The US inches ever closer to attacking Iran

Sunday, October 01, 2006

News for 09-30-06

09-30-06 - Iran rejects short-term enrichment suspension


09-30-06 - U.S. Senate votes to extend Iran sanctions President George W. Bush signed the bill later on Saturday and said in a statement it would give the him flexibility to tailor sanctions and "impose sanctions upon entities that aid the Iranian regime's development of nuclear weapons."


09-30-06 - NORAD says intercepted Russian aircraft off Alaska U.S. and Canadian fighter aircraft intercepted Russian planes off the Alaska coast, but it was not considered a hostile incident, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said on Friday.


09-30-06 - New US sanctions bill targets Iran's partners Although it does not name any countries, the measure is seen as a clear warning to Russia and China, two key members of the UN Security Council that have been resisting calls for new international sanctions against Tehran in response to its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.


09-30-06 - Iran wants 'large scale' uranium enrichment programme Enriched uranium can be used both as a fuel in nuclear power stations and as a component of nuclear weapons.


09-30-06 - Most in U.S. say Congress short-sighted


09-30-06 - British Newspaper Claims to Have Previously Unseen Video by Sept. 11 Ringleader There was no soundtrack, the newspaper said. It quoted an unnamed U.S. source as saying that attempts to lip read the tape to transcribe the content had been unsuccessful.


09-30-06 - UN probe of Hariri murder to target suspects' communications UN chief investigator Serge Brammertz said analysis of communications among the suspects in the murder of a Lebanese ex-premier could shed light on the operation and other attacks on foes of Syria in Lebanon.


09-30-06 - Briton Cites 'Divergence' With U.S. Falconer recently called Guantanamo Bay "an affront to the principles of democracy." In a lengthy interview Friday, he said Britain had learned hard lessons in the 1970s when it pursued a hard-line course in response to the bombing campaign of the Irish Republican Army.


09-30-06 - Bush challenges "misimpressions" about Iraq Stephen Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard University, said the document was highly damaging to the administration because it exposed mistakes. "They have done things that they ought not to have done -- such as invading Iraq -- and they have left undone things that they ought to have done -- such as a serious effort at Israeli-Palestinian peace," Walt said. "As a result, they have made jihadis and other extremists look like heroes."




09-30-06 - Detainee law may not provide total immunity for CIA interrogators International legal experts said the measure is meaningless overseas, where international courts theoretically could still prosecute alleged violations of anti-torture treaties


09-30-06 - Groups Unanimously Assail New Detention Law


09-30-06 - Iraq, China discuss reviving Saddam-era oil deal Iraq could hand China the first foreign contract to develop its vast oil resources if Beijing agrees to put into effect a deal originally signed with Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Oil Ministry said on Wednesday.


09-30-06 - Israel minister demands swift killing of Hezbollah chief A government spokesman in Beirut said the French commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), General Alain Pellegrini, had told Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora that Israel would withdraw the last of its troops on Sunday. But the Israeli military refused to confirm a definitive timing for the pullout "for security reasons".



09-30-06 - US boosts Israel aid by half a billion The Bush administration initially requests a USD 268 million increase to military aid to Israel, but the congress double that amount citing the importance of US-Israeli military cooperation I was just think yesterday, we really need to give more aid to Israel. It's imperative that the American people secure Israel. The American taxpayers have tons of money to give away for these matters...


09-30-06 - Last Israeli troops leave Lebanon


09-30-06 - Take UK troops out of Iraq, senior military told ministers "What is more important, Afghanistan or Iraq?" a senior defence source asked yesterday. "There is a group within the Ministry of Defence pushing hard to get troops out of Iraq to get more into Afghanistan."


09-30-06 - Syria has little room to maneuver in Tehran's shadow An economist pointed out that Syria's alliance with Iran was wholly based on its international isolation since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.


09-30-06 - Analysis: Only an antimissile system can save our tanks Despite the clear threat, the IDF was at a loss for how to stop them


09-30-06 - Report: Diskin holds secret talks with Arab intelligence heads The newspaper reports that the participants in the secret meeting included Diskin, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, a senior Jordanian official, head of Jordan's General Intelligence Department Mohammed al-Dahabi, Head of Egyptian intelligence General Omar Suleiman as well as senior officials from two Persian Gulf states that do not maintain diplomatic ties with Israel.


09-30-06 - In Washington: Why I'm optimistic Reports from Washington, Europe and Jerusalem indicate that President Bush is beginning to view the seemingly endless Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an obstacle to his primary Middle East goal right now - preventing Iran from going nuclear. The Europeans have made clear that they will resist US demands for sanctions unless America starts showing leadership on the Israeli-Palestinian front. And, according to administration officials, Washington is getting the message.



09-30-06 - Falling on His Sword He was told that the case had already been put together by the White House, and he assumed that with a little tweaking he could turn it into a speech that would fit his voice and style. He was taken aback on Tuesday, January 28, when he received the bulk of the document, a 48-page, single-spaced compilation of Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction program, replete with drama, rhetorical devices and a kitchen sink full of allegations. The most extreme version of every charge the administration had made about Hussein, the document had been written, Powell concluded, under the tutelage of Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who shared all of his boss's hard-line views and then some.......Powell, Libby and Stephen Hadley, Rice's deputy, joined the process the next day.

Cheney had called Powell to say he hoped the secretary would "take a good look at Scooter's stuff." State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, who accompanied Powell to the CIA sessions, later recalled Libby himself appealing to Powell to look more carefully at the now-discarded White House material. "Powell said: 'I don't want to. I want to use what Larry's been working on.' ".....Tenet and McLaughlin became irritated with Hadley, who kept pressing to reinsert jettisoned White House language and information. Powell was deliberately misled. And it's not his fault. As far as I'm concerned, he still ranks up there.


09-30-06 - Nuclear issue could stall Japan-Iran oil project Japan has decided to stop financial support for the development of Iran's largest onshore oil field if the Islamic republic continues uranium enrichment, a press report said.


09-30-06 - Legislating Violations of the Constitution Such a bill could have only one motive: to protect unconstitutional government actions advancing religion. The religious right, which has been trying for years to use government to advance their religious views, wants to reduce the likelihood that their efforts will be declared unconstitutional. I've a related article by reknowned British journalist Robert Fisk - and a caution on the language in the first paragraph.


09-30-06 - A Letter from 18 Writers including three Nobel Prize recipients against the Lebanon and Palestinian War


09-30-06 - Why I'm Banned in the USA Between 1998 and 2002, I had contributed small sums of money to a French charity supporting humanitarian work in the Palestinian territories.
Support Palestinians? That's reason enough to get banned from the US these days.

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