Thursday, March 25, 2010

Headlines for March 11 - March 17

A Stand For Justice


China envoy urges Iran to compromise, wary on sanctions
China faces mounting demands from Western powers to approve a proposed United Nations resolution imposing new sanctions on Tehran, which they say wants the means to make nuclear weapons and has broken non–proliferation safeguards.


Report: US shipping arms ahead of strike on Iran
Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean ahead of a possible attack on Iran, The Herald reported Wednesday.


report US Sending Massive Amounts of Weaponry to Diego Garcia
The proximity is not lost on Iran’s state media, which is reporting that the bunker-busters are a clear move to threaten Iran’s nuclear facilities. The US has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran over its civilian nuclear program.


Petraeus says Iran nuke won't happen this year
The top U.S. commander in the Middle East says Iran's efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon have been delayed "a bit" and that Iran won't get a nuclear weapon this year.



Pentagon vs. Israel?
"Not surprisingly, what Biden told Netanyahu reflected the importance the administration attached to Petraeus's Mullen briefing: 'This is starting to get dangerous for us,' Biden reportedly told Netanyahu. 'What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.'


“This is Starting to Get Dangerous”
“The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel’s actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism.”


Poodle Biden Gets Kicked by Patrick J. Buchanan
Israeli and U.S. interests often run parallel, but they are not the same. Israel is concerned with a neighborhood. We are concerned with a world of 300 million Arabs and a billion Muslims. Our policies cannot be the same.
If they are, we will end up with all of Israel’s enemies, who are legion, and only Israel’s friends, who are few.



Report: Petraeus Warns Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mullen that Israel Is Jeopardizing US Security Interests



The Petraeus Briefing: Biden’s Embarrassment Is Not The Whole Story
UPDATE: A senior military officer denied Sunday that Petraeus sent a paper to the White House.


Supporting the War Instead of the Troops by Rep. Ron Paul
the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us.


The Rogue Nation



Pakistani Scientist Khan Describes Iranian Efforts to Buy Nuclear Bombs
Manufacturing Consent For Attack On Iran


Petraeus Cites Progress, But Says Difficult, Uncertain Year Ahead in Afghanistan, Iraq
he called Iran "the major state-level threat to regional stability," accusing its leaders of supporting violent groups in Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan. The general said he believes Iran is working to develop a nuclear weapon, but he does not expect the process to be completed this year. Come on, really, Gen. Petraeus?


China: Iran Sanctions 'Counterproductive'
China's new Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva says his country does not want Iran to have nuclear weapons. But he says his country is opposed to sanctions against Iran, calling them counterproductive.



US to Turkey: Step up pressure on Iran, support IAEA
or you'll pass another bill iterating that the Armenian Genocide was in fact a genocide?...


Petraeus Confirms Link Between Israel-Palestine and U.S. Security
Petraeus’ willingness to publicly — and in uniform with all those decorations on his chest — make the connection between Israeli treatment of the Palestinians and the spread of “anti-American sentiment” and the deterioration of the U.S. position in the region — a connection which, of course, is completely evident to any casual observer of Middle East — marks what can only be considered a major breakthrough in the debate over the relationship between the United States and Israel.


Knesset to Biden For Smooth Relations, Free Pollard
With impeccable timing, a broadly representative group of Israeli Knesset members sent a joint letter to Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday and asked him to work to free confessed spy Jonathan Pollard from federal prison in honor of the Passover holiday and “as an expression of the good relations and friendship between our two peoples.” It was signed by party whips or representatives of eight of the nine Jewish parties in the Knesset




U.S. TELLS ISRAEL: “YOU ARE UNDERMINING AMERICA, ENDANGERING TROOPS”
the extent of Israeli involvement in areas that had taken the “special relationship” into an area of disaster for the United States. This is what was discovered: Read on.


Jerusalem Pitches Goldstone Report as a Threat to U.S. Military and its Allies
So far, based on the voting on the Feb. 26 U.N. resolution, many of the countries other than America toward whom Israel is aiming this argument seem unpersuaded. I wonder why that is?


Arab world says hopes in Obama are dwindling
the mistrust has already hurt U.S. policy. U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Gulf nations have rejected U.S. pressure to make diplomatic gestures to Israel to encourage it in the peace process, citing its hard line on settlements.
It could bleed over into other realms, such as U.S. attempt to isolate Iran, which Washington and its allies accuse of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the claims.


Biden steers past spat over Israel settlement plan
Addressing a key Israeli security concern, Biden also said the U.S. is "determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons."


Subservient Superpower by Philip Giraldi
The real indication of whether or not the White House will or can begin to break the chains that bind will come at the end of this week when AIPAC holds its annual conference. AIPAC is keenly aware of the need to pull the American colossus back in line and will do so by playing the evil Iran card over and over again and by demanding obeisance from a long line of politicians and media pundits. The AIPAC lovefest will conclude with an address by Hillary Clinton next Monday.


Gates appeals to Saudis to back sanctions on Iran
With China apparently the strongest holdout to sanctions among the five veto–wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council, the Americans have turned to their Saudi allies to persuade China to reconsider.
Washington hopes the Saudis could guarantee China stable oil supplies in the event of disruption from Iran. And the Saudis in turn probably want progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, progress which we cannot obtain because of Israeli intransigence with respect to illegal settlements. This is a supreme irony since it is Israel that is behind this whole Iran-sanctions push.


Taboo Thwarts Candor on Israel/Iran
Israel: Elephant Not Allowed in the Room


Knesset to Biden: For Smooth Relations, Free Pollard
With impeccable timing, a broadly representative group of Israeli Knesset members sent a joint letter to Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday and asked him to work to free confessed spy Jonathan Pollard from federal prison in honor of the Passover holiday and “as an expression of the good relations and friendship between our two peoples.” It was signed by party whips or representatives of eight of the nine Jewish parties in the Knesset


Foxman: Don't blame the Jews
Eytan Gilboa, a political science professor at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan and a specialist on US-Israeli relations, said the government needed to frontally counter this argument because it risked eroding support for Israel among the US public.
Notice the knee-jerk reaction by Foxman to label this as anti-Jewish (read, anti-Semitic).


Israeli FM reportedly boycotts Brazil's President Lula
Mr Lieberman was reportedly upset that Mr Lula refused to visit the grave of the founder of the Zionist movement.
Mr Lula also opposes sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program
Oh dear.


Spy Takes US/Israeli Secrets to Grave
Extensive evidence now exists that Begin’s preference for Reagan led the Israelis to join in a covert operation with Republicans to contact Iranian leaders behind Carter’s back, interfering with the President’s efforts to free the 52 American hostages before the November 1980 elections.
David Kimche could have been a key witness to these events. Ben-Menashe identified the Israeli spymaster as a middleman between Begin and CIA veterans who initially supported former CIA Director George H.W. Bush, who ran against Reagan before ending up as his vice presidential choice.





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