News for 01-02-07

01-02-07 - GIs hope for life after Iraq in 2007 Get home safely. That's the top New Year's resolution for many U.S. soldiers in Iraq.


01-02-07 - Iran warns West of 'historic slap' over nuclear drive ** President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has kept up his defiance over Iran's nuclear programme, saying Tehran would deal an "historic slap" to Western nations if they launched military action.


01-02-07 - Iran will press ahead with nuclear work - president


01-02-07 - Afghans protest killings by US-led troops


01-02-07 - What My Brother Is Fighting for It's not too late for us to honor the almost 3,000 U.S. service members who have died defending the principles of our democracy. It is morally imperative for us to honor our living service members and to do what is demanded of us by our democracy and by common decency


01-02-07 - 16,273 deaths reported in Iraq in 2006


01-02-07 - US troops kill 6 people in Baghdad raid, military says


01-02-07 - Russia anti-aircraft weapons sales to Syria, Iran on schedule ** The air defence systems are being stationed around Iran's civilian nuclear sites, according to ITAR-TASS.


01-02-07 - Bush prepares for Congress battle over Iraq


01-02-07 - Covert US group plots to isolate 'rising' Iran ** The US has repeatedly said its policy is not to overthrow the Iranian regime, but one former US official who attended a preliminary meeting of the group said he got the impression that regime change was a goal of many participants


01-02-07 - US will be defeated in Afghanistan: Former CIA official Scheuer told the Daily Times in Washington that by failing to accomplish the only mission that had to be accomplished in Afghanistan, the US was now faced with a growing insurgency that probably already outnumbered the combined US-NATO forces.


01-02-07 - Kristol Clear at Time On March 5, 2003, Kristol said, "I think we'll be vindicated when we discover the weapons of mass destruction and when we liberate the people of Iraq." Why was this blundering neocon put in such a position at a major US news outfit? Because the neocons aren't done yet. There's still Iran (and Syria) they want America to attack.


01-02-07 - American groups protest Saddam hanging in Times Square


01-02-07 - Chris Hedges: America?s Holy Warriors


01-02-07 - Iraq investigates Saddam footage


01-02-07 - Analysis: Threat to Israel looming larger ** Today, the Bush-Cheney team faces the same spin scenario: how to weave the global war on terror and the Shiite powers that be in Iran. This one is relatively simple: Iran trains and funds Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian territories. Anticipating the new line, Sen. Joe Lieberman (Independent-CT) referred to "Iran and al-Qaida" on Wolf Blitzer's Sunday program on CNN. That Iran is Shiite and al-Qaida Sunni becomes irrelevant in the new game plan that will most probably lead to U.S. air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities in 2007/08...... The "neocons" who work closely with Netanyahu on what could be the next phase of a nascent regional war in the Middle East, say Bush has the authority to take out Iran's nuclear threat. Because it has only one purpose -- to take out Israel.....And if Bush doesn't take on Iran, prominent Israelis are speculating that president Clinton 2 (Hillary) will do so


01-02-07 - An all-consuming 'war on terror' We are trapped in fighting an unwinnable - even nonsensical - "war on terror" because its invention was required in order to fight in Iraq. After years of slaughter in Iraq, the neoconservative fantasy of a series of cheap, fast, neo-imperial victories is dead. But the war on terror lives on, stronger than ever


01-02-07 - Rings of War Congress, of course, could stop the war by cutting off the funds. That is one of the great checks and balances the founders wrote into the Constitution. Congress has 100 percent of the responsibility for and control of all federal expenditures. There is nothing the executive branch can do about it.


01-02-07 - Israel to test installation to monitor Iran's nuclear activity: report Israel on Tuesday will test, for the UN, an underground installation in the Negev desert designed to monitor any attempt by arch-foe Iran to test nuclear devices, the daily Yediot Aharonot reported.


01-02-07 - Attacks against United Nations personnel in 2006 go unpunished, Staff Union says On 24 July, an Israeli tank shell hit a position run by UNIFIL peacekeepers in south Lebanon, wounding four Ghanaian soldiers. On 25 July, an Israeli air strike hit the building and shelter of a United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) observer post in the town of Khiyam.....On 29 July, two UNIFIL Indian soldiers were wounded and their observation post damaged by an Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon.....On 12 August, a UNIFIL Ghanaian peacekeeper was wounded by Israeli artillery fire near the southern village of Haris.....On 14 August, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) staff member Abdel Saghir, 48, was killed in a residential area by a missile fired by Israeli forces


01-02-07 - Poll: Americans Predict Attacks in 2007 25 percent anticipate the second coming of Jesus Christ.


01-02-07 - Funeral procession in Bethlehem in honor of Hussein: the intrepid advocate for Arabism


01-02-07 - Iraq war: Good or bad for Israel? Saddam's execution revives debate If the Americans had not taken Saddam out, Israel would have had to spend billions of dollars building ground forces to check a possible Iraqi ground sweep through Jordan. Sever Plocker, Yediot's economics editor, observes that both American-led Iraq wars, in 1991 and 2003, were followed by economic booms in Israel. He points out that in both cases, Israel received American loan guarantees, which injected new energy into the economy. As America goes deeper into the red.


01-02-07 - AG rejects criminal probe into PM's remarks on Israeli nukes


01-02-07 - Syria expert: Assad overtures serious


01-02-07 - Litvinenko murder may be linked to mystery Russian poisonings In August Golubovich gave an interview accusing Leonid Nevzlin, the former co-owner of Yukos, of being behind the attempts. The Russian prosecutor- general?s office announced last week that Nevzlin, who is now based in Israel, is suspected of involvement in the death of Litvinenko......Golubovich, 41, had fallen out with Nevzlin over business related to Yukos.
Well now.


01-02-07 - Israel may opt for U.S.-made missile over own Arrow system The same sources added that Israel will be able to purchase THAAD with American military funding assistance, and have in its arsenal the same advanced missile system that will be used by U.S. armed forces.....Funding for the development and production of the Arrow came mostly from American aid sources.


01-02-07 - Think tank: Israel could attack Iran's nuclear program alone ** Only if they can't get us to do it for them.


01-02-07 - Lieberman asks new UN chief to revoke Iran's membership Minister of Strategic Threats Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday sent a letter to new United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asking him to revoke Iran's UN membership, Army Radio reported.



01-02-07 - Israel eyeing U.S.-made missile-killer Israel?s purchase of THAAD would be at least partly funded by U.S. aid disbursements


01-02-07 - New Jews in Congress One item expected to pass, the minimum wage hike, has the support of several Jewish groups, including the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the Reform movement. Another item, ethics reform, will ban lobbyists from involvement in congressional travel.
The travel reform is a compromise that Jewish groups have accepted in order to preserve educational tours of Israel for members of Congress.


01-02-07 - America doesn't have to run the world by Patrick J. Buchanan Interventionism has failed us. Americans are groping toward a new foreign policy that puts America first and a trade policy that puts Americans first.


01-02-07 - Israeli military chief refuses to resign over Lebanon war Israeli Defence Forces chief of staff, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, insists he will not resign over his conduct during last year's Lebanon war, despite admitting several shortcomings.


01-02-07 - israel desperately seeks war with Iran **


01-02-07 - Has Lebanon's Cedar revolt come undone?


01-02-07 - Jewish groups are expecting action with Democrats controlling Congress The American Israel Public Affairs Committee also plans to emphasize the Iranian threat at its traditional round of Capitol Hill briefings for lawmakers and their staffs, said Jennifer Cannata, an AIPAC spokeswoman. "Iran is on the top of the legislative agenda," she said