McClatchy expands on the new Tahrir Square protests…

Egyptians fill Tahrir Square in largest protest of President Mohammed Morsi

Tens of thousands of protesters poured into Tahrir Square on Tuesday night to contest what they believe is Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s illegal declaration that his decisions are exempt from judicial oversight, marking the largest protests ever against the newly elected president.

It was not clear Tuesday night whether the chants of thousands calling for a second revolution would lead Morsi to rescind, modify or wait out opponents to his 5-day-old constitutional declaration. Instead, it appeared the crowds, notably absent of the Islamists who are Morsi’s base, simply reflected an increasingly polarized electorate. Indeed, many who were protesting Tuesday said they boycotted the election that led to Morsi’s presidency or voted for his rival.

If Morsi sticks to his declaration, the feud over who has the final say over the nation’s judicial matters will come to a head Sunday when the courts are expected to make three key rulings. The courts will determine whether Morsi acted legally when he changed the temporary constitution in July to end military rule – leading to the firing of Field Marshall Mohammed Tantawi, the head of the ruling military council – and giving Morsi final say over military matters, the first time a civilian has had such power in Egypt’s modern history; whether the assembly charged with crafting a permanent constitution is legal, since it was elected by the now-defunct Parliament, which the courts earlier ruled was illegally constituted; and whether the Shura Council, the upper house of Parliament, should be dissolved.

If the courts rule against Morsi, it remains unclear whether Morsi’s decree or the judicial rulings would prevail – or who will decide that. In the meantime, several judges have suspended their work in protest…

Meanwhile… 150 Egyptians injured in nationwide clashes…

Moving along to Ehud Barack’s announced ‘Retirement,’ ex-AIPAC employee, MJ Rosenberg says good riddance…

He, more than anyone else, destroyed the peace process. He was elected in 1999 on a Labor Party peace platform, arguing that the incumbent prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, had destroyed chances for peace. He promised to reach a deal with the Palestinians who welcomed his election along with an ecstatic Israeli peace camp.

But following the election he immediately set out to humiliate the Palestinians, ignoring Yasir Arafat’s pleas to start talking and instead pretended to focus on reaching a deal with Syria so he could end run the Palestinians. He kept them waiting for six months, a strategy designed to strengthen his hand against them…

In 2000, he decided to push for an all-or-nothing agreement. Arafat said no, that it was too soon, especially given the good will that Barak had frittered away. Clinton agreed with Arafat that first Barak needed to lived up to the agreements Israel had already signed. (Clinton has publicly regretted being duped by Barak)

But Barak insisted on a summit. Israelis, Palestinians and Americans commenced negotiations at Camp David in July where Barak refused even to talk to Arafat directly. He famously treated Arafat as some indigenous local chief while he was a head of state.

Barak put some ideas on the table, all in the spirit of take-it-or-leave-it. Barak and the Dennis Ross-led American “peace team” coordinated every step of negotiations which were essentially a gang-up. Arafat, who had said from the get-go that he could not reach a deal until Israel lived up to its previous agreements, refused to accept Barak’s offers which, in any case, never came close to meeting Arafat’s demand for a state in 22% of historic Palestine.

Following negotiations, Barak announced that he had “torn the mask” off the face of the Palestinians. Although negotiations continued, Barak was now in the business of demonizing them. By the time he made the Palestinians a decent offer, it was too late. Trust had been destroyed…

While Barak’s policies were no worse than Sharon or Netanyahu, he is the only one who was elected to achieve peace on the Labor ticket. In my view, he is then worse than either of them.

Now he leaves, bodies strewn everywhere…

Expanding further, Peter MacKay’s “atrocities across the Middle East”

Israel as a colonial settler state.

The current state of Israel, supported unequivocally by Canada and the U.S. is a similar colonial settler state, representing the ‘empire’ of the west – mostly the EU, the U.S., and Canada… {…}

With the false promise of the UN Partition Plan in 1947, objected to by the Palestinians as it gave away most of their land to the much smaller Jewish population, the Israeli forces set in motion their military actions of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Well before their declaration of independence, they began destroying and moving Palestinian residents from their villages in 1947. When the British mandate ended in 1948, the Israelis declared their independence and began a second wave of military actions, this time compounded by the ineffective intervention of much weaker Arab army units.

Since then the settler-colonialist mentality has been in full force. The Palestinians live under different rules of law, in both the West Bank and the pre 1967 Israeli boundaries. In the West Bank, the Palestinians live under military law, subject to change at moments notice and a soldier’s whim. After 1967, with the success of the pre-emptive war against Egyptian forces that expanded into assaults on Jordanian held West Bank and the Golan Heights of Syria, the military rule and settler colonialization of the West Bank and Gaza came into full force.

Land annexations and expropriations using antiquated laws and newly created military zone laws slowly crept over the West Bank and Gaza. The settler-colonialist elements were and are aided by many supportive grants from the government of Israel, which in turn is supported by many western countries, notably the U.S. and Canada, with both military and economic aid. Combinations of land take-overs, military rules, imprisonment, torture, and assassination of Palestinians are used to control the population… {…}

The “peace negotiations”, the “road maps to peace” have all been subterfuges under which the Israeli government has simply stalled for time while the settlements have continued building unabated. The “Palestine Papers” as revealed by al-Jazeera demonstrate that the Palestinians bent over back ward, much too far according to most, in order to secure a land settlement for two states.

