI and Adalah: "Exposed: The Treatment of Palestinian Detainees During Operation Cast Lead"
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, released, today, a special report "Exposed" which discusses violations of detainee rights during "Cast Lead".
http://www.imemc.org/article/59111

The Siege Gaza & West Bank /Humanitarian and Human Rights
Industrial Fuel – Needs Vs. Supply – June 13 – July 10
http://www.gazagateway.org/2010/07/industrial-fuel-needs-vs-supply-june-13-july-10/

Goods – Needs Vs. Supply – June 13 – July 10
http://www.gazagateway.org/2010/07/goods-needs-vs-supply-june-13-july-10/

Israel bans Gaza woman from studying human rights in West Bank, Amira Hass
The flow of goods into Gaza may have eased - but for Palestinians, restrictions on movement remain tight.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/israel-bans-gaza-woman-from-studying-human-rights-in-west-bank-1.301372?localLinksEnabled=false

Unwelcome Guests: Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon
For over 60 years, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have been denied their basic rights. Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Dalal Yassine examines the legal status of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and the "Right to Work" Campaign. She argues that greater coordination between Palestinian and Lebanese civil society organizations and solidarity groups in the Palestinian Diaspora is required in order to change the country's laws.
http://al-shabaka.org/policy-brief/refugee-issues/unwelcome-guests-palestinian-refugees-lebanon?page=show

400 Israeli settlers enter Nablus village
Nablus – Ma’an – More than 400 Israeli settlers under military guard entered a village near the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday. Israeli forces closed the area for the duration of the event, and Palestinians were unable to leave Orta village between 10 p.m. Sunday and 3 a.m. Monday, village councillor Hasan Awad said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the settlers entered the area to visit holy sites, adding that they were escorted by Israeli soldiers for their protection. She said the village was not closed.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=298678

Israel's Arab Helpers
MESS Report / Shin Bet visits West Bank cities to boost security ties with PA
Yuval Diskin travels to Jenin and Ramallah as a guest of the Palestinian Authority security service.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/mess-report-shin-bet-visits-west-bank-cities-to-boost-security-ties-with-pa-1.301345

Flotilla Fallout
Israel: Mistakes over flotilla raid
Internal probe faults Israeli navy for poor planning over attack on Gaza-bound convoy.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/07/201071255657605124.html

Israeli court hears petition to scrap Turkel Committee
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Israel's High Court of Justice heard an appeal on Sunday, filed by the Israeli peace movement Gush Shalom, requesting the dismissal of the Turkel Committee, appointed by the Netanyahu government to investigate Israel's raid on an aid flotilla. Gush Shalom said in a statement that it wants an independent judicial commission of inquiry to be appointed by the president of the court. "We have no intention to withdraw the appeal. The justification for it is clearer than ever" former Knesset member and Gush Shalom Director Uri Avnery said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=298770

Knesset to vote on rescinding Arab MK Zoabi's privileges
Knesset's House Committee recommended revoking her privileges after she participated in the Gaza-bound aid flotilla that resulted in an IDF raid.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/knesset-to-vote-on-rescinding-arab-mk-zoabi-s-privileges-1.301481?localLinksEnabled=false

MK Haneen Zoubi: I Joined The Flotilla To Show Israel Is Not A Democracy
First she faced bullets on the Mavi Marmara. Then it was death threats and chants of "terrorist" and "traitor" in the Knesset. The campaign to have her immunity and citizenship taken, even public calls for her to be executed.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1480

Political/Other Developments
Netanyahu: peace deal unlikely to be in place by 2012 AFP
AFP - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast Sunday that it was unlikely a peace deal with the Palestinians could be implemented by 2012.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100711/wl_mideast_afp/mideastdiplomacynetanyahu

Netanyahu to discuss peace moves with Mubarak
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he would head for Egypt this week in order to update Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on latest developments in talks with the Palestinians.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=116920

Hamas leader denies progress on swap
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Senior Hamas leader Salah Al-Bardawil says there has been no progress on a prisoner exchange with Israel.
Al-Bardawil said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was simply repeating the same conditions in recent days and the Israeli media were going along for the ride. "Israeli media outlets are toying with the emotions and feelings of the Israeli public," he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=298615

Amreeka, Amreeka: U.S. Congress United in its Support of Israel, says Republican Minority Whip
U.S. Republicans and Democrats differ on nearly every issue in the U.S. Congress but are united in their support of Israel, Congressman Eric Cantor R-VA told a congregation of U.S. Jews on Saturday.
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/u-s-congress-united-in-its-support-of-israel-says-republican-minority-whip-1.301299

Arad: Obama's remarks our insurance policy
National security advisor tells Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that 'US is strategically committed to Israel's security – Obama made it clear in his own voice, the administration made it clear in writing'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3918589,00.html

Other News
Most Palestinians Believe Proximity Talks To Fail: Poll
RAMALLAH, July 12 Benama -- Most Palestinians believe the US-led indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority PNA would fail, a poll showed on Monday. According to Xinhua news agency, the survey, conducted by the West Bank-based Palestinian Center for Public Opinion PCPO , said 53 percent of the surveyed expected the negotiations that started in May would fail, 37 percent said the proximity talks would be successful and 10 percent refused to answer the question.
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=512979

IDF to probe death of Palestinian protester at West Bank rally
Military Advocate General back-pedals, orders probe into death of protester who was killed by a tear gas canister at a demonstration in Bil'in in April 2009.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-to-probe-death-of-palestinian-protester-at-west-bank-rally-1.301484

Syrians in Golan detain 3 Israeli soldiers: TV
DAMASCUS, July 11 Xinhua -- Syrian citizens in the Israeli- occupied Golan Heights captured three Israeli soldiers during a security mission by an Israeli force in the territory, Al Jazeera news channel reported. The Syrian TV confirmed the report, saying the Israeli soldiers were in a mission to storm houses of two Syrian families in Majdal Shams village when the local citizens seized them inside one of the two houses.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-07/12/c_13394852.htm

Lawyers file case against Israel with Moroccan prosecutor AFP
AFP - A group of lawyers launched a legal bid Monday to have senior Israeli figures arrested if they ever step foot in Morocco over the Jewish state's offensive in the Gaza Strip 18 months ago, a spokesman said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100712/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazamoroccoisraeljustice

'Israel's status worst since 70s'

Israel's current standing in the United Nations is the worst it has been in nearly forty years, said Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, in an interview with Army Radio on Sunday. "Our situation in recent months can be compared to the 1970s, when Zionism was being called racism," said Shalev.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=181055

Britain opens probe into death of Egyptian Mossad spy
An official investigation into the death of Egyptian Mossad agent Dr. Ashraf Marwan will begin today in London. The investigation, to be conducted by a coroner, follows a request made by Marwan's family, who blame the Mossad for his assassination. Marwan's widow, the daughter of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, gave an interview Sunday in which she said the Israeli espionage agency was responsible for her husband's death.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/britain-opens-probe-into-death-of-egyptian-mossad-spy-1.301354?localLinksEnabled=false

IDF officer charged with seducing underage girls
Eyal Nahum indicted for contacting some 4,000 girls aged 10-16, offering to teach them about sex. Police say officer had sexual relations with four of his victims.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3917911,00.html

Conversions bill sets Netanyahu on collision course with U.S. Jews
American communities outraged, claiming PM broke personal promise to ensure bill granting Orthodox rabbis a monopoly on conversion in Israel would not become law.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/conversions-bill-sets-netanyahu-on-collision-course-with-u-s-jews-1.301338?localLinksEnabled=false

