That is how much is currently unaccounted for – $2,000,000,000. No one knows where it went. The problem is, this wasn’t our money. In 2004, the Iraqi government gave the United States Department of Defense $3 billion for Iraqi-related expenses. Somehow, the “bulk of the records are missing.” Now, you ask anyone who has ever been in the military and they will tell you that you can’t take a dump or fire a single bullet without filing the paperwork in triplicate. How the hell they could misplace the records for $2 billion in expenditures is just inconceivable.

The Iraqi Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction audit also notes that “From July 2004 through December 2007, DoD should have provided 42 months reports. However, it can locate only the first four reports.” Defense Under Secretary Mark Easton acknowledged, in a letter responding to the audit that “a records management issue” exists.

The Iraqis, bless their hearts, don’t think we are guilty of fraud, they just think we are really incompetent in our record keeping. At least, that’s the official line.

The money has been a problem from the beginning, when the Bush administration offered up the reconstruction contracts before we even invaded. We gave those “cost plus three percent” contracts to favored companies like Halliburton (which received a multi-million dollar contract to do exactly the same work they had just completed under the United Nations Food for Oil program) and its subsidiary RGB. Contractors brought in Americans to do the work at salaries up to twice what they could make for similar jobs in America, while denying work to the Iraqis, who had built their country before we bombed it. There was a story in the Florida Times Union about 8 years ago about a cement factory in Baghdad. The army said it would take two years and two million dollars to restore the factory. They gave the owner $20,000 and told him to make it look like something was being done. He took that $20,000 and the existing inventory in the factory and in three months had that factory operating at a higher capacity than before the invasion. That is what the Iraqis could have done on their own without our interference. The reconstruction could have cost us a tenth or less of what it did and the Iraqis would have had better built schools, roads and housing without our shoddy contractors. Letting the Iraqis rebuild their own country would also have defused the insurgency and reduced our casualties, both military and civilian.

It isn’t bad enough that we got screwed by our contractors. Now it turns out, we can’t account for Iraqi money. And people wonder why they don’t love us in Iraq.

Related articles

• Billions to Defense Contractors in Iraq unaccounted for (thetruthhaschanged.com)
• Watchdog says U.S. cannot account for Iraqi billions (vancouversun.com)
• Pentagon lost $100 million in Saddam’s palace (rt.com)
• Massive amounts of money still missing or unexplained in Iraq (americablog.com)
• New Government Audit can’t account for billions given to US Defense Dept for Iraq projects????? (bonjupatten.com)
• Investigating Iraqs stolen money (thecurrencynewshound.com)

Erbeen, Syria

An estimated 2,000 Syrian regime troops with tanks assaulted the dissident enclaves in the Damascus suburbs of Erbeen, Saqba, Hammouriya and Kfar Batna on Sunday. Though casualty rates for the civilian population are unclear, the nature of the attack is not. Someone placed the remnants of government armament on a rooftop in the suburb of Erbeen against a backdrop of smoke rising from apartment buildings and sent out the photo to prove the opposition’s facts. President Bashar al-Assad insists that his forces are not targeting his own “beloved” people, but only attacking foreign terrorists and foreign-backed Islamists. Enough foreign journalists entered the country with the Arab League monitors to verify the stories that have been sent out on cell phones and the internet by the opposition. Television reporters have filmed ransacked apartments that were used as bases by snipers who shot civilians in the streets and during funerals, and showed the sniper nests they built on rooftops.

The Arab League has withdrawn its monitors, and been denounced by the al-Assad regime for doing so. The League admitted it was simply to dangerous for them to continue, especially after a group of foreign journalists who accompanied them were shelled and French journalist Gilles Jacquier killed.

Damascus has been quiet throughout the ten-month protest movement, after having been the site of small protest marches in the beginning. It was assumed that the capital and the city of Aleppo were solidly al-Assad territory, but that appears to have been an illusion. Protests in the four suburbs last week ended with the Free Syrian Army, which is made up of army defectors, declaring themselves in control of the areas. The al-Assad regime struck back and has announced that they have regained control.

The United Nations Security Council on Friday held preliminary discussions of a European-Arab League proposal for a resolution to stop the bloodshed. It was hoped that a vote could be held this week. But in October, Russia and China vetoed a draft resolution. Russia has made it clear that they want a Syrian political solution and not an “Arab League-imposed outcome” or “regime change” as in Libya. That is not going to happen. Bashar al-Assad has been promising reform for ten months and absolutely nothing has come of any of his promises. Nine months ago, if he had instituted those promised reforms, he might actually have been fairly elected as president. Now, the majority of Syrians want him out, if not dead along with his brother Maher. The regime chose to put down dissent with violence, not understanding that today it is not possible to hide atrocities from the Syrian people or the outside world. The regime also does not see the irony in the fact that their only allies consist of Russia, which has spent years using the same violent tactics to repress Muslims in Chechnya, and Iran, which is the home of the Islamic Revolution that backs the very Islamist terrorism that al-Assad says he is fighting.

Related articles

• Arab League Gives Up On Syria (lezgetreal.com)
• One More Promise For Al-Assad To Ignore (lezgetreal.com)
• Arab League Advisors Say Withdraw Monitors (lezgetreal.com)
• Syria: ‘Terrorists’ Blew Up Pipeline (newser.com)
• Syrian forces tighten grip on Damascus outskirts (vancouversun.com)
• Syria unrest: Clinton and Hague back Arab League plan at UN (guardian.co.uk)
• Assad’s forces regain Damascus suburbs: activists – Reuters (reuters.com)

Russian motor protests (photo by Alexei Asachyov for RIA Novosti)

Heard of motor-voter-registration? Well, Russia was subjected to motor-voter-protests this weekend. Thousands of Russian, with their cars trailing white ribbons or festooned with white balloons, took to the streets to protest the regime of Vladimir Putin, most following a 10-mile circuit around the city. This was preliminary to the planned protests of February 4 on Sakharov Avenue in Moscow.

When Vladimir Putin was elected President twelve years ago, it was a desperate attempt by the people of Russia to end the chaos caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Soviet communist government had owned all the factories, the farms, the retail establishments. When the government collapsed, so did the economy. What followed was nine years of disorder and criminality. The Russian mob had more power than the government. Putin promised order and he delivered order, along with a loss of liberties, imprisonment of political opponents and repression of dissidence. You can, it seems, take the man out of the KGB, but you can’t take the KGB out of the man. Though Putin has never allied himself which those who would return Russia to communism, his regime has been a throw-back to those days.

The Russian constitution called for four-year terms for the Presidency with a two-consecutive-terms limit. Putin served his eight years, and then put forward his protégée, Dimitry Medvedev to be President while Putin took the largely ceremonial role of Prime Minister. But everyone acknowledged that it was Medvedev who was the ceremonial one and Putin the true ruler. During Medvedev’s four years in the office, the Constitution was amended to create six-year presidential terms with the two-consecutive-terms limit retained. Now, Putin wants the presidency back, for the next 12 years, and envisions a second round of putting Medvedev into the Presidency while taking the Prime Ministership again. Having been the de facto leader of Russia for the past twelve years, he is plotting out the next 24. At 36 years, he would have been the leader of Russia for longer than any communist leader, and second only to Tzar Peter the Great. Even Stalin only ruled for 30. Putin would be 84 when his regime finally ended, not an unreasonable lifespan. By that point, he and Medvedev would have trained the next generation. It’s monarchy without the genes.

The evidence that the Parliamentary elections were rigged is overwhelming, from the opposition party polling place observer who woke up to find her front doors glued shut to bundles of pre-written ballots stuffed in the boxes. This time, it was just too much. This time, Putin’s party went too far. The protests have been running since just after the election results were announced and are scheduled to continue through the presidential election in March. The polls indicate that Putin will probably retake the presidency with a slim majority, but he is not going to have an easy ride. His corruption is too exposed now and the people are too angry. His twelve years in power have resulted in young professionals becoming one of Russia’s biggest exports as far too many of them flee the country for America and Western Europe. Without them, the future of Russia is in jeopardy, as they take with them the skills and knowledge to compete in a 21^st century global economy.

In the end, Putin may achieve what the Tea Party keeps saying here – he will “take back” his country, right back to the 1950s.

Related articles

• Protests in Russia (lezgetreal.com)
• Putin campaign chief wants more Medvedev support (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Dmitry Medvedev ‘should have done more to support Vladimir Putin presidential campaign’ (telegraph.co.uk)
• Putin critics take to cars to demand fair elections – Reuters (reuters.com)
• Russian Cops Pitch Tantrum Over ‘Toy Protest’ (newser.com)
• Putin Sez Playing Nationalist Card May Prove “Fatal” for Russia (02varvara.wordpress.com)
• Cars circle central Moscow in anti-Putin protest (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Anti-ACTA protest in Paris

29 January 2012
by Pauline Malmqvist

On the initiative of Anonymous a hundred of people protested this Saturday in Paris against ACTA. They also asked to protest in 36 other french cities.

ACTA, known as Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is an international treaty that aims at reinforcing the copyright laws. It wants to reinforce the cooperation between all the countries that has signed ACTA. Like SOPA and PIPA, ACTA threatens the liberty of internet and the freedom of expression. This treaty has been secretly negotiated by the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland. Which is the first controversial issue about ACTA: the States hid it away from us during the process of the law which lead us to know nothing about this treaty. 

The agreement expands the copyrights law by criminalizing file-sharing, which firstly was a civil infringement. It will give the right for the governments worldwide that has signed the treaty to allow right holders to seek personal data through ISPs (Internet Service Providers). It will also give copyright holders legal means to pursue people suspected of bypassing copyright protections. It also allows to seize goods at theirs borders if suspected of containing infringing content. 

In order to reinforce the copyright laws ACTA has severe penalties. The judicial authorities have the authority to order the person engaged in infringing activity:
- To pay the right holder damages adequate to compensate for the injury the right holder has suffered as a result of the infringement. (Section 2: Civil Enforcement, Article 9: Damages, paragraph 1 – ACTA)

- For offences specified in paragraphs 1, 2, and 4 of Article 23 (Criminal Offences), each Party shall provide penalties that include imprisonment as well as monetary fines sufficiently high to provide a deterrent to future acts of infringement, consistently with the level of penalties applied for crimes of a corresponding gravity.(ACTA in section 4: Criminal Enforcement, Article 24: Penalties). 

Anti-ACTA protester

In the European Union 22 members has signed the treaty on Thursday 26^th January in Tokyo, including France. However, it still must be signed by the European parliament. The hope that the treaty can still be stopped lead to protests from the internet hacker group Anonymous but also non-member of the group. As a matter of fact, a European Parliament official, Kader Arif, resigned and stated: “I want to denounce in the strongest possible manner the entire process that led to the signature of this agreement: no inclusion of civil society organizations, a lack of transparency from the start of the negotiations, repeated postponing of the signature of the text without an explanation being ever given, exclusion of the EU Parliament’s demands that were expressed on several occasions in our assembly”.

This was a awakening alarm for some of us, unfortunately to few. Only a couple of hundreds of people gathered in Paris to protest on Saturday 28^th. The French medias did not put the spotlight on ACTA, that might explain also why the crowd was not as big as expected. 

Behind the Guy Fawkes masks people yelled “No to ACTA” and “We are legion”. They stated that they want to defend the liberty and rights of each individual.

Protests were particularly strong in Poland, where a thousands of citizens marched together against ACTA. There were also several government officials that showed their disapproval of ACTA by wearing the now very famous mask of Guy Fawkes. 

To show their disapproval of ACTA, Anonymous has launched several attacks against Governmental and entertainment websites, including the FBI and also the french Governments. Until the European parliament has not signed ACTA there is still hope that ACTA will not be enacted. On avaaz.org there is a petition, that they plan on taking to the European parliament so the voice of the citizens may count for something. It did for SOPA and PIPA, why not for ACTA? 

Anti-ACTA troll

Davos, Switzerland

There are some stories which, though very serious, lead to uncontrollable bouts of the giggles. This is such a story…..

When the recession hit Europe, the effects were devastating. Too many countries were operating on combinations of high government spending and low taxation. Germany was the exception. Though incomes had stagnated, Chancellor Merkel was aggressive in her attitude about taxation. She has been trying for years to organize all the Western industrialized countries into reining in tax shelters and collecting from tax cheats. Germany’s economy, while not explosive, is solid. It is built on small, high-grade manufacturing to provide a middle class which supports the service industry. But Germany is part of the European Union, and too many in the EU are looking to Germany to bail out the rest of the Union. It is Germany that is pushing hardest for deep budget cuts in other European countries. A leaked document has suggested that Germany is pushing for Greece to be put in a sort of receivership — surrendering control of its finances to the EU.

At his first economic summit, President Obama tried to make the case for the Keynesian model of recovery, the one that had pulled the United States out of the Great Depression faster than Europe. But, in response to the recession, Europeans had elected conservative governments that wanted to follow the same economic policies being advocated by our Republican Party. In a few European nations – Greece, Italy and Spain specifically – it is part of a six decade pendulum between socialist and fascist governments, with none of them going all the way to communism or corporatism. So, President Obama’s recommendations were met with the same kind of dismissive attitude that his policies have met in America.

Right now, in the Republican candidate battle, the President is constantly being accused of trying to turn America into Europe….translation: he wants us to become a socialist nation with cradle to grave welfare. Here’s where the giggles set in. Europe has dug itself in deeper into the economic morass because they turned their backs on Keynesian economics and embraces the trickle-down model.

IMF head Christine Lagarde with partner Xavier Giocante, Paris, June 22

The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, warned at the Davos summit this week that spending cuts could “strangle” economic growth, and any cuts must be made on a nation-by-nation, program-by-program basis instead of being made “across the board.”

This is a perfect time to take a look at what Margaret Thatcher really did. She allowed the British manufacturing base to disappear. She also “privatized” everything she could sell off, from British Petroleum to the railway system. The privatization was supposed to create jobs and super-charge the economy. It certainly pumped a lot of money into the British treasury – once. She traded the yearly income for a one-shot payment. BP moved itself out of the country. The owners of Britrail closed smaller lines, forcing people to buy cars, all of which were built overseas, forcing major upgrades to roads. Get the picture? Thousands of Brits lost their middle-class incomes when the factories shut down and there was nothing to replace them. The lower wages of service industry jobs, if one could get a job, weren’t enough to sustain a family, so government support systems were expanded. Older people who had lost their jobs and pensions were particularly susceptible to not being able to find work and were not easily retrained to new jobs. The result – life-long dependence on “the dole.” If you watch Brit-coms and British movies, you’ve seen parts of this, in The Full Monty and the character of Onslow in Keeping Up Appearances.

Lagarde is not advocating any one-size solution to Europe. In fact, combining their problems across the EU is the last thing Lagarde wants. “Some countries have to go full-speed ahead to do this fiscal consolidation, but other countries have space and room. They should explore what to do…in order to help themselves. It has to be tailor-made.”

And into this debate comes U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. He warned that there is a risk of a recessionary cycle if the austerity measures aren’t done properly. “There is a risk that every disappointment in growth will be met with an austerity that will feed the decline, and that is a cycle you have to arrest to solve financial crises. For parts of Europe for a long time, there will be no alternative to very substantial adjustment in budget deficits.”

Billionaire financier George Soros, who was very involved in the transition of the former communist countries of Eastern Europe to capitalist economies, warned that the extreme austerity advocated by the conservative governments of Europe could lead to a “lost decade” of economic stagnation. “This German insistence on austerity could destroy the European Union. This is reality, this is the harsh reality that we need to face. It is not written in stone, the future is not predetermined. We determine the future, so it would be well within the possibility of the authorities to change it.”

There is a second story at Davos that is less headline-making but equally important. Davos is a ski area in Switzerland that has been used for these economic summits for years. The story involves Swiss banking, that guardian of money that people want to keep hidden from government authorities for various reasons.

Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf

Switzerland’s oldest bank, Wegelin, announced on Friday that it is breaking up into separate divisions in response to a disagreement with the United States over men like Mitt Romney who have some or most of their money in Swiss banks to avoid paying American taxes. Just the way the city of Burlington, Vermont, is chasing people who didn’t pay their parking fines (to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars), the Obama administration is chasing down the tax avoiders who have stashed their cash in Switzerland. The administration agrees with German Chancellor Merkel that countries are deeply damaged by the ability of international corporations and individuals to hid their money in Swiss bank accounts and tax shelter countries like the Cayman Islands (another Romney bank site) and avoid paying taxes. But it would take an international effort to shut down these countries and the consequences to their economies would be horrific. A nation like the Cayman Islands has no other revenue source than the fees paid by corporations to register their “corporate headquarters” in post office boxes or virtually empty office buildings, like the little two story one a reporter tracked down last year that houses 20,000 corporations.

Wegelin was facing the possibility of multiple indictments on charges of helping Americans evade taxes. Swiss finance minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf called Wegelin’s decision “very regrettable,” and went on to say that “This development show how important it is that we come to solutions in the discussions, negotiations with the United States which hopefully prevent other banks getting into similar situations.”

The Justice Department has targeted 11 Swiss banks, including Credit Suisse, Julius Baer and Basler Kantonalbank. Widmer-Schlumpf told the press, “I don’t know whether other banks are in a similar or same situation…but what I know is that various banks are being threatened by the United States with prosecution and we will try to do everything…to come to a solution.” Switzerland wants the investigations halted in exchange for paying a large fine and handing over the names of thousands of American bank clients suspected of dodging taxes. UBS (which is not the initials of anything) paid $780 million in fines and handed over the names of 4,500 clients in 2009 to avoid prosecution.

Widmer-Schlumpf has been holding talks with Secretary Geithner this week in Davos. Switzerland struck deals with Britain and Germany last year that allowed clients to retain their secrecy while collecting taxes for their governments. But the EU Commission wants to force Switzerland into an automatic revelation of client information. Widmer-Schlumpf is part of the seven-member council that acts as a joint head of state for Switzerland and one of the rotating presidents.

The Great Depression ended in the Second World War, in part because of the way the Depression and the First World War were handled. This Great Recession does not need to end in a global war, but it may lead to some enormous changes in the world’s economic relationships, if it is handled properly. This country does not need to become Europe, as the Republicans want us to be. We also do not need to be isolationist, as some would have us be. It is essential that we work with the world, all of the world, to find global solutions to a global economy.

Related articles

• Switzerland’s Oldest Bank Is Selling Its Non-US Business After Tax Evasion Charges (businessinsider.com)
• Swiss Officials Urge U.S. Tax Deal to Shield Country’s Banks (ibtimes.com)
• Davos 2012: IMF issues austerity warning (direcmood.wordpress.com)
• IMF chief asks for more cash at Davos – Sydney Morning Herald (news.smh.com.au)
• More Pressure on Europe for Solution to Debt Crisis – New York Times (nytimes.com)
• Brussels takes control of taxation and spending in eurozone countries (telegraph.co.uk)
• IMF issues austerity cuts warning (bbc.co.uk)
• IMF Chief At Davos: ‘I Am Here With My Little Bag, To Collect A Bit Of Money’ (huffingtonpost.com)
• European austerity measures could be ‘grave’ for world (cbc.ca)
• Swiss leader: Must restore faith in Swiss banking (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Emblem of the Arab League

The Arab League on Saturday suspended its monitoring operations in Syria because it is too dangerous to continue. There has been a “critical deterioration of the situation” with armed clashes between rebel and security forces in the suburbs of Damascus. The al-Assad regime has always considered Damascus and Aleppo their secure territory.

Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said that the issue of Syria will be taken up by the council at some future date. A spokesman for the regime said it could not comment on the suspension until the regime receives a formal notification of the suspension of the monitoring mission.

The al-Assad family with Maher and Bashar standing on the left, parents seated.

The Arab League had hoped to avoid a full-blown civil war in Syria. That hope is dead. The al-Assad regime deluded itself that the protests were a repeat of the 1983 Muslim Brotherhood-inspired protests in Hama and they could do what Daddy Hafez al-Assad did back then – level the city and kill over 20,000 residents. It was a fatal error. President Bashar al-Assad has made dozens of promises of government reform in the past ten months and kept none of them. His speeches are simply being ignored now. This rebellion is nation-wide, not centered in one city. It has been simmering below the surface in Damascus and Aleppo, where the economy was stronger than in the rest of the country, but the political realities were felt. So far, nothing has budged the regime, their belief in their absolute power is that strong. Nothing can convince Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher, head of the security forces, that this isn’t Daddy’s rebellion. And since the United Nations has confirmed that ten percent of the dead in this conflict have been children, it is doubtful that the wives and children of the regime’s leaders would be treated with sympathy or mercy dictated by the Qur’an.  But, since the regime chose to violate Ramadan to attack villages, this conflict went outside any bounds of Islamic rules of engagement back in March.

A handful of foreign journalists entered Syria with the Arab League monitors and for the first time we have had independent confirmation of the atrocities being carried out by the al-Assad regime.    A group of them were intentionally targeted by Syrian military shelling in Homs, and French journalist Gilles Jacquier was killed.

Related articles

• Arab League Advisors Say Withdraw Monitors (lezgetreal.com)
• Arab League suspends Syria monitoring mission – The Guardian (guardian.co.uk)
• Arab League Halts Syria Mission; 9 More Dead (newser.com)
• Arab League halts Syria mission (bbc.co.uk)
• Arab League halts mission in Syria (thehindu.com)
• UN split on Syria action even as killings spike (vancouversun.com)

According to the royal household, the king was expressing concern about moral decay and how he believes it leads men to rape other men. Moaga stated, though, that “These are very serious allegations leveled against the king. There are millions of people in South Africa who look up to King Zwelithini. He is revered and respected. It’s important that an accurate reflection of what he said is put out there.”

According to Edge on the Net:

Moaga’s agency said it wanted a transcript of the king’s speech, made during a weekend ceremony marking a Zulu battle victory over British colonial troops. The king spoke in a remote rural area in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, the stronghold for Zulus, the largest ethnic group in this country of 50 million.

The allegations are politically explosive given that President Jacob Zuma is Zulu, and he appeared with King Zwelithini at the anniversary ceremony. While King Zwelithini has no legal powers in South Africa, he is influential on social and cultural matters. His role is far more ceremonial than, say, Queen Elizabeth II who does have some governing powers even if she never exercises them.

The South African constitution empowers the Human Rights Commission with the promotion and monitoring respect for human rights, and it has gone to court several times with regards to that duty.

Saudi protest drivers (Christopher Rose-Khowagal, Creative Commons)

On Saturday, a Saudi woman who was defying the driving ban was killed and her passenger severely injured when her four-wheel drive vehicle inexplicably overturned in the desert region of northern Hael province. It has now been reported that this is not the first case of female drivers dying in “accidents” when they were behind the wheel. The “explanation” that they are unlicensed and have never had driving lessons does not hold up against the information from driving activists that many of these women drove while living in other countries and others have received driving lessons from younger, liberal male relatives and the trained women in the group.

Other fatal accidents are reported as having been the result of “crashes” included one that killed four of the ten women in a mini-van, but no other information is available. Certainly, no one in the Saudi government is saying whether or not these women were forced off of roads or t-boned by male drivers.

Driving is not technically illegal for women in Saudi Arabia, but the cleric control social behavior, not the civil government, and the fundamentalist clerics tightly control the lives of women, according to rules that men have created over the centuries.

Related articles

• Female driver who defied Saudi motoring ban dies in fatal accident (dailymail.co.uk)
• Cleric Says Saudi Women Will Lose Virginity If They Drive Cars (lezgetreal.com)
• Crash Kills Saudi Woman Who Broke Driving Law (news.sky.com)
• Saudi King Commutes Lashing Sentence For Woman Driver – Lez Get Real (lezgetreal.com)
• Saudi Clerics: Women Driving Will Lead To Them Being Lesbians (lezgetreal.com)

The U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln

The 27-member European Union agreed on Monday to ban all new contracts for importation of Iranian oil and begin unraveling any existing contracts. They also banned several types of transactions between European banks and the Iranian Central Bank. The two moves could cripple the Iranian economy in just a few months. The EU-bloc was Iran’s second largest oil customer after China. Russia is not a member of the EU, and is a supporter of Iran in a limited manner.

This sanction takes place on top of a provision in the American National Defense Authorization Act which sanctioned any company doing business with the Iranian Central Bank. America does not buy any oil from Iran. The threat of the sanctions inspired Iran to hold its “naval exercises” in the Strait of Hormuz while claiming that they would blockade the Strait and strangle the shipment of 40% of the world’s oil if the sanctions were imposed. Then, over the weekend, Iran backed down on some of its threats in relation to the arrival in the Persian Gulf of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln to the U.S.S. John C. Stennis which was rotated out of the Gulf.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in a joint statement that these measures “are another strong step in the international effort to dramatically increase the pressure on Iran.” In a separate statement in Germany, Clinton said, “We all are seeking clarity about the meaning behind Iran’s public statements that they are willing to engage [in new talks], but we have to see a seriousness and sincerity of purpose coming from them.”

The sanctions are not expected to have an enormous effect on the world’s oil supply, as world demand has fallen in recent months. The economy in Europe has lessened the amount of gasoline people are using and the Chinese economy is experiencing a slowdown. Additionally, the end of the revolution in Libya has freed up their oil for exportation, promising a supply to offset the loss of the Iranian oil. Saudi Arabia has pledged to increase production if needed to deal with any loss of oil because of Iran.

The United Nations announced that the International Atomic Energy Agency will be sending a senior inspection team into Iran between January 29 and 31, 2012, to “resolve all outstanding substantive issues.” IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said, “The Agency team is going to Iran in a constructive spirit, and we trust that Iran will work with us in the same spirit.”

Related articles

• Iran Backs Down On American Ships In Strait (lezgetreal.com)
• EU raises stakes with Iran oil embargo (sfgate.com)
• EU Iran sanctions: Ministers adopt Iran oil imports ban (direcmood.wordpress.com)
• Iran ‘definitely’ closing Strait of Hormuz over EU oil embargo (thecommunicatorwv.wordpress.com)
• EU to Embargo Iranian Crude as Tension Mounts (tarpon.wordpress.com)

The Egyptian elections, photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh for Reuters

Nearly a year after the defeat of Hosni Mubarak, Egyptians have finally wound their way through a very complex and confusing election for an interim parliament. The 498-seat body will appoint a 100-member group to draft a new constitution, which will then set the parameters for the election a yet another new parliament. In a separate election, the nation will choose a President later this spring.

Of the 498 seats, 332 seats are alloted proportionally to the political parties in accordance with the nation-wide election returns. Of those 332, the Muslim Brotherhood has won 38% (126 seats) and the hardline Islamist Al-Nour Party has taken 29% (96 seats). The remaining 110 allocated seats will be spread out among the remaining parties. The un-allocated 166 seats will go to individual candidates. It’s an idiot way to select a parliament, but it’s what they have to work with until they have a new constitution. It’s the system that assured Mubarak’s party near total control of the government.

The right wing in America is not pleased with the results. Say “Muslim Brotherhood” to them and they immediately think “al Qaida.” But the fact is that the Brotherhood ejected Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the man who was Osama bin Laden’s right hand and who finally put down all attempts to not have him take control of the primary organization when bin Laden died. Al-Zawahiri was too violent for the Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood was born of the foreign occupations of the Middle East and carried out terrorist activities for decades. However, just like the Irish Republican Army, the Muslim Brotherhood has chosen to use political power instead of violence to achieve their goals, and their goals were never as fundamentalist Islamic as the Iranian revolution or the Taliban. They are nationalists, not Islamists, though they do advocate a moderate version of Sharia law.

The Brotherhood did not win this election because they had national support for Islamic rule, but because they had the best political organization. Banned by Mubarak for three decades, they were operating entirely underground, yet put together a network capable of ratcheting up their operations to win an election. The upper echelon of the Muslim Brotherhood is comprised of educated, sophisticated men with the savvy to take the lead in the interim government. But they are also savvy enough to understand that they cannot impose an agenda on the reforms. They know that the revolution will rise again if those who started it last year feel their concerns are not being addressed by the new constitution.

Related articles

• Egypt’s Salafis Will Not Work With Muslim Brotherhood (lezgetreal.com)
• Obama’s Disastrous Islamist Outreach (creepingsharia.wordpress.com)
• Egypt holds historic parliament (edition.cnn.com)
• Muslim Brotherhood, Al Nour, take Egyptian Government (crazyjew.wordpress.com)
• How Will The Muslim Brotherhood Govern? (npr.org)
• Muslim Brotherhood statement on its ascendency to power in Egypt! (politicsandfinance.blogspot.com)
• President Obama’s myopic view of the Muslim Brotherhood (lettingfreedomring.com)

Strait of Hormuz on right. Bahrain is small island left of peninsula of Qatar.

Iranian Revolutoinary Guard Deputy Commander Hossein Salami told the official Iranian news service two days ago, “U. S. warships and military forces have been in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East region for many years and their decision in relation to the dispatch of a new warship is not a new issue and it should be interpreted as part of their permanent presence.” This is in response to the plans to swap out at least one major American naval vessel at the Bahrain base of the Fifth Fleet. Originally, the Iranians had informed us that under no circumstances would we be allowed to re-enter the Persian Gulf after the U.S.S. John C. Stennis had sailed out through the Strait of Hormuz.

Translation: We didn’t really mean it when we said we would blockade the Strait or engage in a naval confrontation with an American aircraft carrier. Sorry, it was all a joke. Our bad. When the Stennis left its base in Bahrain in late December and sailed through to the Gulf of Oman, Iran’s army chief Major General Ataollah Salehi said, “I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf. We are not in the habit of warning more than once.” Well, they didn’t warn twice, did they?

At stake are European and American sanctions that would effectively shut down Iran’s oil industry. The sanctions are intended to halt Iranian development of nuclear weapons, something Iran’s secular government has insisted they are not doing while the clerical government insists they have a right to.

Related articles

• Iranian Irony (lezgetreal.com)
• Iran Playing To Home Audience (lezgetreal.com)
• Iran’s de facto declaration of war (iamiranaware.wordpress.com)
• U.S. rejects Iran warning to stay out of Persian Gulf (cbc.ca)
• Iran warns US carrier to stay out of Persian Gulf (tarpon.wordpress.com)

The Israeli "settlement" at Ariel -- hardly a kibbutz.

Do you remember when Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu visited the U. S. last May and Republicans insisted that by calling for Israel to return to the negotiations with the Palestinians and agree to land swaps that start with the 1967 borders, President Obama had “thrown Israel under the bus”? The idea that is running rampant among conservative evangelicals who support Israel at all costs and Republican politicians who pander to them and want to attract Jewish voters is that President Obama is somehow an enemy of Israel.

Last week, the idea reached horrific proportions when Andrew Adler, the owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times wrote a list of things that should be done to protect Israel.

“Three, give the go-ahead for U. S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice-president to take his place, and forcefully dictate that the United States policy includes hits helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies.”

Adler did two things in that one paragraph – he called for Mossad to assassinate our President and he called for the United States to commit genocide of the Palestinians, and anyone else Israel determines are their enemies.

Adler has claimed, since the shit hit the fans that he put the idea of assassinating President Obama out there to spark debate. If that was his real intent, he’s incredibly irresponsible. There are jackasses out there who would consider this an order, not a starting point for debate.

It is past time for a couple of massive reality checks.

First there is the issue of the level of hatred created by the Republican Party (Newt Gingrich has a lot to do with this one, with his manual for hate speech) and by the conservative and evangelical forces in America. As the Southern Poverty Law Center has recorded, we have a huge increase in anti-government militias during Democratic presidencies. They practically disappear during Republican regimes. It doesn’t matter how many people die, the call to arms goes on. The 168 men, women and children who died and the 680 injured in Oklahoma City, the 7 doctors, nurses, security personnel and escorts that have been murdered and the nine attempted murders by anti-abortion fanatics, none of this has registered a single moment of acceptance of responsibility from those who inspired the hate that caused these deaths. They sit back and say they are not to blame for some crazy person’s actions. They cannot be allowed to continue to deny responsibility. They caused this unreasonable level of hatred. They intentionally use the words that scare people into irrational actions. They tap into that part of our population who were fed anti-communism with their mothers’ milk and never figured out that communism is dead because they keep hearing about it from the right wing jerks who only care about creating a one-party fascist regime in America.