Using the same tactics as the empires of the ‘new’ world, the Israelis are creating their own zone of control over the resources and people of the region. With their military strength (but not necessarily military prowess) they dominate the region acting both as puppets of U.S. interests and even more so as manipulators of U.S. interests…

Just to be sure, lets revisit one of my old posts; US State Dept: Israel’s “Principal Human Rights Problems Were Institutional, Legal, And Societal Discrimination.” To Wit:

2010 Human Rights Report: Israel and the occupied territories

…Principal human rights problems were institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against Arab citizens, Palestinian residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (see annex), non-Orthodox Jews, and other religious groups; societal discrimination against persons with disabilities; and societal discrimination and domestic violence against women, particularly in Bedouin society. While trafficking in persons for the purpose of prostitution decreased in recent years, trafficking for the purpose of labor remained a serious problem, as did abuse of foreign workers and societal discrimination and incitement against asylum seekers.

Now, moving along to Syria…

Syria ‘names 142 foreign jihadists who fought with rebels’

The Syrian government has named 142 foreign jihadists that it reportedly says were killed fighting alongside rebels in the country’s civil war…

Damascus-based newspaper Al-Watan on Tuesday published a list that it said the Syrian government had sent to the United Nations Security Council last month giving the names and the dates and locations where the “terrorists” were killed.

“Most are jihadists (radical Islamists) who belong to al-Qaeda’s network, or who joined it after arriving in Syria,” the paper said, adding that they entered Syria via Turkey and Lebanon.

Among the 142 it named 47 Saudis, 24 Libyans, 11 Afghans, 10 Tunisians, nine Egyptians, six Qataris and five Lebanese.

The government is thought to have asked for the list be registered as an official document on the UN’s agenda of “measures to combat international terrorism”.

Meanwhile, the UN has been busy…

UN condemns Syria, Iran for rampant rights abuses

A UN General Assembly committee has condemned Syria and Iran for widespread human rights abuses, but both Damascus and Tehran dismissed the separate votes as politically motivated.

The draft resolution on Syria, which was co-sponsored by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Britain, France and other Arab and Western states, received 132 votes in favour – 10 more than a similar resolution last year received – along with 12 against and 35 abstentions.

The resolution on Iran, which was drafted by Canada and co-sponsored by other Western countries, received 83 votes in favour, 31 against and 68 abstentions.

The increased number of yes votes for both resolutions shows waning support for Tehran and Damascus in New York, envoys said.

Both resolutions were passed by the 193-nation assembly’s Third Committee, which focuses on human rights, and will be put to formal votes next month at plenary sessions of the General Assembly. They are both expected to pass with similar margins.

Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari dismissed the resolution against his country as an attempt by “Western states to interfere, and we condemn this.”

He also accused Qatar, which has supported the rebels seeking to toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the 20-month-old insurgency, of aiding and abetting Israel against the Palestinians.

Ja’afari repeated Syria’s oft-stated accusation that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Libya and Turkey have been arming and financially supporting the rebels, an allegation all have denied.

Western diplomats in New York, however, say privately that the Saudis and Qataris are almost certainly aiding the rebels, and possibly other countries as well.

Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee dismissed the resolution against Tehran as based on unconfirmed allegations and an attempt to meddle in the internal affairs of Iran.

Speaking of Iran, as Marcy had quipped on Jim White’s excellent post; ‘How considerate of the Iranians to label their secret nefarious nuke graph in English!’ Graph suggests Iran working on bomb… Funny how that was a similar gripe that Gareth Porter had raised about the Iranian Nuke Laptop…

Anyways, needless to say… Senate works on new package of Iran sanctions…

As the dynamic duo, Hillary and Flynt Leverett wrote recently…

Obama’s New National Security Team Should Be Asked Serious Questions About U.S. Foreign Policy (But Probably Won’t Be)

President Obama’s pending reshuffle of his national security team is an occasion to ask hard questions about American foreign policy. Most immediately, as Hillary told Al Jazeera’s Inside Story last week, click on video above or to link here, Obama’s nomination of his next Secretary of State—whether that is Susan Rice or someone else—provides an opening to ask pressing questions about the Obama administration’s increasing proclivity for proxy warfare against problematic Middle Eastern governments. Above all, “Did the United States arm, fund, train, and support—either directly or through our so-called ‘allies’—the very people who killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and the other Americans who did with him?” But Obama’s most outspoken GOP critics on the issue—e.g., Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham—can’t ask those questions, “because [they’re] complicit in this policy.” (To see Hillary’s segment, go 7:38 into the video above.)

Of course, it remains to be seen whether McCain, Graham, and their Republican colleagues stick to their guns regarding Rice’s acceptability as a nominee for Secretary of State. But the significance of Obama’s apparent interest in nominating her goes beyond the “who’s up/who’s down” of Washington politics or Obama’s proclivity to declare consequential policy positions without having thought through how to implement them. It raises more fundamental questions about the direction of American foreign policy and grand strategy in Obama’s second term. As Hillary explains,

“Whether you are a conservative or a neoliberal interventionist—I would put Susan Rice in that category—each of these camps supports armed, military intervention by the United States in the internal affairs of other countries. They do it for slightly different reasons, but the main strategic purpose is for the United States to pursue dominance…

…As to what to expect from Obama on foreign policy in his second term, Hillary says that “the evidence, so far, is for more of the same.” Certainly there is no reason to anticipate much change in Washington’s approach to the Middle East…

Same-oh, same-oh, just ain’t cutting it, Folks…!

