December 2006 archive
12-31-06 - American death toll in Iraq passes 3,000 mark
12-31-06 - Iran cleric warns the West over atomic pressure Rafsanjani said there would be consequences if Iran was treated unfairly over its nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes only and the West fears is a cover for building nuclear bombs.
12-31-06 - The case for Iran Alarmist assessments of Iran's nuclear program lack a key component: evidence.
12-31-06 - Execution 'should not have happened on our holy day'
12-31-06 - China?s military spending to reach $36bn
12-31-06 - Cheney faces troubled new year
12-31-06 - China chokes on a coal-fired boom Its consequences have been detected half a world away in toxic clouds so big that they can seen from space, drifting across the Pacific to California laden with microscopic particles of chemicals that cause cancer and diseases of the heart and lung.
12-31-06 - Deputy Defense Minister: Israel worried about post-Saddam Iraq Saddam's final words were reportedly, "Palestine is Arab."
12-31-06 - Hagel Shrugged? Bummer.
12-31-06 - Preserve, Protect and Defend
12-31-06 - US using Saddam death to sow Muslim discord: Lebanese cleric
12-31-06 - Still more ideological diversity at Time: Kristol and Kinsley signed up
12-31-06 - Al-Qaeda leader urges Palestinians to turn against Abbas The Fatah-linked militant group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said "these declarations sow division and serve the purpose of the Zionist (Israeli) occupation and have nothing to do with the fight against the occupier."
12-31-06 - America, the Betrayer: The Fulfillment? America has failed to topple the Iran and Syria regimes, to stem the Iraqi insurgency or to smother Iran's nuclear weapons development program. Another blame-America article from the usual corners.
12-31-06 - Israelis Oppose Negotiations with Syria The area of the Golan Heights?approximately 1,860 square kilometres of land?was seized by Israel during the 1967 war, and annexed to its territory in 1981. 66 per cent of respondents reject returning the Golan Heights to Syria within the framework of a real peace agreement. (Stolen)land or peace - which is it? History has proven that Israel can't have both.
12-31-06 - Israel plays down letter from Assad to Olmert
12-31-06 - Israel is the Only Middle East Ally for Americans Yeh. Look at the list that they offered to choose from. Somebody at Angus-Reid there is reaching for straws.
12-31-06 - A dictator's Mideast legacy
12-30-06 - How Washington and London helped to create the monster they went to war to destroy
12-30-06 - Third time's the harm After two tours of duty in Afghanistan, Steven Henderson says his latest callup 'not to exceed 545 days' in Iraq is asking too much.
12-30-06 - Robert Fisk: He takes his secrets to the grave. Our complicity dies with him Saddam knew, too, the secrets of the attack on the USS Stark when, on 17 May 1987, an Iraqi jet launched a missile attack on the American frigate, killing more than a sixth of the crew and almost sinking the vessel. The US accepted Saddam's excuse that the ship was mistaken for an Iranian vessel and allowed Saddam to refuse their request to interview the Iraqi pilot.
12-30-06 - Military families weigh Saddam execution
12-30-06 - Former Iran leaders speak out against nuclear policy
12-30-06 - Relieved Iran lauds hanging of Saddam
12-30-06 - Insurgency set to outlive Saddam Human Rights Watch, who observed every day of the process along with another NGO, brought out a harsh verdict on the quality of justice in this case. Their conclusion was that this was not a fair trial, and the soundness of the verdict is questionable
12-30-06 - Book: Israel, Lobby Pushing Iran War ** Later in the book, Ritter adds: "Let there be no doubt: If there is an American war with Iran, it is a war that was made in Israel and nowhere else." Hmm.
12-30-06 - Maverick British MP denounces Saddam's hanging as illegal blunder
12-30-06 - The Disrespect for Truth has Brought a New Dark Age
12-30-06 - Israel says 'justice done' with Saddam execution "Saddam Hussein brought about his own demise. This was a man who caused a great deal of harm to his people and who was a major threat to Israel," Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told public radio Saturday.
12-30-06 - Kid Rock spends Christmas with US GI's in Iraq
12-30-06 - US welcomes Saddam hanging, Europe opposes execution "Saddam Hussein was a prisoner of war," a Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhum, told AFP. The "hanging ... is a political assassination that violates all international laws that are supposed to protect prisoners of war."
12-30-06 - What to do with Iran? ** As an American strike in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help him pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party (which is conducting itself foolishly) and US newspaper editors. We need to do this in order to turn the Iranian issue to a bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure.....We must turn to Hillary Clinton and other potential presidential candidates in the Democratic Party so that they publicly support immediate action by Bush against Iran.....We must clandestinely cooperate with Saudi Arabia so that it also persuades the US to strike Iran.....The Americans must act. Yet if they don't, we'll do it ourselves
12-30-06 - Morally And Strategically Right To Send More U.S. Troops To Iraq By Joseph Lieberman
12-30-06 - Sorry, Senator Lieberman, I Don't Buy It it's a funny thing how Iran is now the source of all the extremism and terrorism. Also notice how shortly after Lieberman mentions Iran, he makes the ubiquitous reference to 9/11. Is this the new subliminal message, that Iran was behind those attacks?
12-30-06 - A challenge to newly elected Speaker of the House Pelosi In 2001, Pelosi told a pro-Israeli conference the real issue surrounding the Palestinian/Israeli problem is not the occupation, but Israel's right to exist. She added the occupation argument is "nonsense."
12-29-06 - Saddam Hussein executed in Iraq Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging at an unspecified location in Baghdad.
12-29-06 - US frees detained Iran diplomats Earlier this week a US military spokesman said the Iranians were among 10 people held following an intelligence-based operation against suspected insurgents.
12-29-06 - Saddam sees death as 'sacrifice'
12-29-06 - Reyes: U.S. intelligence 'manipulated'
12-29-06 - Iraqis split over death penalty for Saddam News of Saddam Hussein?s imminent execution provoked widely differing reactions among Iraqis on Wednesday, with some welcoming the demise of their former persecutor and many afraid that it would cause further disruption to their lives, and others convinced that the president would strike a last-minute deal to avoid death.
12-29-06 - How a spy was caught and why he still stands to profit From his prison cell, an unrepentant Pollard still claims a double-cross by U.S. prosecutors who had promised not to seek a life sentence. Mr. Olive dashes this protest: The government did not recommend the term. It was meted by U.S. District Judge Aubrey E. Robinson Jr., after reading a still-secret memo from Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger detailing the grave damage Pollard caused to national security
12-29-06 - US tries to assure allies that extraordinary renditions are over The US is telling its overseas allies that it has stopped "extraordinary renditions" and needs their help to empty Guantánamo's prison cells. But human rights groups dispute this assertion and a question mark hangs over 200 "war on terror" detainees who could be held indefinitely without trial.
12-29-06 - Belgian troops wounded in Lebanon Two Belgian soldiers on a mine-clearing operation in south Lebanon have been wounded after stepping on a cluster bomb, a UN spokesman has said.
12-29-06 - Hezbollah involved in Lebanon assassinations: Jumblatt
12-29-06 - Probe 'finds Israeli army deficient in summer war' There is no probe into Israel's conduct of the war that included the wholesale bombing of civilians (including those in the process of fleeing), and the firing of thousands of cluster bombs into civilian areas.
12-29-06 - Finding resolution in Iraq
12-28-06 - Gov't watchdogs under attack from bosses Administration-friendly Republicans in Congress tried to do away with the special inspector general for Iraq, who repeatedly exposed examples of administration waste that cost billions of dollars. Among the contractors criticized was Halliburton Corp., once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.
12-28-06 - U.S. links Iranians, Iraqis to crime ** Enter the pretext.
12-28-06 - Late US ex-president Ford disagreed with Iraq war: report
12-28-06 - Iran vows not to cut oil exports after UN sanctions Iran has said that it would be prepared to use "any weapon" in the standoff over its nuclear programme but assured world markets it had no intention of cutting off its oil exports.
12-28-06 - Inside TV News: We Were Silenced by the Drums of War
12-28-06 - The real menace Ponder those words as you consider the predominant presence of former Halliburton CEO, Dick Cheney, in the councils of this White House, and how his old company has profiteered more than any other from the disaster that is Iraq. Despite having been found to have overcharged some $60 million to the U.S. military for fuel deliveries, the formerly bankrupt Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root, continues to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in lucrative contracts.
12-28-06 - Biden wants Rice to testify on Iraq policy Sen. Joseph Biden, the incoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he has invited Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to testify during three weeks of hearings in January about the Iraq war.
12-28-06 - Many soldiers say troop surge a bad idea
12-28-06 - 10 people showing signs of polonium-210
12-28-06 - Russia calls to fulfill Olmert-Abbas agreements Russia ?hopes Israel and Palestine will not resort to unilateral actions, which would anticipate the solution of the issue of the final status of Palestinian territories,? Russian foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said Thursday.
12-28-06 - Israel hopes May elections will change UN Human Rights Council "I'm not optimistic," Levanon said, but he added that it was one of the few possibilities which existed for changing the attitude of the Human Rights Council when it came to Israel and making it a more effective vehicle to advocate for victims of injustice around the world. Israel is one of the biggest human rights violators on the planet. But we aren't supposed to know that or condemn it.
12-28-06 - Did the Russian Mafia Kill Alexander Litvinenko? To really get a handle on the truth about this mysterious affair, what we have to do is look at what Charles Krauthammer and Max Boot are saying ? and then draw the opposite conclusion.
12-28-06 - From 2005: Ministers were told of need for Gulf war 'excuse' MINISTERS were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal.
12-28-06 - UAE rejects US criticism on export of sensitive material The United States is "increasingly disturbed by the diversion of goods to Iran and Syria through various ports in the UAE," Chicken Little/boy who cried wolf (Israel), who's hiding behind Uncle Sam, is the one behind it.
12-28-06 - Analysis: Syria, Iran won Lebanon war
12-28-06 - Muslims are Americans, too
12-28-06 - U.S. Embassy Is Warning Beijing on Iran Gas Deal Tom Lantos, said his panel will "closely examine" the deal next week to see if the sanctions would apply. The ranking Republican on that committee, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Florida, said she will also be looking closely at the deal. Israel's top two agents on Capitol Hill, what a coincidence.
12-28-06 - Russia fingers Israeli fugitive in radiation poison probe
12-28-06 - ANALYSIS-Lebanon conflict overlaps with Mideast turmoil "The Middle East's next era promises to be one in which outside actors have a relatively modest impact and local forces enjoy the upper hand -- and in which the local actors gaining power are radicals committed to changing the status quo," he wrote in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs. In Iraq and the Palestinian territories, Islamists have already displaced secular elites, militias eclipse government authority and leaders linked to the West are on the defensive. And why is that? What has allowed these radical groups to rise in power? Moderates have for years sought justice through the proper channels - only to be denied by an America that is heavily biased in favor of and influenced by Israel. Our own national interest has never been considered. Neither have the human rights of the people in that region. As long as Israel's minions in the US tie the hands of our government, radical groups will continue to gain popularity.
12-28-06 - Lebanon sees more than 1,000 war deaths None of the counts of war dead include Lebanese killed since the fighting ended by exploding land mines or Israeli cluster bombs scattered around southern Lebanon. Such blasts have killed 27 people and wounded 167, according to the National Demining Office. No Israelis have been killed by war-related blasts since then.
12-28-06 - Israel admits it may have hit ambulance ONLY after they got caught in another lie.
12-27-06 - Iran to reduce nuclear cooperation after sanctions
12-27-06 - Baath party threatens to retaliate Saddam Hussein's Baath Party threatened Wednesday to retaliate if the ousted Iraqi leader is executed, warning in an Internet posting it would target U.S. interests anywhere.
12-27-06 - US to send more troops to Gulf The US is to send up to 3,300 soldiers to Kuwait in early January, amid a review by the Bush administration of its policy on neighbouring Iraq.
12-27-06 - A Grim Christmas for Iraqi Children
12-27-06 - Alarming 9/11 claim is found baseless
12-27-06 - Iran puts 17 oil blocks out to tender
12-27-06 - Justice Dept. Database Stirs Privacy Fears The Justice Department is building a massive database that allows state and local police officers around the country to search millions of case files from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement agencies, according to Justice officials.
12-27-06 - Iran's Ahmadinejad sends letter to pope He also wrote a letter in July to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, complaining that Germany was being exploited by "greedy Zionists", more than 60 years after World War II.
12-27-06 - Successful Israelis relinquish citizenship "..they are required to relinquish their citizenship in order to work in Capitol Hill or serve in prestigious positions in the American military or the White House," Relinquishing their Israeli citizenship does not remove the security threat.
12-27-06 - Increasing numbers of Palestinians leaving Baghdad The number of Palestinians stuck on the Iraq-Syria border after fleeing violence in Baghdad has risen to 80, with more reported on the way.
12-27-06 - Nevzlin named in poison probe Russian authorities said an Israel-based business oligarch could be a suspect in the murder of a former Russian spy in Britain.....Nevzlin, who is involved in several Jewish charities, was one of several business moguls forced out of Russia in what many see as a deliberate corporate takeover campaign masterminded by President Vladimir Putin. Hmm.
12-27-06 - Gaydamak boosts Bibi A Russian-Israeli billionaire endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu?s bid to retake the Israeli premiership.
12-27-06 - Neocons Endanger the Sixth Amendment Obviously, the demands of Israel trump the rights of American citizens, as America is now, and has been for some time, Israeli occupied territory.
12-27-06 - Outside View: What happened to the Arabs? Reaction to the Baker-Hamilton report showed that Israel is defending certain policies that Americans do not agree on. Israel declared that occupying Iraq is in the Israeli strategic interest and that dividing Iraq is an Israeli target, while the Iraq Study Group report insisted on the need of keeping Iraq united and that war in Iraq damaged the U.S. status, interests and reputation
12-27-06 - Egypt wants end to 'nuclear double standards'
12-27-06 - Hezbollah rises from ruins of its Beirut home
12-27-06 - Unlike America, writer has no conflicts
12-27-06 - Lebanon keeps 'door open' to changes in Hariri tribunal Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has said that changes could yet be made to the statutes establishing an international tribunal on the February 2005 murder of former prime minister Rafic Hariri.
12-26-06 - Death toll of US troops in Iraq passes September 11 The number of US troops killed in Iraq is now greater than the number of people who died in the terror attack on New York on 11 September 2001, an event unrelated to Saddam Hussein's regime but which the US and Britain used as justification for the invasion
12-26-06 - Defiant Iran heading to industrial enrichment Iran has maintained its defiance of UN sanctions over its nuclear programme, declaring it was heading towards enriching uranium on an industrial scale and mulling a reduction of cooperation with the UN atomic watchdog.
12-26-06 - Iran may need nuclear power: study Iran's claim to need nuclear power may be genuine, given that it could run out of oil to export as soon as eight years from now, according to an analysis published on Tuesday by the National Academy of Sciences.
12-26-06 - Syria wants to work with US forces to control Iraq border "President Assad said he has tried to engage the United States to use our forces to work with Syria to control the border, and he says that the United States has not been responsive," Specter said, adding that he would raise the issue with President George W. Bush on his return home.
12-26-06 - Why did Russia and China vote to sanction Iran? ** The final conditions for the impending military action are being rapidly put in place as we speak
12-26-06 - Iran backed dangerously into a corner ** Israeli and right-wing American spokespeople are working the "wipe Israel off the map" statement as hard as they can as "evidence" that Israel is seriously menaced. It's ironic that while Iran does not possess that kind of capability Israel does and showed its willingness to use it in 1973 and 1991 when the country was on nuclear alert.
12-26-06 - Interior, Pentagon Faulted In Audits More than half of the contracts examined were awarded without competition or without checks to determine that the prices were reasonable, according to the audits by the inspectors general for Defense (DOD) and Interior (DOI). Ninety-two percent of the work reviewed was awarded without verifying that the contractors' cost estimates were accurate; 96 percent was inadequately monitored.
12-26-06 - Uncle Sam wants US Muslims to serve "There is a message here, and that is that Muslims and the Islamic religion are totally compatible with Western values," says Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England in an interview.
12-26-06 - Iran calls in UK envoy over Blair
12-26-06 - Death sentence for Saddam upheld The court rejected an appeal by Saddam Hussein's lawyers and confirmed that he would be hanged, court spokesman Raed Juhi told the BBC.
12-26-06 - Video: Kristol believes Bush mulling more than 'short term surge' Neoconservative pundit Bill Kristol believes that any increase of U.S. troops in Iraq must be a permanent increase to achieve success. Another neocon attempting to call the shots. It wouldn't break my heart if these folks were rounded up and sent to Gitmo. They are the REAL threat to the security of this nation.
12-26-06 - A U.S. military 'at its breaking point' considers foreign recruits The idea of signing up residents who are seeking U.S. citizenship is gaining traction as a way to address a critical need for the Pentagon, while fully absorbing some of the roughly one million immigrants that enter the United States legally each year.
12-26-06 - End of the neo-con dream Not quite. Iran is still on the agenda.
12-26-06 - Intel. tribunal urged to try killers of journalists in Iraq, Palestine The Arab Journalists Federation (AJF) called on the U.N. Security Council on Sunday to take more decisive steps to stop the serial killing of journalists in Iraq and Palestine.
12-26-06 - Lynne Cheney: Putting Scooter Libby On Trial 'Does Not Reflect Well On Our Judicial System'
12-26-06 - Syria plans regional conference on Iraq -U.S. senator Syria is seeking to hold a conference grouping Iraqi factions to try to help stabilise its eastern neighbour, a U.S. senator who has met President Bashar al-Assad said on Tuesday.
12-26-06 - Israeli spies divided over Syria's peace overtures
12-26-06 - U.N. Chief Pressured To Bypass Businessman South Korea?s Ban-Ki Moon, who will begin his term January 1 with little experience regarding Israel and its supporters, is coming under fire for his team?s relationship with a little-known Orthodox businessman and activist named Michael Landau. The head of a local Orthodox group in Manhattan, Landau has been actively courting the new secretary-general?s entourage and presenting himself as a go-between to help Ban navigate the U.N.?s notoriously fraught relationship with Jewish groups....Landau is reportedly backed by Malcolm Hoenlein, the influential executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
Well well well. Caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
12-26-06 - Heeding a call to duty, Jews move to Israel Yonatan Cooper had a hot new sports car, a swank apartment near Beverly Hills and a job he loved in politics. But this week, the 24-year-old New Jersey native plans to trade it all in for a choice that has startled some of his closest friends and family:
He has decided to emigrate to Israel and aims to serve as a paratrooper with the Israel Defense Forces. Because the armed forces of THIS COUNTRY aren't hurting for troops or anything. Something wrong with serving AMERICA?
12-26-06 - Cases to test secret witnesses In three pending high-profile criminal cases, including one in Dallas, federal prosecutors have asked that the identities of Israeli government witnesses be withheld from defendants and their attorneys -- a move some legal scholars see as a highly unusual end run around the Sixth Amendment.....But University of Michigan law school professor Richard Friedman, a Sixth Amendment expert, said Israel's concerns about the security of intelligence and law enforcement officials should not be allowed to trump the Constitution.
