October 17, 2008 Military.com
by Christian Lowe
A top designer of flexible body armor similar to the much-vaunted Dragon Skin says he has just tested a new type of ballistic material that is far harder than current plates and can defeat one of the most deadly armor piercing rounds in the world.
And it can do all this at the same weight as a standard Enhanced Small Arms Protective Plate, but in a more flexible and comfortable package, developer Allan Bain claims.
Bain, who body armor experts agree was a founding father -- with Dragon Skin maker Murray Neal -- of the so-called "scalar" armor concept, has developed a new way to forge the ceramic that goes into the bullet-blocking plates, giving it greater density and the ability to be bent into odd shapes.
"This is probably about as cutting edge as it gets," Bain told Military.com during an October 15 phone interview about the new armor, Skaalar Exoskin Gen 4+". "An E-SAPI plate is an inch thick. Then you've got the vest … This [SEG4+] is an inch thick with everything included."
With the help of experts at Georgia Tech University, Bain produces his armored disks in an oven that reaches nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit - nearly half the surface temperature of the sun - to make the ceramic stronger, smaller and without sacrificing weight.
SEG4+ body armor wraps around the wearer like Dragon Skin, weighs about 7.5 pounds per square foot of coverage -- about the same as a standard-issue E-SAPI plate - but delivers far more protection with "gapless, seamless" coverage for high-powered armor piercing rounds.
The military's current body armor system, with two rigid front and back pates and two side plates, leaves open areas with no defense against rifle rounds.
Costs and concerns
But don't get your hopes up that SEG4+ will be on order anytime soon for troop.
Manufacturing costs is one reason. Army caution is another.
Bain said the armor is currently so expensive to make that only the most elite units would likely be able to afford it. Special Forces may order and use armor the regular Army doesn't get, and is currently testing this to see of it's something they want.
And officials with the Army's Program Executive Office Soldier confirmed to Military.com that the service was putting its search for flexible armor on hold because it deemed the scalar technology too immature.
But don't tell Bain his armor isn't ready.
"At this point in time, if someone wanted 100 of these we could deliver them," he said.
The best known scalar system, Dragon Skin, is manufactured by Fresno, Calif.-based Pinnacle Armor. However Dragon Skin has a shaky reputation within the Army - which does the majority of armor testing, design and procurement for the services - after Pinnacle's feisty president, Murray Neal, launched a full-scale public relations war touting his vest's superiority after ballistics tests conducted by the Army in May 2006 showed
Dragon Skin failing basic ballistics and durability tests.
Neal's public campaign got Congress involved, with hearings on Capitol Hill to get to the bottom of the controversy.
Lawmakers ordered the Army to do further tests and the service asked industry to submit samples of flexible systems and armor that could withstand rounds more powerful than the current E-SAPI plate.
The Army planned to test the armor concepts later that year but had to postpone the evaluation after manufacturers asked for more time to acquire the exotic materials and do more testing of their own.
PEO Soldier officials at Fort Belvoir, Va., said the service will begin testing in November on new E-SAPI and X-SAPI designs - more than a year after the Army had originally intended to shoot the experimental plates.
Officials also said the flexible-system test will not go ahead as planned because "an F-SAPI capability has not reached the level [of] technical maturity to protect Soldiers in combat," PEO Soldier said in an email response to Military.com.
'A really good stop'
Bain was cagey about the specific design and shape of his armor components but said it makes heavy use of lightweight polymers such as Dyneema and Kevlar fabric to achieve its ballistic resistance capability. The super-hardened ceramic retains 100 percent of its density after manufacture, as compared to a standard plate with 93 percent density, he added.
"It's still some type of a disk," Bain said. "But we've made interlocks. We've eliminated weak spots. We've made it very difficult for a bullet to hit a flat surface."
"Everything's geared toward getting that bullet to hit a severe angle," he added.
In September, Bain subjected his armor to ballistic tests with shots from a Swiss-made armor piercing round that is more powerful than the one specified by the Army for its X-SAPI capability (for security reasons Military.com has declined to name the specific round the Army wants to beat).
The round shattered the tile, penetrated nine layers of Kevlar but was largely stopped by the Dyneema backing.
"That's a really good stop," Bain said. "And that's a phase-one tile. We've already redesigned it."
With more support from industry, Bain thinks he can cut down on the cost of the vest - currently, each tile costs about $50 to make - and with continued design improvements, he might be able to shave off some weight.
