Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Headlines for April 22 - April 28

A Stand For Justice


Obama tells Barak US committed to Israel's security
Monday's meeting with Obama and Jones was the first in a series of meetings Barak is scheduled to hold with administration officials. The talks are expected to focus on the Iranian nuclear threats, the developments in Lebanon and Syria and the stalled peace negotiations with the Palestinians.


Israel warns against giving Iran too much time
Iran and the rearming of the Hezbollah militia were major topics of Barak's session at the Pentagon. He met earlier Tuesday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.




Mideast peace would thwart Iran ambitions: Obama aide
While acknowledging disagreements with Israel, Jones said the U.S. commitment to its ally was "unbreakable." "There is no space –– no space –– between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel's security," he said.


Netanyahu: Iran provoking Israel-Syria conflict
Netanyahu says Iran is trying to convince Syria that an Israeli attack is imminent, which he says is a "lie."




Demonizing Iran: US Media Continue Beating War Drums
Aside from the fact that there is no hard evidence that Iran is trying to make a nuclear bomb or even to refine uranium to obtain nuclear-grade material, the paper ignored one crucial point: Israel cannot "go it alone" in any strike on Iran, since its key weapons--F15 and F-16 fighter-bombers--are supplied to it, and kept flying, thanks to the equipment and spare parts provided by the United States


U.S. lawmaker: Obama should deal with Iran nukes, not criticize Israel
Ros-Lehtinen lashed out at Obama for neglecting to deal with the "urgency" of Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons: "After months of generous offers and repeated rejections with one deadline after another passing without action, nothing of substance has been accomplished and Iran continues to relentlessly move forward. Ros-Lehtinen is one of Israel's top agents in Congress. She spends more time on all matters Israel than she does on those of America, evidently.


'All options' open if Syria gives Hezbollah missiles: US



US: Missile transfers could lead to war
Earlier, Israeli officials have warned of the grave consequences of Scud missile transfers to Hezbollah. No kidding? Say I wonder who our lawmakers take their cues from?


Biden: Israel won't attack Iran before sanctions allowed to work
On Wednesday, the Obama administration said that progress toward Middle East peace would help thwart Iran's ambitions by preventing it from "cynically" using the conflict to divert attention from its nuclear program.


An Act Of War By Congressman Ron Paul
Mr. Speaker I rise in opposition to this motion to instruct House conferees on HR 2194, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act, and I rise in strong opposition again to the underlying bill and to its Senate version as well. I object to this entire push for war on Iran, however it is disguised. Listening to the debate on the Floor on this motion and the underlying bill it feels as if we are back in 2002 all over again: the same falsehoods and distortions used to push the United States into a disastrous and unnecessary one trillion dollar war on Iraq are being trotted out again to lead us to what will likely be an even more disastrous and costly war on Iran. The parallels are astonishing. Ron Paul- one of the few to stand up to Israel's lobby and its minions on Capitol Hill.


U.S. Nuclear Option on Iran Linked to Israeli Attack Threat
Although administration officials have carefully refrained from drawing any direct connection between the new nuclear option and the Israeli threat, the NPR broadens the range of contingencies in which nuclear weapons might play a role so as to include an Iranian military response to an Israeli attack.


Egypt: Scud controversy ups Israel-Lebanon tension
Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit traveled to Beirut on Saturday to discuss the issue and later told reporters there the scud allegations are "lies and are laughable."



Iran a Threat? I Mean, Really? By Ray McGovern
All right. Secretary Clinton concedes that Iran does not directly threaten the United States. Now who are these "friends" to whom she refers? First and foremost, Israel, of course. How often have we heard Israeli officials warn that they would consider nuclear weapons in Iran's hands an "existential" threat?


US Senate leader: Iran is 'festering sore'
Reid's comments came as the US Congress took a key step towards imposing new sanctions targeting Iran's imports of gasoline and other refined petroleum products to force the Islamic republic to halt its suspect nuclear program.


Sanctions on Iran's gasoline imports? That's war talk.
there’s a big problem: The only way to really enforce such a crippling sanction against the Iranian economy would be through an American-led naval blockade which, by international law, is an act of war.


