News for 12-30-06

12-30-06 - How Washington and London helped to create the monster they went to war to destroy


12-30-06 - Third time's the harm After two tours of duty in Afghanistan, Steven Henderson says his latest callup 'not to exceed 545 days' in Iraq is asking too much.


12-30-06 - Robert Fisk: He takes his secrets to the grave. Our complicity dies with him Saddam knew, too, the secrets of the attack on the USS Stark when, on 17 May 1987, an Iraqi jet launched a missile attack on the American frigate, killing more than a sixth of the crew and almost sinking the vessel. The US accepted Saddam's excuse that the ship was mistaken for an Iranian vessel and allowed Saddam to refuse their request to interview the Iraqi pilot.


12-30-06 - Military families weigh Saddam execution


12-30-06 - Former Iran leaders speak out against nuclear policy


12-30-06 - Relieved Iran lauds hanging of Saddam


12-30-06 - Insurgency set to outlive Saddam Human Rights Watch, who observed every day of the process along with another NGO, brought out a harsh verdict on the quality of justice in this case. Their conclusion was that this was not a fair trial, and the soundness of the verdict is questionable



12-30-06 - Book: Israel, Lobby Pushing Iran War ** Later in the book, Ritter adds: "Let there be no doubt: If there is an American war with Iran, it is a war that was made in Israel and nowhere else." Hmm.


12-30-06 - Maverick British MP denounces Saddam's hanging as illegal blunder


12-30-06 - The Disrespect for Truth has Brought a New Dark Age


12-30-06 - Israel says 'justice done' with Saddam execution "Saddam Hussein brought about his own demise. This was a man who caused a great deal of harm to his people and who was a major threat to Israel," Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told public radio Saturday.


12-30-06 - Kid Rock spends Christmas with US GI's in Iraq


12-30-06 - US welcomes Saddam hanging, Europe opposes execution "Saddam Hussein was a prisoner of war," a Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhum, told AFP. The "hanging ... is a political assassination that violates all international laws that are supposed to protect prisoners of war."


12-30-06 - What to do with Iran? ** As an American strike in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help him pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party (which is conducting itself foolishly) and US newspaper editors. We need to do this in order to turn the Iranian issue to a bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure.....We must turn to Hillary Clinton and other potential presidential candidates in the Democratic Party so that they publicly support immediate action by Bush against Iran.....We must clandestinely cooperate with Saudi Arabia so that it also persuades the US to strike Iran.....The Americans must act. Yet if they don't, we'll do it ourselves


12-30-06 - Morally And Strategically Right To Send More U.S. Troops To Iraq By Joseph Lieberman


12-30-06 - Sorry, Senator Lieberman, I Don't Buy It it's a funny thing how Iran is now the source of all the extremism and terrorism. Also notice how shortly after Lieberman mentions Iran, he makes the ubiquitous reference to 9/11. Is this the new subliminal message, that Iran was behind those attacks?



12-30-06 - A challenge to newly elected Speaker of the House Pelosi In 2001, Pelosi told a pro-Israeli conference the real issue surrounding the Palestinian/Israeli problem is not the occupation, but Israel's right to exist. She added the occupation argument is "nonsense."

News for 12-29-06

12-29-06 - Saddam Hussein executed in Iraq Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging at an unspecified location in Baghdad.


12-29-06 - US frees detained Iran diplomats Earlier this week a US military spokesman said the Iranians were among 10 people held following an intelligence-based operation against suspected insurgents.


12-29-06 - Saddam sees death as 'sacrifice'


12-29-06 - Reyes: U.S. intelligence 'manipulated'


12-29-06 - Iraqis split over death penalty for Saddam News of Saddam Hussein?s imminent execution provoked widely differing reactions among Iraqis on Wednesday, with some welcoming the demise of their former persecutor and many afraid that it would cause further disruption to their lives, and others convinced that the president would strike a last-minute deal to avoid death.


12-29-06 - How a spy was caught and why he still stands to profit From his prison cell, an unrepentant Pollard still claims a double-cross by U.S. prosecutors who had promised not to seek a life sentence. Mr. Olive dashes this protest: The government did not recommend the term. It was meted by U.S. District Judge Aubrey E. Robinson Jr., after reading a still-secret memo from Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger detailing the grave damage Pollard caused to national security


12-29-06 - US tries to assure allies that extraordinary renditions are over The US is telling its overseas allies that it has stopped "extraordinary renditions" and needs their help to empty Guantánamo's prison cells. But human rights groups dispute this assertion and a question mark hangs over 200 "war on terror" detainees who could be held indefinitely without trial.


12-29-06 - Belgian troops wounded in Lebanon Two Belgian soldiers on a mine-clearing operation in south Lebanon have been wounded after stepping on a cluster bomb, a UN spokesman has said.


12-29-06 - Hezbollah involved in Lebanon assassinations: Jumblatt


12-29-06 - Probe 'finds Israeli army deficient in summer war' There is no probe into Israel's conduct of the war that included the wholesale bombing of civilians (including those in the process of fleeing), and the firing of thousands of cluster bombs into civilian areas.


12-29-06 - Finding resolution in Iraq

News for 12-28-06

12-28-06 - Gov't watchdogs under attack from bosses Administration-friendly Republicans in Congress tried to do away with the special inspector general for Iraq, who repeatedly exposed examples of administration waste that cost billions of dollars. Among the contractors criticized was Halliburton Corp., once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.


12-28-06 - U.S. links Iranians, Iraqis to crime ** Enter the pretext.


12-28-06 - Late US ex-president Ford disagreed with Iraq war: report


12-28-06 - Iran vows not to cut oil exports after UN sanctions Iran has said that it would be prepared to use "any weapon" in the standoff over its nuclear programme but assured world markets it had no intention of cutting off its oil exports.


12-28-06 - Inside TV News: We Were Silenced by the Drums of War


12-28-06 - The real menace Ponder those words as you consider the predominant presence of former Halliburton CEO, Dick Cheney, in the councils of this White House, and how his old company has profiteered more than any other from the disaster that is Iraq. Despite having been found to have overcharged some $60 million to the U.S. military for fuel deliveries, the formerly bankrupt Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root, continues to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in lucrative contracts.


12-28-06 - Biden wants Rice to testify on Iraq policy Sen. Joseph Biden, the incoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he has invited Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to testify during three weeks of hearings in January about the Iraq war.


12-28-06 - Many soldiers say troop surge a bad idea


12-28-06 - 10 people showing signs of polonium-210


12-28-06 - Russia calls to fulfill Olmert-Abbas agreements Russia ?hopes Israel and Palestine will not resort to unilateral actions, which would anticipate the solution of the issue of the final status of Palestinian territories,? Russian foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said Thursday.


12-28-06 - Israel hopes May elections will change UN Human Rights Council "I'm not optimistic," Levanon said, but he added that it was one of the few possibilities which existed for changing the attitude of the Human Rights Council when it came to Israel and making it a more effective vehicle to advocate for victims of injustice around the world. Israel is one of the biggest human rights violators on the planet. But we aren't supposed to know that or condemn it.


12-28-06 - Did the Russian Mafia Kill Alexander Litvinenko? To really get a handle on the truth about this mysterious affair, what we have to do is look at what Charles Krauthammer and Max Boot are saying ? and then draw the opposite conclusion.


12-28-06 - From 2005: Ministers were told of need for Gulf war 'excuse' MINISTERS were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal.


12-28-06 - UAE rejects US criticism on export of sensitive material The United States is "increasingly disturbed by the diversion of goods to Iran and Syria through various ports in the UAE," Chicken Little/boy who cried wolf (Israel), who's hiding behind Uncle Sam, is the one behind it.