*gah*

I was disheartened to hear today that Madame Shrillary had decided to take the MeK off the State Terrorist List, but, I’m not surprised one iota…! As MoJo noted…

State Department Officially Removing MEK From US Terror List

After a few months of will-they-won’t-they tension, the US State Department decided on Friday to officially remove the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) from the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list, which the Iranian exile group has been on for the past 15 years… {…}

…The Paris-based MEK—which enjoys a solidly low level of popular support among Iranians—is also called the The People’s Mujahideen of Iran, and was founded in Tehran in the mid-1960s as a synthesis of Islamic principle, left-wing populism, and violent resistance to the Shah. It has since been blasted by critics as a totalitarian, hero-worshipping cult with a history of engaging in indiscriminate mass murder (a particular sore spot is the allegation that MEK fighters acted as a death squad for Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Shiite and Kurdish uprisings in Iraq). Today, the group is reportedly on the frontlines of assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists, and has a long, bipartisan list of powerful friends in the US who pitch the group as the Western-friendly and pluralistic antidote to the Islamic republic.

The bizarro patchwork of high-profile advocates includes John Bolton, Gen. Wesley Clark (Ret.), at least two Romney campaign advisors, Rudy Giuliani, Howard Dean, Ed Rendell, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, and ex-FBI director Louis Freeh. Some of these top supporters received subpoenas from the Treasury department last March during an investigation of speaking fees for pro-MEK events—something that could potentially amount to providing material support to a designated terror organization…

As the CSM reported last year…

Iranian group’s big-money push to get off US terrorist list

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: A roster of influential former US officials is speaking at rallies in support of removing the MEK, an Iranian opposition group with a violent anti-American history, from the US terrorist list. A decision is expected within weeks…

…Many of these former high-ranking US officials – who represent the full political spectrum – have been paid tens of thousands of dollars to speak in support of the MEK.

They rarely mention the MEK’s violent and anti-American past, and portray the group not as terrorists but as freedom fighters with “values just like us,” as democrats-in-waiting ready to serve as a vanguard of regime change in Iran. Some acknowledge that they knew little about the group before they were invited to speak and were coached by MEK supporters…

As Philip Giraldi had written earlier this year…

The MEK’s Useful Idiots

…One scholar who has studied them describes their beliefs as a “weird combination of Marxism and Islamic fundamentalism.” Like many other terrorist groups, the MEK has a political wing that operates openly, the National Council of Resistance, which is based in Paris, and another front organization called Executive Action, which operates in Washington.

The U.S. military and the CIA have in the past recruited MEK agents to enter Iran and report on nuclear facilities. Other MEK agents, recruited and trained by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, have recently killed a number of Iranian nuclear scientists and officials. The group appears to have ample financial resources, and it is generally believed that at least some of the money comes from Mossad. The MEK is able to place full-page ads in major U.S. newspapers and is also known to pay hefty speaker’s fees to major political figures who are willing to speak publicly on its behalf. The group claims to want regime-change in Iran to restore democracy to the country, an odd assertion as it itself has no internal democracy.

Because the MEK is a resource being used by Israel in its clandestine war against Iran, it is perhaps inevitable that many friends of Israel in the United States are campaigning vigorously to have the group removed from the terrorism list. Indeed, neocons at their various think-tanks and publications as well as AIPAC all support delisting the group. At this moment, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, not surprisingly, appears to be inclined to give in to the pressure and delist the MEK once it completes its departure from Camp Ashraf in Iraq, where it has been based for the past 20 years. There might be some problem in arranging the move, as few countries want to take the MEK supporters, fearing that they would have to be deprogrammed from their brainwashing…

As NBC had reported shortly after the latest Iranian assassinations…

Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News

Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran’s leaders.

The group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, has long been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, accused of killing American servicemen and contractors in the 1970s and supporting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran before breaking with the Iranian mullahs in 1980.

The attacks, which have killed five Iranian nuclear scientists since 2007 and may have destroyed a missile research and development site, have been carried out in dramatic fashion, with motorcycle-borne assailants often attaching small magnetic bombs to the exterior of the victims’ cars.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign but has no direct involvement.

The Iranians have no doubt who is responsible – Israel and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, known by various acronyms, including MEK, MKO and PMI…

Now, one thing that I hadn’t seen mentioned in any of the reports today, was the MeK’s role in the infamous ‘Nuke Laptop’, something that I’d cited last year… IAEA Claims ‘New Info’ On Iranian Nukes…

…German officials have identified the source of the laptop documents in November 2004 as the Mujahideen e Khalq (MEK), which along with its political arm, the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), is listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organisation.

There are some indications, moreover, that the MEK obtained the documents not from an Iranian source but from Israel’s Mossad.

In its latest report on Iran, circulated Feb. 22, the IAEA, under strong pressure from the Bush administration, included descriptions of plans for a facility to produce “green salt”, technical specifications for high explosives testing and the schematic layout of a missile reentry vehicle that appears capable of holding a nuclear weapon. Iran has been asked to provide full explanations for these alleged activities.

Tehran has denounced the documents on which the charges are based as fabrications provided by the MEK, and has demanded copies of the documents to analyse, but the United States had refused to do so…

And the US still hasn’t handed over the documents…!

In summing up, many in the Beltway can now rest easier knowing that they’re no longer providing material support to terrorists…!

Don’t ya’ll feel better too…? *gah*

The inflammatory film is merely the pretext, or rather a spark, that ignited the protests throughout the Muslim world… Here’s a MIT PoliSci Professor’s take…

Q. The proximate cause of many of the violent protests occurring right now is this video that was released online. But probably many of these demonstrators have not even seen the clip. To what extent should we think of these events as being caused by the video, and how much do they hinge on longer-term tensions?

A. I think the video is largely a trigger, as were the cartoons about Muhammad printed in Denmark some years back [in 2006]. The reality of the matter is that there are huge levels of latent anti-Americanism in the region, and despite the supportive role of the Obama administration in the Arab Spring [of 2011], the general population is largely anti-Western and anti-American. So these things can be very potent triggers, in getting people in the street. And, of course, some clerics readily use them as ways to mobilize people. We have had attacks in Tunis, in Yemen, in Khartoum against the Germans, so it is spreading.

It’s very disturbing, particularly in Egypt. … The Libyan government condemned the attacks, saying they wanted to bring the perpetrators to justice, while in Egypt the reaction of President Morsi was basically to say people should rally against the video. It was only later, after he got reprimanded by President Obama, that he basically accepted the fact that nobody should be getting attacked…

The ever intrepid Pepe Escobar further elaborates…

Brother Obama, where art thou?

MENA (Middle East/North Africa) is on fire. The diffuse rage – even if manifested by a tiny minority – is distinctly anti-American. Protests in Cairo have reached Sanaa in Yemen and even Bangladesh. The administration of US President Barack Obama is perplexed beyond belief. There will be revenge. What’s really going on? {…}

Another way to put it is that “liberated” Libya is now warlord country. Home of vendettas in the desert and tribal pogroms against other tribes – and even whole towns.

The Salafi-jihadis – with whom Washington, London and Paris were unashamedly in bed during their humanitarian bombing campaign – are based in Cyrenaica, eastern Libya. Some have come from Iraq. Some are shuttling back and forth to and from Syria, aiming to destroy yet one more secular Arab republic. {…}

The (disintegrated) police and army of “liberated” Libya could not possibly face them down. Local tribes don’t care. Salafi-jihadis have been attacking Sufi mosques and tombs; Sufi Islam is infinitely more moderate – and intellectually sophisticated – compared with medieval Wahhabism… {…}

Egypt is a much tougher, nuanced proposition – because it’s the model for the uneasy Washington-Muslim Brotherhood (MB) love affair, with the US betting on moderate Islamists as provisional substitutes of friendly dictators of the Hosni Mubarak kind. A complicating factor is that Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is in direct competition with local Salafis – who got 25% in the congressional elections. So the MB won’t be very forceful in denouncing them – even though they are hated by the Salafis.
Read the rest of this entry →

From that RT blurb… The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned threats by Israel and the US to strike Iran. This comes after Tehran rejected as a ‘political move’ the latest report by the IAEA which claimed the country has doubled its nuclear capacity…

First off, you can take a look at the IAEA report here from the Grey Lady…! Now, let’s take a gander at what the Grey Lady’s in-house AIPAC mouthpieces had to say about it…

Report on Iran Nuclear Work Puts Israel in a Box

…For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday offered findings validating his longstanding position that while harsh economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation may have hurt Iran, they have failed to slow Tehran’s nuclear program. If anything, the program is speeding up…

Phil Weiss raised a great point about the Grey Lady’s true intentions… ‘NYT’ serves as echo chamber for Israeli hawks, quoting 7 on Iran, plus 2 Israel lobbyists…!

Now, I happen to agree with b at MOA that Gareth Porter did jilt b by not giving him a hat tip, but, Gareth did write a marvelous post on IPS…

IAEA Report Shows Iran Reduced Its Breakout Capacity

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report made public Thursday reveals that Iran has actually reduced the amount of 20-percent enriched uranium available for any possible “breakout” to weapons grade enrichment over the last three months rather than increasing it.

Contrary to the impression conveyed by most news media coverage, the report provides new evidence that Iran’s enrichment strategy is aimed at enhancing its bargaining position in negotiations with the United States rather than amassing such a breakout capability.

The reduction in the amount of 20-percent enriched uranium in the Iranian stockpile that could be used to enrich to weapons grade is the result of a major acceleration in the fabrication of fuel plates for the Tehran Research Reactor, which needs 20-percent enriched uranium to produce medical isotopes.

That higher level enriched uranium has been the main focus of U.S. diplomatic demands on Iran ever since 2009, on the ground that it represents the greatest threat of an Iranian move to obtain a nuclear weapon capability.

When 20-percent uranium is used to make fuel plates, however, it is very difficult to convert it back to a form that can enriched to weapons grade levels…

…The reduction in the stockpile available for weapons grade enrichment was the result of the conversion of 53.3 kg of 20-percent enriched uranium into fuel plates – compared with only 43 kg in the previous five months.

Iran was thus creating fuel plates for its medical reactor faster than it was enriching uranium to a 20-percent level.

But although that reduction of the stockpile of enriched uranium of greatest concern to the United States was the real significance of the new report, it was not conveyed by the headlines and leads in news media coverage. Those stories focused instead on the fact that production of 20-percent enriched uranium had increased, and that the number of centrifuges at the underground facility at Fordow had doubled.

“Nobody has put out the story that their stockpile is shrinking,” said Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund and a leading independent specialist on nuclear weapons policy, in an interview with IPS.

As b had put it so succinctly, earlier…

IAEA: Iranian “Nuclear Danger” Decreased

…Iran has now 10% less “dangerous stuff” in the form of further easily enrichable 20% UF6 than it had in May 2012. Further enriched this stockpile would not be enough by half to create even one nuclear device. The “imminent danger” of a “nuclear Iran” has thereby decreased.

We can reasonably assume that Iran is doing this decrease on purpose and will in future convert any newly produced UF6 into fuel plates. This will keep its stock of UF6 at a level below what is needed to make a quick run towards a nuclear device.

But as the whole “nuclear Iran” scare has little to do with reality but a lot with U.S. and Israeli desire to subjugate Iran and thereby further their global and regional domination we can not expect to read about this reality in any of the western propaganda media.

The main point of contention is the false claim that Iran is now producing HEU, which is defined as 20.00+% enrichment, the IAEA can only confirm that it’s still 19.75% LEU enrichment, with some minor aberrations of 20% obtained, but, let’s not lose sight of the fact, the IAEA is indeed monitoring the whole process…!

Cyrus Safdari also provides a great paragraph-by-paragraph vivisection of the IAEA report…!

Even FDL Alum, Jim White, noted what a farce it’s become…

Fear-Mongering Over New IAEA Iran Report Falls Flat

…IAEA inspectors are onsite at Iran’s nuclear facilities and they confirm that all of Iran’s nuclear material is accounted for, with none being diverted for unknown purposes. Despite all the bluster from the war mongers that Iran is making progress toward a weapon, the fact remains that uranium enrichment still goes only to 20% and not to the 90%+ needed for a weapon, Iran’s functioning enrichment centrifuges are still very old technology and all uranium entering the enrichment process has been accounted for by IAEA inspectors.

With such gaping holes in the claims that Iran is dangerously close to “break out” capability on weapons development, it is no surprise that this latest round of beating the drum for war is being lost in the attention on the upcoming election.

Btw, does anybody realize that 120 nations just unanimously approved of Iran’s nuclear program…?

Non-Aligned Movement Unanimously Backs Iran’s Civilian Nuclear Program

The 120-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has unanimously endorsed Iran’s civilian nuclear energy program, saying Iran has not only the right to produce energy through nuclear fission, but has a right to enrich their own uranium to do so…

…The NAM endorsement is particularly important as its membership amounts of about 2/3 of the nations on the planet, a strong voting majority in the UN General Assembly. This would make it extremely difficult for the Obama Administration to push to punish Iran for its program through the general assembly.

Funny how our Chair of the JCS, Gen. Dempsey, is publicly questioning the ‘legality’ of an Iran strike…

…The U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, has always cautioned against a go-it-alone approach, but he appeared to up the ante this week by saying Washington did not want to be blamed for any Israeli initiative.

“I don’t want to be complicit if they (Israel) choose to do it,” Dempsey was quoted as saying by Britain’s Guardian newspaper on Friday, suggesting that he would view an Israeli attack as reprehensible or illegal.

He went on to repeat that although Israel could delay Iran’s nuclear project, it would not destroy it. He said that unilateral action might unravel a strong international coalition that has applied progressively stiff sanctions on Iran.

“(This) could be undone if (Iran) was attacked prematurely,” he was quoted as saying…

A whole lot more would be undone too…!

*gah*

Dr. Phil delivered a most righteous rant today…

In the Land of the Blind

…If there was ever a blatant example of U.S. government hypocrisy, this was it: a mass murderer presenting a medal to another mass murderer. Wage war for humanitarian reasons but kill the children. Promote the freedom of the Internet but secretly make it a weapon of war and figure out how to shut it down. All in a day’s work in the Imperial City.

The American exceptionalism being boasted about by Republicans and Democrats alike is at the root of aberrant political class behavior, visible to anyone who cares to look. In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king, but in today’s America even the man with one eye is lacking. It is clear to the world that there is no limit to Washington’s hypocrisy, but the media and Congress march briskly forward with the White House promoting a policy of war by other means all the time and everywhere. It is a recipe for disaster, which has already borne fruit in terms of lost liberties, a shattered economy, and a sharp decline in most countries’ respect for the American government and people. That a president can declare secret war on a country that does not threaten it, that the federal government can create mechanisms to attack the entire world electronically while at the same time making plans for depriving its own people of the ability to share ideas and thoughts freely is disgraceful. And awarding the highest civilian medal to a self-proclaimed baby killer who epitomizes the decay of our republic should be a moment of shame rather than celebration.

Emptywheel expanded further on what truly ails us… Gang Warfare to Protect Israel’s Secrets…

Now, Syria is a tougher nut to crack, from Asia Times…

Syria: America versus Israel

…Instead of heeding the advice of these two hawkish senators, the Obama administration should pursue a more realist foreign policy vis-a-vis Syria that prioritizes stability. Unquestionably, the headaches that this regime has caused many US administrations explain the political motivations behind Obama’s direct and indirect support for Syria’s Islamist opposition. However, the lessons of blowback should be remembered, for the United States armed radical forces on many occasions to advance larger geopolitical interests only to regret such alliances later.

Preventing the Syrian state from collapsing and protecting the region from the chaos that could result should be Washington’s top priority. This does not mean ignoring the human rights abuses of the Assad regime or the armed Syrian opposition. Rather, Washington should continue to work with regional actors such as Turkey and Iran along with Russia and China to find a political solution that holds all actors responsible for the lives lost and identifies a political solution that brings about peace, stability, and justice. The Middle East doesn’t need another Iraq War or post-war crisis.

Just to be sure, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, said today…

SCO opposes intervention in Syria, Iran

…China, Russia and four former Soviet republics in central Asia said Thursday they oppose military intervention in Syria and Iran, and regime change in Syria.

The opposition came in a statement released by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on the final day of its summit in Beijing, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.

In the statement, the countries called for “dialogues that respect Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity,” CNN reported.

The statement came as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday in Istanbul, Turkey — where she was attending a counterterrorism conference — that “Syria will not, cannot be peaceful, stable or certainly democratic until Assad goes.”…

…The four former Soviet republics — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — joined Russia and China in opposing military intervention or forced regime change in Syria.

The leaders of the six SCO countries said they oppose military intervention in response to Iran’s nuclear program.

“We believe any attempts to resolve the Iranian issue by force are unacceptable,” the SCO statement said. “Such attempts could lead to unpredictably serious consequences, which would threaten stability and security in the region and the entire world.”…

Now, don’t ya suppose all those ‘Stans and/or Russia could strand, all our Boyz in Afghanistan, just as easily as Pakistan has… (Gee, and I wonder why they’re so pissed…?)!

