Image via WikipediaDeclassified report reveals U.S. has drawn down stockpiles of nuclear arms 50%, unannounced and 5 years ahead of schedule
http://creekside1.blogspot.com/2010/03/inside-new-recalibrated-afghan.html
Back in 2007 the Cons claimed that all the Geneva Conventions do not apply in Afghanistan because we are not officially at war with Afghanistan. Yesterday in the Afghan parliamentary committee, Con MP Jim Abbott attempted to resuscitate that position.
Ashcroft Can Be Held Accountable for Post-9/11 Wrongful Detention
http://www.democraticunderground.com
Federal Appellate Court Denies Former Attorney General's Request for Full Court Review
Mar 18 · For health care reform.... "The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it."
http://www.democraticunderground.com Mar 18 · When he called a summit in 1989, he left out educators. Left out the ones who know the most about how to truly educate and promote learning. They silenced
http://www.democraticunderground.comOur whole economy is now based on who can trick other people out of their money
http://www.democraticunderground.com
Mar 17 · This issue gets little coverage, but it's critically important. One of the biggest and often overlooked problems with the Senate Bill (which is likely to be the
http://www.democraticunderground.com15 minutes ago · Reuters) - As the Congress once again rallies to pass healthcare reform legislation, momentum is growing in many states to pass laws to block the changes -- a move that could lead to a legal battle over states' sovereignty. U.S. | Healthcare Reform Bills and resolutions have been introduced in at least 36 state legislatures seeking to limit or
Jon Walker: It‘s Not That the Health Care Bill Does Too Little Good, It’s That It Does Too Much Harm
Mar 17 · , Jon. March 17, 2010 The greatest problem with the Senate health care bill is not that it does “too little” to help people. The problem is that the bill does too many
http://www.democraticunderground.comThe News Drones
http://www.counterpunch.org/brasch09032007.html
By WALTER BRASCH
Add faked photos to the list of lies told by the BushCheney Administration before its invasion of Iraq.
In a town hall meeting in Bloomsburg, Pa. this week, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a 12-term congressman, said that shortly before Congress was scheduled to vote on authorizing military force against Iraq, top officials of the CIA showed select members of Congress three photographs it alleged were Iraqi Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), better known as drones. Kanjorski said he was told that the drones were capable of carrying nuclear, biological, or chemical agents, and could strike 1,000 miles inland of east coast or west coast cities.
Kanjorski said he and four or five other congressmen in the room were told UAVs could be on freighters headed to the U.S. Both secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and President Bush wandered into and out of the briefing room, Kanjorski said.
Kanjorski said it was the second time he was called to the White House for a briefing. He had opposed giving the President the powers to go to war, and said that he hadn't changed his mind after a first meeting. Until he saw the pictures, Kanjorski said, "I hadn't thought that Iraq was a threat." That second meeting changed everything. After he left that meeting, said Kanjorski, he was willing to give the President the authorization he wanted since the drones "represented an imminent danger."
Kanjorski said he went to see Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a retired Marine colonel. Murtha, said Kanjorski, "turned white" when told about the drones; Murtha, a former intelligence officer, believed that such information was classified.
Several years later, Kanjorski said he learned that the pictures were "a god-damned lie," apparently taken by CIA photographers in the desert in the southwest of the U.S. The drone story itself had already been disproved, although not many major media carried that story.
In October 2002, President Bush said in Cincinnati that "Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas." He said that he was concerned "that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVs for missions targeting the United States." In that same speech, he claimed, "Iraq possesses ballistic missiles with a likely range of hundreds of miles-far enough to strike Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, and other nations-in a region where more than 135,000 American civilians and service members live and work." Bush further claimed, "Surveillance photos reveal that the regime is rebuilding facilities that it had used to produce chemical and biological weapons." Those claims were later proven false.
Walter Brasch, professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University, is an award-winning syndicated columnist and the author of 15 books, most of them about social issues, the First Amendment, and the media. His forthcoming book is America's Unpatriotic Acts; The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Liberties (Peter Lang Publishing.) You may contact Brasch at brasch@bloomu.edu or at www.walterbrasch.com
Today's Stories
March 19 - 21, 2010
Alexander Cockburn
"My Fellow Americans, Tonight I'm Going to Talk Frankly About a Pesky Little Nation Called Israel ... "
"My Fellow Americans, Tonight I'm Going to Talk Frankly About a Pesky Little Nation Called Israel ... "
Alan Nasser
The Jobs Bill and Other Faux Remedies
The Jobs Bill and Other Faux Remedies
Barbara Rose Johnston
Secrets of the Tribe: Anthropologists in the Amazon
Secrets of the Tribe: Anthropologists in the Amazon
M. Shahid Alam
Will the Taliban Reclaim Control of Afghanistan?
