US offered Israel advanced weaponry in exchange for delaying Iran attack
Instead of drumming up a war to meet the needs of the political moment, B.O. is trying to drum up a fake temporary “peace(?)” or something that could pass for it to the undiscriminating.
Now, what could be the motivation for THAT? Hmmmm. Oh, here it it, right in the article:
Under the proposed deal, Israel would not attack Iran until 2013, after US elections in November this year.
Such a deal for Israel. Yeah, right!
Iran Placing Medium-Range Missiles in Venezuela; Can Reach the U.S.
Iran is planning to place medium-range missiles on Venezuelan soil, based on western information sources[1], according to an article in the German daily, Die Welt, of November 25, 2010. According to the article, an agreement between the two countries was signed during the last visit o Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Tehran on October19, 2010. The previously undisclosed contract provides for the establishment of a jointly operated military base in Venezuela, and the joint development of ground-to-ground missiles.
The Chief recently finished reading Michael Dobbs’ One Minute to Midnight, his engaging, authoritative, and detailed account of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, and how we were able to avoid a thermonuclear war largely due to the fact that grown-ups (Kennedy and Krushchev) were at least nominally in charge, and in spite of a spontaneous flow of negative events were able to engineer a mutually tolerable conclusion to the situation. (By the way, the book is a great read…sort of Tom Clancy for real!)
Unfortunately one doubts that with Obama, Hugo Chavez, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the players today, that the character and level of rationality available will prove to be adequate to maintain sanity, to say nothing of national security.
The situation that is unfolding in Venezuela has some resemblance to the Cuba crisis of 1962. At that time, Cuba was acting on behalf of the USSR; now Venezuela is acting on behalf of Iran. At present, the geopolitical situation is very different: the world is no longer ruled by two superpowers; new nations, often with questionable leaders and the ambition of acquiring global status, are appearing on the international scene. Their danger to the free world will be greater if the process of nuclear proliferation is not stopped. Among the nations that aspire to become world powers, Iran has certainly the best capabilities of posing a challenge to the West.
Back in the 1962, thanks to the stern stance adopted by the then Kennedy administration, the crisis was defused.
Nowadays, however, we do not see the same firmness from the present administration. On the contrary, we see a lax attitude, both in language and in deeds, that results in extending hands when our adversaries have no intention of shaking hands with us. Iran is soon going to have a nuclear weapon, and there are no signs that UN sanctions will in any way deter the Ayatollah’s regime from completing its nuclear program. We know that Iran already has missiles that can carry an atomic warhead over Israel and over the Arabian Peninsula. Now we learn that Iran is planning to build a missile base close to the US borders. How longer do we have to wait before the Obama administration begins to understand threats?
Pray.
B.O. administration non-decisiveness chickens are starting to come home to roost.
Is Yemen the most dangerous new front in the war on terror?
In case you don’t recall, one of Major Hasan’s internet e-mail pen pals is Yemeni Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki.
Sheikh Anwar’s latest blogpost describes Major Hasan as a “hero”, a man of conscience. Given that the cleric says other Muslims have a right, or a duty, to behave similarly, army investigators will no doubt be keen to see who else was in contact with him. But the blog is worth reading for other reasons, too. Last month, for instance, Sheikh Anwar told us to expect the unexpected. But the message had nothing to do with Fort Hood. Instead, his focus was closer to hand: “Could Yemen be the Next Surprise of the Season?” he asked.
The Yemen situation is truly what the Brits might refer to as “a sticky wicket”.
The multiple crises afflicting Yemen are not a surprise to anyone who has been watching, and certainly not to those in Washington. There is every reason to suppose that the US authorities are far more alarmed over events there than they were over Major Hasan, but they have been similarly unsure how to react. Some commentators in the Middle East are starting to see this as a trend: an uncertainty over how to deal with the Muslim world is leading to disaster.
Yemen, which occupies an important position at the tip of the Red Sea and on the borders of Saudi Arabia, is home to three separate conflicts. One is against al-Qaeda, which has put down strong roots in the territory, the ancestral home of the Bin Laden clan. One is against secessionists in the south. The third is the most obscure, the most seemingly pointless, but the most destructive: a long, drawn-out campaign against an insurgency by a group of Shia tribalists known as the Houthis.
Fir the gory details of Yemen (“It ain’t that pretty at all.”) go to the piece. Meanwhile, on other fronts of WW-IV, formerly known as the G.W.O.T., things aren’t much better:
…In the Occupied Territories, America has scuppered its Palestinian ally Mahmoud Abbas by allowing him to set conditions for talks with Israel which it then allowed Israel to ignore.
On Iran, Washington set a deadline for a response to a proposed deal on enriched uranium, and then let the deadline pass. Israel and Saudi Arabia, who both regard Iran as a mortal enemy, are taking counsel.