The people who believe that Democrats are demons from commie-hell have been so thoroughly indoctrinated by the right wing media that they are incapable of seeing reason. Facts mean nothing to them, because they have been taught that everyone except the anointed – Fox News and right wing radio – are lying. They are even capable of forgetting that their conservative god Ronald Reagan and his successor George H. W. Bush oversaw the death of communism in the greater world.

On this score, Adler needs to be made an example of. The Patriot Act is very clear about threats to Federal employees and their families. Adler crossed that line. He called for the assassination of our President by agents of a foreign government. Find the right statutes and arrest him. Prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law. This kind of incitement must stop.

Second, there is the issue of Israel. For the past 44 years, Israel has occupied the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. For 44 years, that occupation has been the recruitment poster for terrorists. Though there are many issues in the Middle East that the residents can blame America for, the easiest to focus on is the occupation of the West Bank. There has been a dynamic in the Middle East that made extremists reluctant to say “the United States is responsible for oppression in (insert nation here) by supporting a despotic regime.” It is less dangerous to say “the United States supports the oppression of the Palestinians.” Sixteen of the nineteen 9-11 terrorists were Saudis, young educated men who had no economic future in their homeland because of the way the Saudi royal family concentrates all the good jobs in their extensive family. But American support for the Sauds was a footnote in Osama bin Laden’s explanation for 9-11. He listed Israel and the Palestinians as the first cause.

Since 1988, when Jordan ceded ownership of the West Bank to the Palestinians, Israel has had the power to end the use of their nation as a reason to attack Western countries. Instead, they have let the Palestinian issue cause death and destruction all over the world. Thousands of innocents have died to protect Israel’s “right” to occupy and oppress the occupied people of the territories they conquered in 1967. The al-Assad regime has kept power in Syria as a foil to Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights. Hamas has risen to power among the Palestinians because of Israel’s policy of ten eyes for an eye. Iran’s combination of Islamic and secular despotism is built on Israel’s occupation. Under the rhetoric, almost all the nations surrounding Israel understand that after 63 years, it is not going away. But the occupation is a whole different matter.

Israel was the principle cause of 9-11. Because of 9-11, we invaded two countries. So far, we have lost over 6,000 American service personnel in the two wars, with tens of thousands injured, and nearly a trillion dollars spent on these wars. That is about as clear a line as one can draw – Israeli treatment of the Palestinians caused our wars.

Finally, what planet is Adler living on? He wants Vice-President Biden to vow to exterminate all of Israel’s enemies? How many millions of humans does he want us to kill? We already have the blood of nearly half a million Iraqi and Afghan civilians on our hands for Israel. How many more does Adler want? Would the annihilation of 3 million Palestinians satisfy him? How about 80 million Egyptians? Would 22 million Syrians be enough? Should we limit this genocide to just the Palestinians and the four countries that have borders with Israel – a total of 115 million people – or does he want to fan out across the Arab and Muslim world? What gives this man the right to demand that the United States of America engage in the Muslim holocaust?

It has taken a lot on the part of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud Party to make both Israelis and Americans, Jews and gentiles alike, question the course of Israeli policy in regards to the Palestinians.  It has taken the wholesale destruction of Palestinian farms and homes, the pushing of the Palestinians into every smaller areas of their own land, the building of suburban communities for the “settlers” while denying Palestinians and Gazans the materials to replace their destroyed homes.  It has also taken a determined effort on the part of the West Bank Palestinians to control terrorism and submit to Israeli rule to show the world that Palestinian and terrorist are not synonyms. 

Did you know that in one of the oldest forms of ancient Egyptian the name for the mountains to the east of the Nile Valley was “joo”? Archeology says there was not one Exodus, but several. Science says there is a series of natural events that could match the story of the Ten Plagues. History says that a Pharaoh named Akhenaten founded the first recorded monotheistic religion in the Mediterranean region, and that the exoduses began after his death. The facts suggest that the Biblical claim to Israel is a false one, based on an invasion, a conquest and the genocide of the Canaanites, something that is part of Maimonides’ 12^th century version of Talmudic law. In a Christian Europe that advocated the forced conversion or death of Jews, living under the protection of Spanish Muslims, Maimonides called for their obliteration in the Holy Land.

President Obama didn’t “throw Israel under a bus.” He told Israel it is time to stop expecting us to kill and die for their power trip in the occupied territories. Andrew Adler did not start a debate. He focused attention on some of the worst aspects of the right wing – the virulent, baseless hatred of Democrats, the blind support Israel and the arrogant hypocrisy of a nation born out of a holocaust and centuries of oppression demanding a right to do the same to others.

Related articles

• Israel Hints At How Borders Would Be Drawn (lezgetreal.com)
• Jewish American newspaper publisher suggests Israel assassin (disclose.tv)
• Two More West Bank Mosques Torched (lezgetreal.com)
• Have Israel’s “inner circles” discussed assassinating President Obama? (middleeastatemporal.wordpress.com)
• Secret Service Investigating Publisher Who Said One Option for Israel Is to Assassinate Obama (maboulette.wordpress.com)
• Newspaper Editor: Israel Should Consider Assassinating Obama (kaystreet.wordpress.com)
• Atlanta Jewish Times: Please Donate to Assassinate the President (middleeastatemporal.wordpress.com)
• Publisher: Sorry About Calling for a ‘Hit’ on Obama – Jewish newspaper in Atlanta taking heat (tribuneofthepeople.com)
• The Israeli occupation the world forgot: the Golan Heights (alethonews.wordpress.com)
• Dear Editor of The Jewish Times: Please re-think your call to assassinate Obama (middleeastatemporal.wordpress.com)
• Israelis Pull Offensive Ad Campaign (lezgetreal.com)

The American Embassy in Damascus, showing damage from November attacks

The Obama administration has decided to close our embassy in Damascus and evacuate all American personnel by February 1. The reason is the lack of security for our embassy personnel as President Bashar al-Assad loses control of the country.

A State Department official who spoke anonymously to the Washington Post, said “The security situation across Syria, which is deteriorating with each day that Assad clings to power, demonstrates further that Assad is losing control of the coutnry and reinforces our point that Assad has lost legitimacy.” Without the enhanced protection that the al-Assad regime had promised for foreign embassies, “..we have no choice.” There have been attacks on embassies since the uprising began, mostly from pro-regime mobs, and a recent series of car bombings that may be the work of the regime or of Iraqi militants allied with al-Qaeda.

Qatar closed its embassy after the attacks in November, which also targeted the embassies of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and France. Canada recommended that non-essential personnel and visitors to the country leave immediately six days ago. The closure of the American embassy may set off a mass removal of those few foreigners who are still in the country, just as the regime has promised to open the country to foreign observers and journalists. A French journalist was killed by regime shellings in Homs last week.

Related articles

• Syrians Protest Arab Vote, Embassies Stormed (abcnews.go.com)
• Syria condemned over Saudi embassy attack – Herald Sun (heraldsun.com.au)
• Under pressure, isolation, Syria calls for Arab summit – CTV.ca (edmonton.ctv.ca)
• Syrian Mobs Attack Embassies (samueljoyce.wordpress.com)
• Syrians attack Saudi, Turkish embassies (cbc.ca)
• U.S. Pulls Some Staff from Embassy in Syria as Violence Escalates (abcnews.go.com)
• U.S. embassy tells Americans in Syria to leave (cbsnews.com)

Abortions by untrained persons are the major cause of maternal death in the world, far more than deaths in childbirth. The women are at risk of infections and uncontrolled bleeding from these unprofessional procedures.

The more restrictive anti-abortion laws are, the more illegal abortions are performed. In Africa, the rate is 97% of all abortions are performed illegally outside hospitals or clinics. It is driving up the maternal mortality rates. There were, according to the survey, 2.2 million more abortions in 2008 than in 2003. Richard Horton, the editor of Lancet, the British medical journal that carried this story, said that “The progress made in the 1990′s is now in reverse.” The rate of abortions had dropped through the 1990′s. In the developed world, where there is greater access to birth control, the rate of pregnancies ended in abortions fell from 36% in 1995 to 26% in 2008. Countries with restrictive abortion laws and corresponding restrictions on access to birth control did not have a corresponding decrease in abortion rates.

Professor Beverly Winikoff of Gynuity, a New York pro-choice organization, wrote in Lancet, “Unsafe abortion is one of the five major contributors to maternal mortality, causing one in every seven or eight maternal deaths in 2008. Yet, when abortion is provided with proper medical techniques and care, the risk of death is negligible and nearly 14 times lower than that in childbirth. The data continue to confirm what we have known for decades – that women who wish to terminate unwanted pregnancies will seek abortion at any cost, eve if it is illegal or involves risk to their own lives.”

Duh. Double Duh. Making abortion illegal does not end abortion. Making abortion extremely difficult to obtain does not end aboriton. It just kills otherwise healthy young women. The way it killed my Great-Aunt Barbara. This report in Lancet needs to be spread throughout the nation.

There are two arguments that must be made against the rise in anti-abortion laws….first, it kills women when they are forced to seek illegal abortions; second, any law based solely and exclusively in religious doctrine is unconstitutional. Forget civil rights and rights of privacy. It is against the First Amendment to use selective laws as a backdoor to impose a religious doctrine in our secular laws.

In support of SOPA and PIPA protests, we are providing no links to this story.  If you wish to read the actual report, please search the web for Lancet, the Journal of the British Medical Society. 

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg of the United Kingdom

The modern state of Israel has had one thing going for it for over 60 years – sympathy. Jews were the victims of the Holocaust, give them the Holy Land! Israelis are targets of terrorism, protect them! Victimhood has worked well for Israel. It has allowed Israel to refuse IAEA inspections and build up the best military in the region. It has allowed Israel to pretty much do anything it wants without condemnation from the Western nations that created it out of their own guilt.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas understood that, and decided that sympathy can work against Israel. He has no control over the Gaza and Hamas, but he has managed for the most part to convince the people of the West Bank to avoid terrorist acts and become what the Israelis have always been – the victims. He hasn’t always been successful. The settler murders last spring and an incident where rocks hurled at a settler’s car resulted in him crashing it and killing himself and his son worked against Abbas’ grand strategy. But the Israelis have been very accommodating to him. They have provided the Palestinians with firebombed mosques, unprovoked attacks on Palestinians, destruction of Palestinian farms and homes that have outweighed, in the minds of Israel’s supporters, any acts committed by limited numbers of Palestinians.

This past weekend, Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg condemned the Israeli settlements in the West Bank as acts of “deliberate vandalism” intended to thwart efforts to create a Palestinian state on land that was ceded to the Palestinian people by Jordan. The Israelis are insisting that their people in their settlements must be part of Israel, but the way they have placed the settlements would create a Palestinian state that just looks like so much Swiss cheese – totally unviable as a nation, too broken up for control and lacking some of the best arable land and usable water.

President Obama angered many by saying that the negotiations for a Palestinian state must start with the pre-1967 borders and involve “land swaps” to make the Palestinian state contiguous. That view is held by most Western nations. The Palestinian state cannot contain pockets of Israelis, especially now that the Israelis are the ones committing the acts of terrorism.

Even Hamas in the Gaza seems to be learning this whole sympathy thing. They lobbed one dud shell into the empty desert and Israel responded by shelling a village soccer field and killing a child. The Israelis responded to every act by Hamas with “overwhelming force,” until it began to look like the Israelis were using a bazooka to kill a fly.

Abbas is on a world tour of sorts, building support for the Palestinians’ position in new talks. Negotiations began January 3 to set the parameters for restarting talks about a two-state solution. The settlements are the reason Abbas suspended talks 15 months ago. All parties to the talks have agreed in principle to the idea of a two-state solution. What is at issue is the amount of land the Palestinians will get. The Palestinians control 17% of the land, the Israelis are occupying under nominal Palestinian administration 24% and the Israelis control 59%. The total area is 2,177.6 square miles, smaller than the state of Delaware. There are 1.6 million Palestinians and 300,000 Israelis in the West Bank. That’s about 100,000 fewer people than the state of New Mexico. But to be more accurate, try picturing squeezing the population of Idaho into Indianapolis, which has a population of 820,000.

Israel insists that the two-state talks must proceed without preconditions like stopping the building the new settlements. The Palestinians say the settlements must stop because each new settlement changes the map of the final solution. Clegg supports the idea that the settlements are halting the talks, telling reporters “Once you place physical facts on the ground which make it impossible to deliver what everyone has for years agreed is the ultimate destination, then you do immense damage. It’s an act of deliberate vandalism to the basic premise upon which negotiations have taken place for years and that is why we have expressed our concerns as a government in increasingly forceful terms.”

Britain supported a United Nations condemnation of the settlements, but the United States vetoed it, saying that international condemnations were counter-productive.

Abbas, who is also scheduled to visit Berlin and Moscow, was pleased with Clegg’s remarks, telling the press conference that “This is exactly what we had wanted to hear officially from the government of the United Kingdom.”

Last week, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in a parliamentary briefing, said that “They [the Palestinians] are preparing a groundwork of excuses to shift responsibility for the talk’s’ failure to Israel.” They don’t have to. The Israelis have done a wonderful job of doing that themselves. All Abbas has to do is keep a lid on Palestinian response to Israeli acts and keep pointing out the basic unfairness of the situation in the West Bank. So far, it’s a strategy that is working very well.

Related articles

• Israel Hints At How Borders Would Be Drawn (lezgetreal.com)
• Israeli PM: Palestinians Not Interested in Talks (abcnews.go.com)
• UK’s Clegg Says Israeli Settlements ‘Vandalism’ (abcnews.go.com)
• Israeli, Palestinian negotiators meet for third time (jta.org)
• Netanyahu: I’m ready to get into my car and go to Ramallah for talks – Haaretz (haaretz.com)
• Israel criticises Clegg comments (bbc.co.uk)

King Hamad bin Isa-al-Khalifa of Bahrain

King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on Sunday announced constitutional amendments that would give more power to the parliament to provide oversight of government activities. This is not the reform the opposition has been seeking in almost a year of protests. This doesn’t even provide an illusion of meeting the opposition half-way.

The royal family, all of the leadership in the government and the military are from the Sunni minority. The majority of Bahrain’s people are Shia. The protests began with calls for an end to the mass importation of Sunnis into Bahrain to tilt the religious demographics. Now, the opposition is calling for proper representation in the parliament and the creation of a constitutional monarchy limiting the power of the royal family.

The Persian Gulf resembles a curved-blade pruning knife, with Saudi Arabia as the western long shore, the peninsula of Qatar thrusting straight north at the bend of the blade and the island of Bahrain sheltered between it and the Saudi mainland. Bahrain is home to America’s Fifth Fleet and is considered an essential location for protecting the shipping lanes through the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz. Iran is on the eastern shore of the Persian Gulf. Any unrest in Bahrain threatens the peaceful co-operation of the Saudis, the United Arab Emirates and the United States in keeping 40% of the world’s oil being shipped out of the region.

Saudi Arabia sent troops to help quash the early protests, and the democracy movement has continued at a smaller, more controlled level ever since. Unlike the Saudi protesters, the Bahrainis have not been content to be bought off with increases in wages or welfare payments or investments in new industries. Their quarrel is with an unbalanced government structure that treats the Shia majority as second-class citizens.

The proposed amendments would increase the power of the parliament to challenge cabinet ministers and withdraw confidence in the cabinet. They are relatively meaningless changes since the parliament and cabinet are completely subordinate to the King, and the parliament is stacked with Sunnis. The main opposition party, Wefaq, withdrew from the negotiations which were initiated by the King last spring.

The King gave a televised speech to announce the reforms, saying “Our people have proven their desire for continuing with reforms…We complete the march today with those who have an honest patriotic desire for more progress and reform. I must mention here that democracy is not just constitutional and legislative rules, it is a culture and practice and adhering by the law and respecting international human rights principles. I beseech all sectors of society to work together so that all their sons adhere to the law.”

Nice words, very meaningless if there is no improvement in representation for the majority of Bahrainis in the government. The king was telling his people to obey the law, sit down and shut up and let the government continue as it has for generations. The prime minister is the same man who was appointed in 1971 and the parliament can be neutralized by the cabinet. King Hamad had promised reform when he ascended to the throne in 1999, but no reforms have occurred. Though the major clashes have ended, there are smaller clashes and accusations of secret arrests and torture keep stacking up.