12-28-06 - Analysis: Syria, Iran won Lebanon war


12-28-06 - Muslims are Americans, too


12-28-06 - U.S. Embassy Is Warning Beijing on Iran Gas Deal Tom Lantos, said his panel will "closely examine" the deal next week to see if the sanctions would apply. The ranking Republican on that committee, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Florida, said she will also be looking closely at the deal. Israel's top two agents on Capitol Hill, what a coincidence.


12-28-06 - Russia fingers Israeli fugitive in radiation poison probe


12-28-06 - ANALYSIS-Lebanon conflict overlaps with Mideast turmoil "The Middle East's next era promises to be one in which outside actors have a relatively modest impact and local forces enjoy the upper hand -- and in which the local actors gaining power are radicals committed to changing the status quo," he wrote in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs. In Iraq and the Palestinian territories, Islamists have already displaced secular elites, militias eclipse government authority and leaders linked to the West are on the defensive. And why is that? What has allowed these radical groups to rise in power? Moderates have for years sought justice through the proper channels - only to be denied by an America that is heavily biased in favor of and influenced by Israel. Our own national interest has never been considered. Neither have the human rights of the people in that region. As long as Israel's minions in the US tie the hands of our government, radical groups will continue to gain popularity.


12-28-06 - Lebanon sees more than 1,000 war deaths None of the counts of war dead include Lebanese killed since the fighting ended by exploding land mines or Israeli cluster bombs scattered around southern Lebanon. Such blasts have killed 27 people and wounded 167, according to the National Demining Office. No Israelis have been killed by war-related blasts since then.


12-28-06 - Israel admits it may have hit ambulance ONLY after they got caught in another lie.

News for 12-27-06

12-27-06 - Iran to reduce nuclear cooperation after sanctions


12-27-06 - Baath party threatens to retaliate Saddam Hussein's Baath Party threatened Wednesday to retaliate if the ousted Iraqi leader is executed, warning in an Internet posting it would target U.S. interests anywhere.


12-27-06 - US to send more troops to Gulf The US is to send up to 3,300 soldiers to Kuwait in early January, amid a review by the Bush administration of its policy on neighbouring Iraq.


12-27-06 - A Grim Christmas for Iraqi Children


12-27-06 - Alarming 9/11 claim is found baseless


12-27-06 - Iran puts 17 oil blocks out to tender


12-27-06 - Justice Dept. Database Stirs Privacy Fears The Justice Department is building a massive database that allows state and local police officers around the country to search millions of case files from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement agencies, according to Justice officials.


12-27-06 - Iran's Ahmadinejad sends letter to pope He also wrote a letter in July to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, complaining that Germany was being exploited by "greedy Zionists", more than 60 years after World War II.


12-27-06 - Successful Israelis relinquish citizenship "..they are required to relinquish their citizenship in order to work in Capitol Hill or serve in prestigious positions in the American military or the White House," Relinquishing their Israeli citizenship does not remove the security threat.


12-27-06 - Increasing numbers of Palestinians leaving Baghdad The number of Palestinians stuck on the Iraq-Syria border after fleeing violence in Baghdad has risen to 80, with more reported on the way.


12-27-06 - Nevzlin named in poison probe Russian authorities said an Israel-based business oligarch could be a suspect in the murder of a former Russian spy in Britain.....Nevzlin, who is involved in several Jewish charities, was one of several business moguls forced out of Russia in what many see as a deliberate corporate takeover campaign masterminded by President Vladimir Putin. Hmm.


12-27-06 - Gaydamak boosts Bibi A Russian-Israeli billionaire endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu?s bid to retake the Israeli premiership.


12-27-06 - Neocons Endanger the Sixth Amendment Obviously, the demands of Israel trump the rights of American citizens, as America is now, and has been for some time, Israeli occupied territory.


12-27-06 - Outside View: What happened to the Arabs? Reaction to the Baker-Hamilton report showed that Israel is defending certain policies that Americans do not agree on. Israel declared that occupying Iraq is in the Israeli strategic interest and that dividing Iraq is an Israeli target, while the Iraq Study Group report insisted on the need of keeping Iraq united and that war in Iraq damaged the U.S. status, interests and reputation


12-27-06 - Egypt wants end to 'nuclear double standards'


12-27-06 - Hezbollah rises from ruins of its Beirut home


12-27-06 - Unlike America, writer has no conflicts


12-27-06 - Lebanon keeps 'door open' to changes in Hariri tribunal Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has said that changes could yet be made to the statutes establishing an international tribunal on the February 2005 murder of former prime minister Rafic Hariri.

News for 12-26-06

12-26-06 - Death toll of US troops in Iraq passes September 11 The number of US troops killed in Iraq is now greater than the number of people who died in the terror attack on New York on 11 September 2001, an event unrelated to Saddam Hussein's regime but which the US and Britain used as justification for the invasion


12-26-06 - Defiant Iran heading to industrial enrichment Iran has maintained its defiance of UN sanctions over its nuclear programme, declaring it was heading towards enriching uranium on an industrial scale and mulling a reduction of cooperation with the UN atomic watchdog.


12-26-06 - Iran may need nuclear power: study Iran's claim to need nuclear power may be genuine, given that it could run out of oil to export as soon as eight years from now, according to an analysis published on Tuesday by the National Academy of Sciences.


12-26-06 - Syria wants to work with US forces to control Iraq border "President Assad said he has tried to engage the United States to use our forces to work with Syria to control the border, and he says that the United States has not been responsive," Specter said, adding that he would raise the issue with President George W. Bush on his return home.


12-26-06 - Why did Russia and China vote to sanction Iran? ** The final conditions for the impending military action are being rapidly put in place as we speak


12-26-06 - Iran backed dangerously into a corner ** Israeli and right-wing American spokespeople are working the "wipe Israel off the map" statement as hard as they can as "evidence" that Israel is seriously menaced. It's ironic that while Iran does not possess that kind of capability Israel does and showed its willingness to use it in 1973 and 1991 when the country was on nuclear alert.


12-26-06 - Interior, Pentagon Faulted In Audits More than half of the contracts examined were awarded without competition or without checks to determine that the prices were reasonable, according to the audits by the inspectors general for Defense (DOD) and Interior (DOI). Ninety-two percent of the work reviewed was awarded without verifying that the contractors' cost estimates were accurate; 96 percent was inadequately monitored.




12-26-06 - Uncle Sam wants US Muslims to serve "There is a message here, and that is that Muslims and the Islamic religion are totally compatible with Western values," says Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England in an interview.


12-26-06 - Iran calls in UK envoy over Blair


12-26-06 - Death sentence for Saddam upheld The court rejected an appeal by Saddam Hussein's lawyers and confirmed that he would be hanged, court spokesman Raed Juhi told the BBC.


12-26-06 - Video: Kristol believes Bush mulling more than 'short term surge' Neoconservative pundit Bill Kristol believes that any increase of U.S. troops in Iraq must be a permanent increase to achieve success. Another neocon attempting to call the shots. It wouldn't break my heart if these folks were rounded up and sent to Gitmo. They are the REAL threat to the security of this nation.


12-26-06 - A U.S. military 'at its breaking point' considers foreign recruits The idea of signing up residents who are seeking U.S. citizenship is gaining traction as a way to address a critical need for the Pentagon, while fully absorbing some of the roughly one million immigrants that enter the United States legally each year.


12-26-06 - End of the neo-con dream Not quite. Iran is still on the agenda.


12-26-06 - Intel. tribunal urged to try killers of journalists in Iraq, Palestine The Arab Journalists Federation (AJF) called on the U.N. Security Council on Sunday to take more decisive steps to stop the serial killing of journalists in Iraq and Palestine.


12-26-06 - Lynne Cheney: Putting Scooter Libby On Trial 'Does Not Reflect Well On Our Judicial System'


12-26-06 - Syria plans regional conference on Iraq -U.S. senator Syria is seeking to hold a conference grouping Iraqi factions to try to help stabilise its eastern neighbour, a U.S. senator who has met President Bashar al-Assad said on Tuesday.


