31
Aug
The All New Anti-Fascist Crusade
Jackie’s Quote of the Day at Summer’s End:
” Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.” Bill Watterson
BUSH BACK ON THE WAR PATH
ISRAEL CONDEMNED FOR CLUSTER BOMBS
NEWS 21 TRYING TO IMPROVE JOURNALISM
Here We Go Again—Bush is back on the war path. Racks up the old speech and makes it the new. Yes, folks, forget the real world and the real war: its pump up patriotism to keep America “safe” time again…as AP reports:
”NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Linking success in Iraq with the future safety of America President Bush said Wednesday that withdrawing U.S. troops too quickly would lead to a terrorist state more dangerous than Afghanistan in the grip of the repressive Taliban regime. Bush is beginning a series of speeches on Thursday to counter opposition to the war….
TACTIC: ATTACK CRITICS AS “DEFEATIST”
http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W7RT03B7195541484F27F33FF06760
FASCISM IS THE NEW “BUZZWORD”
Perhaps it takes one to know one?
http://news.aol.com/elections/story/_a/fascism-new-buzz-word-among-republicans/20060830074709990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
COMMENT BY ANWAAR HUSSEIN FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD
http://www.globaltruths.net/2006/08/30/oh-what-tangled-webs-we-weave%e2%80%a6/
IT’S GETTING BETTER ALL THE TIME
On cue: another Mighty Casey, who has struck out before, is feigning optimism:
”BAGHDAD, Iraq - The top U.S. commander in Iraq General Casey expressed optimism Wednesday that Iraqi forces are making enough progress to provide their own security within 18 months. But violence showed no sign of abating, with 66 people killed nationwide, including 24 in a Baghdad market bombing.
FOR DAILY REPORTS ON IRAQ
http://electroniciraq.net/news/war-every-day-blog.shtml
ONLY A COMEDIAN CAN DECODE TRAGIC-COMIC OPERA
For an assessment of these startling developments, we go directly to Comedy Central for John Stewart’s analysis of an earlier story that sounded just like this one, and may have been:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH_1LlwLVqs&search=daily%20show%20dailyshow%20jon%20stewart
MOVEOn has released reports on the costs of the war:
To download the full MoveOn.org Political Action report, please follow this link:
http://pol.moveon.org/costofiraq/
To view a breakdown by state or Congressional District, users should follow this link to data from the National Priorities Project:
http://database.nationalpriorities.org/tradeoff.
SHOWDOWN ON IRAN NEXT WEEK: NY TIMES TODAY: “US DRAFTING SANCTIONS”
THE GUARDIAN: DISCUSSIONS NEXT WEEK
” Major powers will begin discussing an Iran sanctions resolution at a meeting in Europe next week if Tehran continues to defy a United Nations Security Council demand to halt uranium enrichment, the United States State Department said on Wednesday. But Iranian President Mohammad Ahmadinejad remained unmoved, telling state media: “Sanctions cannot discourage people from making progress.”
CNN: “The Iranian nation will not accept for one moment any bullying, invasion and violation of its rights,” Ahmadinejad told a crowd of thousands in Orumiyeh in northwestern Iran.”
FOX NEWS TO THE RESCUE
Meanwhile, as what may be D-Day for Iran approaches over at the UN, Fox News has been doing more than standing by. The Progress Center has had its eyes glued to “America’s News Channel and reports on what they distort:
”Calls for a preemptive strike against Iran has reached a frenzy on Fox. See this collection of video clips”
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/08/30/fox-selling-iran-war/
FROM JUDY TO JANE
Mediachannel’s military Intell I- team is being activated to analyze the way the new war is being sold. First up: former Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner, an expert on information warfare:
”Recall when Judith Miller breathlessly reported that Iraq was importing atropine because they were getting ready to use chemical weapons, but it turned out the end use and quantities were really consistent with the treatment of heart disease and were being monitored by the UN? Jane’s is breathlessly into the same game. The article below implies Iran is going to provide materials for a dirty bomb to Hezbollah.
Jane’s fails to mention that if Iran wanted to build a dirty bomb or provide dirty bomb materials to Hezbollah, it could be done without any imports.”
EXHIBIT A: JANE’S “INTELLIGENCE” DIGEST
”Proliferation: the case of radioactive isotopes to Iran
On 22 July, a truck containing 10 lead-lined boxes was intercepted at the Bulgarian-Romanian border, after Bulgarian scanning detectors measured radiation 200 times the normal background radiation. The consignment, destined for Iran, was discovered by the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NPA) to contain soil-measuring devices incorporating the radioisotopes cesium-137 and americium-beryllium. In the light of the ongoing debacle over Iran’s record of nondisclosure about its nuclear activities, questions arise as to the intended purpose of such a consignment.
