The Empire 317

Met een nucleair wapen kan de VS een land niet meer chanteren en bedreigen.

'How the "Dear Leader" Blackmailed Bush

By Mike Whitney 30/06/08 "ICH"

-- - -After seven years of nonstop belligerence and saber rattling, the Bush administration has given North Korea everything it has demanded. In return, the US gets nothing. The UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, will not get access to Kim Jong-il's nuclear stockpile or its "Top-Secret" file on weapons programs or be allowed to conduct surprise "go anywhere, see anything" inspections. Kim will continue to develop his long-range ballistic-missile delivery system, the Taepodong 2, just as he will (presumably) continue to export nuclear weapons technology to allies in the Middle East and elsewhere. The Bush administration has made a very dangerous enemy and the present agreement does nothing to mitigate that threat. It merely sends a message to America's rivals around the world that the US can be blackmailed if the stakes are high enough. The United States has been humiliated by a man who many believe is an unstable megalomaniac and a ruthless tyrant. Was that the goal?There was a time when George Bush would have nothing to do with Kim Jong-il, he privately scoffed at the reclusive dictator and called him "a pygmy" behind his back. He placed North Korea on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, froze their foreign bank accounts, refused to honor the terms of the Agreed Framework (which was negotiated by Bill Clinton) and threatened to take military action if Kim did not comply with US demands. What a difference a few years and a few nuclear weapons make. Now the blustery bravado and swaggering insolence has changed to hand-wringing and hyperactive backroom diplomacy. The Bush team has suddenly shifted from its ritual chest-thumping into damage-control mode, but the change comes too late. On Thursday, Bush announced that he would remove North Korea from the terrorism list and lift other economic sanctions. This follows an earlier decision to provide Kim with massive quantities of oil to meet the North's energy needs; a fact that is ignored by the establishment media. On virtually every issue, the sullen despot in the oversized Foster-Grants has gotten whatever he's asked for. This has infuriated many of Bush's biggest supporters. Last week, former United Nations ambassador John Bolton blasted the agreement saying: “I think it’s actually a clear victory for North Korea.” They've gained “enormous political legitimacy by being taken off our list of state sponsors of terrorism and out from under the prohibitions of the Trading With the Enemy Act. ... It’s a very sad day for supporters of the president. It's the final collapse of Bush's foreign policy."

Lees verder: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20204.htm

Carolien Roelants 5

En ook de NRC zwijgt in alle talen over de druk van de joodse lobby op de Amerikaanse volksvertegenwoordiging om een oorlog tegen Iran te beginnen. Had daarentegen Iran de nucleaire macht Israel bedreigd dan had de NRC onder de pro-Israel propagandiste Carolien Roelants dit paginabreed gemeld. Vanwaar dat meten met twee maten? Toch houdt de slijpsteen voor de geest de vinger aan de pols met dit soort nieuws:

'1,3 miljoen voor lunch met rijkste man ter wereld
Gepubliceerd: 30 juni 2008 14:26 Gewijzigd: 30 juni 2008 14:54
Door een onzer redacteuren

Rotterdam, 30 juni 2008. Voor een powerlunch met de rijkste man ter wereld, Warren Buffett, is 2,1 miljoen dollar (1,3 miljoen euro) geboden op internetveiling eBay. Het hoogste bod komt van de Chinese belegger Zhao Danyang.
Dat bevestigt het bedrijf van Zhao, Pure Heart Asset Management, vandaag. Buffett doneert de opbrengst aan de Glide Foundation die maaltijden en medische zorg verstrekt aan armen in San Francisco.
De winnaar die op eBay de naam greenteabug gebruikt is algemeen directeur van een investeringsfonds in Hongkong. Daarvoor was Zhao eigenaar van een elektronicabedrijf. Zhao, die zeven vrienden mee mag nemen naar de powerlunch, ontmoet Buffett in het New Yorkse restaurant Smith & Wollensky. Dat is een van de bekendste steakhouses in New York. De lunch vindt ieder jaar in mei plaats.'

Lees verder: http://www.nrc.nl/economie/article1149974.ece/1%252C3_miljoen_voor_lunch_met_rijkste_man_ter_wereld

Stichting Mirsab

Ik kreeg deze e-mail:

'Geachte relatie,

Stichting Mirsab presenteert u met gepaste trots haar nieuwe weblog http://www.mirsab.nl/. Na een maandenlange voorbereiding is de website gereed en staat nu online. Mirsab.nl zal van verscheidene soorten publicaties worden voorzien door de publicisten Ali Eddaoudi, Abdelhakim Chouaati en Mohammed Jabri. Daarnaast zullen de jurist Mohammed Faizel Enait en de wetenschapper/islamoloog prof. Sjoerd van Koningsveld dit drietal schrijvers versterken met hun opinie omtrent de positie van de islam in Nederland. Stichting Mirsab is in 2008 opgericht om in juridische zin de strijd aan te gaan met islamofoben en negationisten die, in strijd met de Nederlandse wet, de discriminatie van moslims hanteren om zich te profileren en de islam als onderdeel van de Nederlandse samenleving anno 2008 ontkennen. Mirsab maakt zich sterk voor volledige participatie van moslims in de Nederlandse samenleving, met behoud van de eigen religieuze identiteit. Daarnaast is Mirsab een groot voorstander van de integratie en emancipatie van moslims in Europa en van een goede verstandhouding tussen Nederland en de landen die de afkomst van de Nederlandse moslims vertegenwoordigen. Mirsab hoopt dit middels de eigen weblog kracht bij te zetten door de (moslim)lezer een breed scala aan artikelen voor te leggen die dienen bij te dragen aan de kennis van de alledaagse positie van de islam in Nederland, alsmede middels deze artikelen het politiek bewustzijn van moslims te voorzien van de opinie van het schrijversarsenaal dat zich aan Mirsab heeft verbonden. Wij hopen dat u aan Mirsab veel leesplezier zult beleven. U mag natuurlijk altijd reageren op de artikelen die geplaatst worden, opdat er een constructieve dialoog tussen verschillende meningen ontstaat en op die manier hopelijk wordt bijgedragen aan een wederzijds begrip en repect van en voor elkaars culturen, religies en standpunten.
Voor nader contact kunt u mailen met info@mirsab.nl of bellen naar 06 27 560 440.
Met vriendelijke groet,Stichting Mirsab'

Iran 208

'Ron Paul Claims Pelosi Spiked Iran Bill
June 30, 2008
By Rick Pedraza
Representative Ron Paul says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi removed a section from a bill passed by Congress which would have barred the U.S. from going to war with Iran without a congressional vote, claiming she did so at the behest of the leadership of Israel and AIPAC.
Paul, a former Republican presidential contender who formally removed himself from the party’s nomination race last week, makes the allegation on C-SPAN during a recently held foreign policy conference in Virginia.
Paul says Pelosi’s first act as House Speaker in 2006 was to "deliberately" remove a portion of a legislative spending bill which said the United States "can’t go to war with Iran without getting approval from Congress."
According to Paul, Pelosi and her allies in the chamber’s Democratic leadership initially accepted the bill designed to outline an Iraq exit strategy, but during a revision of the legislation excluded the statement regarding the need for congressional approval of any military assault on the neighboring country of Iran.
"She [Pelosi] removed it deliberately," Paul says. "And then, the astounding thing is, when asked why, she said the leadership in Israel asked her to. That was in the newspaper, that was in The Washington Post, that she was asked by AIPAC and others not to do that."
Paul implies Pelosi, desperate to advance her flawed spending legislation, bargained away the proposal that would have been the House leadership’s primary vehicle for challenging the administration’s policies in the region.
According to John Nichols, who covered the story about Pelosi’s capitulation at the time for "The Nation," Pelosi was "under pressure from some conservative members of her caucus, and from lobbyists associated with neoconservative groups that want war with Iran, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)."
Paul’s allegation is corroborated by The Asia Times, which in another article published at the time says AIPAC was strongly against attaching "a provision to a Pentagon spending bill that would require President Bush to get congressional approval before attacking Iran. AIPAC was strongly against it because it viewed the legislation as taking the military option ‘off the table.’ The provision was killed."
The article also cites Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, as saying [Pelosi’s] decision was due to AIPAC.
2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved'

Zie: http://yelamdenu.blogsome.com/2008/06/30/ron-paul-claims-pelosi-spiked-iran-bill/

De Commerciele Massamedia 126

De vrijheid van meningsuiting, de persvrijheid is er alleen voor degenen met een pers.