Will the Taliban Reclaim Control of Afghanistan?
Alan Farago
A Time-Release Depression
A Time-Release Depression
Christopher Ketcham Technophilia, Technotyranny, Techno-infantilism
Patrick Bond
What Will Robert Zoellick Break Next?
What Will Robert Zoellick Break Next?
Mark Weisbrot
An Ugly and Dangerous Game
An Ugly and Dangerous Game
Ramzy Baroud
Activism is Change
Activism is Change
Martha Rosenberg The Wild Man
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Jihad Against Violence
Jihad Against Violence
Clare Bayard / Sarah Lazare
Rebirthing the Anti-War Movement
Rebirthing the Anti-War Movement
David Ker Thomson Buy This Article: the Politics of Doing Squat
Binoy Kampmark
The Female Eunuch Turns 40
The Female Eunuch Turns 40
David Yearsley
The Pope's Brother and Those Regensburg Choirboys
The Pope's Brother and Those Regensburg Choirboys
Poets' Basement
Emerson and Beaudin
March 18, 2010Emerson and Beaudin
JoAnn Wypijewski
"When You're Dying You Explore Radical Medication"
"When You're Dying You Explore Radical Medication"
Ralph Nader
The Graveyard of the Congress
The Graveyard of the Congress
Harvey Wasserman
The Nuke Pushers to Vermont: Drop Dead
The Nuke Pushers to Vermont: Drop Dead
Website of the Day
RIP Alex Chilton
March 17, 2010RIP Alex Chilton
Paul Craig Roberts
The Off-Shored Economy
The Off-Shored Economy
Anthony DiMaggio
The Empathy Problem: Poverty, Privilege and Health Care Reform
The Empathy Problem: Poverty, Privilege and Health Care Reform
Mark Weisbrot
Greenspan's Nightmare
Greenspan's Nightmare
Joe Allen
The Persecution of Curtis Flowers
The Persecution of Curtis Flowers
Yifat Susskind
Oh, Those "Disappointing" Iraqis
Oh, Those "Disappointing" Iraqis
Website of the Day
Big Snort: Is Cocaine Use Driving Climage Change?
March 16, 2010Big Snort: Is Cocaine Use Driving Climage Change?
Gareth Porter
Negotiating with the Taliban
Negotiating with the Taliban
Conn Hallinan
The Iranian Tsunami
The Iranian Tsunami
Shamus Cooke
Why Teachers' Unions Matter
Why Teachers' Unions Matter
Bouthiana Shaaban
Joe Biden's Empty Desert
Joe Biden's Empty Desert
Website of the Day
Sartre and DeBeauvoir at Home
March 15, 2010Sartre and DeBeauvoir at Home
Mike Whitney
Lehman Bros. Scandal Rocks the Fed
Lehman Bros. Scandal Rocks the Fed
Dean Baker
Rules of the Game
Rules of the Game
Patrick Cockburn
Fraud Claims Hit Iraqi Elections
Fraud Claims Hit Iraqi Elections
Christopher Brauchli
Catholic Charities and Gays: When Burning at the Stake is Not an Option
Catholic Charities and Gays: When Burning at the Stake is Not an Option
Binoy Kampmark
Moving Right, Going Wrong
Moving Right, Going Wrong
Website of the Day
Psst, Buddy, Want a Gun?
March 12-14, 2010Psst, Buddy, Want a Gun?
Alexander Cockburn
Relax, the Empire's in Safe Hands
Relax, the Empire's in Safe Hands
David Rosen /
Bruce Kushnick Network Failure: the Crisis in America's Telecommunications Network
Bruce Kushnick Network Failure: the Crisis in America's Telecommunications Network
Ashley Smith
A Tale of Two Earthquakes
A Tale of Two Earthquakes
Jorge Mariscal
Trouble in Paradise: Welcome to Post-Racial California
Trouble in Paradise: Welcome to Post-Racial California
Joe Bageant
Learning About Capitalism at Gunther's Garage
Learning About Capitalism at Gunther's Garage
Ray McGovern
Taboo Thwarts Candor on Israel / Iran
Taboo Thwarts Candor on Israel / Iran
Nadia Hijab
The Trouble with Gender
The Trouble with Gender
P. Sainath
Yet Another "Pro-Farmer" Budget
Yet Another "Pro-Farmer" Budget
Dave Lindorff
The Bogus $100 Billion Medicare / Medicaid Fraud Claim
The Bogus $100 Billion Medicare / Medicaid Fraud Claim
Alan Farago
The Police Got There First
The Police Got There First
Sam Bahour
Proximity Talks?