Wefaq official Matar Matar said that the reforms announced on Sunday could have been done with legislative actions instead of constitutional amendments. “This reflects a denial of the demands for better representation for Bahrainis and a fair judiciary. It ignores previous promises from the crown prince on a government that represents the people.”

The so-called Arab Spring has entered its second year. February 14 will be the first anniversary of the first demonstrations in Bahrain. It is expected that there will be widespread protests on the anniversary.

Related articles

• Bahrain king promises to expand powers of parliament (ctv.ca)
• Bahrain king promises to expand parliament powers (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Bahrain’s Report on the Arab Spring: Power Speaks Truth to Itself (globalspin.blogs.time.com)
• Bahrain’s Rights Report: Power Speaks Truth to Itself (globalspin.blogs.time.com)
• US plans to Replace the Bahrain Monarchy with another stooge (jafrianews.com)
• Pro-Democracy Demonstrators Rally in Bahrain (voanews.com)
• Bahrain holds vote as Shi’ite enclave erupts – Reuters (news.google.com)

Aung San Suu Kyi greeting supporters after release, Aug. 14, 2011

The United States has not had an ambassador in Myanmar since 1990, when the military rulers decided to ignore the results of the national election that was won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy. Economic sanctions have been imposed on Myanmar by Western nations over the years including arms embargos, asset freezes, travel bans for officials and bans on investment by international companies. But in the past few months, the regime has instituted promising reforms. Friday, they released the most prominent political prisoners. Madame Suu Kyi was released from house arrest last fall, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the country in December, the first such visit by an American Secretary of State in 50 years.

State television said that 651 prisoners were being released with a presidential pardon, 302 in the first round. The government did not classify dissidents as “political prisoners,” but just as criminals. Among those released were student activists jailed in 1988, monks who protested in 2007 and ethnic-minority activists. President Thein Sein said that these people would “play a constructive role in the political process,” a backhanded acknowledgment that they were, in fact, political prisoners.

Myanmar is probably the greatest success in President Obama’s policy of engaging unfriendly nations which “unclench their fists.” For over two years, we simply held to the sanctions and left the door open for dialogue. The release of Madame Suu Kyi was the first indication that the government was prepared to reform. Each step that the regime now takes toward free elections and democracy will be met with a change in American policy. The restoration of full diplomatic relations will take time. The speed of the process will be tied to the progress the government in Myanmar makes towards new elections. A first election was held in November, but a limited candidate pool meant that a military-backed civilian government was elected. There will be a by-election in April and Madame Suu Kyi is expected to stand for parliament at that time. Negotiations are underway with various ethnic groups to assure greater representation and equality.

This is an evolutionary process instead of a revolution, but it is also an experiment in peaceful regime change. Unfortunately for our country, this is getting far less attention from the press than threats from Iran and the morasses in Afghanistan and Iraq. Events in Myanmar and Cuba are proving that positive change can happen without invasions or loss of American lives.

Related articles

• Secretary Clinton In Myanmar (lezgetreal.com)
• Praise for Myanmar release of political prisoners (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Clinton calls Myanmar’s foreign minister, Aung San Suu Kyi – Reuters (reuters.com)
• Myanmar releases top political prisoners (thehindu.com)
• Myanmar Begins ‘Big’ Release of Prisoners as US to Renew Diplomatic Ties – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)

Friday rotest sites in Syria

The longer the Libyan revolution went on, the crazier we thought Moammar Qaddafi was. His constant insistence that his people loved him edged on psychotic. But Bashar al-Assad is making Qaddafi look sane and reasonable.

Just how crazy does one have to be to sign a ceasefire agreement with the Arab League, and then break every provision of it while the monitors are in the country? How on earth does one think he can get away with gathering up a group of foreign journalists and then lobbing shells at them, while the monitors are just around the corner? Al-Assad isn’t even trying to keep secret his troops and tanks attacking a city? He’s taunting the monitors, telling the Arab League that they have no power over him and he will continue to kill “his” people at will.

On Thursday, Turkey reported that a cargo ship called The Chariot, flying the St. Vincent and Grenadines flag, and owned by the Russian company Westberg, Ltd., had been given harbor in Cyprus during a storm. The Cypriot authorities had searched the vessel and discovered it was carrying arms intended for Syria, manifested by a Russian company called Rosoboronexport. The ship was told that there was an embargo on arms deliveries to Syria, and the crew agreed to bypass that portion of their schedule and go directly to Turkey. Instead, they docked at the Syrian port of Tartous.

The children's protest in Zabadani

On Friday, the Syrians attacked the city of Zabadani, near the Lebanese border, initially killing 12 civilians, including three children. The Free Syrian Army, a group of defectors from the Syrian Army, have a major presence in Zabadani. Reports of the attack reached activists in Jordan before communications were cut off, shortly after photos were transmitted of children rallying against al-Assad. The neighboring town of Madaya was also attacked. Heavy fighting continued in Homs, the site of the attack on foreign journalists which killed Frenchman Gilles Jacquier.

Al-Assad’s support in Damascus and Aleppo has disintegrated. There were demonstrations in both cities on Friday, as well as in Deir-al-Zour, Hama and Idlib. With almost 200 Arab League monitors in-country, the regime is continuing its violent repression of protests that it calls an invasion by foreign-backed terrorists.

The head of the Arab League, Nabil al-Arabi, said on Friday, “I fear a civil war and the events that we see and hear about now could lead to a civil war.”

January 11, "impromptu" al-Assad rally in Damascus

In what was allegedly an unscheduled, impromptu appearance by al-Assad on the streets of Damascus. One government man “escorting” foreign journalists said “…he just decided to stop to talk on the square because he’s that kind of person. He lives among the people. You can often see him in a local shop buying sweets for his children.” He’s so comfortable among “the people” that he’s only made four public appearances in the past nine months, and he made certain that his wife and children were seen in public this week to squash rumors he had sent them to her family in Acton, Great Britain.

But in his extemporaneous speech, al-Assad went beyond the norm of blaming foreign-backed terrorists to blame the United States and the Arab nation of Qatar for the uprising. Qatar has now suggested that the monitors be removed, in part because the monitors’ vehicles have been attacked, supposedly by ordinary Syrians who see them as “interfering” in Syrian affairs. That kind of flies in the face of the fact that it was the people of the dissident towns and cities who asked for monitors in the first place and those town are where the attacks are taking place.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa-al-Thani is fed up with the double-talk, the defiance and the lunacy. On Friday, he told CBS News for broadcast on Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes that “For such a situation, to stop the killing, some troops should go to stop the killing.” He is the first Arab leader to suggest that the Arab League might consider using troops to take down the al-Assad regime. It is a warning that al-Assad should take seriously. This time, the Arab League won’t bother with the United Nations and NATO, they will simply act on their own. They saw during the Libyan operation that involving nations outside the Arab League is a course of action that can be used to reinforce rogue regimes and recruit terrorists. If they go in on their own, the action will have a credibility within the Muslim world that a United Nations or NATO operation does not have.

Syria isn’t nearing a civil war. Syria is in a civil war. And the longer Bashar al-Assad plays these stupid games with the Arab League, the closer he comes to being violently overthrown by them.

Related articles

• Qatar emir suggests sending Arab troops to Syria (vancouversun.com)
• Arab League Boss: I Fear a Civil War in Syria (newser.com)
• SAC Urges the Arab League to Take a Strong Stance, Stop Watching the Syrian Regime’s Crimes (prweb.com)
• Assad mocks Arab League, vows to restore order in Syria (macleans.ca)
• Syrian attack stutters, more Arab monitors ready – Reuters (reuters.com)
• Syria heading for civil war, Arab League claims (telegraph.co.uk)
• Qatar advocates Syria intervention (laaska.wordpress.com)
• No incentive for outside military intervention in Syria: League chief … – Al-Arabiya (english.alarabiya.net)
• ‘I was threatened with death for doing my job’, says Arab League observer to Syria (telegraph.co.uk)

The U.S.S. New Orleans

One of the big buzzes on the news shows and internet Friday is video of three Iranian Republican Guard ships, small but heavily armed, speeding around the USS New Orelans, an amphibious transport ship, and the U. S. Coast Guard cutter Adak. Much is being made of the threats that the Iranian government has been making about　the Straits of Hormuz.

The intent is to provoke a response from one of our vessels. Then the Iranians can claim that the big bad Americans attacked them. The commanders of our vessels know this and have been very careful not to respond. Pentagon spokeswoman Captain Jane Campbell, said that “This interaction between U. S. naval vessels and the Iranian vessels is commonplace. There is nothing in these that shows any kind of hostile intent.”

The videos were released at the request of news agencies, though the Pentagon has not said which agencies. The release at this time would tend to reinforce the Republican hawks calls for an invasion or bombing of Iran.

We are at this time swapping out ships at Bahrain. A new aircraft carrier has arrived, and the USS John C. Stennis will be departing shortly. This is a routine rotation. There are also 15,000 additional troops in Kuwait, who were moved there from Iraq and are finishing out their deployment before coming home. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told the press that this increase in troops is not permanent.

The United States and the European Union have both threatened greater levels of sanction against Iran over their continuing development of nuclear material. The next level would probably halt Iranian oil exports and collapse their economy. As part of the National Defense Authorization Act, Congress authorized sanctions on any business that has any interaction with the Iranian Central Bank, but there is a provision that allows the President to withhold action in the interests of national security. Iran has been conducting exercises in the Strait of Hormuz to prove that they could live up to their threat to close the Strait, and block the transport of 40% of the world’s oil, if the new sanctions are imposed. The oil that would be most impacted by closure of the Strait would be that shipped from the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has the ability to bypass the Persian Gulf and ship through the Red Sea instead.

Related articles

• US, Iranian ships involved in incidents in Strait of Hormuz (foxnews.com)
• Official: U.S. vessels harassed by high-speed Iranian boats (cnn.com)
• US: Encounter with Iran ship not hostile (worldnews.msnbc.msn.com)
• US Navy: Iran Fishing Boat Rescued From Suspected Pirates (huffingtonpost.com)
• 2 US-Iran ship encounters last week in Gulf (sfgate.com)
• Iran: a quickly evolving geopolitical imbroglio – part IV (irannewpearlharbour.wordpress.com)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy

It had to happen eventually. One of the beleaguered European nations had to realize that austerity and budget cutting and trickle-down economics were not the way to fight this lingering recession. France has become the first to understand that they were wrong two years ago to reject President Obama’s advice.

France has just had its triple-A credit rating cut by Standards and Poors, along with most of the European Union nations. That was all it took to make President Nicolas Sarkozy look at what they have been doing for the past two years and acknowledge that their policies have failed. All together now: Hallelujah! France was reduced to a double-A rating, while Italy, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus were downgraded to single-A. Germany retains its triple-A status.

Sarkozy realized a while ago that the downgrade was inevitable, and he has set in motion a plan for growth, overhauling welfare financing, making changes in labor policies and job flexibility, and setting up plans for a new value added tax to fund entitlement programs and a tax on financial transactions. In short – he’s going to hit the very rich to take care of the stressed poor and middle class.

Keynesian economics says that the way to combat a recession or depression is by pumping government money into the economy to create growth, specifically by creating jobs that will put money into the economy and create demand for goods and services, which will in turn cause private industries to increase production, hire more employees and get the spiral moving upwards. Sarkozy is choosing the Keynesian model, breaking with the EU decision, led by the United Kingdom, to tighten government spending and starve the economy.

The economic problems in Europe have been floating at the back of America’s collective consciousness all summer. We have had politicians compare the Obama administration to Greece. We are vaguely aware that the so-called Eurozone is in deep trouble, but the intricacies of a multi-national currency and integrated economy have been too much to turn into sound bites and easily understood issues. This, however, we can understand. A European leader has said “enough is enough” and chosen to do what we would be doing if the Republican Party weren’t blocking every effort to save our economy.

Sarkozy is trying to save his own job, but his timing is perfect for saving President Obama’s. Nine months from now, we can look at the United Kingdom and its reliance on trickle-down economics and government shrinkage and compare its results with France’s new policies and have a clear comparison of the two economic models.

Sarkozy is facing a two-round election on April 22 and May 6. He is trailing Socialist Party candidate François Hollande by 10 points. Whichever man wins, France is going to follow a demand-side economic model for the foreseeable future.

Related articles

• French president Nicolas Sarkozy sends his PM to face cameras after credit rating is downgraded (dailymail.co.uk)
• Credit rating slashed, France promises reforms (csmonitor.com)
• France to pursue reforms after downgrade (thehindu.com)
• France To Pursue Budget Reforms Following Downgrade (huffingtonpost.com)
• Irony and Downgrade Anger (themarketsoul.com)
• 40% risk of recession in eurozone: S&P (news.smh.com.au)
• France to Lose AAA Rating From S&P, Finance Minister Says (businessweek.com)
• French PM vows reforms after ratings downgrade (ctv.ca)

Nigeria's position in Africa

Whenever anyone starts chanting “drill, baby, drill,” remember that we as a nation and as the citizens of that nation do not own a drop of oil or a milliliter of natural gas. Some of us as individuals and all of us as a nation own the land from which these resources are extracted. The individuals are persuaded to sell their “mineral rights” and we as a nation lease the land to private companies for the “mineral rights.” The individuals get a single, one-time payment. We get lease payments and royalties on any oil or gas removed from the site. Then, our government hands over subsidies and tax breaks and tax credits and allows tax sheltering so that basically, we pay the oil and gas companies to take our oil and gas off our hands.

Other countries don’t do it this way. The Saudis own their oil, or at least their royal family does and they use it to run the country. The Iranians own their oil. The Venezuelans own their oil. And the Nigerians own their oil. Not exactly a country you think of when you consider oil-producing nations, but Nigeria has oil and their economy is based on that oil.

But something has gone very wrong in Nigeria. The 160 million citizens of Nigeria are ticked off at their government, and with very good reason.

The Saudis, the Bahrainis, the Emirs of the United Arab Emirates, they bribe their citizens with oil profits to maintain their positions. They are the ultimate in cradle-to-grave welfare states. Nigerians are desperately poor. They don’t have the gleaming cities of Saudi Arabia, the cushy jobs, the top-level medical care. They don’t have a great education system or clean environment. What they have is incomes around $2 a day, an environment so polluted it’s toxic in too many places, no education, no health care, nothing to show for their hard work and sacrifice except a ridiculous gasoline subsidy that kept gas prices around $1.70 a gallon. The government, in their wisdom, decided that the gas subsidy was too high, so they cut it, raising gas prices to $3.50 a gallon overnight – almost two day’s income for enough gasoline to run a lawnmower.

Sometimes all it takes is one stupid thing to set off a revolution, and it seems the Nigerian government managed to find that one stupid thing, the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back.”  Unless there is major progress in talks, the unions that represent the oil workers in Nigeria will go on strike on Monday or Tuesday. When they do, they will effectively cut off 8% of America’s foreign oil supply. The government is scrambling to negotiate with the union.

Nigeria’s 20,000 unionized oil workers could cut off 2.4 million barrels of crude oil a day, a move that could drive crude prices up by as much as $10 a barrel.

The thing is, Nigeria shouldn’t be in this position. All the experts say that Nigeria could be one of the fastest growing markets in the world, one of the strongest economies. The country is sitting on a vast wealth of minerals and resources, but isn’t mining them. It is literally not investing in itself and allowing political unrest to prevent international investment. It is allowing lax environmental laws to sicken, maim and kill its citizens. Things were supposed to change after the military junta who controlled the country for decades gave way to a civilian government, but things have only gone downhill.

The situation in Nigeria is not comparable to the Arab Spring. There is a theory in psychology called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It was developed in 1943 by Abraham Maslow. In its simplest form it says that our bodily needs – food, clothing, shelter, water, safety – are at the bottom of human need. At the top are the esoteric endeavors – intellectualism and the arts. In the middle are property, achievement, security of employment and resources, health. The Arab Spring is a middle level revolution. It is being driven by people who have had their basic needs met but want more personal fulfillment. Nigeria is a bottom level crisis. It’s about survival. It cannot be dealt with through diplomacy or even armed political conflict. But it can be manipulated by political interests, the kind of political interests who created the Cold War by offering two divergent answers to those basic needs – communism or capitalism, with a totalitarian regime to enforce one or the other. Nigeria doesn’t need a political or military intervention. It needs something totally new – an economic intervention by the non-governmental experts who can teach a better way to run an economy and a country. And it needs the West to put a lid on the oil speculation which drives up prices. Our gas and oil prices have not roller coastered this year because of real shortages or overages, but because a bunch of gamblers have raised the ante every time someone in the Middle East has farted. Nigeria would not impact our prices at the pump if the speculators weren’t allowed to use the oil market as a playground.