'Definitely bad news Between the lines: A 'purge' at Haaretz.
By Calev Ben-David,THE JERUSALEM POST

What the heck is going on at Haaretz? If you believe some of the things being written about the paper on media Web sites here and abroad, it is nothing less than a political purge, a putsch, a deliberate weeding out of regular voices deemed too politically controversial.Why? Because its target readership is no longer the left-wing intelligentsia and bourgeoisie, but the investor and entrepreneurial class that read (and advertise in) its successful sister business daily, The Marker, and prefer a Haaretz (in the words of one of its critics) "without Palestinians or the underprivileged."As a result, according to this scenario, such writers as Meron Rappaport, Gideon Levy, Amira Hass, Danny Rubinstein and Akiva Eldar, who have focused much of their work on the Palestinian issue, have either been forced out, encouraged to leave the paper or have had their writing space reduced or marginalized.In addition, reports recently circulated that the highly regarded social affairs reporter, Ruth Sinai, whose work has detailed the plight of the unemployed, was fired - and then had her dismissal rescinded this week.These changes are being carried by Haaretz's new editor, Dov Alfon, who previously worked at The Marker under its boss, Guy Rolnick - widely regarded as the dominant editorial vision in the company - with the approval of publisher Amos Schocken, who now must also answer to the paper's German co-owners, DuMont Schauberg.Both Alfon and Schocken have felt it necessary to respond to these charges, with the latter replying to the media Web site, The Seventh Eye: "I understand there are those readers who want Haaretz to look like a protest [manifesto] against the occupation - for example, Ashkenazi, secular and righteous, and focused on the occupation. But a newspaper is not a protest [manifesto]; it's a newspaper. By the way, Haaretz was against the occupation before Amira Hass and Meron [Rappaport], and it will be after them. And don't misunderstand me. I am certainly of the view that the occupation is Israel's most severe ailment, one that endangers its very existence. If it were possible, then, I would be ready to be the publisher of a newspaper that solely campaigned against the occupation till its end. The problem is that some of those protesting against the occupation also want to know what is happening in the shops of Comme Il Faut [a clothing chain]. So we were concerned that they wouldn't take out a subscription to the newspaper that I am prepared to be the publisher of."Well, while I'm glad that Haaretz readers are keeping up fashion standards at rallies in their politically correct Comme Il Faut duds, this reads to me as a strikingly ambivalent declaration, with Schocken not quite denying some of the criticism that's been thrown his way by the Left.Like all print media nowadays, Haaretz is struggling to keep and attract readers and advertisers, and some of the editorial changes seem to clearly reflect an effort to make the paper a little less heavy, including reducing and putting less emphasis on its most radical voices. There is only so much space on a news page, and if you start focusing more on economic, consumer and lifestyle issues, it's going to come at the expense of other fields, including politics and social affairs.What makes these changes particularly significant at Haaretz is that there has long been a seeming contradiction between the paper's progressive stance on peace and security issues and its editorial support for free-market capitalism. But this viewpoint was all of a piece with the yekke (German-Jewish-Israeli) outlook that the Schocken family brought to the paper since purchasing it in the mid-1930s.So, during the years when socialist-leaning Labor Zionism was this country's dominant ideology, both Haaretz's political and economic editorial lines, different as they were, could both claim to be counter-establishment.No longer. The more laissez-faire economics, long advocated by business editor Nehemia Strassler and exemplified by The Marker's content, is now very much the outlook of the establishment, and given the increased editorial influence that publication is having on Haaretz as a whole, it seems inevitable it would bleed over to its news coverage and editorial line. That, I suspect, is why the reported near-firing of Ruth Sinai in particular raised so many red flags (so to speak), since her work focuses on the social repercussions of these economic policies - and it is understandable why the paper would seemingly backtrack on her impending dismissal (for the time being).'

Lees verder: http://normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=1817

Hamid Dabashi

Nu de Verenigde Staten onder druk van de joodse lobby zich voorbereid op een gewapend conflict met Iran is het belangrijk om goede informatie te lezen over dit land. Ik heb vorige week professor Hamid Dabashi geinterviewd, auteur van het uiterst verhelderend boek Iran, A People Interrupted, uitgegeven door The New Press, New York, London. Dabashi is van origine Iranier en doceert aan de prestigieuze Columbia University in New York. Zeer de moeite waard voor mensen die niet overgeleverd willen worden aan de propaganda van de westerse commerciele massamedia.

Zie: http://www.amazon.com/Iran-People-Interrupted-Hamid-Dabashi/dp/159558059X

Joint Strike Fighter

Persbericht Campagne tegen Wapenhandel

Onderzoeksdossier vervanging F-16: Rampdossier JSF Groningen/Amsterdam, 30 juni 2008 -

*De afgelopen tijd is de Joint Strike Fighter uitgebreid onderwerp van discussie in de Tweede Kamer geweest. In die debatten is het vooral veel gegaan over vertragingen en kostenstijgingen, helaas veel minder over nut en noodzaak van dit peperdure gevechtsvliegtuig. Juist nu een nieuwe kandidatenevaluatie plaatsvindt moet volgens de Campagne tegen Wapenhandel en AMOK deze discussie hoognodig gevoerd worden. Om die reden hebben wij een compact dossier over dit onderwerp samengesteld, met onder meer aandacht voor de beoogde nucleaire taak van de JSF.*Het dossier gaat in op de taken die de opvolger van de F-16 zou moeten vervullen en de enorme kosten die daarmee gepaard gaan. Een belangrijk aspect is de kernwapentaak, die de opvolger van de F-16 zou moeten overnemen. Twee weken geleden is bekend geworden dat de Amerikaanse luchtmacht de meeste kernwapenbases in Europa als onveilig beschouwd, en vorige week heeft de VS zijn kernwapens uit Groot-Brittannië teruggetrokken. Wij vinden dat over de Nederlandse kernwapentaak, die nog stamt uit de Koude Oorlog, een politiek besluit moet worden genomen. De afschaffing van de F-16 is een goed moment om de Nederlandse nucleaire taak te beëindigen.Verder gaat het onderzoeksdossier in op de militaire logica achter de behoeftestelling. Moet Nederland in staat zijn ‘first-entry’ taken te vervullen bij een aanvalsoorlog in verre buitenlanden? En mag dat ten koste gaan van ‘peacekeeping’ budgetten?Ook komt natuurlijk de rol van de Nederlandse industrie aan bod. Nu al is duidelijk dat het bedrijfsleven van de aangegane financiële verplichtingen probeert af te komen, juist nu blijkt dat hun afdracht aan de Staat onbetaalbaar wordt. Centraal uitgangspunt van deelname aan de ontwikkeling van de JSF was echter altijd dat de belastingbetaler er geen cent slechter op zou worden.Tenslotte bevat het dossier een korte chronologie en een leeswijzer met de belangrijkste documenten op een rij.*

Voor meer informatie: Wendela de Vries, 020 6164684 of 06 30488704/*/Dit dossier is een coproductie van de Campagne tegen Wapenhandel en het Antimilitaristisch Onderzoekskollektief AMOK, en is gepubliceerd in het VredesMagazine van juni 2008.//Exemplaren kunnen worden gedownload op http://www.stopwapenhandel.org/ <http://www.stopwapenhandel.org/>. Gedrukte versies zijn verkrijgbaar va info@stopwapenhandel.org <http://www.blogger.com/ //Bezoek ook de vernieuwde informatieve website http://www.jsf-nee.nl/ </">http://www.jsf-nee.nl/>/

Trouw, Misschien Wel 36

En wat heeft Trouw te berichten?