Police arrest Women of the Wall leader for praying with Torah scroll
Anat Hoffman, the women's prayer group leader, was arrested for holding a Torah scroll in violation of a High Court ruling on prayer at the Western Wall.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/police-arrest-women-of-the-wall-leader-for-praying-with-torah-scroll-1.301457?localLinksEnabled=false

Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest
Witch-hunt begins in Israeli schools and colleges - Jonathan Cook
Hundreds of Israeli college professors have signed a petition accusing the education minister of endangering academic freedoms after he threatened to “punish” any lecturer or institution that supports a boycott of Israel. The backlash against Gideon Saar, a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, comes after a series of moves which suggest he is trying to stamp a more stridently right-wing agenda on the Israeli education system. The education minister has outraged the 540 professors who signed the petition by his open backing of a nationalist youth movement, Im Tirtzu, which demands that teachers be required to prove their commitment to right-wing Zionism.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=298800

'Street apartheid' in Jerusalem
Mahmoud Alami, a Jerusalem taxi driver, knows the city like the back of his hand. He knows the neighborhoods, the streets. And he knows the stop lights. There's one in particular that troubles him not professionally but personally. It stands between Beit Hanina, a Palestinian neighborhood, and Pisgaat Zeev, an Israeli settlement. "It stays green for [settlers] for five minutes. But to go in and out of Beit Hanina? Only two or three cars can pass," Alami says. "It's too short. It causes a lot of traffic jams."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=298613

"Life for Palestinians in Israel is complicated in every respect"
Basma Fahoum -- an activist with the organization Who Profits from the Occupation? -- recently sat with The Electronic Intifada contributor Adri Nieuwhof and discussed what it means to be a Palestinian in Israel and her the ongoing efforts for her community to realize their rights.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11364.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29

It's official: Israel has gotten away with it -- again
Netanyahu will head home with a smile on his face, satisfied that he has been given full blessing to continue his destructive policies. As for the Palestinians? They will continue to be blockaded in Gaza, squeezed in East Jerusalem and faced with threats of expulsion, deportation and, for Palestinian citizens of Israel, calls to strip them of their citizenship.
http://www.salon.com/news/israel/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/07/09/israel_gets_away

Mya Guarnieri: Israeli Victimhood: A Threat to the Jewish State
The siege mentality. It's dangerous line of thinking that dismisses others' suffering and, simultaneously, breeds a culture of impunity. We're under attack, the thinking goes, so we must use any means necessary to defend ourselves--from violently boarding the Freedom Flotilla to the brutally executed Operation Cast Lead to the ongoing siege on Gaza.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mya-guarnieri/israeli-victimhood-a-thre_b_641908.html

A Black-Palestinian Liberation Theology?, Dallas Darling
When President Barack Hussein Obama reiterated that the Israeli blockade of Gaza was unsustainable, and when he announced an economic aid package worth millions of dollars for the beleaguered Palestinians, I asked myself: “Why Not a Black-Palestinian Liberation Theology?” President Obama also addressed concern over the use of Israeli weapons against Palestinians, and the need of an “international mechanism” consisting of Egypt, Turkey, Israel, and of course, the Palestinian Authority.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16121

In the ‘clash of civilizations’, Israeli accountability means Western accountability, Jimmy Johnson

The thrust of the 'Clash of Civilizations' thesis is that in the post-Cold War world there are inherently opposed forces based primarily upon ethnic or religious identity and that future of conflict will be along these lines. In this thesis the West's power will be threatened by Sinic, Islamic, Latin American or some other discretely-defined civilization, or a combination thereof. This Us vs. Them, our civilization versus theirs, basis for conflict is almost totally devoid of political content. Us must fight Them precisely because we are Us and they are Them, other reasons natural resource control, ideological differences, imperial/anti-imperial efforts, etc. being merely coincidental, not causative. In the Israel and Palestine case this amounts to a permanent conflict between Israelis and Palestinians simply because they are Israelis and Palestinians. This is, of course, a kind of gibberish. But it's very powerful gibberish as gibberish is the lingua franca of Western political leaders, though there are a variety of accents. Thus when former Spanish PM José María Aznar penned a recent editorial in the The Times titled "If Israel goes down, we all go down," it's worth parsing.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/in-the-clash-of-civilizations-israeli-accountability-means-western-accountability.html

What's Normal under Occupation?, Kara Newhouse – The West Bank, Palestine
'For 122 days I heard the voices of tortured people, the shouting of tortured people, the crying of tortured people. The first days in that time, I could not sleep. I could not do anything, because I could not stop hearing the voices of tortured people. But after maybe 100 days, I got used to that situation, so I could sleep very well, and I started thinking there is nothing that can bother me. I started laughing a lot with my mate in my horrible cell and my family when they came to visit me.'
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16127

The Unchallenged Power of the Israel Lobby, JAMES ABOUREZK
I picked up a copy of a memoir written by the long-gone CIA Director, George Tenet. On the first page of the book's preface, Mr. Tenet described what it was like on the day after the World Trade Towers had exploded as a result of the terrorists' actions on 9-11-01.
http://www.counterpunch.com/abourezk07122010.html

Strenger than Fiction / Is Israel alienating the Jews of the world?
Israel's lawmakers and politicians are blissfully unaware of what goes on outside their narrow fishpond, and they have no clue about the effect of their actions on the wider world.
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/strenger-than-fiction/strenger-than-fiction-is-israel-alienating-the-jews-of-the-world-1.301515?localLinksEnabled=false

"Beware of Small States": journalist David Hirst interviewed
Veteran Middle East correspondent David Hirst, author of the seminal work on the Palestinian plight The Gun and the Olive Branch, has a new release: Beware of Small States, an equally important book on Lebanon's complex tragedy. The Electronic Intifada contributor Robin Yassin-Kassab interviews Hirst on his work and views.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11383.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29

Iraq

Sunday: 10 Iraqis Killed, 10 Wounded
At least 10 Iraqis were killed and 10 more were wounded in light attacks across central and northern Iraq. Meanwhile, The water minister has warned that Iraq needs to spend over $1 billion to revive its water sector. Also, arrests warrants were issued for PMOI members.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/07/11/sunday-10-iraqis-killed-10-wounded/

Inside Iraq - Joe Biden's Iraq visit
Joe Biden, the US vice president, has made his first visit to Iraq since the country's elections. But will his visit break the post-election impasse? And what are the real reasons behind Iraq's political deadlock?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBbMSkCX7YY&feature=youtube_gdata

Lebanon
Hezbollah chief's speeches sway Israeli opinion more than any Arab leader
Hassan Nasrallah is the first Arab leader in 30 years to affect the Israeli public through his rhetoric, according to military intelligence report.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/hezbollah-chief-s-speeches-sway-israeli-opinion-more-than-any-arab-leader-1.301347?localLinksEnabled=false

No apologies for praising decency
After the recent passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, this newspaper commented on several of the most noteworthy aspects of the cleric's career and thought. As the official period of condolences ended this weekend, we can say that Fadlallah's passing itself became noteworthy, as a political minefield for diplomats and media professionals alike.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=17&article_id=116912

Israel's Terrorist of the Week, or Anything to Take the Onus of Israel Making Peace... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dailypk/~3/1Bj_bbw_1r8/ Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:41:13 +0200 Pakistan Daily http://www.daily.pk http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dailypk/~3/1Bj_bbw_1r8/

]]> http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2010/07/10/the-supreme-clerics-vs-joe-bidens-hidden-agenda/ Sat, 10 Jul 2010 19:50:24 +0200 Roads to Iraq http://www.roadstoiraq.com http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2010/07/10/the-supreme-clerics-vs-joe-bidens-hidden-agenda/ Too early to judge Biden’s visit and the U.S. Suggestions regarding the formation of the Iraqi government as failure or success, but the only thing the Americans need to understand, is that history in Iraq does not significantly change its tactics and behavior. Therefore, an end to the political vacuum crisis should be an American resolution forces all political sides to form a government.

