News And Views Below The Radar: Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan And The Cheney’s
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Tim King Salem-News.com
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/march162010/us-attack-iran-tk.php
Israeli influence over U.S. policy is reaching new record levels, as word is announced that the U.S. is moving serious weapons into place for a possible strike on the people of Iran.
(SALEM, Ore.) - Iran has never attacked another nation, and according to the international group that oversees nuclear activities, Iran is not developing nuclear weapons.
Israel, on the other hand, possesses at least 150 nuclear warheads that could take the world out several times over. Undeclared nukes illegal with the world community. Who should we really question?
Iran's infrastructure does not support the ability and the country has firmly stated that it is not developing nuclear arms, only nuclear power, like so many other countries on this earth.
Israel's nuclear warheads were revealed in a report featuring the words of President Jimmy Carter in May of 2008 on Salem-News.com[1].
All of the years with Israel at the world negotiation tables stating that it was a non-nuclear entity, using that "defenseless" line to gain political ground, were blatant, false statements, and so the sympathy they elicited was also totally false. The U.S. government was aware of it the whole time, according to Carter, supplying the deadly parts that comprise Israel's nuclear arsenal today.
People in many circles have known this for a long time, since an Israeli nuclear scientist defected to England and told the Times all about what was taking place with the development of nuclear warheads that are not registered or claimed under the Non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty well over twenty years ago[2].
Why the commotion over this today? Because the United States may be preparing for another dirty unilateral war.
The Sunday Herald reports that hundreds of powerful US bunker-buster bombs are in transit from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, where they will be used in preparation for a "possible" attack on Iran.
The newspaper in London also revealed that Americans signed a contract in January to transport 10 ammunition containers to Diego Garcia.
The Sunday Herald wrote: "According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 'Blu' bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures. Experts say that they are being put in place for an assault on Iran’s controversial nuclear facilities. There has long been speculation that the US military is preparing for such an attack, should diplomacy fail to persuade Iran not to make nuclear weapons."
This newspaper in the UK also reported in 2007, that stealth bomber hangars on the island were constructed to take bunker-buster bombs.
Damned if you do, or if you Don't
"If they run they're VC. If they stand still, they're a well-disciplined VC".
- Marine door gunner in the movie, Full Metal Jacket
Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, no nuclear capabilities, but we were convinced under Bush that they were steps away from launching an attack on the U.S., which in retrospect is ridiculous. We stepped in, saw over 5,000 Americans killed, tens of thousands injured, hundreds of thousands caused to suffer from PTSD, and Iraq is a total mess. We divided the Sunni and Shi'ite populations, we caused a civil war. The United States devastated a functioning country with infrastructure.
Iran has no weapons of mass destruction, no nuclear capabilities, and they state that to be the case. Still, the people who hate Iran and want to see it wiped off the map, with Joseph Lieberman at the head of the list, will state over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over... that Iran is "developing" nuclear weapons, when every piece of evidence states the opposite[3][4][5].
Deadly nukes; the Israelis have them - they have driven this whole modern warfare snafu according to a growing list of reliable and documented sources. Israel is a nation driven by a racist ideology guided by the religious philosophyZionism, i.e. "The Chosen People" - which is the excuse used by Israel in quickly claiming almost all of the Palestinian land for itself, and killing a countless number of Palestinians along the way, while at times losing many of their own[6].
Our writers have, on different occasions, very recently in fact, drawn the lines connecting the dots between the U.S. war in Iraq, and Israel. The belief is that Israel is trying to destabilize this entire part of the Arab world in an effort to speed its ultimate claim of all of Palestine's land[7].
You see, Egypt is playing ball with Israel and the U.S. these days. It used to be a hotbed of anti-Israeli activity, today they are staying out of it. In the process Egypt has sealed off the southern border of Gaza in concert with the U.S. and Israel, furthering the concentration camp atmosphere for these abused people, who are treated like animals and guarded on all sides[8].
But Iran is one of the few countries that will stand up and say something about Israel's genocide of the Palestinians, and that is why all of this is taking place. It also makes the Iranians better humanitarians than the U.S. or Canada in particular[9]{10].
Iran's History with the West
I have written before about how the U.S. and England ripped off Iran in the years following WWII for oil, treating their national representatives with prejudice and overall disdain. Racism is a nightmare[11].