'NIEUWSBRIEF

Spanje winnaar van vermakelijk EK voetbal Spanje, dat gisteravond Duitsland in de finale met 1-0 versloeg, is een waardige triomfator van het EK voetbal, dat nochtans weinig vernieuwend was.
Mugabe roept zijn eigen victorie uit De uitslag stond van tevoren vast: een grootse overwinning voor Robert Mugabe, die zich gisteren voor de zesde maal liet beëdigen tot president van Zimbabwe.
Eerste Nederlandse terminal voor vloeibaar gas Gas uit het Midden- Oosten wordt vanaf 2011 in vloeibare vorm naar Rotterdam gevaren. De bouw van Nederlands eerste aanlegpunt voor schepen met Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) begon dit weekeinde op de Tweede Maasvlakte.
Wat kost het koningshuis? De Tweede Kamer praat vanavond over de kosten van het Nederlandse koningshuis. Kamerleden willen weten waar die 114 miljoen euro aan opgaan. De kosten van het Britse koningshuis worden ieder jaar gepubliceerd.
Schuifdak nekt rokers in stadion Gelredome Gelredome is vanaf morgen rookvrij. Nergens in het Arnhemse multifunctionele stadion mag nog worden gerookt, niet op de tribunes, niet in de kantoren, niet in de vip-ruimtes. „Het is een wettelijke verplichting", stelt directeur Jasper van Amstel. „We hebben geen keus."
Kosovo heeft nu ook een ’Servisch parlement’ Servische nationalisten hebben hun verzet tegen de onafhankelijkheid van Kosovo opgevoerd door een eigen parlement op te richten in het toch al verdeelde Mitrovica.
Nog strengere sancties tegen Mugabe nodig Hij zou er een dagje blijven, maar hij zit er naar ons beste weten nog steeds. Zimbabwe’s oppositieleider Morgan Tsvangirai zocht vorige week zondag een veilig heenkomen in de Nederlandse ambassade in Harare. Hij vreesde met recht voor zijn leven.
Berichten uit Noord-Irak - weblog Judit Neurink
Uit Europa om te vechtenGastblog van Eddy van Wessel - Het tweede doel van mijn trip naar Koerdistan breekt aan. We hebben contacten gelegd met de Koerdische vrijheidsstrijders die zich op de grens met Iran en Turkije bevinden.
Trouw middageditieSinds kort versturen we iedere werkdag rond twee uur 's middags een e-mailnieuwsbrief met daarin o.a. het belangrijkste nieuws van dat moment. Door de combinatie van berichten van Trouw-redacteuren en het laatste nieuws van persbureaus kunt u nu de hele dag op de hoogte blijven.
Klik hier om u in te schrijven
Kogels uit de ruimte In Amerikaanse rampenfilms vernietigen ruimteschepen een meteoriet vlak voordat deze miljoenen mensen plet. Over een kwarteeuw zou het heel misschien werkelijkheid kunnen worden. Dan moet binnenkort al een ruimteschip opstijgen, zeggen sterrenkundigen, om de kolos van enkele megatonnen uit koers te brengen.
Meer! / Evangelicals VS progressiever Evangelische kiezers in de Verenigde Staten kunnen zich steeds meer vinden in het liberale beleid van de Democraten op het gebied van milieu, armoedebestrijding en binnenlandse politiek.
De school moet zich aanpassen aan de jongeren (opinie) De maatschappij is de laatste jaren totaal veranderd. Heb het lef om de school net zo grondig om te vormen.
televisie / Falende hulpverlening rond een jonge dealer Het was een sombere start van het weekeinde. Zembla kwam met een aflevering over tienerdealers in Noord-Holland. Vrienden van de 16-jarige Pascal Keijzer, die vorig jaar tijdens een drugsdeal werd omgebracht, zouden daarin voor het eerst openlijk praten over de dood van hun maat.
schouten / Verboden vrucht Ben benieuwd of roken nu allengs de illegaliteit ingaat. Dat immers beweren verkopers van andere slechte gewoontes als prostitutie of paddo’s, steevast zodra de overheid dreigt ze te verbieden of te breidelen. Je kunt het maar beter toestaan, dan hou je er tenminste zicht op.
weblog Boekestijn (VVD) / Minder ontwikkelingsgeld naar regeringen Donderdagavond woon ik een ‘political party’ bij van de Britse ambassadeur. Zulke bijeenkomsten worden goed bezocht omdat politici graag op de hoogte blijven van wat er allemaal speelt.
De kunst van het campagne voeren Barack Obama maakt grote kans om president te worden. Kunstenaars liften mee met meer commerciële dan politieke kunst.
Ontspannen rijden voor milieu Tien automobilisten maakten zaterdag in Lelystad uit wie de zuinigste van Nederland is. Leuk zo’n wedstrijd, zegt een deelnemer. Weer eens iets anders dan gewoon van A naar B rijden.
30 juni / Roze parade J. van Mulligen - Van Diermen vroeg of vogels homoseksueel kunnen zijn. „Twee jonge vrouwtjesmussen dartelden rond. Opeens ging het ene musje wapperen met haar vleugeltjes en in de houding staan. Het andere musje kwam achter haar en begon in het gaatje te pikken.” Daarmee heeft zij haar vraag al beantwoord: vogels kennen homoseksualiteit.

Nu op de Trouw-siteWeblogs op Trouw.nl
--> Trouw.nl/indebuurt voor al het nieuws uit uw regio Nieuw: naast de ontbijteditie van de gratis nieuwsbrief, nu ook een luncheditie. Klik hier om u aan te melden Trouw biedt u een RSS-feed aan. Met behulp van een zogenaamde RSS-lezer blijft u dagelijks op de hoogte van de actuele nieuwskoppen op onze voorpagina. NatuurtochtenPolderpeil
Het laatste nieuws: http://www.trouw.nl/laatstenieuws/Politieke tekening
ZusjeWanneer u op onderstaande afbeelding klikt, gaat u naar het archief van Zusje met de strips van afgelopen week. Daar kunt u op één van de tekeningen klikken voor een grote, leesbare versie
OVER DIT E-MAILOVERZICHT Deze nieuwskrant is een dienst van dagblad Trouw, waarbij op maandag t/m zaterdag elke ochtend automatisch een samenvatting van de nieuwsberichten op onze site wordt verstuurd. OPGAVE GRATIS E-MAILKRANT **Nieuw: de luncheditie van de emailkrant** U kunt uzelf of bekenden gratis voor deze dienst opgeven via http://www.trouw.nl/emailkrant Via onderstaande link kunt u zich afmelden. OPZEGGEN E-MAILKRANT U kunt de E-mailkrant opzeggen via http://www.trouw.nl/gatekeeper/newsletter.jsp OPGAVE BETAALD ABONNEMENT TROUW Geïnteresseerd in meer Trouw-nieuws? Waarom neemt u dan geen (proef)abonnement, waarmee u dagelijks de gedrukte editie van Trouw op de mat vindt. Bovendien krijgt u exclusief toegang tot het krantenarchief van Trouw (http://www.trouw.nl/archief) U kunt uzelf of bekenden opgeven via http://www.trouw.nl/service ADVERTEREN? De e-mailkrant wordt regelmatig gelezen door haar abonnees, die bovendien hoog zijn opgeleid. Voor een compleet profiel van onze abonnees en advertentiemogelijkheden in deze nieuwsbrief kunt u contact opnemen met sitemanager Nienke Schipper tel. 020 - 562 26 02. REACTIES EN COPYRIGHT Voor reacties op deze e-mailkrant of de Trouw-site: surf naar http://www.trouw.nl/contact Copyright Trouw.nl'

Juist ja, ook hier, snurkt u rustig verder.