Proximity Talks?
Mike Prysner
What's Behind the New Mission in Afghanistan?
What's Behind the New Mission in Afghanistan?
Stephen Soldz
Iceland Sets New Path Toward Press Freedom
Iceland Sets New Path Toward Press Freedom
Charles R. Larson Civil Service at a Price: Mahfouz's "Cairo Modern"
Kim Nicolini
Labyrinth of Madness: Scorcese's "Shutter Island"
Labyrinth of Madness: Scorcese's "Shutter Island"
Poets' Basement
Pointer, Orloski and Holt
March 11, 2010Pointer, Orloski and Holt
Jonathan Cook
Rachel Corrie's Family Finally Puts Israel in the Dock
Rachel Corrie's Family Finally Puts Israel in the Dock
Patrick Cockburn
An Iraq Without Terror?
An Iraq Without Terror?
Winslow T. Wheeler
This Pentagon Needs Watching
This Pentagon Needs Watching
Billy Wharton
Can ESPN Tolerate Free Speech?
Can ESPN Tolerate Free Speech?
Ron Jacobs
This Battle is About More Than Schools
This Battle is About More Than Schools
David Macaray
When Bill Maher Finally Blew It
March 10, 2010When Bill Maher Finally Blew It
Marie Bénilde
The End of Newspapers
The End of Newspapers
Sasan Fayazmanesh
An Academic Blunder
An Academic Blunder
Joshua Frank
The Dirty Truth Behind Clean Coal
The Dirty Truth Behind Clean Coal
Dave Lindorff
Kill Bill: Death to Obamacare
Kill Bill: Death to Obamacare
Website of the Day
The Great Florida Fop-Off
March 9, 2010The Great Florida Fop-Off
Keane Bhatt
Chomsky on Haiti
Chomsky on Haiti
William Blum
Congress of Corruption
Congress of Corruption
Roger Burbach
The Social Earthquake in Chile
The Social Earthquake in Chile
Ralph Nader
In the Shadow of Power
In the Shadow of Power
Nadia Hijab
A Tale of Two Richards
A Tale of Two Richards
Website of the Day
Romney's Health Plan Covered Abortions
March 8, 2010Romney's Health Plan Covered Abortions
Gareth Porter
The Siege of the Fictional City of Marja
Carl GinsburgThe Siege of the Fictional City of Marja
Save is the New Spend
Dean Baker
The Myths of Financial Innovation
Bill QuigleyThe Myths of Financial Innovation
When Silence is Betrayal
Greg Moses
Murder-Suicide of English Language in Texas
Murder-Suicide of English Language in Texas
Tolu Olorunda
Ebony's Shame: Taking Time Out to Kick Mumia Abu Jamal
Kieko MattesonEbony's Shame: Taking Time Out to Kick Mumia Abu Jamal
Habeas Porpoise
Mike Bader
Last Chance for the Bull Trout
Website of the Day
"The Special Forces of Spiritual Warfare"
March 5 - 7, 2010
Alexander Cockburn
The Bogus Hispanic Crime Wave
The Bogus Hispanic Crime Wave
Saul Landau / Nelson P. Valdes The Untouchable Budget: Defense Department, Inc.
Russell Mokhiber
The Top Ten Ways to Crack Down on Corporate Financial Crime
The Top Ten Ways to Crack Down on Corporate Financial Crime
Rannie Amiri
Mordechai Vanunu's Nobel Stand
Mordechai Vanunu's Nobel Stand
David Rosen
The New Morality Police
The New Morality Police
George Wuerthner
Playing Politics With the Fate of the Sage Grouse
Playing Politics With the Fate of the Sage Grouse
Martha Rosenberg
Agribusiness Gets Handed Its Lunch
Agribusiness Gets Handed Its Lunch
Eric Walberg
Fanning the Flames of Another War in the Caucasus?
Fanning the Flames of Another War in the Caucasus?
Alison Weir
A Wrench in the Israeli Gears
A Wrench in the Israeli Gears
Laura Flanders
Challenging "High Road" Contracting
Challenging "High Road" Contracting
Charles R. Larson
Second Thoughts on Those Virgins
Second Thoughts on Those Virgins
Poets' Basement
Landau, Anderson and Costley
March 4, 2010Landau, Anderson and Costley
Paul Craig Roberts
Is the Recovery Real?