But for now, the Exoskin Gen 4+ is reserved for special operations troops and other high-risk forces, though Bain feels he's demonstrated that the technology is there for flexible armor that defeats the meanest threats.
"This is the kind of process that can lend itself to making the 'Star Wars' style armor … with lots of different segmented shapes," Bain said. "It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see what you can do with that."
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
POOR PEOPLE AND DEMOCRAT FALSE PROMISES
GOD FORBID!
======
Poor people have been voting for Democrats for the last fifty years....and they are still poor."
Predictions from one of the "biggies" in Hollywood, I didn't see it coming - from Hollywood.
Here is another warning from a very knowledgeable person, from the Hollywood sector, that is not a preaching Democrat. His words are spooky.
The writer of this essay is Jerry Molen, an Academy Award winning Hollywood Producer, who produced Jurassic Park, Hook, Rain Man and many more classy movies, and who won the Academy Award for Schindler's List. Jerry is one of the very few conservatives in Hollywood - but wants to include Democrats. He says:
We are about to make the Mother-of-All-Mistakes, because the Republican Party gave us no reliable alternative. If the conservative movement does not rally behind the only alternative left to us, this country will become a true Socialist State within the next two Presidential terms.
Ladies and Gentleman, this is the most grave situation this nation has faced in my lifetime. We just experienced an overhyped, outrageous primary election season that has left me wondering where the heads of our citizens are hiding - must be someplace where the sun doesn't go very often.
At one time in my life I was a determined, dedicated and ever-loyal registered Democrat. Then something happened - Lyndon Baines Johnson - that turned my life around and gave me pause for the veracity of a party that lives and feeds off of the most unfortunate among us. Some of them are in their positions in life by their own choosing, others by outside circumstance.
But always, always there was a door open to them, to reach for new heights, achieve new goals, change their lives for the better. Similarly, there have always been the bottom feeders, doing what they could to take advantage of those who had not or have not seen better days, nor realized that they in fact were the masters of their own destiny - these unfortunates had come to believe that they were dependent on people in Washington, who would look out for and take care of them. They waited and still wait for all those promised freebies.
Most people don't reflect upon the fact that the Democrats ruled Washington for over 40 years; it wasn't until 1994 when the so-called Gingrich Revolution changed - but only for a while. These same people do not realize that it was the Democrats who created the failed policies of the entitlement programs that are now falling apart before our eyes.
Do not think I find the Republicans blameless in all this. They, too, suffer from the ego and greed built into our system. But in the past few months I have listened with growing horror to the railings of the left, calling for yet more giveaways, more promises of a proverbial 'free lunch.'
What sums up my feelings, why I am appalled by those in political power is contained within a quote by basketball legend and talk show host Charles Barkley: "Poor people have been voting for Democrats for the last fifty years....and they are still poor."
Now, with our elections, come yet more new promises of "change:" "change we can believe in," "hope for the future". But if you really, I mean REALLY listen to what the new messiah is asking for, it is not 'change of policy' or 'change for the better' - this is a warning that he wants our change.
And the change you will get will not be the change you expected or wanted.
I leave you my predictions of what will happen if the junior Senator from Illinois becomes President – especially if the House and Senate are veto-proof Democrat:
1). Strict gun laws, though he promised he would not.
2). "In God We Trust" will be removed from all currency.
3). He will renege on his pledge to Israel and leave them to the wolves of Islam.
4). Hillary Clinton will be named to the Supreme Court.
5). Tax rates will surge to the highest levels in 30 years.
6). Capital gains tax will be at least double current levels.
7). Retired Army General Wesley Clark will be named Secretary of Defense.
8). Your borders will be open to all comers - especially from the Middle East and South America.
9). Amnesty will be granted to all illegals in the U.S, regardless of status or even gang membership (think MS-13). After all, isn't it pretty well established now, with Obama possibly being declared an "Illegal Alien", by the courts decision coming, with our democrat colleague, Phil Berg, Attorney having taken the case to court?
10). Our presence in Iraq will come to an abrupt end - with tragic results for their citizens and devastating consequences to our military, as well as our country.
My predictions will not sit well with some people - the best we could hope for is that I am wrong. If you vote for him, you are asking for it.
Any bets?
ALSO
http://www.spectator.co.uk/print/melaniephillips/2293196/pinch-yourself.thtml
The contrast between, on the one hand, the huge amount of material about Obama’s radical associations that has been published in on-line journals and in a few brave newspapers, and on the other the refusal by big media to address it and to vilify those who do, becomes more astounding by the day.
