Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Headlines for September 9 - September 15

A Stand For Justice


Pentagon proposes huge sale of warplanes to Saudis
The Obama administration is seeking a go–ahead from Congress to sell up to $60 billion worth of sophisticated warplanes to Saudi Arabia and could add another $30 billion worth of naval arms in a deal designed to counter the rise of Iran as a regional power.....Washington plans to counterbalance the sales to Arab nations with $30 billion in military assistance to Israel over 10 years. Israel is buying about 20 advanced American F–35 fighter jets worth $4 billion, to be funded by U.S. military aid to the country.





A Modest Proposal by Philip Giraldi
The Founders knew that endless warfare on the European model would be the death of the American republic and its liberties and they made every effort to avoid it, demanding an open debate and majority vote by the United States Congress as a precondition. This proposal is a great one.


Afghans protest Quran burning plan, torch US flag
Hundreds of angry Afghans burned a U.S. flag and chanted "Death to the Christians" on Thursday to protest plans by a small American church to torch copies of the Muslim holy book on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.



Economists cut U.S. growth forecast again
"Given the depth of the recession, a forecast of roughly trend growth this year and next amounts to a very disappointing pace of recovery, with little progress expected to be made in lowering the unemployment rate," the forecast said.



Pennsylvania Gov. Rendell 'Appalled' by State's Tracking of Activists
Gov. Rendell said Tuesday that he was "appalled" and "embarrassed" that his administration's Office of Homeland Security has been tracking and circulating information about legitimate protests by activist groups that do not pose a threat to public safety.


States cutting benefits for public-sector retirees
Since 2008, New Jersey and at least 19 other states from Wyoming to Rhode Island have rolled back pension benefits or seriously considered doing do – and not just for new hires, but for current employees and people already retired.....The Pew Center on the States reported this year that in eight states, at least one–third of the future pension obligations for all public employees, including teachers, are unfunded. As of 2008, Pew said, state and local governments had pension obligations totaling $3.35 trillion – $1 trillion of that not covered by the future stream of government and employee contributions specified under current law.




Bombshell from London
The report, presided over by the former deputy director of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI-6, says the threat from al-Qaeda and Taliban has been "exaggerated" by the western powers. The US-led mission in Afghanistan has "ballooned" out of all proportion from its original aim of disrupting and defeating al-Qaeda. The US-led war in Afghanistan, says IISS, using uncharacteristically blunt language, is "a long-drawn-out disaster".......Abandoning its usual discretion, IISS said it was issuing these warnings because the deepening war in Afghanistan was threatening the west’s security interests by distracting its leaders from the world financial crisis and Iran, and burning through scarce funds needed elsewhere.


US accuses Iran of intimidating nuclear inspectors



Doomsday warnings of US apocalypse gain ground
According to a poll by the StrategyOne Institute published Friday, some 65 percent of Americans believe there will be a new recession.

And the view that America is on a decline seems rather well ingrained in many people's minds supported by 65 percent of people questioned in a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll published last week......He said the United Sates is losing its world dominance much in the same way the British Empire began to crumble more than a century ago.

Hey I know: let's attack Iran.


U.S., allies should accept a nuclear-armed Iran
An attack on Iran is coming — if you believe what some analysts in the nation’s capital are saying.

Israel, they predict, will make a pre-emptive strike to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon — and probably sooner rather than later if U.S. conservatives rack up big gains in the Nov. 2 elections.

Let’s hope the pundits are wrong because the Air Force will almost certainly be drawn into the fight — and it doesn’t need to help wage another ill-fated war......Although many Americans want to support Israel, the feeling is not universal. A big reason is the size of the check the U.S. is writing. Just one example: Israel’s F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program, estimated at $30 billion, will be paid for by American taxpayers. $30 billion dollars? The American taxpayers could put that money to better use than to continue to arm the most rogue nation in the Middle East.