12-26-06 - Israeli spies divided over Syria's peace overtures


12-26-06 - U.N. Chief Pressured To Bypass Businessman South Korea?s Ban-Ki Moon, who will begin his term January 1 with little experience regarding Israel and its supporters, is coming under fire for his team?s relationship with a little-known Orthodox businessman and activist named Michael Landau. The head of a local Orthodox group in Manhattan, Landau has been actively courting the new secretary-general?s entourage and presenting himself as a go-between to help Ban navigate the U.N.?s notoriously fraught relationship with Jewish groups....Landau is reportedly backed by Malcolm Hoenlein, the influential executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations

Well well well. Caught with their hands in the cookie jar.


12-26-06 - Heeding a call to duty, Jews move to Israel Yonatan Cooper had a hot new sports car, a swank apartment near Beverly Hills and a job he loved in politics. But this week, the 24-year-old New Jersey native plans to trade it all in for a choice that has startled some of his closest friends and family:
He has decided to emigrate to Israel and aims to serve as a paratrooper with the Israel Defense Forces. Because the armed forces of THIS COUNTRY aren't hurting for troops or anything. Something wrong with serving AMERICA?


12-26-06 - Cases to test secret witnesses In three pending high-profile criminal cases, including one in Dallas, federal prosecutors have asked that the identities of Israeli government witnesses be withheld from defendants and their attorneys -- a move some legal scholars see as a highly unusual end run around the Sixth Amendment.....But University of Michigan law school professor Richard Friedman, a Sixth Amendment expert, said Israel's concerns about the security of intelligence and law enforcement officials should not be allowed to trump the Constitution.

"Israel doesn't conduct our criminal procedures, and there is no reason why a defendant's rights in court should be determined by Israeli criminal procedure," he said.
It should alarm American citizens that agents - whose identities are allowed to be kept secret - of a FOREIGN GOVERNMENT should be allowed to testify against you. But that is the nature of the beast. These agents are of a foreign government that does not now nor has it ever abided by international law; a rogue state.

News for 12-25-06

12-25-06 - US troops celebrate Christmas in Iraq Separated from loved ones thousands of miles away back home, soldiers on active duty were treated to a lashings of lobster, turkey, gammon, pumpkin pie, cake and candy, a live jazz band and a room festooned with decorations.
"It's awesome. It makes you feel like you're at home," said First Lieutenant Gary Marquis, whose wife and three children live in Rhode Island, while on a break from patroling the mean streets of Baghdad.



12-25-06 - Troop 'surge' plan for Iraq meets growing opposition in US


12-25-06 - Iraq and Iran protest US arrest of Iranian officials


12-25-06 - U.S. Is Holding Iranians Seized in Raids in Iraq Gordon D. Johndroe, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said two Iranian diplomats were among those initially detained in the raids.....Nonetheless, the two raids, in central Baghdad, have deeply upset Iraqi government officials, who have been making strenuous efforts to engage Iran on matters of security. At least two of the Iranians were in this country on an invitation extended by Iraq?s president, Jalal Talabani, during a visit to Tehran earlier this month


12-25-06 - Egypt slams Iranian president Egypt rebuked Iran's president on Monday for claiming his state is "a nuclear country" - a comment that touched a nerve among Iran's neighbors in the Middle East.


12-25-06 - OIC urges peaceful end to Iran nuclear standoff The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has called for a peaceful resolution of the Iran nuclear crisis after the United Nations decided to impose sanctions over Tehran's refusal to stop enriching uranium.


12-25-06 - Iran's nuclear drive linked to looming oil crisis: US study


12-25-06 - Iran summons US representative over detention of diplomats Iran on Monday summoned the Swiss ambassador, whose country represents the United States interests in the Islamic republic, over the detention of Iranian diplomats by the US military in Iraq, ISNA news agency reported


12-25-06 - Palestinian state in 2 years 2 years? Why not NOW? This again leads me to believe that this is another attempt to appease Europe and get their support for another Middle East war (Iran). If Bush had wanted to help create a Palestinian state, he would have done so in 2005, per the Road Map. Not so. All of these recent gestures lately are awfully reminiscent of the runup to the Iraq war. And this all comes JUST as the UN slapped Iran with sanctions.


12-25-06 - OIC chief meets Hamas head in Syria "The meeting between Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and Mr Meshaal focused on resuming inter-Palestinian talks and on ways of breaking the impasse provoked by Abu Mazen's speech, which closed the door to dialogue,"


12-25-06 - MK Bishara in Ghajar: We won't let you become refugees "The Arab village of Ghajar was conquered in '67 along with the Golan Heights and is an inseparable part of Syria . Its status must not be changed until the Golan Heights is discussed," MK Bishara told Ynet.


12-25-06 - Israelis seek peace with Syria, want to keep Golan Most Israelis want peace talks with Syria, but not at the cost of giving up the Golan.


12-25-06 - Olmert ready to open Syria talks Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday said he would like to renew peace talks with Syria, but insisted that Damascus first end its support of anti-Israel militant groups in the Palestinian areas and Lebanon.


12-25-06 - Pessimistic view of the Mideast Max Boot = neocon.


12-25-06 - Cluster bombs injure 5 in Lebanon


12-25-06 - U.S. Republican senator arrives in Syria for talks U.S. Republican Senator Arlen Specter arrived in Syria on Monday for talks with Syrian leaders on bilateral relations and situations in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories, according to the independent Syria-News website.

News for 12-24-06

Merry Christmas all!


12-24-06 - What a 'troop surge' in Iraq might accomplish Proponents of one prominent surge plan agree. Drawn up under the auspices of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the plan would put four additional Army brigades into Baghdad and two additional Marine regimental combat teams into Sunni-dominated Anbar Province, in an effort to curtail Iraqi violence. The AEI is neocon central. When did they become charged with our military affairs? Outrageous.


12-24-06 - China urges more talks on Iran's nuclear program China, a veto-wielding member of the United Nations Security Council, wants more talks on Iran's nuclear program, state media and the government have reported, after the UN voted in favor of sanctions.


12-24-06 - Iran vows to press on with uranium enrichment


12-24-06 - Iran warns U.N. to expect reaction over sanctions "If they intend to deprive the Iranian nation of its certain right to nuclear technology by a resolution ... parliament will reconsider the nature of its relationship with the IAEA," Parliament Speaker Gholamali Haddadadel told state television.


12-24-06 - Iran forging ahead in Iraq without U.S. Tehran's top envoy here said there was no need for contacts with the United States aimed at stabilizing Iraq, saying that Iranians already were pursuing channels to help secure their embattled neighbor.



12-24-06 - PBS show focuses on military families One veteran talks proudly about how he had left behind a large glass jar filled with little messages from him for them to read, one a day, while he was gone. His daughter sits bravely beside him as he talks until she can't take it any more. She dissolves into tears at the memory.



12-24-06 - What We Wanted to Tell You about Iran Here is the redacted version of a draft Op-Ed article we wrote for The Times, as blacked out by the Central Intelligence Agency?s Publication Review Board after the White House intervened in the normal prepublication review process and demanded substantial deletions. Agency officials told us that they had concluded on their own that the original draft included no classified material, but that they had to bow to the White House.


12-24-06 - Source says 'outsider' Gates prepped for confirmation by Cheney's office ** recent comments by Gates and President Bush, as well as military activities in the Gulf, raise serious concern about White House plans for Iran......Another CIA official reiterates what has been already reported here and in and other publications for the past year, that "Cheney has promised that Iran will be taken care of by spring (of 2007)."




12-24-06 - Christmas under siege: Baghdad tree tradition dies Baghdad's large but dwindling Christian community has thus far not been a target for the rival Sunni and Shiite death squads whose attacks have pushed Iraq to the brink of all-out sectarian war.