Is the Recovery Real?
Conn Hallinan
Obama's Landmine Betrayal
Obama's Landmine Betrayal
Frank Green
Drones Club Meets in San Diego
Drones Club Meets in San Diego
Christopher Brauchli
Trial by Confusion
Trial by Confusion
Website of the Day
Mining Nicaragua
Mining Nicaragua
Norman Finkelstein
Truth and Consequences in Gaza
Franklin C. Spinney
Eisenhower's Nightmare Arrives
Eisenhower's Nightmare Arrives
Mike Whitney
We Need Bigger Deficits
We Need Bigger Deficits
Adam Federman
To Drill or Not to Drill
To Drill or Not to Drill
Will Parrish / Darwin Bond-Graham
"WE Make the Crisis"
"WE Make the Crisis"
Website of the Day
Sea Lion Defense Brigade
March 2, 2010Sea Lion Defense Brigade
Patrick Cockburn
Uproar Before Iraqi Elections
Uproar Before Iraqi Elections
Gareth Porter
Defying the U. S.
Defying the U. S.
Ellen Brown
IMF-Style Austerity Comes to America
IMF-Style Austerity Comes to America
Stewart J. Lawrence
Is Obama Already a Lame Duck?
Is Obama Already a Lame Duck?
Stephen Soldz
The Battle Over Informed Consent
The Battle Over Informed Consent
Website of the Day
What to Do About Tactical Nuclear Weapons
March 1, 2010What to Do About Tactical Nuclear Weapons
Ralph Nader
Whatever Happened to "We the People"?
Whatever Happened to "We the People"?
Mike Whitney
The Case Against Bernanke and Greenspan
The Case Against Bernanke and Greenspan
Jayne Lyn Stahl
A Refuge for Cowards: the Senate Extends the Patriot Act
A Refuge for Cowards: the Senate Extends the Patriot Act
Robert Jensen
Getting Rid of Hope and Faith
Getting Rid of Hope and Faith
Website of the Day
The Decline of the Israeli Right?
February 26 - 28, 2010The Decline of the Israeli Right?
Alexander Cockburn
Feed Pete Peterson to the Whales
Feed Pete Peterson to the Whales
Saul Landau /
Nelson P. Valdes
The Pentagon: Gargantua's Mouth
Nelson P. Valdes
The Pentagon: Gargantua's Mouth
Alan Farago
The Potemkin Village Economy
The Potemkin Village Economy
Martha Rosenberg
Talking with Gail Collins About the Women's Rights Movement
Talking with Gail Collins About the Women's Rights Movement
Rannie Amiri
Egypt's Nuclear Option
Egypt's Nuclear Option
Ramzy Baroud
Challenging History
Challenging History
Jared Ritvo
The Life and Death Struggle of the Yanomami
The Life and Death Struggle of the Yanomami
Brian McKenna
Zinn and the Art of History
Zinn and the Art of History
Binoy Kampmark
Deadly Purchases
Deadly Purchases
Michael Dickinson Art as Defensive Weapon
Ben Sonnenberg
"24 City:" a Remarkable Chinese Film
"24 City:" a Remarkable Chinese Film
Poets' Basement
Edward Beatty
February 25, 2010Edward Beatty
Jason Hribal
Orca Resistance at Sea World
Orca Resistance at Sea World
Tariq Ali
The Assault on Illhem
The Assault on Illhem
Mike Whitney
The War on Toyota: Is It All Politics?
The War on Toyota: Is It All Politics?
Russell Mokhiber Prosecuting Bush for War Crimes
Deepak Tripathi Charlie Wilson's Legacy
Norman Solomon
War Politics
War Politics
Website of the Day
Once There Was a Senator of Conscience ...
February 24, 2010Once There Was a Senator of Conscience ...