Iran to release one of three captured US hikers



Obama says Islam not the enemy on tense 9/11 anniversary



US to Arabs: Don't Make Israel a 'Pariah' at IAEA
Arab countries, backed by Iran, are seeking to build on a victory at an assembly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency last year when they narrowly won support for a non-binding resolution calling on Israel to join the Non-Proliferation treaty. Israel evidently must remain above the law.


Israel-Iran War: Not Inevitable



Now, It's the Jewish Men Who Are Wearing Burqas
over the past years, we’ve seen the birth of the Jewish burqa-wearers, embracing the most uncomfortable of severe Islamic restrictions — a fully covered body and a veil over the face.

Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/131066/#ixzz10DLezweM


U.S. diplomat fears condemnation of Israel
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. nuclear watchdog fears Arab ambassadors may condemn Israel at the next board of governors meeting, Asharq al-Awsat reported.


Danny Yatom urges strike on Iranian nuclear sites



Report: Ahmadinejad to visit Lebanon's border with Israel


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will make an official visit to Lebanon next month, the Iranian administration said in an official announcement on Thursday.


Imam says NYC mosque site is not 'hallowed ground'
It is two blocks from ground zero, but the site of a proposed mosque and Islamic center shouldn't be seen as "hallowed ground" in a neighborhood that also contains a strip club and a betting parlor, the cleric leading the effort said Monday


The ‘Meaning’ of 9-11 by Justin Raimondo
Millions pour into the coffers of these groups, all of which are dedicated to one overriding principle, one goal: advancing Israel’s national interests in the US. The serpentine convolutions of the Chernick connection, linking one front group to another, encircle the political and temperamental spectrum, ranging from the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles (over $900k) to the many hundreds of thousands given to hardline neoconservative outfits like the Hudson Institute, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, not to mention Pajamas Media ($7 million, in collusion with venture capitalist James "extensively experienced in multimillion-dollar technology transfer and license agreements " Koshland) and a mass campaign to distribute DVDs of the virulently anti-Muslim film "Obsession." And again.


UN nuclear chief chides Iran, defends monitors
Beyond Iran, the board – and a subsequent assembly of the 151 IAEA member nations – will focus on allegations of a hidden Syrian nuclear program; something Syria denies. Israel – which is commonly considered to have nuclear arms – is also on the agenda, with Islamic nations pushing the Jewish state to open its atomic activities to IAEA perusal.


Clinton resuming 'last chance' Mideast peace talks
More broadly, the status quo is a drag on U.S. interests. The wars and grievances that flowed from Israel's 1948 founding as a Jewish state have divided the Middle East, and U.S. officials have argued that the conflict begets hatred and suspicion of the U.S. as Israel's principal ally.



Matthews says Obama has gone ‘neocon.’ Why?
As for Obama's neoconservativism, anti-Vietnam-war Democrats like Schumer, Berman, and Lieberman voted for the Iraq war, surely in part because of Israel's security. Just as many Democrats are now pushing for an attack on Iran. The Iran saber-rattling is not a partisan issue; both parties are corrupted (as both existing parties were by the slave power); and the cause of the rot is the Israel lobby. Until the media start talking about it, politicians can't run against it, and voters won't be able to vote against it.


Major pro-Israel giver funding Jihad Watch
A woman who with her husband has contributed large sums to pro-Israel and Jewish groups is the principal funder of a leading foe of the Ground Zero Islamic center.....Aubrey and Joyce Chernick, Politico reported, over the years have contributed to, among other groups, the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles; the Anti-Defamation League; the Zionist Organization of America; MEMRI, a group that distributes translations of inflammatory Arabic language material; the Investigative Project on Terrorism, a group that tracks what it depicts as the threat of radical Islam; the American Jewish Congress; CAMERA, a group that tracks what it says is anti-Israel bias in the media; the Central Fund for Israel, a clearinghouse for monies directed to pro-settler groups; and a number of conservative think tanks. As I noted in a previous news batch: it is the Israeli lobby that is largely behind this anti-Muslim sentiment in America.