12-24-06 - FEATURE - Anti-Israel "rabbis" face fallout from Jewish world Neturei Karta, Aramaic for "guardians of the city", was formed in Jerusalem in the 1930s as a bulwark against the growing Zionist movement in what was then British Mandate Palestine.


12-24-06 - Wolfowitz owes us an explanation Of course, plenty of other smart people also got Iraq wrong, so why single out Wolfowitz? Because from Bush on down, the politicians are being held accountable


12-24-06 - Could Bush Start Another War? **


12-24-06 - Israel praises U.N. Security Council decision to impose sanctions on Iran Israel's Defense Ministry said the international community "will need to continue to show determination to reach the goal of blocking Iran's nuclear plan."


12-24-06 - The Muslim prophet born in Bethlehem For centuries Muslims cherished the figure of Jesus, who is honoured in the Qur'an as one of the greatest of the prophets and, in the formative years of Islam, became a constituent part of the emergent Muslim identity.


12-24-06 - Iran sanctions ?very good for israel?


12-24-06 - Christmas trees become political symbols in Beirut "The opposition has succeeded in creating a brotherhood between Shiites from the south and Christians so that together they can demand an end to Western tutelage,"


12-24-06 - Hindsight is 20/20 - how israel duped US into fighting their wars

News for 12-23-06

12-23-06 - Christmas Duty As difficult as that second deployment was, Bourland, who is now home with his family in Virginia, says he'd go back in a heartbeat if needed. He calls his platoon his "second family" and is dedicated to the idea that the United States is bringing democracy to Iraq.


12-23-06 - U.N. imposes nuclear trade sanctions on Iran Tehran's U.N. Ambassador, Javard Zarif, accused the Security Council and the United States of a double standard by punishing Iran while ignoring Israel's nuclear arsenal.


12-23-06 - US wants more sanctions on Iran The United States wants the international community to take more action against Iran, and impose more sanctions than those adopted Saturday by the UN Security Council, the State Department's number three diplomat has said.


12-23-06 - Veterans Affairs secretary indicates support for military draft President Bush's secretary for Veterans Affairs said Thursday that "society would benefit" if this country were to bring back the military draft, and said it shouldn't have loopholes for anyone who is called to serve.


12-23-06 - Report: English Channel Tunnel a Terror Target The tunnel beneath the English Channel that connects Britain to France is a Christmas terror target of Islamic terrorists, according to a report published Sunday.


12-23-06 - Ballistic Missile Defense: U.S. on collision course with Russia the U.S.-Russian nuclear arms race is in higher gear on both sides than at any time in the past quarter-century


12-23-06 - Are Bush and Cheney Planning an Early Attack on Iran? **


12-23-06 - Gates pledges 'enduring' US presence in Gulf An increased U.S. naval presence in the Gulf is not a response to any action by Iran but a message to all countries that the United States will keep its regional footprint "for a long time", U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday.


12-23-06 - Target Iran: Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter and Investigative Journalist Seymour Hersh on White House Plans for Regime Change ** So if you read the Azeri press, for instance, you?ll find out that the Israeli Mossad has upped its efforts to build a station in Azerbaijan. And the Azeri press will delve into that more. Why does the Mossad want to build a station operating? There?s a couple reasons. One, the Mossad is working with the Azeri population. You know, there is a Jewish minority in Azerbaijan that has emigrated to Israel. And so, there?s a number of Azeri Israelis that the Israeli government now is bringing back to Azerbaijan to work on this issue.... we're not allowed to do is discuss the notion that Israel and the notion of Israeli interests may in fact be dictating what America is doing, that what we're doing in the Middle East may not be to the benefit of America's national security, but to Israel's national security. But, see, we don?t want to talk about that, because one of the great success stories out there is the pro-Israeli lobby that has successfully enabled themselves to blend the two together, so that when we speak of Israeli interests, they say, "No, we're speaking of American interests."....The bottom line is, within two days of our decision to initiate an attack on Iran, every single one of you is going to be feeling the consequences of that in your pocketbook. And it?s only going to get worse. This is not something that only I recognize. Ask Dick Lugar what information he?s getting from big business, who are saying, ?We can?t afford to go to war with Iran.? SEYMOUR HERSH: Final question: given all this, are we going to do it? SCOTT RITTER: Yes, we're going to do it.

Read the entire thing.


12-23-06 - Attorney admonished for statements on Libby Earlier this year Walton warned both Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald and attorneys for Libby from making what he described as "extrajudicial statements" about the case.


12-23-06 - The war on terror and rule of law collide


12-23-06 - Media Takes on AT&T in Spy Case The documents at issue detail a secret switching room in AT&T's San Francisco hub equipped with internet surveillance gear.


12-23-06 - U.N. adopts treaty banning countries from secretly abducting perceived enemies The General Assembly adopted a treaty Wednesday that would ban nations from abducting perceived enemies and hiding them in secret prisons or killing them.


12-23-06 - Report: Direct flight from Tel Aviv to Beirut Hizbullah television station Al-Manar claimed Wednesday that the organization is in possession of documents proving that a Portuguese military plane carrying 11 unidentified passengers flew directly from Israel?s Ben-Gurion Airport to Beirut.


12-23-06 - Surprise Gaza talks raise hope for peace By coincidence, it happened on a day when the UN voted to sanction Iran.


12-23-06 - Blair was dangerously off target in his condemnation of Iran


12-23-06 - Syria's isolation over: deputy PM


12-23-06 - Britain slaps down Anglican leader for Middle East outburst The British government rebuked the leader of the world's Anglicans for saying Christians in the Middle East are being put at risk by a "short-sighted" and "ignorant" policy on Iraq.


12-23-06 - Syria building 'death trap' villages While for years it was assumed that Israel had a major edge against Syria's military with regard to a conventional war - tank versus tank, jet versus jet - in an urban setting, the Syrian military would be able, the officer said, to wreak havoc against IDF infantry and armored units like Hizbullah did.


12-23-06 - Lebanon seizes explosives from pro-Syrian group


12-23-06 - Four reasons for ranting ** The ideal scenario, from Israel's point of view, would be an American military attack that would destroy Iran's nuclear facilities and remove the threat. "We have to get the United States to carry out what it promised to do, and to create the proper international climate," explains a senior official. It is not clear what President Bush told Olmert in private talks that had him leaving Bush's office feeling so satisfied. We can only presume that Olmert is depending on Bush's religious faith and obstinacy, which will lead him to attack Iran, even in light of American public opposition to military adventures in the Middle East.



12-23-06 - Mainstream journalist defends western bias "There was a statement issued today by Hezbollah that they would support a UN Tribunal if it is "fair, just and nonpolitical", so what about the Israeli Mossad spy ring that was uncovered in Lebanon that outside investigators claim is linked to the Hariri killing? What is the UN doing in this regard to investigate?" Mossad in Lebanon caught before this year, same story, also in 1998.


12-23-06 - Jimmy Carter, on Mission Carter is taking on the orthodoxies in his own culture, with the same sense of all or nothing. The venom he is encountering on the Jewish right is staggering.....we're getting closer and closer to the Elian Gonzales moment, the moment when the American people wake up and realize that a fanatical lobby is not representing America's best interest.



12-23-06 - Jewish leaders: Bush finds Iran election results encouraging Bush gathered Jewish education leaders and students at the White House to discuss the role of religion in schools. The closed-door discussions also touched on other issues including the war in Iraq, spreading democracy and the crisis in Darfur.

News for 12-22-06

12-22-06 - Russia seeks delay in planned vote on Iran sanctions


12-22-06 - UN Security Council likely to approve Iran sanctions Saturday: diplomats


12-22-06 - Iran gives UN key enrichment plant records-diplomats


12-22-06 - President Confronts Dissent on Troop Levels


12-22-06 - Media want documents in CIA leak case The Associated Press and Dow Jones, in court papers filed this week, asked for the release of the sworn statements Fitzgerald gave to justify subpoenas for New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper.