Related articles

• Nigeria talks to resume as protests pause for the weekend – CNN (cnn.com)
• Nigerian union to suspend fuel protests this weekend (cnn.com)
• Nigeria unions suspend protests (bbc.co.uk)
• Nigeria Oil Union Threatens Shutdown (time.com)
• Paralyzing Strikes and Growing Muslim-Christian Violence Create a Migraine for Nigeria’s Leader (time.com)
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: religious leaders must help end Nigeria violence (guardian.co.uk)
• #OccupyNigeria satire bites back (africaunchained.blogspot.com)

Mohamed El Baradei

The democracy movement in Egypt just took a body blow. Moderate politician Mohamed ElBaradei has withdrawn his name as a candidate for the presidency.

ElBaradei was the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency from 1997 to 2009 and he and the agency won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. He has been seen as Egypt’s best hope for a balanced government that could protect the nation’s minorities and keep religion and government separate, things that the Mubarak regime did without liberty.

In his statement of withdrawal, ElBaradei said, “My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is within a real democratic system.” He has charged that the army which took over control of the government upon the ouster of Mubarak, is just an extension of the Mubarak regime. The elections to create a new parliament which will create a new constitution have been so convoluted and complex as to effectively deny representation to most Egyptians. The Muslim Brotherhood, with its decades of money and organization, has taken a strong majority in the new parliament, a situation that scares the religious and ethnic minorities.

ElBaradei’s decision to cut and run is counter-productive. Even when the opposition loses, its presence in the political debate is necessary. Without it, all that remains is oppressed silence.

Related articles

• ElBaradei ends Egyptian presidential run – CNN International (edition.cnn.com)
• ElBaradei pulls out of Egyptian presidency race – Reuters (reuters.com)
• ElBaradei ends Egyptian presidential run (altahrir.wordpress.com)
• ElBaradei ends presidency bid (bbc.co.uk)
• ElBaradei pulls out of Egyptian presidency race (thehimalayantimes.com)
• Mohamed ElBaradei Abandons Bid for the Egyptian Presidency (ibtimes.com)

Fidel and Raul Castro

When the Soviet Union’s communist government collapsed, chaos ensued. The government owned everything. They wrote all the paychecks, everyone from farm workers to party leaders. Without the government, no one was getting paid. It was months before they started sorting the mess out. In that time, the fastest entrepreneurs in the world stepped in – organized crime. Over time, things became so bad that the Russian people longed for stability and order, so they elected Vladimir Putin and have allowed him to reinstate much of what was familiar, like secret police and arresting political opponents. Putin brought some order to the country, but he also restored dictatorship.

The manner in which the Soviet Union fell apart ended up being a priceless lesson for the remaining communist countries. China has encouraged private ownership of businesses and is slowly educating the people on voting in multi-party elections. So far, these elections have been limited to town councils in the boondocks, but it is a beginning.

Now, Cuba has begun the process. They started by allowing foreign companies to open hotels for the tourist industry. Now, they are letting private citizens to own cafes and restaurants, cafeterias and snack shops. The experiment is being held in the provincial capital of Holguin, on the eastern end of the island.about twenty miles inland from the north coast. The city contained 211 state-owned eateries, and Osvaldo Santos Diaz, head of food services for the province, told the press that they would be moving “to other forms of management” in the next year.

The experiment is not being publicized nationally, thereby avoiding any pressure to start doing the same thing everywhere. There will be small steps like this, a controlled transition to a free market economy and private ownership. This could take a couple of decades, but it will be much better than what happened in the Soviet Union.

Among the businesses that have already transitioned are barbershops, beauty parlors and small service businesses like watch and appliance repair and carpentry shops. These have been leased to the employees. None of this has been national announced. The change-over in the food service shops will be done the same way – a lease agreement until the business can become self-sufficient. In a way, the move to privatize the cafes and restaurants is in response to thousands of home-based cafeterias that have opened around the country. The government would rather have businesses that are in the open and pay taxes instead of this underground economy that is developing.

The big incentive for the government is the idea of taking all the businesses in Cuba and convert them from something subsidized and owned by the government into something that creates tax revenue.

The Cuba before Castro was very corrupt and home to many criminals, both local and American. Fidel Castro won the support of the people by promising to end the corruption and crime. Now, his brother and heir Raul Castro will begin the process of returning the country to a free economy while controlling corruption and criminal influence. European countries are already participating in Cuba’s transition. Cuba is ready for this, and the United States should be ready to ease the embargo on the country in the near future. That means convincing our right wing that communism really is on its deathbed and their obsession with the “communist/socialist conspiracy” they claim is running the Democratic Party runs so counter to the claim that it was their Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush who killed communism.

The cathedral in Port-au-Prince (Reuters, Allison Shelley)

It was two years ago today that the Caribbean Sea reminded us that it is seismically active and has produced earthquakes that have leveled cities and changed the direction of human events. Two years ago today, it leveled the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, killed 316,000 people, injured 300,000 and made a million homeless. A quarter-million residences and 30,000 business buildings were destroyed or damaged.

The recovery has been incredibly slow. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. It had no resources to call upon to deal with any disaster. The Haitian side of the island was deforested decades ago when timber was its only resource. The deforestation caused the land to be eroded until it can barely grow anything. The Haitians didn’t even have truck farming to fall back on.

After two years, only half the debris has been cleared away, a necessary first step to being able to rebuild. About half the homeless have moved into temporary housing, small wooden buildings to replace the tents and tarpaulins they were living in. Six hundred schools have been rebuilt, and a major effort went into rebuilding or replacing medical facilities. Tens of thousands of people have lost limbs, thousands of children are orphaned. The island’s residents have now lived through two hurricane seasons, and were not spared. They also have a new government, after a highly contentious election that included rioting.

Cholera victim being transported to medical aid, Cite-Soleil, Port-au-Prince (Reuters, Eduardo Munoz)

The recovery has been complicated by an epidemic of a super strain of cholera that has now been linked to the rescue teams. It originated in Nepal, where many of the United Nations peacekeepers came from. An estimated half-million Haitians have been infected and 7,000 have died. Haiti had never had a single case of cholera before the peacekeepers arrived from Nepal, and the epidemic started in the region where they were working.

The anniversary has been marked with quiet observances in both Haiti and South Florida.

But through it all, the aid workers have reported that the Haitian people have dealt with it with their characteristic resilience and surprising humor. There is something about being so low that there is no lower to go that makes people choose between the proverbial depths of despair and finding moments that make life worth living. Most of the Haitian people have chosen the latter.

Related articles

• Scientists: UN Soldiers Brought Deadly Superbug to Americas (abcnews.go.com)
• Haitians In South Florida Mark Earthquake Anniversary (miami.cbslocal.com)
• Two years post-earthquake, Haiti still struggles with cholera [The Pump Handle] (scienceblogs.com)
• Haiti Still Suffering, But Advancing, 2 Years After Earthquake (chicago.cbslocal.com)
• Haiti Quiet as Quake Marked With National Holiday – ABC News (abcnews.go.com)
• Aid group thinks it found first Haiti cholera case (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Haiti struggles to ‘build back better’ two years after earthquake (+video) (csmonitor.com)

Talibani threatening women in Afghanistan

A video of United States Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan has been viralling all over the internet around the world for a couple of days now. The Pentagon has promised a full investigation, including how this video made it on to the net. The belief is that it was actually posted by one of the men in the unit.

The condemnations have come from all the appropriate places – the White House, the Pentagon and the government of Hamid Karzai. It is the reaction of the Taliban, however, that really matters.

History: The Taliban were a political party before we invaded Afghanistan. They had stepped into the void created when the Soviet Union abandoned their attempts to occupy the country and after the Soviet’s puppet government collapsed. The Taliban appealed to a people whose country had been at war for longer than most had been alive. They offered the stability of an Islamic government after the chaos. They became the rulers of around half the country, the southern half. It was only after they were in power that people began to realize that they had subjected themselves to an extreme form of Sharia law and men were wandering the streets shooting women whose burqa’s lifted in the breeze and exposed their ankles.

After the United States invaded, the Taliban became the resistance. Afghans hate being occupied by foreign powers…just ask the British. They tried it twice. Ask the Russians. Afghanistan destroyed the Soviet Union. So, though the Taliban are terrorists to us, to the Afghani they are freedom fighters. Former Pakistan President Musharrif understood this. That is why he negotiated with them in Pakistan’s eastern provinces. And this is why Afghan President Hamid Karzai is working to set up negotiations with the Taliban. The Taliban has more public support than Karzai, who is seen as being irredeemably corrupt.

This is the part of the whole Iraq-Afghan war situation that the Bush administration went into deep denial over – that we were perceived by the populations of those two countries, not as liberators, but as conquerors and occupiers. To the residents of those countries, what we called “insurgents” were freedom fighters.

It has been agreed that such negotiations will take place on neutral soil, specifically, Qatar, which has offered to set up a quasi-embassy for the Taliban. It was feared the video would short-circuit the peace talks. The “talks” would involve the Karzai government and representatives of all the allies in the coalition. The goal is political stability, preliminary to the complete withdrawal of American forces.

The Taliban are not issuing rants over the video. In fact, they are being far more reasonable about it than we could have ever expected. A Taliban spokesman told Reuters, “We know that our country is occupied. This is not a political process, so the video will not harm our talks and prisoner exchange because they are at the preliminary stage.” More reasonable than Karzai’s reaction which called for prosecution of the Marines.

The “prisoner exchange” the Taliban spokesman mentioned is a possible release of five Taliban fighters from Guantanamo. All of this is in the very earliest stages of development. The important thing is that the Taliban aren’t going to kill the whole process over something that, honestly, I think they understand better than we do. It is probably easier to understand battlefield fatique and enemy dehumanization when one has been fighting for thirty years to rid one’s country of occupation.

Related articles

• Hamid Karzai condemns ‘urinating marines’ (independent.co.uk)
• Karzai Condemns Video of Marines Urinating on Corpses (usnews.com)
• ‘Marines urinating on Taliban’ video scandal sparks outrage (rt.com)
• Marines Urinating on Taliban: Panetta Calls It ‘Deplorable’ (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
• US report admits stalemate (smh.com.au)

Gilles Jacquier, photo taken in Afghanistan

France Televisions, the parent company of France 2TV, has announced that their reporter, Gilles Jacquier, was killed by mortar fire in the city of Homs, Syria, on Tuesday. “France-2 Television has just learned with great pain about the death of reporter Gilles Jacquier in Homs, Syria, in circumstances that must still be clarified,” the network said in their statement.

Other foreign journalists who were present reported that the 43-year-old award-winning war correspondent was among a group of foreign journalists who were brought by the government to witness a pro-Assad rally in an Alawite community in Homs. The group was hit by several shells. Jacquier died in the first volley. The rest took shelter in a building that was then hit. A Dutch freelancer was injured, treated in a local hospital and released. The use of mortar shells would indicate that the attack was launched by government security forces, and not by the armed Army deserters who have been attacking those forces. The deserters are believed to have no artillery, only such weapons as they were issued in the Army.

The admission of foreign journalists into Syria was one of the stipulations of the Arab League peace plan. The government is supposed to be protecting them, not putting them in the line of fire.

Related articles

• French journalist Gilles Jacquier and several others killed in Homs, Syria attack (100gf.wordpress.com)
• Gilles Jacquier, French Journalist, Killed In Syria (huffingtonpost.com)
• Award-winning French Journalist Gilles Jacquier Killed in Syria (ibtimes.com)
• French journalist killed in Syria (news.smh.com.au)
• French journalist killed in Syria (independent.co.uk)
• France 2 TV journalist killed in Homs, Syria (ctv.ca)

Davani is the head of the Atomic Energy Organization. Roshan was a chemical engineer and deputy director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility. Iran has blamed the United States and Israel for all three attacks. The official statement read, “America and Israel’s heinous act will not change the course of the Iranian nation.” First Vice President Mohammed Reza Rahimi added, “The terrorist action was carried out by the hirelings of the Zionist regime and those who claim to be fighting terrorism.”

Israel’s military chief told their parliament on Tuesday that 2012 “will be a critical year in the connection between Iran gaining nuclear power, changes in leadership, continuing pressure from the international community and events that happen unnaturally.” Nice and vague, very cryptic, designed for Iran to interpret any way they want. That “changes in leadership” line could be a reference to the United States electing a new president from among the circus performers, five out of six of whom are trying to outdo each other with threats to bomb Iran. The Israelis have hinted that these attacks are being carried out by foreign agents, with Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy Dan Meridor saying last year, “There are countries who impose economic sanctions and there are countries who act in other ways.”

Analysts believe that some foreign government is recruiting Iranians to carry out the attacks on the nuclear facilities and scientists. The Iranian government has said that an explosion at a uranium conversion facility in Isfahan and one at a missile base that killed 17 were both accidents.  The other option would be the opposition in Iran itself, which has gone underground since the protests two years ago. 

The computer worm that has delayed the opening of the new nuclear power station is not an accident. Stuxnet is very complex and has given birth to smaller worms. Though the Iranians have said that it only infested a couple of laptops, the power plant has been delayed for almost a year since it was released.

Tensions with Iran are very high right now. The Republicans are falling all over themselves to prove how macho they are by threatening to take out Iran. Congress just passed a bill imposing sanctions on any company that does business with Iran’s Central Bank. The European Union is contemplating sanctions on Iranian oil exports. And Iran is promising to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, the primary shipping lane for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, if any of these sanctions are carried out. Iran has said that any American ship that wants to pass through the international waters of the Strait to the naval base at Bahrain would have to “ask permission” of the Iranians, which will probably happen when it snows in the Amazon.

Related articles

• Another Iranian Nuclear Scientist Killed Amid Heightened Tensions (abcnews.go.com)
• Iranian scientist killed in blast (thesun.co.uk)
• Assassination of nuclear Iranian scientist at Natanz uranium enrichment facility (hazimc.wordpress.com)
• Iran blames Israel for attack on nuclear scientist – JTA (jta.org)

President Chavez welcoming President Ahmadinejad (Reuters, Carlos Garcia Rawlins)

The current joint holders of the title “world’s most verbose, bombastic, voluble, loquacious, argumentative leader” are meeting in Caracas, Venezuela, this week, raising the question, how does either of them get a word in edgewise?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez spent their time trying to out-praise each other, when not mocking the United States and joking about having nuclear bombs. Their countries have verbal ties to each other, but no concrete alliances, having signed only vague cooperation accords.

Chávez explained the ties between the two, saying “One of the targets that Yankee imperialism has in its sights is Iran, which is why we are showing our solidarity. When we meet, the devils go crazy.” He might be referring to Republican fringe candidate Hugh Cort who claims that “Iran is planning a nuclear attack on the U. S. in the very near future….using the Iran-Venezuela-Mexico pipeline.”

But for all his verbal support, Chávez has given no indication that he would in any way defy the international sanctions on Iran.

The two leaders, in their joint press conference, avoided talking about the Iranian threat to close the Strait of Hormuz. Both are members of OPEC and it is the leading countries in OPEC who would be most harmed by closing the Strait, through which 40% of the world’s oil is transported.

Welcoming Ahmadinejad, Chávez said “The imperialist madness has been unleashed in a way that has not been seen for a long time.” And Amadinejad responded, “President Chávez is the champion in the war on imperialism.” Like most statements out of these two men, making sense wasn’t part of the speechifying. Just to be Chávez, the Venezuelan President joked that there was a missile silo under a grassy area in front of the Miraflores palace steps and “That hill will open up and a big atomic bomb will come out.” Yuck, yuck, yuck.

What the two men have most in common is their use of their countries’ treasuries to buy support for their regimes among the poor. Chávez has been so successful at it that he has moved on to seizing businesses and personal property, communist-style. Ahmadinejad has been less successful, having to answer to a parliament, which has threatened him with impeachment, and the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who periodically yanks his chain.