"Israel doesn't conduct our criminal procedures, and there is no reason why a defendant's rights in court should be determined by Israeli criminal procedure," he said.
It should alarm American citizens that agents - whose identities are allowed to be kept secret - of a FOREIGN GOVERNMENT should be allowed to testify against you. But that is the nature of the beast. These agents are of a foreign government that does not now nor has it ever abided by international law; a rogue state.
12-25-06 - US troops celebrate Christmas in Iraq Separated from loved ones thousands of miles away back home, soldiers on active duty were treated to a lashings of lobster, turkey, gammon, pumpkin pie, cake and candy, a live jazz band and a room festooned with decorations.
"It's awesome. It makes you feel like you're at home," said First Lieutenant Gary Marquis, whose wife and three children live in Rhode Island, while on a break from patroling the mean streets of Baghdad.
12-25-06 - Troop 'surge' plan for Iraq meets growing opposition in US
12-25-06 - Iraq and Iran protest US arrest of Iranian officials
12-25-06 - U.S. Is Holding Iranians Seized in Raids in Iraq Gordon D. Johndroe, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said two Iranian diplomats were among those initially detained in the raids.....Nonetheless, the two raids, in central Baghdad, have deeply upset Iraqi government officials, who have been making strenuous efforts to engage Iran on matters of security. At least two of the Iranians were in this country on an invitation extended by Iraq?s president, Jalal Talabani, during a visit to Tehran earlier this month
12-25-06 - Egypt slams Iranian president Egypt rebuked Iran's president on Monday for claiming his state is "a nuclear country" - a comment that touched a nerve among Iran's neighbors in the Middle East.
12-25-06 - OIC urges peaceful end to Iran nuclear standoff The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has called for a peaceful resolution of the Iran nuclear crisis after the United Nations decided to impose sanctions over Tehran's refusal to stop enriching uranium.
12-25-06 - Iran's nuclear drive linked to looming oil crisis: US study
12-25-06 - Iran summons US representative over detention of diplomats Iran on Monday summoned the Swiss ambassador, whose country represents the United States interests in the Islamic republic, over the detention of Iranian diplomats by the US military in Iraq, ISNA news agency reported
12-25-06 - Palestinian state in 2 years 2 years? Why not NOW? This again leads me to believe that this is another attempt to appease Europe and get their support for another Middle East war (Iran). If Bush had wanted to help create a Palestinian state, he would have done so in 2005, per the Road Map. Not so. All of these recent gestures lately are awfully reminiscent of the runup to the Iraq war. And this all comes JUST as the UN slapped Iran with sanctions.
12-25-06 - OIC chief meets Hamas head in Syria "The meeting between Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and Mr Meshaal focused on resuming inter-Palestinian talks and on ways of breaking the impasse provoked by Abu Mazen's speech, which closed the door to dialogue,"
12-25-06 - MK Bishara in Ghajar: We won't let you become refugees "The Arab village of Ghajar was conquered in '67 along with the Golan Heights and is an inseparable part of Syria . Its status must not be changed until the Golan Heights is discussed," MK Bishara told Ynet.
12-25-06 - Israelis seek peace with Syria, want to keep Golan Most Israelis want peace talks with Syria, but not at the cost of giving up the Golan.
12-25-06 - Olmert ready to open Syria talks Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday said he would like to renew peace talks with Syria, but insisted that Damascus first end its support of anti-Israel militant groups in the Palestinian areas and Lebanon.
12-25-06 - Pessimistic view of the Mideast Max Boot = neocon.
12-25-06 - Cluster bombs injure 5 in Lebanon
12-25-06 - U.S. Republican senator arrives in Syria for talks U.S. Republican Senator Arlen Specter arrived in Syria on Monday for talks with Syrian leaders on bilateral relations and situations in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories, according to the independent Syria-News website.
Merry Christmas all!
12-24-06 - What a 'troop surge' in Iraq might accomplish Proponents of one prominent surge plan agree. Drawn up under the auspices of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the plan would put four additional Army brigades into Baghdad and two additional Marine regimental combat teams into Sunni-dominated Anbar Province, in an effort to curtail Iraqi violence. The AEI is neocon central. When did they become charged with our military affairs? Outrageous.
12-24-06 - China urges more talks on Iran's nuclear program China, a veto-wielding member of the United Nations Security Council, wants more talks on Iran's nuclear program, state media and the government have reported, after the UN voted in favor of sanctions.
12-24-06 - Iran vows to press on with uranium enrichment
12-24-06 - Iran warns U.N. to expect reaction over sanctions "If they intend to deprive the Iranian nation of its certain right to nuclear technology by a resolution ... parliament will reconsider the nature of its relationship with the IAEA," Parliament Speaker Gholamali Haddadadel told state television.
12-24-06 - Iran forging ahead in Iraq without U.S. Tehran's top envoy here said there was no need for contacts with the United States aimed at stabilizing Iraq, saying that Iranians already were pursuing channels to help secure their embattled neighbor.
12-24-06 - PBS show focuses on military families One veteran talks proudly about how he had left behind a large glass jar filled with little messages from him for them to read, one a day, while he was gone. His daughter sits bravely beside him as he talks until she can't take it any more. She dissolves into tears at the memory.
12-24-06 - What We Wanted to Tell You about Iran Here is the redacted version of a draft Op-Ed article we wrote for The Times, as blacked out by the Central Intelligence Agency?s Publication Review Board after the White House intervened in the normal prepublication review process and demanded substantial deletions. Agency officials told us that they had concluded on their own that the original draft included no classified material, but that they had to bow to the White House.
12-24-06 - Source says 'outsider' Gates prepped for confirmation by Cheney's office ** recent comments by Gates and President Bush, as well as military activities in the Gulf, raise serious concern about White House plans for Iran......Another CIA official reiterates what has been already reported here and in and other publications for the past year, that "Cheney has promised that Iran will be taken care of by spring (of 2007)."
12-24-06 - Christmas under siege: Baghdad tree tradition dies Baghdad's large but dwindling Christian community has thus far not been a target for the rival Sunni and Shiite death squads whose attacks have pushed Iraq to the brink of all-out sectarian war.
12-24-06 - FEATURE - Anti-Israel "rabbis" face fallout from Jewish world Neturei Karta, Aramaic for "guardians of the city", was formed in Jerusalem in the 1930s as a bulwark against the growing Zionist movement in what was then British Mandate Palestine.
12-24-06 - Wolfowitz owes us an explanation Of course, plenty of other smart people also got Iraq wrong, so why single out Wolfowitz? Because from Bush on down, the politicians are being held accountable
12-24-06 - Could Bush Start Another War? **
12-24-06 - Israel praises U.N. Security Council decision to impose sanctions on Iran Israel's Defense Ministry said the international community "will need to continue to show determination to reach the goal of blocking Iran's nuclear plan."
12-24-06 - The Muslim prophet born in Bethlehem For centuries Muslims cherished the figure of Jesus, who is honoured in the Qur'an as one of the greatest of the prophets and, in the formative years of Islam, became a constituent part of the emergent Muslim identity.
12-24-06 - Iran sanctions ?very good for israel?
12-24-06 - Christmas trees become political symbols in Beirut "The opposition has succeeded in creating a brotherhood between Shiites from the south and Christians so that together they can demand an end to Western tutelage,"
12-24-06 - Hindsight is 20/20 - how israel duped US into fighting their wars
12-23-06 - Christmas Duty As difficult as that second deployment was, Bourland, who is now home with his family in Virginia, says he'd go back in a heartbeat if needed. He calls his platoon his "second family" and is dedicated to the idea that the United States is bringing democracy to Iraq.
12-23-06 - U.N. imposes nuclear trade sanctions on Iran Tehran's U.N. Ambassador, Javard Zarif, accused the Security Council and the United States of a double standard by punishing Iran while ignoring Israel's nuclear arsenal.
12-23-06 - US wants more sanctions on Iran The United States wants the international community to take more action against Iran, and impose more sanctions than those adopted Saturday by the UN Security Council, the State Department's number three diplomat has said.
12-23-06 - Veterans Affairs secretary indicates support for military draft President Bush's secretary for Veterans Affairs said Thursday that "society would benefit" if this country were to bring back the military draft, and said it shouldn't have loopholes for anyone who is called to serve.
12-23-06 - Report: English Channel Tunnel a Terror Target The tunnel beneath the English Channel that connects Britain to France is a Christmas terror target of Islamic terrorists, according to a report published Sunday.
12-23-06 - Ballistic Missile Defense: U.S. on collision course with Russia the U.S.-Russian nuclear arms race is in higher gear on both sides than at any time in the past quarter-century
12-23-06 - Are Bush and Cheney Planning an Early Attack on Iran? **
12-23-06 - Gates pledges 'enduring' US presence in Gulf An increased U.S. naval presence in the Gulf is not a response to any action by Iran but a message to all countries that the United States will keep its regional footprint "for a long time", U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday.
12-23-06 - Target Iran: Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter and Investigative Journalist Seymour Hersh on White House Plans for Regime Change ** So if you read the Azeri press, for instance, you?ll find out that the Israeli Mossad has upped its efforts to build a station in Azerbaijan. And the Azeri press will delve into that more. Why does the Mossad want to build a station operating? There?s a couple reasons. One, the Mossad is working with the Azeri population. You know, there is a Jewish minority in Azerbaijan that has emigrated to Israel. And so, there?s a number of Azeri Israelis that the Israeli government now is bringing back to Azerbaijan to work on this issue.... we're not allowed to do is discuss the notion that Israel and the notion of Israeli interests may in fact be dictating what America is doing, that what we're doing in the Middle East may not be to the benefit of America's national security, but to Israel's national security. But, see, we don?t want to talk about that, because one of the great success stories out there is the pro-Israeli lobby that has successfully enabled themselves to blend the two together, so that when we speak of Israeli interests, they say, "No, we're speaking of American interests."....The bottom line is, within two days of our decision to initiate an attack on Iran, every single one of you is going to be feeling the consequences of that in your pocketbook. And it?s only going to get worse. This is not something that only I recognize. Ask Dick Lugar what information he?s getting from big business, who are saying, ?We can?t afford to go to war with Iran.? SEYMOUR HERSH: Final question: given all this, are we going to do it? SCOTT RITTER: Yes, we're going to do it.
Read the entire thing.
12-23-06 - Attorney admonished for statements on Libby Earlier this year Walton warned both Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald and attorneys for Libby from making what he described as "extrajudicial statements" about the case.
12-23-06 - The war on terror and rule of law collide
12-23-06 - Media Takes on AT&T in Spy Case The documents at issue detail a secret switching room in AT&T's San Francisco hub equipped with internet surveillance gear.
12-23-06 - U.N. adopts treaty banning countries from secretly abducting perceived enemies The General Assembly adopted a treaty Wednesday that would ban nations from abducting perceived enemies and hiding them in secret prisons or killing them.
12-23-06 - Report: Direct flight from Tel Aviv to Beirut Hizbullah television station Al-Manar claimed Wednesday that the organization is in possession of documents proving that a Portuguese military plane carrying 11 unidentified passengers flew directly from Israel?s Ben-Gurion Airport to Beirut.
12-23-06 - Surprise Gaza talks raise hope for peace By coincidence, it happened on a day when the UN voted to sanction Iran.
12-23-06 - Blair was dangerously off target in his condemnation of Iran
12-23-06 - Syria's isolation over: deputy PM
12-23-06 - Britain slaps down Anglican leader for Middle East outburst The British government rebuked the leader of the world's Anglicans for saying Christians in the Middle East are being put at risk by a "short-sighted" and "ignorant" policy on Iraq.
12-23-06 - Syria building 'death trap' villages While for years it was assumed that Israel had a major edge against Syria's military with regard to a conventional war - tank versus tank, jet versus jet - in an urban setting, the Syrian military would be able, the officer said, to wreak havoc against IDF infantry and armored units like Hizbullah did.
12-23-06 - Lebanon seizes explosives from pro-Syrian group
12-23-06 - Four reasons for ranting ** The ideal scenario, from Israel's point of view, would be an American military attack that would destroy Iran's nuclear facilities and remove the threat. "We have to get the United States to carry out what it promised to do, and to create the proper international climate," explains a senior official. It is not clear what President Bush told Olmert in private talks that had him leaving Bush's office feeling so satisfied. We can only presume that Olmert is depending on Bush's religious faith and obstinacy, which will lead him to attack Iran, even in light of American public opposition to military adventures in the Middle East.
12-23-06 - Mainstream journalist defends western bias "There was a statement issued today by Hezbollah that they would support a UN Tribunal if it is "fair, just and nonpolitical", so what about the Israeli Mossad spy ring that was uncovered in Lebanon that outside investigators claim is linked to the Hariri killing? What is the UN doing in this regard to investigate?" Mossad in Lebanon caught before this year, same story, also in 1998.
12-23-06 - Jimmy Carter, on Mission Carter is taking on the orthodoxies in his own culture, with the same sense of all or nothing. The venom he is encountering on the Jewish right is staggering.....we're getting closer and closer to the Elian Gonzales moment, the moment when the American people wake up and realize that a fanatical lobby is not representing America's best interest.
12-23-06 - Jewish leaders: Bush finds Iran election results encouraging Bush gathered Jewish education leaders and students at the White House to discuss the role of religion in schools. The closed-door discussions also touched on other issues including the war in Iraq, spreading democracy and the crisis in Darfur.
12-22-06 - Russia seeks delay in planned vote on Iran sanctions
12-22-06 - UN Security Council likely to approve Iran sanctions Saturday: diplomats
12-22-06 - Iran gives UN key enrichment plant records-diplomats
12-22-06 - President Confronts Dissent on Troop Levels
12-22-06 - Media want documents in CIA leak case The Associated Press and Dow Jones, in court papers filed this week, asked for the release of the sworn statements Fitzgerald gave to justify subpoenas for New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper.
12-22-06 - Rice backs 'worthwhile' Iraq war US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has again defended the war in Iraq, saying the investment in US lives and dollars will be "worth it".
12-22-06 - US soldiers in Iraq urge Gates to send more troops
12-22-06 - Military pressure alongside UN sanctions against Iran Boosting naval presence in the area would also serve as a means to ensure that Iran won't try to block oil shipments in retaliation for the sanctions.
12-22-06 - Judge: Iran Owes $254M in Terror Attack The Iranian government financed a 1996 terrorist attack that killed 19 Americans in Saudi Arabia and must pay $254 million to the victims' families, a federal judge ruled Friday.
12-22-06 - Terrorist Recruits Pose Threat to U.S. "Iraq is generating an exodus of terrorists," says ABC News consultant Tony Cordesman. "It is creating a training center, in effect, the worst kind of training center, because people learn through practice, not theory."
12-22-06 - Agency to Test Military Draft Machinery The Selective Service System is planning a comprehensive test of the military draft machinery, which hasn't been run since 1998.
12-22-06 - British soldier 'gave Army secrets to Iran'
12-22-06 - Iran's president says Bush 'most hated'
12-22-06 - Lawmaker Fears Election of 'More Muslims'
12-22-06 - State Department Weighs Plan for Palestinian State The Bush administration is considering a plan to declare an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders by the end of 2007. It will no doubt be Israel's version of a Palestinian state. It also could be seen as a way to win support (from those who need to be swayed) for a possible attack on Iran.
12-22-06 - Israeli think tank says only military strike will stop Iran: Report ** And they want US to do it as history repeats itself.
12-22-06 - The Right Men, the Wrong President
12-22-06 - Condi's Albright Moment
12-22-06 - Canadian Jews: Indict Ahmadinejad Canadian Jewish and other community groups urged the government to support an indictment against Iran?s president for incitement to genocide.
12-22-06 - More Palestinians arrive at Iraq-Syria border to escape violence in Baghdad The latest group has been stranded on the Iraqi side of the border with Syria since last Saturday, UNHCR's chief spokesperson, Ron Redmond, told reporters in Geneva, adding that Iraqi border authorities initially refused to allow them to leave Iraq, citing a lack of proper documentation
12-22-06 - Police find car packed with explosives in southeast Iran
12-22-06 - Syrian daily hits out at US terms for dialogue "You cannot tackle the Iraq question independently of the other issues in the region, because the root cause of all the problems is Israel's occupation of Arab lands," the paper said.
12-22-06 - Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews attend conference: "The Holocaust - Global Vision"
12-22-06 - Stalin's Jews In his new, highly praised book "The War of the World, "Historian Niall Ferguson writes that no revolution in the history of mankind devoured its children with the same unrestrained appetite as did the Soviet revolution. In his book on the Stalinist purges, Tel Aviv University's Dr. Igal Halfin writes that Stalinist violence was unique in that it was directed internally.
12-22-06 - Future House power says Dems back a dialogue with Iran, Syria U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said both parties? support for Israel would remain unstinting..... Hoyer scored a decisive win in a caucus vote last month to become majority leader. Jewish groups watched the race closely, since Hoyer has proven to be one of Israel's best friends in Congress, leading multiple delegations to the Jewish state and isolating the caucus' few anti-Israel voices.
12-22-06 - Army sets sights on missile defense Defense Ministry officials are pinning their hopes on a joint venture between Israel's Rafael Armament Development Authority and Raytheon Co.
12-22-06 - ZOA Criticizes President Bush For Again Refusing To Move U.S. Embassy To Jerusalem - Reneging On Campaign Promise Maybe they can get their man Bolton on the case?....
12-22-06 - America's Double Standard on Democracy in the Middle East while the Bush Administration continues talk the talk of promoting democracy in the Middle East, many in the Arab world have a jaundiced view of Washington's intentions: Democracy, yes, but only when the outcome serves the interests of the U.S.
12-22-06 - ADL Lists Top 10 Issues Affecting Jews in 2006 The Anti-Semitic Myth of the "Israel Lobby"
That is hilarious. Maybe if the gloating about how much power the pro-Israelis have over both houses of Congress wasn't coming from THAT VERY COMMUNITY, maybe THEN these people would have a leg to stand on. That it IS happening only proves this 'anti-Semitic myth' is a charge leveled by the aforementioned in order to SHUT PEOPLE UP. Not working anymore. Come back 10 year!
12-22-06 - Neocons: Fighting To Prevent Our Exit From Iraq
12-22-06 - Rate of cluster bomb casualties falling However, with at least 900,000 bomblets still contaminating southern Lebanon, according to MACC, there is still a high risk to inhabitants of the area.
12-22-06 - The Nightmare before Christmas
12-21-06 - French soldiers had bin Laden in the crosshairs: documentary French soldiers in Afghanistan had Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in their crosshairs -- twice -- but did not receive the order from their US commander to open fire, a French documentary reported.
12-21-06 - Iran defiant on nuclear energy despite looming sanctions In Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said her government was seeking last-minute changes to the draft UN resolution ahead of the vote.
12-21-06 - Mussa hails Syrian support for Lebanon mediation efforts Syria is supporting Arab League efforts to mediate a crisis between pro- and anti-Damascus forces in Lebanon, the bloc's chief Amr Mussa said after talks with President Bashar al-Assad.