WAR GAMES UNDERWAY
Military veteran and veteran military monitor Joe Dunphy has another angle for us:
Someone sent me an interesting link about Russian/neighboring country war games just north of Iran. The name of the link is iransolidarity/endofempire.org
Look for the item which discusses Central States Organization war games, which have already begun Aug. 24. The link discusses only 2,500 in the deployment, which is about a brigade sized element. The crucial item is that the “official story” is that the games are in anticipation of countering US/Coalition moves against Iran.
There are at least two ways to look at this:
1) Russia has the diplomatic treaties in place to rush to Iran’s aid in the event of a US attack (which, with Soviet controlled missiles, brings the potential threat of nuclear war)
or 2) The true intent of the war games are to deceive Iran into thinking that the troop movements to their north are potential friends, and thus leave Iran’s northern borders less well patrolled.
In either case, this would put considerable pressure on Iran’s military to monitor the situation.
As we’ve noted in the past, there are:
1) 250,000 Turks mobilized at the Turkey/Iraq border, with skirmishes with the Kurds.
2) Serious conflict between Israel and Lebanon, pressuring Syria, and now
3) military moves north of Iran.
“The encirclement of Iran would be the strategic goal, and thus one can surmise that the West would take moves to separate Syria from Iran in some way. The noose is getting tighter around Iran, and it really does matter which way Russia and China are leaning. And even if Russia and China remain neutral, a smuggling in of a “Muslim atomic bomb” from Pakistan would seriously heat up an already simmering situation.
“The chess pieces are in motion. The important point here is that, if all these moves are deliberate, plans have already been activated and are being carried out. Military planning takes a while for a successful operation. For the US, does that mean that plans are being carried out without the approval of Congress?”
ISRAEL SAYS NO TO ANNAN AND THE UN
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indicated Israel would only allow free movement after the full implementation of a U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas that killed 854 Lebanese and 159 Israelis.
AVNERY ON OLMERT: AN ISRAELI ON THE GREAT MAN
”Ehud Olmert has found a convincing proof of his great victory over Hassan Nasrallah: “I am touring the country freely while Nasrallah is hiding in his bunker!”
“It is said that “the style is the man,” and by these words Olmert shows his quality (or lack thereof). At the moment, dozens of Israeli airplanes and helicopter gunships are standing by, ready to kill Nasrallah if he as much as shows himself. Nasrallah does not have a
single airplane or helicopter to kill Olmert. The vast material superiority of the Israeli army over a guerilla organization is no achievement of Olmert - but Hizbullah’s ability to survive the massive onslaught of our army is certainly the achievement of Nasrallah.And, by the way, why would Nasrallah want to kill Olmert? After all, why should he mind Israel being led by a failed politician, whose incompetence has been proved and who most Israelis say should go?
A cynic might say: Nasrallah wants Olmert to stay, and that’s why he hurried to help him out. When everyone in Israel believed that Olmert had failed miserably, Nasrallah said, this week, in an interview: “If I had known that Israel would react as it did, I would not have captured the two soldiers.”
“SHOCKING AND COMPLETELY IMMORAL”
The Australian Age reported earlier in the day the UN’s Humanitarian Chief Blasted Israel as “immoral”
” The UN humanitarian chief today accused Israel of “shocking” and “completely immoral” behaviour for dropping large numbers of cluster bombs when a ceasefire was in sight during its war with Hizbollah.
Jan Egeland said Israel had either made a “terribly wrong decision” or had “started thinking afterwards”.
The remarks were unusually harsh, even for Egeland, who often violates an unwritten rule that UN officials should not criticise member states too severely.
“What’s shocking and … completely immoral, is that 90 per cent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict, when we knew there would be a resolution,” Egeland said.
WHAT A CLUSTER BOMB LOOKS LIKE
http://elijahzarwan.net/blog/?p=231BUSTED FOR CELLPHONE PIX
Maan News reports that Israeli soldiers in the West Bank are detaining Palestinian youths who have pictures of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on their cellular phones, Palestinian citizens have told Ma’an.
C4 UK: WATCH REPORT ON WEST BANK
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14753.htmHaaretz Israel delaying deal on Shalit
“A source involved in negotiations for the release of soldier Gilad Shalit told Haaretz that Israel was the one holding up the implementation of a deal that could lead to his release.”
JUSTIN RAIMANDO RESPONDS TO THE WASH POST ON LOBBY
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9625
THE NATION: KATRINA–WHEN A SOLUTION BECOMES THE PROBLEM
”One year ago, New Orleans’s working-class and poor citizens were stranded on their rooftops waiting for help that never came, while those who could pay their way escaped to safety. The country’s political leaders claim it was all some terrible mistake, but their solution, as Naomi Klein explains at The Nation online, is to go even further down the catastrophic road of “private-sector solutions.”
“Unless a radical change of course is demanded,” Klein argues, “New Orleans will prove to be a glimpse of a dystopic future, a future of disaster apartheid in which the wealthy are saved and everyone else is left behind.”
http://lists.thenation.com/t?ctl=6116:4F88B
W’s “DAY OF REMEMBRANCE:” Sid Blumenthal Remembers
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/08/31/katrina/print.html_