In Afghanistan, it has just given itself more time to decide whether to send extra troops. Can Hamid Karzai even consider himself a friend of America any more?
The trend was summarised by Riad Kahwaji, the chief executive of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, in a research note yesterday: “It is a bad time to be an American ally.” He quotes one Arab official as asking, “With a weak and hesitant ally, who needs enemies?”
No such uncertainty affects the Houthis, whose slogan could not be clearer: “God is Great; Death to America; Death to Israel.” [emphases added]
As is common these days…one needs to go to the UK press to get a decent picture of events.
When it comes to Iran, the U.S. may be facing a cataclysm
Victor Davis Hanson is a military historian; Robert Baer a former CIA field officer. Both have studied the Middle East for decades, traveled to the area repeatedly in recent years and written about the region extensively. And both have become convinced that we may be facing a cataclysm.
Hanson and Baer each presented his analysis during an interview this past week. Although they differ on certain matters, they agree on five observations.
There is more of the backstory on each of these in the article, but that doesn’t make the situation look any better.
The first: If not already capable of doing so, Iran will be able to produce nuclear weapons in mere months.
The second observation: The Iranians have no interest in running a bluff. Once able to produce nuclear weapons, they will almost certainly do so.
The third observation: As the Iranians scramble to produce nuclear weapons, the Obama administration appears too feckless, inexperienced or deluded to stop them.
The Chief doesn’t know whether it is the fecklessness, inexperience, or delusion that is causing the problem. Probably all three!
The fourth observation: Israel cannot tolerate a nuclear Iran.
The final observation: Iran would retaliate.
“Iran’s deterrent doctrine is to strike back everywhere it can,” Baer explained. “We should expect the worst.” Iran would attack American supply lines in Iraq and command Hezbollah to start a civil war in Lebanon. It would fire surface-to-surface missiles at every oil facility within range, wreaking devastation in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states while removing millions of barrels of oil a day from the world markets. The economy of the entire globe would suffer a paroxysm. The Middle East could descend into chaos. The U.S. would experience the worst crisis in decades.
After the assassination 95 years ago of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the great powers of Europe engaged in meaningless diplomatic maneuvers. “Austria has sent a bullying and humiliating ultimatum to Serbia, who cannot possibly comply with it,” British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith confided in a letter. “[W]e are in measurable, or at least imaginable, distance of a real Armageddon.”
A big nation attempting to humiliate a small nation in a way the small nation simply cannot accept. Unseriousness among great powers. A gathering sense of impending catastrophe. Once again, it may be Armageddon time.
Like the lyric of an old Warren Zevon song: “It ain’t that pretty at all!”.
US giant bunker-buster bomb project rushed since Iran’s Qom site discovered
The Pentagon has brought forward to December 2009 the target-date for producing the first 15-ton super bunker-buster bomb (GBU-57A/B) Massive Ordinance Penetrator, which can reach a depth of 60.09 meters underground before exploding. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that top defense agencies and air force units were also working against the clock to adapt the bay of a B2a Stealth bomber for carrying and delivering the bomb.
30,000 pounds?! Uff da!
Congress has since quietly inserted the necessary funding in the 2009 budget.
Dang! Who’d have thought Congress could do anything besides increase taxes or pass new restrictive regulations QUIETLY?
All this urgency indicates that the Obama administration has been preparing military muscle to back up the international condemnation of Iran’s concealed nuclear bomb program, its sanctions threat and his willingness to join the negotiations with Iran opening on Oct. 1 in Geneva. Tehran may have to take into account a possible one-time surgical strike against its underground enrichment facility as a warning shot should its defiance continue. In particular, the world powers this week demanded that Iran open up all its nuclear facilities and programs to full and immediate international inspection. Failure to do so could bring forth further US military action.
A LIGHT IN THE FOREST? This could be a sign of the survival of SOME rationality in the White House.  One can only hope!
According to our military sources, the earliest date for the accelerated Pentagon program to produce a super bunker buster bomb mounted on a stealth bomber is December 2009 or January 2010. This too is three years ahead of its original schedule.
How could this have been speeded up three years early? Samuel Johnson’s observation comes to mind: “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”
Stay tuned.
Iran loses its only AWACS as Ahmadinejad threatens the world
Up above a big military parade in Tehran on Tuesday, Sept. 22, as Iranian president declared Iran’s armed forces would “chop off the hands” of any power daring to attack his country, two air force jets collided in mid-air. One was Iran’s only airborne warning and control system (AWACS) for coordinating long-distance aerial operations, DEBKAfile’s military and Iranian sources disclose.