12-22-06 - Rice backs 'worthwhile' Iraq war US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has again defended the war in Iraq, saying the investment in US lives and dollars will be "worth it".


12-22-06 - US soldiers in Iraq urge Gates to send more troops


12-22-06 - Military pressure alongside UN sanctions against Iran Boosting naval presence in the area would also serve as a means to ensure that Iran won't try to block oil shipments in retaliation for the sanctions.


12-22-06 - Judge: Iran Owes $254M in Terror Attack The Iranian government financed a 1996 terrorist attack that killed 19 Americans in Saudi Arabia and must pay $254 million to the victims' families, a federal judge ruled Friday.


12-22-06 - Terrorist Recruits Pose Threat to U.S. "Iraq is generating an exodus of terrorists," says ABC News consultant Tony Cordesman. "It is creating a training center, in effect, the worst kind of training center, because people learn through practice, not theory."


12-22-06 - Agency to Test Military Draft Machinery The Selective Service System is planning a comprehensive test of the military draft machinery, which hasn't been run since 1998.


12-22-06 - British soldier 'gave Army secrets to Iran'


12-22-06 - Iran's president says Bush 'most hated'


12-22-06 - Lawmaker Fears Election of 'More Muslims'


12-22-06 - State Department Weighs Plan for Palestinian State The Bush administration is considering a plan to declare an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders by the end of 2007. It will no doubt be Israel's version of a Palestinian state. It also could be seen as a way to win support (from those who need to be swayed) for a possible attack on Iran.


12-22-06 - Israeli think tank says only military strike will stop Iran: Report ** And they want US to do it as history repeats itself.


12-22-06 - The Right Men, the Wrong President


12-22-06 - Condi's Albright Moment


12-22-06 - Canadian Jews: Indict Ahmadinejad Canadian Jewish and other community groups urged the government to support an indictment against Iran?s president for incitement to genocide.


12-22-06 - More Palestinians arrive at Iraq-Syria border to escape violence in Baghdad The latest group has been stranded on the Iraqi side of the border with Syria since last Saturday, UNHCR's chief spokesperson, Ron Redmond, told reporters in Geneva, adding that Iraqi border authorities initially refused to allow them to leave Iraq, citing a lack of proper documentation


12-22-06 - Police find car packed with explosives in southeast Iran


12-22-06 - Syrian daily hits out at US terms for dialogue "You cannot tackle the Iraq question independently of the other issues in the region, because the root cause of all the problems is Israel's occupation of Arab lands," the paper said.


12-22-06 - Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews attend conference: "The Holocaust - Global Vision"


12-22-06 - Stalin's Jews In his new, highly praised book "The War of the World, "Historian Niall Ferguson writes that no revolution in the history of mankind devoured its children with the same unrestrained appetite as did the Soviet revolution. In his book on the Stalinist purges, Tel Aviv University's Dr. Igal Halfin writes that Stalinist violence was unique in that it was directed internally.


12-22-06 - Future House power says Dems back a dialogue with Iran, Syria U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said both parties? support for Israel would remain unstinting..... Hoyer scored a decisive win in a caucus vote last month to become majority leader. Jewish groups watched the race closely, since Hoyer has proven to be one of Israel's best friends in Congress, leading multiple delegations to the Jewish state and isolating the caucus' few anti-Israel voices.


12-22-06 - Army sets sights on missile defense Defense Ministry officials are pinning their hopes on a joint venture between Israel's Rafael Armament Development Authority and Raytheon Co.


12-22-06 - ZOA Criticizes President Bush For Again Refusing To Move U.S. Embassy To Jerusalem - Reneging On Campaign Promise Maybe they can get their man Bolton on the case?....


12-22-06 - America's Double Standard on Democracy in the Middle East while the Bush Administration continues talk the talk of promoting democracy in the Middle East, many in the Arab world have a jaundiced view of Washington's intentions: Democracy, yes, but only when the outcome serves the interests of the U.S.


12-22-06 - ADL Lists Top 10 Issues Affecting Jews in 2006 The Anti-Semitic Myth of the "Israel Lobby"
That is hilarious. Maybe if the gloating about how much power the pro-Israelis have over both houses of Congress wasn't coming from THAT VERY COMMUNITY, maybe THEN these people would have a leg to stand on. That it IS happening only proves this 'anti-Semitic myth' is a charge leveled by the aforementioned in order to SHUT PEOPLE UP. Not working anymore. Come back 10 year!


12-22-06 - Neocons: Fighting To Prevent Our Exit From Iraq


12-22-06 - Rate of cluster bomb casualties falling However, with at least 900,000 bomblets still contaminating southern Lebanon, according to MACC, there is still a high risk to inhabitants of the area.


12-22-06 - The Nightmare before Christmas

News for 12-21-06

12-21-06 - French soldiers had bin Laden in the crosshairs: documentary French soldiers in Afghanistan had Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in their crosshairs -- twice -- but did not receive the order from their US commander to open fire, a French documentary reported.


12-21-06 - Iran defiant on nuclear energy despite looming sanctions In Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said her government was seeking last-minute changes to the draft UN resolution ahead of the vote.


12-21-06 - Mussa hails Syrian support for Lebanon mediation efforts Syria is supporting Arab League efforts to mediate a crisis between pro- and anti-Damascus forces in Lebanon, the bloc's chief Amr Mussa said after talks with President Bashar al-Assad.


12-21-06 - US marines face Iraq murder trial


12-21-06 - Contractors Lost in Pentagon Bureaucracy The Pentagon is still struggling to get a handle on the unprecedented number of contractors now helping run the nation's wars, losing millions of dollars because it is unable to monitor industry workers stationed in far-flung locations, according to a congressional report


12-21-06 - Broken Army, Broken Empire by Patrick J. Buchanan Americans must learn how to mind our own business and cease to meddle in other nation's quarrels. Iraq was never a threat to the United States. Only our mindless intervention has made it so.


12-21-06 - Iran sanctions won''t achieve targeted goal but increase nuclear race - they will rather unleash a nuclear race in the world in general and the region in particular, analysts said on Thursday.


12-21-06 - Palestinians have become targets in Iraq's chaos It was the bloodiest assault so far in what has become a long stream of attacks on Palestinians, whose community has been here since the establishment of Israel in 1948 but who've never been granted Iraqi citizenship.


12-21-06 - US compensation lawsuit against Ya'alon dropped In the United States last week the Washington DC District Court threw out a civil lawsuit against former IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. (res) Moshe Ya'alon demanding compensation on behalf of the families of those killed in the Lebanese village of Qana in 1996.


12-21-06 - First Arab peacekeepers deploy in Lebanon


12-21-06 - Jailed Syrian dissident prods Bush on Palestine, Iraq In his December 13 statement, Bush called on Syria to free all political prisoners and to halt "intimidation and interference" which, he alleged, had been hurting Lebanon's embattled democracy.


12-21-06 - EU Parliament member: Syria's peace intentions genuine

News for 12-20-06

12-20-06 - U.S. may send second carrier to Mideast Gulf CBS News reported on Monday that a projected naval buildup was intended to discourage what U.S. officials view as increasingly provocative acts by Tehran as it presses its nuclear program and support for Shi'ite militias in Iraq.


12-20-06 - Russia objects to travel ban for Iranian officials Russia views such a travel ban on certain Iranian officials connected to the country's nuclear programme as an "attempt to introduce an element of punishment" into the draft resolution, Lavrov said Wednesday.


12-20-06 - Russia criticizes West over U.N. draft on Iran Russia said on Wednesday attempts by its Western partners to ditch agreed principles in handling Iran's nuclear ambitions were blocking adoption of a U.N. Security Council resolution on sanctions against Tehran.


12-20-06 - Pentagon Wants $99.7 Billion More to Fund Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan


12-20-06 - Bush concedes US not winning war in Iraq


12-20-06 - Al Qaeda promises attacks on US Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri has vowed in a videotape that the terrorist group will not stop attacks on American soil as long as the US strikes Muslims on their land.