12-21-06 - US marines face Iraq murder trial
12-21-06 - Contractors Lost in Pentagon Bureaucracy The Pentagon is still struggling to get a handle on the unprecedented number of contractors now helping run the nation's wars, losing millions of dollars because it is unable to monitor industry workers stationed in far-flung locations, according to a congressional report
12-21-06 - Broken Army, Broken Empire by Patrick J. Buchanan Americans must learn how to mind our own business and cease to meddle in other nation's quarrels. Iraq was never a threat to the United States. Only our mindless intervention has made it so.
12-21-06 - Iran sanctions won''t achieve targeted goal but increase nuclear race - they will rather unleash a nuclear race in the world in general and the region in particular, analysts said on Thursday.
12-21-06 - Palestinians have become targets in Iraq's chaos It was the bloodiest assault so far in what has become a long stream of attacks on Palestinians, whose community has been here since the establishment of Israel in 1948 but who've never been granted Iraqi citizenship.
12-21-06 - US compensation lawsuit against Ya'alon dropped In the United States last week the Washington DC District Court threw out a civil lawsuit against former IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. (res) Moshe Ya'alon demanding compensation on behalf of the families of those killed in the Lebanese village of Qana in 1996.
12-21-06 - First Arab peacekeepers deploy in Lebanon
12-21-06 - Jailed Syrian dissident prods Bush on Palestine, Iraq In his December 13 statement, Bush called on Syria to free all political prisoners and to halt "intimidation and interference" which, he alleged, had been hurting Lebanon's embattled democracy.
12-21-06 - EU Parliament member: Syria's peace intentions genuine
12-20-06 - U.S. may send second carrier to Mideast Gulf CBS News reported on Monday that a projected naval buildup was intended to discourage what U.S. officials view as increasingly provocative acts by Tehran as it presses its nuclear program and support for Shi'ite militias in Iraq.
12-20-06 - Russia objects to travel ban for Iranian officials Russia views such a travel ban on certain Iranian officials connected to the country's nuclear programme as an "attempt to introduce an element of punishment" into the draft resolution, Lavrov said Wednesday.
12-20-06 - Russia criticizes West over U.N. draft on Iran Russia said on Wednesday attempts by its Western partners to ditch agreed principles in handling Iran's nuclear ambitions were blocking adoption of a U.N. Security Council resolution on sanctions against Tehran.
12-20-06 - Pentagon Wants $99.7 Billion More to Fund Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan
12-20-06 - Bush concedes US not winning war in Iraq
12-20-06 - Al Qaeda promises attacks on US Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri has vowed in a videotape that the terrorist group will not stop attacks on American soil as long as the US strikes Muslims on their land.
12-20-06 - Annan: Iran intervention would be unwise U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Tuesday for key parties to seek a negotiated settlement with Iran over its nuclear program and warned that military intervention would be "unwise and disastrous."
12-20-06 - Report: U.S. secretly cultivating Syrian opposition to Assad The United States administration is secretly working to cultivate and strengthen the Syrian opposition, in order to undermine Syrian President Bashar Assad's rule and bring about his overthrow, according to the TIME Magazine Web site.
12-20-06 - Wilson challenges subpoena in CIA case "Mr. Libby should not be permitted to compel Mr. Wilson's testimony at trial either for the purpose of harassing Mr. Wilson or to gain an advantage in the civil case,"
12-20-06 - US senators meet Assad despite White House criticism Two influential US senators, including former presidential candidate John Kerry, met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad despite criticism in Washington of such missions.
12-20-06 - America's Original Foreign Policy by Rep. Ron Paul It is time for Americans to rethink the interventionist foreign policy that is accepted without question in Washington. It is time to understand the obvious harm that results from our being dragged time and time again into intractable and endless Middle East conflicts, whether in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, or Palestine. It is definitely time to ask ourselves whether further American lives and tax dollars should be lost trying to remake the Middle East in our image.
12-20-06 - End of the strongmen - Do America and Israel want the Middle East engulfed by civil war? All of these outcomes in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq could have been foreseen -- and almost certainly were. More than that, it looks increasingly like the growing tensions and carnage were planned. Rather than an absence of Western intervention being the problem, the violence and fragmentation of these societies seems to be precisely the goal of the intervention. Would there be near-civil wars in those three areas if we hadn't meddled therein? DOUBTFUL.
12-20-06 - Al-Zawahiri: U.S. Talking to Wrong People in Iraq, Urges 'Holy War' Against Israel In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum brushed off al-Zawahiri's criticism and defended the party's electoral policy.
12-20-06 - Person of the Year: Ahmadinejad by Patrick J. Buchanan His trip to the United Nations, where he ran circles around U.S. journalists, was a diplomatic triumph. And he has done it all not with military power ? Iran would not last a week in an all-out war with the United States and has no defense against Israel's nuclear weapons ? but with theatrics and rhetoric.
12-20-06 - Iran wants Israel to return Golan to Syria
12-20-06 - Bush appropriates Chanukah moral in depicting current threat from Iran
12-20-06 - Proposed travel limits on Congress don't faze Jewish nonprofit groups The consensus among Jewish groups is that the new legislation would be an inconvenience, but wouldn't seriously hamper the trips to Israel that are considered a critical component of congressional support for Israel. ...Trips must be preapproved by the House Ethics Committee, a process that U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said would guarantee a continuance of the Israel tours.....Insiders said the impact was likely to be minimal. In Israel trips, the key relationship is not between the lawmaker and the lobbyist but between the lawmaker and the Jewish constituent who gives money to the lawmaker's campaign and who often is present on the trip.
12-20-06 - Orthodox community outraged as group embraces Holocaust deniers "They are going to learn that the Jewish people and Holocaust survivors are not going to stomach this," Mordechai Levy, national director of the Jewish Defense Organization, told JTA. "There is a real line. They crossed it a billion times."
12-20-06 - Mazin Qumsiyeh: Holocaust Deniers and the Iraq Study Group
12-20-06 - Islamophobia on the rise, E.U. study reports Europe?s 13 million Muslims are experiencing an unprecedented level of discrimination at work and in public, a report found.
12-20-06 - Palestinian immigrant in 'L.A. Eight' case becomes U.S. citizen All the so-called "L-A Eight" have denied being members, and immigrant rights groups say the case was politically motivated
12-20-06 - Bush "proud" of Lebanese PM Siniora US President George W. Bush said he was proud of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, praising his tenacity in resisting "enormous pressure" from Syria and Hezbollah.
12-20-06 - Disbelief at israeli snub of Syrian offer
12-20-06 - Fox Guest Says Joy Behar, Matt Damon & Keith Olbermann Should Be Rounded Up And Put In A Detention Center Because They're Traitors
12-20-06 - EU politician calls for isolation of Iran Last week Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni accused Europe of not doing enough to combat the nuclear threat from Iran.
12-20-06 - Assad's fatal attraction
12-20-06 - Fresh from the horse's ass The little neocon from WND has a shiny new piece of Zioganda to spin - this time with regard to Baker and an attempt to delegitamize the latter's ISG report by smearing the former.
12-19-06 - Pentagon mulling show of force to Iran ** The Pentagon is considering a buildup of Navy forces in the Persian Gulf as a show of force against Iran, a senior defense official said Tuesday. Recall the article about missiles from yesterday's news. Is this the moment Israel and its neocon minions have been waiting for?
12-19-06 - US sees UN sanctions against Iran voted within days
12-19-06 - Cheney to be defense witness in CIA case
12-19-06 - Bush plans to increase size of military
12-19-06 - US costs for Iraq war likely to exceed $US110b, official says
12-19-06 - US rebuffs Syrian leader's offer of talks
12-19-06 - Ahmadi-Nejad suffers vote setback in Iran
12-19-06 - Syria ready for U.S. dialogue but not orders: Assad
12-19-06 - Wash. Post cited Giuliani's opposition to Iraq withdrawal in asserting his "tough(ness)"
12-19-06 - 60 Minutes: CIA Official Reveals Bush, Cheney, Rice Were Personally Told Iraq Had No WMD in Fall 2002 The policy was set. The war in Iraq was coming, and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy, to justify the policy.
12-19-06 - The Rascals are Still In Charge Of all the tragic aspects of this national disaster this is worst: The people who have been catastrophically wrong about everything are still in charge. And a year from now, when things are even worse in Iraq, we can be sure the neo-conservatives will still be demanding that yet more American soldiers die so that Kagan and his ilk can continue to live out their increasingly destructive geopolitical fantasies.
12-19-06 - The "Hoax" That Wasn't:: The July 23 Qana Ambulance Attack On the basis of this investigation, we conclude that the attack on the ambulances was not a hoax: Israeli forces attacked two Lebanese Red Cross ambulances that night in Qana, almost certainly with missiles fired from an Israeli drone flying overhead Israel-defenders stoop to new lows when it comes to their attempts to absolve that nation of any and all blame for anything.
12-19-06 - O-bomb-a and the War Party
12-19-06 - Israel to step up Golan settlement building Israeli Interior Minister Roni Bar-On has said he intends to accelerate housing projects on settlements in the occupied Golan Heights, defying recent Syrian calls for peace talks. Land or peace? Israel has chosen the former for nearly 60 years. Won't last forever.
12-19-06 - U.S. Senators Encourage Israel To Snub Syria
12-19-06 - Iran seeks condemnation of Israeli nukes
12-19-06 - Blair to ask Gulf States to rein in Iran
12-19-06 - Russian, Syrian leaders discuss Middle East peace process
12-19-06 - Think tank sees threats The institute, chaired by former U.S. Mideast envoy Dennis Ross, said it is developing an initiative for a ?pan-Jewish? strategy toward Islam, with particular emphasis on the role of global Jewish decision-makers, academics and policy planners
12-19-06 - PM to senators: Syrian support of extremists hurts peace chances Olmert called for sanctions on Iran and praised U.S. efforts toward preventing Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capabilities
12-19-06 - Hamas expert testifies in trial "What is the difference between this guy who blows himself up on a bus and the Israeli bombs dropped on a refugee camp in Gaza?" Hroub said. "The end result is the same -- killing civilians."
12-19-06 - Deep Background by Philip Giraldi In 2001-02 the FBI, acting on a request from the IRS, investigated what appeared to be a massive insurance fraud carried out by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
12-19-06 - The other Israel lobby The point of the initiative, Levy told me, is not to "turn American policy against Israel. It is to reach out to groups of philanthropists to get better resources and better focus and to translate this into a political statement," so that members of Congress will know that they "will have cover if they seek to do what we and many in the American Jewish Community think is right." You know, it would be great if our elected representatives actually represented the will of the American people, not lobbies. But then, that's just a quaint old notion these days...
12-19-06 - Neo-Cons Wanted Israel to Attack Syria Abrams has been known to work particularly closely with both David Wurmser, Meyrav's husband, and Cheney's national security adviser, John Hannah, who, in turn have long favoured "regime change" in Damascus.Indeed, both Wurmsers, along with former Defence Policy Board chairman Richard Perle and former Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Douglas Feith, worked together on a 1996 paper, entitled "A Clean Break", for incoming Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, which called for overthrowing Iraq's Saddam Hussein as the first step toward destabilising Syria.
12-19-06 - Iran to get nukes by 2010: Mossad boss Mr Dagan told the Knesset committee that a hasty US pullout from Iraq would be a disaster that would change the geo-political situation in the Middle East and provide al-Qa'ida with a victory. He said al-Qa'ida had already set its sights on Israel as its next target after the fighting in Iraq was over and that it would also aim at bringing down regimes in countries bordering Israel.
Thus will America never get out of Iraq. Israel's security comes before ours, which is why we went into that nation in the first place.
12-19-06 - Holy Warriors Set Sights on Iran **
12-19-06 - U.S. PREPARES DEFENSE PACKAGE FOR LEBANON Officials said the Bush administration plans to launch an imminent effort to bolster Lebanon's military amid the Hizbullah threat to the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora. They said the U.S. military aid package could reach more than $300 million over the next few years.
12-19-06 - Israel's entry into NATO proposed Daniel Levy, a senior fellow and director of the foundation's Middle East initiative, cautioned that a NATO with Israel as its only member from outside Europe and North America would make Israel look like a "colonial outpost."
That's exactly what it is.
12-18-06 - Showdown Looms Over Domestic Spying Federal agents continue to eavesdrop on Americans' electronic communications without warrants a year after President Bush confirmed the practice, and experts say a new Congress' efforts to limit the program could trigger a constitutional showdown.
12-18-06 - US special forces clash with CIA in war on terror: report
12-18-06 - Iran seeks to replace dollar with euro Amid US allegations that Tehran funds militant groups and is seeking a nuclear weapon, reports have suggested the US treasury has put major pressure on European banking giants to halt transactions involving Iranian clients.
12-18-06 - New manual at odds with key Iraq tactics Perhaps the most controversial section may be the manual's warning about large, sprawling bases, the very kind the Army has erected in Baghdad. The manual warns that such military bases could suggest "a long-term foreign occupation."
12-18-06 - Syria and Iraq to cooperate on crime Syria and Iraq signed on to a plan Monday to cooperate in combating terrorism and crime, the official SUNA Syrian news agency said
12-18-06 - Gingrich defends free speech curbs
12-18-06 - Iran hails elections as message to West
12-18-06 - US defence chief warns over Iraq
12-18-06 - A Near-Miss Nuclear Explosion
12-18-06 - Iran within four years of nuclear bomb: Israel spy chief ** The boy who cried wolf.
12-18-06 - Joy Behar of 'The View' Likens Rumsfeld to Adolf Hitler
12-18-06 - UN investigator cites progress in Hariri murder probe UN chief investigator Serge Brammertz cited progress in gathering crime scene evidence and probing potential perpetrators in the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri last year
12-18-06 - Bush accused of silencing critic of Iran policy A former CIA analyst has accused the White House of trying to silence its critics after he was told that an article he wrote criticising the Bush administration's policy on Iran could not be published because it contained classified material. The article had already been cleared by the CIA.
12-18-06 - Clueless Iraq hawks back in attack mode 'Hawks' = neocons.
12-18-06 - Israeli PM, U.S. senators: Baker's report not to be policy The delegation includes senior U.S. senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Susan Collins and John Thune. Olmert and the senators discussed the Baker-Hamilton report and emphasized that in their view, although the report has led to a broad political discussion, it will not necessarily become U.S. policy, including regarding opposition to a dialogue with Iran and Syria. Let it be known: US Middle East policy is crafted in Tel Aviv, not Washington.
12-18-06 - "It is a missile launch bunker. Somewhere within a mile to five miles are silos with the missiles in them." ** another media outlet in Israel is reporting that the U.S. is building a massive new base for the Israeli military on the West Bank border.
12-18-06 - Ahmadinejad good for Jews
12-18-06 - Uzi Landau: 'Israel's Churchill' Warns of Iran's Hitler Former Israeli Interior Minister Uzi Landau, a leading contender to succeed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, was in the United States last week to sound the alarm on Iran.
12-18-06 - Few in Lebanon Have Favourable View of U.S.
12-18-06 - Israeli intelligence warns Hamas gunmen being trained in Iran Wait, then that must mean we should attack Iran!....
12-18-06 - Syria statement omits Golan
12-17-06 - Want to send your support to a Soldier in harm's way, but have no idea of what to send, who to send it to, or how to send it?
12-17-06 - Republican Sen. Specter Plans Syria Trip Sen. Arlen Specter, a 26-year Senate Republican, said he will visit Syria despite loud objections by the Bush administration, contending the situation in Iraq is so dire that it is time Congress step up to the plate and see what it can do.
12-17-06 - Palestinian refugees fear for their lives after recent attack
12-17-06 - Pope urges aid for Iraqi refugees in Syria
12-17-06 - Americans Want Congress Hearings on Iraq War Should not 44%
Help me out here, why SHOULDN'T we investigate this?
12-17-06 - Powell: We Are Losing In Iraq Powell, who as a member of the Bush Administration pushed the international community to sanction the invasion of Iraq, said that we are not safer now after nearly four years of fighting. "I think we are a little less safe, in the sense that we don't have the same force structure available for other problems," Powell said. "I think we have been somewhat constrained in our ability to influence events elsewhere." Bring back Powell!
12-17-06 - AP: 'Vicious killers' from Guantanamo Bay routinely freed by other countries Decisions by more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, Europe and South Asia to release the former Guantanamo detainees raise questions about whether they were really as dangerous as the United States claimed, or whether some of America's staunchest allies have set terrorists and militants free.
12-17-06 - So Much for Inalienable Rights "...even if Iran is telling the truth ? Iran says, 'We have no nuclear weapons program. We just want peaceful nuclear energy' ? Israel says, 'So long as Iran has any enrichment capability, this constitutes a threat to Israel,' and they are pressuring the United States to take forceful action."
12-17-06 - Bush's reaction alarms Iraq panelist
12-17-06 - Olmert rejects Syrian calls for peace talks He suggested Mr Assad's overture was prompted by a desire to fend off international sanctions for Damascus's alleged complicity in the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, and its support for radical forces in the Middle East.
12-17-06 - The Israel Quandary By Robert D. Novak In 2002, a healthy and forceful Ariel Sharon, then prime minister, was an early advocate of U.S. military intervention in Iraq, in private sessions predicting therapeutic qualities throughout the region from deposing Saddam Hussein. More than four years later, the relationship has been reversed by the commission's report. Instead of the Iraqi intervention solving the Israeli question, stabilizing the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation is described as essential to an Iraqi solution....The Baker-Hamilton report and Hagel's speech each reiterated the truth that there is no chance whatsoever for essential Israeli-Palestinian peace without American brokerage. The Israeli ruling class and its U.S. outriders do not want that to happen, which explains the bitter opposition to the commission's recommendations.
12-17-06 - From June: The Persecution of the Palestinians by Patrick J. Buchanan Terrorism has been described as waging war on innocents to break their political leaders. Is that not a fair description of what we are doing to the Palestinians? No wonder they hate us.
12-17-06 - Assad visits Russia at time of Mideast crises Syrian President Bashar al-Assad heads Monday for Moscow with the Lebanon, Iraq and Palestinian crises on the agenda at a time when Russia is seeking to raise its profile in the troubled Middle East.
12-17-06 - Hezbollah: 250 killed in war with Israel
12-17-06 - Groups Mute Criticism of Iraq Report Jewish and pro-Israel groups, after initially greeting the report of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group with outrage, have begun to mute their criticisms on the basis of assurances that the Bush administration will not adopt the report's proposed linkage between Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict......Aipac executive director Howard Kohr, stressed the importance of ensuring that the recommendations seen as linking Israel and Iraq are not adopted.
12-17-06 - US or Israel will attack Iran by March ** Note the source.
12-17-06 - Ayalon: Accept Syrian overtures for dialogue Ayalon said that before negotiations are started, Syria needs to disengage itself from terrorism and Iran and to make it clear that Israel cannot withdraw from the Golan Heights in the upcoming years.