The U.S. helped the British SAS take out the first Democratically elected President of Iran in 1953 because he spoke about nationalizing Iran's oil and cutting the west out. The 'Shah' was kidnapped, brainwashed, threatened, and went back to Iran to be a western friendly leader until the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
The Iranians took Americans hostage as part of this Revolution, though they were eventually released, and that has been the central point for all American animosity toward Iran in recent years[12].
They were pissed off that we had for all intents and purposes, ruled their country from 1953 to 1979, and who wouldn't be? Some Americans seem to sport this vast ignorance about patriotism and nationalism in the world. For them it is hard to understand that it exists in every nation and place. It is hard for any person to separate their loyalty from the place of their birth, it is a simple human dynamic. The people who side with and work with the U.S. in many cases, are viewed as traitors. As usual, those who worked with Americans benefited in some, even many cases, and many fled after the Revolution.
Iraq was financed by the United States to invade Iran and the horrible Iran-Iraq War ensued, costing thousands of lives on both sides. A friend of mine in Tehran, says people everywhere in her country still suffer from what we know as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD from those years, and they are not people who were even in the military.
Then after starting the Iran-Iraq War and watching it rage for years, the U.S. blew an Iranian airliner out of the sky in 2008, an absolutely scandalous act of mass murder by the U.S. Navy, as Iran was in the process of defeating the U.S. financed attack against their country.
According to Wikipedia:
"The cruiser USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 with the loss of all 290 passengers and crew on 3 July 1988. The American government claimed that the airliner had been mistaken for an Iranian F-14 Tomcat, and that the Vincennes was operating in international waters at the time and feared that it was under attack, which later appeared to be untrue. The Iranians, however, maintain that the Vincennes was in fact in Iranian territorial waters, and that the Iranian passenger jet was turning away and increasing altitude after take-off. U.S. Admiral William J. Crowe also admitted on Nightline that the Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters when it launched the missiles. At the time, the captain of the Vincennes claimed that the Iranian plane did not identify itself and sent no response to warning signals from the Vincennes. Apart from Iran, other independent sources, for example the airport of Dubai, have confirmed that the plane did indeed identify itself to the American naval ship and also confirmed that 'the civilian aircraft was ascending and therefore could not have posed a threat,' agreeing with Iranian officials."[13]
Israel Murdering Farmers
Israel built division walls through Palestinian land on the West Bank in recent years and now their soldiers shoot the farmers who dare to use their land.
According to Investigators with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and eye-witness testimony, Friday, 4 September 2009, Maher Ghazi al-Za’anin drove his four children, including Ghazi, 14, to their farm, 500 meters away from the border with Israel, in the northeast of Beit Hanoun town. On their way to the farm, they were surprised by an Israeli military jeep. Al-Za’anin and his children were frightened, and ran away. Israeli soldiers in the jeep immediately opened fire. Ghazi was wounded by a bullet to the head and fell to the ground.
"If they run they're VC. If they stand still, they're a well-disciplined VC"
The father carried the child to their car, whereupon IDF soldiers fired at the car, hitting it with two bullets. The father drove to Beit Hanoun Hospital and the child was transferred to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in critical condition. Ghazi was admitted to the intensive care unit, where he was pronounced dead on the following morning, Saturday, 5 September 2009.[14].
Israel carefully planned and killed over 1400 in Gaza, including approximately 400 children, while injuring tens of thousands. The abuse of Israel toward the Palestinians is the single worst thing taking place in the world today. There is no more brutal regime in place than Israel's.
So if Lieberman and the boys manage to actually build the position for attacking Iran, I would start packing the canned food, many boxes of it. I am not alone in saying that we would never accept this as Americans.
Any move to attack either Iran or Venezuela for that matter, will not be supported by the American public. Massive campaigns will be launched to support military desertion and protests will begin and people will take to the streets and it will not end, ever.
If a plan is actually devised to attack Iran, then Barack Obama will be remembered as a President actually worse than George W. Bush, something most have always believed was nearly impossible. Bush got the world's death machine revved up a couple of thousand RPM's, but any plan to actually take military action against Iran will blow the American military engine, guaranteed. That is an engine made of delicate things called human beings. American human beings are not supposed to be wasted in stupid needless wars based on lies.
Iran has never attacked the U.S. or talked about it. The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said something once that was misconstrued as "wiping Israel off the map". It is the same old thing over and over and over and over and over and over again. Whereas Israel can make plans to outwardly attack Iran and then suck its pawns, the Americans into it, and insult people and brand an entire religion as "terrorists" when nobody does more terrorizing than the Israeli Defense Forces.