Data from the performance of the Iraqi political behavior shows, the buy and sale deals occurred during Biden’s visit:

The Prime Minister Maliki, a Shiite political leader .. But, a few months before the expiry of his mandate, he sold everyone including his Shiite-allies in Washington’s favor .. In exchange for the U.S. support to continue his second mandate as the prime minister of Iraq.

The former Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi, also a Shiites .. but a few months before the election, he sold everybody including his allies to Iraqi Sunnis and seculars, allowing him to get the support of Saudi Arabia.

When Maliki sought an alliance with the Iraqi National Alliance INA , .. .. not the U.S., neither Saudi Arabia intervened in the matter … But when Maliki turned his back on the “Iraqi National Alliance”, and wanted to negotiate with Iyad Allawi, U.S. vice-President Joseph Biden was quick to visit to Iraq to show the U.S. blessing to the process of buying and selling.

In this regard, we note the existence of deals .. The first is the publicly announced deal between Maliki, Allawi .. The second is the unannounced deal in Washington, between the neo-conservatives, who oppose the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, and the hard-line stream within the U.S. Democratic Party .. Demand the division of Iraq, then the U.S. withdrawal later, a stream led by vice-president Biden.

If no new government is formed within the time prescribed constitutionally .. , then the situation will evolve to a new parliamentary elections round. A new election, which will not be held soon, and will provide opportunities for the Washington hawks in terms of finding the justifications and excuses to postpone the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Therefore Iraq will have to wait more and more .. Which is expected to be the opportunity for the U.S. Republicans to climb back to the White House, and then it is difficult to talk about withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

To counter Biden’s plan and the U.S. Agenda, Al-Hakim announced his refusal to Maliki’s second term, with an open and publicly published letter, in an attempt to to mobilize the Shiite street, and the Shiite religious authorities to condemn Maliki’s position as the person who will hand over power to the Baathists and loyalists of the regional agenda and Americans, which might lead to the fall of Maliki politically, and forced one of Maliki’s Dawa Party leaders to announce: “Maliki is the Shiites and the Shiites are Maliki”.

The Hawza Shiites supreme references , understood Al-Hakim’s remarks and and Biden’s hidden agenda, reacted with a new threat to intervene followed later with a direct threat from Sistani himself, asking the Shiites to form a a millions-demonstration walk to Sammara [Sunni-city], as a gesture, in which Sistani wants to express his refusal of the return of “Baathists” Allawi to the government .

The same position also announced by Iran, expressing their worries about the renewed talks between Maliki and Allawi, especially after Maliki insulted both Iran and the Iraqi supreme Hawza with visit to Lebanon, kneeling before Ayatollah Fadlallah’s grave.

One thing you need to notice in all this mess, is the decline of the Sadrists role. At a time when the position of the Sadrists was strong and pushing in last period towards the rejection of Maliki’s second term, the upreme Council led by Ammar al-Hakim is the one who picked the lead but not only by rejecting Maliki, but moving towards a compromise candidate acceptable to all parties who is their own candidate, Adel Abd Al-Mehdi .

The positions that has begun to encounter the political body of the Sadrist movement seem larger than its ability to accommodate different political contradictions in the Iraqi scene. Therefore, it seemed there was some kind of contradiction and no clarity in its decisions. Muqatada Al-Sadr himself felt the need of personal intervention to settle the differences among the different bodies of his movements.

]]> http://uprootedpalestinians.blogspot.com/2010/07/fadlallahs-life-and-shiite-wave.html Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:53:06 +0200 Uprooted Palestinians http://uprootedpalestinians.blogspot.com/ http://uprootedpalestinians.blogspot.com/2010/07/fadlallahs-life-and-shiite-wave.html

Posted on July 4, 2010 by Juan

The death of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Husain Fadlallah at age 75 in Beirut marks the passing of a cleric revered by many Shiite Muslims and by many Lebanese and Iraqis. His life exemplified the awakening and increasing global influence of Shiite Islam.

Although Fadlallah became less radical with time, changing his view of deploying violence for political purposes, he did not become less anti-imperialist.

He recently decried US military operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He opposed Bush’s invasion of Iraq, and even denounced the concluding of a status of forces agreement between Iraq and the White House, on the grounds that it legitimized the US presence in Iraq. He denounced Arab countries for failing to respond vocally to the Israeli assault on a humanitarian aid flotilla on May 31, and called for an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza. He preached Sunni-Shiite unity and warned that the disunity of Muslims made imperialism in Muslim lands possible. He is said to have gone to his death hoping for the collapse of Israel.

Fadlallah was born in 1935 in Najaf, Iraq, to Lebanese parents, and he lived and was educated and lived there until 1966, when he came to the homeland of his ancestors, Lebanon. When Fadlallah was born, the Shiites of southern Lebanon were mired in grinding poverty as hardscrabble farmers in scattered villages or as tobacco sharecroppers, virtually ignored by the authorities in the League of Nations-authorized French Mandate of Lebanon. Even when the rise of secular, Sunni-dominated Arab nationalism in Iraq impelled him to leave for Beirut in the mid-1960s, the Shiites of south Lebanon lagged in access to roads, rural electrification, and other state services, though that was beginning to change. Many Lebanese Shiites were emigrating, to West Africa, Sao Paulo, Detroit, and the Perso-Arabian Gulf, and they began sending back home remittances that allowed some families to move into the Lebanese middle class.

In Iraq around 1957, Fadlallah, a seminary student, was among the founders of the Islamic Mission Party al-Da`wa al-Islamiyah in Najaf, an Iraqi Shiite answer to the burgeoning mass movements of the era–the Communist and the Baath secular Arab nationalist parties. The Da`wa dreamed not of a workers paradise but of a Shiite paradise. Islamic law would be the law of the land. Social injustice would be abolished through the judicious implementation of Islamic legal principles such as tithing. The Islamic state of the Islamic Mission Party would not be clerically run, but rather lay leaders such as physicians and attorneys could play a leading role. Among Fadlallah’s associates at the time was Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, another founder of the Da`wa.

Fadlallah did community development work for the poverty-stricken Shiites of Beirut’s slums. In the 1970s and early 1980s he became radicalized by Israel’s increasingly heavy-handed interventions in South Lebanon. In 1978, Israel briefly invaded Lebanon’s south, temporarily displacing thousands of Shiite families. In 1982, Israel invaded again, determined to wipe out the Palestine Liberation Organization then headquartered in Beirut. This time Tel Aviv occupied South Lebanon, remaining there for 18 years and brutally repressing local Shiites.

In 1980 Saddam Hussein in Iraq had made belonging to the Da`wa Party a capital crime, and many Iraqi members of the party fled to Tehran and Beirut. There was also a Lebanese branch of the party. As Shiites suffered under direct Israeli occupation, they began throwing up a radicalized resistance. The relatively staid Amal Party was not sufficient for some, who formed the Islamic Amal. In 1984, the various Da`wa branches and Islamic Amal, among other small factions, formed Hizbullah, the Party of God. Already in 1983 Islamic Amal had hit the US Marine barracks, killing over 260 Americans. Although it is sometimes alleged that Fadlallah authorized this attack, he denied it. It has also been alleged that Fadlallah was the spiritual guide of Hizbullah, but he and they both deny it and it is certainly the case that Fadlallah did not always see eye to eye with Hizbullah.