Chávez took office on February 2, 1999, and though he said he was a socialist, his programs edged on communist dictatorship. Relations with America were quiet for his first two years in office. Then, early in the Bush administration, it became known that Vice-President Dick Cheney had made some “inquiries” about having Chávez assassinated, 1950s style, only to be informed that assassinating foreign leaders is against American law now. Chávez went ballistic and the rest of South America was furious, even though most of them don’t particularly like Chávez. For eight years, Bill Clinton had practiced a Latin policy of friendship and support with no interference in any Latin county’s internal affairs, a far cry from the century of American interference, justified with the Monroe Doctrine. It took most of Clinton’s first term for South America to realize there would be no more proxy wars between America and the Soviet Union, no more propping up dictators whose only acceptable behavior was “alliance” with America. Even the idea that some America official had considered returning to the days when America thought it had the right to take out an elected leader by assassination was enough to seriously chill our relations with Latin America. And when Secretary of State Colin Powell tried to enlist support for the invasion of Iraq by telling the Chilean leadership that they would be appalled by the way Saddam Hussein treated his people, not understanding that he was in the presence of men and women who had been imprisoned and tortured by America ally Augusto Pinochet, Latin America knew they were dealing with idiots in Washington.

President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have been trying to mend those relationships for the past three years (adding to the Republican chant that Obama “apologizes” for America – well, hell, we ought to apologize for a lot of what we did there). Chávez takes his “imperialist” line from the actions of the Bush administration and he’s not going to give it up just because we have a 180° shift in foreign policy.

So, for a few days, Ahmadinejad and Chávez will play kissy-face and hold hands (literally) and slap each other on the back, and in the end Chávez will do absolutely nothing that will jeopardize his relationship with the rest of OPEC. He is not stupid enough to risk any sanctions on his oil, the only thing that keeps his country going.

Ahmadinejad is scheduled to visit Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador, countries with whom America still does not have good relations.  Washington has characterized it as a “desperation” tour trying to dredge up friends.  Ecuador’s leaders have suggested that they might defy the sanctions, but no specifics have been mentioned.

Related articles

• Ahmadinejad, Chavez Mock Westers Fears (huffingtonpost.com)
• Iran’s Ahmadinejad, Venezuela’s Chavez Joke About Atomic Bomb (huffingtonpost.com)
• Chavez Hits The Airwaves Again (huffingtonpost.com)
• Ahmadinejad Woos Chavez-Led Allies in Latin America Tour – BusinessWeek (businessweek.com)
• Nicaragua next stop in Ahmadinejad’s Latin America tour – CNN International (edition.cnn.com)

The Ya-Hussayn, photo provided by U. S. Coast Guard

It’s getting embarrassing. There’s Iran telling their people that they chased the big bad United States Navy out of the Persian Gulf and “Don’t You Ever Come Back!” and for the second time in as many weeks, a United States vessel has rescued Iranian sailors. At least this time, we didn’t need an aircraft carrier and warship to take on Somali pirates. This one was just an ordinary Coast Guard rescue of the six men on a sinking ship. It was just part of the code of the sea. Even enemies are supposed to rescue each other at sea.

Of course, we might want to rethink this rescue thing. Iran has sentenced an American, Amir Mirzai Hekmati, who was visiting his grandparents last August to death as a spy, with no opportunity for the man to have decent counsel or even speak to a representative from the Swiss embassy.

Related articles

• Iranian Sailors Rescued by Coast Guard (nytimes.com)
• Iran keeps issuing threats, US keeps saving Iranian sailors (csmonitor.com)
• US Navy rescues Iranian fishermen from Somali pirates (disclose.tv)
• Iran death sentence for ‘CIA spy’ Amir Mirzai Hekmati (direcmood.wordpress.com)
• US ‘in second Iran sea rescue’ (bbc.co.uk)
• Iran has divided view of U.S. Navy’s rescue of Iranian fishermen – Boston Herald (bostonherald.com)
• U.S. Ships Rescue Iranian Mariners Twice In One Week (thinkprogress.org)
• Iran Sentences American To Death For Spying (lezgetreal.com)

The European Union

First there was the Migration Advisory Committee report that claimed that for every 100 non-European immigrants who entered the United Kingdom, there were 23 fewer job for the natives. Then came the National Institute of Economic and Social Research report that says the MAC report is hogrot and immigration has had little impact.

The government is looking to find ways to reduce immigration, as is most of Europe, and would welcome any report that “proves” that the jobs situation is someone else’s fault and not a consequence of a failure of governments from Thatcher to Cameron to deal with a seismic shift in the economic base.

The MAC report says that 160,000 Brits have lost their jobs in the past fifteen years because of immigration from outside the European Union.

Both the MAC and NIESR reports are right and wrong. They looked at different things and made opposing conclusions. There have been a lot of immigrants, both before and since the economic meltdown. There have been a lot of job losses. Does one go from point A to point B in a straight line? That’s why the two reports disagree with each other. There is a bit too much apples and oranges in both reports. The MAC report ignored the recession, while the NIESR report focused too much on pre-recession immigration. It noted that high-salaried jobs had better salaries and low-salaried jobs lost salary, and said that was immigrant related. They also claimed that immigration from within the EU had no impact on jobs. That last one borders on racism. About the time MAC chairman David Metcalf said he couldn’t identify the occupations most impacted, the report becomes truly suspect.

The gobbledy-gook explanation for why this report is so very, very important for making government policy comes smack up against the simplicity of the NIESR conclusions. Take the number of immigrants and compare it with the number of people who filed for unemployment. It’s that simple. The numbers don’t equate. The report put it this way, “The results show a very small negative and generally insignificant correlation between the migrant inflow rate and the change in the claimant rate. For all practical purposes, these results suggest that migration has essentially no impact on claimant count unemployment.”

The simple refutation supplied by the NIESR report has done nothing to decrease acceptance of the MAC report. What people are focusing on in the MAC report is the non-quantitative aspects – housing and congestion, shifts in demographics, changes in the fabric of British society. In short, all those things that make Britain what it is are under assault by this influx of non-Brits. It’s been bad enough all these years with Commonwealth immigration from Pakistan, India and the Caribbean, but these others…well, they are really unacceptable.

Sound familiar? It ought to. The problem is, we have no way of quickly determining how many people lost jobs picking crops or mowing lawns or taking care of children to be able to refute the idea that immigrants, especially illegal ones, take jobs that Americans really want.

Related articles

• Non-EU migration ‘affects unemployment’, says report – BBC News (bbc.co.uk)
• Immigrants are not causing UK unemployment, says NIESR (telegraph.co.uk)
• National News: Immigration ‘not linked to jobless’ (coventrytelegraph.net)
• National News: 160,000 jobs ‘lost to migration’ (coventrytelegraph.net)
• Immigation does keep Britons out of jobs, government committee admits (oyiabrown.wordpress.com)
• Migrants do not affect jobless levels, say researchers (guardian.co.uk)
• Migrants ‘reduce jobs for Britons’, say Government’s immigration advisers (independent.co.uk)

The Arab League (before the division of Sudan)

In a rambling 100-minute speech on Tuesday, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria blamed ABC News for fueling the uprising in his country by distorting his recent interview with Barbara Walters. Al-Assad claimed that “I had to re-watch myself. When I watched myself, I believed what I said. It was me who said these words. If they were able to convince me of the lie, what about others? Luckily, we have original version [of the tapes.]” Unluckily for him, the originals match what was aired by ABC News. Al-Assad specifically blames the “edited” interview for encouraging “foreign meddlers” in Syria’s affairs.

But another portion of his speech showed the underlying flaw in his thinking. Bashar al-Assad is a believer in pan-Arabism, learned from his father who was a devotee of the concept along with Egypt’s late President Gamal Abdul Nasser. Al-Assad believes he is defending Syria from Islamists who want destroy pan-Arabism and replace it with pan-Islamism. He attacked the Arab League for not supporting him. “Can a body live without a heart? They said Syria is the heart of the Arab League. Arabism is a belonging, identity by history, not a diploma granted by an organization.” It is also an identity established by conquest and occupation.

Start with the historical fact that the Arabian Peninsula was home, in the time before Islam, to Bedouin migratory tribes. They are the fathers of the Arab people. The rest of what used to be called “The Near East” – from the Mediterranean to the mountains of Afghanistan – was inhabited by dozens of ethnic and religious groups. After the death of Mohammed, after his followers had conquered their native Arabian Peninsula, the armies of Mohammed set out to conquer everyone around them. Eventually, they swept across North Africa and into the Iberian Peninsula. They were stopped in southern France. They curled around the Mediterranean and into Eastern Europe, and were stopped at Vienna. They spread as far east as India. They imposed both their religion and their language, but were too few to really overwhelm the eithnicities of the inhabitants of the conquered lands. When Bashar al-Assad speaks of pan-Arabism, he is referring to those lands which were conquered and which submitted to Islam and Arabic as their formal language. Most retained their native languages informally.

What al-Assad is missing, what most people are missing in analyzing the last past year in the region, is that it is more than just insurrections against long-seated dictators. Those dictators held their power through alliances with more powerful nations like Great Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union. The insurrections were also a refutation of that outside influence. What we have seen, after the dictators are gone, is an emerging sense of ethnic self. We are calling it sectarian or factional battles in the West, but it is deeper than that – the people of the region are reaching back to their ancient past and asserting their true identities. And that means retaining their religion but rejecting the idea that they are all “Arabs.”

There is a correlation in America in the mid-1960s. After World War II, with the rise of suburbs and television, there was an attempt to homogenize American society. Names were changed, noses were bobbed, those things that separated us were buried. But in the 1960s, as my generation came of age, we rediscovered our own personal history. We decided that being hyphenated Americans was the missing part of ourselves. We needed to reconnect with where our ancestors came from and who they were.

That’s what is going on under the surface in those countries that have been impacted by the so-called Arab Spring. As much as it is a removal from power of corrupt people who were funded and supported by Western governments, it is a reassertion that not everyone in the region is really an Arab.

Syria self-describes as being over 80% “Arab,” but genetically, ethnically, they are really Levantines, related to the Lebanese, Palestinians and Jordanians, descendants of the Phoenicians and other groups that pre-date Christianity.

Funny thing, Israel seems to understand it, or at least they understand that what happened in Iraq will happen in Syria after the fall of the al-Assad regime. They are preparing for a massive influx of the al-Assad’s minority group, the Alawites, into the occupied Golan Heights. For the past 40 years, Alawites have controlled the government, the military and the security forces. They are a very small minority, concentrated in the area around the city of Latakia on the Mediterranean. When Saddam Hussein was in power in Iraq, his minority Sunnis controlled the government. The past 8 years have been one prolonged act of retribution by the majority Shia against the crimes of the minority Sunni regime, and has spilled over into relentless attacks against all Sunni. Israel expects the same thing to happen to the Alawites.

In addition to his usual excuse that the opposition is a bunch of foreign-manipulated terrorists, al-Assad promised reforms, again. So far, the regime has lifted the Emergency Law, which allowed political parties to be established other than his own Baath Party. But, none of the promised reforms have actually taken place, except maybe in al-Assad’s head. Now, he has promised a referendum will be held for a new constitution. “After legislation has been drawn up and a consitution, we will call a referendum, in the first week of March.” That would be followed by new parliamentary elections in May. But that promise of reform was negated by his other policy statement. “Our priority now is to regain security, which we basked in for decades, and this can only be achieved by hitting the terrorists with an iron hand. We will not be lenient with those who work with outsiders against the country.” Or with anyone inside the country who wants real reform. The opposition has dismissed al-Assad’s remarks as what they are, a statement that when he has complete control over the population again, at any cost of civilian lives, he might deign to hold an election.

Trying to shame the Arab League into supporting his brutality will not work. The Arab League proved with Libya that they will not sully themselves by supporting the wholesale slaughter of civilians. The nations of the Arab League are being dragged into the 21^st century by their own people. They are hardly prepared to be dragged back four decades by the last remnant of a dead ideology.

Related articles

• Arab League Advisors Say Withdraw Monitors (lezgetreal.com)
• Assad’s Combative Speech: A Method to the Tyranny? – TIME (time.com)
• Syria’s Bashar al-Assad blames ‘foreign conspiracy’ – BBC News (bbc.co.uk)
• Assad’s arrogance offers little hope for Syrians (blogs.ft.com)
• Arab League members injured in rebel assault as Assad mocks monitors’ efforts (news.nationalpost.com)
• Al-Assad blames ‘external conspiracy’ for Syria violence (news.blogs.cnn.com)

Amir Mirzai Hekmati

Amir Mirzai Hekmati is a 28-year-old former American Marine, born in the U. S. A. whose parents immigrated from Iran. His father Ali Hekmati is a college professor in Flint, Michigan. His grandparents are still in Iran, and according to some sources, Amir has dual citizenship with Iran.

Since leaving the Marines, where he served as an Arabic translator, Hekmati has been working for a private contractor. Most recently, he was assigned to a job in Qatar. On August 29, while visiting his grandparents, he was arrested by the Iranian security forces. Last month, he was put on trial for spying, accused of being trained by the CIA to infiltrate Iranian security systems. In last December, he appeared on Iranian state television to “confess” to his crime, confession being very important in Iranian justice.

The Iranians have found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Hekmati has 20 days to appeal his conviction.

In past cases, where Americans have been captured in Iran and convicted of spying, they were no usually sentenced to death, and they were released after paying “bail” which could range up to half a million dollars. But things right now are even worse than they have been in the past few years. The world is slowly tightening sanctions on Iran, and the next threatened sanctions would destroy the Iranian economy, cutting off Iranian oil exports and ending international transactions with Iran’s central bank. The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the next level of sanctions “will not have any impact on our nation. The Islamic establishment…knows firmly what it is doing and has chosen its path and will stay the course,” in pursuing nuclear power. The International Atomic Energy Agency has verified that Iran has an underground nuclear research sit near the holy city of Qom, a strategic choice of site as any United States or Israeli attack would, in their opinion, probably harm the city, enraging Muslims worldwide.

The United States uses diplomats from Switzerland to communicate with Iran because we have no diplomatic relations with the country. The Swiss have been denied access to Hekmati. He has not been allowed outside counsel or contact, and is totally at the mercy of the Iranian justice system.

Related articles

• Iran death sentence for ‘CIA spy’ Amir Mirzai Hekmati (direcmood.wordpress.com)
• Amir Mirza Hekmati Sentenced to Death in Iran for Spying (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
• Iran death sentence for US “spy” who says he was visiting his grandmother (mirror.co.uk)
• Iranian Court Sentences U.S. Citizen to Death for Spying (ibtimes.com)
• US condemns Iran death sentence on marine for alleged spying (thetimes.co.uk)

President Obama drew a lot of flak for suggesting that the borders for the new state would be based on the pre-1967 borders and involve “land swaps.” That is precisely what Lieberman was talking about on Monday. “Any future agreement with the Palestinians must address the matter of Israeli Arabs in the formula of territory and population exchanges. Any other arrangement is simply collective suicide. This has to be clear and I think it is time to say these things out loud.” Past time, might be more like it.

The Israelis have built modern suburban developments that they call settlements in the West Bank to house over 300,000 Israelis. They have also seized land for “military installations” and “historical/archeological preservation” and for “environmental control.” The total amounts to more than half the land of the West Bank. The majority of the settlers are believers in the most radical Zionism – calling for the Israeli state to contain all the Biblical land of Israel, though no one is quite certain what that entails — and the ultra-Orthodox.

Population exchanges can be extremely difficult to pull off. The British tried it when their “colony” of India was partitioned into East and West Pakistan and India. It was supposed to be a controlled migration – Muslims to the Pakistans and Hindis to India. It turned into a bloodbath.

There are Palestinian enclaves inside the state of Israel, and the residents are Israeli citizens. What Liebermann is proposing, if it just involves looping borders around settlements and enclaves, would create two nations of Swiss cheese. What President Obama suggested was “contiguous” states – no Swiss cheese. That would necessitate moving populations of Palestinians from Israel to the West Bank and populations of Israelis to Israel, or at least into clusters at the border.