The proud military parade, which included a march-past, a line of Shehab-3 missiles and an air force fly-past, was planned to give Ahmadinejad a dazzling send-off for New York and add steel to his UN Assembly speech Wednesday.
Dubbed “Simorgh” (a flying creature of Iranian fable which performs wonders in mid-flight), the AWACS’ appearance, escorted by fighter jets, was to have been the climax for the Iranian Air force’s fly-past over the parade. Instead, it collided with one of escorting planes, a US-made F-5E, and both crashed to the ground in flames. All seven crewmen were killed.
AND – To add insult to injury:
Eye witnesses reported that the flaming planes landed on the mausoleum burial site of the Islamic revolution’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini, a national shrine.
Dare one suggest something about a “bad omen” for Ahmahdinejad Ah’m-mad-on-jihad, the Iranian neo-Hitler since this effectively will greatly aid if/when Israel strikes against the Iranian nuke.
B.O. has rendered honors to Islam, and proclaims respect for the diversity and accomplishments of Moslems. Fair enough.
Obama hosts Ramadan dinner at White House
Showcasing the contributions of American Muslims he said represent “extraordinary dynamism and diversity,” President Obama hosted a White House dinner Tuesday to celebrate the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Mr. Obama was extending a presidential tradition and pushing forward his goal of reaching out to the Muslim world in an attempt to show cultural understanding.
Now, where’s the administration’s appropriate response to the following bit of Islamic diversity? (Hint: ALthought B.O. says we should meet with the mullahs, in reality it DOESN’T involve “cultural understanding!)
Ahmadinejad’s Imam: Islam Allows Raping, Torturing Prisoners
Let’s see now…the U.S. administration is going through contortions to insure that no one offends Islamioterr prisoners, purportedly with the idea that if we’re nice, then they’ll be nice too.
Guess again! Here is what the Iranians have to say about THAT:Â [emphasis added]
A highly influential Shi’a religious leader, with whom Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regularly consults, apparently told followers last month that coercion by means of rape, torture and drugs is acceptable against all opponents of the Islamic regime.
Notice the respect for the Geneva Convention? You don’t? Neither do I. But wait, there’s more from these blithe practitioners of the “Religion of Peace”.
According to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), an independent Israeli intelligence analysis organization, Mesbah-Yazdi is considered Ahmadinejad’s personal spiritual guide. A radical totalitarian even in Iranian terms, he holds messianic views, supports increasing Islamization, calls for violent suppression of domestic political opponents, and, according to the ITIC, “declared that obeying a president supported by the Supreme Leader was tantamount to obeying God.”
At the Jamkaran gathering, Mesbah-Yazdi and Ahmadinejad answered questions about the rape and torture charges. The following text is from a transcript alleged by Iranian dissidents to be a series of questions and answers exchanged between the ayatollah and some of his supporters.
Asked if a confession obtained “by applying psychological, emotional and physical pressure” was “valid and considered credible according to Islam,” Mesbah-Yazdi replied: “Getting a confession from any person who is against the Velayat-e Faqih (“Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists”, or the regime of Iran’s mullahs) is permissible under any condition.” The ayatollah gave the identical answer when asked about confessions obtained through drugging the prisoner with opiates or addictive substances.
“Can an interrogator rape the prisoner in order to obtain a confession?” was the follow-up question posed to the Islamic cleric.
Mesbah-Yazdi answered: “The necessary precaution is for the interrogator to perform a ritual washing first and say prayers while raping the prisoner. If the prisoner is female, it is permissible to rape through the vagina or anus. It is better not to have a witness present. If it is a male prisoner, then it’s acceptable for someone else to watch while the rape is committed.”
There’s more gory details in the linked piece, go look to see more of what can be meant when they remind us that “Islam” equals submission. Now you know HOW to submit!
Britain and EU diplomats walk out as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls Israel ‘racist’
A rare bit of good judgment from B.O.’s administration.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad smiled as European diplomats left in protest over his opening address to a controversial UN summit to fight racism.
President Ahmadinejad, speaking as Israelis prepares to commemorate the Holocaust on Tuesday, described Jews and Israel’s creation as the “ugly face” of a Western conspiracy.
“They sent migrants from Europe, the United States in order to establish a racist government in the occupied Palestine,” he said.
“The word Zionism personifies racism that falsely resorts to religion and abuses religious sentiments to hide their hatred and ugly faces.”
Of course no spewage from Ahmadinejad I’m-mad-on-a-jihad would be complete without his trademark holocaust denial rant, which in this event was the unbearable straw from the Iranian camel’s backside, that even the Eurabians couldn’t abide:
EU diplomats launched a walk out when Mr Ahmadinejad claimed that the “pretext of Jewish suffering”, a reference to the Holocaust, had been used to create Israel.