During the 1930's and 40's in Germany, genocide took place and the Red Cross was at least tricked into believing that Warsaw Ghetto wasn't as bad as it really was, in the years preceding the main events of WWII. Gaza is clear, YouTube, all over Al Jazeera, Salem-News.com and other serious sites. Anyone who cares can see the civilian destruction and devastation wrought by the IDF against the people of Gaza. Doctors said they saw no militants, only civilian men, women and children, plenty of children with injuries too severe to describe.
It is disgusting that the U.S. government ignores this clear case of genocide and series of war crimes documented against Israel's attack on Gaza in 2008/09 called "Operation Cast Lead". A Jewish War Crimes Tribunal Judge, Richard Goldstone, wrote the report that cites numerous violations of International Law; targeting schools, hospitals, and directing civilians to evacuate to certain areas, which were in turn attacked with millions and millions of dollars worth of bombs supplied mostly by U.S. taxpayers. They used white phosphorous, which is totally illegal to drop on homes, which they did. There are no excuses for killing 1,400 in retaliation for the 4-6 Israelis who died in Hamas rocket attacks.
And while the primary western nations ignore this genocidal insanity, the U.S. government is up to its old tricks and wants to thrust our nation into its final conflict, on behalf of Israel. Nice knowing you guys, maybe all that stuff about the Mayan Calendar is right on target, but it is all because of willful human aggression from the United States and Israel.
Not to mention that a damned war is taking place in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, less than a stone's throw from the back door of the good old U.S.A. No, let's not take care of things at home, even on this continent for that matter, let's just plot the end of mankind by attacking a country that has only defended and avenged itself by taking hostages, in all of this time. Let's rely on the FOX New Channel to misinterpret the words of people like the Iranian President, and to get everyone good and stirred up in a general sense by repeating those pat terms that the Zionists have rammed down our throats. "Nuclear weapons", "Wipe Israel off the Map", these are the lame things that Israel will use to justify this action. I personally think that a square-off between Israel and Iran would be one matter, but having the U.S. involved on behalf of a country that commits genocide, will be the final straw.
Attacking Iran would be the end of everything as we know it, and Americans will turn away from their leadership if such a dirty and dastardly move is attempted. It'll quickly become a third world nation, as if we aren't in all reality totally broke and in debt anyway, thanks to the last few years of Bush.
On a selfish level, our combat troops are tired and broken and have been wasted and it continues. Starting another war in another theater could only be a move to bring about an end to the United States that we know, one way or another. Iraq was a bad idea, nobody serving there is happy about it. The deaths are ugly and there have been too many. Afghanistan includes a fight against people who treat women and girls badly, so there is some justification as the Taliban are not real Muslims according to my Islamic friends, but a walking distortion of it. Taliban are Afghanistan's Westboro Baptist Church, only much larger.
[1] May-29-2008: Carter Reveals Israel's Possession of 150 Nuclear Weapons - Tim King Salem-News.com
[2] May-11-1995: THE TREATY ON THE NON-PROLIFERATIONOF NUCLEAR WEAPONS UN
[3] Feb-25-2010 : WHY IRAN? Give Iran a Break! - Debbie Menon for Salem-News.com
[4] Jun-11-2007: Lieberman's Demands for War in Iran are Cowardly - Op-Ed by: Tim King Salem-News.com
[5] Jul-03-2008 : Iran Doesn't Have Illegal Nukes; but Israel Has Hundreds - Tim King Salem-News.com
[6] Oct-18-2009:Apartheid Government Panicking: Time to Increase Actions - Political Commentary by Mazin Qumsiyeh for Salem-News.com
[7] Mar-13-2010: Who's to Blame for the Iraq War? - Maidhc Ó Cathail Salem-News.com
[8] Iran–Iraq War From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[9] Feb-28-2010: UN Extends Goldstone Investigation of Israel for Gaza War Crimes - Tim King Salem-News.com
[10] Apr-30-2009: Iran's Ahmadinejad Calls West's Claims of Democracy 'Sheer Lies' - Tim King Salem-News.com
[11] Jul-14-2008: Lies and Fabrications are Behind the Drive to Attack Iran - Tim King Salem-News.com
[12] Jun-18-2009 Iran, 1953 - Daniel Johnson Salem-News.com
[13] Dec-21-2009: Egypt Seeks to Halt Gaza Peace March - Salem-News.com
[14] Sep-07-2009: IOF Willfully Kill a Child in Beit Hanoun Town, Northern Gaza - Salem-News.com
Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com
The Cheneys are the new McCarthys
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[Beneath The Spin]
http://blackstarnews.com/news/135/ARTICLE/6362/2010-03-12.html
Many observers have found Liz and Dick Cheney's fervent crusade to ensure that President Obama define terrorists as "enemy combatants," and the fight against terrorism as a "war" on terrorism quite curious.