De Israelische Terreur 404

'Top US commander briefed on IDF’s four-front strategy in potential Iran war context
June 29, 2008, 9:08 AM (GMT+02:00)

Top US commander Adm. Michael Mullen sees for himself

The visiting Chairman of the US Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, carried out a guided tour of Israel’s borders with Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip over the weekend. It was led by the IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi and OCs Northern and Southern Commands, Maj. Gens. Eisenkott and Galant.
He was briefed on IDF tactics in a war on all these potential flashpoints in the context of a comprehensive conflict with Iran and then held long conversations with defense minister Ehud Barak and Ashkenazi.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that it is very unusual for the top American commander to carry out a close, on-the-spot study of Israel’s potential war fronts. It was prompted on the one hand by skepticism in parts of the US high command of Israel’s ability to simultaneously strike Iran’s nuclear installations and fight off attacks from three borders while, at the same time, Adm. Mullen showed he was open to persuasion that the IDF’s prospective tactics and war plans were workable.
Military circles in Washington, commenting on the large-scale air maneuver Israel carried out with Greece earlier in June, have opined that 100 warplanes are not enough for the Israel Air Force to destroy all of Iran’s secret nuclear sites; more than 1,000 would be needed. Israel military tacticians in contact with US commanders have countered that, while Iran’s secret nuclear locations are scattered and buried deep, still, every chain has weak links and is therefore vulnerable.
The tough threats issued by Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Mohamed Ali Jafari on Saturday, June 28, were prompted by the Adm. Mullen’s Israeli border tour, word of which was flashed to Tehran by Syrian-Iranian observation posts inside Syrian and Lebanese borders.
(The Sunday Times added that Iran moved its ballistic Shihab-3 missiles into launch positions, with Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant among its possible targets.)
Saturday, DEBKAfile reported:
The IRGC chief, Mohammad Ali Jafari issued Tehran’s toughest and most explicit threats yet in response to recent reports of Israeli preparations to strike Iran’s nuclear installations.
Hinting at an American attack, he said: “If there is a confrontation between us and the enemy from outside the region , definitely the scope will reach the oil issue.”
After this action (of imposing controls on the Gulf waterway), the oil price will rise very considerably,” he said.
Speaking to the Iranian newspaper Jam-e Jam, Jafari differentiated between Iran’s responses to possible American and Israeli attacks.
The oil weapon would be applied in reprisal for the former – “and this is among the factors deterring enemies”, he said, while “Israelis know if they take military action against Iran… the abilities of the Islamic and Shiite world, especially in the region, will deliver fatal blows.”
Jafari noted that Israel was in range of Iranian missiles.
He said Iran’s “allies in the region” could also retaliate, referring to those living in “Lebanon’s heartland of South Lebanon,” without naming Hizballah.
US forces were “more vulnerable than the Israelis” because of their troops in the region. “Iran can in different ways harm American interests, even far away,”
Jafar warned Iran’s neighbors not to let their territory be used.
“If the attack takes place from the soil of another country ... the country attacked has the right to respond to the enemy's military action from where the operation started," he said.'

Zie: http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5386

De Volkskrant 66

Terwijl de internationale media zich bezig houden met een aanval op Iran, is voor de Volkskrant het grote nieuws voor de provincie:

' maandag 30 juni 2008
Spanje Europees kampioen voetbal Na de eindstrijd van het WK in 2002, tegen Brazilië, verloren de Duitsers zondag in Wenen de finale van Euro 2008. Spanje was beter en verdiende de kleine zege met 1-0.
Nederlanders aangevallen op Curaçao De Curaçaose gemeenschap is zich rotgeschrokken van een racistisch incident, gericht tegen Nederlanders, waardoor een blanke man met een schedelbreuk in het ziekenhuis is beland.
Monumentaal fabriekspand Utrecht in brand Door een brand is de voormalige sojafabriek Cereol aan de Kanaalweg in Utrecht bijna volledig in de as gelegd. De gevels van het leegstaande monumentale pand staan nog overeind....
Nederland wordt closer met oliestaten Nederland intensiveert de betrekkingen met belangrijke energieproducerende landen en vooral met Rusland, Kazachstan, Algerije en Saoedi-Arabië. Dat gebeurt onder meer om de eigen energievoorziening zeker te stellen....
Spaanse fan Manolo heeft zijn doel bereikt Wat ben je voor dit EK vaak bekritiseerd! Je zou de Spaanse voetballers ongeluk brengen met je aanwezigheid op de tribunes....
Balkenende opent luiken over kosten Oranjes Wat kost het Koninklijk Huis de schatkist? Weinig onderwerpen kunnen de gemoederen in Den Haag zo in beweging brengen als de financiën van de Oranjes....
Federer plaatst vriendin in ongewone hoofdrol Achter iedere succesvolle man staat een sterke vrouw, luidt een populaire slogan. Roger Federer zal dat zeker beamen. Zijn vriendin Mirka Vavrinec is al bijna acht jaar lang zijn steun en toeverlaat....
Beruchte Duitse kinderverkrachter opgepakt De beruchte Duitser Oliver Shanti, die verdacht wordt van zeker 116 gevallen van kindermisbruik, is in Portugal gearresteerd. De 59-jarige man gold als een van de meestgezochte criminelen van de Bondsrepubliek....
Dna-verklaring in Puttense moordzaak Ronald P. (33), de onlangs opgepakte verdachte in de Puttense moordzaak, beweert ruim een half jaar een geheime relatie te hebben gehad met slachtoffer Christel Ambrosius....
Er slaat geen vonk over bij Kane Een apotheose had het moeten worden voor Kane, maar het podium in De Kuip is voor de band te hoog gegrepen.'

En slaapt u rustig verder.

Iran 207

Iran Threatens to Shut Down Persian Gulf Oil Lanes if Attacked
Sunday 29 June 2008
by: Borzou Daragahi, The Los Angeles Times

A military official is quoted as saying Tehran would respond to a confrontation over its nuclear program.
Beirut - The commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard said the government might shut down vital oil lanes through the Persian Gulf if the country were attacked by the United States or Israel, according to a newspaper report Saturday.
Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari warned that if there were any confrontation over Iran's nuclear program, Tehran would try to damage Western economies by targeting oil.
"Naturally every country under attack by an enemy uses all its capacity and opportunities to confront the enemy," Jafari said to the hard-line newspaper Jaam-e Jam, according to translations of his comments on the English-language website of the semiofficial Fars News Agency.
"Iran will definitely act to impose control on the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz," through which 17 million barrels of oil passes each day.
"After this action, the oil price will rise very considerably and this is among the factors deterring the enemies," he said.
Iran abuts the strategic strait, and Iranian and Western analysts have frequently said that the country could try to blockade or mine it in the event of a war, a move that would send oil prices skyrocketing.
But some military analysts say Iran might not be able to hold the waterway, which is 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, in a confrontation with U.S. warships and aircraft.
The West and Iran remain locked in a standoff over uranium enrichment, which Tehran insists is meant to produce fuel for energy production, but which the U.S. and its allies allege is the cornerstone of an eventual weapons program.
The West has threatened a fourth round of United Nations sanctions as well as a tightening of other economic restrictions if the program is not suspended.
U.S. lawmakers are considering resolutions that would require President Bush to increase pressure on Tehran by preventing the export of refined petroleum products and inspecting "all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran."

Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/article/iran-threatens-shut-down-persian-gulf-oil-lanes-if-attacked

Iran 206

'Iranians Float an Offer the West Should Not Refuse
Will Anti-War Forces Seize this Opportunity?
By Muriel Mirak-Weissbach

