News for 04-29-06

04-29-06 - IAEA Finds no Proof of Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program This ambiguity is being twisted by the Bush administration to make it seem as though Iran has done something illegal. The report can be read to say that there is no evidence that Iran is doing anything illegal.



04-29-06 - Security Council Poised for Iran Replay


04-29-06 - Iran rejects uranium enrichment demands Iran refused on Saturday to stop uranium enrichment after a U.N. report said it had done little or nothing to prove it was not developing nuclear arms.


04-29-06 - EU and US strike different tones on Iran Speaking at a transatlantic conference, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said no one was considering military action over Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment and Europe did not want to join a "coalition of the willing" against Iran.


04-29-06 - Iran increases nuclear enrichment level Experts say uranium enriched to a range of roughly 3 to 5 per cent is a low level used in atomic power reactors.


04-29-06 - Oil Industry Unapologetic for High Profits


04-29-06 - Analysis: Iran Offers Nuke Concession By offering a return of so-called snap inspections, Iran appeared to be giving ground in an attempt to convince the IAEA - and the world community - that it was telling the truth when it said it was enriching uranium only as fuel for reactors to generate electricity....The White House was dismissive of the Iranian offer.


04-29-06 - US woos Asian energy allies to thwart Russia But analysts are concerned that an overall hardening of US policy towards Moscow could drive Russia and Iran, which together hold nearly half the world's gas reserves, into an energy-based alliance.


04-29-06 - U.S.: FBI Sought Info Without Court OK The FBI secretly sought information last year on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents from their banks and credit card, telephone and Internet companies without a court's approval, the Justice Department said Friday.


04-29-06 - Judge Defends Decision to Jail Miller The federal judge who jailed a former New York Times reporter for refusing to name her source during the CIA leak investigation defended his decision Friday.


04-29-06 - Bush approves Dubai buying defence supplier Doncasters is an international group that operates nine US plants. It makes precision parts for the aerospace and specialist automotive markets, including parts for defence contractors for use in military tanks and aircraft.


04-29-06 - Thousands in New York march against war "We've been lied to, and they're going to lie to us again to bring us a war in Iran,"


04-29-06 - Interview: U.S-Syria relations going from bad to worse


04-29-06 - Hezbollah lambastes US for listing it as terrorist group The decision by the U.S. State Department just proves the correctness of Hezbollah's stance and policy on fighting Israeli aggression and U.S. hegemony, said Hezbollah in a statement issued on Saturday


04-29-06 - Sarandon speaks of death threats after opposing Iraq war


04-29-06 - U.S. Ambassador John Bolton Lies, Insists the U.S. Didn't Violate the UN Charter And this war was drawn up in Herzlia, Israel, in 1996, with the Project of a New American Century; and why do you have credibility other than that you've just got the biggest guns?
Watch the video from the link they provide. The reporter put a hot coal to Bolton's cojones - and rather nicely, I might add.


04-29-06 - Colbert shakes up Bill Kristol over PNAC ties


04-29-06 - Mubarak arrives in Jordan for talks with king As soon as he landed, Mubarak went immediately from Aqaba's airport to Abdullah's palace for talks on "the situation in the Palestinian territories and ways to help the Palestinian people surmount their economic crisis", the official said.


04-29-06 - A Kid's Cartoon From the Middle East Has a New Mideast Peace Plan the real goal of "Ben and Izzy" is more serious: to help young Americans and Arabs steer clear of the prejudices of their parents and grandparents, which may have been reinforced by the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Iraq.


04-29-06 - Rift Grows Between al-Qaida, Muslim Groups The widening rift largely has not been acknowledged among Western powers, who tend to lump Islamic radicals together. The U.S. list of "Foreign Terrorist Organizations," for example, puts al-Qaida with Hamas and the Lebanese-based Hezbollah....."Quite a few observers believe Israel tends to overstate al-Qaida links to Palestinian terrorism because they want to be seen as equal victims of a global movement against the West," said Jeremy Binnie of Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center in London. Of the claims in the article : "Israeli officials said recently that Palestinians have established contacts with followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. The officials also said al-Zarqawi had established footholds in neighboring countries - Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan. " Does this have anything to do with the fact that Israel is providing our government with 'letters' purportedly from an Al-Qaeda operative which were meant for al-Zarqawi?


04-29-06 - 2 detained for Dahab attack


04-29-06 - Third World veto leaves UN in budget crisis


04-29-06 - CNI In the News: Listen to "Conversations" With Eugene Bird The President of the CNI Foundation, Eugene Bird, can be seen 10:30 AM (EDT) on Monday, May 1st, online at http://www.mnn.org/stream/ch34.asx.

News for 04-28-06

04-28-06 - Of Imperial Presidents and Congressional Cowards by Patrick J. Buchanan It is time for Congress to tell President Bush directly that he has no authority to go to war on Iran and to launch such a war would be an impeachable offense.


04-28-06 - Chinese envoy opposes resorting to Chapter 7 resolution on Iran


04-28-06 - Iran 'flouts UN nuclear demands' President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Iran does not "give a damn" about UN resolutions over its research.


04-28-06 - Iran speeding up nuclear work: IAEA


04-28-06 - US wants UN action on Iran


04-28-06 - House Backs Tighter Iran Sanctions The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Who else? Ros-Lehtinen, an Israel-firster, has proven herself time and again.


04-28-06 - Deeper Than We Know Stewart, a relentless critic of the Iraq War, was left slack-jawed and speechless when the Israeli hero before him said that America largely "got it right" in Iraq...They are different beings, these two communities. One is a sovereign state of enormous vitality and strength. The other is a confident, influential minority within the world's greatest superpower


04-28-06 - Iran Denounces Israel Election to UN Panel Ambassador Javad Zarif accused Israel of "violating every single Security Council resolution that has been adopted about the Middle East." He also lashed out at Israeli criticism of Iran's own election as a vice-chair of the commission, noting the Jewish state has refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty but "has the audacity to talk about another country having a seat."


04-28-06 - Bush Rejects Calls for Tax on Oil Profits Bush's remarks suggested the former Texas oilman is unlikely to take harsh action against oil companies despite public anger about the rising cost of fuel....."I have no evidence that there's any rip-off taking place," Bush said.


04-28-06 - US says world safer, despite 11,000 attacks in '05 The State Department said the numbers, listed in its annual Country Reports on Terrorism released on Friday, were based on a broader definition of terrorism and could not be compared to the 3,129 international attacks listed the previous year.


04-28-06 - McCain warns Russia, China on Iran A leading U.S. senator warned Russia and China on Friday of damage to their relationship with the United States if they refused to go along with sanctions against Iran.....He said that military action would be very complicated but the United States could not risk a nuclear Iran exterminating Israel.


04-28-06 - China seeks "strategic partnership" with Africa "China is saying it wants to build a new world order based on consensus and tolerance, not the clash of civilizations," said former foreign minister Bola Akinyemi. And that's how China will win in the end too, I'm sure. For, the warmongering by the neocons in the Bush administration will only generate (more) animosity for America in the world.


04-28-06 - Iran has right to develop civil nuclear industry: Putin


04-28-06 - U.S.: More Than 600 Implicated in Detainee Abuse


04-28-06 - US says Iran top terror sponsor


04-28-06 - Musharraf:'I'm nobody's poodle.' Facing a rising tide of anti-American sentiment in his country, Pakistan leader General Pervez Musharraf says that covert US airstrikes against Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan are "an infringement of national sovereignty."


04-28-06 - Steppingstone to War : House passes 'Iran Freedom Support Act' Passage is a major goal of AIPAC, Israel's premier lobbying organization in the U.S., which for the past two years has featured the alleged Iranian threat to America as its convention theme: this year's conclave featured a multimedia exhibit supposedly dramatizing how Iran is "pursuing nuclear weapons and how it can be stopped." As Middle East expert Trita Parsi, of the John Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, put it: "I don't see any other major groups behind this legislation that have had any impact on it."