12-16-06 - Russia hopes for UN consensus on Iran by year's end: minister
12-16-06 - Iran offers Arab states nuclear technology President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered to share Iranian-made nuclear technology with Arab states in the Gulf after they expressed a desire to acquire it, Iranian media reported.
12-16-06 - U.S. resists watch list pressure on Arar "That the United States would have the gall to keep Maher on a watch list, implying that he poses a threat to this country, is outrageous," Maria LaHood, the attorney who is handling his U.S. case, said in a statement issued in New York.
12-16-06 - U.S. spy agency answers Iraq Study Group report
12-16-06 - Lebanon PM seeks Kremlin's help in Syria crisis
12-16-06 - Syrian president agrees to control border traffic with Iraq
12-16-06 - Litvinenko killed over dossier on Russian: Shvets
12-16-06 - US 'troop boost in Iraq likely'
12-16-06 - The impossible mission of changing China The problem created for American policy by the oil producers? dollar holdings is that many of these countries are hostile to America ? Venezuela, Russia, Iran ? and others might wreak havoc with the dollar if the Palestinian-Israeli conflict flares up, putting pressure on Arab regimes to damage America
12-16-06 - MK Steinitz: Believe US will attack Iran ** Member of Knesset Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said Saturday that he "believes a hundred percent that the United States will attack Iran?in order to eliminate its nuclear threat. This will occur after diplomatic efforts fail."
12-16-06 - Putin mad at Bush for funding Israeli war with Lebanon Less than 3 weeks after making this promise the United States used a little known provision in their security agreements with Israel to fully pay for the war, and as we can read as reported by Israel's Ynet News Service in their article titled "US to double emergency equipment stored in Israel"
12-16-06 - Bush makes a "Clean Break" with the Baker Plan It's revealing that the Washington Post still provides an open forum for neocon views even though, as we said, less than 4% of the American people still support a "stay the course" strategy. Apparently, that doesn?t affect the editorial policy at the Washington Post where the war-mongering incitement of neoconservative fantasists still gets unlimited coverage.
The bellicose neocons, despite having been behind the push to go to war with Iraq, are (still) overrepresented in the mainstream American media. Why is that?
12-16-06 - UAE surprised at U.S. warning on Syria, Iran trade
12-16-06 - Syria: We expect Israel to launch Middle Eastern War anytime
12-16-06 - People Who Mattered: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Ahmadinejad: When it is understood that the Holocaust does not have any relationship with the Palestinian people, we will have two proposals for the Western and European countries
12-16-06 - Neocons: We expected Israel to attack Syria Wurmser says that what most frustrates her is hearing people close to decision makers in Israel asking her if the US would have let Israel attack Syria. "No one would have stopped you. It was an American interest. They would have applauded you. Think why you received so much time and space to operate. Rice was in the region and Israel embarrassed her with Qana, and still Israel got more time. Why aren't they reading the map correctly in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem?"
Naturally, neocons consider themselves blameless in the Iraq debacle.
12-16-06 - UK arms deal probe dropped over Mid East peace process fears An investigation into a controversial arms deal between Britain and Saudi Arabia was reportedly dropped because of fears it could wreck Prime Minister Tony Blair's efforts to rekindle the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
12-16-06 - Syria softens on Golan Syria said it could give up its demand for a return of the Golan Heights as a precondition for peace talks with Israel.
12-16-06 - Americans Back Iraq Study Group Conclusions Is the will of the majority of the American people being adequately represented by our politicians on Capitol Hill?
12-16-06 - Rabid neocon attacks Carter The more vicious and vile the slander against him by the usual suspects, the more you know that Carter got it right. Offering up the truth to somebody like Horowitz, is like holding up a cross to a vampire - hssssssss.
12-16-06 - Hillary Clinton: I join Israel against Ahmadinejad Her letter was read at a conference in New York City, among the guests were US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, Professor Alan Dershowitz and former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler. (Ronny Sofer)
12-16-06 - Lebanon protesters dig in for winter
12-15-06 - Iran could hide sensitive nuclear work if attacked: senior official ** Experts have warned that attacking Iran's known atomic facilities might only drive the Iranian program underground and Soltanieh's comments were among the first from Iranian officials that they would do exactly that.
12-15-06 - Iran worried by Saudi's pro-Sunni 'Iraq plans' Shiite Iran expressed concern about suggestions that Saudi Arabia might intervene on the side of Iraq's Sunnis if the United States swiftly pulls out of Iraq.
12-15-06 - John Major leads calls for inquiry into conflict Sir John Major led calls for an independent inquiry into Tony Blair's decision to go to war in Iraq after the revelations by a former British senior diplomat that contradict the Prime Minister's case for the conflict. It's about time we had one here as well.
12-15-06 - Iraq aid agency 'attacked' by US
12-15-06 - Rice hints Baker report to be snubbed At the end of the day, Rice answers to the Lobby, not you. The will of the American people (as demonstrated in several recent polls) matters not.
12-15-06 - Specter of Iraqi proxy war spooks Washington The specter of a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran over the bones of an shattered Iraq is being conjured up by veiled warnings the kingdom may bankroll Sunni fighters if US troops go home.
12-15-06 - Saudi ex-ambassador urged no US talks with Iran
12-15-06 - Police quiz security officer who met victim A businessman who met Alexander Litvinenko at the London hotel where he is believed to have been poisoned was interviewed for the first time yesterday by Russian and British detectives
12-15-06 - Kerry: U.S. should talk with Iran, Syria Sen. John Kerry, on a Mideast tour taking him to Damascus for talks with President Bashar Assad, said Friday that the Bush administration's rejection of dialogue with Syria and Iran to try to calm Iraq is a mistake.
12-15-06 - Witnesses in Libby trial all expected to testify The annotated version of the article shows handwritten notes at the top, and underscores within the article by Cheney, that Fitzgerald says reveal the harsh reaction the vice president had to Wilson's assertions about U.S. intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Go get 'em, Bulldog.
12-15-06 - Impeachment: 'It's Not Up to Pelosi,' Say Grassroots Leaders Many constitutional experts believe that there is a strong case for the impeachment of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney because both allegedly put themselves above the rule of law by failing to substantiate the justifications for war on Iraq.
12-15-06 - EU accuses Iran, Syria of destablizing Middle East
12-15-06 - US general says Iraq could 'break' army The US Army's highest-ranking uniformed officer has warned that without more men and money, his active-duty force "will break" under the strains of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
12-15-06 - More Americans hungry, homeless in 2006: mayors "The face of hunger and homelessness right now ... is young children, young families," While taxpayers are pickpocketed by special interest groups (such as the Israeli lobby), America gets poorer.
12-15-06 - Expert: Data-mining won't catch the terrorists, will hurt privacy
12-15-06 - Netanyahu wants Iran president tried for genocide at The Hague ** Netanyahu says Israel must get the Americans to take action, not just with words but through an act of Congress. Really now. That shouldn't take much given that about 99% of our Congress is beholden to AIPAC.
12-15-06 - Former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr Ditches GOP for Libertarian Party I've been thinking of doing the same.
12-15-06 - No Middle East peace without Syria, Iran: Assad Assad told Rome's la Repubblica newspaper Damascus was ready to cooperate with Washington to resolve regional issues and challenged Israel to open up to Syria. He also said Europe had a "complex" over the Jewish Holocaust.
12-15-06 - UNHCR asks world to help Palestinians flee Iraq
12-15-06 - New polls highlight issues of US policy in Mideast, hopes for renewing regional peace process Asked if they agree that Palestinians are entitled to equal rights, 79.1 percent said "yes," while 12.8 percent disagreed.....Perhaps more surprising, the poll shows that a small plurality of those surveyed (38.8 percent to 37.1 percent) said that US support for Israel weakens US security. There was also a strong division based on the race of those surveyed. Say I wonder, who are the 12.8 percent?....
12-15-06 - Analysis: Poll increases pressure on Olmert Under Rumsfeld, Israeli military officials had the run of the Pentagon and enjoyed unprecedented access to Rumsfeld and his top officials. They could count on the enormous clout of the DoD, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Rumsfeld himself to block any diplomatic initiatives by the Bush administration that the Israeli government did not like. But once Gates is running OSD, he appears far more likely to make common cause with Rice to pressure the Israelis to make new concessions on reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.....the findings of the UPI-Zogby poll will clearly strengthen the hand of the Baker-Rice-Gates forces that want to revive the peace process and push Israel to make new concessions or offers to get it going. That will not be welcome news in the prime minister's office in Jerusalem.
12-15-06 - EU wants a Middle East free of WMDs The European Union called Thursday for a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, responding to recent comments by the Israeli prime minister that have been interpreted as acknowledging his country has a nuclear arsenal.
12-15-06 - Apparent landmine kills Lebanese soldier The reports of new landmines have been added to the international criticism against Israel following 'disproportionate use' ? according to human rights groups - of cluster bombs during the war.
12-15-06 - Oil prices rise on Opec cut news Oil prices have risen above $62 a barrel after the Opec group of oil producing countries agreed to a further cut in output.
12-15-06 - War on terror drives Arab actor to "Zigzigland" In one scene, an FBI agent shows up at Daas's flat to ask if he knows anyone who is planning jihad. In another, a Jewish couple mistake Daas for an Israeli and agree that eliminating the Palestinians could be a good idea. Only when he has dropped his passengers off does Daas drop his bombshell.
12-15-06 - Israel warns of al-Qaida attack in India The ministry's announcement warned of a "concrete threat" of an al-Qaida attack in the area in the next few weeks. This is peak tourist season in Goa, a former Portuguese colony renowned for its palm tree-lined white beaches, resorts and hedonistic parties, and tens of thousands of foreigners, including many Israelis, are expected to be there
12-15-06 - Arab media play up anti-Zionist Jews at Iranian conference Many of the media outlets, however, broadcast the message of these ultra-Orthodox Jews, which is that the Holocaust did indeed take place but does not justify the commission of crimes against the Palestinians, as a British rabbi, Aharon Cohen, said at the conference
12-15-06 - Fear 'as bad as after 9/11'
12-15-06 - Blair heads to Turkey on first leg of Middle East tour Speaking shortly before his departure for Turkey, Mr Blair said: "There was a consensus round the table that it is of immense strategic importance for Europe that there is progress again between Israel and Palestine and that we get a resolution on issues to do with the Lebanon and support strongly the efforts of the democratically-elected government in the Lebanon."
12-15-06 - Pelosi adds two Jews to appropriations Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), speaker-elect of the U.S. House of Representatives, doubled the Jewish membership of its most powerful committee.
Ahh, Pelosi the Israel-firster.
12-15-06 - Palestinian policy affects U.S. image The perception of U.S. policy toward the Palestinians has a profoundly negative impact on Arab opinion about the United States, a poll showed. Oh come now. They hate us 'for our freedom', and because we're 'infidels', hadn't you heard? Ummm..
12-15-06 - Bush honors Sharansky, Lederberg, Safire Three Jews were among those receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
President Bush hosted a White House ceremony Friday for nine medal recipients, including Natan Sharansky, an Israeli political leader who was imprisoned nine years in the Soviet Gulag; Joshua Lederberg, a Nobel laureate and science adviser to several presidents who specializes in space travel and genetics; and William Safire, a speechwriter for President Nixon who became an influential New York Times columnist
12-15-06 - UPI Poll: Agreeing with the ISG
12-15-06 - UPI Poll: Israel right in Lebanon attack A total of 57.6 percent of the 6,296 U.S. respondents to a Zogby interactive poll said Israel was "justified" in its response while 31.1 percent said it wasn't
12-15-06 - University to discuss professor's Iran trip "One can certainly assign some blame to the Palestinians . . . there is enough evidence of atrocities on both sides, but the fundamental problem is the occupation of the Palestinian land by the incoming European Jews, and nobody can deny that."
12-15-06 - UPI Poll: Bush favors Israel As for their advice on what direction Bush should take, not surprisingly "steering a middle course" was cited by 55.8 percent of those asked while 35.1 percent said it should lean toward Israel and 3.6 percent said policies should lean toward the Palestinians.
12-14-06 - Diplomat's suppressed document lays bare the lies behind Iraq war He also reveals that British officials warned US diplomats that bringing down the Iraqi dictator would lead to the chaos the world has since witnessed.
12-14-06 - Bush to seek $100 bln more war funds-US House report
12-14-06 - Wolfowitz Clashes With World Bank Staff and Mideast Chief Exits Three directors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they are concerned governments might be less willing to contribute because of unhappiness with Wolfowitz.
12-14-06 - Protest against U.S. Iraq Study Group report held in Iraq
12-14-06 - Could Iran help the US stabilize Iraq? Iran sent an unprecedented secret letter to the White House, offering to talk about everything from its controversial nuclear program to support for Hizbullah and Hamas militants. But the Bush team dismissed the offer, and even scolded the Swiss ambassador in Tehran at the time for passing the message on
12-14-06 - Groups Charge Big Oil With More Than $2 Billion in Consumer Fraud: Hot Motor Fuel Pumps Less Energy
12-14-06 - Federal judge says foreign Guantanamo detainees may not sue But US District Judge James Robertson also ruled that the law's attempt to deny that right to legal US immigrants was unconstitutional.
12-14-06 - White House appeals to keep VP records secret The government was responding to an October order, by U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina, to release two years of White House visitor logs to The Washington Post. The newspaper, researching the access lobbyists and others had on the White House, sought Secret Service records for anyone visiting Cheney, his legal counsel, chief spokesman and other top aides and advisers.
12-14-06 - Pope lauds Syria on promoting dialogue, urges efforts to counter terrorism
12-14-06 - Saudi divisions on Iraq could strain U.S. ties The tension in the region is straining Saudi relations with the United States, despite both countries' assertions that all is fine.
12-14-06 - Support for Israel in Congress is Based on Fear I can tell you from personal experience that the support Israel has in the Congress is based completely on political fear -- fear of defeat by anyone who does not do what Israel wants done. I can also tell you that very few members of Congress -- at least when I served there -- have any affection for Israel or for its Lobby.
12-14-06 - Ahmadinejad says Zionists are criminals Ahmadinejad said not all Jews are Zionists, and called for "a referendum in order to determine the type of regime the Palestinians prefer, with the participation of all Palestinians -- including Jews, Christians and Muslims," Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported.
12-14-06 - Is James Baker a Match for AIPAC? Obviously not, since Bush has refused to implement the relevant recommendations by the ISG.
12-14-06 - US: We won't compare Israel to Iran US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack responded Tuesday evening to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert 's slip of the tongue on the nuclear issue. There is no change in Israel 's policy, he said "...It leads also to concessions to the favourite Nation of priviledges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom eql. priviledges are withheld"
12-14-06 - Two Old Friends at Center of Poison Mystery Kovtun and Lugovoy both have ties to the Russian security services that Litvinenko said were out to kill him on President Vladimir Putin's orders. Yet they also have long-standing bonds with Putin's exiled enemies, who are seen in Moscow as likely suspects.
12-14-06 - Putin signals end to overseas ownership of Russian energy
12-14-06 - OPEC to cut oil output by 500,000 bpd in February This move was made to stop a 25 percent drop in prices over 10 weeks in a row. It is called PRICE GOUGING. And it is outrageous BS.
12-14-06 - They Only Look Dead What won?t be dropped is the neoconservatives? attachment to Israel and the tendency to conflate the Jewish state?s interests (as defined in right-wing Israeli terms) with America?s. So one can look forward to neoconservative agitation on two fronts: a powerful campaign to draw the United States into a war to eliminate Iran?s nuclear potential and an equally loud effort in support of maintaining Israeli dominance over the West Bank and denying the Palestinians meaningful statehood
12-14-06 - US scientists reject interference
12-14-06 - New Publishing Rules Restrict Scientists
12-14-06 - US releases Saudis from Guantanamo Bay
12-14-06 - Dec. 14 1982: THE GOLAN HEIGHTS ANNEXED BY ISRAEL IN AN ABRUPT MOVE The annexation was greeted with jubilation by Jewish settlers on the heights, who number about 6,000 and have been pressing for this move for a long time. It was regarded, in part, as a Government effort to mollify militant settlers in Sinai, who have vowed to resist physically when Israel returns the final strip of the desert peninsula to Egypt next April 25, as required by the peace treaty.
12-14-06 - What Syria Would Say Syria has already begun implementing some of the Baker-Hamilton recommendations for Iraq, Moallem said
12-14-06 - Ahmadinejad accused of incitement to genocide A group of prominent lawyers, politicians and Jewish leaders are attempting to have Iran?s president indicted on charges of incitement to genocide. Let's say that he really did commit incitement to genocide, what do you call what Israel has done to the Palestinians (starting with this)? And what of Avigdor Lieberman's comments calling on Israel to transfer the Arabs out of that country, hmm? He was just put in a very powerful position in the Israeli government. Can you say HYPOCRISY.
12-14-06 - Rice lying low at the Middle East crossroads A new low was plumbed in the US's international standing when, on the 10th day of Lebanon's summer war, with civilian casualties mounting from Israeli attacks, Ms Rice declared the world was witnessing the "birth pangs of a new Middle East".
12-14-06 - Attitudes of Arabic people toward U.S. more negative The poll, conducted by Zogby International in mid-November in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, showed that a majority of people in the countries had an unfavorable opinion of the United States
12-14-06 - UPI Poll: Israeli lobby's U.S. influence With 47.5 percent of the 6,296 U.S. respondents saying there is a significant level of pro-Israel influence with 33.3 percent saying it has a "moderate" level of influence. Some 80.8 percent said there is some pro-Israel influence My fellow Americans, in light of the poll results, I would say that half the battle is won. Now then, what do you propose we do about this influence?
12-14-06 - Neturei Karta defends Holocaust denial conference Asked on Israel Radio how he could rub shoulders with those who say the Holocaust was fabricated or exaggerated, Deutch said, "For the sake of saving Jews from Zionism, you have to do these things sometimes."
12-14-06 - More Evidence That Mearsheimer and Walt Are Largely Right This New York Times article quotes no one at all in support of Carter's position, only critics. Since when does the Times write in its news pages about controversies entirely from one side of the controversy, particularly when it's about someone who was president of the United States?
12-14-06 - Still Jews only The concept of a state having any rights is not only strange but also alien to international law. People have rights, not states. And that is precisely the point: when Israel demands that its "right to exist" be recognised, the subtext is that we are not speaking of recognition of Israel as a normal nation state but as the state of a specific people, the Jews.
12-14-06 - Art becomes yet another victim of war
12-14-06 - Ahmadinejad tells West to 'pack up' Israel
12-14-06 - New U.N. chief blasts Iran?s Holocaust denial The incoming United Nations secretary-general said it was unacceptable for Iran to deny the Holocaust and threaten Israel.
12-14-06 - Hezbollah still operating in Canada Using freedom-of-information legislation, Post reporter Stewart Bell has amassed what is probably the largest collection of terrorism-related Canadian intelligence documents in private hands.
12-13-06 - Khamenei vows more Iran progress in nuclear drive "In the nuclear energy issue, international powers insisted that Iran should not achieve this advanced technology, but Iranians unanimously insisted on obtaining this right and as a result reached a very advanced level.