*gah*

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” ~Albert Einstein

Hot off the presses in the Media War between the dueling DM’s, here’s Ehud Barak’s latest salvo at Panetta…

Israel calls for attack on Iran ‘before it is too late’

…Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak issued a stark warning last night that military action may be needed to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons before it is “too late” and Tehran puts its programme beyond the reach of external attack.

The Defence Minister’s remarks came as US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta declined to deny a report in the Washington Post that he feared a military strike on Iran by Israel during April, May or June. Mr Panetta said the US had indicated its “concerns” about a possible Israeli attack…

Yeah, about those ‘concerns’…

Panetta won’t dispute report Israel may attack Iran

…Panetta was asked by reporters to comment on a Washington Post opinion column by David Ignatius that said Panetta believes there is a “strong likelihood” that Israel will attack in April, May or June. Ignatius did not say who told him this.

He noted that Israel has stated publicly that it is considering military action against Iran. He said the U.S. has “indicated our concerns.”

FDL alum, Emptywheel had penned another great post… Your Summer Schedule: Vacation, Beach, Iran War…

Now, the Jpost offers up some more of the ‘highlights’ from that Herzliya Confab…

…Ya’alon says Tehran is developing missiles capable of reaching the United States; IDF intel chief Kochavi says Iran has enough uranium to build four nuclear bombs…

“We need a credible military option. The Iranians understand the West has capabilities, but as long as the Iranians don’t think that the West has the political stomach and determination to use it they will not stop,” Ya’alon said. “Currently they don’t think that the world is determined.”

Btw, the resident, AIPAC stoolie at the Grey Lady, Ethan Bronner, just had to breathlessly report on Ya’alon’s utter bullsh*t… U.S. Plays Down Warning By Israeli Over Iran’s Missiles…

The ever intrepid, Gareth Porter, had reported this bit of much needed, great news…

Dempsey Told Israelis U.S. Won’t Join Their War on Iran

…Dempsey’s warning, conveyed to both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, represents the strongest move yet by President Barack Obama to deter an Israeli attack and ensure that the United States is not caught up in a regional conflagration with Iran.

A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Commander Patrick McNally, offered ‘no comment’ Wednesday when IPS asked him about the above account of Dempsey’s warning to the Israelis…

Heed our Elders…

Mr. President – Tell Bibi No! – Publicly

pl

‘No Comment’ just won’t cut it, folks…!

*gah*

As Scott Horton so eloquently pointed out in that video, Iran has proven the ‘negative’ that Iran has not diverted any nuclear material towards a bomb, yet that noise still persists…

There’s a whole new spate of fear-mongering headlines that is proliferating across the web today, fueled by this Reuters report…

IAEA says gets info on possible Iran military work

The U.N. atomic watchdog has received new information regarding allegations that Iran may be seeking to develop a nuclear-armed missile, the agency said in a report voicing deepening concern about the issue.

The confidential document signalled the U.N. body’s growing frustration at what it sees as Iran’s lack of cooperation with a long-running investigation into its disputed nuclear programme.

It also made clear Iran’s determination to press ahead with sensitive atomic activity despite four rounds of U.N. sanctions since 2006, saying the country had informed the IAEA it would soon start operating a second uranium enrichment plant.

The report looked likely to add to Western suspicions that Iran is secretly bent on building a nuclear weapons capability from its enrichment programme, which Tehran denies. [...]

The IAEA report, obtained by Reuters on Friday, said it remained concerned about possible current activity in Iran to design a nuclear payload.

“Iran is not engaging with the agency in substance on issues concerning the allegation that Iran is developing a nuclear payload for its missile programme,” it said. [...]

An official with knowledge of the IAEA’s investigation said the new information, if it turned out to be correct, concerned both Iran’s past and more recent activities.

The report said that based on an analysis of “additional information which has come to its attention since August 2008, including new information recently received, there are further concerns which the agency … needs to clarify with Iran.”

In parsing the verbiage, once again it would appear that ‘unnamed Western countries’ are rehashing the same old debunked ‘Nuke Laptop’ conspiracy theories…

Iran Nuke Laptop Data Came from Terror Group

WASHINGTON, Feb 29, 2008 (IPS) – The George W. Bush administration has long pushed the “laptop documents” – 1,000 pages of technical documents supposedly from a stolen Iranian laptop – as hard evidence of Iranian intentions to build a nuclear weapon. Now charges based on those documents pose the only remaining obstacles to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declaring that Iran has resolved all unanswered questions about its nuclear programme.

But those documents have long been regarded with great suspicion by U.S. and foreign analysts. German officials have identified the source of the laptop documents in November 2004 as the Mujahideen e Khalq (MEK), which along with its political arm, the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), is listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organisation.

There are some indications, moreover, that the MEK obtained the documents not from an Iranian source but from Israel’s Mossad.

In its latest report on Iran, circulated Feb. 22, the IAEA, under strong pressure from the Bush administration, included descriptions of plans for a facility to produce “green salt”, technical specifications for high explosives testing and the schematic layout of a missile reentry vehicle that appears capable of holding a nuclear weapon. Iran has been asked to provide full explanations for these alleged activities.

Tehran has denounced the documents on which the charges are based as fabrications provided by the MEK, and has demanded copies of the documents to analyse, but the United States had refused to do so.

In a recent Truthout article, Gareth Porter further debunked the hype…

Exclusive Report: Evidence of Iran Nuclear Weapons Program May Be Fraudulent

Here’s another extensive article on Iran and Israel’s attempts to frame Iran…

The Phantom Menace: Fantasies, falsehoods, and fear-mongering about Iran’s nuclear program

I’ve also highlighted Bibi’s desire to bomb Iran with US complicity…

AFP: ‘Create Credible Military Threat Against Iran,’ Says Israel to U.S.