Ashley Smith
Haiti and the Aid Racket
Haiti and the Aid Racket
Garerth Porter
The Real Objective of the Marja Offensive
The Real Objective of the Marja Offensive
Shamus Cooke
The Plot to Kill Social Security
The Plot to Kill Social Security
Harvey Wasserman
The Nuclear Lobby's $645 Million Con Job
The Nuclear Lobby's $645 Million Con Job
Ron Jacobs
The Hollow Man Reaches His Omega Point
The Hollow Man Reaches His Omega Point
Tom Clifford
Bribes, Corruption and the Pandur APC
Bribes, Corruption and the Pandur APC
Weekend Edition
March 19 - 21, 2010
March 19 - 21, 2010
CounterPunch Diary
"My fellow Americans, tonight I'm going to talk frankly about a pesky little nation called Israel ... "
By ALEXANDER COCKBURNDon’t get excited. It’ll never happen. Is there really a crisis in US-Israeli relations? Yes and No. Yes, because the world’s premier power doesn’t care to have its vice president publicly humiliated by a midget of a nation whose entire population is smaller than that of Los Angeles county. No, because the elected politicians nominally running the government of the world’s premier power live in mortal fear of the Israel lobby in the United States. This time, as always, No will carry the day. (You can find a detailed narrative by Jeffrey Blankfort on this site today, from which much of this Diary is drawn.)
Consider Biden’s reaction the day after Interior Minister Eli Yishai, probably with Netanyahu’s foreknowledge, announced the scheduled building of 1600 apartments – Jews only – in East Jerusalem, right at the moment Biden was trying to breathe life into the “peace process”
So here’s the vice president of the United States of America,standing with all the injured dignity of a man who has just had a bucket of sewage dumped over his head and who amid his discomfiture, actually did use the word “condemn” and “Israel” in the same paragraph. The next day Biden heads for Tel Aviv university and confides to the audience that he is a Zionist and that, “throughout my career, Israel has not only remained close to my heart but it has been the center of my work as a United States Senator and now as Vice President of the United States.” Get that: “the center of my work.” This mission statement is not quoted in the U.S. press.
Then Biden repeats the nonsense he spouted when he arrived in Jerusalem: that “there is no space -- this is what they [the world] must know, every time progress is made, it's made when the rest of the world knows there is absolutely no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to security, none. No space. That's the only time when progress has been made.”
Of course, if any “progress” can be identified across the past forty years – a debatable claim – it’s only because an American president has nerved himself to briefly lay down the agenda with threats and menaces, all duly retracted when the Lobby regroups and commences its counter-attack.
Finally Biden sidles up the “crisis”. “I appreciate… the response your Prime Minister today announced this morning that he is putting in place a process to prevent the recurrence of that sort of that sort of events [sic] and who clarified that the beginning of actual construction on this particular project would likely take several years … That's significant, because it gives negotiations the time to resolve this, as well as other outstanding issues. Because when it was announced, I was on the West Bank. Everyone there thought it had meant immediately the resumption of the construction of 1,600 new units.”
Yes, that’s exactly what it did mean, the resumption of the construction of the 1600 units. And as the Israeli newspaper Haaretz points out, those projected 1600 units are part of 50,000 units planned for the eastern part of the city. Natanyahu has said these are non-negotiable, whatever Washington might say, let alone the pitiful Palestinian Authority.
Amid the anguished cries of the Arab princes and emirs that Israel’s brazen conduct towards Biden made it that much harder for them to sell the Palestinians down the river, Obama’s chief political aide, David Axelrod, undoubtedly with clearance from his boss, told NBC News that not only was Israel’s conduct an "insult" to the United States but "destructive" of the Middle East peace process.
Hillary Clinton let it be known she’d read the riot act to Netanhayu down the phone for 43 minutes. Her spokesman claimed she’d described the planned units in East Jerusalem as sending a “deeply negative signal about Israel's approach to the bilateral relationship and counter to the spirit of the vice president's trip" and that "this action had undermined trust and confidence in the peace process and in America's interests." Meanwhile, special envoy George Mitchell cancelled his trip to the region.
So, yes, we can call it a crisis, but not one that will be prolonged. Obama is not the first president to have lost patience with Israel for messing up Uncle Sam’s larger plans. Mrs Clinton is not the first Secretary of State to shout angrily down the phone to Tel Aviv.
Blankfort, historian of the Lobby, reels off other crises, all satisfactorily resolved in Israel’s favor. THe In 1975 President Gerald Ford and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger publicly blamed Israel for the breakdown of negotiations with Egypt over withdrawing from the Sinai. Ford said he was going to tell the American people that US-Isarel relations should be recast. Prodded by AIPAC, 76 US senators signed a letter to Ford telling him to lay off Israel. He did.
In March, 1980, President Carter was forced to apologize after US UN representative Donald McHenry voted for a resolution that condemned Israel’s settlement policies in the occupied territories including East Jerusalem and which called on Israel to dismantle them.
In June of the same year, after Carter requested a halt to Jewish settlements and his Secretary of State, Edmund Muskie, called the Jewish settlements an obstacle to peace, Prime Minister Menachem Begin announced plans to construct 10 new ones.