From 1983-1986, a vigorous Shiite guerrilla resistance to Israeli occupation of Lebanese soil grew up, and Fadlallah cheered it on. Fadlallah was seen as an enemy by the US, especially the CIA, and by Israel. In 1985 someone attempted to assassinate him with an enormous bomb, but he had been delayed and it killed 80 other persons and wounded over 250, instead. The dead included women, children, and a bride. One of Fadlallah’s bodyguards who escaped death but saw the carnage was Imad Mughniya, who went on to become one of the more notorious terrorists of the past few decades. It is alleged that Reagan administration CIA director William Casey authorized the bombing.

Unlike Mughniya, Fadlallah mellowed with age. When the theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran emerged, underpinned by Imam Ruhollah Khomeini’s doctrine that the clerics must rule Muslim societies, Fadlallah rejected that principle, known as the ‘guardianship of the jurisprudent’ wilayat al-Faqih . He also tried to modernize Shiite law affecting women, and in 2007 gave a fatwa condemning honor killings in absolute terms that made his stance more progressive than Lebanese statute on the matter.

When the Iraqi Da`wa Party was pressed by the Khomeinists about who their spiritual guide marja` was, if it was not Khomeini, they tended to reply that they followed Grand Ayatollah Fadlallah of Beirut. Fadlallah lived to see his Da`wa Party come to power in Iraq. The first post-Saddam Hussein prime minister in Baghdad was Ibrahim Jaafari, an old-time Da`wa activist. The second was Nuri al-Maliki, who reinvigorated the Da`wa and made it a leading party in its own right. When we say that Vice President Joe Biden is in Baghdad trying to broker the formation of a new Iraqi government, we are in part saying that Biden is dickering with the Da`wa Party over whether it will continue to provide the prime minister. And one of the implications of this debate is that the Shiite fundamentalist parties that will likely play a significant role in the new government want to see the fall of Israel as much as Fadlallah had. That is, post-American Iraq will likely be a big headache for Israel.

Most Lebanese Shiites either follow Sayyid Ali Sistani of Najaf in Iraq, or Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of Iran Hizbullah favors Khamenei . But some followed Fadlallah. His partisans will likely now turn to Sistani, strengthening the new, Shiite-dominated Iraq’s influence in Lebanon.

Fadlallah’s life was shaped by British imperialism in Iraq, by the rise of secular Arab nationalism and of Communism, by the Israeli expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948 many of whom were pushed into South Lebanon , by the Israeli invasions of Lebanon, by the rise of theocratic Iran, and by the advent of an imperial United States in the Middle East, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fadlallah in the second half of his life sought an accommodation of Shiite tradition to modernity. By his own lights, he did not take extreme positions, rejecting Iranian theocracy but also decrying American dominance, preaching against Israel but also blaming internal Muslim disunity for the ease with which enemies dominated Muslims. His activism in many ways foreshadowed the great Shiite awakening of the 1960s and after, and helped change the ideological landscape of the Middle East.



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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

]]> http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/bbc-buries-the-bitter.html Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:15:56 +0200 Mondoweiss http://mondoweiss.net http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/bbc-buries-the-bitter.html -->Just as English pubs used to pour mild ale over bitter in the once-famous drink, "half 'n half," the BBC World Service yesterday camouflaged facts on Israel and Palestine--though at least it offers facts somewhere. BBC Newshour's Robin Lustig mentions "that the U.S. has "provided" Israel "billions ...]]>

[if gte mso 9]>-->

Just as English pubs used to pour mild ale over bitter in the once-famous drink, "half 'n half," the BBC World Service yesterday camouflaged facts on Israel and Palestine--though at least it offers facts somewhere.

BBC Newshour's Robin Lustig mentions "that the U.S. has "provided" Israel "billions of dollars in military and civilian aid," asking whether American support for Israel is becoming a "liability" for the U. S. But Lustig omitted the word "Jewish" to describe the "controversial new homes" that Vice President Joe Biden condemned last March. Lustig lets reporter Jeremy Bowen do the realist heavy lifting, then drops all with a Zionist thud.

Bowen tells us that the "homes for Jews in the Occupied Palestinian Territories" are "illegal under international law." Bowen informs us that "Meir Dagan, the boss of Mossad,” sees Israel turning from an “asset” to a “liability" for the U.S. Bowen quotes "America's favorite general," David Petraeus on the "anti-American sentiment in the Middle East” ”exacerbated” by U.S. support for Israel. Bowen adds: "Anyone...in the Middle East would take that as obvious, [even] banal." Bowen then cites a "leading strategist" Anthony Cordesman and his dictum: "It is time Israel realised that it has obligations to the US, as well as the US to Israel."

So far, so good, but The Newshour report eliminates some of Bowen's braver points--offered in his "Reflection" last weekend-- including those triple taboos in U.S. journalism: the power of the Israel lobby, the $3 billion in military aid alone, and some lessons from U.S. history when our government imposed a few limits on Israel. Bowen announces what no U.S. corporate-public broadcaster dares: "If anyone doubts the power of Israel's friends in the US....Take a look at [the AIPAC] website, which boasts that it attracts half the Senate, a third of the House of Representatives and 'countless Israeli and American policymakers and thought leaders'."

Bowen assesses the future of U.S. relations with Israel by reminding us of the past: "President Obama [is making] an attempt to return to the kind of relationship that American [sic] used to have with Israel….The first President Bush” reproved P.M. “Yitzhak Shamir, over Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. President Eisenhower forced Israel to withdraw from Egyptian territory seized in the Suez war. Once it was by no means automatic that America would veto criticism of Israel in the UN security council....Political times change. But some realities are constant, and one is that powerful countries like the United States will not act against what they believe to be their own interests." Bowen perhaps underestimates how feverishly AIPAC stamps out such historical memory, and stymies Obama's will to separate U.S. goals from Israel's. Nevertheless Bowen names the forces now hobbling the Obama administration. Bowen's forecast of U.S. decisions may be optimistic, but Robin Lustig’s succeeding interview retreats to helplessness.

In an exchange that ranges only from Y-Z on Israel, with Aaron David Miller and David Horovitz, Lustig fails to raise Bowen's questions about U.S. strategic concerns. More seriously, Lustig neglects ever to consider Palestinian needs. Neither he nor his guests mention Israel's attack on the humanitarian Mavi Marmara, kidnapping the entire flotilla of aid for Gaza.

Instead, Miller and Horovitz focus on Netanyahu's prestige and the "pomp" of his reunion with Obama. Both Miller and Horovitz bemoan how Obama hasn't reassured Israel since its love-fest with Bush II ended. All three bleat about Israel's "security needs" first, last, and always: never a squeak about Palestine's much greater security needs. They hype Iran as a supposed threat, exactly as the corporate-public press blew up the supposed menace from Iraq--before the U. S. literally blew up Iraq. Horovitz intones, "you have to stop Iran and then you liberate the peace-making process."

Always a different enemy of Israel for the U.S. to fell. When will the BBC--or any powerful U.S. outlet--consider that by attacking Iran, we would once again "liberate the war-making process" for Israel? The state would then be free to expand into the Greater Israel that Netanyahu and his party have long coveted.

******

A later story in The Newshour, reveals a similar effort hindered by bias.

Robin Lustig announces: "Now, one of the loudest complaints that you hear from Palestinians living in Gaza is that the Israeli blockade of their borders is preventing them from importing construction materials." Never mind that the average American “hears” nothing from Gaza, or that we'd hear more than mere "complaints" if anyone stripped Israel or the U.S. of building supplies. The BBC however does break through American censorship, checking on the result of Israel's pledge to "allow some construction materials in [Gaza], but only if they're for use by international organizations like the United Nations." Jon Donnison asks Rafi Khasuna sp? , who "runs one of the biggest construction companies in Gaza--or at least he used to," whether he has noticed any change in the past two weeks?"