12-13-06 - Britain, Russia report progress in bid to agree UN sanctions on Iran While there were still differences on some issues, including a proposed travel ban on officials directly involved in Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, the six powers now "have a basic understanding that we should be focusing on uranium enrichment, chemical reprocessing, heavy water projects and nuclear delivery systems," he added.
12-13-06 - Blix says security guarantees for Iran could end nuclear crisis Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has said in The Hague that giving security guarantees to Iran could help dispel the international crisis caused by Tehran's nuclear program.
12-13-06 - Syria's Assad calls on West not to intervene in Lebanon
12-13-06 - 5 Palestinian Refugees Killed in Baghdad Mortar Attack
12-13-06 - Experts Advise Bush Not to Reduce Troops
12-13-06 - Americans See Widening Rich-Poor Income Gap as Cause for Alarm Not neocon-related but important all the same.
12-13-06 - Canada to probe cases of trio jailed in Syria
12-13-06 - More than 800,000 Iraqis may be in Syria Syria has admitted more than 800,000 Iraqis who have fled the violence in their country, the official Al-Baath newspaper quoted Syria's Interior Ministry as saying Wednesday.
12-13-06 - Saudis 'may back' Iraq's Sunnis The message was conveyed to US Vice-President Dick Cheney two weeks ago when he visited Riyadh, according to a report in the New York Times newspaper.
12-13-06 - Television 'News' to Warm a PR Agent's Heart Video news releases made to look like independent journalists' work are airing on many stations.
12-13-06 - Israel supports Arabs on N-power two Israeli generals offered assessments that appeared to contradict each other. Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, the No2 in Israeli military intelligence, told the cabinet that Syrian President Bashar Assad had stepped up production of long-range missiles and ordered that anti-tank missiles be moved closer to the border in anticipation of war. "He is preparing the Syrian army for the possibility of a military conflict with Israel," General Baidatz said. "On the other hand, he is not ruling out the possibility of reaching a political settlement with Israel." But a member of the general staff, speaking anonymously, said there was no indication from either Hezbollah or Syria that they were preparing for imminent war.
12-13-06 - General Brent Scowcroft: "Instability in the Middle East serves neither U.S. nor Russian interests."
12-13-06 - Oil price to fall to below $53 by 2008: World Bank High global oil prices are likely to ease to $56 a barrel in 2007 and fall further to just below $53 in 2008 as supplies increase and demand growth eases, the World Bank said on Wednesday.
12-13-06 - EU presidency wants Olmert to explain nuclear comments Kaariainen said he hoped Olmert's words would not have a negative effect on the UN-led peacekeeping force deployed in Lebanon following the 34-day war between the Israeli army and Hezbollah this year.
12-13-06 - The importance of US engagement with Iran and Syria Unlike today's Iran, the Soviet Union uttered dire threats against the US itself - and also had the means to make good on those threats. Even during the worst days of the cold war, however, US governments of both parties maintained constant diplomatic contact with Moscow. And thank goodness they did
12-13-06 - Israeli PM to rally Italy's support on Iran sanctions The Israeli leader was given a private audience with the pope and was then to meet the Vatican head of government, Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone
12-13-06 - Israeli PM urges international moves against Iran ** Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on the international community to coordinate efforts to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons.
12-13-06 - UPI Poll: Support of Israel hurts energy The poll showed 40.7 percent of respondents said U.S. support for Israel made energy supplies less safe; 12.9 percent said it made it safer and 25.9 percent said it made no difference.
12-13-06 - Iran, Arabs demand UN action over Israeli nuclear arms
12-13-06 - Democrat dilemma over Iran ** US and Israeli rhetoric has been echoed by Democrats, particularly incoming Speaker of the House, Representative Nancy Pelosi. In 2005, she told a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that "the greatest threat to Israel's right to exist ... now comes from Iran". AIPAC has long been associated with some of the more extreme sectors of the Israeli political spectrum. The organization has been particularly aggressive in lobbying for war with Iran, a war that polls show the US public strongly opposes.
12-13-06 - Beware the Next Bipartisan War by Patrick J. Buchanan The neocons are also preparing their defense before the bar of history. Realizing the Baker Commission recommendations point to slow-motion defeat, they are savaging Baker and calling for tens of thousands more U.S. troops to be sent to Baghdad and a new strategy of victory, no matter how much it costs or how long it takes.
12-13-06 - Iran nukes prompt concerns within Mideast The United Nations Security Council is considering a watered-down resolution of sanctions aimed at punishing Iran for pursuing its uranium- enrichment program - a process that could lead to development of a nuclear weapon The operative words here: "a process that could lead to development of a nuclear weapon". Iran does not have nuclear weapons, folks. But you wouldn't know that if you read the news offered up by the mainstream American media. Why is that?
12-13-06 - Fla. senator defies Bush, visits Syria Nelson said he ultimately received logistical support from the State Department in what he called a "fact-finding trip" across the Middle East, being transported by embassy officials from Jordan's capital city of Amman to Damascus. Prior to heading to Damascus, Nelson met with top Israeli and Palestinian officials; in coming days, he plans to visit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Iraq.
12-13-06 - World Bank's Wolfowitz heckled for Iraq role "You lied about the Iraq war! You are a war criminal!"
12-13-06 - Middle East peace not possible without Syria - Merkel Speaking at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Merkel said she had supported Steinmeier's trip, but that it had led to no change of heart from Syria.
12-13-06 - Why Israel maintains nuclear ambiguity
12-13-06 - Syria blasts Israel over building of Golan Heights reservoir
12-13-06 - Saudi envoy talks about common interests Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington discussed areas of common interest with Israel when he met with a pro-Israel group.
12-13-06 - Israeli jets violate airspace over southern Lebanon
12-13-06 - Muslim Charity Sues Treasury Dept. and Seeks Dismissal of Charges of Terrorism The government has accused the foundation of having been the American fund-raising arm of Hamas
12-13-06 - Israeli nuclear whistleblower demands freedom Mordechai Vanunu made world headlines 20 years ago when he gave a London newspaper photographs and details of Israel's secret nuclear facility at Dimona.
12-13-06 - Israel, Alone : The nuclear cat is out of the bag - and Olmert issues a warning? The Lobby is reeling. For the first time since the Eisenhower era, our Israeli-centric policy in the Middle East is being openly and successfully challenged
12-13-06 - UPI Poll: 'Poor' Middle East mark for Bush
12-13-06 - McCain: Withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq could 'risk catastrophe' Steering clear of the Iraq Study Group's controversial recommendation to engage the Arab-Israeli issue to win support for U.S. efforts in Iraq, John McCain made an emphatic case for American steadfastness in Iraq during an address to a Jewish group.
12-13-06 - Wednesday Night Fights: David Duke Calls Wolf Blitzer an 'Israeli Agent'
12-12-06 - Broken By War, And Ordered Back "If you have a war-related injury that you're being compensated for," he said, "to be sent back into a situation that might exacerbate the problem just doesn't make sense."
12-12-06 - Draft resolution on Iran names officials
12-12-06 - Americans increasingly pessimistic about Iraq war: poll
12-12-06 - NORAD and NORTHCOM Exercises Army Major General William G. Webster, NORTHCOM director of operations, said by today the units involved in the exercise had dealt with a nuclear weapons-accident, terrorists attacking a U.S. military installation, the crash of a civilian plane in Canada and two U.S. airlines reporting distress situations.
12-12-06 - Blair ramps up rhetoric on Iran
12-12-06 - U.S. raises Belarus, Russia cancels Iran U.N. meeting Talks on Iran's nuclear ambitions were abruptly called off on Tuesday because of Russian anger at the United States for raising a hunger strike by a jailed opposition politician in Belarus.
12-12-06 - Russia asks Iran to pay on nuclear plant The head of the Russian state company building a nuclear plant in Iran urged Tehran on Tuesday to keep up payments to complete construction as scheduled, news reports said
12-12-06 - Syrian help to Hariri murder probe 'satisfactory' "The level of assistance provided by Syria during the reporting period remains generally satisfactory," the probe head, Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz, said in his 22-page interim report released Tuesday.
12-12-06 - White House to China: Open markets or face sanctions
12-12-06 - Iran: Israel 'will end like USSR' "The trend for the existence of the Zionist regime is downwards and this is what God has promised and what all nations want," President Ahmadinejad said. Most of our media has somehow twisted his words to (again) imply that Iran is going to attack Israel.
12-12-06 - Olmert back-pedals on the Israeli nuclear capability Mr Olmert had said on German television: "We have never threatened any nation with annihilation You didn't have to. But that's nearly what you did in Lebanon. And, the creation of the state of Israel has nearly wiped Palestine completely 'off the map'. Check the maps of 1946-47.
12-12-06 - US to double emergency equipment stored in Israel The American Congress gave Israel financial and security encouragement when the Senate and the House of Representatives gave their approval to double the emergency equipment the United States stores in Israeli stockpiles.....A great portion of the American equipment stored in Israel last year was used for combat in the summer war in Lebanon. Hey, I know. I bet they 'hate us for our freedom'.
12-12-06 - Who Makes Foreign Policy? by Rep. Ron Paul
12-12-06 - Calls for Olmert to resign after nuclear gaffe "This causes great harm to Israel. We are in the midst of a huge (diplomatic) onslaught against Iran's attempts to make a nuclear bomb," former foreign minister Silvan Shalom, a member of the rightwing Likud party, said on Army Radio. He added: "We always face the same question which our enemies ask: 'Why is Israel allowed to (have a bomb) and not Iran?'".....By not declaring itself to be nuclear-armed, Israel gets round a US ban on funding countries that proliferate weapons of mass destruction. It can thus enjoy more than $2bn (£1.02bn) a year in military and other aid from Washington. Hypocrisy exposed - by their own doing. D'oh!
12-12-06 - Move to bring genocide case against Ahmadinejad as Iran president repeats call to wipe out Israel Barely a week after he announced his resignation from the UN post, Mr Bolton will appear tomorrow among a panel of diplomats and lawyers calling for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be prosecuted. The panel has been convened by a Jewish umbrella group in the US, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organisations. Bolton immediately goes back to work for Israel.
12-12-06 - French Troops Can Fire on Israelis The Jerusalem Post is reporting that French military forces in southern Lebanon have been given the authority to "fire at" Israeli forces "if they feel threatened."
12-12-06 - Meal of poisonous fish claims youngster in Ain al-Hilweh
12-12-06 - China to host peace parley China will host a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian politicians.
12-12-06 - Lieberman advocates aid to Palestinians In meetings described as positive, Lieberman spoke with Negroponte for an hour, with Rice for 45 minutes and Hadley for half an hour. They compared their assessments on Iran, as well as different options, intentions and deadlines Do not be fooled. Iran was the real issue here.
12-12-06 - U.S. made Hezbollah stronger, analysts say America?s failure to stop Israeli attacks weakened the Lebanese government, critics argue
12-12-06 - Bush, Baker and Iraq: Why the Patient Can Not Be Saved Israel?s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is so confident that Bush won?t change his position on Iran and Syria that he told his cabinet to keep mum on the issue, lest they make it look as if Israel is inappropriately intervening.
12-12-06 - In Effort to Smear Democrats, FOX Hosts Report Unsubstantiated Rumor as News The WorldNet Daily story - from which FOX News drew this piece of trash talk masquerading as "news" - did not give the name of its Palestinian source
12-12-06 - France deploys UAVs to stop IAF flights In an effort to put a stop to Israeli overflights in Lebanon, the French Armed Forces has deployed an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) squadron in southern Lebanon to conduct intelligence-gathering missions in place of the IDF.
12-12-06 - Livni to EU: Don't let Iran get nukes
12-12-06 - ISG fallout continues with query: Is Israeli-Arab peace the linchpin? Iran's ambitions dominated much of the Saban Forum. Shimon Peres, the vice prime minister, spoke darkly of the possibility of war in a Saturday-night panel with former President Clinton.
12-12-06 - Why are Jews at the 'Holocaust denial' conference? A handful of Orthodox Jews have attended Iran's controversial conference questioning the Nazi genocide of the Jews - not because they deny the Holocaust but because they object to using it as justification for the existence of Israel.
12-12-06 - Germany, Israel see eye-to-eye on Palestinians, Iran Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during a state visit to Berlin did not rule out a military strike against Iran's nuclear program, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel said as far as she was concerned, a military option was "not on the table." Olmert is making his rounds to shore up support for some kind of action on Iran. Merkel and Blair are now singing his tune.
12-12-06 - Baker redux Keep disregarding the Bakers of this world, and continue to listen to the Sharons and Netanyahus instead. Perhaps after another 60 years you'll finally get it.
12-12-06 - U.N. probe IDs suspects in Hariri death Investigators are looking at numerous motives including assassination by an extremist group because of Hariri's links to other states in the region and in the West, before his possible success in May 2005 elections, because of his likely expose of a bank fraud, and as "a convenient cover" to cast suspicion on others.
12-12-06 - Prosecution Rests at Hamas Trial Salah claims he was tortured by Israel's Shin Bet security service into admitting he was aiding Hamas. Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, however, testified that he appeared "jaunty" at the interrogation and that she saw no evidence he was being tortured
12-12-06 - Back to Lebanon until we liberate our policy from the depredations of Israel Firsters, there is no chance of formulating a foreign policy that serves both American interests and the interests of all the peoples of the region.
12-12-06 - U.S. condemns Holocaust denier meeting
12-12-06 - What in the
12-11-06 - Russia upbeat but wants changes on Iraq UN measure Russia praised a European draft U.N. resolution imposing sanctions on Iran's nuclear materials but objected to a travel ban and wanted to ease a freeze on financial assets on Tehran officials.
12-11-06 - Iran will respond to sanctions: Ahmadinejad "From now on, considering your insistence on confronting the Iranian nation, we consider this move of yours as hostile and will act accordingly," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
12-11-06 - Annan criticizes U.S. in farewell speech "Human rights and the rule of law are vital to global security and prosperity," Annan's text said. When the U.S. "appears to abandon its own ideals and objectives, its friends abroad are naturally troubled and confused,"
12-11-06 - Greenspan says expects more dollar weakness Not neocon-related but important all the same.
12-11-06 - Seeking Iran Intelligence, U.S. Tries Google When the State Department recently asked the CIA for names of Iranians who could be sanctioned for their involvement in a clandestine nuclear weapons program, the agency refused, citing a large workload and a desire to protect its sources and tradecraft.
12-11-06 - Judge settles classified info fight in Libby case A federal judge has accepted a series of redactions and substitutions proposed by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald - to be provided to I Lewis "Scooter" Libby's defense team - which will limit what Libby can share with jurors at his upcoming trial on some of the specifics of his top-secret White House briefings.
12-11-06 - Bush seeks advice on Iraq policy
12-11-06 - Iran pledges 250 mln dlrs to Palestinian govt: Haniya Iran has also "adopted" 100,000 Palestinian workers, who will receive 100 dollars a month each for the next six months, a total of 60 million dollars.
12-11-06 - Labor's Paz-Pines praises Baker-Hamilton report ** "The report was good for Israel because as long as the US is in Iraq, America is impotent," he said. "As long as America is in Iraq, they cannot act on Iran, so Israel has an interest in helping America escape the Iraq fiasco. Really now. So Israel should seek to get us out of one war to send us into another (which again primarily benefits them, not us)? Isn't that nice of them.
12-11-06 - Hawks Bolster Skeptical President 'Hawks' = neocons.
12-11-06 - Olmert, in Europe, hints Israel has nuclear arms Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, said he did not mean to say that Israel had or aspired to acquire atomic weapons.
12-11-06 - Syria and Iraq re-open embassies
12-11-06 - Oil price dips below $62 a barrel Oil prices have fallen below $62 a barrel after mixed signals over whether the Opec producers' cartel would cut output for a second time this year
12-11-06 - Pentagon brass promote Jesus Catton, who is among six uniformed officers appearing on the video, credits his inspiration to the evangelical group Christian Embassy
12-11-06 - Ending Arab-Israeli war would help in Iraq -Annan
12-11-06 - MCCAIN WARNS OF IRAN IN CITY VISIT ** Sen. John McCain swept onto the turf of potential rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudy Giuliani last night, vowing a strong defense of Israel and saying military action may be needed to prevent Iran from building nukes.
12-11-06 - Rice warns Syria and Iran over Lebanon protests
12-11-06 - If Israel Falls, the West Follows More hype and histrionics from the usual suspects.
12-11-06 - Gates testimony / Preserving nuclear ambiguity In particular, they want to know two things: First, whether this statement was a private initiative by Gates, or whether he coordinated it with the top levels of the American administration. And second, whether he was implying that since Israel has nuclear weapons, it can deal with any nuclear threat from Iran on its own.
12-11-06 - Record Israeli arms sales irk US "The ability of the Israeli Military Industry annoys certain US administration officials," said a source from within the security industry on Saturday. He claims that these officials are making allegations that Israel has sold technological information to 'problematic' countries like China.
12-11-06 - Arab League hopes for Beirut deal
12-11-06 - Neturei Karta: Iranians making logical claim Neturei Karta members don't pay taxes and also don't use state services. They have a closed and independent economy. Hirsch doesn't have an Israeli identity card, sees himself as a citizen of Palestine, and waives a black flag at his house, on which is inscribed: "We are mourning 58 years of Israeli tyranny on the Jewish people and the holy Torah."
12-11-06 - McCain: I?ll Embrace Bush Democracy Agenda Sen. John McCain has indicated that his foreign policy platform for a 2008 presidential campaign will remain faithful to President Bush?s efforts to promote democracy in the Middle East.
12-11-06 - Assad: Israel doesn?t want peace
12-11-06 - UK home secretary: Israeli-Palestinian conflict spawning terror Reid said the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians was fueling "international terrorism," urging its resolution.
12-11-06 - Hillary Clinton and Haim Saban at the 2006 Saban Forum in Washington, D.C.
12-11-06 - Syria backs Arab League on Lebanon -envoy
12-11-06 - Holocaust deniers gather in Iran for 'scientific' conference
12-10-06 - Iran plays down calls for US talks on Iraq
12-10-06 - Iraq president rejects Baker-Hamilton report "I think that Baker-Hamilton is not fair, is not just, and it contains some very dangerous articles which undermine the sovereignty of Iraq and the constitution," Talabani said.
12-10-06 - ISG Report Faces Uncertain Future
12-10-06 - Gulf states announce nuclear plan Six oil-rich Gulf nations have said they are considering seeking nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
12-10-06 - Bush aides call Iraq group's many proposals impractical
12-10-06 - German Authorities Link Radiation at Hamburg Sites to Poisoned Ex-Spy
12-10-06 - MI officer: Syria preparing its army for war with Israel We've been hearing this for a few months now (from the usual corner).
12-10-06 - Peres: Unite against Iran and prevent war ** "If there was an international coalition, there would be no need to go to war against Iran, and Iran would return to its natural dimensions." I was not aware that Iran was going to START any wars. In fact, it's just the opposite. Israel has warned of attacking Iran (in case we won't do it for them). Note that this was being discussed at the 'closed forum'. The closed forum at the Brooking Institute, no doubt.
12-10-06 - Israel sees al Qaeda hitting Lebanon peacekeepers Al Qaeda has recently boosted its presence in Lebanon and could attack foreign peacekeepers who have been stationed there since Israel's war with Hezbollah guerrillas, a top Israeli intelligence analyst said on Sunday. Mmm k. Kind of like this, you mean?
12-10-06 - Neocons Leery of Baker?s Return As secretary of state from 1989 to 1992, during the first Bush administration, Baker often clashed with Jerusalem and the top pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
12-10-06 - Olmert: Bush won't change stance on Syria, Iran
12-10-06 - Feds: Illinois man contemplated shul attacks A transcript of a conversation with an informant reported Shareef saying that Israel?s war with Hezbollah this summer enraged him and he had identified synagogues in the DeKalb area for a stabbing attack.
12-10-06 - Blow to Blair mission as Palestinian PM vows never to recognise Israel Although the Iraq Study Group proposed just such a solution, the US political right reacted viciously yesterday towards the group. Rupert Murdoch's New York Post doctored a photograph to show James Baker and the study group's co-chairman, Lee Hamilton, in furry suits and called them "Surrender Monkeys". Such sentiments are believed to reflect the views of the vice-president, Dick Cheney, who is now isolated but still in a powerful position
12-10-06 - Beirut rally attracts huge crowd Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese are taking part in the latest protest to press the government to cede more power to the opposition or step down.
12-10-06 - Next battleground will be a familiar one, Israelis say Thirty-three years later, Ben-David, an officer in a volunteer Israeli Border Police unit, has come to the Golan Heights to help prepare for the next war. According to Israeli military intelligence, the battle will erupt here within the next two years. And the status of the Golan broke into the news Wednesday, when the Iraq Study Group advised President Bush to pressure Israel to return the disputed land to Syria if it cooperates on other matters of importance in the Middle East.
12-10-06 - Israelis Reject New Conflict with Hezbollah
12-10-06 - Baker vs. "The Lobby" The only group left touting Bush's failed policy is the "Israel first" camp which continues to wave the bloody shirt of incitement from their perch at the Weekly Standard and the American Enterprise Institute. These same diehards are leading the charge for a preemptive attack on Iran; a criminal act which will have catastrophic effects on America's long-term energy needs.
12-10-06 - Congress condemns Iran conference "The Iranian regime's public anti-Semitic, anti-U.S. and anti-Israel policies underscore the threat posed by a nuclear Iran," Hastings said in a statement. Really. Those on Capitol Hill would appear to have nothing better to do than to pass legislation on behalf of Israel.
12-10-06 - Israel should hold talks with Syria: Israeli official
12-10-06 - Cohen backs Baker report on peace talks
12-10-06 - The battle over America's Middle East policy The neocons want the US to make war on Iran, not to engage it in dialogue. They want the US to bring about "regime change" in Syria, not to reward it with the Golan.
12-10-06 - Kaplinsky: Iran to have nuclear arms 'in near future' But Kaplinsky, who said that he based this assessment on information obtained by the defense establishment, declined to give a more specific time frame, noting that analysts worldwide disagree on precisely when this will happen. K.
12-10-06 - President Clinton, Ted Koppel, Shimon Peres and Haim Saban at the 2006 Saban Forum in Washington, D.C. The three-day closed-door Forum, entitled ?America and Israel: Confronting a Middle East in Turmoil,? continues through Sunday, December 10, and features panels and candid discussions confronting the complex challenges facing the United States and Israel in the Middle East. Participants include Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni; President William J. Clinton; Israeli Vice Premier and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres; Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY); Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman; Israeli Minister of Education Yuli Tamir; senior Bush Administration diplomat David Welch; Secretary of State Senior Adviser on Iraq David Satterfield; George Tenet, former Director of Central Intelligence; James Wolfensohn, former Special Envoy for Gaza Disengagement and former President of the World Bank; Senator Joseph Lieberman, (D-CT); Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA); Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN); Congresswoman Jane Harman, (D-CA); Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA); Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY); Congressman Christopher Shays (R-CT); member of Parliament (Canada) Michael Ignatieff, among others.
12-10-06 - Israeli officer: War talk 'irresponsible' "We don't have any information that Syria plans to go to war this summer, or to heat up the border with acts of resistance or fighting,"
12-10-06 - Peacemaking, Iran to dominate agenda of Olmert trip to Germany, Italy
12-10-06 - US must try to engage Iraq, Syria: Baker report authors
12-10-06 - U.S. says Hezbollah has Iraq role Speaking on background, a Bush administration official confirmed to JTA on Saturday that the reports have been substantiated. Mm k.
12-10-06 - Former Rep. DeLay, indicted on state campaign finance charges, begins new 'career' as blogger Sunday's first political post at TomDeLay.com slams Jimmy Carter - "perhaps our nation's worst President" - for blaming "the problems in the Middle East not on Islamic extremism, but on Israel" in his new book Palestinian Peace, not Apartheid, which the budding blogger misspells as "Aparthied." Delay is an End Times Christian fundamentalist.
12-09-06 - US Congress approves landmark Indian nuclear deal "What are we going to say when China offers the same deal to Pakistan? What will we say when the Russians offer the same deal the Iranians,"
12-09-06 - $8bn spent a month leaves no money to clean toilets
12-09-06 - Panel's Hamilton: Iraq war costs could top $1 trillion
12-09-06 - Iran sets conditions for talks with U.S. on Iraq
12-09-06 - Iran ready to help US withdrawal from Iraq
12-09-06 - CIA is undermining British war effort, say military chiefs
12-09-06 - Senators Challenge Feasibility of Iraq Plans Democrats were guarded in their treatment of the report, especially its call for engaging Syria and Iran in diplomacy. After all, this would go against the orders they've been given by AIPAC. I chuckled at this part of the article : "Baker displayed little of the deference witnesses customarily show senators. At one point, he impatiently interrupted Lieberman's questioning about whether Iran would engage in talks. "We say it in the report, Senator -- it's in the report," " :D
12-09-06 - Bush Aides Seek Alternatives to Iraq Study Group?s Proposals, Calling Them Impractical Administration officials say their preliminary review of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group?s recommendations has concluded that many of its key proposals are impractical or unrealistic, and a small group inside the National Security Council is now racing to come up with alternatives to the panel?s ideas.
12-09-06 - Iraq report's core premise flawed - UN envoy "They want to keep it in disequilibrium, which does not lead to collapse, because that will bog down the Americans, their forces, so they cannot focus on other issues in the region and it will weaken the administration in Washington,"
12-09-06 - Poisoned ex-spy probe expands to Germany Police in Germany said traces of radiation were found at two Hamburg-area homes linked to a contact of the ex-KGB officer, Alexander Litvinenko.
12-09-06 - Rumsfeld makes surprise Iraq trip Outgoing US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is making a surprise visit to Iraq to say farewell to US troops, days before he is due to leave office.
12-09-06 - Saudi intelligence chief wants US pullout timetable for Iraq Saudi intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud called for a timetable for a US troop withdrawal from Iraq, warning their presence was breeding terrorists.
12-09-06 - Blair tries to bridge the gap between Bush and 'realists' on Iraq strategy
12-09-06 - Mountie resignation not enough, Canada's Arar says A Canadian man who was deported from the United States and tortured in Syria because of false security fears said on Friday the resignation of Canada's top policeman does not absolve the government of responsibility in his case.
12-09-06 - Former Israeli envoy slams Gates over nuclear 'disclosure' "These are lamentable words. Perhaps his tongue is forked, but maybe not. In any case Israel must demand explanations," ...."It is not up to Washington to end the policy of ambiguity" on Israel's nuclear capabilities
12-09-06 - Hebron Reflection: 06-12-09 We Are The Message I recently received a question from a reader who wanted to know, "What
is CPT doing over there to share the Gospel of Jesus?"
12-09-06 - Iran's denial of Holocaust harms Arab cause, Palestine activist tells president "Perhaps you see Holocaust denial as an expression of support for the Palestinians," he writes. "Here, too, you are wrong. We struggle for our existence and our rights, and against the historic injustice that was dealt us in 1948.
12-09-06 - Lebanese leader blocks UN court Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud has formally rejected a cabinet proposal to create a tribunal to try suspects in the killing of former PM Rafik Hariri.
12-09-06 - Oil rises as production cut looms Prices have rebounded somewhat since production was trimmed, but most officials are supporting a further cut in output, which needs to be agreed at a meeting in Nigeria on 14 December.
12-09-06 - Israel's Olmert calls for dramatic measures against Iran ** Olmert criticised the international community's hesitation in dealing with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The West fears Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at developing nuclear weapons but Tehran denies this. "I am anything but happy," Olmert was quoted as saying in an interview released ahead of publication on Sunday. "I expect significantly more dramatic steps to be taken.
12-09-06 - Israel Is Not Linked to Iraq, Except That It Is "The Saudis are saying to us, 'We are afraid of Iran and want to work with you but the Palestinian issue has to be solved,' " a senior Israeli official said, insisting on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.... There are two other reasons Mr. Olmert and other Israelis spoke out against the report's call for linkage: They don't want others to define linkage for them; they want any linkage to be on their terms, out of their own mouths. And they never liked Mr. Baker, whom they considered hostile when he was secretary of state in the early 1990's. Baker is considered 'hostile' because he tried to get Israel to stop building illegal settlements on Palestinian land. Boo hoo.
12-09-06 - Most Americans agree with Iraq Study Group recommendations: poll Fifty-seven percent agreed that the United States should engage Iran and Syria in efforts to stabilize Iraq, and 61 percent supported the idea of a renewed US commitment to pressing for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
12-09-06 - Arab world on brink of explosion: Saudi king
12-09-06 - Another day, a new flag for a village Despite decades of upheavals, residents of the Arab village of Ghajar on Israel's northern border have never had to flee. Instead, the village itself became a refugee, finding itself successively in three different countries.
12-09-06 - Syrian FM: No solution to Iraq's problems without Iran and Syria
12-09-06 - Golan snubs Baker report "The Golan Heights are an unchangeable Israeli reality. We must develop and strengthen settlement in the Golan,"
12-08-06 - They were napalmed in an attack by air and by sea that lasted for 75 minutes. Israel sought to sink their ship, and it was due to the sheer heroism and bravery of the men on board - some of whom didn't make it - that that ship stayed afloat. These men and their families have sought and have been denied justice for nearly 40 years. Please support their efforts.
12-08-06 - Rep. McKinney's parting shot: Bill to impeach Bush Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, has made clear that she will not entertain proposals to sanction Bush and has warned the liberal wing of her party against making political hay of impeachment.
12-08-06 - Panel: U.S. Underreported Iraq Violence U.S. military and intelligence officials have systematically underreported the violence in Iraq in order to suit the Bush administration's policy goals, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group said
12-08-06 - Council given new draft over Iran
12-08-06 - Iraqis say U.S. raid killed 32, including 6 children
12-08-06 - Report: Private Saudi citizens funding Iraqi insurgents
12-08-06 - Dueling Views Pit Baker Against Rice Aides to the 52-year-old Ms. Rice say she is acutely aware that there is little percentage in getting into a public argument with Mr. Baker, the 76-year-old architect of the first Bush administration?s Middle East policy. But Thursday, as President Bush gently pushed back against some of Mr. Baker?s recommendations, Ms. Rice?s aides and allies were offering a private defense, saying that she already has a coherent, effective strategy for the region.
12-08-06 - Iraqi official accuses Iran of hypocrisy
12-08-06 - Kurds brand report 'unrealistic' The leader of Iraq's Kurdish region says the US Iraq Study Group report is "unrealistic and inappropriate".
12-08-06 - Iraq marine to face murder trial
12-08-06 - Radiation contamination theories emerge in Russian spy case
12-08-06 - Speaking frankly about Israel and Palestine By Jimmy Carter The many controversial issues concerning Palestine and the path to peace for Israel are intensely debated among Israelis and throughout other nations - but not in the United States. For the last 30 years, I have witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts. This reluctance to criticize any policies of the Israeli government is because of the extraordinary lobbying efforts of the American-Israel Political Action Committee and the absence of any significant contrary voices....It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine, to suggest that Israel comply with international law or to speak in defense of justice or human rights for Palestinians. Very few would ever deign to visit the Palestinian cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Gaza City or even Bethlehem and talk to the beleaguered residents. What is even more difficult to comprehend is why the editorial pages of the major newspapers and magazines in the United States exercise similar self-restraint, quite contrary to private assessments expressed quite forcefully by their correspondents in the Holy Land.
12-08-06 - U.S. says trade friction with China could escalate The United States sees potentially escalating trade friction with China next year as Beijing is stepping up restrictions on foreign investment and recent U.S. Congressional elections create uncertainty, a U.S. trade official said on Friday.
12-08-06 - The neocons have finished what the Vietcong started
12-08-06 - Arab League damns Baker report as US face-saving The Arab League has damned a report calling for a shift in US policy on Iraq, calling it a face-saving effort, but its chief commended it for urging redoubled efforts to end the Israeli-Palestininan conflict.
12-08-06 - Israel is a Liability for U.S. we are still a long ways away from the end of the U.S. hegemony in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Israel unfortunately is still a domestic issue in the U.S. and AIPAC's strength hasn't weakened despite attempts by U.S. academics to expose them.
12-08-06 - Israel frets over Iraq report, dispatches FM to Washington Israel's foreign minister has arrived in the United States amid worries that the Jewish state's main ally could shift course after a report urged Washington to redouble Mideast peacemeaking efforts. Israel worried that the US might fall out of line.
12-08-06 - We Can't Wait for 2008
12-08-06 - Olmert chastises German FM for Syria visit
12-08-06 - Palestinian PM in Tehran nods to Iranian support Iran, like Hamas, refuses to recognize the state of Israel and has sent $120 million so far this year to the Palestinian Authority toward a shortfall caused by a Western financial blockade on the Hamas-led government. The irony - the Israeli-led US policy of imposing a seige on the Palestinians due to the election of Hamas has driven them right into Iran's arms. Another stroke of genius.
12-08-06 - Bush rejects Iraq report's key proposals, unveils Mideast initiative "I don't think Jim Baker and Lee Hamilton expect us to accept every recommendation," he said. "I know they expect us to consider every recommendation; that we ought to pay close attention to what they advise."
12-08-06 - Bush meets with top Republicans, Democrats on Iraq US President George W Bush is pledging to work with both Republicans and Democrats to come up with new tactics in the war in Iraq.
12-08-06 - How Israel lost to the Iranians There are three separate litigations, which are taking place simultaneously in several European countries, all of them pertaining to a complex legal and business entity called Trans-Asiatic Oil Limited, and relating to one of the biggest secrets between Israel and Iran: the past oil connections between the two countries. Three years ago one of the arbitrations ruled that Israeli fuel companies have to pay the Iranian National Oil Company tens of millions of dollars. Interesting.
12-08-06 - Analysts: U.S. at root of effort to topple Lebanese government Many in Beirut say that U.S. failure to stop Israel's onslaught against Hezbollah last summer crippled the Lebanese government - a U.S. ally - while strengthening Hezbollah - a U.S. enemy. That created an environment in which the Shiite Muslim militia could call for overthrowing Sunni Muslim Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and his Cabinet.
12-08-06 - A "Grand Settlement" Versus the Jewish Lobby There are several cases of notorious Phalangists being murdered just prior to their scheduled testimony in Brussels before a case brought by Palestinian survivors against top Israelis involved in the notorious massacres in Lebanon, especially at the Palestinian camps of Sabra and Shatila in September 1982. On January 24, 2002, Elie Hobeika, a Phalangist warlord directly involved in the massacre, was blown up in his Beirut neighborhood along with 3 bodyguards just two days after agreeing to testify against the Israelis on behalf of the Palestinian survivors. Hobeika, who was the Phalangist chief liaison with the IDF during their occupation of Beirut, claimed to have worked with the Israeli Mossad in orchestrating the massacre.
12-08-06 - Protests blow to Beirut economy
12-08-06 - Saudi warns of Mideast arms race "The fact that Israel has nuclear weapons is the most dangerous threat against Gulf security," Intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul-Aziz told a security conference in Bahrain.
12-08-06 - Al-Zarqawi Said Shiites Most Dangerous Al-Zarqawi accuses Nasrallah of being two-faced in his opposition to Israel and suggests it is not an accident that Israeli aircraft have not killed him as they have killed several leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
12-08-06 - Lawyer testifies on goal to steer money from Hamas Defense attorneys have claimed U.S. prosecutors were goaded into charging Salah by the powerful Israeli lobby
12-08-06 - With military options limited, it's time for Plan B: Diplomacy The group pointed out a truth rarely heard by Americans (even as it is front and center in the Arab world and Europe): U.S. disengagement from Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts is a huge source of tension and anti-Americanism, like a raging toothache inflaming everything else. U.S. allies in the region, including the powerful Sunni leadership in Saudi Arabia, say that it underlies other Mideast problems and that rancor from the impasse makes them harder to solve.
12-08-06 - Germany summons Iranian diplomat over Holocaust conference The German government summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires in Berlin to express its opposition to a planned conference on the Holocaust in Tehran next week.
12-08-06 - Hezbollah chief 'plotting coup'
12-07-06 - Fine Print in Defense Bill Opens Door to Martial Law It "subverts solid, longstanding posse comitatus statutes that limit the military's involvement in law enforcement, thereby making it easier for the President to declare martial law,"...."Using the military for law enforcement goes against one of the founding tenets of our democracy."...It "was just slipped in the defense bill as a rider with little study," Also, see the part down below about Backchannel chatter with regard to Putin.
12-07-06 - Roots of debacle in Iraq are in neocon ideology Neoconservatives have been wrong about every possible aspect of Iraq: wrong about the threat from Saddam, wrong about the way to deal with it, wrong about the costs of war, wrong about the insurgency, and wrong about staying the course. The only question left is how long the country and the Bush administration will continue listening to them on foreign policy. And at what cost? No, my friend. The real question is : why haven't these neoconservatives been held accountable for duping America into engaging in one of the biggest disasters in the history of the United States? THAT is the question that IS NOT BEING ASKED.
12-07-06 - Iran: Sanctions Would Be Act of Hostility Iran's president warned Washington's European allies on Tuesday that Iran would reconsider its relations with them if they insist on punishing Tehran for its nuclear programs, saying that would amount to an act of "hostility."
12-07-06 - At Least 5 Marines Are Expected to Be Charged in Haditha Deaths
12-07-06 - Iran urges Arabs to eject U.S. military Iran's top national security official urged his Arab neighbors Tuesday to eject the U.S. military from American bases in the region and instead join Tehran in a regional security alliance.
12-07-06 - Bush: No early Iran-Syria talks US President George W Bush has ruled out early talks with Iran and Syria on tackling Iraq's unrest, after meeting Tony Blair at the White House.