This is getting really old, really fast…!

*gah*

Update: Here is the IAEA Board of Governors report (12 pg PDF) In it they state that they can confirm the ‘nondiversion of nuclear material’, but, bitch about not being given ‘full access’ to the Iranian military’s plans…! Can you think of any nation allowing that to occur…? *gah*

Noam Chomsky…

…"They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran," according to Dan Plesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London. "US bombers and long range missiles are ready today to destroy 10,000 targets in Iran in a few hours," he said. "The firepower of US forces has quadrupled since 2003," accelerating under Obama. [...]

Obama’s rhetorical commitment to non-proliferation has received much praise, even a Nobel peace prize. One practical step in this direction is establishment of NWFZs. Another is to withdraw support for the nuclear programs of the three non-signers of the NPT. As often, rhetoric and actions are hardly aligned, in fact are in direct contradiction in this case, facts that pass with as little attention as most of what has just been briefly reviewed.

Instead of taking practical steps towards reducing the truly dire threat of nuclear weapons proliferation, the U.S. is taking major steps towards reinforcing U.S. control of the vital Middle East oil-producing regions, by violence if other means do not suffice. That is understandable and even reasonable, under prevailing imperial doctrine, however grim the consequences, yet another illustration of "the savage injustice of the Europeans" that Adam Smith deplored in 1776, with the command center since shifted to their imperial settlement across the seas.

Pat Lang…

…The Ziocons are going after him with big money and a media blitz while the MSM types like Joe Scarborough and the lovely Mika look on wondering how far to go in submitting and how quickly.

Why is this new outfit not a candidate for registration under FARA? It advocates partucular American foreign policy positions on behalf of foreign country and seeks to directly pressure legislators to adopt positions favorable to that foreign power. Ah, I know the answer… The Ziocons have the muscle in the Obama Administration to block that at Justice. In any event the Justice Department is too busy suing Arizona to focus on that. [...]

The level of fury and angst in "defense" of Israel is rising steadily in the media. The clock is ticking. In November 2002 I told an audience in Lexington, Virginia that the train had already left the station headed for Iraq. This train is waiting for the conductor to board the passengers.

Joshua Pollack…

On Bombing the Bomb

…Call it the “Say it with JDAMs“ school of nonproliferation diplomacy. Unfortunately, it overlooks a couple of the key puzzle pieces needed to understand the situation.

**

First and most importantly, you can bomb an enrichment facility, but you can’t bomb an enrichment program. (Or not one as well-developed as Iran’s.) It’s not like a reactor, with billions of dollars’ worth of hard-to-replace capital piled up in one spot over the course of several years. Instead, it’s thousands of interchangeable pieces that can be brought together and operated more or less anywhere.

The UK Telegraph: Israel launches covert war against Iran…

[Edited for length - must stay within fair use and copyright guidelines according to rules for Seminal diaries.]

It is using hitmen, sabotage, front companies and double agents to disrupt the regime’s illicit weapons project, the experts say.

The most dramatic element of the "decapitation" programme is the planned assassination of top figures involved in Iran’s atomic operations. [...]

The aim is to slow down or interrupt Iran’s research programme, without the gamble of a direct confrontation that could lead to a wider war.

Gareth Porter…

Heinonen Pushed Dubious Iran Nuclear Weapons Intel

Olli Heinonen, the Finnish nuclear engineer who resigned Thursday after five years as deputy director for safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was the driving force in turning that agency into a mechanism to support U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran.

Heinonen was instrumental in making a collection of intelligence documents showing a purported Iranian nuclear weapons research programme the central focus of the IAEA’s work on Iran. The result was to shift opinion among Western publics to the view that Iran had been pursuing a covert nuclear weapons programme.

But his embrace of the intelligence documents provoked a fierce political struggle within the Secretariat of the IAEA, because other officials believed the documents were fraudulent.

Just imagine the possibilities…!

Today’s front page of Afghanistan’s Daily Outlook trumpets…

Pakistan Arrests 200 Taliban

Pakistan has nabbed about 200 Taliban militants fleeing from the battle field in southern Afghanistan where a U.S.-led NATO military offensive is going on against Taliban insurgents. Pakistani government said it would hand over the arrested Taliban to the NATO forces, if they entered into Pakistan from Afghanistan, the official news agency APP reported on Monday. Pakistan has increased military posts along the Afghan border in Balochistan Province to keep a watch over the Taliban’s infiltrating in the wake of a NATO military offensive in Marjah, southern Afghanistan. The report said at least 26 new military check posts have been set up, which has climbed the military posts to 286. Pakistani authorities said that Pak-Afghan border has been sealed and patrolling of the security forces has been increased. The authorities said Pakistan is committed to assist the NATO forces in their military offensive in southern Afghanistan. Meanwhile, reports said police in northwest Pakistan has arrested Mulvi Kabir, one of the top 10 most wanted Taliban leaders and a former Taliban governor of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province. Mulvi Kabir’s arrest was made on the information obtained from Mullah Baradar, the Taliban’s second-in-command, whose arrest was announced on Feb. 18 following a joint U.S.-Pakistani operation, reports said. The arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and several other top leaders inside Pakistan is an evidence of Pakistan’s commitment to war on terror and its will to play a major role in negotiations with Taliban leadership.

Apparently, Pakistan is playing hardball with the Taliban and Baradar’s capture is paying dividends…

Al Jazeera reported…

‘Taliban commander seized’

In other developments, the US media reported on Tuesday that yet another senior Afghan Taliban commander had been captured in Pakistan.