Rafi Khasuna answers sadly, "No change at all."

That emphasis alone on Israel’s broken promise separates BBC from U.S. broadcasts. Donnison asks how much money Khasuna's company is losing, “So you've lost millions of dollars." Khasuna answers bleakly, "Of course."

Jon Donnison retreats to the traditional line about the Israeli embargo of cement as a matter of self-defense, calling Hamas "of course an enemy of Israel," asking, "Could the things you use be used by Hamas?" Rafi Khasuna assures Donnison firmly, "No, No, sir. This is not a logical reason," patiently explaining the obvious: that Hamas gets whatever it needs through the tunnels.

Donnison injects a bizarre slant: "You're clearly a successful man, an ambitious man; you've done well. How does it make you feel to be failing now?" Why can't Donnison ask, "Israel’s clearly a ferocious Occupier, who’s done ill, bombing your land to bits. How does it feel to be crushed by its siege now?" Perhaps we should ask Donnison and the BBC--as well as the corp-pub U.S. press--"You're clearly an ambitious man. How does it feel to be failing at journalism now?"

That Donnison casts Rafi Khasuna's deprivation by Israel as a personal downfall is inexplicable--even as it's all too usual. Whatever Israel does to Palestine, the story becomes how Palestinians are to blame. That's why Donnison misses the point when he opens his description of Gaza musing about a "pleasant scene," in Gaza's tree-lined "Champs-Élysées." Somehow overlooking all the rubble of bombed-out buildings, Donnison underscores how the street, like all in Gaza, is "riddled with potholes," informing us that "construction materials is one of the things that ...Israel has strictly limited in Gaza." "Strictly limited?" Israel absolutely prohibits cement and steel--still. More, Donnison overlooks the central truth: Palestinian heroism amid terrible deprivation creates what outsiders define as happiness .

For his part, Rafi Khasuna answers that "I feel that there is no clear future for me or for my kids, or for my dreams for my family, or for my business also.--It's blocked."

]]> http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/afghanistan-change-of-command.html Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:51:00 +0200 MSM Monitor http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/ http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/afghanistan-change-of-command.html But NO CHANGE in POLICY!

Related: McChrystal apologizes for article

"Remarks put general’s job in peril; McChrystal ordered to White House following criticism of top officials" by Bryan Bender and Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | June 23, 2010

WASHINGTON — Army General Stanley A. McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, returns to the White House today with his job in jeopardy, as he faces a grilling from President Obama over disparaging comments he and his aides made about the president, vice president, and other political leaders.

The comments, printed in an upcoming issue of Rolling Stone magazine, were roundly denounced in Washington yesterday as a glaring breach of military protocol, if not outright insubordination by a key commander of US troops abroad.

The distracting drama — at the height of a crucial summer campaign against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan — triggered a number of calls for McChrystal’s immediate removal from command. Names of possible replacements began circulating on Capitol Hill.

But some members of Congress took a more noncommittal approach, including Senator John F. Kerry, even though criticism of him by an unnamed McChrystal aide was included in the article.

A White House spokesman, describing Obama as “angry’’ about the comments, hinted strongly yesterday that McChrystal’s job was on the line, saying “all options are on the table.’’

***********

McChrystal was returning to Washington for today’s meeting amid increasing questions about slow progress in the war, including the possibility that a deadline of July 2011 that Obama set to begin reducing troop levels is unrealistic.

In the Rolling Stone article, McChrystal and his staff, who granted unusual access to Michael Hastings, a freelance reporter, are depicted as openly disdainful of Biden; Richard C. Holbrooke, the special envoy to Afghanistan; and James L. Jones, the president’s national security adviser.

“Are you asking about Vice President Biden,’’ McChrystal said laughing, as described in the article. “Who’s that?’’

“Biden?’’ an aide interjects. “Did you say: Bite me?’’

At another point, McChrystal makes clear his dislike of Holbrooke, a career diplomat. “Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke,’’ he is quoted as saying while checking his BlackBerry. “I don’t want to open it.’’

At another point, an aide refers to Jones, a retired Marine Corps general, as a “clown’’ who is “stuck in 1985.’’

Some of the criticism is also directed at Obama, including comments by an unnamed McChrystal adviser who talks about the first meeting between McChrystal and the president.

“It was a 10-minute photo-op,’’ the adviser is quoted as saying. “Obama clearly didn’t know anything about him. Here’s the guy who’s going to run his [expletive] war, but he didn’t seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed.’’

Members of Congress, including Kerry, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee who has played an influential role in fashioning administration policy, are also criticized by McChrystal’s inner circle. They “turn up, have a meeting with [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai, criticize him at the airport press conference, then get back for the Sunday talk shows,’’ one aide says. “Frankly, it’s not very helpful.’’

**********

McChrystal’s comments, which the magazine’s editor said yesterday were checked with the general before publication, also underscored the divide between the military and diplomats in Afghanistan....

--more--"

Related: In Washington, it’s a war of words over top general

"McChrystal out, strategy remains; Obama will nominate Petraeus to take command in Afghanistan" by Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | June 24, 2010

WASHINGTON — President Obama yesterday replaced General Stanley A. McChrystal following the four-star general’s disparaging remarks about the White House leadership. The president turned to General David H. Petraeus, architect of the Iraq war turnaround, to take over the US and NATO command in Afghanistan.

But Obama stressed that the decision would not result in a change of strategy, rejecting criticism from some within his own party who believe the war in Afghanistan is not in American security interests.

Obama’s decision to relieve McChrystal and nominate Petraeus was widely supported by Democrats and Republicans, who agreed that the general overstepped his bounds in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in which he and his aides mocked Vice President Joe Biden and other top officials.

In what he described as a difficult decision, a stern-looking Obama said removing McChrystal was necessary to safeguard the relationship between the military and its civilian superiors....

“I welcome debate among my team, but I won’t tolerate division,’’ he added....

By moving swiftly, the president showed resolve and a determination to make sure military commanders know who is boss....

Both McChrystal and Petraeus, who have worked together in Iraq and Afghanistan, are leading advocates of counterinsurgency strategy, which rests on using the military to dislodge insurgent groups and build up the capacity of local security forces, while winning over the population with civilian development projects and aid.

Obama said that effort would remain unchanged.

“We have a clear goal,’’ Obama said. “We are going to break the Taliban’s momentum. We are going to build Afghan capacity. We are going to relentlessly apply pressure on Al Qaeda and its leadership, strengthening the ability of both Afghanistan and Pakistan to do the same.’’

The McChrystal controversy brought new attention to questions about whether a large-scale military offensive is necessary. The nine-year-old conflict is already the longest war in US history....

With NO END in SIGHT!

Some Democrats expressed new concern that the war is not winnable. Other Democrats as well as some Republicans expressed worry that Obama — who wants to start withdrawing troops in a year — will not apply the resources needed to succeed or will pull out prematurely.

The rift was on display among members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation.

“I am much more concerned about the direction of our policy in Afghanistan than I am about the general’s comments,’’ said Representative James P. McGovern, a Worcester Democrat and leading critic of Obama’s strategy. “I’m concerned about the corrupt and incompetent [Afghan] government. I’m concerned about the hundreds of billions of dollars we’re spending on ‘nation-building’ in Afghanistan when we need to do some more nation-building here at home.’’

McGovern, who has proposed cutting off funding for a war he insists is not enhancing US security, called for a thorough reexamination of the strategy.

But Senator John F. Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a key architect of the Obama policy, said that progress made in recent months, including in the volatile district of Marjah, is at risk unless the effort is continued. “We’ve already seen in Marjah that impressive military gains cannot be maintained without effective local governance and Afghan ownership,’’ the Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement. “This must happen to give the mission a chance to succeed.’’