The Obamaniacs are spinning the relationship between Obama and William Ayers, former of Weather Undergound Terrorism Inc, as of no consequence because this was supposedly a chance acquaintance and because the educational project they worked on, the Annenberg Challenge, was a worthy one, now nails that canard by showing how, through the Annenberg Challenge, Obama and Ayers channelled funds to extremist anti-American Afrocentric ‘educational’ programmes which were a carbon-copy of the world view of Pastor Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s black racist mentor who, under pressure, Obama was forced to repudiate.
These programmes promoted, amongst other radical ideas, the ‘rites of passage’ philosophy which attempted to create a ‘virtually separate and intensely anti-American black social world’ in order to ‘counter the potentially detrimental effects of a Eurocentrically oriented society.’ One such teacher taught that:
======
Poor people have been voting for Democrats for the last fifty years....and they are still poor."
Predictions from one of the "biggies" in Hollywood, I didn't see it coming - from Hollywood.
Here is another warning from a very knowledgeable person, from the Hollywood sector, that is not a preaching Democrat. His words are spooky.
The writer of this essay is Jerry Molen, an Academy Award winning Hollywood Producer, who produced Jurassic Park, Hook, Rain Man and many more classy movies, and who won the Academy Award for Schindler's List. Jerry is one of the very few conservatives in Hollywood - but wants to include Democrats. He says:
We are about to make the Mother-of-All-Mistakes, because the Republican Party gave us no reliable alternative. If the conservative movement does not rally behind the only alternative left to us, this country will become a true Socialist State within the next two Presidential terms.
Ladies and Gentleman, this is the most grave situation this nation has faced in my lifetime. We just experienced an overhyped, outrageous primary election season that has left me wondering where the heads of our citizens are hiding - must be someplace where the sun doesn't go very often.
At one time in my life I was a determined, dedicated and ever-loyal registered Democrat. Then something happened - Lyndon Baines Johnson - that turned my life around and gave me pause for the veracity of a party that lives and feeds off of the most unfortunate among us. Some of them are in their positions in life by their own choosing, others by outside circumstance.
But always, always there was a door open to them, to reach for new heights, achieve new goals, change their lives for the better. Similarly, there have always been the bottom feeders, doing what they could to take advantage of those who had not or have not seen better days, nor realized that they in fact were the masters of their own destiny - these unfortunates had come to believe that they were dependent on people in Washington, who would look out for and take care of them. They waited and still wait for all those promised freebies.
Most people don't reflect upon the fact that the Democrats ruled Washington for over 40 years; it wasn't until 1994 when the so-called Gingrich Revolution changed - but only for a while. These same people do not realize that it was the Democrats who created the failed policies of the entitlement programs that are now falling apart before our eyes.
Do not think I find the Republicans blameless in all this. They, too, suffer from the ego and greed built into our system. But in the past few months I have listened with growing horror to the railings of the left, calling for yet more giveaways, more promises of a proverbial 'free lunch.'
What sums up my feelings, why I am appalled by those in political power is contained within a quote by basketball legend and talk show host Charles Barkley: "Poor people have been voting for Democrats for the last fifty years....and they are still poor."
Now, with our elections, come yet more new promises of "change:" "change we can believe in," "hope for the future". But if you really, I mean REALLY listen to what the new messiah is asking for, it is not 'change of policy' or 'change for the better' - this is a warning that he wants our change.
And the change you will get will not be the change you expected or wanted.
I leave you my predictions of what will happen if the junior Senator from Illinois becomes President – especially if the House and Senate are veto-proof Democrat:
1). Strict gun laws, though he promised he would not.
2). "In God We Trust" will be removed from all currency.
3). He will renege on his pledge to Israel and leave them to the wolves of Islam.
4). Hillary Clinton will be named to the Supreme Court.
5). Tax rates will surge to the highest levels in 30 years.
6). Capital gains tax will be at least double current levels.
7). Retired Army General Wesley Clark will be named Secretary of Defense.
8). Your borders will be open to all comers - especially from the Middle East and South America.
9). Amnesty will be granted to all illegals in the U.S, regardless of status or even gang membership (think MS-13). After all, isn't it pretty well established now, with Obama possibly being declared an "Illegal Alien", by the courts decision coming, with our democrat colleague, Phil Berg, Attorney having taken the case to court?
10). Our presence in Iraq will come to an abrupt end - with tragic results for their citizens and devastating consequences to our military, as well as our country.
