News for 04-20-06

04-20-06 - Iran still years away from having nukes: US intelligence chief "By the same token, our assessment at the moment is that even though we believe that Iran is determined to acquire or obtain a nuclear weapon, that we believe that it is still a number of years off before they are likely to have enough fissile material to assemble into, or to put into a nuclear weapon; perhaps into the next decade," he said. "So I think it's important that this issue be kept in perspective," he said.



04-20-06 - Oil falls from record high above $74 Tension over Iran's resolve to expand its nuclear work kept prices on the boil as analysts fear the dispute could worsen, cutting shipments from the world's fourth largest oil exporter. Iran has said it does not plan to cut shipments.


04-20-06 - Russia rejects US call to stop Iran nuclear project "Every country has the right to decide itself with whom and how it cooperates," the foreign ministry said Thursday.Rice said the United States could act anyway if the crisis was not resolved through the United Nations. "The right to self-defence does not necessarily require a UN Security Council resolution," Rice said on Wednesday, noting that the United States had gone to war in the Balkans without one.
Has Iran threatened us (in the absence of any threats we've made to it)? Or does Rice, like Bush, forget which country she is representing?


04-20-06 - Russian-built nuclear power station in Iran no threat: Moscow Meanwhile, the head of Russia's armed forces said his country would not take sides if the current Iran crisis led to a military conflict


04-20-06 - Iran scoffs at US military threat


04-20-06 - Senior UN nuclear inspector puts off trip to Iran


04-20-06 - China urges diplomatic solution to Iran crisis


04-20-06 - Iraq civil war could spread, say Saudis


04-20-06 - Lebanese PM calls for help for US help for Israeli withdrawal from Shebaa Israel's withdrawal from the area could lead to Hezbollah's disarmament, as the movement says it needs weapons only to defend against Israel, Siniora said earlier. The Bush administration's newfound concern for Lebanon ends with the Hariri investigation and the calls for disarming Hezbollah, I'm guessing.


04-20-06 - The neocons involvement with Iraq war - A Clean Break


04-20-06 - Vice Squad A former official at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a pro-Zionist think tank founded by the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, Hannah is a neoconservative ideologue who, after the resignation of Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby, moved up to become Vice President Dick Cheney?s top adviser on national security.
A look at Cheney's involvement with filling the Bush administration with neocons. Their relationship is mutually beneficial - war (contracts for Halliburton, arms contracts for neocons who are involved in the arms business, and a war that was to make the Middle East safer for Israel and make it the reigning power of the region). The neoconservatives are still in key positions in the Bush administration and elsewhere. Thus is America still not safe from their belligerence, bellicosity and 'pre-emptive' strikes on nations that had nothing to do with 911.


04-20-06 - U.S. attack on Iran would have severe impact, Saudi envoy says Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S. warned of "catastrophic" consequences should the American military strike Iran to prevent it from building nuclear weapons and called on the U.S. to build new refineries to help reduce oil prices during a wide-ranging interview in Chicago.


04-20-06 - In Rare Move, 2nd AIPAC Dismissal Hearing Set In another unusual move, the government asked Ellis yesterday to hold a closed hearing on the case and supported it with a petition from Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty.


04-20-06 - Got ADHD? The Conventions of a number of the States having, at the time of adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added, and as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution;


04-20-06 - Lebanon president rejects call to merge Hezbollah into army Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, rejected a UN proposal to merge the Hezbollah militia into the army as a ploy to weaken the country's defences against Israel.


04-20-06 - Syria rejects UN Lebanon border call Syria cannot draw its shared border with Lebanon because a key southern zone remains occupied by Israel, a government official said in response to a UN call to firm up its frontiers.


04-20-06 - Brazil Quietly Pursues Own Nuclear Path "Brazil doesn't cheat on the Nonproliferation Treaty and it does not exist in an area of high tension," said David Albright, a former U.N. inspector who runs the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. Israel does, and refuses to sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, let alone allow in the weapons inspectors.


04-20-06 - Mything the Point of "The Israel Lobby" Another angle of the study of the Israeli lobby.


04-20-06 - Desert Storms Can a trek across the desert help Muslims, Jews and Christians understand each other better? Not without a few snags.