Let's face it, folks, if this guy had become president we would have had George Bush's second term just as Obama is fulfilling his third.

What a piece of shit for a senator. That's what happens when you sell your soul.

Related: The Boston Globe's Invisible Ink: Lost Marjah Mojo

And a LIAR, too, Massachusetts!

The removal of McChrystal, a highly respected officer, was nonetheless described by most members of Congress as a legitimate exercise of authority by a commander-in-chief who had clearly lost confidence in his top war commander.

What the general will do next was uncertain, but close observers said the episode was likely to end his military career.

Petraeus, 57, is currently head of US Central Command, responsible for overseeing operations across the Middle East. He has achieved almost cult status as the author of the military’s counterinsurgency handbook who presided over the Bush administration’s surge of forces into Iraq in 2007. He is technically accepting a demotion to take the reins in Kabul at a crucial time.

A major offensive by US and NATO forces is being planned against the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, an operation that commanders have delayed due to setbacks elsewhere in the country. Between January and April of this year, insurgent attacks using improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, increased 94 percent across the country, according to figures compiled by the United Nations.

Oh, the lying U.N., huh?

Meanwhile, US military deaths recently crossed the highly symbolic mark of 1,000 and continue to climb.

As if I give a f*** anymore.

BRING 'EM HOME!

HOW MANY TIMES do I have to TYPE IT?

Obama said Petraeus, who has been intimately involved in the war planning, will maintain the momentum and has “the leadership we need to succeed.’’

And back into the shit pile goes Obomber's head.

Petraeus’s selection was widely hailed on Capitol Hill, where he is expected to easily win Senate confirmation as early as next week....

Said Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who advised McChrystal: “There is pressure to win very quickly from Obama, but it is running up against the fact that counterinsurgency is a long-running project. That is the tension that was boiling over in the Rolling Stone interview.’’

See who is RUNNING our FOREIGN POLICY, America?

That is NO CHANGE, either!

--more--"

And we are all one big happy family now, huh?

"Petraeus on board, Obama stresses ‘unity of purpose’; Officials reaffirm US confidence in Afghan mission" by Anne Gearan, Associated Press | June 25, 2010

WASHINGTON — No more discord in the Afghanistan war command, President Obama vows. With General David Petraeus in charge, the president said yesterday that he’s assembled the team that will take the United States through the months ahead — by all expectations the make-or-break stage of the conflict.

Again?

“I am going to be insisting on a unity of purpose on the part of all branches of the US government,’’ the president said. “Our team is going to be moving forward in synch.’’

Do I have to the Hitler hand gesture, too, Der Fuhrer?

Obama said he does not anticipate further firings beyond General Stanley McChrystal, the top war commander hired a year ago to turn around a war then sliding into quagmire. He was fired Wednesday for sniping at civilian war bosses in a magazine article....

Yeah, once he starts tossing those guys overboard you know the war is over. Hitler did the same thing when it all came crashing down, and we just saw the first chink in the Obama dictatorship.

The Taliban-led insurgency has dug in for a long fight in crucial southern Afghan provinces where McChrystal focused the conflict.

Well, when you LIVE THERE... sigh.

Petraeus is expected to continue that campaign, but he will have flexibility to make changes as he sees fit, his civilian and military bosses said yesterday. “When he gets on the ground, he will assess the situation for himself, and at some point he will make recommendations to the president,’’ Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. “At the end of the day, the president will decide whether changes are to be made in the strategy.’’

I was told no changes.

WTF?!!!!!!

Both in Washington and Kabul, US officials tried to stay on message, insisting that the sudden sacking of McChrystal does not reveal a crisis of confidence in a war that Gates asserted is no longer a stalemate.

“I do not believe we are bogged down,’’ Gates said. “I believe we are making some progress. It is slower and harder than we anticipated.’’

He is either flat-out wasted, insane, or a top-notch liar.

Obama and his top security advisers also underscored that US forces will begin to come home from Afghanistan next summer, and that the commander taking over for the disgraced McChrystal is pledged to that timetable.

Petraeus told Congress last week that he would recommend delaying the start of a withdrawal planned to begin in July 2011 if conditions in Afghanistan warranted it. He also said then that he supports the pullout plan....

Obama added that the July 2011 date is the start of the withdrawal, not a moment that the US quits the country entirely.

Didn't we go through all this crap the last few years in Iraq?

And we are STILL THERE, right?

“We didn’t say we’d be switching off the lights and closing the door behind us,’’ Obama said.

Translation: WE ARE NEVER LEAVING, America!!!

Obama is only holding this out in front of you so you will remain calm and not get upset and angry at his colossal failure as a president.

The date has always left some wiggle room.

Need I even type it?

The administration says the scope of the drawdown will be determined by how safe Afghanistan is, and how capable the government.

You know, the SAME THING BUSH ALWAYS SAID about IRAQ!!

Some CHANGE, America!!

--more--"

Oh, and about that withdrawal:

"White House says troop pullout still on target" by Anne Gearan, Associated Press | June 21, 2010

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration reaffirmed yesterday that it will begin pulling US troops out of Afghanistan next summer, despite reservations among top generals that absolute deadlines are a mistake....

General David Petraeus, the war’s top military boss, said last week that he would recommend delaying the pullout if conditions in Afghanistan warrant it. Days after the date was announced in December, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, pointedly said it was not a deadline....

Gates asked for time and patience to demonstrate that the new strategy is working. He lamented that Americans are too quick to write off the war....

Yeah, and assholes like you are too quick to resort to it, Bob!!!

The man is NOT ONLY INSANE, he is SICK!!!!!!!!!!

--more--"

Now that we have established that we are not leaving, what's ahead?

"Petraeus will face complaints over rules to protect civilians" by Robert H. Reid, Associated Press | June 26, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — Crouched in a field of opium poppies, a young Marine lieutenant pleaded over the radio for an air strike on a compound where he believed a sniper was firing at his troops. Request denied. Civilians might be inside and the Marines could not see a muzzle flash to be absolutely sure the gunman was there.

The lieutenant’s frustration, witnessed by an Associated Press journalist in February in Marjah in southern Afghanistan, points to a Catch-22 dilemma facing the NATO force: how to protect troops against an enemy that lives — and fights — among the population without killing civilians and turning the people against the US-led mission.

I have news for you, MSM: They are ALREADY AGAINST US and it is GETTING WORSE by the DAY, 'kay?

Yes, world, we AmeriKans are being served this SHIT as NEWS!!!

Those complaints from the ranks are among the issues facing General David Petraeus....

Some troops believe the rules cost American lives and force them to give up the advantage of overwhelming firepower to a foe who shoots and melts back into the civilian population.

At a Pentagon press conference Thursday, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hinted about possible changes in the rules when asked about troops who feel “they’re being asked to fight with one hand tied behind their back.’’

Yeah, the POOR AmeriKan OCCUPIERS, 'eh?

Can't MURDER ENOUGH PEOPLE over LIES!!!!

--more--"

"Mullen reassures Afghan president; Says Afghan plan will not be altered" by Deb Riechmann, Associated Press | June 27, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — America’s top military officer assured President Hamid Karzai yesterday that newly chosen NATO commander General David Petraeus would pursue the policies of his ousted predecessor, whom the Afghan leader warmly praised for reducing civilian casualties.

Karzai’s emphasis on preventing civilian deaths and injuries could make it difficult for NATO to relax rules of fighting that some US troops say give the battlefield advantage to the Taliban.