My predictions will not sit well with some people - the best we could hope for is that I am wrong. If you vote for him, you are asking for it.
Any bets?
ALSO
http://www.spectator.co.uk/print/melaniephillips/2293196/pinch-yourself.thtml
The contrast between, on the one hand, the huge amount of material about Obama’s radical associations that has been published in on-line journals and in a few brave newspapers, and on the other the refusal by big media to address it and to vilify those who do, becomes more astounding by the day.
The Obamaniacs are spinning the relationship between Obama and William Ayers, former of Weather Undergound Terrorism Inc, as of no consequence because this was supposedly a chance acquaintance and because the educational project they worked on, the Annenberg Challenge, was a worthy one, now nails that canard by showing how, through the Annenberg Challenge, Obama and Ayers channelled funds to extremist anti-American Afrocentric ‘educational’ programmes which were a carbon-copy of the world view of Pastor Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s black racist mentor who, under pressure, Obama was forced to repudiate.
These programmes promoted, amongst other radical ideas, the ‘rites of passage’ philosophy which attempted to create a ‘virtually separate and intensely anti-American black social world’ in order to ‘counter the potentially detrimental effects of a Eurocentrically oriented society.’ One such teacher taught that:
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
WORLD VIEW ROUNDUP
Drug Runners Had Maps of Patrols, Prosecutors Say
October 4, 2008
By Benjamin Weiser
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/world/americas/04maps.html?ref=nyregion&pagewanted=print
When Colombian authorities boarded a ship in January 2006, they found more than just narcotics. They also discovered a map with crucial information: the current locations of Colombian and United States Navy and Coast Guard patrol boats.
The Colombians investigated, American officials said, and uncovered a ring of cocaine smugglers who also trafficked in navigational charts, selling them to drug organizations that used them to plan routes and avoid interdiction by law enforcement as they moved drugs on the high seas.
======
Israeli has 3-6 months to hit Iran’s nuclear sites if Moscow sells Tehran S-300 systems
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5635
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
October 7, 2008, 11:39 AM (GMT+02:00)
Russian military experts calculate that the window for an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities will shrink to 3-6 months if Moscow sells Iran (and Syria) the sophisticated S-300 system for guarding those sites against air, missile or cruise missile attack. DEBKAfile’s Moscow sources report that Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert failed in the key missions of his Moscow trip to persuade Russian leaders to discuss Tehran’s nuclear weapons program and to refrain from selling this advanced weapon to Iran and Syria.
President Dmitiry Medvedev’s bureau issued a noncommittal statement Tuesday, Oct. 7, saying that his talks with Olmert were “an exchange of opinion on threats, including terrorism and nonproliferation.” The word “nuclear” was avoided.
======
Independent.co.uk
Poker-game execution as Italy declares war on Mafia
By Peter Popham in RomeTuesday, 7 October 2008
Italy's Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, has described it as a civil war – and 18 bullets pumped into an innocent man playing cards on a Sunday morning proved him right.
Stanislao Cantelli was the uncle of two supergrasses and distantly related to another local mafia boss but he had led a blameless life. Having recently retired from his job as a technician in a mozzarella cheese factory, he was often seen pottering around the town of Casal di Principe in his battered Fiat Punto. For relaxation, he repaired to the Circolo Sociale Ricreativo, a shop converted into a social club on Via Umberto I, to play poker.
But two of Cantelli's nephews have turned state's counsel, and the evidence of one of them, Luigi Diana, was crucial in leading to the issuing of arrest warrants for 107 gangsters and the confiscation of more than €100m (£78m) worth of gang-owned property. So on Sunday, Cantelli's card game was interrupted by two men on a motorbike, one armed with an automatic pistol, who burst into the club and repeatedly fired on him. All the witnesses to the killing fled.