04-28-06 - Iraq war set to be more expensive than Vietnam


04-28-06 - NATO Allies Support Tough Line on Iran However, NATO ministers did not offer any specific threat of sanctions against Iran, in part to avoid a rift with Russia and China, which oppose such a move.


04-28-06 - The United States, Israel, and the Possible Attack on Iran I disagree with the author's view that the US is encouraging Israel to attack Iran. IT's quite the other way around. Despite being critical of Israel, Zunes is known for his inability to lay blame at the foot of Israel for its part in the Iraq debacle and now this.


04-28-06 - Ferment Over 'The Israel Lobby' Some measure of Walt's exposure is financial. Bernard Steinberg, director of Harvard's Hillel center, brought this issue up unprompted to me: "I talked to someone in Harvard development and asked what the fallout had been, and he said, 'It's been seismic.'" .....The authors have gotten support from hundreds of e-mails, three-quarters of which congratulate them, Mearsheimer says
An excellent piece and a good look into the making of the Israeli lobby study by Walt and Mearsheimer, and the aftermath, by The Nation. A must read.


04-28-06 - Of the judge's refusal to throw out the case against Libby: 'This is known as graymail.' Libby's lawyers used it successfully in the Oliver North case to get him off.



04-28-06 - Navy charges evangelical chaplain Jewish groups have led the effort to limit proselytizing in the armed forces. Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who has led such efforts in Congress, was informed of the charges Friday.


04-28-06 - China, Russia top blacklist in annual US trade review In addition to China and Russia, the 11 other countries on this year's list are Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela.

News for 04-27-06

04-27-06 - Rice: U.N. Credibility at Stake on Iran


04-27-06 - Iran Lobbies Nuclear Agency Ahead of Report The chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, will issue a report Friday on Iran's nuclear program that diplomats said is expected to conclude that Tehran has failed to meet a deadline for complying with council requests to suspend uranium enrichment. This is why the price of gasoline is so high - repeated actions or threats thereof at the UN with regard to Iran.


04-27-06 - Judge Won't Dismiss Case Against Libby In a 31-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton turned down a motion by lawyers for Vice President Dick Cheney's one-time top assistant, who challenged the authority of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to handle the case.


04-27-06 - Rice Says U.N. Must Act on Iran Nuke Plan Iran seems determined to defy international demands to control its disputed nuclear program, so it is time for the U.N. Security Council to act, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.


04-27-06 - Sweden, Israel quarrel over military exercise pull-out The Swedish foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the Spring Flag air exercises in Sardinia on May 8-25 "have been organised for peacekeeping operations and we don't want to take part because of Israel's participation".


04-27-06 - The United States of Israel? something surely has to give....
Across the United States, there is growing evidence that the Israeli and neo-conservative lobbies are acquiring ever greater power. The cancellation by a New York theatre company of My Name is Rachel Corrie - a play based on the writings of the young American girl crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza in 2003 - has deeply shocked liberal Jewish Americans, not least because it was Jewish American complaints that got the performance pulled.



04-27-06 - Iran Gets First North Korean-Made Missiles Israel's military intelligence chief said


04-27-06 - Ahmadinejad says Germans exploited by 'greedy Zionists' "Sixty years after the war, why do the Palestinian people have to burn in the crimes of Zionists under the pretext of the Second World War?"


04-27-06 - New international pressure on Syria over Lebanon interference Speaking earlier, US Ambassador John Bolton said: "We think another resolution by the Security Council is warranted to highlight continued Syrian failure to comply with the requirements of (resolution) 1559."


04-27-06 - China urges all sides in Iran nuclear dispute to remain calm China has urged all sides involved in the dispute over Iran's nuclear program to remain calm and show restraint, as the stand-off was at a crucial stage.


04-27-06 - Wounded US soldiers fighting off military debts: report Hundreds of US soldiers wounded in Iraq have been hounded by bill collectors for military debts after coming home, US television reported.


04-27-06 - Call for NATO to include Australia He said NATO should extend its protection to Israel, also as a way of deterring Iran, which has called for Israel's destruction and is, Aznar wrote, clearly pursuing nuclear weapons.


04-27-06 - Mubarak vows to win own 'war on terror' after Sinai attacks


04-27-06 - Russia in Delicate Balancing Act With Iran Like China, the other permanent council member that opposes sanctions, Russia is eager to maintain commercial ties with Iran that include arms contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars - another persistent source of friction with the United States and Israel - and the $800 million Bushehr reactor project.


04-27-06 - Iran has bought long-range missiles, says Israel The BM-25 missiles would pose little threat to western European capitals, although a missile fired from northwestern Iran could potentially reach Istanbul and Kiev....The news comes as Tehran faces a UN-imposed deadline to suspend its enrichment of uranium....."I would not want to exaggerate the threat from this, and I think the Israelis have a very understandable agenda by which they do want to exaggerate it," he said. "The news comes as Tehran faces a UN-imposed deadline to suspend its enrichment of uranium"


04-27-06 - Israel raises profile in Iran fray "What I do worry about in this whole process," he adds, "is that there will be some unexplained incident that happens deliberately or not deliberately, that will be perceived wrongly by one side or the other - that's how WWI got started."

Again, we see people referring to an incident that may be forthcoming.


04-27-06 - Russia and China warn UN not to antagonise Iran The Chinese government also called for restraint. Moscow and Beijing, which have growing energy and economic links with Iran, fear that a UN resolution might be used to justify military action at a later stage.


04-27-06 - Hamas, Iran rekindling hatred of Jews: US official Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick used a US Holocaust remembrance to warn of new efforts by Iran and the militant Palestinian group Hamas to incite hatred of the Jews.


04-27-06 - Sweden called to explain Hamas visas Prosor conveyed the message that Sweden would not be looked upon favorably as a participant in the peace process following Stockholm"s indication that Israel was not considered a peace-loving country, according to Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark Regev. Truth hurts.


04-27-06 - U.S. military struggling to recruit Arab-Americans "A lot of policies seemed to focus on Arab-Americans after 9/11 so people asked: 'Why should I be part of an entity that is inflicting injustices or a selective approach on my own community?'"


04-27-06 - Former chief of mission to Iraq citicizes Israel lobby

News for 04-26-06

04-26-06 - Iran Leader Warns U.S. Against Attacking Iran's supreme leader warned the United States on Wednesday that his nation would hit back twice as hard if America attacked its nuclear sites


04-26-06 - Iran Threatens to Hide Nuclear Program


04-26-06 - Deep Background by former CIA official Philip Giraldi There are signs that the Bush administration's covert action program against Iran is becoming both more active and more lethal.....Sources in Rome report that Michael Ledeen is now being surveilled every time he visits Italy


04-26-06 - Sinai hit by fresh bomb attacks Two suicide bombers attacked security personnel and foreign peacekeepers in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, but did not cause any injuries to their targets.


04-26-06 - Rumsfeld say Iraq, Afghan missions key to containing Iran


04-26-06 - Rice Offers Modest U.S. Help to Turks In Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said the Turkish separatist movement PKK has free run of a swath of northern Iraq, and has set up training camps and bases. Turkey fears that civil unrest in Iraq could lead to the fragmentation of the country, and has often called on the United States to stop PKK fighters from using Iraq as a base to stage attacks inside Turkey.


04-26-06 - Policy Is More Important Than Personnel by Rep. Ron Paul


04-26-06 - Iran role in Lebanon worries U.S. Bolton also noted that concerns have been raised over "the near alliance that Syria and Iran seem to have formed in recent months and the implications that has for peace and security in the region."

Neocons like Bolton can look in the mirror to find the reason for this alliance.


04-26-06 - Arab League head urges Europe to renew aid to Palestinians


04-26-06 - Watchdogs say House ethics reform is a "scam" Congressional watchdogs blasted an ethics reform bill pending in the House of Representatives on Tuesday as a "scam" that would do little to curb the influence of money in politics.