Mullah Abdul Kabir, a member of the group’s so-called Quetta Shura, was picked up several days ago in Nowshera district in Pakistan’s northwest, according to reports in the New York Times and Washington Post that cited unnamed Pakistani security officials.

Pakistani officials declined to confirm the reports.

Last week, Pakistani and American officials said that Mullah Abdul Ghani Brader, the No 2 Afghan Taliban leader, had been caught 10 days earlier in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.

Two other Taliban leaders – Mullah Abdul Salam and Mullah Mohammad, respectively the "shadow governors" of Kunduz and Baghlan provinces – were arrested separately in Pakistan about 10 to 12 days ago, according to Mohammad Omar, the Kunduz governor.

In which, the Taliban refute the capture of Abdul Kabir…

Monday, February 22, 2010. A news report about detention of Maulavi Kabir is totally baseless and fatuous. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan diametrically refutes reports published in media regarding Maulavi Kabir, the eminent leader of The Islamic Emirate.

We say in clear words that these reports are farcical and groundless. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan believes that there are ploys and wiles on the enemy behind such fatuous rumor and publication of these reports in order to cash in on them in political and military fields. By doing so, they are trying to distract the attention of the people of the world from their shameful defeat at Marjah.

Here’s an interview with the new Marjah Taliban Commander Nasir…

However, I do question the veracity of that report. Is it another $50 interview…?

More from that Channel Four report…

Nasir, also spelt Nisar, has been based in Marjah in Helmand, the scene of the latest Nato offensive. He went south to meet the cameraman – the exact location was kept secret.

"My message to whole of the west, especially the parents of those soldiers who are fighting for the America’s vested interests in Afghanistan is that they should not trust the American propaganda," Nasir said.

"I want to address those parents and European countries who sent their soldiers to Afghanistan not to sacrifice their sons on the interests of US. This war can’t be won.

"They should consult the Afghan history. No force on the face of the earth had defeated Afghans so far. The Russians were defeated and so are they."

He also insisted that the Taliban could force the allied troops from Afghanistan.

The Taliban recently released this statement…

Marjah Operations are an Exemplary Lesson for the Invaders

For themselves too… The Taliban are adapting too…

Taliban tries kinder, gentler tactics in Marjah

Taliban jihadists who ruled Marjah had recently softened their brutal treatment of the villagers and seemed less intent on running every aspect of their lives, according to the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.

The apparent change in behavior may have been a response to the refusal of Marjah residents to put up with repressive rule, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a coalition spokesman in Afghanistan.

"It wasn’t as evident that brutality was (the Taliban’s) main weapon," Smith said Monday.

The coalition based its conclusion largely on conversations with residents before the offensive against the largest Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan began.

Conversations with the Elders prior to the invasion…? Or was it from your prior polling…?

Dood, they’re saying get out now…!

Helmand elders want US-led forces out

MARJAH (NNI): Tribal elders in the southern Afghan province of Helmand want an end to the US-led anti-Taliban offensive there, citing Western troops’ disregard for civilian lives as a reason. In a gathering in the center of Helmand, the elders expressed concerns about the way the operations have been handled so far. Recently many Afghan civilians have been killed both by violent militant acts, including bombings and daily fighting, as well as by new US-led operations against militants. They say the offensive is taking its toll on the people in the central city of Marjah. The elders warned that if help doesn’t reach people, the region is will face a catastrophe. Human rights groups have also voiced concern over the issue, saying people living on the front line of the major offensive are trapped in their homes with little access to food and medicine.

Finally, we’re getting off the snide…

Marjah residents receive food aid

Residents of the southern Afghan town of Marjah have received their first food supplies since the start of a joint US-Afghan military operation against the Taliban in the area 11 days ago.

Afghan officials distributed bags of rice and tea in central Marjah, in southern Helmand province, on Tuesday, as sporadic fighting continued outside the city centre.

It took 11 days…? They wonder why we’re losing the ‘hearts and minds’…!

Today, Gareth Porter released this political bombshell…

Marja Offensive Aimed to Shape U.S. Opinion on War

Senior military officials decided to launch the current U.S.-British military campaign to seize Marja in large part to influence domestic U.S. opinion on the war in Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported Monday.

The Post report, by Greg Jaffe and Craig Whitlock, both of whom cover military affairs, said the town of Marja would not have been chosen as a target for a U.S. military operation had the criterion been military significance instead of impact on domestic public opinion.

The primary goal of the offensive, they write, is to "convince Americans that a new era has arrived in the eight-year long war…." U.S. military officials in Afghanistan "hope a large and loud victory in Marja will convince the American public that they deserve more time to demonstrate that extra troops and new tactics can yield better results on the battlefield," according to Jaffe and Whitlock.

A second aim is said to be to demonstrate to Afghans that U.S. forces can protect them from the Taliban.

With Petraeus saying Marjah is just the start

General David Petraeus, the commander of US Central Command, said on Sunday that the months ahead will be "tough".

"I have repeatedly said that these types of efforts are hard and they’re hard all the time. I don’t use words like optimist or pessimist, I use realist but the reality is that it’s hard and we’re there for a very, very important reason and we can’t forget that.

"We’re in Afghanistan to ensure that it cannot once again be a sanctuary for the kind of attacks that were carried out on 9/11," he told US network NBC’s Meet the Press programme.

He said Taliban resistance had been "a bit disjointed" but "formidable".

"The way the operation was conducted leaped over some of them. But there is tough fighting going on without question," he said.

Civilians flee Marjah fighting
Petraeus said the campaign, which started on February 13, would not stop with Marjah and nearby Nad Ali.

Are we truly rolling back the Taliban…?

Here’s a slide show of pics you’ll never see in our papers…(Very Graphic!) Something Petraeus has overseen as Centcom Commander…