12-20-06 - Annan: Iran intervention would be unwise U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Tuesday for key parties to seek a negotiated settlement with Iran over its nuclear program and warned that military intervention would be "unwise and disastrous."


12-20-06 - Report: U.S. secretly cultivating Syrian opposition to Assad The United States administration is secretly working to cultivate and strengthen the Syrian opposition, in order to undermine Syrian President Bashar Assad's rule and bring about his overthrow, according to the TIME Magazine Web site.


12-20-06 - Wilson challenges subpoena in CIA case "Mr. Libby should not be permitted to compel Mr. Wilson's testimony at trial either for the purpose of harassing Mr. Wilson or to gain an advantage in the civil case,"


12-20-06 - US senators meet Assad despite White House criticism Two influential US senators, including former presidential candidate John Kerry, met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad despite criticism in Washington of such missions.


12-20-06 - America's Original Foreign Policy by Rep. Ron Paul It is time for Americans to rethink the interventionist foreign policy that is accepted without question in Washington. It is time to understand the obvious harm that results from our being dragged time and time again into intractable and endless Middle East conflicts, whether in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, or Palestine. It is definitely time to ask ourselves whether further American lives and tax dollars should be lost trying to remake the Middle East in our image.



12-20-06 - End of the strongmen - Do America and Israel want the Middle East engulfed by civil war? All of these outcomes in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq could have been foreseen -- and almost certainly were. More than that, it looks increasingly like the growing tensions and carnage were planned. Rather than an absence of Western intervention being the problem, the violence and fragmentation of these societies seems to be precisely the goal of the intervention. Would there be near-civil wars in those three areas if we hadn't meddled therein? DOUBTFUL.


12-20-06 - Al-Zawahiri: U.S. Talking to Wrong People in Iraq, Urges 'Holy War' Against Israel In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum brushed off al-Zawahiri's criticism and defended the party's electoral policy.


12-20-06 - Person of the Year: Ahmadinejad by Patrick J. Buchanan His trip to the United Nations, where he ran circles around U.S. journalists, was a diplomatic triumph. And he has done it all not with military power ? Iran would not last a week in an all-out war with the United States and has no defense against Israel's nuclear weapons ? but with theatrics and rhetoric.


12-20-06 - Iran wants Israel to return Golan to Syria


12-20-06 - Bush appropriates Chanukah moral in depicting current threat from Iran


12-20-06 - Proposed travel limits on Congress don't faze Jewish nonprofit groups The consensus among Jewish groups is that the new legislation would be an inconvenience, but wouldn't seriously hamper the trips to Israel that are considered a critical component of congressional support for Israel. ...Trips must be preapproved by the House Ethics Committee, a process that U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said would guarantee a continuance of the Israel tours.....Insiders said the impact was likely to be minimal. In Israel trips, the key relationship is not between the lawmaker and the lobbyist but between the lawmaker and the Jewish constituent who gives money to the lawmaker's campaign and who often is present on the trip.


12-20-06 - Orthodox community outraged as group embraces Holocaust deniers "They are going to learn that the Jewish people and Holocaust survivors are not going to stomach this," Mordechai Levy, national director of the Jewish Defense Organization, told JTA. "There is a real line. They crossed it a billion times."


12-20-06 - Mazin Qumsiyeh: Holocaust Deniers and the Iraq Study Group


12-20-06 - Islamophobia on the rise, E.U. study reports Europe?s 13 million Muslims are experiencing an unprecedented level of discrimination at work and in public, a report found.


12-20-06 - Palestinian immigrant in 'L.A. Eight' case becomes U.S. citizen All the so-called "L-A Eight" have denied being members, and immigrant rights groups say the case was politically motivated


12-20-06 - Bush "proud" of Lebanese PM Siniora US President George W. Bush said he was proud of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, praising his tenacity in resisting "enormous pressure" from Syria and Hezbollah.


12-20-06 - Disbelief at israeli snub of Syrian offer


12-20-06 - Fox Guest Says Joy Behar, Matt Damon & Keith Olbermann Should Be Rounded Up And Put In A Detention Center Because They're Traitors


12-20-06 - EU politician calls for isolation of Iran Last week Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni accused Europe of not doing enough to combat the nuclear threat from Iran.


12-20-06 - Assad's fatal attraction


12-20-06 - Fresh from the horse's ass The little neocon from WND has a shiny new piece of Zioganda to spin - this time with regard to Baker and an attempt to delegitamize the latter's ISG report by smearing the former.

News for 12-19-06

12-19-06 - Pentagon mulling show of force to Iran ** The Pentagon is considering a buildup of Navy forces in the Persian Gulf as a show of force against Iran, a senior defense official said Tuesday. Recall the article about missiles from yesterday's news. Is this the moment Israel and its neocon minions have been waiting for?


12-19-06 - US sees UN sanctions against Iran voted within days


12-19-06 - Cheney to be defense witness in CIA case


12-19-06 - Bush plans to increase size of military


12-19-06 - US costs for Iraq war likely to exceed $US110b, official says


12-19-06 - US rebuffs Syrian leader's offer of talks


12-19-06 - Ahmadi-Nejad suffers vote setback in Iran


12-19-06 - Syria ready for U.S. dialogue but not orders: Assad


12-19-06 - Wash. Post cited Giuliani's opposition to Iraq withdrawal in asserting his "tough(ness)"


12-19-06 - 60 Minutes: CIA Official Reveals Bush, Cheney, Rice Were Personally Told Iraq Had No WMD in Fall 2002 The policy was set. The war in Iraq was coming, and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy, to justify the policy.


12-19-06 - The Rascals are Still In Charge Of all the tragic aspects of this national disaster this is worst: The people who have been catastrophically wrong about everything are still in charge. And a year from now, when things are even worse in Iraq, we can be sure the neo-conservatives will still be demanding that yet more American soldiers die so that Kagan and his ilk can continue to live out their increasingly destructive geopolitical fantasies.


12-19-06 - The "Hoax" That Wasn't:: The July 23 Qana Ambulance Attack On the basis of this investigation, we conclude that the attack on the ambulances was not a hoax: Israeli forces attacked two Lebanese Red Cross ambulances that night in Qana, almost certainly with missiles fired from an Israeli drone flying overhead Israel-defenders stoop to new lows when it comes to their attempts to absolve that nation of any and all blame for anything.


12-19-06 - O-bomb-a and the War Party


12-19-06 - Israel to step up Golan settlement building Israeli Interior Minister Roni Bar-On has said he intends to accelerate housing projects on settlements in the occupied Golan Heights, defying recent Syrian calls for peace talks. Land or peace? Israel has chosen the former for nearly 60 years. Won't last forever.


12-19-06 - U.S. Senators Encourage Israel To Snub Syria


12-19-06 - Iran seeks condemnation of Israeli nukes


12-19-06 - Blair to ask Gulf States to rein in Iran


12-19-06 - Russian, Syrian leaders discuss Middle East peace process


12-19-06 - Think tank sees threats The institute, chaired by former U.S. Mideast envoy Dennis Ross, said it is developing an initiative for a ?pan-Jewish? strategy toward Islam, with particular emphasis on the role of global Jewish decision-makers, academics and policy planners


12-19-06 - PM to senators: Syrian support of extremists hurts peace chances Olmert called for sanctions on Iran and praised U.S. efforts toward preventing Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capabilities


12-19-06 - Hamas expert testifies in trial "What is the difference between this guy who blows himself up on a bus and the Israeli bombs dropped on a refugee camp in Gaza?" Hroub said. "The end result is the same -- killing civilians."


12-19-06 - Deep Background by Philip Giraldi In 2001-02 the FBI, acting on a request from the IRS, investigated what appeared to be a massive insurance fraud carried out by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.