Netanyahu said Iran was 3-5 years away from nuclear capability– back in ‘95!
One has to question Netanyahu's sincerity because Israel uses this alleged threat. It uses it to distract the world from its oppression of Palestinians, and from Obama's pressure on it to stop settlement activities. Netanyahu has never wanted to stop settlement activity. He needs an existential threat to turn attention away.


2 killed in Afghan anti-Quran-burning protest
At previous protests, witnesses said Taliban agitators were among the crowd and Taliban–distributed pamphlets claimed the planned Quran burning showed the Americans were in Afghanistan to wage war against Islam.



Wars of Religion by Patrick J. Buchanan
Read comments section as well.


Bonfire of the Korans by Patrick J. Buchanan
if Obama does not have the power to stop actions like this, imperiling our troops, then we should get out of this war. Comments are interesting too.


UN experts rap US over private security firms
The group highlighted a case brought against US firms CACI and L-3 Services - formerly known as Titan Corporation - over the alleged torture of detainees at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

"CACI and L-3 argued that they should receive immunity because they were contractors and because the violations in this case arose out of detentions in Iraq," noted the working group.

A US court dismissed the case saying that the companies had immunity as government contractors.


Ground Zero mosque Imam blames Sarah Palin for 'growing Islamophobia'



Tony Blair and the Great Islamic Threat
Blair has never publicly acknowledged that Saddam was actually an enemy of radical Islam: admitting that would drain the last dram of logic from his justification for invading Iraq. So he only talks in general terms about fighting “radical Islam” and hopes that the more ignorant part of the public will think that includes the Iraq war.


Fears rise over growing anti-Muslim feeling in U.S.
"The radicals in the United States and the radicals in the Muslim world, feed off each other. And to a certain extent, the attention that they've been able to get by the media has even aggravated the problem," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf in an interview with ABC news aired on Sunday.


Fellow Americans' suspicions frustrate US Muslims
Within the U.S., domestic terror has become a greater threat, while ignorance about what Islam teaches is widespread. More than half of respondents in a recent poll by the Pew Forum for Religion & Public Life said they knew little or nothing about the Muslim faith.




Are Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin Cashing in on 9-11



Report: US must deal with domestic radical problem
The U.S. was slow to take seriously the threat posed by homegrown radicals and the government has failed to put systems in place to deal with the growing phenomenon, according to a new report compiled by the former heads of the Sept. 11 Commission.



Record gains for US poverty with elections looming
Should those estimates hold true, some 45 million people in this country, or more than 1 in 7, were poor last year. It would be the highest single–year increase since the government began calculating poverty figures in 1959. The previous high was in 1980 when the rate jumped 1.3 percentage points to 13 percent during the energy crisis.



Mosque retreat will feed extremism, warns NY imam
The Islamic cleric behind plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero in New York warned on Sunday that retreating on the project would only strengthen the hand of the Muslim extremists.




To Know a Muslim
In a 2007 nationwide poll, the Pew Research Center found a similar correlation: 56% of those surveyed who knew Muslims had a favorable impression of them, but that positive view was shared by only 32% of those who didn’t know anyone who practiced Islam. And the pattern extends beyond this particular group.



Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth Announces: Hard Evidence of Explosive Demolition of World Trade Center High-rises on 9/11
Read it before you judge. Interesting points are raised, if what they claim is true.


Cuba says U.S. embargo has toughened under Obama
There has been more leniency, too, in granting of licenses for visits by U.S. performers and academics, but progress has stalled since Cuba detained a U.S. contractor in December on suspicion of espionage.

The contractor, Alan Gross, remains behind bars in Cuba, without formal charges. The U.S. says he was not a spy, but was in Cuba installing Internet services for Jewish groups


Let's Stop Fulfilling Bin Laden's Goals By Ted Koppel






No comments: