Headlines for 10-10-07

Putin plays down Iran bomb fears "We do not have data that says Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons," Mr Putin said at a joint news conference with Mr Sarkozy.


Russia defies Western pressure over Iran Russia defied Western pressure to toughen its stance over Iran's nuclear program on Wednesday, days before President Vladimir Putin has talks in Tehran and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits Moscow.


Iraq's displaced people nightmare The scale of the overall displacement is unprecedented in the modern history of the Middle East.


Turkey plans military action against Kurds in Iraq Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that his Government is drawing up plans to authorise a military incursion into northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels there


How the Military Can Stop an Iran Attack ** .... a new appeal signed by Daniel Ellsberg, Cindy Sheehan, Ann Wright and many other leaders of the American peace movement: "ATTENTION: Joint Chiefs of Staff and all U.S. Military Personnel: Do not attack Iran." The initiative responds to the growing calls for an attack on Iran from the likes of Norman Podhoretz and John Bolton, and the reports of growing war momentum in Washington by reporters like Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker and Joe Klein of Time......Asked in an online discussion September 27 whether the Bush Administration will launch a war against Iran, Washington Post intelligence reporter Dana Priest replied, "Frankly, I think the military would revolt and there would be no pilots to fly those missions." REVOLT NOW. Thanks.


New US embassy complex in Baghdad riddled with problems Three months after the State Department confidently told Congress that the world's biggest US embassy would be completed on schedule in September 2007, officials are now saying that it would be delayed indefinitely, with one report saying by more than a year.


Report: Washington split on Syria WMDs Israel presented the Bush administration with intelligence meant to justify its Sept. 6 airstrike against a suspected nuclear facility in northern Syria, but some in Washington remain unconvinced, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Well shiver me timbers, we've still got some good guys in there, hallelujah!


'US support for Israel spurred 9/11' Bin Laden's concern had been reflected in his public statements throughout the 1990's - "well before 9-11." Citing the 9-11 Commission report, Mearsheimer and Walt argued that Bin Laden wanted to make sure the attackers struck Congress because it is "the most important source of support for Israel in the United States," adding that Bin Laden twice tried to move up the dates of the attacks because of events involving Israel...... Mearsheimer said there was "no question" that the "neo-conservatives were the main driving force behind the war, but they where supported by the main constituents in the [Israel] lobby, such as AIPAC."


Neocons Acquire Another Front Group by Philip Giraldi The neocon domination of the editorial pages of most major newspapers and magazines continues, and even the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has a board controlled by five Republican appointees chaired by Cheryl Feldman Halpern, who, prior to her appointment in 2005, complained that public television and radio exhibited an anti-Israel bias. The neocons, much more than traditional conservatives and liberals, continue to be adept at networking and getting their message across, even if that message has frequently been mugged by reality. If you turn on a television and are invited to learn the views of an "expert" on foreign policy, that expert is likely to be a neocon. Philip Giraldi - a former CIA counterterrorism official - one of the good guys.


War Whisperers Canvassing the campaigns, it is hard to find a conservative of any other stripe advising the top tiers, indicating that like Wolfowitz?s continued celebrity, neoconservativism is far from being upstaged.


The man who stands between US and new war ** Pentagon sources say Mr Gates is waging a subtle campaign to undermine the Cheney camp by encouraging the army's senior officers to speak frankly about the overstretch of forces, and the difficulty of fighting another war. I urge all relevant people in the administration and out to speak out now before - as one popular political commentator with whom this webmistress corresponds believes - it's too late.


Israel's Strike On Syrian Facilities Was a Dry Run - Philip Giraldi **


Russia, Mideast focus of Rice trip


Bomb, Bomb Iran ** Hillary?s hawkish Iran vote was an ill-advised move, especially given her private view that Cheney is untrustworthy and given Sy Hersh?s New Yorker report claiming that Cheney had pushed to devise a plan to attack the Revolutionary Guard facilities in Iran.


Bipartisan Heavies Call for Engagement


Palestinian refugees turn down Sudanese asylum offer "They think Sudan is too risky and that after a few months there may be a war there. They want to go somewhere safe where they can work and live in peace,"


Geopolitical Diary: A New Shield for Israel Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday that Israel will soon be able to intercept 90 percent of the missiles launched at it, from Iran's Shahab-3 missiles to Palestinian Qassam rockets.


Far Right Israelis Get Boost From Senator Elon, who supports the transfer of Palestinians out of the West Bank and Gaza, and considers the Palestinian Authority a ?danger to the region,? represents the far right of Israeli politics. By endorsing him, Brownback seems to be placing himself to the right of other Republican candidates on Israel policy.


Horowitz's Latest Hate Campaign Heads for Campus Hyping up the threat of 'Islamofascism' to America is the MO of the Israeli lobby and in particular, the neocons. I give you Patrick Buchanan's retort to this 'theat', paragraph 10 in particular.


Families return to Lebanon camp "I'm so happy about going back, even if it's to just one inch of what's left of my home. It's as symbolic as returning to Palestine," Um Akram Awdeh, 60, told the Reuters news agency, as he waited in a bus to enter the camp.