04-26-06 - Bush freezes assets of Hariri assassination suspects The communique did not mention any individuals by name, but cited a United Nations report from October determining that there is "converging evidence" pointing to "both Lebanese and Syrian involvement in terrorist acts."


04-26-06 - Security at military bases: a job for private firms?


04-26-06 - Pakistan Stressed by US Designs on Iran


04-26-06 - Canada Bans Coverage of Returning War Dead Canada's new Conservative government barred the media from covering the return Tuesday of the flag-draped coffins of four soldiers killed in Afghanistan, angering political opponents and some families. The government also has stopped lowering flags to half-staff outside Parliament each time a Canadian soldier is killed, prompting Liberals to accuse Prime Minister Stephen Harper of trying to play down the growing human cost of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan.



04-26-06 - Senate Shifts Iraq Funds to Borders, Ports


04-26-06 - Do not attack Iran If there is another terrorist attack in the United States, you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be also immediate charges that Iran was responsible in order to generate public hysteria in favor of military action


04-26-06 - US policy is bin Laden's 'indispensable ally': ex-CIA analyst Scheuer said bin Laden has focused on US policies in the Islamic world, such as the US military presence of Iraq and Afghanistan, its economic and military support to Israel and its "decades old support for apostate and tyrannical government across the Islamic world."


04-26-06 - EU: CIA Executed Over 1,000 Europe Flights The CIA has conducted more than 1,000 undeclared flights over European territory since 2001 - a clear violation of an international treaty, European Parliament investigators said Wednesday.


04-26-06 - Wary of Iran, Gulf will quietly fund Palestinians


04-26-06 - NEOCONS SQUANDER THEIR ONLY VICTORY


04-26-06 - US should call for direct talks with Iran Washington, closely backed (and sometimes urged, it appears) by Jerusalem - especially since the recent barrage of fanatically anti-Israel rhetoric of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - professes to view Iran as a major threat and agrees with the Israeli view that it is an "existential threat" to the Jewish state.




04-26-06 - Top White House posts go to Jews For Republicans, there is still a feeling that Bush does not receive the credit he deserves from the Jewish community. "We have Israel's best friend and it still hasn't changed the way the Jewish community sees him,"


04-26-06 - John Fund vs. the Truth


04-26-06 - Pro-Israel "Nutjobs" on the Attack In the United States, we do not have full-throated, full-throttle debate about Israel. In Israel, they have it as a matter of course, but the truth is that the accusation of anti-Semitism is far too often raised in this country against anyone who criticizes the government of Israel.

Deep Background by former CIA official Philip Giraldi

From the May 8, 2006 edition of the American Conservative (typed up by me from the article which is available only from the hard copy or subscription edition at this time):



There are signs that the Bush administration's covert action program against Iran is becoming both more active and more lethal. Twenty-two Iranian government officials were killed and the local governer was severely injured in a March ambush carried out by the Iranian opposition group MEK (Mujanheddin-e Khalq) in the Iranian province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan. MEK was armed and supplied by Saddam Hussein and is on the U.S. terrorism list, but its supporters have been liberated from that potential impediment by individually renouncing the group’s charter, presumably making them ex-terrorists. They have been trained by U.S. Special Forces and are now carrying out Pentagon-directed operations inside Iran, primarily consisting of intelligence-collection missions targeting suspected nuclear production facilities. The MEK, however, also has its own agenda. It supports Iran's Baluchi minority, primarily Sunni Muslims, in their increasingly violent opposition to the central government.



Sources in Rome report that Michael Ledeen is now being surveilled every time he visits Italy. The advocate of " creative destruction," and leading American neoconservative occasionally linked to the forged Niger uranium documents used to justify war in Iraq, has a villa in the hills near Rome and frequently travels to Italy to vacation and for meetings. The surveillance is being carried out by the Italian military intelligence service, known as SISMI, acting under the instructions of the minister of defense, Nicola Pollari. That Ledeen is now regarded as suspicious and is being watched by SISMI is particularly ironic, as he collaborated with Italian military intelligence in the early 1980s, a service for which he reportedly received $100,000. According to one source, the payment made to Ledeen was deposited in a bank in the Bahamas.



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News for 04-25-06

04-25-06 - Iran: The Intelligence Reports vs. the Hard-Liners May 1, 2006 issue - Some neocon activists have urged a sharp increase in U.S. efforts to undermine Tehran and thwart its nuclear ambitions. American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Ledeen told NEWSWEEK: "The people hate (the regime). It's a revolution waiting to happen." But U.S. intel agencies strongly disagree


04-25-06 - Mossad head goes to Washington Israel's Channel 1 television reported Tuesday that Meir Dagan was in Washington for talks expected to include the prospect of curbing Iran's nuclear program.


04-25-06 - Bush Says He Has No Doubts on Iraq Choice Rumsfeld said he still expects to be able to reduce the size of the U.S. force in Iraq, but he provided no details and said it would depend on conditions, including further political progress and the state of the insurgency.


04-25-06 - China insists diplomacy can still resolve Iran nuclear issue


04-25-06 - Blair warns over Iran threat The comments by Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman came after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again appeared to threaten Israel, calling it a "fake regime" which should not exist.


04-25-06 - Bush Eases Environmental Rules on Gasoline


04-25-06 - US will go for other states after Iran and Iraq, says Margolis He said that Iran's longest-range missile, Shahab-III, had a maximum range of 1,200-1,500 kilometres, which meant that Iran could not attack North America or Western Europe. "No substantial evidence has yet been found that Iran has nuclear weapons, and anyone saying that Iran is a threat to the world is lying and deceiving the world,"


04-25-06 - George Galloway on the Qana Massacre "Has the deputy prime minister had time to see the devastating pictures of the shattered United Nations peacekeepers' base in the south of Lebanon? In the past few hours, more than 50 Fijian soldiers, Lebanese and Palestinian refugees - men, women and children - have been slaughtered by the Israeli invasion force"


04-25-06 - Syria rejects accusations on Hamas weapons in Jordan Separately, the Hamas-led Palestinian government's foreign minister Mahmud Zahar reiterated his group's denial of smuggling any weapons into Jordan.


04-25-06 - Russia ignores US, delivers nuclear fuel to India Russia has delivered fresh nuclear fuel for two Indian reactors, ignoring a U.S. request for a delay until rules are formally changed to allow such transfers, American officials said in recent interviews.


04-25-06 - 30 Arrests Made in Egypt Resort Attack The militant Palestinian Hamas organization called them a "criminal attack which is against all human values."


04-25-06 - Syria agrees to take group of Palestinian refugees from Iraq Jordanian officials have urged other countries neighbouring Iraq to take new arrivals. Maybe Jordan is using this discovery of the Hamas 'weapons cache' - which was part of some alleged plot by Palestinians - as a pretext for its refusal to allow in any of these (new) Palestinian refugees.


04-25-06 - Rice Worries Iran Would Share Technology Appearing at a news conference here, Rice said Bush administration officials "have to be concerned when there are statements from Iran that Iran would not only like to have this technology but would share it, share technology and expertise."


04-25-06 - Jordan says Hamas leaders in Syria ordered attacks


04-25-06 - Israel makes common cause with Egypt after attacks


04-25-06 - Arab World Outraged by Egypt Explosions


04-25-06 - Head of Hariri Probe Travels to Syria It will be the first time that Assad answers questions about Hariri's assassination from the commission appointed by the U.N. Security Council to investigate


04-25-06 - India urges against confrontation with Iran


04-25-06 - Jordan 'arrests Hamas militants'


04-25-06 - Iraq war getting more expensive


04-25-06 - Syrian President interviewed over Hariri killing


04-25-06 - Israel able to defend itself: Olmert "We don't see enough of a response from the world."