12-07-06 - New Pelosi Appointee Wants More Troops In Iraq
12-07-06 - Gates: Attacking Iran Would 'Worsen The Violence In Iraq And Lead To Greater American Casualties' **
12-07-06 - Russia upgrades nuclear missiles
12-07-06 - US opens new Guantanamo camp jail
12-07-06 - Litvinenko's associate 'in a coma' as spy murder mystery deepens
12-07-06 - "Bin Laden Will Be Back" Former CIA agent Michael Scheuer on the prospects of finding bin Laden, the outlook for al Qaeda and the risk of new terror attacks in the United States.
12-07-06 - Israelis piqued by Gates nuclear "confirmation" A retired Israeli diplomat, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, called the testimony "quite unprecedented" and added: "I can only assume he (Gates) has yet to get to grips with the understandings that exist between us and the Americans."....By not declaring itself to be nuclear armed, Israel also skirts a U.S. ban on funding countries that proliferate weapons of mass destruction. It can thus enjoy more than $2 billion in annual military and other aid from Washington And what "understandings" would those be?
12-07-06 - Cracks appear between Bush and Blair over need for talks with Iran and Syria
12-07-06 - Israel rejects US panel report recommendations on Mideast Israeli officials have sought to downplay the report's significance, saying it included only recommendations and that any change of policy would be up to Bush, who has so far not pressed Israel for concessions.
12-07-06 - Bloomberg Blasts Bolton Opposition
12-07-06 - Canada police commissioner quits Canada's police chief has resigned after admitting he misled parliament in the case of a man deported to Syria over suspected terror links.
12-07-06 - Euro Faces Huge Change If Others Follow Iran, Says UBS's Baweja
12-07-06 - Boris Berezovsky and the Bizarro Effect Russia in the recent past seemed to be trying to clean out its nest of crooks (in the oil biz, among other places) - some of whom are taking refuge in Israel. A couple of them visited the US this past year, much to Russia's consternation (since they are wanted in Russia and we allowed them to visit).
12-07-06 - Olmert rejects talks with Syria, says conditions are 'not ripe' Olmert's office said Wednesday that it is unlikely that Bush would alter his Middle East policy with regard to Israel, despite the recommendations of the bipartisan advisory panel, headed by former secretary of state James Baker and former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton. Sources at the Prime Minister's Office said Wednesday night that Olmert is not unduly concerned with the report because in his recent meeting with Bush at the White House, he was promised that the U.S. would not divert from the principles of its policy in dealing with terrorist groups and in countering the Iranian nuclear program.
12-07-06 - Saudi Ambassador Remarks on Iraq Study Group Findings Prince Turki welcomed the report's recommendation for a comprehensive settlement for all Middle East conflicts, which the Kingdom has always maintained are interconnected and affect global security and stability
12-07-06 - Bill Clinton supports dialogue with Iran Former President Bill Clinton on Thursday endorsed the idea of talks with Iran and Syria to help ease the bloodletting in Iraq, saying it would also be in Tehran's interests.
12-07-06 - Israel seeks to downplay policy shifts in US panel report "American intervention in Iraq was done without agreement with Israel, the Americans have stayed in Iraq without agreement with Israel, which proves that the Iraqi question is not linked to Israel," Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told public radio. Bullsh@t.
12-07-06 - UNRWA inaugurates 40 new shelters for Palestine refugees in Ein el-Tal Camp, Aleppo, Syria The families, who started the final finishing works of their new houses on a self-help basis, were presented with a symbolic olive tree plant to mark their move to the new homes by Lise Filietrault, Ali Mustafa, and Panos Moumtzis.
12-07-06 - Palestinian refugees want no part of another Lebanese war
12-07-06 - Europeans welcome Iraq report as sign of change in US plans The policy set at the upcoming Saban conference (read below) will seek to ensure that the recommendations by the ISG with regard to Israeli concessions in any ME peace deal, or open dialogue between Iran/Syria with the US, will not be implemented by the US. That's my guess.
12-07-06 - Al-Jazeera And The Truth you don't need an electronic bug in the offices of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee to know that AIPAC and the Bush administration are putting pressure on the distributors to shun Al-Jazeera. Denying Americans their First Amendment right to the truth, in regard to Israel, is always Job One with AIPAC. That is necessary because the truth about Israel's actions toward the Palestinians and other Arab countries puts the lie to all of the Zionist propaganda.
12-07-06 - Israeli Official Discusses Iran and His Controversial Agenda
12-07-06 - U.S. House passes anti-terrorism bill The American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbied hard for both versions.
With the elections over, it's back to business in the Israeli Congress.
12-07-06 - UN speaks of arms movements on Syria-Lebanon border Le Monde also quoted a "confidential document" sent to UN headquarters from an official in the region which alleged the existence of a "50-man squad of militants linked to Al-Qaeda" charged by Damascus with killing 36 anti-Syrian Lebanese personalities
12-07-06 - Fresh from the horse's ass note who wrote this 'news article'.
12-07-06 - Senate confirms Gates Israeli media described the comment as a potential breach of a longstanding tacit agreement by Washington to go along with the Jewish state?s policy of nuclear ambiguity
12-07-06 - BMD Focus: Israel's new BMD dilemma As we have previously reported in BMD Focus, Pentagon critics and high tech BMD enthusiasts assailed the Pentagon for not pushing ahead more energetically with the THEL system over the past decade. It is certainly the case that up to the Hezbollah-Israel conflict, THEL funding remained very low relative to other BMD programs. Only about $300 million was allocated to it over the past decade, of which Israel provided about half.
12-07-06 - Hezbollah leader urges defiance
12-07-06 - Iranian Ambassador Makes Inflammatory Remarks About Holocaust, FOX News at Columbia University The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations sparked a furor Wednesday night when he said at a speech in New York that Palestinians are suffering today because of "atrocities" that happened in World War II, specifically against the Jews.
12-07-06 - Pelosi slots Lantos, Waxman as chairs The nod Wednesday from Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) virtually guarantees that Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), a staunch defender of Israel, will chair the International Relations Committee, and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who is well known for his outspokenness, will chair the Government Reform Committee when Democrats assume control of the House in January after winning midterm elections.
12-07-06 - Arab world welcomes Iraq Study Group report "Sure, Iran and Syria may be allowing people to come across their border and providing some arms or money, but the conflict is overwhelmingly about sectarian enmity inside Iraq,'' says Andrew Garfield, a former British military intelligence officer who spent most of last year as an adviser in Iraq and is now a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Washington.
12-07-06 - GOP taps Ros-Lehtinen for foreign affairs Ros-Lehtinen, who chaired the committee?s Middle East subcommittee, is very close to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and sponsored key legislation in recent years isolating Syria and the Palestinian Authority.
12-07-06 - Iraq Study Group report sees mixed response in Israel
12-07-06 - Top Israelis, Americans at Saban session Among the many officials attending are Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni; David Welch, the current top U.S. envoy to the region; Shimon Peres, Israel?s deputy prime minister; Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and her husband, former President Bill Clinton; Amos Yadlin, director of Israel?s military intelligence; Avigdor Lieberman, Israel?s minister of strategic planning; and many other Bush administration officials and U.S. and Israeli lawmakers. The only session open to coverage is the formal launch of the conference at the U.S. State Department on Friday night, which is to be addressed by Livni and Welch That strategy to keep US foreign policy that puts Israel first will be cemented therein, methinks.
12-07-06 - Envoys tour Israeli Air Force base Foreign envoys visited an Israeli Air Force base to hear about the Lebanon overflights policy.
12-07-06 - Bush nominates RJC head to Brussels post Sam Fox, 77, a St. Louis businessman and philanthropist and a top GOP fund-raiser, has presided over the RJC?s aggressive drive in recent elections to portray Democratic support for Israel as diminishing.
12-07-06 - White House honors Sharansky Natan Sharansky will be honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
A former Soviet refusenik and recently retired Israeli politician, Sharansky will receive the medal from the White House on Dec. 15.
12-07-06 - Lebanese Blame Israel, U.S. for Recent War Many adults in Lebanon hold two countries accountable for the recent war, according to a poll by Gallup. 40 per cent of respondents blame Israel for the 34-day conflict, while 24 per cent think the United States is most responsible.
12-07-06 - Israelis Wary of Baker's Report "He certainly wasn't our friend," Tsiddon-Chatto said of Baker. "He was bullying Israel into situations, bossing (us) around," Tsiddon-Chatto told Cybercast News Service.
They want our money, and our guarantees of their security, but don't want us to have any say in the matter. Arrogant, audacious, #@'ers.
12-06-06 - Paris talks can't reach Iran deal
12-06-06 - France says in a hurry to reach Iran sanctions deal Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said any decision to impose sanctions on Iran would be illegal. "We (would) consider such a decision as a threat to our national interests and security," Mottaki said. "The Security Council is a place to strengthen security for countries, not to threaten security," he said at a news conference in The Hague.
12-06-06 - Erdogan Objects to US Military Presence in N. Iraq Talking to reporters on the return flight from a one-day official visit to Iran, Erdogan commented that the deployment of U.S. troops in Northern Iraq would be a mistake.
12-06-06 - Saudi security adviser sacked after Iraq article Saudi Arabia on Wednesday said it had fired a security adviser who wrote in The Washington Post that the world's top oil exporter would intervene in Iraq once the United States withdraws troops
12-06-06 - Iraq Study Group: Shift mission, go regional "There must be a renewed and sustained commitment ... to a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace on all fronts: Lebanon, Syria, and President Bush's June 2002 commitment to a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. This commitment must include direct talks with, by, and between Israel, Lebanon, Palestinians - those who accept Israel's right to exist - and Syria."
12-06-06 - Experts: Syria, Iran willing to aid U.S. Syria and Iran are willing to help stabilize Iraq, as the Iraq Study Group recommended Wednesday, but both countries will want something in return and neither has a magic solution to the chaos, Mideast officials and analysts said.
12-06-06 - Rep. Dennis Kucinch: No More Money for War on Iraq ** In an interview with Truthdig?s Joshua Scheer*, the Democratic congressman argues that the Pentagon?s new spending proposal would not only escalate the Iraq war but could be used to fund an attack on Iran.
12-06-06 - Iraq panel demands urgent change A major report on US policy in Iraq has called for a new approach and urgent action to stop "a slide towards chaos".
12-06-06 - Rice's Iran Strategy Fizzles, Cheney Waits in Wings ** aides to Cheney insisted that the administration is not yet prepared politically for a shift to the military track, according to Kaplan. But once Rice's diplomatic effort becomes a highly visible failure, Cheney and his allies in the administration are poised to begin the process of ratcheting up pressure on Bush to begin the political planning for an eventual military attack on Iran.
12-06-06 - 'Alternative Nobel' Winner Says U.S. Attack on Iran Likely before 2008 ** "It is more likely than not, in the next two years, that President Bush and Vice President Cheney will direct an attack on Iran," Ellsberg said at a news conference for the Right Livelihood laureates. "Such an attack ... might escalate too, to the use of nuclear weapons against underground installations in Iran, with incalculable consequences."
12-06-06 - A vote for more cooked intelligence?
12-06-06 - Japan gives UN funds for Palestinians in Lebanon Japan has decided to give 3.72 million dollars to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which will cover three programs to aid refugees in Lebanon.
12-06-06 - Neocons Move to Preempt Baker Report To have read the neoconservative press here over the past month, one would think that former Secretary of State James Baker poses the biggest threat to the United States and Israel since Saddam Hussein.
12-06-06 - Sailor Pleads Guilty to Espionage A sailor accused of stealing a Navy laptop and peddling its classified contents to an undisclosed foreign government pleaded guilty Monday to espionage, desertion and other charges.
12-06-06 - Is the FBI doing its best to combat terrorism? "I don't believe that the FBI's doing everything it can to combat terrorism,"
12-06-06 - Baker panel's mention of Palestinian "right of return" raises eyebrows A reference to Palestinians' "right of return" in the report issued by the high-level Iraq Study Group broke a diplomatic taboo which sparked immediate concern in Israel and surprise among Middle East policy experts.
12-06-06 - Arabs doubt Bush will overhaul Mideast policy U.S. President George W. Bush will ignore unwelcome recommendations on Middle East policy from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, especially on making contact with Syria and Iran, Arab commentators said on Wednesday.
12-06-06 - Chirac to Israel: Stop Lebanon overflights Livni told reporters in response that Israel needs the Lebanon overflights to monitor continued arms smuggling to Hezbollah, a violation of the U.N.-brokered truce that ended the war
12-06-06 - IDF seeks intel-sharing with NATO
12-06-06 - Hizbullah rejects human-shield accusations The reasons behind this report "are obvious. They are trying to get rid of the responsibility of killing civilians and pinning the responsibility on someone else. The Israeli Army has never had any morals. They used all kinds of internationally banned weaponry against our civilians - including cluster bombs and phosphorous bombs. If they didn't want to kill civilians they wouldn't have used such weapons in the first place."
12-06-06 - Making the Connection Between Iraq and Israel
12-06-06 - National Council of Churchs comments on Iraq The NCC also applauded the Report?s conclusion that the security situation involving Israel and the Palestinian Authority is intrinsically linked to Iraq, saying ?the Israeli - Palestinian conflict is central to the solution of all problems in the Middle East.?
12-06-06 - McCain's statement on Iraq Study Group report AIPAC must have sent out word that there is to be no linkage between Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict. This linkage appears to have been in the ISG report. So far Biden, Lantos and now McCain are all singing the same tune.
12-06-06 - AJC Says Iraq Study Group Report Complicates Quest for Peace The pro-Israeli groups already on the offensive trying to dismiss/downplay Baker's report.
12-06-06 - ADL: Iraq Study Group 'Gets It Wrong' on Arab-Israeli Peace Process If the ADL thinks it's wrong, then you know the ISG got it RIGHT.
12-06-06 - For pro-Israel crowd, Iraq report has some unwelcome proposals
12-06-06 - Israel embarks on PR face-lift Yesterday's report detailing an Israeli think-tank's 'findings' on the alleged use of human shields by Hezbollah in Lebanon was one step in series of moves by Israel of late that can be chalked up to this newfound PR effort.
12-06-06 - House protects new red 'crystal'
More wasted time and money by those on Capitol Hill who were elected to represent the interests of THIS country.
12-06-06 - Failure to pass budget bills could stall Democrats' incoming agenda Spending that affects Israel is not impacted. Foreign operations, which accounts for the $2.8 billion Israel receives annually, is going ahead at 2006 levels, which differ little from levels promised for 2007. The Defense Appropriations Act, which affects collaborative U.S.-Israel programs such as the Arrow anti-missile program, is one of only two that were passed before the midterm elections.
12-06-06 - Captured Israelis 'were injured' Two Israeli soldiers captured in July by the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, suffered serious injuries in the attack, according to reports.
12-06-06 - Baker report urges Madrid-style summit with Israel, Syria and PA
12-06-06 - US sanctions Latin American backers of Hezbollah
12-06-06 - APN meets Syrian envoy Moustapha repeated Syria's call for a resumption of talks with no pre-conditions; APN reiterated U.S. and Israeli demands that Syria end its support for terrorist groups.
12-05-06 - Nations fail to agree on Iran nuclear sanctions
12-05-06 - U.S. pressures Russia before Iran sanctions talks The United States urged a reluctant Russia and China on Tuesday to agree quickly on a sanctions plan against Tehran and its nuclear program as officials from six world powers prepared to seek a breakthrough at talks in Paris Mm hmm.
12-05-06 - We will call shots in Litvinenko probe: Russia Russia's chief prosecutor on Tuesday ruled out any extraditions to Britain over the poisoning to death in London of Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko but said he would help British police in their inquiries in Moscow.
12-05-06 - Last men standing: Blair heads to US for crucial talks with Bush some officials travelling with Mr Blair are privately doubtful about his chances of convincing Mr Bush to abandon the conviction of the neo-cons that Iran is part of an axis of evil that should be isolated.
12-05-06 - Solving the 'Stability' Problem By Patrick J. Buchanan
12-05-06 - Iran to replace dollar with euro in foreign trade: Finance Minister
12-05-06 - Iraq: One by one, they tell the truth
12-05-06 - US 'not winning conflict in Iraq' Mr Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee that all options remained on the table for Iraq.
12-05-06 - Committee approves Gates for US defence chief post
12-05-06 - Russia blocks questioning of spy poison suspects In comments that appeared to sharply limit the activity of the Scotland Yard team, Yuri Chaika, Russia's General Prosecutor, made it clear that if there is to be a "Litvinenko trial," it will be in Russia. British courts have repeatedly refused high profile Russian extraditions, including that of Mr Litvinenko's allies, the oligarch Boris Berezovsky and the Chechen exile Akhmed Zakayev. It seems Moscow is in no mood to help now the boot is on the other foot.
12-05-06 - Report: Israel, Iran holding debt talks Iran is still owed hundreds of millions of dollars for oil it supplied to Israel in the years before the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and the two countries, now sworn enemies, are holding contacts meant to settle the debt, according to the report in the daily Haaretz citing anonymous Israeli and Swiss officials involved in the negotiations.
12-05-06 - Alexander Litvinenko: Blackmailer, Smuggler, Gangster Extraordinaire
12-05-06 - John Bolton's Greatest Hits
12-05-06 - Gates: Iranian nuclear strike unlikely ** Addressing the U.S. Senate in his confirmation hearings Tuesday, Robert Gates said he did not discount threats to Israel from Iran?s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but added that he believed that the religious establishment controlling Iran was less inclined to an attack....He said a U.S. attack on Iran or Syria could destabilize the region
12-05-06 - Report: Hezbollah committed war crimes The American Jewish Congress helped the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Institute for Special Studies, a private research group with close ties to Israeli intelligence, prepare and translate the report. Israeli spin doctors still working full-time to cover for Israel's colossal blunder of this summer.
12-05-06 - Israeli envoy: Protect Lebanon "It should be the world's challenge to make sure that Lebanon does not fall into the hands of Iran and Syria," Sallai Meridor said Monday at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, his first public appearance since his appointment three weeks ago.
12-05-06 - Iran to host meeting on Holocaust This is Iran's answer to the debate about freedom of speech over the cartoons insulting the Prophet Mohammed, and its way of trying to woo radical support in the Middle East for its anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian policies.
12-05-06 - Israel is on freshman lawmakers' to-do list New office on Capitol Hill? Check. Orientation to congressional protocols? Check. All-expense paid trip to Israel? Add that to the freshman lawmaker's calendar....A 2005 National Journal survey of congressional insiders ranked AIPAC second most influential lobbying group among Democratic lawmakers and fourth among Republicans.
12-04-06 - Shia leader stresses Iraq's role Mr Hakim told the US president that the Iraqi should resolve problems by themselves but said he believed American troops should remain in the country.
12-04-06 - Funding Continues for Illness Scientists Dismiss Fifteen years after the end of the 1991 war with Iraq, a Texas researcher is in line to get as much as $75 million in federal funding to press his studies of "Gulf War syndrome," even though most other scientists long ago discounted his theories.