The US did NOT walk out of the conference…we (fortunately) never even showed up to be there TO walk out, knowing in advance which way this UN stench was going to blow…an example of all-too-rare good judgment from the B.O. administration:
The United States, Israel, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand boycotted the conference because of fears that Mr Ahmadinejad would use the event to equate Zionism with racism.
The real question left standing regarding the B.O. administration stance is who in their right mind can hold out hopes for a positive result from negotiating with this latter-day Iranian Nazi?
Revealed: the letter Obama team hope will heal Iran rift
Read it all if you want to, but the Chief doesn’t want to dwell on the swill that is passing itself as a diplomatic initiative.
Symbolic gesture gives assurances that US does not want to topple Islamic regime
There. That pretty well sums it up without reaching the retch-point.
This is reminiscent of another letter that promised “peace in out time” that Chamberlain exchanged with Hitler in 1938. But hey, who cares about history any more, anyway?
Hamas-cide
While condemned as “disproportionate,” Israeli attacks on Hamas in Gaza are the only appropriate response to daily terror. As the U.N. Charter says, when they shoot at you, you can shoot back.
This is good. One supposes that having weapons as inefficient as the home-brew (but still dangerous) Hamas rockets would restore some “balance”…but the Chief always though the whole idea in war was to do a better job of killing the enemy and breaking his things than he is able to do to you.
So why are they doing this? Hmmmm. (THINK. THINK.)
Hey, Hamas is an Iranian supported operation. Doesn’t this all conveniently distract everyone from the continuing Iranian nuclear project?
Much of Hamas’ imported weaponry, and the expertise with which it now produces the rockets it uses to bombard Israeli border towns and villages, comes from Iran. Dozens of its top commanders have received training in Iran.
Oh well. Hamas is learning again the hard way – if you want to run with wolves, you had better know how to howl.
Ahmadinejad calls Israel ‘germ of corruption’ to be ‘removed soon’
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is calling Israel a “germ of corruption” that will be “removed soon.” The comments were posted Wednesday on his presidential Web site. They appear to be part of an effort to defuse criticism by hard-liners over recent remarks made by a high-level official.
Last week, Iranian media quoted Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashai as saying Iranians were “friends of all people in the world – even Israelis.” The comments were rare from a government official in Iran. They sparked domestic criticism of Mashai, with some officials calling for his resignation.
…and these are the friendly fiendly folks that Donk candidate=apparent B.O. thinks he can negotiate with.
Sort of positioning himself for walking in the footsteps of Chamberlain, assuming of course that he gets elected…which is NOT something the Chief is ready to concede
A couple of items relating to this:
Iran says it will not discuss suspending uranium enrichment
Iran on Saturday reiterated that it will not discuss halting uranium enrichment ahead of the arrival of a top international envoy expected to propose new incentives aimed at encouraging Iran to do so.
“The issue of suspension cannot be discussed any more, we have passed this point and it is not relevant. Iran’s position is clear on this point,” government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.
“The government view is that the issue is over,” he added in reaction to a new report by UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The IAEA on Monday expressed “serious concern” that Tehran was still hiding information about alleged studies into making nuclear warheads, as well as defying UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment.
Based on past performance, would any rational person expect anything else from them? Not!
Not to fear…according to our good buddy in the Kremlin, this is no problemo:
Iran not seeking to build nuclear weapons: Putin
Iran is not trying to acquire nuclear weapons but Tehran should avoid “irritating” its neighbours, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Saturday in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde.
Putin, who was in Paris for two days of meetings with President Nicolas Sarkozy and other French leaders, said there was no indication Iran was building its own nuclear arsenal, but he admitted that Iran’s compliance with investigations by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was still a “point to be resolved.”
D’ya think?
Asked if Iran was trying to acquire nuclear weapons, Putin replied: “I don’t believe so. Nothing indicates it.”
Of course, there’s nothing to indicate that they aren’t going to try to score a little nukie, either. Considering the source here, the Chief is NOT reassured at all.
IAEA: Iran may be withholding info in nuke probe
Iran may be withholding information needed to establish whether it tried to make nuclear arms, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday in an unusually strongly worded report.
DUH! D’ya think?
The tone of the language suggesting Tehran continues to stonewall the U.N. nuclear monitor revealed a glimpse of the frustration felt by agency investigators stymied in their attempts to gain full answers to suspicious aspects of Iran’s past nuclear activities. A senior U.N. official familiar with the investigation into Iran’s nuclear program said none of the dozens of agency reports issued in that context had ever been as plain spoken in calling Tehran to task for not being forthright. He agreed to discuss the report only if granted anonymity because he was not authorized to comment to the media.