Related:

"Senior Obama administration officials say some of [money] may be going to the Taliban, as part of a protection racket in which insurgents and local warlords are paid to allow the trucks unimpeded passage.... “willful blindness’’ on the part of a US military that “likes having its trucks showing up and doesn’t want to get into the details of how they got there.... US military officials say they are satisfied with the results.... regularly paying local warlords and the Taliban"

I guess that is helping them, too, huh?

Also see: Arms Given by U.S. to Afghan Forces May Be Leaking to Taliban

Sure is a GOOD WAY to keep a WAR GOING, huh?

For now, however, no changes have been proposed, said a spokesman for visiting Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

During a 45-minute meeting with the Afghan leader, Mullen explained the events that surrounded President Obama’s decision to dismiss General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US and NATO forces. McChrystal resigned after he and his aides were quoted in Rolling Stone magazine making disparaging remarks about top Obama administration officials guiding the civilian mission in the war....

Mullen, who spent just a half-day in Kabul, also met with US Embassy officials and had a video teleconference with regional commanders in the field. To both sides, Mullen stressed the importance of a good “lash up’’ between often strained civilian and military efforts to beat back a resurgent Taliban and extend the Karzai government’s control beyond Kabul.

“He stressed to President Karzai that absolutely nothing will change about our commitment to the struggle there, to the strategy,’’ said Captain John Kirby, a spokesman for Mullen.

Well, THERE IT IS!

Mullen then flew to neighboring Pakistan, where he repeated the message to President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

Yeah, I'm sure that made them happy.

--more--"

Related: Senate panel backs Petraeus confirmation

Petraeus confirmed as Afghan war chief

Well, now that he is officially in charge:

"Petraeus moves to assure NATO of Afghan war gains; New commander will review rules of engagement" by Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press | July 2, 2010

BRUSSELS — General David Petraeus, NATO’s newly appointed commander of Afghanistan, sought to reassure allies yesterday that the war against the Taliban is going well despite rising military casualties and problems regaining control over key parts of the country....

Really, world, what more is there to say about these delusional megalomaniacs?

You can see why I'm sour on my newspaper, huh?

General Stanley McChrystal’s sacking came amid growing European disillusionment with the war, and a spate of bad news from the battlefields.

Related: Afghanistan: The Three Trillion Dollar Prize

That's some GOOD NEWS, huh?

Almost makes you FEEL LIKE STAYING, huh?

Allied deaths have doubled in the first six months of this year, with June the deadliest month on record....

But we are MAKING PROGRESS, blah, blah, blah!

What SICKENING SHITS we have for LEADERS, America!!!

Meanwhile, a widely touted offensive aimed at retaking control of Kandahar, the biggest city in southern Afghanistan, has been repeatedly delayed.

Related: Boston Globe Censorship: Kandahar Offensive On!

How many MORE LIES you gonna tell, MSM?

An earlier campaign to reassert government control in the market town of Marjah, in southwestern Helmand Province, proved inconclusive.

Related: Marines Lose Marjah

Oh, the MSM lied to you again, huh?

NATO’s plans to train and gradually hand over responsibility to the growing Afghan army and police forces have also run into trouble, hobbled by a lack of trainers.

After NINE YEARS?

Related: NATO retools its effort to train Afghan police recruits

So WHERE did all the MONEY go?

A report by the US special inspector general for Afghanistan found that the ability of Afghan security forces to fight on their own has been overestimated....

Also see: US overestimating ability of Afghan military, report says

FULL UP with MSM LIES yet, readers?

Some diplomats in NATO have complained that their governments were not consulted by Washington prior to the change of command....

Hey, look, we don't run s*** by anyone except Israel for its approval so f*** off!

--more--"

Time for a MORALE BOOST!

"Petraeus stresses cooperation in Afghan war; Says all sides must mesh for mission to be successful" by Deb Riechmann, Associated Press | July 4, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — America’s top diplomat in Kabul jokingly handed NATO’s new commander General David Petraeus an access badge to the US Embassy yesterday, a symbolic gesture of a new partnership in the troubled US management of the Afghan war.

I find NOTHING FUNNY about MASS MURDER, do you?

The smiles and declarations of synergy came as Petraeus prepared to formally assume command today of a 130,000-strong international force at a time of rising casualties and growing doubt about how much can be achieved before July 2011 when President Obama wants to begin withdrawing US troops....

June was the deadliest month for the allied force since the war began in October 2001, with 102 deaths, more than half of them Americans. Britain’s Ministry of Defense reported that a Royal Marine was killed Thursday in southern Afghanistan — the fifth international service member killed this month.

Later, Petraeus met with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. Corruption was one of the issues the two discussed, according to a statement issued by the presidential palace. Karzai used the meeting to complain about what he said were baseless allegations made by US Representative Nita Lowey, a Democrat from New York, who suggested that Afghan government officials had misused or pocketed donor funds, Karzai’s office said.

Karzai asked Petraeus to review international contracts for private security companies to help keep money from flowing out of the country. According to the statement, Petraeus told the president that he would begin his job by emphasizing “unity, accountability, and transparency.’’

US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry underscored the message of cooperation and said the United States was “committed for the long term’’ because a stable Afghanistan, free of extremist threats, would help ensure security in the United States....

Because of some inside job that originated in the offices of the CIA and Mossad?

And 2011 is looking like BULLSHIT, isn't it?

The gathering was upbeat. A rock band played. Dignitaries sat in tents eating popcorn, hamburgers, fried chicken, cupcakes, and ice cream. Tiny American flags lined the sidewalks of the US Embassy compound, which was adorned in red, white, and blue bunting.

That is JUST GREAT with SO MANY AFGHANS STARVING!!

And WE are looking MORE and MORE like NAZI GERMANY all the time, AmeriKa!!!!!

The positive tone, however, was dampened by talk of Friday’s attack on a four-story house used by an American aid organization in the northern city of Kunduz and the accidental killing of civilians during a raid in the south....

Not a GOOD WAY to START, Dave!

And notice how the MSM QUICKLY MOVES AWAY from SUCH THINGS!!

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So WHEN can we FINALLY LEAVE?

"Petraeus calls victory the goal in Afghanistan; General takes over command of troubled fight against Taliban" by Deb Riechmann, Associated Press | July 5, 2010

As INSANE as Hitler, too!!!!!!

KABUL, Afghanistan — “We are in this to win,’’ General David Petraeus said yesterday as he took the reins of an Afghan war effort troubled by waning support, an emboldened enemy, government corruption, and a looming commitment to withdraw troops even with no sign of violence easing.

You HAD YOUR NINE YEARS and FAILED!!!

Petraeus, who pioneered the counterinsurgency strategy he now oversees in Afghanistan, has just months to show progress in turning back insurgents and to convince both the Afghan people and neighboring countries that the United States is committed to preventing the country from again becoming a haven for Al Qaeda and its terrorist allies....

Oh, Al-CIA-Duh again!!!

Petraeus, widely credited with turning around the US war effort in Iraq, said the Taliban and their allies are killing and maiming civilians, even using “unwitting children to carry out attacks,’’ in an attempt to undermine public confidence in the Afghan government and the international community’s ability to prevail.

“In answer, we must demonstrate to the people and to the Taliban that Afghan and international forces are here to safeguard the Afghan people, and that we are in this to win,’’ Petraeus said.

After a while, the propaganda and bullshit fail to make an impression.

Continual discussion about President Obama’s desire to start withdrawing US forces in July 2011 has blurred the definition of what would constitute victory. That coupled with the abrupt firing of Petraeus’s predecessor, a move that laid bare a rift between civilian and military efforts in the country, has created at least the perception that the NATO mission needs to be righted....

Yup, it is IRAQ ALL OVER AGAIN, America!!!