04-25-06 - The Prophecy of Oded Yinon: Is the US Waging Israel's Wars? A year later and the US government is no longer portraying Iran's purported nuclear ambitions as a threat to Israel, but a threat to the United States. In this way the case against Iran and the possible repercussions emanating from that, can be sold to the American people. Suddenly Israel's concerns have become theirs. A very interesting article.


04-25-06 - U.S. accepts Turkey-Hamas meet The February meeting with the terrorist group, which won victory in Palestinian Authority legislative elections in January, angered Israel, and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed this week that the Bush administration also sought explanations. If the move angered Israel, then why is my government seeking 'explanations'?


04-25-06 - Let the AIPAC Spy Trial Begin The mainstream U.S. press and certain Middle East think tanks spend a great amount of time scouring the branches of government for recruits willing to release highly sensitive classified information of high interest that ultimately finds its way to Israel.


04-25-06 - FBI's Israel Interests in Columnist's Files Detailed FBI agents last month sought the identities of pro-Israel reporters who had worked for columnist Jack Anderson or were close to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) when they asked to look through the late journalist's files, according to Mark Feldstein, director of the journalism program at George Washington University.



04-25-06 - Touching the third rail U.S. interests have gradually merged, a perception carefully nurtured by AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee


04-25-06 - US to release one-third of prisoners at Gitmo


04-25-06 - Israel plans to launch satellite to spy on Iran's nuclear program


04-25-06 - Iran-Israel Linkage By Bush Seen As Threat President Bush is risking a backlash that could injure the Jewish community - and his own cause - by repeatedly citing Israel as his top rationale for possible U.S. military conflict with Iran, Jewish leaders and Middle East analysts warned this week. Nevermind the fact that the efforts and bellicosity of the Israeli lobby may yet cost America more blood and treasure in another Middle East war that they've pushed for, as long as these folks can get away with it (again), then it's AOK.


04-25-06 - Another McCarthyite Smear Job: A Top Middle East Scholar, Juan Cole, is Falsely Accused of Being "ANTI-SEMITIC" to Stop Yale From Hiring Him Not surprisingly, Mr. Fund uses the McCarthyite tactic of guilt by association to fabricate his otherwise-nonexistent case against Juan Cole. For instance, he accuses Professor Cole of having blogged his support for a supposedly "anti-Semitic" Harvard study, "The Israel Lobby And U.S. Foreign Policy," by Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.


04-25-06 - No, It's Not Anti-Semitic An abridged version of the Mearsheimer-Walt paper was published by the London Review of Books and is available online at http://www.lrb.co.uk/ . Read it and decide for yourself whether it is anti-Semitic

FBI's Israel Interests in Columnist's Files Detailed

Professor Says Agents Sought Names of Reporters for Anderson Who Were Close to Nation or AIPAC

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 25, 2006; A08



FBI agents last month sought the identities of pro-Israel reporters who had worked for columnist Jack Anderson or were close to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) when they asked to look through the late journalist's files, according to Mark Feldstein, director of the journalism program at George Washington University.

The agents asked Feldstein, a former journalist who is writing a book about Anderson, for the material as part of the criminal prosecution of Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, two former AIPAC lobbyists who were indicted last August on charges of violating the 1917 Espionage Act by receiving and transmitting national defense information.

Feldstein said he was called on March 2 by an FBI agent who asked for a meeting to talk about something "too sensitive" to discuss on an open telephone line. Feldstein already knew that the FBI had been unsuccessful in getting access to Anderson's files from the Anderson family after the columnist's death in December.

Feldstein, a former intern of Anderson's who is writing about the columnist's major exposés during the Nixon years, has had access to the roughly 200 boxes of material since they were delivered to the university by the Anderson family.

When the FBI interview took place at his home on March 3, Feldstein said, he was surprised that the agents mentioned that they were looking into the Rosen-Weissman case and possible espionage "going back to the early 1980s." They wanted to know whether "we had seen classified documents" in the Anderson files, particularly about Israel and Iran -- areas of leaked information in the lobbyists' case.

At some point during the questioning, Feldstein said, one of the agents, Leslie Martell, "began asking questions about pro-Israel reporters who had worked for Anderson" or "had ties to AIPAC." He said she "ran names by me," saying that "I only had to give them an initial." He said he "tried to wave them off," referring to several former Anderson reporters whom they named.

Asked last week about Martell's questioning, FBI spokesman Michael P. Kortan said that "the bureau would decline to comment on the event."

A senior FBI agent, who spoke about colleagues on the condition of anonymity, said yesterday that it would not be unusual to try to narrow down the field of potential sources by using this approach. "It might have been a way to get to an area of interest," the agent said, "or it may have been a way of testing information they had gotten in the past or were getting from this source."

An FBI spokesman, William Carter, said yesterday that the bureau will continue to try to gain access to Anderson's files before they are made public because it is concerned about classified documents that could hurt U.S. interests. Carter said "an informant had told us he had seen classified U.S. government documents among Anderson's papers." The bureau wants to review them "to make sure they are not still detrimental to U.S. interests before foreign agents see them," he added.

Feldstein said he told the FBI agents that Anderson had not been actively writing his columns since 1986, when he was struck with both Parkinson's disease and cancer. After that time, he depended upon associates to write the columns and a revolving corps of reporters and interns to help gather information. Feldstein also said that no classified documents had turned up in his review of Anderson's Nixon-era files nor in a preliminary search by his graduate students of subsequent years through 2004.

About a week later, the FBI told Anderson's son, Kevin, a lawyer in Utah, that a bureau informant had said that the columnist or his reporters had met with one of the AIPAC lobbyists and that there had been an exchange of classified documents. According to the FBI, the informant had also told the bureau that Anderson or his reporters had met with an agent of a foreign power and had discussed classified U.S. information, Kevin Anderson said in a telephone interview.

In a court filing last week, attorneys for Rosen and Weissman described these and several FBI's actions as "outrageous government conduct." They contended that agents used a subterfuge to get Anderson's widow to sign a paper consenting to a bureau review of the files.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III denied on Friday a motion to dismiss the AIPAC case based on the alleged outrageous conduct, saying only that the FBI actions with regard to Anderson have little to do with the case.

One of the names Martell mentioned, according to Feldstein, was that of Dale Van Atta, a former Anderson associate who helped write the column in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Van Atta, who has left the New York Times to help write a book about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), said yesterday that he had not been contacted by the FBI. Van Atta has, however, kept in contact with the Anderson family and is puzzled by the attempts to search the columnist's files for material that could help in the Rosen-Weissman case.

As for the FBI seeking to review classified documents in the files, Van Atta said Anderson "really didn't deal with classified documents. He had a great memory and hardly took any notes." Van Atta said he had looked through many of the files when they were stored at Brigham Young University in Utah, and he noted that "there really was not that much there."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/24/AR2006042401784_pf.html

News for 04-24-06

04-24-06 - Iran Leader Hints at Exiting Nuke Treaty Iran's hard-line president said Monday he is thinking about withdrawing from the nuclear nonproliferation treaty if the U.N. atomic agency tries to prevent his country from enriching uranium.


04-24-06 - Iran says UN sanctions unlikely "Our expectation would be -- assuming no change of direction by Iran, and there is no reason to think there will be a change of direction -- that we will look at a Chapter 7 resolution to make mandatory all of the existing IAEA resolutions," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said in New York.


04-24-06 - Tehran insider tells of US black ops "The president hasn't notified the Congress that American troops are operating inside Iran," said Sam Gardiner, a retired US Army colonel who specializes in war-game scenarios. "So it's a very serious question about the constitutional framework under which we are now conducting military operations in Iran."


04-24-06 - Is dissent during a time of war patriotic? The Boston Globe reports that Senator Kerry said troops are dying because of what he called an inept and deceitful policy orchestrated by the Bush administration. Elsewhere in the article, Krauthammer, a known neocon, claims dissent 'goes against American tradition'. Mmm k.