Wonder if someone accidently used regular coffee there instead of the de-caf for them to admit there’s a problem.
Diplomats: Iran Assembling Centrifuges
Iran has assembled hundreds of advanced machines reflecting a possible intention to speed up uranium enrichment, diplomats have told The Associated Press.
One diplomat said more than 300 of the centrifuges have been linked up in two separate units in Iran’s underground enrichment plant and a third was being assembled. He said the machines apparently are more advanced than the thousands already running underground, suggesting they could be the sophisticated IR-2 centrifuge that Tehran recently acknowledged testing.
Meanwhile, business as usual in Washington: ignore the threat, and voila! It disappears!
Right? Wrong!
Iran introduces law that imposes death penalty on converts
Anyone doubt why it’s called Islamofascism?
LEGISLATION has been brought by the government of President Mahmoud Amadinejad before the Iranian Majlis that would mandate the death penalty for apostates from Islam. The law’s reach would be worldwide, the legislation says.
So, it applies to anyone, worldwide, who has had the nerve to leave the “Religion of Peace”? Maybe it should be called the “Religion of Rest-in-Peace”.
The proposed Iranian law would enshrine the mandatory death penalty into the country’s civil code for men. Women apostates would be imprisoned. Two types of apostasy are set down in the legislation: parental and innate. Innate apostates are those whose parents were Muslim, declared themselves as Muslim as an adult and then leave the faith. Parental apostates are those whose parents were non-Muslims, who had become Muslims as adults, and then left the faith.
Article 225-7 states the “Punishment for an innate apostate is death,†while Article 225-8 allows a parental apostate three days to recant their apostasy. If they continue in their unbelief, “the death penalty would be carried out.â€Â
Article 112 would give the law an extraterritorial jurisdiction, extending its mandate to cover those who renounce Islam both inside and outside Iran
Forward, into the past! The 7th Century is alive and well in Iran.
Washington’s bureaucratic establishment contradicted iteself with the much ballyhooed N.I.E. (National Intel. Estimate) concerning Iran’s nuclear status. The Chief was, and is of the opinion that said report constituted prima facie evidence of treason within a bureaucracy out to politically emasculate the administration policies at all cost – including that of harm to the national security of the United States, by rendering aid and comfort to a self-proclaimed enemy of the United States: the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Now comes said Ahmadinejad giving HIS evaluation of the report.
Iran’s president said on Sunday the publication of a U.S. intelligence report saying Iran had halted a nuclear weapons program in 2003 amounted to a “declaration of surrender” by Washington in its row with Tehran.
Now, what part of “aid and comfort” is so hard to understand?
Meanwhile, the validity of the N.I.E. itself may well have minimal credibility.
An exiled opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), last week said Iran shut down its nuclear weapons program in 2003 but said restarted it a year later, dispersing equipment to thwart international inspectors.
This does NOT give the Chief a warm glow, other than heartburn.
Democrats go on record opposing Iran strike
Pre-emptive move to pacify peacenik left.
Still reeling from the fallout of authorizing the Iraq war five years ago, Democrats in Congress are determined to put themselves early on record as opposing American military action in Iran.
In recent days, many Democrats have gone to great lengths to denounce President Bush’s strategy on Iran, including his decision to label Tehran’s Quds military force as a terrorist group and his statement that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to “World War III.”
Politically this is not bad grist for a real Repblican mill.
US imposes strict economic sanctions on Iran
The United States has announced its toughest action against Iran since the aftermath of the 1979 revolution by instituting a raft of unilateral sanctions.
The unprecedented steps are designed to cut international financial support to Teheran’s theocratic regime as well as targeting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corp, which is accused of supporting Shia insurgents in Iraq.
OOOOOOOOHHH! They’re surely shaking in their boots now!
UPDATE – Just in case you don’t know why Iran doesn’t take the West seriously:
Iranians study nuclear physics in Britain
The Foreign Office has cleared dozens of Iranians to enter British universities to study advanced nuclear physics and other subjects with the potential to be applied to weapons of mass destruction.
In the past nine months about 60 Iranians have been admitted to study postgraduate courses deemed “proliferation-sensitive†by the security services. The disciplines range from nuclear physics to some areas of electrical and chemical engineering and microbiology.
Never fear! Help is on the way!?
When confronted with the figures this weekend, the Foreign Office admitted that it was reviewing the vetting for sensitive areas of study and planned to announce an overhaul within the next few weeks to make procedures more rigorous.
Now THAT’s reassuring – they’re “reviewing” their procedures an plan to announce an overhaul…sometime.
After going on to discuss the current situation in more detail, as well as some possible improvements, one glaring omission remains: what will be done regarding those already admitted? Still reassured…or not?