Global Research, June 29, 2008
If there were any substance to Condi Rice's repeated assertions, that the strife over Iran's nuclear program could, and preferably should, be solved through diplomatic means, then one would expect the U.S. Secretary of State to seize on recent offers made by Iranian figures, designed to facilitate the start of talks. Although widely ignored in the international press, highly significant statements were made at an international conference in Berlin June 24-25, by two authoritative Iranian spokesmen, one an academic, the other a political leader and brother of the new Majlis (Parliament) speaker Ali Larijani. Both said explicitly that Tehran would be willing to freeze its uranium enrichment, and to provide for concrete mechanisms to guarantee that its enrichment program would not, and could not, be geared to weapons production.
Instead of acknowledging these ostentatious gestures of good will, the U.S. surged ahead with new legislation to introduce yet more sanctions against Iran, which are clearly designed to prepare a military aggression, and the European Union kicked in with its own new punitive sanctions.(1) At the same time, military consultations between Washington and Tel Aviv about Iran have gained in frequency and intensity, and the rhetoric from U.S. and Israeli leaders threatening war has reached such a fever pitch as to send oil prices into the stratosphere.(2)
Can war be averted, even at this late hour? Hopefully, it can. Clearly, if the Anglo-American war party in Washington and Tel Aviv has already decided to proceed with their "final solution" to the Iran problem, before the Cheney-Bush junta is forced to leave the White House, there is little hope that these new overtures made by Iran will have any effect. But at the same time, this gives all the more reason for those of us committed to prevent a new catastrophe in the Persian Gulf/Middle East to mobilize political forces to call the bluff on the war party, and demand that Tehran's newly articulated ideas about how the conflict may be peacefully resolved, be taken up in political fora and in the international press. On that basis, serious, unprejudiced discussions must begin right away. Among the key political forces to be mobilized are Russia and China, veto-holding powers in the U.N. Security Council, who know that aggression against Iran is to be seen as merely the stepping-stone to future aggression against both sovereign nations. The issue should also be prominently thrust into the forefront of the ongoing election campaigns in the United States. Where do Barack Obama and John McCain stand on these new Iranian offers?
An Offer The West Should Not Refuse
Thus far, in the conflict ostensibly over Iran's nuclear program, the sticking point has been that the West (be it the U.S. or the 5+1 Group -- the U.N. Security Council five permanent members plus Germany) has demanded that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment program, as a pre-condition for talks about the future of the program. The Islamic Republic, citing the provisions of the Non Proliferation Treaty, which it has signed, has always responded that it has the right to enrichment, and will not relinquish it as a precondition for any talks. Not only: in the Berlin meeting, several authoritative figures, including former IAEA Director General Dr. Hans Blix, confirmed Iran's right to this technology. One should in addition consider the following paradox: if Iran were to suspend enrichment as a condition to start talks on the future of its nuclear program, then there may be three possible outcomes: either the talks succeed, in which case Iran would retain the right to enrichment in some mutally acceptable form; or Iran agrees to suspend its program; or, the talks fail, in which case, Iran would continue its program anyway, perhaps leaving the NPT and renouncing IAEA inspections. In short: the demand for suspension as a precondition is not only politically unjust and contrary to law (the NPT), but it is also absurd by the standards of any logic. As a postscript, it should be added, that Iran did suspend its uranium enrichment program for the not inconsiderable period of two years, under the Presidency of Seyyed Mohammad Khatami. But what did that yield? Nothing.
Now, in what should be considered a sincere attempt to settle the nuclear dispute peacefully and amicably, the Iranians have gone the extra mile. In the course of the Third Transatlantic Conference organized by the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), on the theme, "Missile Defense, Russia, and the Middle East: Coping with Transatlantic Divergence -- Exploring Common Solutions," two Iranian spokesmen addressed the issue: Dr. Mohammad Javad A. Larijani, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran, and Director of the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, as well as brother of Dr. Ali Larijani, now speaker of the Parliament, and former head of the National Security Council and thus negotiator in the nuclear issue; and political scientist, Prof. Nasser Hadian-Jazy of the University of Tehran.
Prof. Hadian-Jazy presented himself from the outset as an interlocutor ready to engage with the other side. Regarding Iran's missile program, for example, he cited testimony he had given to a U.S. Senate committee, in which he had presented proposals for limits on the range and production of Iranian missiles. The proposals were not taken seriously, he said, but he reiterated that, if there were a serious proposal from the U.S side, a deal would be possible.
Regarding the immediate issue of Iran's nuclear program, he stressed, first, that Iran had no nuclear weapons program, that Iranians desired no such thing, but that they are committed to the civilian energy program, which enjoys unconditional public support. He said, Iran opposes the weaponization of its nuclear program, and that "a deal can be made." This would involve a "robust verification system" which could "limit enrichment quantitatively and qualitatively." When asked by this author to elaborate on this, (also in light of proposals floated in the U.S. by Thomas Pickering et al to overcome the enrichment dilemma), Prof. Hadian-Jazy said Iran should not be told it must suspend uranium enrichment, but that it would accept a freeze. "There is a difference between freeze and suspension," he said. "If suspension were to be accepted, that would be as a {result} of negotiations, not as a {condition}. It would be folly," he noted, "for Iran to give up its bargaining chip before starting talks." He went on to specify: "We can limit enrichment to 6 cascades, quantitatively, and as for the qualitative side, we can use the 'black box' approach, which means not exceeding 4-5% enrichment." This, he said, is something European and U.S. scientists understand. Furthermore, following enrichment, the fuel can be deposited elsewhere, and then returned to Iran for use. "There should be a will," he stressed," to resolve the issue peacefully, with a face-saving formula for both sides."'

Les verder: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9467

De Israelische Terreur 403

"Senator Joe, do you read Haaretz??"a note to Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman from a former constituent

A NEW ISRAELI STUDY CONFIRMS OUR WORST FEARS : On the academic research of Psychologist Nofer Ishai-Karen and Psychology Prof. Joel Elitzur,
Dalia Karpel
shortened translation of article in Haaretz `Hamedovevet`
21.09.07
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/905287.htm

`We - Israeli Soldiers - were put there to punish the Palestinians`, says Ilan Vilenda, an Israeli soldier who served in Rafah during the first Intifada.

Ilan is the only soldier of 21 who agreed to have his name published, after he was interviewed by psychologist Nofer Ishai-Karen.

The soldiers spoke freely to Nofer, who served with them in the same ASHBAL platoon 20 years ago; They disclosing their innermost emotions about the horrendous crimes, in which they took part: Murder, breaking bones of Palestinian children, actions of humiliation, destruction of property, robbery and theft.

Soldier `A` testimony:
`We decided to turn an old shower in our base to a make-shift detention cell. A Palestinian was brought there, handcuffed and mouth banded so he couldn`t talk, or move. We `forgot him there for three days`...

Soldier `B` testimony:
`I was on my first patrol. Others simply shot like mad. I started to shoot as they did. They `set my on`. I took my weapon and shot. Nobody was there to tell me otherwise`

-- Psychologist Ishai-Karen was shocked to find that the soldiers enjoyed the `intoxication of power`, and had pleasure from using violence. She said: `Most of my interviewees enjoyed their own instigated violence during their Occupation service``.

Soldier `C` testimony:
`The truth is that I love this mess - I enjoy it. It is like being on drugs.
If I didn`t enter Rafah, to put down some rebellion -at least once a week-
I`d go berserk.

Soldier `D` testimony:
What is great is that you don`t have to follow any law or rule. You feel that YOU ARE THE LAW; you decide. Once you go into the Occupied Territories YOU ARE GOD`.

Emotional dumbness

Soldier `E` testimony:
We drove an APC through Rafah. A man of 25 walked nearby. He didn`t hurl a
stone at us or anything. Then without any reason `X` shot him in the stomach. We left him lying on the sidewalk`.

Soldier `F` testimony:
Some `tough guys` developed it into `an ideology`, according to which we have to react brutally even for minor events. A woman threw a sandal at me. I kicked her with my foot at her crotch. I broke her. She can`t have children any longer. Next time she won`t throw sandals at me... and when another woman spat at me she got the butt of my gun in her face. She can`t spit now.

Soldier `G` described his first forced entry to a home to detain a Palestinian:
`He was real big, some 30 years old. He refused detention. We hit him but couldn`t force him down. Some people came hurling stones at us.
We beat him and told him to lie down. Till he finally did. We drove to the base with him. By that time he had lost consciousness. He died some days later`.

Nofer Ishai-Karen: `Some NCOs encouraged the soldiers to behave brutally, and provided their own example.

Soldier `H` testimony:
After two months in Rafah a new NCO commander arrived. The first patrol, which he commanded, was at 06 hours. Rafah was under curfew. Not a soul was on the street. Then he saw a young boy, of about 4, playing in the sand in the courtyard of his home. The kid was building a castle in the sand. Suddenly the NCO, a guy from the Engineers Corps, ran to chase the kid. We followed. He captured the kid and broke his elbow. Broke the kid`s elbow! Damn me if I`m not telling the truth! Then the NCO treaded on the kid`s stomach three times, before he moved on. We couldn`t believe our eyes... But the next day we went on patrol with that guy and the soldiers started to imitate him...
What happened then?

Some guys couldn`t stomach it. The case of severe abuse of three young adolescents, who were bounded hand and foot by a staff sergeant, got them to alert a senior officer. `When the medic arrived the boys were bleeding all over, their clothes were soaked with blood, and they were shivering from fear. They were made to kneel like dogs and were afraid to move`. The NCO was punished by 3 months detention. But the platoon commander backed the NCO and reprimanded the conscientious soldiers for `defaming the platoon`.`

Nofer Ishai-Karen: The sacred value in the [Israeli] Army is `fighters` solidarity`, i.e., loyalty towards your fellow combatants. The platoons
protected its secrets, as a family defends its `black sheep`. The fellows regard as `traitors` the conscientious soldiers, says Nofer Ishai-Karen. The
cover-up was complete when our `good guy` was excommunicated and ostracized by the entire platoon. And the NCO? He left the country, and now
lives in the U.S. of A. The majority of the soldiers of these platoons had left Israel. Only five or six remain in Israel.

Nofer studied two platoons ESHBAL and ESHKHAR, the last was more extremely violent, she says.