McKeon, House reaffirm support for crippling sanctions against Iran



Iran to give UN better access to nuclear sites, say diplomats



US official: Iran military strike 'off the table'
"Military force is an option of last resort," Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy said during a press briefing in Singapore. "It's off the table in the near term."



Smoke and Mirrors from the Washington Post by Philip Giraldi
There were two odd intelligence related articles in today’s Washington Post. The first , on the front page, was “Discontented Iranian Officials Provide Wealth of Intelligence.” The article relies on unnamed intelligence sources to claim that the CIA has been receiving so much information from disgruntled Iranians that it has delayed the completion of the next National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. Having worked as a CIA case officer against the Iranian target, I am deeply skeptical of the article’s thrust and suspect that the piece is itself disinformation designed to convince the Mullahs that Washington knows just about everything going on inside Iran.


Option of striking Iran never off the table: Pentagon
"We are not taking any options off the table as we pursue the pressure and engagement tracks," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said. "The president always has at his disposal a full array of options, including use of the military ... It is clearly not our preferred course of action but it has never been, nor is it now, off the table."



Is Iran Running Out of Uranium?
Wait now, I thought they were so close to having the bomb that we need to act immediately, so our Israeli overlords tell us.


Iran begins war games in Persian Gulf oil route
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said "they don't seem out of the ordinary" from what Iran's military has done in the past. He also said Tehran often makes exaggerated claims about its weapons testing.


Diplomats: Iran agrees to more IAEA overview
Iran has agreed to give the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency greater inspection and monitoring rights to a sensitive site where it is enriching uranium to higher levels, diplomats said Friday.



Hezbollah vows to continue amassing 'arms of resistance'
Israel and the U.S. have accused Syria of supplying Hezbollah with Scud missiles, which are capable of striking deep into Israel. BothBeirut and Damascus have denied this.


Firm Run by Ex-Israeli Special Forces Soldier Wants US Security Contracts in Jerusalem, Iraq, Afghanistan



Abrams: U.S. must address Iran’s threat to Israel
“Israelis are living under the threat of annihilation every day," Elliot Abrams, the Bush administration's National Security Council senior director for Near East and North African Affairs, said April 25 at the Baltimore Zionist District’s "U.S.-Israel Relations In A New Era" symposium, the Baltimore Jewish Times reported. "If the world does not act, I believe Israel will act, and I hope the U.S. will.”


Scuds or no Scuds, south Lebanon beckons tourists
"We are defying Israel with projects like these," said Moussa Nasrallah, the Lebanese engineer in charge of the park project. "The idea was to show that this area that was leveled and where Israeli tanks were once positioned is now a booming place." ....."This is a form of civilian resistance, which is even more important than military resistance," he told The Associated Press. "Resistance can be in going to have lunch, dinner or just a drink along the border."



Lies and Wars
Once more the threat is a polemical invention, intended to frighten American, Israeli (and European) voters, and prompt a preemptive attack on Iran. The reason Mr. Gates reports his uncertainties to the president is that he too recognizes that the conflict with Iran is constructed from fictions – which, as with the lies about Iraq, may turn into another war, whose consequences are sure to be worse for all concerned than the fiasco and tragedy of America’s invasion of Iraq.


Video: Tyranny & Politics of Fear, Loyalty to Israel vs. US
Post presents an exclusive interview with Colonel Larry Wilkerson on the tyrannical presidency and politics of fear, Israel’s interests versus US interests and the question of loyalties, and more: A great video. Five minutes long. Watch it.


Hezbollah slams US accusations
In comments published Wednesday in the Arabic–language newspaper As–Safir, which is close to Hezbollah, Fadlallah said Hezbollah's arms do not compare to "the level of armament of the United States, which it used in its crimes against peoples around the world, from Hiroshima to the more than 100,000 martyrs killed in Iraq and the tens of thousands killed in Palestine, Lebanon and Afghanistan."



Tectonic Shifts at CIA by Philip Giraldi