In August, 1982, the day after Reagan requested that Ariel Sharon end the bombing of Beirut, Ariel Sharon responded by ordering bombing runs over the city at precisely 2:42 and 3:38 in the afternoon, the times coinciding with the two UN resolutions requiring Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
In March, 1991, Secretary of State James Baker complained to Congress that “Every time I have gone to Israel in connection with the peace process.., I have been met with an announcement of new settlement activity… It substantially weakens our hand in trying to bring about a peace process, and creates quite a predicament.” In 1990, he had become so disgusted with Israel’s intransigence on the settlements that he publicly gave out the phone number of the White House switchboard and told the Israelis, "When you're serious about peace, call us."
On September 12, 1991 President George Bush, Sr got sufficiently infuriated by AIPAC’s success in getting enough votes in both houses of Congress to override his veto of Israel’s request for $10 billion in loan guarantees, that he declared to the television cameras, "I'm up against some powerful forces. They've got something like 1,000 lobbyists on the Hill working the other side of the question. We've got one lonely little guy here doing it." A national poll taken immediately afterward gave the president an 85 per cent approval rating. The Lobby blinked but not for long. Not only did the loan guarantees ultimately go through, but Jewish voters turned strongly against Bush in the ’92 elections, a fact which Bush Jr never forgot.
As Blankfort also recalls, in January 2009, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert publicly boasted that he had “shamed” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by getting President Bush to prevent her from voting for a Gaza cease-fire resolution at the last moment that she herself had worked on for several days with Arab and European diplomats at the United Nations.
Olmert bragged to an Israeli audience that he pulled Bush off a stage during a speech to take his call when he learned about the pending vote and demanded that the president intervene.
“I have no problem with what Olmert did,” Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, told the Forward. “I think the mistake was to talk about it in public.”
I should note that this list does not reach into the dark backward of time and such ringing affirmations of the relationship as Israel's assault on the USS Liberty in June of 1967 killing 34 and wounding 171, all covered up by the Johnson administration, most notably LBJ and Robert McNamara.
In sum, as Stephen Green wrote in "Taking Sides: America's Secret Relations with Militant Israel" (Morrow, 1984) a quarter century ago, "Since 1953, Israel, and friends of Israel in America, have determined the broad outlines of US policy in the region. It has been left to American presidents to implement that policy, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, and to deal with tactical issues."
There are powerful forces in America that wish that this was not so, starting with the US military. Before Biden’s trip no less a prominent and widely admired commander as General David Petraeus wrote a memo to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with its sentiments reduplicated in testimony last Tuesday before a US Senate Armed Services Committee.
In his prepared statement to Congress, Petraeus described the Israeli-Arab conflict as the first “cross cutting challenge to security and stability” in the CENTCOM area of responsibility [AOR]. “The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests in the AOR.”
Petraeus then told the Senate committee that “The conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel. Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the AOR and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world.” Not long before, Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, warned the Israelis publicly that an attack on Iran would be a “big, big, big problem for all of us.”
In Israel the widely-read Yediot Ahronoth reported that privately Biden had echoed Petraeus’s sentiments, telling Netanyahu that Israel’s conduct was “starting to get dangerous for us.” “What you’re doing here,” Biden reportedly said, “undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us, and it endangers regional peace.”
Would not the charge that Israel is putting harm’s way the lives of Americans battling terror on the front lines be devastating if toughly presented by a capable politician to the American people? Yes it would. Honestly conducted polls, without weasel wording, would probably give the politician making such a charge ratings as higher or higher than Bush got in 1991.
So will Gen. Petraeus, assuming he embarks on a political run in 2012 or 2016, make such a move? First of all, one can make the assumption that after his memo and testimony it won’t be long before we’re reading some investigative story about the “questionable claims”, associated with Gen. Petraeus’ numerous medals, maybe even disclosures of Flashmanesque prudence on the field of battle. Secondly, any Republican candidate has to court the Republican ultra-Christians, passionate in support of Israel, by reason of doctrinal scheduling of the ultimate Rapture. Thirdly, why scare all Jewish campaign money back into the Democratic Party?
As Blankfort remarks, shortly before the first time he met with President Obama, 76 US senators, led by Christopher Dodd and Evan Bayh, plus 330 members of the House, sent AIPAC-crafted letters to the president calling on him not to put pressure on the Israeli prime minister when they met. The House, do not forget, cheered on Israel’s onslaught in Gaza and by 334 to 36 condemned the Goldstone Report.