12-19-06 - The other Israel lobby The point of the initiative, Levy told me, is not to "turn American policy against Israel. It is to reach out to groups of philanthropists to get better resources and better focus and to translate this into a political statement," so that members of Congress will know that they "will have cover if they seek to do what we and many in the American Jewish Community think is right." You know, it would be great if our elected representatives actually represented the will of the American people, not lobbies. But then, that's just a quaint old notion these days...


12-19-06 - Neo-Cons Wanted Israel to Attack Syria Abrams has been known to work particularly closely with both David Wurmser, Meyrav's husband, and Cheney's national security adviser, John Hannah, who, in turn have long favoured "regime change" in Damascus.Indeed, both Wurmsers, along with former Defence Policy Board chairman Richard Perle and former Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Douglas Feith, worked together on a 1996 paper, entitled "A Clean Break", for incoming Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, which called for overthrowing Iraq's Saddam Hussein as the first step toward destabilising Syria.



12-19-06 - Iran to get nukes by 2010: Mossad boss Mr Dagan told the Knesset committee that a hasty US pullout from Iraq would be a disaster that would change the geo-political situation in the Middle East and provide al-Qa'ida with a victory. He said al-Qa'ida had already set its sights on Israel as its next target after the fighting in Iraq was over and that it would also aim at bringing down regimes in countries bordering Israel.
Thus will America never get out of Iraq. Israel's security comes before ours, which is why we went into that nation in the first place.


12-19-06 - Holy Warriors Set Sights on Iran **


12-19-06 - U.S. PREPARES DEFENSE PACKAGE FOR LEBANON Officials said the Bush administration plans to launch an imminent effort to bolster Lebanon's military amid the Hizbullah threat to the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora. They said the U.S. military aid package could reach more than $300 million over the next few years.


12-19-06 - Israel's entry into NATO proposed Daniel Levy, a senior fellow and director of the foundation's Middle East initiative, cautioned that a NATO with Israel as its only member from outside Europe and North America would make Israel look like a "colonial outpost."
That's exactly what it is.

And now - Deep Background by Philip Giraldi

From p. 21 of the January 15, 2007 issue of The American Conservative:

Deep Background by Philip Giraldi

In 2001-02 the FBI, acting on a request from the IRS, investigated what appeared to be a massive insurance fraud carried out by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The IRS became suspicious after it noted a number of deaths of elderly individuals who had large insurance policies naming AIPAC as their beneficiary. The policies were mostly issued by two companies, Metlife of Connecticut and a second company in Atlanta. Preliminary investigation suggested that AIPAC was approaching elderly supporters and securing their participation in obtaining high-dollar insurance policies. The companies were chosen because of AIPAC's ability to influence the policy-issuance process through the co-operation of actuaries and senior-level company officials who were also believed to be AIPAC supporters. These officials were willing to approve the coverage even though no company would normally issue a policy to an 80-year old or to someone in poor health. The investigation eventually concluded without producing any indictment, though it is unclear whether that happened because the evidence was inconclusive or because of the Justice Department's usual unwillingness to pursue anything having to do with the Israel lobby.

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA Officer, is a partner in Cannistraro Associates

News for 12-18-06

12-18-06 - Showdown Looms Over Domestic Spying Federal agents continue to eavesdrop on Americans' electronic communications without warrants a year after President Bush confirmed the practice, and experts say a new Congress' efforts to limit the program could trigger a constitutional showdown.


12-18-06 - US special forces clash with CIA in war on terror: report


12-18-06 - Iran seeks to replace dollar with euro Amid US allegations that Tehran funds militant groups and is seeking a nuclear weapon, reports have suggested the US treasury has put major pressure on European banking giants to halt transactions involving Iranian clients.


12-18-06 - New manual at odds with key Iraq tactics Perhaps the most controversial section may be the manual's warning about large, sprawling bases, the very kind the Army has erected in Baghdad. The manual warns that such military bases could suggest "a long-term foreign occupation."


12-18-06 - Syria and Iraq to cooperate on crime Syria and Iraq signed on to a plan Monday to cooperate in combating terrorism and crime, the official SUNA Syrian news agency said


12-18-06 - Gingrich defends free speech curbs


12-18-06 - Iran hails elections as message to West


12-18-06 - US defence chief warns over Iraq


12-18-06 - A Near-Miss Nuclear Explosion


12-18-06 - Iran within four years of nuclear bomb: Israel spy chief ** The boy who cried wolf.


12-18-06 - Joy Behar of 'The View' Likens Rumsfeld to Adolf Hitler


12-18-06 - UN investigator cites progress in Hariri murder probe UN chief investigator Serge Brammertz cited progress in gathering crime scene evidence and probing potential perpetrators in the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri last year


12-18-06 - Bush accused of silencing critic of Iran policy A former CIA analyst has accused the White House of trying to silence its critics after he was told that an article he wrote criticising the Bush administration's policy on Iran could not be published because it contained classified material. The article had already been cleared by the CIA.


12-18-06 - Clueless Iraq hawks back in attack mode 'Hawks' = neocons.


12-18-06 - Israeli PM, U.S. senators: Baker's report not to be policy The delegation includes senior U.S. senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Susan Collins and John Thune. Olmert and the senators discussed the Baker-Hamilton report and emphasized that in their view, although the report has led to a broad political discussion, it will not necessarily become U.S. policy, including regarding opposition to a dialogue with Iran and Syria. Let it be known: US Middle East policy is crafted in Tel Aviv, not Washington.


12-18-06 - "It is a missile launch bunker. Somewhere within a mile to five miles are silos with the missiles in them." ** another media outlet in Israel is reporting that the U.S. is building a massive new base for the Israeli military on the West Bank border.


12-18-06 - Ahmadinejad good for Jews


12-18-06 - Uzi Landau: 'Israel's Churchill' Warns of Iran's Hitler Former Israeli Interior Minister Uzi Landau, a leading contender to succeed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, was in the United States last week to sound the alarm on Iran.


12-18-06 - Few in Lebanon Have Favourable View of U.S.


12-18-06 - Israeli intelligence warns Hamas gunmen being trained in Iran Wait, then that must mean we should attack Iran!....


12-18-06 - Syria statement omits Golan

“It is a missile launch bunker. Somewhere within a mile to five miles are silos with the missiles in them.”

Insider Report from NewsMax.com email newsletter for December 17, 2006

4. Congress Doubles U.S. Weapons Storage in Israel

The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have approved the doubling of American arms stored in Israel for emergency use.

The United States stores arms and equipment in classified facilities called War Reserve Stockpiles (WRS), to be used if needed in wartime. Outside Israel, most WRS facilities are located in NATO countries, according to IsraelNationalNews.com.

Meanwhile, another media outlet in Israel is reporting that the U.S. is building a massive new base for the Israeli military on the West Bank border.

The IsraelInsider.com Web site reports that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) claims the base will be used as a storage facility for reservists’ equipment.

“Still, the base’s massive size — dozens of huge warehouses, with reinforced bunkers, watchtowers, and tunnels — casts a shadow of doubt over this singular explanation for its use,” according to IsraelInsider.

The Web site reports that investigative journalist Barry Chamish tried to visit the base and was told by a guard about the facility: “You’ve never seen so many computers and cameras in your life.”

And a former American soldier who examined photographs of the base told IsraelInsider: “I saw these kind of installations when I was in the military. For years I was stationed at a base where a major part of it was like this. These are not barracks of any kind. The metal facilities built up on the rocks are huge electronic facilities, probably filled with CIA and extensive phone and other electronic monitoring stuff . . .

“It is a missile launch bunker. Somewhere within a mile to five miles are silos with the missiles in them.”

But an IDF spokesman insisted the base is a storage facility for reservists’ equipment, to be used in an emergency.

According to a 2001 report in the Jerusalem Post, the U.S. has agreed to build new bases to replace bases in the West Bank if and when the territory comes under Palestinian control.