Why would a former vice president break the long established tradition of fading into the woodwork to engage in a silly debate over semantics? Now we also have his daughter, Liz Cheney, attacking standards set down by the United States Constitution guaranteeing due process and equal protection under the law.
Liz Cheney has now branded attorneys who defended "alleged terrorists" the "Al Qaeda 7," and she's calling the United States Department of Justice -that's simply carrying out the prescription set down by the United States Constitution - "The Department of Jihad."
Could there possibly be a reasonable explanation behind such radical behavior? I think there is.
The Cheneys are engaged in a preemptive strike against the Obama Administration in general, and the Justice Department in particular, in order to stir up public opinion against the prospect that the Obama Administration will finally decides to prosecute Dick Cheney for war crimes - as the rule of law demands.
They're busily laying the groundwork to incite insurrection across this country to counter the application of the rule of law.
While the GOP is atrocious when it comes to governance, they're absolute geniuses when it comes to stirring up their base for war - and in this case, they're preparing the nation for an all out internal conflict. One can hear it in every speech as they sprinkle little gems like "secession," "socialist," and "government takeover" into the political dialogue and lexicon.
Thus, the threat that they pose to America makes Al Qaeda pale in comparison.
They started exactly one month after President Obama entered office when on February 21, 2009, the New York Post published a cartoon portraying President Obama as a chimpanzee being shot by the police. There was a lot of subliminal messaging in that cartoon. True to their usual method of operation, they began to dehumanize the enemy, just like they did with Saddam Hussein, by portraying the "enemy" - President Obama in this case - as a chimpanzee.
They then show the police shooting the president in order to prevent him from pursuing what they consider an unpopular initiative; at that time focus was on the stimulus.
By showing the police - respected authority figures - shooting the president, that's intended to lend legitimacy to the action.
I immediately recognized what was afoot, and I pointed it out in my article, "The Assassination Cartoon":
"That cartoon literally sent a message out to every deadbeat, and bigoted loser in the country that they can finally make something of themselves. They can finally find purpose in their previously miserable and lackluster lives by assassinating the President of the United States. Thus, what the New York Post is calling a meaningless joke is actually a clarion call to every bigoted fool in the United States. It says that there are people in this country who will consider you a hero if you bring violence against the president–and they know it. Can you imagine the hue and cry coming from Republicans if the New York Times had run a cartoon depicting the assassination of Ronald Reagan?"
I also pointed out that -
"We’ve had enough experience with neo-cons and radical conservatives where anyone with even an ounce of common sense recognizes that nothing is a joke with them–especially when they’re out of power. They’re dead serious, and they’re desperate. Conservative Republicans know better than anyone that considering their atrocious eight years of governance, combined with President Obama’s competence and responsible statesmanship, that the Republican Party faces an extremely bleak future. So they’ve gone to plan B, to eliminate Obama at all cost, and by any means necessary. As ugly as it seems, anyone who doesn’t recognize that reality has blinders on.
"Look at the facts. Their proven method of operation is to demonize, dehumanize, then eliminate. When the neo-cons decided to exploit Iraqi resources instead of going after Osama, as was the intent of the American people, they first began to demonize, then dehumanize Saddam Hussein–a former ally--in order to prepare the American people to accept the idea that it was necessary to take him out."
If there was any doubt about my contention, however, it should have been immediately resolved when they trotted out the turncoat and perennial loser,
Alan Keyes. Keyes called into question President Obama's legitimacy as president. He referred to the president as "a radical communist." He went on
to say, "He's going to destroy this country and we've either got to stop him, or America will cease to exist."
He also indicated that since Barack Obama wasn't legitimately the president, if something wasn't done about it we were going to end up in "civil war."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DlTgrMCxPg&feature=player_embedded
Thus, these are people are clearly without limits, and have an absolute disdain for the United States Constitution. They're only concerned about one thing - power, and that's the only thing they respect.