======
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/10/06/Mexico_drug_slayings_show_cartels_woes/UPI-25581223320061/
TIJUANA, Mexico, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The slayings of 57 gang members in Tijuana, Mexico, in recent weeks is a sign of the breakup of the city's Arellano Felix drug organization, authorities say. The Tijuana cartel, named for the Arellano Felix brothers, has ruled the city's lucrative drug trafficking business for two decades, but is now fractured and facing deadly attacks from other contenders, The Los Angeles Times reported Monday."We are now seeing the tail end" of the Arellano Felix organization, John Kirby, a former federal prosecutor in San Diego, told the newspaper. "They're losing what was left of their grip on Baja California."Law enforcement observers said the gang is under siege from alleged trafficker Ismael Zambada, known as Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
======
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/10/06/Mexico_drug_slayings_show_cartels_woes/UPI-25581223320061/
TIJUANA, Mexico, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The slayings of 57 gang members in Tijuana, Mexico, in recent weeks is a sign of the breakup of the city's Arellano Felix drug organization, authorities say. The Tijuana cartel, named for the Arellano Felix brothers, has ruled the city's lucrative drug trafficking business for two decades, but is now fractured and facing deadly attacks from other contenders, The Los Angeles Times reported Monday."We are now seeing the tail end" of the Arellano Felix organization, John Kirby, a former federal prosecutor in San Diego, told the newspaper. "They're losing what was left of their grip on Baja California."Law enforcement observers said the gang is under siege from alleged trafficker Ismael Zambada, known as Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
======
Sunday, October 5, 2008
ISLAMIC TAKE OVER OF KENYA
http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/118346
Having been in Kenya, I can say that the country has benefited, because of it’s stability, by a large influx of “European Capital.” , in banking, agriculture and the tourist industry.
This has been a carrot on the stick for Kenya’s government to maintain stability, and to that end it has evolved a decent army, which has prevented the infiltration of communist style liberals, who want “power to the people” which in Africa, means poverty and violent inter-tribal struggle and the emergence of tribal war lords.
Most of the original Euro capital in Kenya was British but later diversified to South Africans, Rhodesians, Germans, Dutch, Scandinavian, Israeli and British commonwealth investment.
As the Arab nations accumulated vast amounts of capital, they eyed Kenya’s Israeli investors who had invested billions of dollars in resorts which are situated on the Indian Ocean coast between Mombasa and Lamu on the Somalian border.
The Jewish presence ticked the Arabs wholesale. Islamofascists went in and attempted to RPG an Israeli airliner a few years ago, killing some Kenyan staff simultaneously in a resort in the Kikambala area.
The ex pat investors circled the wagons to keep the Islamofascists out of Kenya, as they attempted incursions into the Mombasa area. This was successful with the help of Kenya’s army. The Muslim council of Kenya and Somalia then decided to support takeover from within Kenya, by financing Odinga, and helping his campaign with infusions of mega bucks. Enter our relative, Obama, to assist.
The idea is to bring in sharia law for the whole of Kenya in order to shut down the Israeli resorts and to nationalize capital assets owned by foreigners, selling them to wealthy Arabs. The resorts now owned by the Israelis will become Arab pleasure palaces ( with the usual array of Muslim slave women from Indonesia, Russia, Palestine etc.), and those Kenyans now working there will become Muslims and enter into the traditional master/slave relationship that has always existed between Arabs and Africans, with some prominent Kenyans as the slave drivers, like Odinga.
Sharia law prevents alcohol, bikinis, and beach bongos. No more tourism. The Israelis will have to sell out to wealthy Arabs, and also risk being bombed and shot otherwise. Kenya will then enter the black hole other African nations have, and lapse into a religious oligarchy and become like Somalia.
The expat investment community in Kenya is in distress. They are on the verge of hiring large groups of mercenaries to defend their property and supplement the Kenyan Army.
The Arabs are prepared to fund the Luo and supply then with weaponry so they can usurp power through guerrilla warfare, with help from the Sudan and Somalia.Al Qaeda will likely get in on the act.
Obama knows all this, and he chose the side of economic and social devolution. That's why Obama is not fit to be president of the United States. His close ties with his family and many visits, have made it highly unlikely that he was “unaware “ of the dynamic. He is just too intelligent, and too black nationalist to have been duped by Odinga.
So the plan is to bring Kenya into an axis with adjacent Somalia and Sudan, and then Egypt will fall to Islamofascism. Eventually the Arab oil supply nations will be encircled. Thats the plan. Unseat the House of Saud, and recapture Mecca and the Oil Fields for the World Caliphate.
Odinga needs to be brought to justice. He and his Islamofascists need to be tried, and executed according to Kenyan Law for the genocide they have committed. Obama is an International criminal for aiding and abetting this Islamofascist movement, and the Kenyan government should issue a warrant for his arrest. Burning a church full of women and children is simply the beginning you see, for guerrilla warfare by the Luo is the next step in the usual Islamofascist evolution.The Luo are a distinct tribal minority, and seek to impose their will on a majority who want nothing to do with their scheme.