Tony Blair: Iran extremism like rise of 1930s fascism
In his first major address since leaving office, former Brit PM Tony Blair has issued a Churchillian warning on the relentless nature of the Islamofascist enemies of Western Civilization.
Islamist extremism is similar to “rising fascism in the 1920s and 1930sâ€Â, Tony Blair said last night in his first major speech since leaving office. At a prestigious charity dinner in New York, the former Prime Minister said that public figures who blamed the rise of fundamentalism on the policies of the West were “mistaken”.
He told the audience, which included New York governor Eliot Spitzer and mayor Michael Bloomberg, that Iran was the biggest exporter of the ideology, and that the Islamic republic was prepared to “back and finance terror” to support it. “Out there in the Middle East, we’ve seen… the ideology driving this extremism and terror is not exhausted. On the contrary it believes it can and will exhaust us first,” he said. “Analogies with the past are never properly accurate, and analogies especially with the rising fascism can be easily misleading but, in pure chronology, I sometimes wonder if we’re not in the 1920s or 1930s again.
The kernal of his warning is clearly stated:
He added: “There is a tendency even now, even in some of our own circles, to believe that they are as they are because we have provoked them and if we left them alone they would leave us alone. I fear this is mistaken. They have no intention of leaving us alone. They have made their choice and leave us with only one to make – to be forced into retreat or to exhibit even greater determination and belief in standing up for our values than they do in standing up for theirs.â€Â(emphasis added}
An excellent triumph of truth over head-in-the-sand political correctness.
Sarkozy brings ‘new tone’ on role in NATO
Kyrgyzstan’s foreign minister sought to allay U.S. concerns about the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in an interview, maintaining that the burgeoning alliance is not a military organization and is not designed to limit U.S. influence in the region.
In spite of this diplospeak, the record of the meeting tells another story altogether:
The bloc linking China, Russia and four Central Asian states…
(a central Asian anti-American version of a sort of wannabe NATO?
…startled the U.S. government at its 2005 summit in Kazakhstan with a call for a deadline for the closing of all foreign bases in the region. Kyrgyzstan is home to the Manas base, the key U.S. Air Force site for supporting the mission in Afghanistan.
The SCO countries also granted Iran “observer” status in the organization, something the United States was denied.
Of course, given that none of the participants are really very sympathetic to the Islamist agenda, they’re supposedly not QUITE cutting off their noses to spite their face:
Kyrgyzstan, considered the most politically liberal of the Central Asian states, hosted the most recent SCO summit in its capital, Bishkek, in August. Speaking through an interpreter, (Kyrgyz President) Mr. Karabaev, who met with top Bush administration officials on a visit here last week, said there is a “common understanding” among all the SCO partners that Manas will be available to the United States and its coalition partners as long as needed for stabilization and counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan. All the SCO members “do recognize that the base helps to solve issues of international security in our region,” he said.
Sort of like the Donks here in the US, who inveigh ad nauseum against the war in Iraq, but won’t cut off the funding, or for that matter impose a surrender date-certain.
Weasels one and all!
Iran’s Ahmedinejad blasts Bush in UN speech
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad used the stage of the United Nations to launch a broad assault on the US yesterday, accusing Washington of violating human rights.
Yadda, yadda, yadda.
He predicted that the era of Western predominance in the world was drawing to a close and would be replaced by a “bright future” ushered in by the return of the 12th imam, a messianic figure in Shia Islam.
Of course this will only happen after the apocalyptic destruction of the evil Jews and the American Great Satan…but who’s keeping track?
There’s more of the usual crapola widely available in this piece, and elsewhere…but the Chief will pass on this gas.
Ahmadinejad Arrives for New York Visit
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, facing protests and tabloid headlines calling him “evil” and a “madman,” stirred debate Monday about free speech ahead of his appearance at Columbia University.
Another reason to get reid of the UN: it requires putting up with stuff like this. Pack it up, and ship it off to Geneva, and good riddence to bad rubbish.
Columbia President Lee Bollinger has promised to grill Ahmadinejad on subjects such as human rights, the Holocaust and Iran’s disputed nuclear program. The Iranian leader previously has called the Holocaust “a myth” and called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” Bollinger said Monday it was a question of free speech and academic freedom.
As far as Columbia University…their University President just couldn’t pass up the chance to tweak the administration in any possible way. As far as free speech is concerned, the RIGHT to speak has no guarantee of a provided venue to speak from, nor, does it mandate any requirement to listen.
Overall summary:
• Ahmadinejad (Ahm-mad-on-a-jihad) is an Islamofascist buffoon…a dangerous buffoon, but a buffoon nonetheless.
• Columbia University is an embarrassment to itself…especially after it’s standards of academic freedom and free speech don’t extend to the United States ROTC.