04-24-06 - Democrats Say Lieberman Too Close to Bush The three-term lawmaker, a strong advocate of the Iraq War Lieberman would appear to be in love with the neocon-ridden Bush administration and their Middle East agenda. Wonder why?


04-24-06 - Iran president says no need for talks with US on Iraq The Iranian regime had said that its diplomats would meet US officials in Baghdad, but has in recent days been backing away from this.


04-24-06 - Triple blasts rock Egypt resort Among the 62 wounded there were three Danes, three Britons, two Italians, two Germans, two French people, a South Korean, a Lebanese, a Palestinian, an American, an Israeli and an Australian


04-24-06 - UK denies discussing military action against Iran with US At his monthly news conference, Blair rejected allegations that Britain would automatically support any future U.S.-led military intervention in Iran.


04-24-06 - Rice Pushes Security Council on Iran "When the international community reconvenes after the 30 days, there has to be some message, clear message, that this kind of behavior is not acceptable, or you will start to call into question the credibility of what the Security Council says when it says it," Rice said Since when does anyone in the Bush administration believe that the UN is credible to begin with? Haven't they repeatedly poo-poo-ed this organization for some time now? Only when the UN gives them what they seek, do they find it 'credible', eh?


04-24-06 - Israel raises alert for possible Iranian missile attacks The decision of raising the vigilance level was made due to specific intelligence but did not mean general tension in the region, the report said.


04-24-06 - Russia Tests New Missile Designed to Overcome U.S. Defenses


04-24-06 - Jordanian king for Iran dialogue, nuclear free Mideast "Totally cutting aid will cause the Palestinians suffering. They are already suffering economic and social privations," the monarch told El Pais.


04-24-06 - AIPAC judge approves Rice subpoena Judge Ellis turned down a defense request to order the deposition of three Israeli diplomats identified in the indictment, saying he lacked the authority to do so.


04-24-06 - Israel fears Iran may spark nuclear arms race An Israeli government committee has reportedly warned that Iran's nuclear programme is likely to encourage other countries in the Middle East to develop atomic weapons. This is ironic given that Israel was the first nation in the Middle East to acquire nuclear weapons. Israel has not signed the nuclear non proliferation treaty to this day, to boot.


04-24-06 - Rice subpoena allowed in AIPAC case as judge pushes trial date to August The trial date, originally scheduled to begin April 25, has now been set for Aug. 7, even as the judge in the case continues to suggest the case might not go to trial at all.


04-24-06 - Two Trials And a treasonous trio While the AIPAC case revolves around a future war ? intelligence about Iran ? and the Libby case is focused on intelligence leading up to our invasion of Iraq, they are both legal fronts in the same fight.


04-24-06 - Iran's Ahmadinejad says Israel 'cannot survive' "Why did you force them to take refuge in Palestine? Why do you think they are comfortable in Palestine? They left because of your anti-Semitism," he said of European states.


04-24-06 - Iran biggest threat since Nazis, says Israel as Ahmadinejad provokes new outrage


04-24-06 - 3RD LD: Japan, EU urge Iran to halt uranium enrichment, discuss E. Asia The statement also said Japan and the European Union will strengthen consultations on energy issues, given the record high levels of oil prices, and will continue to provide necessary aid to meet the basic human needs of the Palestinian people.


04-24-06 - Israelis Warned Before Blasts To Stay Away From Sinai


04-24-06 - Israeli experts help rehabilitate Iran's earthquake-hit areas Iran and the Jewish state had close economic ties before the 1979 Islamic revolution, with Israeli companies playing a central role in the construction of Iran's modern infrastructure.


04-24-06 - Israeli Chief of CIA's Investment Group Mysteriously Resigns - AGAIN! Amit Yoran was director of the National Cyber Security Division within the US Department of Homeland Security created following the 9/11 attacks. Amit Yoran, the son of Israelis, will be responsible for protecting federal computer systems from viruses, terrorists, and hackers.
Ran Dagoni, Washington 17 Sep 03 15:34 . Tell me there's no problem with that little statement.


04-24-06 - Egyptian analyst: Can't rule out that Mossad was involved in attack "The Mossad's ability to penetrate the Bedouins in Sinai is known," Salim said in an interview with al-Jazeera. (Roee Nahmias) Of the MOSSAD, the Israeli intelligence service, the SAMS officers say: "Wildcard. Ruthless and cunning. Has capability to target U.S. forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act." : elite U.S. Army study center


04-24-06 - High gas prices propel a new 'moped madness' If the serious intent is mixed with a little fun from "moped gangs" who call themselves the Heck's Angels or the Hardly Davidsons, so much the merrier.


04-24-06 - All War-All The Time The Israel lobby appears to be the only major organized force that is actively pushing the United States toward crisis in Iran. Along with the lobby's leading member, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), there's the American Jewish Committee (AJC), which has taken out full-page ads in major US newspapers with the less-than-subtle heading: "A Nuclear Iran Threatens All", depicting radiating circles on an Iran-centered map to show where its missiles could strike

News for 04-23-06

04-23-06 - Iran vows no u-turn on nuclear work Iran's decision to enrich uranium is irreversible, its foreign ministry said on Sunday in defiance of international demands it halt all nuclear work.


04-23-06 - Intelligence on Iran nuclear threat seen as inadequate The United States doesn't have enough good intelligence to know whether or not Iran will be capable of producing nuclear weapons in the near future, top congressional intelligence committee members said on Sunday. This claim is outright BS. I fear that this claim will now be used as a part of the propaganda in any pro-war campaign for war with Iran.


04-23-06 - White House: U.S. intel believes Bin Laden tape authentic The White House said on Sunday the U.S. intelligence community believes the latest tape released by Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is authentic.


04-23-06 - Hamas Distances Itself From Bin Laden Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the group's ideology is vastly different from al-Qaida's but noted that international sanctions on the Hamas-led government would naturally anger some Muslims.


04-23-06 - West waging war against Islam: bin Laden "It is scornful to people that your (the West's) warplanes and tanks are destroying houses over the heads of our folk and children in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Pakistan, then you smile at us and say that 'we are not enemies of Islam but enemies of terrorists'.


04-23-06 - Doha forum opens amid Kuwait offer to calm oil prices


04-23-06 - Tape a vexing reminder of US failure to find bin Laden In the tape, bin Laden called on Muslim fighters to go to Sudan to wage war against "crusader thieves", and slammed the international isolation of the Hamas-led Palestinian government as proof of a "war by crusaders and Zionists against Islam."


04-23-06 - Iraq one of 'worst disasters' of US foreign policy: Albright Hindsight is always 20/20. Very few people had the guts to say that this war was wrong BEFORE it began. Pat Buchanan is one of them. Frankly, I can't think of any others at this moment. Our politicians - if there were any that disagreed with this war from the outset -were cowed into submission.


04-23-06 - Young Officers Join the Debate Over Rumsfeld An Army major who is an intelligence specialist said: "The history I will take away from this is that the current crop of generals failed to stand up and say, 'We cannot do this mission.'


04-23-06 - Bin Laden call falls on deaf ears


04-23-06 - Western pressure irks average Iranians "I've got two Iraqi bullets in my leg," he says. "It was Western countries that supported (Saddam Hussein) when he used chemical weapons against us. Now they destroy Iraq and lecture us on human rights. America killed more than a hundred thousand people when it dropped atomic bombs on Japan, but they won't even let us have nuclear energy."


04-23-06 - New Plans Foresee Fighting Terrorism Beyond War Zones


04-23-06 - Bush adviser dismisses call for talks with Iran In an interview with the Financial Times, Philip Zelikow, counsellor at the US State Department, also said the Bush administration's commitment to the democratisation of the Middle East was undimmed,


04-23-06 - The threat to a fistful of petrodollars Were the Iranians to establish a Middle-East based euro-only oil exchange, the dollar's unique petrocurrency status could unravel. That, in turn, would threaten its broader dominance - which, given America's groaning twin deficit, could seriously hurt the US economy. Some cite this as the real reason the US wants to attack Iran: to protect the dollar's unique position. I wouldn't go that far, but the prospect of a non-dollar oil exchange in Tehran is certainly an aggravating factor.



04-23-06 - 'Pre-emptive' Peace Actions--UPDATED peace groups are mobilizing to prevent possible war in Iran


04-23-06 - US-Israel counter-terror plan proposed Israel advocates are behind new legislation that would create an office within the Department of Homeland Security for counterterrorism cooperation between the United States and its allies. Israel is one of a handful of countries named in the legislation that US officials believe could provide technological assistance. The effort comes as numerous states and municipalities, as well as law enforcement agencies, are sending representatives to Israel to pick the brains of counterterrorism leaders. The Israelization of the United States is nearing completion. No surprise to see that AIPAC is behind this legislation. Why the United States is targeted by terrorists in the first place should be the number one thing that gets addressed and redressed. Instead, our governnment only treats the symptoms.


04-23-06 - China's Hu says ready to work for Mideast peace


04-23-06 - Is The Israel Lobby Effective?

News for 04-22-06

04-22-06 - US soldier suicides climb in 2005: army The US Army said 83 soldiers committed suicide last year, more than a quarter of them while deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan.


04-22-06 - Iran plays down Russian nuclear 'deal' the senior Iranian diplomat, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, has played down a radio report that Tehran and Moscow have a "basic agreement" to enrich uranium in Russia.


04-22-06 - Iran eases oil supply fears "We strongly believe there is no reason for sanctions but in any case we will not cut our oil exports," the minister told Reuters on the sidelines of an energy forum in Doha.


04-22-06 - Russia Warns on Aggravating Iran Standoff A top Kremlin diplomat warned against threatening Iran with sanctions or the use of force, saying that would only aggravate the international standoff over Tehran's suspect nuclear program, Russian media reports said Saturday.


04-22-06 - Iran-India gas link deal close despite US ire Iran, India and Pakistan are close to signing a gas pipeline deal, the Iranian and Pakistani oil ministers told Reuters on Saturday, defying U.S. opposition to the project.


04-22-06 - China's Hu cements new alliance with Saudi trip Saudi Arabia has powerful security ties with the United States, and it has insisted that its growing ties with Beijing are no threat to Washington.


04-22-06 - NBC: CIA officer fired after admitting leak


04-22-06 - Impeachment From Below: Legislators Lobby Congress The Office of the Vice President is evidently the root of the problem.


04-22-06 - Anti-Iranian Hysteria Much of the administration's anti-Iranian jihad has been orchestrated, like the attack on Iraq, by Vice President Dick Cheney, who increasingly emerges as the Rasputin of the Bush presidency. Cheney is very close to Israel's political far right. He is carrying out former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's command to the US that once it invaded Iraq, 'march immediately on Tehran.' Indeed, Cheney is.


04-22-06 - OPEC says oil supplies not the problem Shihab-Eldin said uncertainties over future demand were complicating investment decisions and "increasing the risks associated with both under- and over- investment." He said the need for "appropriate investment" extended to the entire supply-chain.


04-22-06 - Many Fear Russia Slipping Into Secrecy "The government views the media as a tool to deliver information about its decisions, like it was in the Soviet times," said political commentator Alexander Golts. "It only gives the information it wants to give." You mean, like here?


04-22-06 - America must take action against Iran: Israeli official Do you think that the United States has really reached a point where it is ready to operate militarily in Iran? "Public opinion is ready and Congress supports it. I assume that the administration does, too."


04-22-06 - Lebanon Challenges Syria on Relations Lebanon's prime minister challenged Syria on Friday to show it accepts true independence in its smaller neighbor by establishing diplomatic relations and marking the two countries' disputed border.


04-22-06 - Lebanon's groundbreaking tribunal


04-22-06 - Anthrax inventory doesn't add up at lab Two vials with the bacteria may be missing. State health officials said it's most likely that clerical error is to blame


04-22-06 - FBI is accused of 'trickery' in spy case Using the signed form, the FBI agents then approached Mark Feldstein, director of the journalism program at George Washington University, for help in accessing the documents, saying they had the family's permission to see them. He balked.


04-22-06 - Spokesman Denies Rice Leaked Defense Info

News for 04-21-06

04-21-06 - Ex-CIA agent says WMD intelligence ignored "The (White House) group that was dealing with preparation for the Iraq war came back and said they were no longer interested," he was quoted as saying in interview excerpts released by CBS on Friday. "We said: 'Well, what about the intel?' And they said: 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore. This is about regime change'," added Drumheller, whose CIA operation was assigned the task of debriefing the Iraqi official.
Say, I wonder which 'White House Group' would've done something like that? Was it perhaps, the neocons?


04-21-06 - Crude oil closes above 75 dollars a barrel in New York Crude oil futures closed above 75 dollars a barrel in New York for the first time, amid increasing concerns about the Iranian nuclear crisis and a US gasoline supply crunch.


04-21-06 - No Iran sanctions without 'concrete' proof: Russia Russia has ruled out talk of sanctions against Iran without proof that Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons as alleged by the United States, and vowed to continue military cooperation with the Islamic republic.


04-21-06 - The One Certainty About Iraq: Spiraling Costs for Americans The Bush administration vastly underestimated the costs of the Iraq war. Not only in human lives, but in monetary terms as well



04-21-06 - Russia-US split on Iran deepens Commenting on the possibility of military force being used against Iran, Ivanov said: "The danger that not everything will go according to plan exists in any war." He did not elaborate.


04-21-06 - Missile exports to Iran alarm US Washington has asked Moscow to reconsider selling Iran anti-aircraft missiles as the crisis over its nuclear programme continues.


04-21-06 - Jordan says Hamas weapons cache came from Syria


04-21-06 - Lebanon presses for speedy Hariri murder tribunal


04-21-06 - Iran shells Kurd positions in Iraq: Kurd official Iranian forces shelled Iranian Kurdish rebel positions inside mountainous northern Iraq early on Friday to repel an attack, an Iraqi Kurdish official said. An aside, Israel is training the Kurds of northern Iraq and using them to build a power base.


04-21-06 - Olmert: Syria, Iran Involved in Bombing Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday accused the Syrian and Iranian governments of involvement in a suicide bombing that killed nine people in Tel Aviv this week


04-21-06 - Sanctions threat adds to Iran uncertainty: World Bank


04-21-06 - US urges ban on military sales to Iran With Russia and China putting up fierce resistance to punitive measures against the Iranians, US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns stepped up the call for countries to act individually outside the UN framework.


04-21-06 - Iran's Ahmadinejad wants dual pricing scheme for oil Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeated his view that only rich countries should pay the "real price" of crude oil and that poorer nations should get it more cheaply.


04-21-06 - Hu ends US tour marked by lack of accords and embarrassment


04-21-06 - Nobel Laureate Says Iran Would Defend Self The Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian activist who won the peace prize for her struggle for women's rights, warned Friday that the Iranian people would defend their country against any American attack.


04-21-06 - US intel report: Major increase in terrorist incidents In a report to be released next week, US government figures will show that the number of terrorist attacks in the world jumped sharply in 2005, totalling more than 10,000 for the first time. That is almost triple the number of terrorist attacks in 2004 -- 3,194


04-21-06 - Pentagon Guantanamo List Angers Nations


04-21-06 - U.S. makes plans for a hostile China The Chinese military buildup has South Korea, Japan and the U.S. planning for a possible confrontation.


04-21-06 - Fadlallah blasts Bush for failing to offer aid "The U.S. did not offer any financial aid to help Lebanon overcome its economic crisis, while we see it granting every year millions of dollars to the Israelis to improve their military force and attack the region."