Unless Odinga and his henchmen are captured, tried and punished, this will go on for decades, and ruin a perfectly good country. Obama needs to be brought to a very short leash, and should resign his candidacy and his Senate Seat. Then he should be deported to Kenya to allow the Kenyan authorities to deal with him. I am sure he would be an excellent source of information to them.
These truths will never likely be addressed by the US MSM. Obama is their media darling, and that's part of the Obama plan. He can snub his nose at justice, because he is so popular. And if he plays his cards into the presidency, or a vice presidential office, he can help Odinga negotiate and consolidate his power in Kenya.Obama will do the same for other little jumped up African tyrants through supplying “ Hope and Change” aid to such idiots, and to Islamofascist organizations, without traducing current law on funding terrorist groups.
Soon the US government will be funding terrorist groups. For this reason Obama needs to be stopped now.He is a stone cold Islamofascist.
Having been in Kenya, I can say that the country has benefited, because of it’s stability, by a large influx of “European Capital.” , in banking, agriculture and the tourist industry.
This has been a carrot on the stick for Kenya’s government to maintain stability, and to that end it has evolved a decent army, which has prevented the infiltration of communist style liberals, who want “power to the people” which in Africa, means poverty and violent inter-tribal struggle and the emergence of tribal war lords.
Most of the original Euro capital in Kenya was British but later diversified to South Africans, Rhodesians, Germans, Dutch, Scandinavian, Israeli and British commonwealth investment.
As the Arab nations accumulated vast amounts of capital, they eyed Kenya’s Israeli investors who had invested billions of dollars in resorts which are situated on the Indian Ocean coast between Mombasa and Lamu on the Somalian border.
The Jewish presence ticked the Arabs wholesale. Islamofascists went in and attempted to RPG an Israeli airliner a few years ago, killing some Kenyan staff simultaneously in a resort in the Kikambala area.
The ex pat investors circled the wagons to keep the Islamofascists out of Kenya, as they attempted incursions into the Mombasa area. This was successful with the help of Kenya’s army. The Muslim council of Kenya and Somalia then decided to support takeover from within Kenya, by financing Odinga, and helping his campaign with infusions of mega bucks. Enter our relative, Obama, to assist.
The idea is to bring in sharia law for the whole of Kenya in order to shut down the Israeli resorts and to nationalize capital assets owned by foreigners, selling them to wealthy Arabs. The resorts now owned by the Israelis will become Arab pleasure palaces ( with the usual array of Muslim slave women from Indonesia, Russia, Palestine etc.), and those Kenyans now working there will become Muslims and enter into the traditional master/slave relationship that has always existed between Arabs and Africans, with some prominent Kenyans as the slave drivers, like Odinga.
Sharia law prevents alcohol, bikinis, and beach bongos. No more tourism. The Israelis will have to sell out to wealthy Arabs, and also risk being bombed and shot otherwise. Kenya will then enter the black hole other African nations have, and lapse into a religious oligarchy and become like Somalia.
The expat investment community in Kenya is in distress. They are on the verge of hiring large groups of mercenaries to defend their property and supplement the Kenyan Army.
The Arabs are prepared to fund the Luo and supply then with weaponry so they can usurp power through guerrilla warfare, with help from the Sudan and Somalia.Al Qaeda will likely get in on the act.
Obama knows all this, and he chose the side of economic and social devolution. That's why Obama is not fit to be president of the United States. His close ties with his family and many visits, have made it highly unlikely that he was “unaware “ of the dynamic. He is just too intelligent, and too black nationalist to have been duped by Odinga.
So the plan is to bring Kenya into an axis with adjacent Somalia and Sudan, and then Egypt will fall to Islamofascism. Eventually the Arab oil supply nations will be encircled. Thats the plan. Unseat the House of Saud, and recapture Mecca and the Oil Fields for the World Caliphate.
Odinga needs to be brought to justice. He and his Islamofascists need to be tried, and executed according to Kenyan Law for the genocide they have committed. Obama is an International criminal for aiding and abetting this Islamofascist movement, and the Kenyan government should issue a warrant for his arrest. Burning a church full of women and children is simply the beginning you see, for guerrilla warfare by the Luo is the next step in the usual Islamofascist evolution.The Luo are a distinct tribal minority, and seek to impose their will on a majority who want nothing to do with their scheme.
Unless Odinga and his henchmen are captured, tried and punished, this will go on for decades, and ruin a perfectly good country. Obama needs to be brought to a very short leash, and should resign his candidacy and his Senate Seat. Then he should be deported to Kenya to allow the Kenyan authorities to deal with him. I am sure he would be an excellent source of information to them.