So President Obama's inclination for compromise and appeasement is totally lost on them. All appeasement does is give the GOP the breathing room to engage in further calculation and plotting. Their strategy was clearly demonstrated in the healthcare debate. Even after the president allowed them to water down the bill, they voted against it. That's their method of operation. They're not interested it compromise - they want nothing short of complete control.
So when the president signaled Attorney General Holder that "we should look forward, not back," even though the president was obviously ignoring the rule of law to accommodate them, they didn't appreciate that. They didn't say, "Wow, this is a good guy;" they said, "This guy is weak - we're going to run all over him."
Had President Obama followed up on his campaign promise of change, on the other hand, and simply allowed the rule of law to play itself out, his entire base would still be behind him, and the Republican party wouldn't have dared engaged in the obstructionism that they are currently engaged in.
First of all, politics as usual wouldn't have flown in such an environment. And secondly, the roots of the Bush and Cheney corruption undoubtedly sank so
deep into the Republican party that in response to a DOJ investigation, a large percentage of the GOP would be too busy trying to cover their own butts, rather than engage in obstructing the president's agenda.
During a recent debate I was having on this issue a gentleman indicated that this was no time to investigate war crimes. President Obama has to pick his battles. I strongly disagree. First, I have to wonder if the gentleman would have taken the same position if one of the charges was that a member of his family was tortured and killed?
But beyond any personal or political issues, in any democracy, maintaining the rule of law must always take priority over everything else. Because without the rule of law, there can be no democracy, since a democracy is established by the rule of law.
After all, what's the sense of enacting healthcare reform, or any other law, if a precedent has been set that renders the rule of law meaningless?
For more commentary by Black Star News columnist Wattree seewww.wattree.blogspot.com
"Speaking Truth To Empower."
European Parliament Backs UN Report On Gaza War
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/mar/16/european-parliament-backs-un-report-on-gaza-war/
The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 | 12:31 a.m.
In a move likely to worsen EU ties with Israel, the European Parliament urged its 27-member states Wednesday to monitor the Israeli and Palestinian probes into alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The parliament also called on Israel to immediately open border crossings with the Gaza Strip, saying its blockade is worsening the humanitarian crisis there.
The resolution backed the findings of a U.N.-appointed expert panel chaired by South African Judge Richard Goldstone, which concluded that both sides committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the war that began in December 2008 and ended in January 2009.
The parliamentary move, which would give the EU an unprecedented role in evaluating the progress of Israel's war crimes probe, was sharply criticized by Israel.
"We find this resolution flawed and counterproductive," said Yoel Mester, spokesman for Israeli mission to EU. "While other players are striving to find to support the peace process and to start the proximity talks between Israel and Palestinians, it is regrettable that the European Parliament choses to concentrate on a highly controversial issue."
In December, the EU accused Israel of trying to divide the bloc to stop it from passing a resolution calling for Jerusalem to be the shared capital of Israel and for a future Palestinian state. The measure was adopted despite Israel's opposition.
The European Union also has criticized Israel over its suspected role in the slaying of a Hamas militant in Dubai and the killers' alleged use of forged EU passports.
Israel, meanwhile, has been annoyed by a demand from the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to be allowed to visit the Gaza Strip, which remains under Hamas control.
The European Parliament measure, passed by 335-287, said Ashton should "monitor actively the implementation of recommendations included in the Goldstone Report."
"For the first time, a resolution voted in the European Parliament acknowledges Israeli's violations of international humanitarian law," parliament member Kyriacos Triantaphyllides said.
In January, the U.N. General Assembly gave the two sides five more months to finalize their own investigations into war crimes allegations during the conflict, in which 13 Israelis and almost 1,400 Palestinians were killed.
On Monday, Israel's Foreign Ministry said it would allow Ashton and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon into Gaza. Israel has routinely banned foreign officials from crossing into Gaza since Hamas' violent takeover of the strip in 2007, maintaining that such visits bolster the Islamic militant group.
In a related development Wednesday, Ashton condemned Israel's plan to expand a Jewish neighborhood in disputed east Jerusalem, saying it should reverse the decision and "refrain from unilateral decisions and actions that may jeopardize the final status negotiations."
"The EU reiterates that settlements are illegal under international law," Ashton said in a statement. "They undermine current efforts for restarting peace negotiations ... and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible."
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