04-21-06 - We could lose the next war "I have no doubt that if Egypt could make Israel disappear from the map, it would not object to that. A future military confrontation with Israel exists in the Egyptian national consciousness and in the consciousness of the Egyptian security forces, and that is what Egyptian strategic planning is leading toward." Read the next few paragraphs after that one. It's interesting that this man is blaming Egypt for .. just about everything. Lest we forget, Israel believed Egypt was about to attack in the past and then threw the first punch in 1967 by destroying Egypt's airfields thereby igniting the Six Day War - a war in which Israel saw massive territorial gains. So on the one hand this Israeli official is saying that Israel is too puny to thwart any future attacks(?), and on the other saying that Israel once again sustains an existential threat from Egypt.


04-21-06 - No Moussaoui 'shoe bomber' link Al-Qaeda plotter Zacarias Moussaoui's trial has heard there was no evidence to back his claim he planned a 9/11 attack with "shoe bomber" Richard Reid.


04-21-06 - The Power Player Who Faces Charges for Talking His indictment has marred the reputation of AIPAC, which employed him for 23 years. The hard-charging Rosen was instrumental in building AIPAC into one of Washington's most effective pressure groups. The 100,000-member organization plays a major role in securing more than $2 billion a year in U.S. aid for Israel and in fostering other pro-Israel policies...At AIPAC, Rosen helped pioneer executive-branch lobbying, a style of advocacy that was not widespread when he began it in the mid-1980s, but is now a routine complement to the more traditional lobbying of Congress. Before Rosen, AIPAC had believed that the way to alter American foreign policy was to get senators to sign a letter But these days, to say that these pro-Israel lobbyists alter foreign policy is the talk of 'anti-Semites'.


04-21-06 - Lawyer: Rice Allegedly Leaked Defense Info "On day one, Secretary of State Rice tells him certain info and on day two one of the conspirators tells him the same thing or something less volatile."
It really just shows the degree to which our government has been compromised by a foreign nation.


04-21-06 - How great powers become great by Patrick J. Buchanan China is also investing in warships, submarines, modern fighter-bombers and space technology. As there is only one great air and sea power out there, there is no doubt at whom this buildup is directed.


04-21-06 - Flashback Dec. 2003: Israel trains US assassination squads in Iraq "It is bonkers, insane. Here we are - we're already being compared to Sharon in the Arab world, and we've just confirmed it by bringing in the Israelis and setting up assassination teams." "They are being trained by Israelis in Fort Bragg," a well-informed intelligence source in Washington said. I wonder how the Iraqis feel about that little nugget of information. We arm and back Israel in its war against the Palestinians. And then we allow Israelis to train our forces for when they invade Iraq.


04-21-06 - The War on Terror Is Over,


04-21-06 - In Terror War, Not All Names Are Equal Leaders of the Muslim philanthropic community in New Jersey asked the Treasury Department at the start of Ramadan in 2004 to issue a "white list" of "approved" charities. But the request was denied.


04-21-06 - Palestinians form united delegation to meet officials Asked about former MP Elias Ferzli's claim that the parliamentary majority wanted to settle Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, he said that the Palestinian would "never give up their right to return to their homeland."


04-21-06 - BMD Focus: Israel's Next ABM Shield the U.S.-Israeli consortia participating in the SRBMD tender want their systems to be eligible for U.S. government funding for the proposed project, Globes said. The U.S. Congress has already approved $133 million for the Arrow program in the coming fiscal year, including $10 million for defense against short-range missiles. Bringing in Alliant into the SRBDM project could ensure that a large congressional bloc will support budget appropriations for short-range missile defense, provided that IAI and Boeing win the tender," Globes said. Meanwhile, America's borders continue to remain open and veritably undefended.

America must take action against Iran: Israeli official

Chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and member of the Likud party, Yuval Steinitz describes to Haaretz the current situation with Iran and what my government must do to resolve it:

"In my assessment, the Iranians are two years away from a nuclear weapon. It could be a bit more and it could be a bit less. After the success in enriching uranium at an initial 164-centrifuge cascade, the technology is largely in their hands. To create a first bomb they have to reach 10 cascades on 1,600 centrifuges. Now that they have the technology, the question is one of investment. If no one interferes with them and if they scoff at the world and invest resources and run ahead fast to accelerate the process, we're talking about two years, maybe a year and a half. Maybe even a year."

If so, this is a dramatic window of time. The military operation against Iran has to take place within the coming year and maybe even in the coming months.

"We're in the home stretch. If a massive military operation against Iran is mounted, it will be between this point of time, of April 2006, and the end of 2007."

You are not even talking about political options and sanctions.

"Only one thing will prevent an American military operation in Iran. Only if the United States shows the Iranians a very big stick and waves it wildly in front of them will it perhaps be able to prevent the use of that stick."

And the waving of the stick has to start soon?

"It should have started already."

Do you think that the United States has really reached a point where it is ready to operate militarily in Iran?

"Public opinion is ready and Congress supports it. I assume that the administration does, too."

..."What you are actually saying is that the Mossad not only supplies intelligence about the Iranian nuclear project but is also capable of thwarting it if the Americans should fail or refrain from doing the necessary work". "

Who says American foreign policy isn't crafted in Tel Aviv?

And what does our intelligence say about the time frame with regard to Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons?

US intelligence chief John Negroponte remarked just yesterday :

"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,"

Whose view will prevail(again), mewonders?

This should come as no surprise when we refer back to this article from 3 years ago which also appeared in Haaretz:

In a meeting with U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton yesterday, Sharon said that Israel was concerned about the security threat posed by Iran, and stressed that it was important to deal with Iran even while American attention was focused on Iraq.

Bolton said in meetings with Israeli officials that he had no doubt America would attack Iraq, and that it would be necessary thereafter to deal with threats from Syria, Iran and North Korea.

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.

The neocons involvement with Iraq war - A Clean Break

This builds upon what Pat Buchanan described in his "Whose War?" article.

From the article "Vice Squad" by Robert Dreyfuss:

... 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, [John] 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.....

Like Hannah, who came to the OVP from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Wurmser traipsed a roundabout path to Cheney’s staff: He worked with Hannah at WINEP in the 1990s, and then went to AEI, where he directed Middle East affairs, to the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans, to John Bolton’s arms control shop at the State Department, and then to the OVP. Even among ardent supporters of Israel, Wurmser -- and his wife, Meyrav, who runs the Hudson Institute’s Middle East program -- is considered an extremist. In 1996, the Wurmsers, Perle, and Feith co-authored the famous “Clean Break” paper for then–Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, which called for radical measures to redraw the map of the entire Middle East (Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Palestine) to benefit Israel. Later, in a series of papers and a book, Wurmser argued that toppling Saddam was likely to lead directly to civil war and the breakup of Iraq, but he supported the policy anyway: “The residual unity of [Iraq] is an illusion projected by the extreme repression of the state.” After Saddam, Iraq will “be ripped apart by the politics of warlords, tribes, clans, sects, and key families,” he wrote. “Underneath facades of unity enforced by state repression, [Iraq’s] politics is defined primarily by tribalism, sectarianism, and gang/clan-like competition.” Yet Wurmser explicitly urged the United States and Israel to “expedite” such a collapse. “The issue here is whether the West and Israel can construct a strategy for limiting and expediting the chaotic collapse that will ensue in order to move on to the task of creating a better circumstance.” Later, with former cia director James Woolsey and others, Wurmser proposed restoring the Jordan-based Hashemite monarchy in Iraq. While Wurmser’s OVP allies may share his neoconservative fantasies of the willy-nilly reorganization of the Middle East, few experts do. “I’ve known him for years, and I consider him to be a naive simpleton,” says a former U.S. ambassador. Adds Wilkerson, “A lot of these guys, including Wurmser, I looked at as card-carrying members of the Likud party, as I did with Feith. You wouldn’t open their wallet and find a card, but I often wondered if their primary allegiance was to their own country or to Israel. That was the thing that troubled me, because there was so much that they said and did that looked like it was more reflective of Israel’s interest than our own.”