About 1.56 million Arabs live in Israel. Though they are citizens, they are discriminated against. But Lieberman’s proposal has raised a lot of criticism against him, including accusations of racism. The “population exchange” idea cuts too close to the primary complaint the Palestinians have about Israel – the Palestinians were there first and were displaced by the establishment of Israel. The “right of return” used to be the prerequisite for a peace agreement with the Israelis, as in “Palestinians have the right to return to the property they lost in 1948.” They have, for the most part, given that up, but the seizure of Palestinian property since 1967 has replaced that issue.

Talks between the Israelis and Palestinians broke down in September 2010 because of the settlements in the West Bank. Since then, the Palestinians have insisted that all construction must be halted before they will resume talks. The Israelis have said there must be no preconditions for talks. The meetings in Jordan this week are to set out some parameters for new talks. The Quartet of Mideast mediators, the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, are hosting the meetings.

Lieberman is not being helpful, saying that “It is clear that the Palestinians came to these talks against their will and only did so because they couldn’t say no to the King of Jordan. Unfortunately, the Palestinians are working to internationalize the conflict and to try and escape direct negotiations.” The Palestinians are there “against their will”? All the Israelis had to do to reopen the negotiations was stop building their settlements. Instead, they have kept building and kept building, and failed to protect the Palestinians in their occupation.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 with Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, was assassinated on November 4, 1995, by a right wing Israeli because he signed the Oslo Accords. Since then, Israel has managed to find loads of reasons for avoiding any serious attempts at making peace with the Palestinians and releasing their occupation of the Palestinian territories. And the longer they delay, the more the Palestinians, especially in the Gaza, strike out at them. It’s a sick, deadly spiral that has drawn in dozens of countries in from the United States to Indonesia because the Palestinians are the excuse given for Islamic terrorism.

So long as there are Israelis who believe they have the right to every inch of land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, the Israeli government cannot allow the creation of a Palestinian state. So long as there is no Palestinian state, the heirs to Osama bin Laden and all the other Islamist terrorist leaders have a recruiting tool. What the situation needs is for the people, both the majority of Israelis and the majority of Palestinians to say “enough is enough” and force their governments to finally settle this and their radicals to step down. It is not impossible, it just takes the same kind of exhaustion that finally overtook the residents of Northern Ireland.

Related articles

• Israeli FM: Strip Arabs of citizenship for peace – CBS News (cbsnews.com)
• Palestinians focused on UN, not talks: Lieberman (vancouversun.com)
• Israeli foreign minister: Redraw map to oust Arabs (sfgate.com)
• Alexander Yakobson’s “Generous” Peace Offer (middleeastatemporal.wordpress.com)
• Israel’s emerging ‘Jewish Hezbollah’? (middleeastatemporal.wordpress.com)
• Santorum Insists West Bank Is ‘Part of Israel’ (thelede.blogs.nytimes.com)

President Ali Abdullah Saleh

The Yemeni cabinet, and most of the country for that matter, is pretty fed up with the never-ending delays in President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s departure. He promised to go almost 10 months ago, and he didn’t go, didn’t go, didn’t go, got blown up, left for medical care, returned, and refuses to leave again. Now, the Yemeni cabinet is considering offering immunity from prosecution for “Saleh…and those who worked with him in all civilian military and security state bodies and institutions during his rule.” according to a report by the state news agency Saba. Why not? It worked with Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Saleh has rejected previous offers of immunity for himself and his family members, many of whom hold key posts. His refusal to go has brought the nation to the brink of civil war and emboldened al Qaida in Yemen, the strongest al Qaida off-shoot in the Middle East. Saleh uses the presence of al Qaida as a justification for his dictatorship, claiming he alone can “save” the country. His opponents say that he has deliberately lost territory to the Islamic extremists to bolster his claims, especially troubling since the territory he “lost” to them is along the seacoast which witnesses much of the oil industry traffic in the region.

United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, downplayed the possibility of immunity for Saleh, saying that any guarantee of immunity would violate international law. Briefly, a couple of weeks ago, Saleh presented the United State with a thorny problem, suggesting that he would conduct a state visit to America. He is not exactly welcome here, but there is no diplomatic way to tell someone who is technically our ally to stay away.

Saleh is turning into the bad house guest of the Middle East. He just lingers and lingers, and the Yemeni cabinet won’t or can’t do the right thing – arrest him.

Related articles

• Restive Yemeni region fires security chief (sfgate.com)
• Yemen Cabinet approves immunity law for president (sfgate.com)
• Fears rising that Yemeni president won’t end rule (alhittin.com)
• Meanwhile, In Yemen (lezgetreal.com)
• Yemeni government drafts amnesty for President Ali Abdullah Saleh (telegraph.co.uk)
• Al-Qaida-linked militants kill 2 Yemeni soldiers (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a 6% increase in defense spending in 2012, in spite of criticism that the country needs the money for domestic problems instead of more defense. Netahyahu cited the instability of the region since the beginning of the Arab Spring a year ago, while avoiding mentioning the turmoil in Syria directly. “Given the abundant challenges and threats surrounding us, it would be a mistake, a big mistake even, to cut the defense budget,” he said on Sunday.

The increase would amount to around $780 million. The defense budget was originally set at $13,005,900,000, of which $3 billion was U. S. defense aid. Last year, Defense Minister Ehud Barak requested an additional $20 billion in U. S. aid for defense. We also maintain a small contingency in Israel, manning an important radar installation in the Negev Desert.

The Israeli economy, which is strong by comparison with Europe’s, is suffering from rising costs and stagnant wages. There have been consumer boycotts aimed at the handful of families who control most of the businesses and industry in the country. There have been protests over the cost of living and wages. There are also protests over the rights of women – both for and against them – and the deteriorating situation inside the occupied West Bank. The government had decided that the budget needed to be cut, but this announcement indicates that any cuts will come from domestic spending.

Of course, the first thing they could cut is the cost of continuously building new settlements in the West Bank. And they could probably avoid increasing the military budget if they withdrew all their forces from the West Bank as well.

The new government in Egypt will not be as friendly to Israel as Hosni Mubarak was. We provided billions in aid to the Mubarak regime to assure that relationship with Israel. There are also problems with Turkey, and a chance that relationship will be less positive in the coming years. Syria’s Bashar al-Assad would not be adverse to launching an attack against Israel to justify his continued role as the dictator of his people and Iran is threatening, again, to blow Israel to smithereens. Hamas in the Gaza periodically lobs shells across the border, provoking deadly retribution from Israel that Hamas can use for propaganda. Netanyahu is correct, the situation is more dangerous than it has been in a few decades. But so are the people of Israel.

Netanyahu needs to remember that playing up an external enemy to justify increasing the military is straight out of Dictator 101. So is drawing attention to an outside enemy to divert attention from internal dissatisfaction. He has a tenuous hold on the government already. Letting the people of Israel come to the conclusion that he’s paralleling the actions of those dictators whose regimes are being overturned in the Arab Spring is not the best way for him to retain his office.

Related articles

• PM: Can’t Cut Defense Budget (israelnationalnews.com)
• Two More West Bank Mosques Torched (lezgetreal.com)
• Israel’s Cabinet approves free pre-K education (jta.org)
• Barak: Implement School Law, But Don’t Cut My Budget (israelnationalnews.com)
• PM Defends Defense Budget Hike (israelnationalnews.com)
• Israel Charges Five Settlers With Army Base Rampage (nytimes.com)

U.S.S. John C. Stennis

While Iran was bragging about how their naval exercises had chased our aircraft carrier out of the Persian Gulf, and telling it to never come back, that carrier, the U.S.S. John C. Stennis, was rescuing some Iranian butt.

It seems that 13 Iranian fisherman had been caught by pirates. Their vessel, the al-Molai, was being used as a “mother ship” for pirate operations. The Stennis found the elusive ship and radioed the destroyer U.S.S. Kidd, sending it to intercept the pirates. The entire Iranian crew was rescued unharmed. The captain expressed his gratitude to the Americans, saying that without their intervention, he and his crew could have been held hostage for months, if not killed in any rescue attempt by a lesser force. The 15 pirates are in the Stennis brig. Their nationalities have not been disclosed.

What made the whole thing even more amusing was the fact that the Iranian government claimed that from their naval vessels during their exercises they were able to monitor all shipping activity in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and portions of the Gulf of Oman. Somehow, they missed the al-Morai and the pirate activity.

There has been no acknowledgment of the rescue from the government in Tehran. Oh, well, as Leonidas proved almost 2,500 years ago, Persians don’t wear egg on their faces very well. Okay, that was a cheap shot. It’s what President Ahmadinejad deserves after getting all red-faced and insulted over a comic book movie.

Related articles

• US Navy: Iran Fishing Boat Rescued From Suspected Pirates (huffingtonpost.com)
• Stennis strike group rescues fishermen from pirates (kitsapsun.com)
• U.S. Navy rescues Iranians held hostage by pirates (vancouversun.com)
• Iran Welcomes US Rescue of Iranians Held by Pirates – Voice of America (voanews.com)
• Navy Rescues Iranians from Somali Pirates (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
• San Diego sailors free Iranian fishermen from Persian Gulf pirates (latimesblogs.latimes.com)

According to spokesman Alfred o Scoccimaro “The original diagnosis has been modified. The presence of cancer cells was discarded.” Originally, Fernandez was diagnosed with papillary carcinoma, or thyroid cancer.

According to thyroid cancer expert Eduardo Faure, who was not on the president’s medical team, “The cells may originally appear to be cancer but in 2 percent of cases, after the operation, when a more thorough examination can be performed, it turns out they are not. This result was always within the realm of possibility. It does not mean that the original diagnosis was mistaken.”

Last October, Fernandez was reelected with 54% of the vote. She is the widow of former President Nestor Kirchner, who died in 2010.

Via Reuters

by Markus Schweiss

Edmund Padilla was assaulted by his drunk father Erano Padilla and scalded with boiling water. Erano Padilla told police that he attacked his son over pent-up anger from finding out that three of his children are gay. Edmund was left with burns and blisters.

The Philippine LGBT Hate Crime Watch or PLHCW is calling for justice for Edmund as well as tougher national action by the government. Reighben Labilles, a spokesperson for PLHCW, stated “We plead to the government to initiate pro-active programs that provides parents and LGBT children the opportunities to promote freedom of expression of sexuality and gender. In a free society, the parents should respect the rights of their LGBT children and stop altogether corporal punishment. We are born this way and you cannot punish us to change our sexuality.”

Labilles also stated “Since Edmund Padilla is already 19 years old, he may no longer be covered by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and our national child protection laws, yet we fear that so many violent acts perpetrated by parents and legal guardians against their LGBT children go unreported. It is so urgent for Congress to find ways to protect sons and daughters of whatever age from family-based violence and the Convention is a good place to start.”

Pink News reports that:

Last week, the PLHCW called on President Benigno Aquino III to address the violation of LGBT Filipinos’ rights following the landmark Geneva speech by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling for renewed efforts to protect gays’ human rights.

PLHCW founder Marlon Lacsamana stated then “LGBTs in the Philippines are still on the receiving end of stigma, hatred, violence, exclusion, homophobia, transphobia and discrimination. The statement from Secretary Clinton hits close to home as she was speaking of conditions present in our country. We hope this will be considered by President Aquino’s administration to encourage the full implementation of human rights protections of LGBTs in law, policies and programmes.”

EU unemployment, 2010

European unemployment statistics are infinitely more accurate than American. We use telephone polls – “Hi. How many people in your house have jobs?” Our “unemployment rate” is more an estimate than a reality. But in European Union countries, they start with the number of people over the age of legally being able to work. Then they subtract the number of people who have been certified as disabled to the extent of never being able to work. Just being blind or in a wheelchair doesn’t count. Being old enough to be retired doesn’t count either. Then, they take their tax information, how many people are being paid wages which are reported to the government. What’s left is the number of unemployed. We could do the same thing here if we did it on a state-by-state basis.

On Wednesday, the European Union unemployment statistics were published and showed the wide swing of unemployment on the contintent. Spain hit a 15-year high for unemployment at 21%, while Germany hit a 20-year low of 7.1%. Germany’s unemployment rate has fallen in 29 of the last 32 months.

Germany’s economy is said to be export-driven, but that is only part of the story. It is not “exports” in the terms most Americans think of – huge companies making large things like cars, planes, weapons systems or steel. A good part of its economic base is smaller manufacturing, but very high-end quality. If you want the best kitchen knives in the world, you start by looking at German brands. These are also not products intended to self-destruct in two years and be replaced. These are investments, so the target consumer is not shopping at Walmart, but at Williams-Sonoma. It is expected that the demand for German products will recede because of the lack of recovery from the recession, but not to an extent that it will increase unemployment.

Spain is on the other end of the European economy melt-down. The new conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has instituted a severe austerity budget to cope with their debts. That does not lead to economic growth. Spain is at the bottom of the EU economic mess along with Greece.

American economic analysts believe that our unemployment rate is closer to 20% than the official 8.9%. We could make better decisions about our economy if we would utilize the data we already have available to us and stop guessing and polling for unemployment rates. Being closer in unemployment to Spain than to Germany should seriously change our attitudes.

Related articles

• Unemployment At All-Time Low In Germany, Company’s Plan To Add Thousands Of Jobs (inquisitr.com)
• Spanish Economy Worse Than Reported (waronterrornews.typepad.com)
• Here’s How People In Spain Cope With 23% Unemployment (businessinsider.com)
• Euro Breakdown Starts Now (newser.com)
• Germany prospers as Greece withers (examiner.com)

The new constitution has sparked massive protests throughout the nation, including one that drew 10,000 people in Budapest.

Victor Orban, the leader of the ruling Fidesz party, has been dubed the Viktator due to his leadership style and the way in which the constitution was written. Last April, the constitution was passed by 262 votes to 44 with 80 members of parliament boycotting the whole process. It is unlikely that the constitution will meet international legal standards, nor the various charters involved in the governance of the European Union.

Pink News notes that “The former constitution dated back to 1949, with major amendments following the fall of Communism in 1989, and Fidesz argued a new set of rules was vital to deliver the economic growth it had promised Hungary.”

Lawmakers have stated that the constitution was based on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, but that is being questioned by LGBT rights activists who wonder why there are no protections for LGBT people in the constitution when those rights are in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Pink News also noted:

The Hungarian organisation of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights said last year the constitution “expresses a preference for an explicitly defined family model, a certain way of life and conveys the message that it does not wish to become the constitution of those who wish to pursue a different way of life”.

Hungary decriminalised gay sexual acts in 1961 and allows gay couples to register their partnerships but does not allow them to adopt. Since 2002 it has had an equal age of consent and gay people may serve in the military.

U.S.S. John C. Stennis

Iran’s army chief, Ataolla Salehi, announced to the Iranian people that because of the 10-day naval exercises that Iran had held in the Strait of Hormuz ”…the enemy’s carrier has been moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill. I advise, recommend and warn them over the return of this carrier to the Persian Gulf because we are not in the habit of warning more than once.”

The U.S.S. John C. Stennis did sail from its base in Bahrain through the Straits of Hormuz into the Sea of Oman, but that was in defiance of the “blockade” the Iranian navy had created during their exercises. Excuse us while we laugh our butts off. This is sort of like the mouse inside its hole claiming it chased off the cat when the cat left to use the litter box. The Stennis will be returning to Bahrain.

Pentagon Press Secretary George Little issued a statement saying “The deployment of U. S. military assets in the Persian Gulf region will continue as it has for decades. These are regularly scheduled movements in accordance wiht our longstanding commitments to the security and stability of the region and in support of ongoing operations. The U. S. Navy operates under international maritime conventions to maintain a constant state of high vigilance in order to ensure the continued, safe flow of maritime traffic in waterways critical to global commerce. We are committed to protecting maritime freedoms that are the basis for global prosperity; this is one of the main reasons our military forces operate in the region.” Translation: you’ve got to be kidding. You could probably stack half the Iranian Navy on the deck of the Stennis.

The whole “warning” thing is just the Iranian government telling its citizens how big and powerful it is and how it stood up to the mightiest nation on Earth. And probably, somewhere in Iran, there are people who give a damn about this boast. But most Iranians are worried about a few basic things – where they will get enough food to feed their families, what’s going to happen if global sanctions collapse their economy, who will be the next dissident to disappear and when the little jerk in the cloth jacket and the guy with the white beard will figure out who is really in charge of their country.