Finally back to Ilan Vilenda, the only soldier who allowed Nofer to use his full name and even be photographed. Vilenda was a staff sergeant in charge of `operations`.

ILAN` VILENDA`S testimony:
`Our job was to beat them... I personally hit a boy and another. I used my hands or the truncheon. We beat more severely [Palestinian] adults. We acted
like policemen but we acted outside the law. There was this Palestinian who had a TV at home. The World Cup in Soccer was on, and we used to invade his
privacy to watch the games. After a while he had enough, and asked us take the TV set and move.

`I was born on a Kibbutz, to a family whose values were humane `Zionist left wing`. The Palestinians threw tons of stones at us. Whereas at the beginning
my ideological commitment restrained my actions, my anger accumulated, and I released it violently. It was meant to be. We were there `to make them
[Palestinians] pay. My political views changed too. I now support the extreme-right-religious National-Religious Party. After his release from the army,
Vilenda and 5 other Israelis were arrested in Goa, India for possession of LSD. `I wanted to serve my country. This was my task... but the entire IDF is executing illegal-orders.

Who is responsible?

General Matan Vilna`i [now serving under Ehud Barak as vice Minister of Defense] was at the time [during the FIRST INTIFADA] Chief of the IDF Southern Command.
He often visited our platoon and discussed with soldiers, says Nofer But... there you go... the `Instruments of DENIAL and CONCEALMENT` went to work...`

Besides: The Israeli Army didn`t provide the unit with regular training, not were the soldiers given regular leaves, or provided with free time to
recuperate and recover. The interviewed soldiers maintained that the longer they operated [against the Palestinians in Rafah] without leave, the more
violent they became in imposing their kind of `Law and Order`. They claimed `Army [commanders] were aware of the erosion towards violence, and encouraged
it in order to save manpower`.

NOTES:

General Matan Vilna`i must have known what happened. High-ranking officers who served on the Occupied West Bank had voiced similar warnings against Israeli Army behavior. `The orders left a wide gap, a margin... of intentionally un-specified `grey zone`, which encouraged violent behavior of soldiers`, said Reserve Colonel Elisha Shapira, who served in the Nablus Area at the same time. Soldiers were told `don`t hit Palestinians - but bring them to interrogation `swell-headed` - blown-up`.

The events, which Nofer Ishai-Karen researched, happened some 17 years ago. The situation has further deteriorated since that time. Now Israeli Army and
Air Force General openly take pride in acts of revenge against Palestinian civilians. Maj-Gen Eliezer Shkeidi took pride in announcing that his pilots
break the sound barrier over Gaza, producing sonic booms.

These cause severe PTSD symptoms among young children; they have also caused miscarriages among pregnant women. The indiscriminate shelling of Palestinian homes
had caused many deaths lately, including many children. Perhaps last but not least: The Israeli cabinet, backed by Washington, said it would disrupt power and fuel supply to Gaza.

[1] This is an abbreviated translation of an article by Dalia Karpel titled HAMEDOVEVET [=the one who makes people talk]. The article appeared on the
Hebrew Weekend Supplement, on 21 September 2007. It is based on academic research, which Nofer Ishai-Karen and Psychology Prof. Joel Elizur, of the
Hebrew University published in ALPAYIM Magazine Vol. 31.

[2] The article was not translated to English and thus did NOT appear in Haaretz English Language edition.

[3] Psychology Prof. Joel Elizur, of the Hebrew University, who guided Nofer Ishai-Karen in her Master`s thesis, served in the reserves in the Mental Health Department of the Israeli Army. But the IDF wouldn`t allow him to research into Israeli Soldiers` violence. The researchers hold the interview raw audio material.

[4] To my best knowledge the Israeli Army hasn`t either charged a single case of abuse or murder by soldiers of Palestinians in proper court.

Lees verder: http://www.cactus48.com/senatorjoe.html

Return to Cactus48.home page

The Empire 316

September 1, 1939
by W. H. Auden

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.

Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.

Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism's face
And the international wrong.

Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.

The windiest militant trash
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish:
What mad Nijinsky wrote
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart;
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.

From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow;
"I will be true to the wife,
I'll concentrate more on my work,"
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the deaf,
Who can speak for the dumb?

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

Iran 205

Preparing the Battlefield
Monday 07 July 2008
by: Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker

The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country's religious leadership.The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons program.
Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. United States Special Operations Forces have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq, with Presidential authorization, since last year. These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of "high-value targets" in the President's war on terror, who may be captured or killed. But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded, according to the current and former officials. Many of these activities are not specified in the new Finding, and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature.
Under federal law, a Presidential Finding, which is highly classified, must be issued when a covert intelligence operation gets under way and, at a minimum, must be made known to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and the Senate and to the ranking members of their respective intelligence committees - the so-called Gang of Eight. Money for the operation can then be reprogrammed from previous appropriations, as needed, by the relevant congressional committees, which also can be briefed.
"The Finding was focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change," a person familiar with its contents said, and involved "working with opposition groups and passing money." The Finding provided for a whole new range of activities in southern Iran and in the areas, in the east, where Baluchi political opposition is strong, he said.
Although some legislators were troubled by aspects of the Finding, and "there was a significant amount of high-level discussion" about it, according to the source familiar with it, the funding for the escalation was approved. In other words, some members of the Democratic leadership - Congress has been under Democratic control since the 2006 elections - were willing, in secret, to go along with the Administration in expanding covert activities directed at Iran, while the Party's presumptive candidate for President, Barack Obama, has said that he favors direct talks and diplomacy.
The request for funding came in the same period in which the Administration was coming to terms with a National Intelligence Estimate, released in December, that concluded that Iran had halted its work on nuclear weapons in 2003. The Administration downplayed the significance of the N.I.E., and, while saying that it was committed to diplomacy, continued to emphasize that urgent action was essential to counter the Iranian nuclear threat. President Bush questioned the N.I.E.'s conclusions, and senior national-security officials, including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, made similar statements. (So did Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee.) Meanwhile, the Administration also revived charges that the Iranian leadership has been involved in the killing of American soldiers in Iraq: both directly, by dispatching commando units into Iraq, and indirectly, by supplying materials used for roadside bombs and other lethal goods. (There have been questions about the accuracy of the claims; the Times, among others, has reported that "significant uncertainties remain about the extent of that involvement.")
Military and civilian leaders in the Pentagon share the White House's concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions, but there is disagreement about whether a military strike is the right solution. Some Pentagon officials believe, as they have let Congress and the media know, that bombing Iran is not a viable response to the nuclear-proliferation issue, and that more diplomacy is necessary.

Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/article/preparing-battlefield

De Commerciele Massamedia 125

Dit e-mailde een lezer:

'Aan alle redactieleden, opdracht: VS provoceren Iran tot “first blow” en forceren WOIII H.S. Compier, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

