Headlines for March 18 - March 24

A Stand For Justice


The Crisis That Wasn’t by Philip Giraldi
the truly amazing part was that the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was so confident of the outcome that it didn’t even bother to hide very much of what it was doing, hardly deigning to engage in its usual clandestine arm twisting and slipped under the door "position papers." It immediately issued a public statement slamming the White House, asserting that "The Obama Administration’s recent statements regarding the US relationship with Israel are a matter of serious concern. AIPAC calls on the Administration to take immediate steps to defuse the tension with the Jewish State." It then unleashed its friends in Congress and the media. Its brazen campaign against the American president was executed all out on public view, right up front and recorded on the AIPAC website. I conjure you to read this excellent article by former CIA Philip Giraldi, my fellow citizens.


Medicating the military
At least one in six service members is on some form of psychiatric drug.


Ranks of amputees have risen steadily in 8 years of war
In the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, 967 American service members have lost at least one limb, as of March 1.


Obama to Iran: U.S. offer of dialogue still stands



A Third Muslim-World War?
"Secure in the support of its powerful friend, the weak ally can choose the objectives and methods of its foreign policy to suit itself," Morgenthau warned. "The powerful nation then finds it must support interests not its own and that it is unable to compromise on issues that are vital not to itself, but only to its ally." This is what George Washington warned us about in his Farewell Address - the evils of a passionate attachment. Read entire article if you can, paying attention to the last paragraph.


Iran sanctions may be secured with China abstention
Levitt said steps were being taken by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to increase their oil supplies to China, effectively weaning it off Iranian supplies. That might increase the likelihood of China backing a resolution.


US Department of Justice Asked to Regulate AIPAC as a Foreign Agent of the Israeli Government
2.AIPAC's founder Isaiah L. Kenen was the chief information officer for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in New York and for a time duly registered in that role. http://www.IRmep.org/Kenen.pdf The Justice Department ordered Kenen to personally re-register after he formally left the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to head up private lobbying and publicity for the Israeli government at the nonprofit American Zionist Council. Kenen never complied with the order


Rupert Cornwell: Obama won't restrain Israel - he can't
power lies in the perception of power, and no organisation in Washington is perceived to wield more power than AIPAC, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee. For proof, look no further than January 2009, when most of the rest of the world was horrified at the Israeli offensive in Gaza. At that moment the US House of Representatives, by a vote of 390 to five, chose to blame the entire crisis on Hamas.



US Lawmakers Stand Up Against Obama for Israel
For whom do they work?


Clinton: US wants biting sanctions on Iran
Headline should be changed to : 'Clinton: AIPAC said that the US wants biting sanctions on Iran'


Gen. Petraeus No Nukes for Iran ‘This Year’
Gen. Petraeus claimed this was because Iran’s efforts had been “delayed a bit.” He called for more international pressure against Iran, and declined to answer questions about a possible attack plan against the nation.


US, Russia clash over startup of Iran nuke plant
Lavrov forcefully asserted that, whatever the U.S. concerns, his country will finish its work on the Bushehr nuclear power plant shortly.



Report Claims Iran Arms Taliban
The allegation that arms from Iran are being supplied to the Taliban is not new. As my colleague Michael Gordon reported in 2007, Gen. Peter Pace, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, told reporters, “We have intercepted weapons in Afghanistan headed for the Taliban that were made in Iran.” At the time General Pace added that it was not clear if the arms from Iran were coming from that country’s government. Still trying to make case for war.


Taliban fighters training in Iran, U.S. officials say
The officials who spoke with CNN did not say how many Taliban fighters have been trained in Iran, or whether the training was sanctioned at the highest levels of the Iranian government.


Israel to ask US for bombs in the fight against Iran's Nuclear sites
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, will use a visit to Washington this week to press the US to release sophisticated bunker-busting bombs needed for a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear sites.


2nd mystery 'hit': Israeli jet flyover amid Hungary slay
In a possible sequel to the Dubai assassination, Israeli spy planes flew uninvited and unannounced over Budapest the same day a Syrian man was shot to death in his car, Hungarian media reported yesterday.


Syrian murder, Israeli planes not linked: official
Two Israeli airforce planes that made a low-level pass over Budapest this week had nothing to do with the killing of a Syrian man in the Hungarian capital on the same day, Hungarian officials said on Friday. Come on, really, Hungary?


The ADL targeting ….Gen. Petraeus



Israel Lobby Wants Iran, not the Peace Process to Top the U.S. Agenda
The amateur activists were preparing for Tuesday's blitz of Congress that has become a ritual of the annual policy conference of AIPAC, one of the nation's most influential interest groups. This year, according to Aserkoff, as many as 4,000 activists will hold roughly 500 meetings with their members of Congress or their staff.
This is possible, this overwhelming influence on Congress by the Israeli lobby, because YOU are not paying attention. The apathy on the part of the American people is half the problem. The lobby fills the void that should be filled by ordinary Americans that have no passionate attachment to Israel.