Iran has offered to return to the talks they walked out of with the major powers. The government understands what will happen if the rest of the West goes through with cutting off their Central Bank from financial transactions and they are not eager to find out the consequences at home should that happen. They are “waiting for unveiling date and venue for talks with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told the Iran Student News Agency on Tuesday. The European Union, however, has not received a request for the meeting. The so-called P5+1 group consists of the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, and China. They last met a year ago, but made no progress on resolving the issue of nuclear development in Iran.

Related articles

• Iran ‘recommends’ US stay out of Persian Gulf (rt.com)
• Iran warns U.S. over aircraft carrier (cnn.com)
• Pentagon: U.S. Navy will remain in Persian Gulf (ctv.ca)
• Iran Threatens U.S. Navy – Huffington Post (huffingtonpost.com)

Sheik Abdul-Aziz al Sheikh

In 2006, a law was passed in Saudi Arabia that only women could work in women’s clothing and cosmetic shops. It was never enforced because the religious hardliners were conflicted between having men selling bras and having women work at all in places where both men and women might co-mingle, like a mall. Now, Saudi Arabia will enforce the law, because Saudi women have been boycotting lingerie stores in protest to having to deal with men when buying their undies.

Saudi Arabia, which is dominated by the ultra-conservative form of Islam called Wahhabism, has strict laws concerning the mingling of the genders. Men and women are segregated, women can only go in public when escorted by male relatives and men and women are not allowed to mix in public. It’s just like the situation that ultra-Orthodox Jews practice and want to impose on the non-Orthodox population in Israel. The ultra-conservative interpretation of the Qur’anic admonishments for modesty have led to the uncomfortable encounters between women wanting to buy unmentionables, having to do so in the company of embarrassed male relatives from a male stranger.

Thousands of men will lose their jobs in the Saudi equivalent of Victoria’s Secret, Claire’s and make-up stores. Over 28,000 women have alread applied for the jobs, many of them South Asian immigrants.

Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al Sheikh condemned the decision, saying “The employment of women in stores that sell female apparel and a woman standing face to face with a man selling to him without modesty or shame can lead to wrongdoing, of which the burden of this will fall on the owners of the stores.” He then urged store owners to fear God’s wrath and not give in on this. Now, first of all, why would a man be in a woman’s lingerie or make-up store to begin with? We’re not talking America here, where men buy sexy lingerie for their ladies, but Saudi Arabia, where women are almost completely covered all the time. This change is being requested by women who don’t want to be “standing face to face with a man selling” to them. If this can lead to wrongdoing if the woman is selling, why not when a man is selling?

But these gender segregation laws always make me wonder one thing about the ultra-conservative. Why is it that ultra-conservative men have the dirtiest minds? It seems that their culture is based on a belief that no man is capable of looking upon a woman with anything less than uncontrollable lust. Why is that?

Related articles

• Saudi Arabia to apply law for women only to sell lingerie (telegraph.co.uk)
• Saudi Arabia to apply law that allows only women to sell lingerie (thestar.com)
• The Acton princess leading the fight for Saudi freedom (independent.co.uk)

Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Holy Synod building

The Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has issued a statement saying that any assistance in reproduction showed that families who had trouble conceiving had lost their Christian hope. In the opinion of the governing body, in vitro fertilization and surrogacy were severe forms of “impiety and blasphemy,” because the church has “extreme reservations about any human intervention against the will of God.” The also condemned these methods because the make it possible for “homosexual households” to produce a child from a single parent.

The Holy Synod urged people who were not blessed with their own children to adopt. Bulgaria’s birth rate has been dropping since 1950. There was a small increase between 2003 and 2009, then dropped again, dates that are consistent with the growth of the post-communist economy and the effects of the global recession.

The tree in the Garden of Eden was not “The Tree of Knowledge,” but “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” Many conservative and ultra-conservative churches act as though God was opposed to knowledge and deny that He is responsible for us having the brains to find these answers.

Related articles

• UOC/MP Holy Synod Met at Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra… Decided Measures for the Time of the Illness of Metropolitan Vladimir (02varvara.wordpress.com)
• Holy Synod of Bishops expresses solidarity with Coptic Church (palamas.info)

The Iranians do have a missile, the Saijil 2, that has a 1,500 mile range. That one could hit southern Italy and central India, all of Saudi Arabia and into central Egypt, Moscow and western China. But, no Rep. Bachmann, it could not hit the United States.

Though the American military are downplaying these new missiles, and the new long-range missile could not hit Israel, Baghdad, parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates are within that 125 mile Qadar range.

Iran withdrew its threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, saying that the naval exercises were training in case they ever changed their minds.

The West and most of the Middle East do not want Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says it needs them as a deterrent to Israel’s nuclear weapons. Israel refuses to be inspected by the IAEA. Iran also says it doesn’t want nuclear weapons, but only wants to generate electricity and have the capacity for nuclear medicine.

Related articles

• Iran fires missile in Strait of Hormuz (cnn.com)
• Iran’s Threats, War Games And Nuclear Announcement (lezgetreal.com)
• Iran Tests Long-Range Missiles Over Strait of Hormuz, Creates First Nuclear Fuel Rod [Weapons] (gizmodo.com)
• Iran claims successful long-range missile test (guardian.co.uk)

Logo of the Arab League

Bashar al-Assad did what ten months of protests didn’t – he convinced the Arab League that he is a lying, murderous despot with no intentions of living up to his agreements.

An advisory board to the Arab League has recommended that the monitors be withdrawn, because there has been no relief of the crackdown on the protesters and for the safety of the monitors themselves. The al-Assad regime arrogantly thought they could open fire on the protesters just a block from the monitors and get away with it. Approximately 150 people have been killed since the monitors arrived. The United Nations estimates the death toll at 5,000 civilians. They do not count members of the Syrian military or security forces who have been killed by defectors from the Army.

The Speaker of the Arab Parliament, Salem al-Diqbassi, issued a statement saying that the continued attacks “in the presence of the Arab monitors has roused the anger of the Arab people and negates the purpose of sending a fact-finding mission. This is giving the Syrian regime an Arab cover for continuing its inhuman actions under the eyes and ears of the Arab League.” The parliament is an 88-person committee comprised of delegates from the member states. It has no binding powers and is separate from the Arab League. It does make recommendations to the League.

The al-Assad regime had signed an agreement with the Arab League to withdraw troops and tanks from the cities, end the armed repression of the protests, allow humanitarian aid and foreign journalists, allow Arab League monitors and in return, the Arab League would lift the sanctions. Now, the Arab League is justified in moving into the next phase of planned sanctions which could shut down the Syrian economy practically overnight.

Bashar al-Assad believes that he can survive this just as his father survived the 1983 uprising. But this isn’t the same situation. There is no Muslim Brotherhood inciting rebellion, and the rest of the Arab world isn’t going to ignore what he is doing. He cannot control the flow of information into or out of his country. At the moment, he has support from the cities of Damascus and Aleppo, but if the Arab League imposes the next round of economic sanctions, those cities will begin to suffer, and no amount of propaganda from state television will override the messages being received via the internet and social networking.

If Bashar al-Assad isn’t as insane as Moammar Qaddafi, then he’s vying for the prize as stupidest dictator in modern history.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

One of the things that is essential for the survival of a totalitarian regime is distraction. When life inside a country becomes uncomfortable enough that the regime’s actions might be questioned, it is necessary to create a distraction, preferably something that will make an enemy threaten the country.

Life in Iran is uncomfortable. The treasury is in bad shape and subsidies to the poor have been cut back. There is an ongoing conflict between the secular government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the cleric government of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Various members of the secular government have been accused of everything from corruption to witchcraft. So, what does a good dictator do? Everything short of starting a war.

First, the Iranian government threatened to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, that 21-mile wide piece of water through which 40% of the world’s oil is transported by ship, if any further sanctions were imposed on them. Then, they held “naval exercises” which they promised would include the testing of new missiles. They tested the first one, a medium range missile they claim is undetectable by radar. They say they are postponing the testing of their new long-range missile for later in the week. Finally, they announced that their scientists have manufactured a nuclear fuel rod which has been installed in a research reactor in Tehran.

They have a nuclear research reactor in Tehran? The same Tehran that Ahmadinejad said was so seismically unstable they should do a precautionary evacuation of the capital? That Tehran? Wow. Talk about suicidal. At least their nuclear power plant isn’t on a known fault line.

So, in response to the threats, war games and whatever, Saudi Arabia has announced that it will replace into the world’s oil markets any oil that cannot be shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. That means replacing Iran’s contribution to the oil market if full international sanctions are imposed that shut down the country’s oil industry and banking. Closing the Strait of Hormuz would inconvenience Saudi Arabia, but not shut it down. Instead of shipping through the Persian Gulf, they could ship through the Red Sea.

The United States is holding its own naval maneuvers in the Persian Gulf, sort of a “you show me yours and I’ll show you mine” operation.

There’s a children’s book about a little dragon, no bigger than a teddy bear, who shows up in a kid’s bedroom one day. Everyone ignores it because there is no such thing as a dragon. So the dragon keeps growing, bigger and bigger until it is bigger than a house. Finally, someone says “Look at the dragon!” and the dragon instantly shrinks back to teddy bear size. The moral of the story is if you ignore a child who is doing something wrong, that child will just do worse and worse things until you do something about it. The child wants attention and misbehaving is the only way the child knows to get it. Same thing with Iran.

The world does not give Iran the respect it feels it deserves as the premiere Islamic state (even if the rest of the Muslim world, with only a couple of exceptions, isn’t interested in a Shia Sharia state) and the inheritors of Ancient Persia’s glory. It also resents being told what to do, as in stop the nuclear program or else.   So, Iran threatens and rattles its sabres and gets everyone riled up and the leaders point to the Republican Presidential candidates who are saying they would bomb Iran back into the Stone Age and tell their people what a horrible bully America is .

And while the media is focusing on the ships and missiles, Iran has quietly offered to re-open talks with the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. One of these days, the American media is going to wise up and realize that if they play up the talks instead of the threats, they will confound the Iranian leadership and make them look like the puffed-up dragon they really are.

Related articles

• Iran Delays Missile Test & Suggests Talks (waronterrornews.typepad.com)
• Iran tests medium-range missile during drill (theglobeandmail.com)
• Iran navy tests surface-to-air missile near Strait of Hormuz (ctv.ca)
• Iran Threatens To Blockade Strait Of Hormuz (lezgetreal.com)
• Iran fires radar-busting test missile in Gulf amping up Strait of Hormuz tension with U.S. (news.nationalpost.com)
• Iran Test Fires Missile; Produces Nuke Fuel Rods (waronterrornews.typepad.com)
• Iran Test Fires the “Altar” Radar Evading Surface to Air Missile (inquisitr.com)

ZRC wants to also have a clause inserted into the constitution banning same-sex marriage.

Zambia is a mostly Christian, landlocked nation with extreme poverty. According to the latest statistics, 68% of Zambia’s population lives below the poverty line for the nation.

ZRC director of programs Malekano Mwanza wrongly asserted to Zambia Watchdog “This [homosexuality] is a new concept to our culture which Zambians will not entertain as in Zambia we do not even have local terminology for homosexuality.” Many Africans have tried to assert that homosexuality was introduced into their cultures by foreigners recently and that their cultures never had homosexuality before then. This is despite the fact that many cultures had a variety of different levels of acceptance for homosexuality.

Many Christian leaders have criticized Zambian President Michael Sata for not being firm enough in his opposition to homosexuality. According to the Christian Post “Although international statistics on religion in Zambia are not clean-cut, Christians are constitute between 50 and 75 percent of the population, according to data from the C.I.A. Muslims and Hindus compose the second largest group at 24 to 49 percent, with 1 percent of the population said to have indigenous beliefs.”

The ZRC called on all Christians to march this upcoming Thursday against what they called “the Satanism which is about to engulf the country”. The group wants the government to “clearly and categorically state its position, amidst increasing international pressure to introduce homosexual rights in Zambia.”

The Christian Post also reported that “Mwanza reportedly emphasized that, historically, Christianity has been Zambia’s identity, and that ‘in any democratic dispensation the Constitution is for the majority of the citizens without discriminating or sidelining the minority as is the case with the current constitution.’” Which is only marginally correct in that the nation of Zambia is a modern invention.

Currently, the United States and Great Britain have indicated that they will tie the amount of foreign aid to various nations to how they treat their LGBT population.

Related articles

• Zambia’s Religious Leaders Upset Over Tying Aid To LGBT Rights (lezgetreal.com)

Lagos, Nigeria

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has declared an indefinite state of emergency in four states. This allows security agencies to make arrests without proof, and to conduct searches without warrants. He also ordered the closure of all international borders near the affected areas.

The state of emergency was declared for parts of the northeastern state of Yobe, as well as the central states of Plateau and Niger. This comes after the Christmas Day attacks that left at least 42 dead. The radical sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility. They targeted churches and one of the offices of the nation’s secret police. Also included in the state of emergency is Borno, which is a stronghold of the Islamic sect.

Jonathan stated that “What began as sectarian crises in the northeastern parts of the country has gradually evolved into terrorist activities in different parts of the country with attendant negative consequences on our national security.”

National Security Adviser Owoye Azazi told reporters that “[The state of emergency] means extra powers to security agencies in those areas.”

On Saturday, Jonathan told his nation that “Terrorism is a war against all of us. I call on all Nigerians to join hands with government to fight these terrorists.” Boko Haram is thought to have links to Al-Qaida, and wants to impose Sharia Law across Nigeria.

The US Embassy warned US citizens to exercise caution in Nigeria stating “Violent extremist attacks have continued in various locations, including the states of Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Plateau, and Yobe, resulting in numerous casualties.”

Nigeria’s parliament has been working on a ban on same-sex marriage despite this threat.  The United States and Great Britain have both threatened to pull aid money from the nation if it does not improve its gay rights record.

Via NPR

Kennedy disappeared after around 18 others came forward accusing him of sexual abuse. The abuse dated back to the 1980′s. Kennedy fled to Brazil to evade arrest, and Interpol formally requested that he be arrested and deported.

Via Irish Central

Location of the United Arab Emirates (Iran directly north)

Two stories came out of Washington this week, that on the surface have nothing to do with each other, unless one is interested in how our national budget works.

First, the United States has signed a $3.5 billion sale of an advanced anti-missile interception system to the United Arab Emirates. That is a federation of seven little Arab countries on the east side of the Arabian Peninsula overlooking the Persian Gulf, facing Iran. This system would be the first line of defense if, heaven forbid, Michele Bachmann is right and the Iranians launch an intercontinental nuclear missile at us. The sale was proposed in September 2008, with far more complicated components and at almost twice the cost. Now, this government-to-government deal involves two THAAD batteries, 96 missiles, two Raytheon Co. AN/TPY-2 radar installations plus spare parts, support and training. Net revenue for the United States: $3.5 billion.

We have also brokered a $29.4 billion deal with Saudi Arabia for Boeing F-15 fighter jets, to be delivered starting in 2015, plus upgrades to the ones they already have and a bunch of new munitions. The sales are part of a plan to increase the region’s ability to counter the threat of Iran on their own. That increases our net revenues from arms sales to $32.9 billion.

The other story is the awarding of a $3.5 billion contract to Boeing for $3.48 billion to develop, test, engineer and manufacture missile defense systems. Boeing will partner with Northrop Grumman for the contract. Net cost to the United States: $3.48 billion.

Gee, our Defense Department just made a $29.42 billion profit.

Okay, I know it’s not that simple. It’s not like we were running a gun shop. But the two stories underline something most people don’t understand about our country. The Federal government’s revenues don’t just come from taxes. There are other sources of revenue for our government, sources that get ignored in the debates over taxes and budgets. The debate keeps reducing the realities of our national budget to, well, people sitting at their kitchen tables paying their monthly bills, as Michele Bachmann is wont to put it. But running a country is not as simple as running a household and the budget is far more complicated. That is why the “Ryan Budget,” which ran to fewer pages than a college term paper, was so ridiculous.

Related articles

• U.S. signs deal to sell missiles to UAE as Iran backs down from its own missile testing plan (news.nationalpost.com)
• Raytheon Receives $582.5 Million for Radars and Services in THAAD Deal to UAE (prnewswire.com)
• U.S. Sells $3.48B in Missiles, Tech to UAE (time.com)