De VS willen een conflict met Iran provoceren door een blokkade van hun havens: "Washington, DC — A House resolution effectively requiring a naval blockade on Iran seems fast tracked for passage, gaining co-sponsors at a remarkable speed, but experts say the measures called for in the resolutions amount to an act of war." http://www.niacouncil.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1141&Itemid=2 De tactiek van de VS is dezelfde als met Japan tijdens WOII: Oliver Lyttleton, British Minister of Production, stated in 1944: 'Japan was provoked into attacking America at Pearl Harbor. It is a travesty of history to say that America was forced into the war.' (…) Roosevelt knew that if Japan went to war with the United States, Germany and Italy would be compelled to declare war on America - thus entangling us in the European conflict by the back door. As Harold Ickes, secretary of the Interior, said in October 1941: 'For a long time I have believed that our best entrance into the war would be by way of Japan.'... Much new light has been shed on Pearl Harbor through the recent work of Robert B. Stinnett, a World War II Navy veteran. Stinnett has obtained numerous relevant documents through the Freedom of Information Act. In Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor (2000)....Stinnett reveals that Roosevelt's plan to provoke Japan began with a memorandum from Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. McCollum, head of the Far East desk of the Office of Naval Intelligence. The memorandum advocated eight actions predicted to lead Japan into attacking the United States. McCollum wrote: 'If by these means Japan could be led to commit an overt act of war, so much the better.' FDR enacted all eight of McCollum's provocative steps and more.... After meeting with President Roosevelt on October 16, 1941, Secretary of War Henry Stimson wrote in his diary: 'We face the delicate question of the diplomatic fencing to be done so as to be sure Japan is put into the wrong and makes the first bad move - overt move.' On November 25th, the day before the ultimatum was sent to Japan's ambassadors, Stimson wrote in his diary: 'The question was how we should maneuver them [the Japanese] into the position of firing the first shot....' The New American, Vol. 17, No. 12, June 4, 2001: http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpWESSEX/Documents/pearlharbor.htm Oorlog geeft winst aan banken en wapenhandelaars, en zorgt voor de geforceerde verovering van een markt. Het doel met het veroveren van Afghanistan, Irak en Iran is niet “democratie” maar het in handen krijgen van de laatste wereldvoorraad olie. Dit zijn geen “humanitaire” oorlogen. De doden in de Irak oorlog zijn inmiddels geschat rond de 1 miljoen, meer dan de slachtoffers van etnische zuiveringen in Rwanda: http://www.opinion.co.uk/Newsroom_details.aspx?NewsId=78 Het Amerikaanse leger is niet uit op "wederopbouw" maar juist op het scheppen van chaos om voorwaarden te scheppen voor het opbouwen van militaire bases: http://youtube.com/watch?v=GQHeo-CMQyc Het leger wordt geïnstrueerd om angst en vernietiging te zaaien en pleegt afschuwelijke oorlogsmisdaden: http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/americas/us/war_crimes_fallujah.html Bij een aanval op Iran zal Rusland zich bedreigd voelen door de omsingeling van het land door militaire bases van de VS. Zij zullen bij een aanval zeker ingrijpen, waardoor een wereldwijd conflict zal ontstaan. Het is de taak van elke onafhankelijke geest in uw redactie, die tegen het ontketenen van oorlogen is en het omwille van grof geld uitmoorden van miljoenen onschuldige mannen, vrouwen en kinderen, om bij de redactie de vraag te stellen waarom er geen aandacht wordt besteed aan deze feiten. De schuld rust op u als het Nederlandse publiek misleid wordt door de valse informatie en leugens van de oorlogspropaganda van de VS, die gecreëerd worden door privébelangen van banken, oliemaatschappijen en wapenfabrikanten. Verovering, vernietiging en plundering van landen zijn zaken waar wij in Nederland afstand van hebben genomen. WIJ WILLEN DIT NIET WIJ WILLEN GEEN DERDE WERELDOORLOG WIJ WILLEN GEEN PROVOCATIE VAN IRAN MEDIAREDACTIES: ONDERZOEK DIT EN DOE UW WERK LINKS VOOR ONDERZOEK: Documentaires: Terrorstorm, Alex Jones: http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=3710767957407328313 From the Wilderness: lecture Michael Ruppert http://video.google.nl/videosearch?q=The+Truth+%26+Lies+of+9%2F11&sitesearch= Contents lecture “From the Wilderness”: 0:00 CIA, Wall Street and drug money 1:11 The US plans for Afghanistan 1:15 The neocon political ideology: Zbignew Brzezinski 1:26 On course for a global empire 1:29 Timeline 9/11 1:54 The Patriot Act 2:03 The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act 2:07 The struggle for civil rights 2:11 The courts of justice 2:12 Living in an empire Links en weblogs: http://www.truthout.org/article/it-was-oil-all-along http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9437 http://stanvanhoucke.blogspot.com/search?q=Oil http://yelamdenu.blogsome.com/

The Empire 315

Hoe noemt men een imperium dat ongeveer de helft van zijn begroting besteedt aan iets dat National Security heet, en van de ene oorlog in de andere rolt?

'Congress Passes New Iraq War Funds

by: Reuters

Washington - The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved $161.8 billion in new funds to continue fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the next year, without timetables for withdrawing combat troops.
The House of Representatives passed an identical bill last week. President George W. Bush is expected to promptly sign the measure into law once he receives it from Congress.
The Senate's 92-6 vote to pass the war-funding bill marked a victory for Bush, who has vigorously opposed any move by Congress to impose timetables for ending the Iraq war, now in its sixth year.
Democrats, who are the majority party in Congress, repeatedly had tried to set such dates, most recently with a House vote in May calling for troop withdrawals to be completed by December 31, 2009.
The new war money could last through mid-2009, well past Bush's departure from office on January 20.
With this legislation, Democrats can claim victory in winning passage of a significant expansion of veterans' education benefits and domestic unemployment benefits.
The new money for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan puts the war tab since late 2001 at more than $800 billion, with most of that money going to Iraq.
Congress did attach two conditions on the funds, related to the war in Iraq. It prohibited the construction of permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq and required Baghdad to match, dollar-for-dollar, U.S. reconstruction aid.
Now that Congress has passed the final war-funding bill of Bush's presidency, debate of the Iraq war and how to end it moves to the presidential campaigns being waged by Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.
Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans get a huge new benefit with this legislation: A significant expansion of college tuition payments by the government at a cost of about $63 billion over 11 years.'

Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/article/congress-passes-new-iraq-war-funds

De Israelische Terreur 402

'Shadow of war looms as Israel flexes its muscle
Israeli fighter jets flew 1,500 kms across the Mediterranean this month, in a dry run for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Tehran has threatened to treat such a raid as a declaration of war. As the Middle East braces itself for a stand-off of epic proportions, how close is the region to that nightmare scenario?

Peter Beaumont, Rory McCarthy, Tracy McVeigh and Paul Harris
The Observer,
Sunday June 29, 2008

The meeting at the home of Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was not supposed to be public. The man invited into Olmert's official residence in Jerusalem was Aviam Sela, architect of Operation Opera in 1981, when Israel launched a long-range strike against Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor. Regarded as a brilliant aviation tactician, in particular in the field of in-flight refuelling, Olmert's office tried to play down the meeting. But the rumours in Israel's defence establishment were already flying.
Sela, according to sources close to the meeting, had been called in so that Olmert could ask his opinion on the likely effectiveness of a similar raid to Opera on the nuclear installations of Iran.
Peace in the Middle East depends on Sela's and Israel's answer. Yesterday, responding to the Israel's increasingly bellicose language, Iran's top Revolutionary Guards Commander, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, warned that it would respond to any attack by hitting Israel with missiles and threatened to control the oil shipping passage through the Straits of Hormuz.
If Israel were to attack it would have to overcome considerable practical problems. There is no one who believes that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would be anything like Opera, when eight F-16s and a similar number of F-15s crept into Iraq. For one thing, in pursuing its nuclear ambitions, Iran took note of the Osirak lessons. Its facilities, including a light water reactor at Bushehr and the controversial uranium enrichment process at Natanz, are dispersed and, in the case of Natanz, protected by up to 23 metres of hardened concrete.
To destroy the uranium centrifuge halls at Natanz alone, analysts have argued, might require up to 80 5,000lb penetrating bombs dropped in almost simultaneous pairs to allow the second bomb to burrow through the crater of the first. Opera required just a handful of bombs.
To strike even the bare minimum of so-called target sets associated with Natanz and Bushehr without the assistance of US cruise missiles fired from their ships in the Persian Gulf would require a massive military effort and, according to the Israeli air force's own assessments, might risk the loss of large numbers of its aircraft for a temporary impact.
But the rumours keep circulating and the hushed briefings are multiplying. In the Israeli Prime Minister's traditional round of interviews on the eve of Passover earlier this year, Olmert vowed that Iran 'will not be nuclear'.
Since then, a series of senior Israeli officials have added their own warnings of the threat of an Israeli strike. Most strident has been Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz who said earlier this month that Israel would have no choice but to attack Iran.
Other officials, too, such as Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Israeli ambassador to the US Sallai Meridor, have made less inflammatory remarks but in a similar vein.
If the rhetoric, coming in the midst of an effort by the so-called G5+1 to persuade Iran to accept incentives to suspend uranium enrichment, is alarming, then so too are Israel's ostentatious preparations for war.'

Lees verder: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/29/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast

Iran 204

Hoe kunnen Iran en zijn bondgenoten reageren op de dreigende door de joodse lobby uitgelokte Amerikaanse terreur?

'The Coming Catastrophe?

The finishing touches on several contingency plans for attacking Iran
by David DeBatto

Global Research Editor's note We bring to the attention of our readers David DeBatto's scenario as to what might occur if one of the several contingency plans to attack Iran, with the participation of Israel and NATO, were to be carried out. While one may disagree with certain elements of detail of the author's text, the thrust of this analysis must be taken seriously.