News for 12-17-06

12-17-06 - Want to send your support to a Soldier in harm's way, but have no idea of what to send, who to send it to, or how to send it?


12-17-06 - Republican Sen. Specter Plans Syria Trip Sen. Arlen Specter, a 26-year Senate Republican, said he will visit Syria despite loud objections by the Bush administration, contending the situation in Iraq is so dire that it is time Congress step up to the plate and see what it can do.


12-17-06 - Palestinian refugees fear for their lives after recent attack


12-17-06 - Pope urges aid for Iraqi refugees in Syria


12-17-06 - Americans Want Congress Hearings on Iraq War Should not 44%
Help me out here, why SHOULDN'T we investigate this?


12-17-06 - Powell: We Are Losing In Iraq Powell, who as a member of the Bush Administration pushed the international community to sanction the invasion of Iraq, said that we are not safer now after nearly four years of fighting. "I think we are a little less safe, in the sense that we don't have the same force structure available for other problems," Powell said. "I think we have been somewhat constrained in our ability to influence events elsewhere." Bring back Powell!


12-17-06 - AP: 'Vicious killers' from Guantanamo Bay routinely freed by other countries Decisions by more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, Europe and South Asia to release the former Guantanamo detainees raise questions about whether they were really as dangerous as the United States claimed, or whether some of America's staunchest allies have set terrorists and militants free.


12-17-06 - So Much for Inalienable Rights "...even if Iran is telling the truth ? Iran says, 'We have no nuclear weapons program. We just want peaceful nuclear energy' ? Israel says, 'So long as Iran has any enrichment capability, this constitutes a threat to Israel,' and they are pressuring the United States to take forceful action."


12-17-06 - Bush's reaction alarms Iraq panelist


12-17-06 - Olmert rejects Syrian calls for peace talks He suggested Mr Assad's overture was prompted by a desire to fend off international sanctions for Damascus's alleged complicity in the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, and its support for radical forces in the Middle East.


12-17-06 - The Israel Quandary By Robert D. Novak In 2002, a healthy and forceful Ariel Sharon, then prime minister, was an early advocate of U.S. military intervention in Iraq, in private sessions predicting therapeutic qualities throughout the region from deposing Saddam Hussein. More than four years later, the relationship has been reversed by the commission's report. Instead of the Iraqi intervention solving the Israeli question, stabilizing the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation is described as essential to an Iraqi solution....The Baker-Hamilton report and Hagel's speech each reiterated the truth that there is no chance whatsoever for essential Israeli-Palestinian peace without American brokerage. The Israeli ruling class and its U.S. outriders do not want that to happen, which explains the bitter opposition to the commission's recommendations.


12-17-06 - From June: The Persecution of the Palestinians by Patrick J. Buchanan Terrorism has been described as waging war on innocents to break their political leaders. Is that not a fair description of what we are doing to the Palestinians? No wonder they hate us.


12-17-06 - Assad visits Russia at time of Mideast crises Syrian President Bashar al-Assad heads Monday for Moscow with the Lebanon, Iraq and Palestinian crises on the agenda at a time when Russia is seeking to raise its profile in the troubled Middle East.


12-17-06 - Hezbollah: 250 killed in war with Israel


12-17-06 - Groups Mute Criticism of Iraq Report Jewish and pro-Israel groups, after initially greeting the report of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group with outrage, have begun to mute their criticisms on the basis of assurances that the Bush administration will not adopt the report's proposed linkage between Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict......Aipac executive director Howard Kohr, stressed the importance of ensuring that the recommendations seen as linking Israel and Iraq are not adopted.



12-17-06 - US or Israel will attack Iran by March ** Note the source.


12-17-06 - Ayalon: Accept Syrian overtures for dialogue Ayalon said that before negotiations are started, Syria needs to disengage itself from terrorism and Iran and to make it clear that Israel cannot withdraw from the Golan Heights in the upcoming years.

News for 12-16-06

12-16-06 - Russia hopes for UN consensus on Iran by year's end: minister


12-16-06 - Iran offers Arab states nuclear technology President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered to share Iranian-made nuclear technology with Arab states in the Gulf after they expressed a desire to acquire it, Iranian media reported.


12-16-06 - U.S. resists watch list pressure on Arar "That the United States would have the gall to keep Maher on a watch list, implying that he poses a threat to this country, is outrageous," Maria LaHood, the attorney who is handling his U.S. case, said in a statement issued in New York.


12-16-06 - U.S. spy agency answers Iraq Study Group report


12-16-06 - Lebanon PM seeks Kremlin's help in Syria crisis


12-16-06 - Syrian president agrees to control border traffic with Iraq


12-16-06 - Litvinenko killed over dossier on Russian: Shvets


12-16-06 - US 'troop boost in Iraq likely'


12-16-06 - The impossible mission of changing China The problem created for American policy by the oil producers? dollar holdings is that many of these countries are hostile to America ? Venezuela, Russia, Iran ? and others might wreak havoc with the dollar if the Palestinian-Israeli conflict flares up, putting pressure on Arab regimes to damage America


12-16-06 - MK Steinitz: Believe US will attack Iran ** Member of Knesset Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said Saturday that he "believes a hundred percent that the United States will attack Iran?in order to eliminate its nuclear threat. This will occur after diplomatic efforts fail."


12-16-06 - Putin mad at Bush for funding Israeli war with Lebanon Less than 3 weeks after making this promise the United States used a little known provision in their security agreements with Israel to fully pay for the war, and as we can read as reported by Israel's Ynet News Service in their article titled "US to double emergency equipment stored in Israel"


12-16-06 - Bush makes a "Clean Break" with the Baker Plan It's revealing that the Washington Post still provides an open forum for neocon views even though, as we said, less than 4% of the American people still support a "stay the course" strategy. Apparently, that doesn?t affect the editorial policy at the Washington Post where the war-mongering incitement of neoconservative fantasists still gets unlimited coverage.
The bellicose neocons, despite having been behind the push to go to war with Iraq, are (still) overrepresented in the mainstream American media. Why is that?


12-16-06 - UAE surprised at U.S. warning on Syria, Iran trade


12-16-06 - Syria: We expect Israel to launch Middle Eastern War anytime


12-16-06 - People Who Mattered: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Ahmadinejad: When it is understood that the Holocaust does not have any relationship with the Palestinian people, we will have two proposals for the Western and European countries


12-16-06 - Neocons: We expected Israel to attack Syria Wurmser says that what most frustrates her is hearing people close to decision makers in Israel asking her if the US would have let Israel attack Syria. "No one would have stopped you. It was an American interest. They would have applauded you. Think why you received so much time and space to operate. Rice was in the region and Israel embarrassed her with Qana, and still Israel got more time. Why aren't they reading the map correctly in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem?"
Naturally, neocons consider themselves blameless in the Iraq debacle.


12-16-06 - UK arms deal probe dropped over Mid East peace process fears An investigation into a controversial arms deal between Britain and Saudi Arabia was reportedly dropped because of fears it could wreck Prime Minister Tony Blair's efforts to rekindle the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.


12-16-06 - Syria softens on Golan Syria said it could give up its demand for a return of the Golan Heights as a precondition for peace talks with Israel.


12-16-06 - Americans Back Iraq Study Group Conclusions Is the will of the majority of the American people being adequately represented by our politicians on Capitol Hill?


12-16-06 - Rabid neocon attacks Carter The more vicious and vile the slander against him by the usual suspects, the more you know that Carter got it right. Offering up the truth to somebody like Horowitz, is like holding up a cross to a vampire - hssssssss.


12-16-06 - Hillary Clinton: I join Israel against Ahmadinejad Her letter was read at a conference in New York City, among the guests were US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, Professor Alan Dershowitz and former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler. (Ronny Sofer)


12-16-06 - Lebanon protesters dig in for winter