The Democrat Party is heavily reliant on major Jewish political funders, up to 60 per cent of the top tier of contributors, according to Blankfort. Soon AIPAC has its convention (at which Tony Blair will be a minor attraction). Here will come all major politicians to fawn and pay tribute. On June 3, 2008, right after he had finally prevailed in the race for the nomination against Hilary Clinton, Obama addressed the AIPAC crowd, some 7,000 strong: “We will also use all elements of American power to pressure Iran,” he assured AIPAC.” I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Everything in my power. Everything and I mean everything.” He swore he wouldn’t talk to the elected representatives Palestinians, Hamas. To thunderous applause he declared, "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided." The next day, Obama’s foreign policy advisors, aghast at this outburst, issued some corrections.
As Uri Avnery, the veteran Israeli writer and peace activist expostulated furiously in the wake of this last sentence: “Along comes Obama and retrieves from the junkyard the outworn slogan ‘Undivided Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel for all Eternity’. Since Camp David, all Israeli governments have understood that this mantra constitutes an insurmountable obstacle to any peace process…. The fear of AIPAC is so terrible, that even this candidate, who promises change in all matters, does not dare. In this matter he accepts the worst old-style Washington routine. He is prepared to sacrifice the most basic American interests. After all, the US has a vital interest in achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace that will allow it to find ways to the hearts of the Arab masses from Iraq to Morocco. Obama has harmed his image in the Muslim world and mortgaged his future - if and when he is elected president… If he sticks to them, once elected, he will be obliged to say, as far as peace between the two peoples of this country is concerned: ‘No, I can't!’
So yes, the crisis will soon be over, and no, there is no new era in US-Israel relations in the offing.
The Fight Against Corporate Power
In his important special report in our latest newsletter, Mason Gaffney addresses the U.S. Supreme Court’s notorious January 21, 2010, ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, that a corporation may contribute unlimited funds advertising its views for and against political candidates of its choice – in practice, the choice of its CEO or directors. “The United States was born in rebellion against corporations,” Gaffney writes. “The U.S. Supreme Court soon began restoring their power. When it overreached, strong executives and popular movements set it back: under Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and FDR. Today it has overreached again; it remains to see if a new movement or leader will arise to set it back again.”
Gaffney assays the best political strategies for popular counter-attack. As he concludes, “Will ‘ordinary’ taxpayers rebel, as they did in the American Revolution, Emancipation, the Progressive Age of Reform, and the New Deal, or will corporate power wax unchecked until it replaces democracy altogether? Cyclical theory says we will have another anti-corporate reaction, but history also records tipping points in the decline of nations, from which they do not recover for generations, if ever. This one may be a squeaker.”
Back to FDR, I say. Pack the Supreme Court!
In the same bumper newsletter JoAnn Wypijewski has a truly terrific piece about the “cargo chain” as described at a recent conference of radical dockworkers from around the world, meeting in Charleston, S.C.:
“The people who move the world can also stop it,’ radical dockworkers like to say, and that captures the essential fragility of a global production and distribution system that depends on the precise coordination of hundreds of thousands of moving parts. If some of those moving parts—workers at a major trucking hub, a major rail switching network or, especially, a strategic string of ports—refuse to do their part, the whole system gets jammed up. Refuse long enough and broadly enough, and the system would be in crisis.“
Read her powerful reporting from the front lines of the world class struggle.
How the Economy Was Lost
We’re now proud to publish How the Economy Was Lost, Roberts’ searing, succinct history of how the US economy has been captured by a gangster elite. Roberts gives us the shortest, sharpest outline of economics for the new century ever put between covers.
Go to our bookstore. Buy it now!
Alexander Cockburn can be reached at alexandercockburn@asis.com
A Very Canadian Coup in Haiti:
The Top 10 Ways Canada Aided the 2004 Coup and its Reign of Terror
http://coat.ncf.ca/Haiti/Canada_in_Haiti.htmNuclear Information Project
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U.S. Command Declares Global Strike Capability
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/New_World_Order/US_GlobalStrike_Capability.html
Global Security Newswire, 12/2/05
www.nti.org/d_newswire/
achieved an operational capability for rapidly striking targets around the globe using nuclear or conventional weapons
Current news updates, World
NASA: International Space Station
10:23 AM / Posted by Megaan / comments (0)
Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev have completed their mission aboard the International Space Station after 167 days. They parachuted to a landing in their Soyuz TMA-16 descent module at 7:24 a.m. EDT in Kazakhstan.Climate satellite launching process postponed
9:32 AM / Posted by Megaan / comments (0)
The European Space Agency (ESA) said it had set the date of Apr 8 for the delayed launch of CryoSat-2. It is designed to see how Earth's ice sheets respond to climate change.In this satellite launch had been penciled for February 25, from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It was delayed to probe fears that the 2nd-stage engine's fuel reserve was not enough.