"Israel has said a strike on Iran will be "unavoidable" if the Islamic regime continues to press ahead with alleged plans for building an atom-bomb." (London Daily Telegraph, 6/11/2008)
"Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany joined President Bush on Wednesday in calling for further sanctions against Iran if it does not suspend its uranium enrichment program." Mr. Bush stressed again that "all options are on the table," which would include military force. (New York Times, 6/11/2008)
We are fast approaching the final six months of the Bush administration. The quagmire in Iraq is in its sixth painful year with no real end in sight and the forgotten war in Afghanistan is well into its seventh year. The "dead enders" and other armed factions are still alive and well in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan again controls most of that country. Gas prices have now reached an average of $4.00 a gallon nationally and several analysts predict the price will rise to $5.00-$6.00 dollars per gallon at the pump by Labor Day. This, despite assurances by some major supporters of the decision to invade Iraq that the Iraq war "will pay for itself" (Paul Wolfowitz) or that we will see "$20.00 per barrel" oil prices if we invade Iraq (Rupert Murdoch).
One thing the Pentagon routinely does (and does very well) is conduct war games. Top brass there are constantly developing strategies for conducting any number of theoretical missions based on real or perceived threats to our national security or vital interests. This was also done prior to the invasion of Iraq, but the Bush administration chose not to listen to the dire warnings about that mission given to him by Pentagon leaders, or for that matter, by his own senior intelligence officials. Nevertheless, war gaming is in full swing again right now with the bullseye just to the right of our current mess – Iran.
It’s no secret that the U.S. is currently putting the finishing touches on several contingency plans for attacking Iranian nuclear and military facilities. With our ground forces stretched to the breaking point in Iraq and Afghanistan, none of the most likely scenarios involve a ground invasion. Not that this administration wouldn’t prefer to march into the seat of Shiite Islam behind a solid, moving line of M1 Abrams tanks and proclaim the country for democracy. The fact is that even the President knows we can’t pull that off any more so he and the neo-cons will have to settle for Shock and Awe Lite.
If we invade Iran this year it will be done using hundreds of sorties by carrier based aircraft already stationed in the Persian Gulf and from land based aircraft located in Iraq and Qatar. They will strike the known nuclear facilities located in and around Tehran and the rest of the country as well as bases containing major units of the Iranian military, anti-aircraft installations and units of the Revolutionary Guard (a separate and potent Iranian para-military organization).
Will this military action stop Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons? Probably not. It will probably not even destroy all of their nuclear research facilities, the most sensitive of which are known to be underground, protected by tons of earth and reinforced concrete and steel designed to survive almost all attacks using conventional munitions. The Iranian military and Revolutionary Guard will most likely survive as well, although they will suffer significant casualties and major bases and command centers will undoubtedly be destroyed. However, since Iran has both a functioning Air Force, Navy (including submarines) and modern anti-aircraft capabilities, U.S. fighter-bombers will suffer casualties as well. This will not be a "Cake Walk" as with the U.S. led invasion of Iraq in 2003 when the Iraqi Army simply melted away and the Iraqi Air Force never even launched a single aircraft.
Not even close.
If the United States attacks Iran either this summer or this fall, the American people had better be prepared for a shock that may perhaps be even greater to the national psyche (and economy) than 9/11. First of all, there will be significant U.S. casualties in the initial invasion. American jets will be shot down and the American pilots who are not killed will be taken prisoner - including female pilots. Iranian Yakhonts 26, Sunburn 22 and Exocet missiles will seek out and strike U.S. naval battle groups bottled up in the narrow waters of the Persian Gulf with very deadly results. American sailors will be killed and U.S. ships will be badly damaged and perhaps sunk. We may even witness the first attack on an American Aircraft carrier since World War II.'

Lees verder: http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9437

The Empire 314

Mede een verklaring waarom de joodse lobby in de VS zo'n greep op de zogeheten volksvertegenwoordigers heeft:

'Congress Still Corrupt and Useless
Thursday 26 June 2008
by: Marc Ash, t r u t h o u t Perspective

For those who thought Tom Delay's departure would really change anything in Congress, this past week was a strong cup of coffee. On Capitol Hill, politics and greed still trump the good of the nation, still trump the Constitution, still trump all.
While nothing that happened in Washington this past week was new or should have surprised anyone, we were nonetheless served clear notice, anew, that this is a democracy under siege.
In one week, Congress authorized one hundred and sixty two billion US taxpayer dollars to extend for another year the illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq, and rewrote federal law to specifically pardon criminal actions by the nation's largest telecommunications companies. No one really noticed that a retired US general bluntly accused the Bush administration of war crimes. He could just as easily have accused Congress of the same. They are just as guilty.
It's often said that there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans. False. The vast majority of honest public servants in Congress are Democrats. However, it would not be safe to say that the majority of Democrats are honest public servants. About half of the Democrats and a small handful of Republicans take seriously their sworn oaths. The rest would be arrested in any other walk of life.
It has been reported in our publication and elsewhere that Democratic Congressional leaders sought to address the issue of war funding as quickly as possible. Some in Democratic leadership feared that the issue might prove a burden in an election year. A political consideration. In the end, Democratic leadership accelerated, without significant opposition, the pace at which the latest war funding bill was brought to a vote. It passed well before it was required and well before the fall elections. The die is cast, the nation is committed to another year of bloody war and all of its crimes, so that we can vote for the leaders who took this action without having to think about it.
In December 1974, Seymour Hersh, writing for The New York Times, revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had, under orders from Nixon, violated its charter and engaged in warrantless domestic spying on American citizens, on American soil. The practice Hersh pointed out had been going on for years. Hersh's report led to the creation in April 1976 of the Church Committee, named after its chairman, Senator Frank Church, a Democrat from Idaho. The Church Committee reports, which should be required reading for all Americans, detailed systemic warrantless domestic spying on and surveillance of Americans by a host of federal government agencies including the CIA, the IRS, the US Postal Service and the National Security Agency (NSA).
As a result first of Hersh's story and the subsequent findings of the Church Committee, Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, (FISA). FISA's express purpose was to make illegal presidential directives that would authorize warrantless domestic spying. It might just as well have been called the Nixon Act because it was a direct consequence of his Stalinesque abuses. FISA worked well for roughly 23 years.'

Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/article/congress-still-corrupt-and-useless

De Israelische Terreur 401

'GAZA CITY, Jun 28 (IPS) - Mohammed Omer, the Gaza correspondent of IPS, andjoint winner of the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, wasstrip-searched at gunpoint, assaulted and abused by Israeli security officialsat the Allenby border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank on Thursday ashe tried to return home to Gaza.Omer, a resident of Rafah in the south of Gaza, and previous recipient of theNew America Media's Best Youth Voice award several years ago, was returningfrom London where he had just collected his Gellhorn Prize, and from severalEuropean capitals where he had speaking engagements, including a meeting withGreek parliamentarians.Omer's trip was sponsored by The Washington Report, and the Dutch embassy inTel Aviv was responsible for coordinating Omer's travel plans and his securitypermit to leave Gaza with Israeli officials.Israel controls the borders of Gaza and severely restricts the entrance andexit of Gazans allegedly on grounds of security. Human rights organisationsaccuse the Israelis of using security as a pretext to apply collectivepunishment indiscriminately.While waiting in Amman on his way back, Omer eventually received the requisitecoordination and security clearance from the Israelis to return to Gaza afterthis had initially been delayed by several days, he told IPS.Accompanied by Dutch diplomats, Omer passed through the Jordanian side of theborder without incident. However, after arrival on the Israeli side, troublebegan. He informed a female soldier that he was returning home to Gaza. He wasrepeatedly asked where Gaza was, and told that he had neither a permit nor anycoordination to cross.Omer explained that he did indeed have permission and coordination but wasnevertheless taken to a room by Israel's domestic intelligence agency the ShinBet, where he was isolated for an hour and a half without explanation."Eventually I was asked whether I had a knife or gun on me even though I hadalready passed through the x-ray machine, had my luggage searched, and was inthe company of Dutch diplomats," Omer said.His luggage was again searched, and security then proceeded to go through everydocument and paper he had on him, taking down the names and numbers of theEuropean parliamentary officials he had met.'

Lees verder: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43005