Today Wurmser, Hannah, Liz Cheney, and her father are pushing hard for confrontations with both Iran and Syria. Liz Cheney, who exercises enormous power inside the State Department, has secured millions of dollars to support opposition elements in both countries, and she has met with Syria’s version of Ahmad Chalabi, a discredited businessman from Virginia named Farid al-Ghadry. Hannah sat in on the meeting with Ghadry, which was arranged through Meyrav Wurmser, a friend of the would-be Syrian leader. Hannah and Wurmser’s boss, the vice president, talks freely about the need for a military showdown with Iran to destroy its alleged nuclear program. The true measure of how powerful the vice president’s office remains today is whether the United States chooses to confront Iran and Syria or to seek diplomatic solutions. For the moment, at least, the war party led by Dick Cheney remains in ascendancy.

Thus does it appear that Cheney (Halliburton) and the neocons (arms business, Israel) have a mutually beneficial racket going on from within the Office of the Vice President.

How much more will their bellicosity and belligerence cost us in blood and treasure?

News for 04-19-06

04-19-06 - Iran to step up uranium enrichment work, asks Europe to join Iran plans to step up uranium enrichment work soon and has asked European countries to help in the effort, a senior French official told AFP.


04-19-06 - "New urgency" to curb Iran: US Russia said on Wednesday it wanted no action against Iran before an April 28 U.N. deadline set for it to halt uranium enrichment, but a top U.S. official said other countries were inching toward sanctions.


04-19-06 - Decision on Iran must await IAEA report: Russia


04-19-06 - U.S. May Ask IAEA to Pressure Iran The United States may turn to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to exert more pressure on Iran out of frustration with Russian and Chinese opposition to firm Security Council action, diplomats said Wednesday.


04-19-06 - US warns Russia over aid to Iran A senior US official has called on Russia to stop helping Iran build its first civilian nuclear power station.


04-19-06 - Rumsfeld Linked to Guantanamo Torture


04-19-06 - British officer likens US generals to gung-ho movie stars: report A senior British military officer, who worked in Baghdad in 2004, believes US generals try to act like gung-ho movie stars such as John Wayne, a newspaper reported.


04-19-06 - Savage advocated "kill(ing) 100 million" Muslims; called alleged Duke rape victim a "drunken slut stripping whore" They say, 'Oh, there's a billion of them.' " Savage continued: "I said, 'So, kill 100 million of them, then there'd be 900 million of them.' Savage may as well be working for Osama Bin Laden - for he is playing right into his hands when he pits America vs 1 billion Muslims. This is what Bin Laden has alleged to be happening: the West against Islam.


04-19-06 - CIA mines 'rich' content from blogs President Bush and U.S. policy-makers are receiving more intelligence from open sources such as Internet blogs and foreign newspapers than they previously did, senior intelligence officials said. More intelligence from blogs and foreign newspapers than can be found in our media, whodda thunk it?!


04-19-06 - Chirac, Mubarak urge diplomacy with Iran Speaking later at the press conference, Chirac said he supported continued aid to the Palestinians "for legal and humanitarian reasons," and added he planned to discuss the matter further with Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas. "It is politically clumsy to make the Palestinian population pay" for the arrival in power of Hamas by cutting aid, Chirac said.



04-19-06 - Hezbollah blasts UN call to settle Lebanon-Syria border The fundamentalist Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah criticized a UN envoy's call for Syria and Lebanon to work together to draw their shared border, describing it as pro-Israel.


04-19-06 - Britain does not believe US will strike Iran In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was time for the world to "send a clear and united message" to Iran about its nuclear work and support for terrorism, but also played down the prospect of military action.


04-19-06 - Remarks by Vice President Cheney at a Rally for the Troops The terrorists ..(have) made clear, as well, their ultimate ambitions: to arm themselves with weapons of mass destruction, to destroy Israel, to intimidate all Western countries, and to cause mass death right here in the United States. In the face of such a threat, those of us in positions of responsibility have a duty to wage a broad-scale effort for the sake of this nation's freedom and security.


04-19-06 - West, Russia seek to paper over cracks as Iran crisis deepens Alexei Malashenko, an analyst at the Moscow Carnegie think tank, said that Russia and China would eventually be dragged into supporting the more hawkish US position.


04-19-06 - Gulf Nations Urged to Stay Neutral on Iran It would be almost impossible for the United States to launch airstrikes against Iran without using the military assets based in those three Gulf countries.


04-19-06 - Blair was 'warned of Iraq war' two months before invasion: ex-diplomat


04-19-06 - Blair and Straw at odds over US action in Iran Jack Straw has warned Cabinet colleagues that it would be illegal for Britain to support the United States in military action against Iran. But Tony Blair has backed President George Bush by warning that ruling out military action would send out a "message of weakness" to Iran.


04-19-06 - Sex and money bought Iraq contracts A CONTRACTOR in Iraq has pleaded guilty to providing money, sex and designer watches to US officials in exchange for more than $US8 million ($10.8 million) in reconstruction contracts.


04-19-06 - Iraq: Palestinian refugees remain stranded on Jordan border About 150 Palestinians refugees fleeing from Iraq, including some 50 children, remain stranded near the Jordan-Iraq border, say aid officials.



04-19-06 - World Bank Earmarks $500M for Bird Flu Asked whether new aid should flow to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Authority, Wolfowitz said that is something that would be a matter for the World Bank's board. "We are not an independent actor," he said.


04-19-06 - From April 19, 1996: Massacre in Sanctuary; Eyewitness Israel's slaughter of civilians in this terrible 10-day offensive - 206 by last night - has been so cavalier, so ferocious, that not a Lebanese will forgive this massacre. There had been the ambulance attacked on Saturday, the sisters killed in Yohmor the day before, the 2-year-old girl decapitated by an Israeli missile four days ago. And earlier yesterday, the Israelis had slaughtered a family of 12 - the youngest was a four- day-old baby - when Israeli helicopter pilots fired missiles into their home.


04-19-06 - Mideast 'axis' forms against West Iran is the driving force behind the alliance, its strategic position in the region enhanced by the US-led effort to oust Tehran's Taliban enemy in Afghanistan to the east and its Baathist foe in Iraq to the west.


04-19-06 - News outlets resist Scooter Libby subpoenas


04-19-06 - Breaking the silence Arabs and Muslims like Americans and democracy just fine in principle. What they don't like is U.S. foreign policy. Their main grievance before 2003 was of U.S. complicity in the dispossession of the Palestinians. Now they have another major objection, the U.S. occupation of Iraq -- and they clearly see the two as related


04-19-06 - Amid Threats, Some Republicans Seek Talks on Iran


04-19-06 - EU declines to criticise Russian aid for Hamas The European Union declined to criticise Russia on Tuesday for offering emergency aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority after Washington and Brussels cut off direct payments to pressure Hamas to recognise Israel.


04-19-06 - Lebanon's Hizbollah dismisses UN demand to disarm The group, whose attacks were vital to end Israel's occupation of south Lebanon in 2000, says it is willing to discuss its weapons domestically but will not disarm under international pressure.


04-19-06 - White House shakes up its top team New chief of staff Josh Bolten has moved rapidly to turn over the staff.


04-19-06 - A Lobby, Not a Conspiracy How are we to explain the fact that it is in Israel itself that the uncomfortable issues raised by Professors Mearsheimer and Walt have been most thoroughly aired? It was an Israeli columnist in the liberal daily Haaretz who described the American foreign policy advisers Richard Perle and Douglas Feith as "walking a fine line between their loyalty to American governments ...and Israeli interests." It was Israel's impeccably conservative Jerusalem Post that described Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, as "devoutly pro-Israel." Are we to accuse Israelis, too, of "anti-Zionism"? The pro-Israeli media 'watchdog' CAMERA has already attacked this piece at The New York Times. It can't be all bad.