12-04-06 - His confirmation in doubt, John Bolton exits the UN Critics claimed that Bolton's brusqueness made him counterproductive. At the UN, he alienated US allies, both real and potential, according to his critics. Many Senate Democrats - and a few Republicans - charged that his hard-line ideology and penchant for confrontation was at odds with the UN's multilateral nature. Where he winds up next is the important issue. He is, after all, a neocon. They should be tagged and tracked like on the old tv show Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.
12-04-06 - Gaidar had 'no radiation poison' Although radiation has now been ruled out as a cause for Mr Gaidar's mysterious illness, his spokesman, Valery Natarov, told the BBC they were still waiting for the results of further tests carried out by doctors here in Moscow.
12-04-06 - Aide: Bush not seeking cover for pullout
12-04-06 - Litvinenko affair will damage our relationship with UK, warns Russia Russia's Foreign Minister warned against a "politicisation" of the Litvinenko affair as British police arrived in Moscow to pursue their investigation into the poisoning of the former Russian intelligence officer in London.
12-04-06 - Anger at UN chief's Iraq comments Iraq's national security adviser says he is shocked by UN head Kofi Annan's suggestion that the average Iraqi is worse off than under Saddam Hussein.
12-04-06 - World powers to meet in Paris on Iran nuclear sanctions
12-04-06 - Russia declines comment on reported N. Korea offer Russia's atomic energy agency declined to comment on Monday on Japanese news reports that North Korea had offered Russia exclusive rights to its natural uranium deposits in exchange for support at six-way talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons.
12-04-06 - Egyptian police arrest foreigners for allegedly plotting attacks Along with the American, police arrested two Belgians, nine French and several others from Egypt and other Arab countries including Tunisia and Syria, the statement said. The ministry did not provide names or say how many Egyptians and Arabs were arrested.
12-04-06 - This geocities page was the precursor of this web site - 4 years ago You can see the beginnings of this site in the link list on the left - Chris Hedge's diary, links to USS Liberty material. 4 years on - the march to justice continues. And it's gathering momentum. Fasten your seat belts...
12-04-06 - Ex-Mossad agent sues Israel over Pentagon spy affair Katz says that Israel prevented him from travelling to the United States after Pollard's arrest to try to recover funds seized there, and to prevent him from being questioned by US authorities.
12-04-06 - Muslim-American Group Targets Radio Host Over Koran Oath Comments A Muslim-American advocacy group has called on radio talk show host Dennis Prager to be removed from the governing board of the federally funded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum after Prager last week blasted a representative-elect for planning to use the Koran at his swearing-in next month.
12-04-06 - Israel fears Siniora government may fall the government source said Bush promised Olmert that his position on Iran would remain unchanged as long as Tehran remains committed to pursuing its nuclear program. As for Syria, the source said, Bush has conditioned any resumption of dialogue on Damascus' ceasing to interfere with Lebanon and ending its support for Hezbollah, and both the recent murder of Lebanese minister Pierre Gemayal and Hezbollah's confrontation with Siniora make it even less likely that Bush would change his position on this issue.
12-04-06 - US diplomat calls for Iran action "What does Iran stand for? Iran stands for disrupting states, disrupting peace and solving everything through the barrel of a gun." Ah. No comment.
12-04-06 - Was this the first casualty of Lebanon's new civil war?
12-04-06 - Bolton to step down Most major U.S. Jewish groups broke with tradition to endorse Bolton, who in addition to his support of Israel is a strong opponent of Iran?s nuclear drive.
12-04-06 - Weak dollar makes Opec cut likely The weakening dollar is increasing the chances of a cut in output by oil producers' group Opec at its next meeting later this month.
12-04-06 - Lebanese army increases forces in tense Beirut Lebanon's army deployed more soldiers in Beirut after the killing of a pro-Syrian Shiite Muslim demonstrator raised fears anti-government protests could turn into sectarian violence.
12-04-06 - Syria says ready to cooperate with all sides for regional stability
12-04-06 - Royal accused of Mid-East 'gaffe' During a joint news conference in Beirut, a Hezbollah MP compared Israel's policy towards Lebanon with Nazism.
12-04-06 - U.N. humanitarian chief accuses world of failing to keep pledge to protect civilians, citing 55 percent increase in attacks since 1989
12-04-06 - In Beirut unrest, Israel sees threat of renewed Iranian, Syrian influence To arrest the process of radicalization in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, Israel would like to help stabilize the Siniora government, build a pro-American alliance with moderate Sunni countries as a bulwark against Iranian influence and detach Syria from the Iranian axis. The trouble is that everything on this wish list is likely to prove very difficult. Come again? This after having bombarded Lebanese civilians and civilian infrastructure, and then firing 1 million cluster bomblets into Lebanon knowing that there would be a ceasefire in 3 days.
12-04-06 - As Bolton resigns U.N. post, groups will miss his frankness "John Bolton has done an extraordinary job of advancing America's interests at a time of critical importance," AIPAC spokesman Josh Block said Monday. I disagree. Bolton was Israel's man at the UN, not ours.
12-04-06 - Clinton, Barak and Lieberman talk Iran ** Iranian nuclear threat and instability in Lebanon ? these are only some of the subjects high-level American and Israeli officials will discuss at third annual Saban Forum in Washington This will result in a renewed push by Israel and its lobbyists for US action on Iran, no doubt.
12-04-06 - Chavez wins re-election In August, he drew fire for saying that Israelis "are doing what Hitler did against the Jews" and that Israel is carrying out "a new Holocaust" against the Palestinians.
12-03-06 - U.S. airstrike in Iraq kills eight A U.S. airstrike destroyed a foreign fighter safe house in a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, killing five insurgents, two women and a child, the U.S. military said on Sunday.
12-03-06 - Iraq in grip of civil war, Annan says
12-03-06 - Iraq report is moment of truth on Iraq Even before the long-awaited report is released Wednesday, serious doubts are mounting over whether Bush will be prepared to implement all or some of its findings -- and even over the relevance of recommendations produced in the safety of Washington as Iraq plummets into horror.
12-03-06 - 'Militants' held in Saudi Arabia They are accused of planning to bring down the Saudi royal family and attack Western targets.
12-03-06 - VA's ability to provide benefits worsens
12-03-06 - Saudis working to reign in Iran
12-03-06 - Litvinenko may have fallen foul of ruthless Russian businessmen
12-03-06 - Tehran court judgment could turn over US embassy to plaintiff
12-03-06 - Erdogan holds Mideast, trade talks in Iran Iran and Turkey share a border, a common interest in stemming the activities of Kurdish militants operating inside their territories and concerns about the security situation in neighbouring Iraq.
12-03-06 - Carter urges oil independence The problem, Carter said, is that oil company interests, not "the people's interests," have set U.S. energy policy for the past six years. He said he hopes the newly elected Democratic Congress will change that.
12-03-06 - The Litvinenko murder: Scaramella - The Italian Connection Mr Litvinenko accused Mr Scaramella of poisoning him from the day he first fell ill: as the Italian told me, his name was all over Russian and Chechen websites as the main suspect in the poisoning of the former FSB agent long before the story hit the British press.
12-03-06 - Polonium-210, Fiction and Fact Perhaps it isn?t significant, but most Russian nuclear reactors are subject to IAEA Safeguards. None of Israel?s are
12-03-06 - Israel creates new ministry to deal with Iran threat The Israeli government has approved the creation of a new ministry for strategic affairs, to be headed by a controversial ultra-nationalist and deal mainly with Iran's nuclear ambitions
12-03-06 - Loss of Arab support due to US apathy in Mideast: Carter "One is not even allowed to say he has an objective opinion about the Middle East conflict or that he supports the rights of Palestinians on their land and favours Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories," said Carter, who has just released a book in which he is deeply critical of Israeli policies.
12-03-06 - Beirut protests keep pressure on While the demonstrations have had the good nature of a pop concert or festival, this is an extremely serious crisis for Lebanon, says the BBC's Jon Leyne in Beirut.
12-03-06 - School Day 24: Iran-UK-US As this is their first such experience, they hope it will be an opportunity to show another face of Iran - different to the usual bad news that is reported.
12-03-06 - Ghajar deal reached The Cabinet approved on Sunday a plan under which Israeli troops that occupied northern Ghajar since the summer war with Hezbollah would withdraw to the southern part of the village, to be replaced by UNIFIL peacekeepers and a small contingent of Lebanese police and troops
12-03-06 - Jewish groups slam Prager for Koran remarks Jewish groups slammed Dennis Prager for his attack on a congressman who plans to use a Koran in a private swearing-in ceremony.
12-03-06 - Blair heads for US to press for peace in the Middle East The Prime Minister, who is said to be ?deeply frustrated? that Mr Bush has failed to fulfil his promise of spending ?political capital? on brokering a settlement between the Arabs and Israelis, will arrive on Wednesday evening
12-03-06 - Report: Olmert to Meet Senior Saudi Officials Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will in the near future meet with senior Saudi Arabian officials to discuss the Saudi peace initiative
12-03-06 - The Putin bodyguard riddle A FORMER bodyguard to President Vladimir Putin was murdered with a poison that produced symptoms remarkably similar to those of Alexander Litvinenko it emerged yesterday, writes Jonathan Calvert.
12-03-06 - Harman gracious to successor Pelosi reportedly was irked that Harman solicited lobbyist to help her keep the position, including from major Jewish donors to the party.
12-03-06 - Imam disputes tie to Hamas
12-02-06 - Personal products needed for wounded servicemembers at Walter Reed the center is looking for everything from shoes, gloves and winter jackets to postage stamps, prepaid phone cards and razors.
12-02-06 - The Big Lie The Library of Congress confirms that Congress has never held hearings or launched an investigation into the attack on USS Liberty. Mr. Cristol's account is false. We have repeated asked him to remove his false report from his web site. He declines to reply or to correct the false claim despite frequent request for him to do so.
12-02-06 - Rumsfeld memo admits Iraq errors
12-02-06 - Iran has no influence over Iraq: Maliki
12-02-06 - Iran accuses Canadian embassy of spy activity
12-02-06 - Rice says U.S. has made mistakes in Iraq Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday she is certain the United States has made mistakes in the Iraq war, but the world will have to wait until she is out of government to learn what she thinks they were.
12-02-06 - Saudis work to curb Iran's influence Worried by Iran's deepening involvement in the Arab world, Saudi Arabia has been working quietly to curtail the Shiite nation's influence and prevent the marginalization of Sunni Muslims in the region's hotspots.
12-02-06 - Spy poison drama: Litvinenko now cast in role of blackmailer
12-02-06 - Surprise: Oil Woes In Iran
12-02-06 - Saudi denies may interfere in Iraq to back Sunnis Saudi Arabia said there was no truth in an article by a Saudi security adviser suggesting the world's top oil exporter would back Iraq's Muslim Sunnis in the event of a wider sectarian conflict.
12-02-06 - Iraqi Shiite leader to prod Bush on Iran A Shiite powerbroker reviled by Sunni Arabs for his ties to Iran and a militia linked to sectarian violence will ask President Bush to seek Iran's help in their upcoming White House meeting and try to allay U.S. concerns over Iranian influence in Iraq.
12-02-06 - Iran responds to U.S. fingerprinting law
12-02-06 - US tells banks to shut down Iran operations
12-02-06 - Analysis: Iran's growing array of missiles With missiles that can reach every corner of the Middle East and survive preemptive strikes, Iran is already "the major missile power of the region, at least in theory," said a former head of Israel's missile defense program.
12-02-06 - Bush trying to sabotage Irag Study Group progress on the Arab-Israeli conflict amidst a concerted push to pit Sunni regimes against Shiite ones is highly unlikely. Israel has shown itself quite willing in the past to withstand U.S. pressure for concessions, which would most definitely be required for success
12-02-06 - Ahmadinejad, Assad and Hamas PM attend Games opening Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya were all attending the opening ceremony of the Asian Games.
12-02-06 - Forum links reform to Mideast conflict resolution
12-02-06 - Protesters set up camp in Beirut "We will stay here until the fall of the government which is under the tutelage of the United States," one protester, Nadia Assaf, told the French news agency, AFP.
12-02-06 - Iran president sees Israel 'disappearing' The remarks were reported by The Jerusalem Post, quoting the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
12-02-06 - UN human rights inquiry: Israel should compensate Lebanon A United Nations human rights inquiry said on Friday that Israel should be made to pay compensation for damage caused by the month-long Lebanon, especially losses incurred by civilians.
12-02-06 - Special Relationship A one-sided U.S. policy toward Israel endangers both countries? interests.
12-02-06 - Saudis lead Israel peace bid an Israeli insider said: "The truth is that it was not Olmert's own initiative but a dictate given to him last month when he met George W Bush and Condoleezza Rice in Washington." And what's the prize? There has to be one. My guess? Iran.
12-02-06 - Iranian president: Israel soon to collapse According to a report by IRNA
12-02-06 - Did anyone see the superpower? It's whine-and-bash-America time over at Haaretz. We aren't attacking Syria and Iran, after all.
12-02-06 - In pictures: Beirut protest camp
12-02-06 - Royal slams Israel-Nazi comparison Royal had no immediate reaction to the comments on Friday, surprising some observers. She condemned them a day later, explaining that neither she nor the French ambassador to Lebanon had heard them at the time.
12-01-06 - Powell says U.S. should talk to Iran, not attack ** Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell does not believe the United States will attack Iran and says Washington should speak to Tehran and Syria.
12-01-06 - Panel calls for 2008 withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq
12-01-06 - Despite compromise, Iran sanctions measure elusive One of Russia's key objections has been to any mention in the text of the $800 million Bushehr light-water reactor it is building on Iran's Gulf coast.
12-01-06 - Russia ready to back some Iran sanctions: Lavrov Now isn't that interesting. See yesterday's news batch.
12-01-06 - Every visitor to US to be assessed as 'risk' secretly Starting Monday every person entering and leaving the United States will be evaluated as terrorist threats without their knowledge, and the results will be held for 40 years, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.....Travellers may not review -- or challenge -- their scores for the next 40 years, according to the November 2 notice We are all just prisoners here
Of our own device ....You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave ..
12-01-06 - Gates, Hadley: More of the Same Gates' position on Iran's nuclear weapons plans suggests he will not put up much resistance to importuning by Vice President Dick Cheney and the neocons ? not to mention the Israelis ? that Iran's fledgling nuclear program must be nipped in the bud.
12-01-06 - Iran strengthens ties with Afghanistan
12-01-06 - Corruption: the 'second insurgency' costing $4bn a year According to a Sigir review published in October, Kellogg, Brown and Root (a subsidiary of Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney's former company) was awarded an oil industry repair contract in February 2004 but "direct project activity" did not begin until November 19. In that time KBR's overhead costs were nearly $53m. In fact more than half the company's $300m project costs from 2004-06 went on overheads, the audit found. Iraq also represented a grey zone beyond the reach of the US civil courts. KBR was found to have overcharged the US military about $60m for fuel deliveries, but that did not stop it winning more government contracts.
12-01-06 - Assad: Syria to challenge U.S. efforts
12-01-06 - 'Litvinenko laughed off my warning. He said it was like the plot of a film'
12-01-06 - Look who owns U.S. debt now Many developing nations buy treasury bills not because they are deemed to be the best investment, but to support their own monetary polices. The Chinese, for instance, do so as part of a strategy to keep their currency artificially low against the dollar. This holds down the cost of Chinese goods, helping the Chinese economy but making U.S. goods less competitive. Not neocon-related, but important all the same.
12-01-06 - Analysis: High bar set in AIPAC case "The Court imposed the requirement that the government prove that the defendant knew the information ... would harm the United States," Judge Thomas Ellis told the Nov. 16 hearing, though prosecutors had asked that this requirement be lifted...."This was a counter-espionage investigation," said one retired veteran, pointing out that it had been conducted by the counter-intelligence unit at the FBI's Washington Field Office. Well, they tried. And thanks to those that gave their best shot.
12-01-06 - Halliburton Unit to Pay $8 Million for Overbilling A Halliburton subsidiary agreed to pay the government $8 million to resolve accusations of overbilling related to the firm's work for the Army in the Balkans, the Justice Department said yesterday
12-01-06 - Democrats Reject Key 9/11 Panel Suggestion with control of Congress now secured, Democratic leaders have decided for now against implementing the one measure that would affect them most directly: a wholesale reorganization of Congress to improve oversight and funding of the nation's intelligence agencies.
12-01-06 - Bush tries to strengthen 'Sunni bulwark' to contain Iran Bush has been less personally involved in the Arab-Israeli dispute than any American president since Israel's creation in 1948 Not true. It is why we invaded Iraq in the first place - to remove Israel's then-primary threat.
12-01-06 - UN starts mapping disputed Shaba Farms on Lebanon border Another problem facing the mapping experts is the fact that much of the ownership evidence comprises deeds from the Ottoman era, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, which is causing delays in effective translation.
12-01-06 - Marines return from Beirut evacuation Helping evacuate Americans from Beirut when fighting erupted between Israel and Hezbollah earlier this year felt like being "a part of history," said a North Carolina-based Marine scheduled to return home this weekend.
12-01-06 - Huge protest brings Beirut to a standstill
12-01-06 - Report: Lebanon bombing could be war crime Israel?s use of cluster bombs during the Lebanon war could be considered a war crime, according to a U.N. report.
12-01-06 - Israel demands proof soldiers are alive
12-01-06 - Annan finds 13 incidents of illicit arms in Lebanon Still, his envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, said earlier this month he had evidence of the smuggling but was unable to reveal his sources....At the same time, Annan said Israeli aircraft entered Lebanese airspace, in violation of the ceasefire agreement, on almost a daily basis since his last report on September 12.....And Annan said that Israel had yet to provide the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, with detailed data on cluster bombs.
12-01-06 - France stands by US refusal to engage Syria France and the United States agree there is no point in talking to Syria because the conditions for an honest dialogue do not exist, President Jacques Chirac said on Wednesday. His comment came as US President George W. Bush is under strong domestic pressure to talk to Syria and Iran in an effort to reduce sectarian violence and avert civil war in Iraq.
12-01-06 - Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel The following ratings are based on point system designed by the organization. Points were assigned for actions either in support of or in opposition to the organization's position.
12-01-06 - Murdered ex-spy criticized anti-Semitism Goldfarb also claims that Litvinenko?s assassination by poisoning, which Goldfarb blames on the Russian government, was partially motivated by his association with a number of influential expatriated Russian Jews, including businessman Boris Berezovsky Strange how this is really the only mention being made on this website that I've seen of this case. And it was down bottom of the page on the right.
12-01-06 - Witness testifies on Shin Bet torture In a boost to Mohammed Salah's claims he was forced to make incriminating statements about connections to Hamas, a prosecution witness testified Thursday his own cousin was tortured by agents of Israel's Shin Bet security service.
12-01-06 - Israel lobby sets its sights on academe This dispute over academic balance in relation to Israel has been simmering for years on Australian campuses but it is the war in Lebanon that has brought it to a flashpoint. It is a clash that raises raw and sensitive questions about the freedoms and the responsibilities of academe as well as the power of the pro-Israel lobby.
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