Clinic open for child who addicted the video games: Brittan
9:05 AM / Posted by Megaan / comments (0)
Doctors have opened the first dedicated clinic in Britain to care for children who addicted to video games & other technology.Capio Nightingale Hospital, a private facility, initiated the service after calls from parents worried regarding their children’s use of games, the internet, or mobile phones.
A spokesperson for the hospital say the service would be recommended for children as young as 12 but those aged 15 to 17 are supposed to be the main target group.
The man used pet as weapon in London
8:31 AM / Posted by Megaan / comments (0)
Chrisdian Johnson's dog Tyson & some animal were used to do the violence on Oluwaseyi Ogunyemi, 16, in Larkhall Park, Stockwell, at south London.In this case uses a new method for analyzing canine DNA with greater accuracy. Johnson, 22, was found guilty of murder & will give a minimum of 24 years prison. Johnson was criminal Thursday of Ogunyemi's murder & he also attempted kill of one more teen. He will be sentenced Friday.
Prosecutor Brian Altman QC told this case is exclusive here he used the dog as the weapon to do the attack. So we try to check the dog’s DNA report to find the truth.Labels: Europe
Looking Up
Dave writes about Space and the Space Program with clarity and relish. One of those budding authors who you would wish would get with the program and Blog already !
Someone should care, maybe not you....
http://exmi.blogspot.com
What went wrong?
I am fascinated by the increasing desperation surrounding the HealthCare reform bill. (Which is a misnomer because Health care itself is not being changed; they are just stirring around how it gets paid for.) the President is really sounding desperate when you hear him talking about it now. It is like he has begun to believe that if this fails his presidency fails. There is still a long time in his term for him to do something else if this doesn’t make it.
But you have to ask yourself, Why is this bill in so much trouble? Or even better, Whey the Hell didn’t they pass this last year? My theory on that is a bit different from most I have heard.
I really think that the one thing that has kept health care reform from passing, and has sunk any chance of the President’s promised and hoped for reconciliation and bipartisanship in government, was the Democrats 60 seat supermajority in the Senate.
Anyone paying attention to the recent flare up of the Falklands Islands dispute between the UK and Argentina? there has been a fair amount of talk about it places other than the US. I think it is pretty much a fancy stage show. It enables the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, to up her sagging poll numbers by getting tough with the UK, it enables Gordon Brown to do the same think by standing firm against Argentina.
An Arrogant Ass?
I think I joined most Americans this week in a moment of shock at the idea that Sen. Dunning from Kentucky had decided to take it upon himself to shut down a bill and would accomplish something that pretty much everyone thought needed to be done. The word “arrogance” sprang to mind pretty fast. I felt about that pretty much the way I felt about Sen. Shelby doing the same thing to judicial appointments after all the crying the Republicans had done a couple of years ago about just giving people and up/down vote. It pissed me off.
But you know, Sen. Dunning at least has a real point. If the Senate cannot find a way to pay for this bill that both Republicans and democrats want to pass, even if that way is just to say, “Hey, it is coming out of the unspent stimulus money.” Then there is no chance in Hell they are going to come up with a way to pay for any of the many things that will need paying for that they disagree on. WE cannot just keep spending money and saying “Yeah, we’ll apportion some money for that later.” It doesn’t work. Look at Greece now.
Three score and ten or more
http://three-score-and-ten-ormore.blogspot.com
This afternoon I had an experience that was, for me, unique. I went to the Regional Competition for Robotics sponsored by Autodesk and other engineering firms. The competition consisted of High school Robotic teams from Oregon, Washington, California, Hawaii, and Idaho. (These are the teams that I saw compete. I was told that there were also teams from Utah and Nevada as well). The contestants were required to build a wheeled robot that played soccer, that is that could dribble (that was what my high school PE teacher called it in 1949) pass the ball to another player and kick goals. The course was sectioned into three parts, a home goal zone for each team and a center zone. The zones were separated by barriers that looked like enormous “speed bumps” eighteen to twenty inches in height over which the robots had to climb in order to change zones. I know thise is less that and ideal picture and I left my cameral behind, but I will post a better picture tomorrow.
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