The American Conservative » Neocons Target Rand Paul
neoconservatives still set the foreign-policy agenda for the GOP. But they’re genuinely worried that the combination of a grassroots movement and an independently-minded candidate will deliver a blow to their power — especially if Rand Paul becomes only the first of many by showing that there is an alternative to Bushes and Kristols.


AIPAC's Talking Points On Iran and Palestinians
AIPAC has also posted their talking points memo regarding making the case for final passage of "crippling" Iran sanctions and pressing for better enforcement of existing sanctions - Crippling Sanctions Needed to Prevent Nuclear Iran .


Zionism’s Dark Forces Don’t Want the Lights On
blind though AIPAC is for that reason, it’s not completely out of touch with reality. It knows that the more Zionism’s on-going colonisation is exposed to the light, the more the world understands that Israel is the obstacle to peace. (The world now includes some of the U.S.’s top military men who are going on the public record with their view that support for Israel right or wrong is not in the best interests of America).



Netanyahu to AIPAC: Stop Iran or Israel Will
After the worst week in U.S.-Israel relations in 35 years, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington Monday and gave a powerful and effective speech at the AIPAC gala dinner at the Washington Convention Center, warning the world to stop Iran — or Israel will — and respectfully but directly challenging the Obama administration on Jerusalem and the peace process.....Netanyahu received scores of standing ovations from the 7,800 guests in attendance, the biggest event in the history of AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee). More than half of the members of the U.S. House and Senate were there Note the comments by Schumer and Graham.


Sen. Lindsey Graham: Any Attack on Iran Must Be Full-Scale
added Graham, a member of the Senate armed services committee, "sometimes it is better to go to war than to allow the Holocaust to develop a second time." And he told the crowd that "time is not on our side" and that this AIPAC conference could be the last of the lobby's annual get-togethers before Iran possesses nuclear weapons. Military action ought to be taken against Iran, he said, before the country acquires a nuclear bomb.


Lebanese army fires on Israeli warplanes: military
Lebanese anti–aircraft guns opened fire on two Israeli warplanes that were violating its airspace at medium altitude on Sunday, the military said....Israel's regular overflights into southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, are a breach of Resolution 1701 Why no sanctions for Israel?


World will do "whatever it takes" to stop Iran nuke: Blair
"Iran must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons capability. Iran must know that we will do whatever it takes to stop them getting it," Blair told the pro–Israel lobby AIPAC, adding it was a matter of global security.



Are Israel’s Policies a Threat to the U.S.?
Suggestions that Israeli policies might threaten American national security thus far seem not to have gained much traction among lawmakers, said an official with a pro-Israel organization in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said that the prevailing attitude on Capitol Hill is still that Israel is a security asset in the Middle East, not a burden. Congress- AIPAC's overwhelming influence thereof - is the real problem. We've got Congressmen and women that have the passionate attachment to Israel, and the rest are beholden to Israel's lobby. Our support for Israel is in fact a danger to this nation. And anyone in Congress that supports this is betraying the majority of the American people.


Eric Cantor to the Forward: Administration Is 'Bullying Israel'
Cantor and several other Republican lawmakers have criticized the administration’s tough stance on Israel in light of the dispute over the Jewish state’s approval of another 1,600 homes in contested East Jerusalem. Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, an independent, and Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, have also said that the Obama administration was wrong in pressuring Israel. I'm going to remind readers what former CIA head of the Bin Laden unit has to say about Israel in this CSpan video. Long, but worth the watch.


Powell Says New Sanctions on Iran Won’t Stop Nuclear Program - Bloomberg.com
“The Iranians are determined to have a nuclear program,” Powell said in the interview, which will be broadcast on Bloomberg Television’s “Conversations with Judy Woodruff” this weekend. “Notice I did not say a nuclear weapon. But they are determined to have a nuclear program, notwithstanding the last six or seven years of efforts on our part to keep them from having a nuclear program.”


Israel & Aid By Ralph Nader
Since 1996, the American taxpayers are still sending Israel $3 billion a year and providing assorted loan guarantees, waivers, rich technology transfers and other indirect assistance. Before George W. Bush left office a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Israel stipulated an assistance package of $30 billion over the next ten years to be transferred in a lump sum at the beginning of every fiscal year. Israel’s wars and colonies still receive U.S. taxpayer monies....the U.S. economy is mired in a recession, with large rates of growing poverty, unemployment, consumer debt and state and federal deficits. In some states, public schools are shutting, public health services are being slashed, and universities are increasing tuition while also cutting programs. Even state government buildings are being sold off. Read on.

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