I sure hope YOUR KIDS' LIFE is WORTH IT!

When announcing the 2011 target, Obama was careful to say that any pullout decisions would be based on improved security. Yet that caveat has often been forgotten.

Only in the MSM PROPAGANDA MACHINE because it sure has not here!!!

June was the deadliest month for the allied force since the war began, with 102 US and international troops killed. Progress in stabilizing Taliban strongholds in the south has been slow, support for the war is waning in America and foreign capitals, and doubts persist about the Afghan government’s willingness and ability to fight corruption.

“After years of war, we have arrived at a critical moment,’’ Petraeus said. “We must demonstrate to the Afghan people — and to the world — that Al Qaeda and its network of extremist allies will not be allowed to once again establish sanctuaries in Afghanistan from which they can launch attacks on the Afghan people and on freedom-loving nations around the world.’’

I thought something smelled familiar.

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"McCain calls Kandahar key to Afghan war" by ASSOCIATED PRESS | July 6, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — Senator John McCain, who visited Afghanistan’s largest city in the south yesterday with two other US lawmakers, warned of tough fighting ahead and predicted that casualties will rise in the short term....

McCain, a Republican from Arizona, also reiterated his opposition to President Obama’s plan to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan beginning in July 2011. Obama has said that large numbers of troops will not be pulled out if conditions do not allow, but that caveat has often gotten lost in the discussion over the length of the US commitment to the war.

And WHOSE FAULT would that be, PoS MSM?

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]]> http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2010/07/05/bidens-visit-to-baghdad-and-the-u-s-three-power-sharing-scenarios/ Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:16:50 +0200 Roads to Iraq http://www.roadstoiraq.com http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2010/07/05/bidens-visit-to-baghdad-and-the-u-s-three-power-sharing-scenarios/ As often, the Sadrists did not hesitate to express their rejection to the U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Baghdad with their own style, by putting their mark on this visit with three Katyusha rockets exploded around the U.S. embassy in the Green Zone.

At the same time, the Supreme Council led by Ammar Al-Hakim did not issue an official position on the scenario for the formation of the government, but the condemnation expressed by the Sadrists, either through a statement released by Muqtada Al-Sadr, in which he called, Maliki and Allawi not to bow to the U.S. Pressure, or a statements made by the leader of the Supreme Council Sadr al-Din Qabanji — close to Iran, which he noted that Biden’s visit aims to pressure the Iraqi leaders to implement the American agenda.

Need to notice, that the U.S. Congress delegation headed by Senator John McCain, excluded Ammar Al-Hakim from their meetings with the Iraqi leaders, despite that the U.S. met the rest of the Iraqi political figures. A deliberate exclusion which might have paved the way for Vice-President Biden to introduce his power-sharing plan, which exclude all those who are connected to Iran from the “active” government.

According to Maliki’s spokesman Ali Al-Dabagh, Biden presented three suggestions to Maliki which in Biden’s opinion can formulate the shape of the coming goverment in Iraq. Further, Dabagh gave no details on these three suggestions.

1st scenario:

Favored by Washington, an alliance between the “State of Law” and Al-Iraqiya to form a parliamentary majority government, leaving the rest of the blocs in the parliamentary opposition seats. This scenario is put clearly in the letter of 34 members of the U.S. Congress to Maliki, and criticized by President Jalal Talabani during his meeting with the U.S. Congress delegation headed by Senator John McCain during their meeting in his office last Friday.

2nd scenario:

Emphasized by Biden in previous visit, according to sources, who wish to form a government, and has previously put on the Iraqi factions during his previous visit to Baghdad.

The coalition of the willing, is the re-formation of the parliamentary map between those who wish to form a majority government and those who prefer to stay in the opposition. This scenario is rejected by the Kurds and the Supreme Council, stressing on the importance of forming a national unity government.

3rd scenario:

The shift towards the concept of strategic partnership requires a technocrats-government, can be formed from the various political blocs distributed on the govermental sovereign posts, which may be closer to the quotas “Muhasasa” formation of the previous government led by Maliki. Maliki, Allawi agreed with this scenario, while rejected by the Kurds and the Iraqi National Alliance.

The common line between all these scenarios is to avoid the formation of a government based on quotas where the security forces are controled by parties loyal to Iran, particularly those militias formed in Iran, reffering to Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Council, or the Iranian-backed militias such as Asaib Al-Haq, and Hezbollah Brigades, which are described as a terrorist groups by the U.S. military.

]]> http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-was-your-fourth.html Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:35:00 +0200 MSM Monitor http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/ http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-was-your-fourth.html It was quiet around here save for the sporadic fireworks going off around town -- unlike the lethal stuff the AmeriKan military is dumping all over the planet.

If the true value of the day and the point of the revolution were part of the day I would not mind; however, it has just become one more day for war-promoting partying and propaganda for profit.

Thus the government of America gets a capital K -- a distinction from the America I grew up in and loved.

"Fireworks’ risks are real, officials warn" by Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff | July 1, 2010

MILTON — With the Fourth of July approaching, officials warned yesterday of the dangers of fireworks, making their point in a demonstration featuring detonations and damaged dummies....

Tell that to the people we are dropping bombs and missiles on, as well as the war criminals ordering it.

Fireworks send about 3,000 children under 15 to emergency rooms each year in the United States, Dr. Amy Rezak, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said in a statement.

Related: Israel and the Bomblets

I sit here and think of the millions killed in the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the missile slaughter in Pakistan, what Israel has done in Gaza, the hell that is Africa, and well, you know.... kids.

On a side note, I don't like the boom-booms, although it does give one a feel for what other peoples in distant lands are going through on a daily basis.

The National Fire Protection Association estimates that in 2008, fireworks caused 22,500 fires, including 1,400 structure fires.

The fires caused an estimated $42 million in property damage.

Yup, also have to factor in that; then you can pay billions to war-looting contractors to not rebuild.

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Related: A lot of pop expected at July 4 Spectacular

This 4th, no pomp amid circumstance

100 years of celebrating the Fourth of July at Esplanade

Md. collector’s assemblage of flags shows Old Glory’s many incarnations

I'm sorry, readers, am I mixing my analogies and metaphors and ruining the mood this morning?

Not that Amurkns would know it:

"Twenty-six percent of those surveyed did not know that the United States achieved its independence from Great Britain, according to the poll, conducted by the nonprofit Marist Institute for Public Opinion."

Yeah, that history degree was a waste, especially since they taught me lies.

"High temperatures, budget cuts affect some July 4th galas" by Associated Press | July 5, 2010

NEW YORK — Budget cuts have forced some communities to pull the plug on the pyrotechnics, but Fourth of July festivities were still big draws on what was a scorching day across much of the United States.

Temperatures were in the 90s nearly everywhere east of the Mississippi as well as in the Southwest....

Yeah, well, it is the MIDDLE of SUMMER fer crying out loud!

It is SUPPOSED to be HOT and 90!!

In Washington, the Obama family celebrated the holiday by hosting members of the military and their families for a barbecue, concert, and a view of fireworks on the South Lawn of the White House. It’s not just the country’s birthday, but also Malia Obama’s number 12....

Vice President Joe Biden is in Iraq for the holiday weekend, his second visit there this year, and he attended a citizenship ceremony yesterday at one of Saddam Hussein’s former hunting lodges....

Don't think that symbolism was not lost on Iraqis.

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And how strange that today's printed paper would include this information that is stripped from the website:

BP to sponsor July 4 fireworks in Colo.

Something about drilling for natural gas there. Money for fireworks as the Gulf turns to goo, huh? Yeah, let's celebrate!

Yes, readers, I broke down today.

I'm at your service today and will be working hard the next few days to clear out a lot of things.

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