These truths will never likely be addressed by the US MSM. Obama is their media darling, and that's part of the Obama plan. He can snub his nose at justice, because he is so popular. And if he plays his cards into the presidency, or a vice presidential office, he can help Odinga negotiate and consolidate his power in Kenya.Obama will do the same for other little jumped up African tyrants through supplying “ Hope and Change” aid to such idiots, and to Islamofascist organizations, without traducing current law on funding terrorist groups.
Soon the US government will be funding terrorist groups. For this reason Obama needs to be stopped now.He is a stone cold Islamofascist.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
ROUNDUP
Bomb, ‘Library’ Blast Sites
September 24, 2008
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/terrors-code-lingo-book-is-bomb-library-blast-sites/365103/
Atif, the alleged militant killed in last Friday’s encounter in Jamia Nagar, had formulated a unique code language to plan and execute the serial blasts on September 13, say police sources. In their code, the blast sites were called “library”, Special Cell officials revealed, following interrogation of the five suspected militants.
Islamabad Bombing I: Brute Force Tactics
http://terrorwonk.blogspot.com/2008/09/islamabad-bombing-i-brute-force-tactics.html
In the span of week, there were two attacks against hard targets, the September 17 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, and Saturday’s strike on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. Al-Qaeda and its affiliates still face difficulties launching attacks in Western countries, due to the difficulty of transporting the necessary experienced operatives to the West in the face of diligent and capable Western security services.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_on_re_us/nuclear_trash
Nuclear waste piles up at hospitals
By SEANNA ADCOX, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 25
BARNWELL, S.C. - Tubes, capsules and pellets of used radioactive material are piling up in the basements and locked closets of hospitals and research installations around the country, stoking fears they could get lost or, worse, stolen by terrorists and turned into dirty bombs.
A marxist AND a muslim...worst of 2 worlds.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/series8.aspx
Barack Obama has styled himself a centrist, but does his record support that claim? In this series, we examine Senator Obama's past, his voting record and the people who've served as his advisers and mentors over the years. We'll show how the facts of Obama's actions and associations reveal a far more left-leaning tilt to his background � and to his politics.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/IM_suspects_were_planning_serial_blasts_in_Mumbai_Cops/articleshow/3528216.cms
IM suspects were planning serial blasts in Mumbai: Police 26 Sep 2008
MUMBAI: Mumbai was heading for a blood-soaked festival season had cops not busted the Indian Mujahideen module, senior home department officials said on Thursday. And, despite the five arrests, the city is not yet totally out of danger. Officials say a dozen-odd members of the same module still remain outside and may yet wreak mayhem if Mumbai drops its guard.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200809250629.html
4 Simultaneous Attacks in Baidoa
Garowe Online (Garowe) September 2008
Somali insurgents attacked at least four separate locations in the southwestern town of Baidoa, including the homes of two lawmakers, local sources told Garowe Online.
The attacks took place midnight local time, with coordinated attacks on two police stations in two neighborhoods and the homes of two Somali members of parliament.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_world_1_26/09/2008_100794
KATHIMERINI
Thaci ire over Serbia’s UN move Kosovo leader blasts Belgrade’s effort to have World Court question legality of province’s independence Reuters
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci speaks during an interview with Reuters in Pristina yesterday. Thaci said Serbia’s push at the UN this week for a World Court review of Kosovo’s legal status could hurt stability in the region.
PRISTINA (Reuters) – Serbia’s push at the United Nations this week for a World Court review of Kosovo’s legal status could hurt stability in the Balkans, the prime minister of the former Serbian province said yesterday.
Hashim Thaci, a former guerrilla leader of Kosovo’s independence drive, referred to lobbying by Serbian President Boris Tadic and his foreign minister in recent days to slow global recognition of the landlocked Balkan country.
Sharia Law: Coming to a Western Nation Near You?
by Cinnamon Stillwell FrontPageMagazine.com September 25, 2008
http://www.meforum.org/article/1987
Georgetown University's Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) will be hosting a conference on October 23 that asks the loaded question: "Is There a Role for Shari'ah in Modern States?"
The Saudi-funded ACMCU and its founding director, John Esposito, one of the foremost apologists for radical Islam in the academic field of Middle East studies, have certainly been doing their bit to make the idea more palatable.