Columbia’s reasoning about the ROTC ban is in protest against the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy which they say is anti-gay. Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad’s Islamofascist regime kills gays. Go figure.
Carter: Iran No Threat to Israel Now
Former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday that it was almost inconceivable that Iran would “commit suicide” by launching missiles at Israel. Speaking at Emory University, Carter, who brokered the 1979 Camp David peace accord between Israel and Egypt, said Israel’s superior military power and distance from Iran likely are enough to discourage an actual attack. “Iran is quite distant from Israel,” said Carter, 83. “I think it would be almost inconceivable that Iran would commit suicide by launching one or two missiles of any kind against the nation of Israel.”
SOUNDS reasonable, right? The bit about Iran not willing to suicide? The only trouble with this is that according to Ahmadinejad there is different agenda in play: triggering the return of the Mahdi from his well, which necessitates the generation of widespread chaos and anarchy as the necessary pre-requisite.
This plan necessitates the end of the Iranian Islamic Republic – which will become part of the new caliphate.
Carter just can’t wrap his mind around the fact that the Iranian rulers are not playing with the same deck that we are.
Ahmadinejad: Iran can help secure Iraq, Israel is ‘cruel’
It’s hard to beat this for the highly corrosive concentration of distortions and outright lies from the Iranian Presidential Hitler wanna-be.
Iran wants “peace and friendship for all,” the country’s president said Wednesday while again denying Western assertions his nation is pursuing nuclear weapons and trying to destabilize Iraq.
Not working towards nuclear weapons? You can believe that if you want to, but if you do believe them, please e-mail me to buy some great tropical beachfront property here in Moody County, South Dakota. I can set you right up!
But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a hard line against Israel, calling it “an invader” and saying it “cannot continue its life.”
Part of the Iranian Mein Kampf plans.
Asked if Iran had launched a proxy war in Iraq — something the U.S. ambassador and top military commander there both asserted this week. “Forces have come into Iraq and destroyed the security, and many people are killed,” the Iranian president told Britain’s ITN during an interview in the garden of the Iranian presidential palace in Tehran.
Yep, IRANIAN arms and forces active in Iran HAVE “destroyed the security” and resulted in the deaths of many people.
“And there are some claims that may seem very funny and ridiculous….Iranians do not believe in war and consider it a “last resort,” he said.
Of course, if Iran had a war it might get wrecked. Much better to continue to ship IED’s, rockets, and fighters into Iraq to fight the coalition, with no unfortunate blowback.
He further claimed that Tehran is a friend of Iraq — maintaining “good relationships” with the Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish factions — and “if Iraq is not secure, we are the first country that would be damaged. He added, “Responsible people should understand this: that Iran is against any sort of insecurity and attacks,”
…and the best way to avoid any “insecurity and attacks” would be for everyone to live peacefully united in their submission to the will of the mullahs.
“We want friendship — friendship to all. We love all nations and all human beings. Anyone who is killed, we are against it.”
Subtext: If you aren’t Moslem, you aren’t truly human, and we act accordingly: you’re in a HEAP of trouble, infidel!
The Islamic republic could help improve conditions in Iraq, but first coalition forces must leave, he said. “We can help solve many problems in Iraq. We can help secure Iraq. We can help the attackers leave Iraq if the American government and British government correct themselves.” he said. Ahmadinejad has said in the past that Tehran would fill any power vacuum left by a withdrawal of coalition forces in Iraq.
Once again, peace through submission…to the mullahs.
He goes on in the interview remarking more on the non-existant nuclear weapons issue, and a reiteration of the advocacy of a forceful and inevitable death of Israel.
F.E.T.E.
Iran vows to use ‘smart’ bomb on enemies
Conventional sword-rattling again.
Iran vowed Sunday to use a new 2,000-pound “smart” bomb against its enemies and unveiled mass production of the new weapon, state television reported. The government first announced development of the long-range guided bomb Thursday, saying it could be deployed by the country’s aging U.S.-made F-4 and F-5 fighter jets
Iran: Nuclear activities have not halted
Meanwhile, in addition to conventional sword-rattling, they keep up with the nuclear sort, also.
Iran said Sunday its nuclear activities have not halted or slowed down, rejecting reports that it has not significantly expanded its uranium enrichment program this summer as planned. “There has been no slowing down, no halt and no retreat. Our activities continue on the same basis we began our peaceful nuclear program,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters.
So, take them at their word. Then, the question becomes, given the ideology of the Mullahs and their political mouthpiece Ahm-mad-on-a-jihad Ahmadinejad, can the world accept a nuclear Iran?
Israeli says Hamas is training hundreds abroad
Hamas has sent hundreds of its fighters abroad for military training, most of them to Iran, the Israeli Army’s deputy chief of staff says, and Israel has the names of more than 100 of them.
In addition to Iran’s contributions, Ham-ass has a lot more going on than this…which bodes no good for Israel.
Pentagon ‘three-day blitz’ plan for Iran
From The Times of London:
THE Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.
Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes†against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,†he said.
Hmmmm. Time will tell. Unfortunately, the historical record indicates that air power without boots on the ground doesn’t work really well.
Endgame: American Options in Iraq
George Friedman at StratFor has given some thought to possible outcomes in Iraq, given the current state of affairs over there. He makes too much sense as he develops his favored scenario:
The new U.S. mission, therefore, must be to block Iran in the aftermath of the Iraq war. The United States cannot impose a government on Iraq; the fate of Iraq’s heavily populated regions cannot be controlled by the United States. But the United States remains an outstanding military force, particularly against conventional forces. It is not very good at counterinsurgency and never has been. The threat to the Arabian Peninsula from Iran would be primarily a conventional threat — supplemented possibly by instability among Shia on the peninsula.
The mission would be to position forces in such a way that Iran could not think of moving south into Saudi Arabia. There are a number of ways to achieve this. The United States could base a major force in Kuwait, threatening the flanks of any Iranian force moving south. Alternatively, it could create a series of bases in Iraq, in the largely uninhabited regions south and west of the Euphrates. With air power and cruise missiles, coupled with a force about the size of the U.S. force in South Korea, the United States could pose a devastating threat to any Iranian adventure to the south. Iran would be the dominant power in Baghdad, but the Arabian Peninsula would be protected.
This goal could be achieved through a phased withdrawal from Iraq, along with a rapid withdrawal from the populated areas and an immediate cessation of aggressive operations against jihadists and militia. It would concede what the NIE says is unattainable without conceding to Iran the role of regional hegemon. It would reduce forces in Iraq rapidly, while giving the remaining forces a mission they were designed to fight — conventional war. And it would rapidly reduce the number of casualties. Most important, it would allow the United States to rebuild its reserves of strategic forces in the event of threats elsewhere in the world.
This is not meant as a policy prescription. Rather, we see it as the likely evolution of U.S. strategic thinking on Iraq. Since negotiation is unlikely, and the three conventional options are each defective in their own way, we see this redeployment as a reasonable alternative that meets the basic requirements. It ends the war in Iraq in terms of casualties, it reduces the force, it contains Iran and it frees most of the force for other missions. Whether Bush or his successor is the decision-maker, we think this is where it must wind up.
If this doesn’t seem to be a very tidy outcome, check out the alternatives detailed in the piece. It could be FAR worse.
President Ahmadinejad Says Iran Ready to Fill Power Vacuum in Iraq
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Tuesday that a power vacuum is imminent in Iraq and said that Iran was ready to help fill the gap.
No doubt like Germany filled the “power vacuum” in Austria in 1938, marching in and absorbing it.
US ‘poised to strike Iran’
Bob Baer, the former Middle East CIA operative whose first book about his life inspired the oil-and-espionage thriller Syriana, is working on a new book on Iran, but says he was told by senior intelligence officials that he had better get it published in the next couple of months because things could be about to change. Baer, in an interview with The Weekend Australian, says his contacts in the administration suggest a strategic airstrike on Iran is a real possibility in the months ahead.
“What I’m getting is a sense that their sentiment is they are going to hit the Iranians and not just because of Israel, but due to the fact that Iran is the predominant power in the Gulf and it is hostile and its power is creeping into the Gulf at every level,” Baer says.
He says his contacts have told him of his book: “You better hurry up because the thesis is going to change. I told them submission is in January but they said, ‘You’re probably going to be too late’.”
On the other hand:
Washington’s intelligence community is abuzz about possible military action against Iran, which is being weighed at the highest levels of the Bush administration. While the guessing game has become “will they or won’t they?”, at least some experienced and trusted intelligence sources have told The Weekend Australian that the possibility of a strike in the next 12 months remains remote.
One hopes the prez will stand up to Ahm-mad-on-a-jihad Ahmadinejad, but who knows any more? Well, whatever. SOMETHING will happen, sometime.
Time running out for Iran strike
Predicting that sanctions will ultimately fail to stop Teheran’s nuclear program, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, former head of Military Intelligence’s Research Division, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that time to launch an effective military strike against Iran’s nuclear installations was running out.
UN sanctions predicted to fail? Shocking, just shocking!
As for the rest, this should be no surprise at all.
U.S. Navy sends carrier to Gulf
Althought is is part of a scheduled deployment turnover with another carrier, for a time at least, there will be three carriers in the Persian Gulf area.
Something else to keep an eye on.