The Saudi prince for whom ACMCU was named has been pumping millions of dollars into Middle East studies at Georgetown, Harvard, UC Berkeley, and beyond, and as the case of Esposito demonstrates, it magnifies the voices of scholars with a decidedly uncritical bent.
As a result, ACMCU analysis regarding Sharia (or Islamic) law tends to focus not on its injustices (amputation, stoning, hanging, honor killing, punishment for blasphemy, execution of apostates, persecution of non-Muslims, sanctioned wife-beating, female genital mutilation, and so on), but rather on repackaging it in ways that will appeal to Western sensibilities.
The concept of a more "moderate" version of Sharia law that is compatible with democracy is at the forefront of this effort.
Is the world facing Thermobaric Terrorism?
By David Eshel - Defense Analyst
http://actionsbyt.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/new-type-of-terrorism/
The not so distant threat could involve a new terrorist weapon: the Thermobaric bomb
Canadian defense scientists are leading an international effort to devise protection against new and more powerful terrorist explosives designed to flatten buildings and rupture people’s internal organs.
This kind is of weapon, developed during the Cold War in the former Soviet Union, is known highly lethal in confined surroundings, such as underground tube systems and rail carriages.
According to Tom Burky, a leading explosives expert: ” Thermobaric bombs, which the U.S. military is striving to perfect, may also be emerging as a weapon of choice for terrorists”.
September 24, 2008
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/terrors-code-lingo-book-is-bomb-library-blast-sites/365103/
Atif, the alleged militant killed in last Friday’s encounter in Jamia Nagar, had formulated a unique code language to plan and execute the serial blasts on September 13, say police sources. In their code, the blast sites were called “library”, Special Cell officials revealed, following interrogation of the five suspected militants.
Islamabad Bombing I: Brute Force Tactics
http://terrorwonk.blogspot.com/2008/09/islamabad-bombing-i-brute-force-tactics.html
In the span of week, there were two attacks against hard targets, the September 17 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, and Saturday’s strike on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. Al-Qaeda and its affiliates still face difficulties launching attacks in Western countries, due to the difficulty of transporting the necessary experienced operatives to the West in the face of diligent and capable Western security services.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_on_re_us/nuclear_trash
Nuclear waste piles up at hospitals
By SEANNA ADCOX, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 25
BARNWELL, S.C. - Tubes, capsules and pellets of used radioactive material are piling up in the basements and locked closets of hospitals and research installations around the country, stoking fears they could get lost or, worse, stolen by terrorists and turned into dirty bombs.
A marxist AND a muslim...worst of 2 worlds.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/series8.aspx
Barack Obama has styled himself a centrist, but does his record support that claim? In this series, we examine Senator Obama's past, his voting record and the people who've served as his advisers and mentors over the years. We'll show how the facts of Obama's actions and associations reveal a far more left-leaning tilt to his background � and to his politics.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/IM_suspects_were_planning_serial_blasts_in_Mumbai_Cops/articleshow/3528216.cms
IM suspects were planning serial blasts in Mumbai: Police 26 Sep 2008
MUMBAI: Mumbai was heading for a blood-soaked festival season had cops not busted the Indian Mujahideen module, senior home department officials said on Thursday. And, despite the five arrests, the city is not yet totally out of danger. Officials say a dozen-odd members of the same module still remain outside and may yet wreak mayhem if Mumbai drops its guard.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200809250629.html
4 Simultaneous Attacks in Baidoa
Garowe Online (Garowe) September 2008
Somali insurgents attacked at least four separate locations in the southwestern town of Baidoa, including the homes of two lawmakers, local sources told Garowe Online.
The attacks took place midnight local time, with coordinated attacks on two police stations in two neighborhoods and the homes of two Somali members of parliament.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_world_1_26/09/2008_100794
KATHIMERINI
Thaci ire over Serbia’s UN move Kosovo leader blasts Belgrade’s effort to have World Court question legality of province’s independence Reuters
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci speaks during an interview with Reuters in Pristina yesterday. Thaci said Serbia’s push at the UN this week for a World Court review of Kosovo’s legal status could hurt stability in the region.
PRISTINA (Reuters) – Serbia’s push at the United Nations this week for a World Court review of Kosovo’s legal status could hurt stability in the Balkans, the prime minister of the former Serbian province said yesterday.
Hashim Thaci, a former guerrilla leader of Kosovo’s independence drive, referred to lobbying by Serbian President Boris Tadic and his foreign minister in recent days to slow global recognition of the landlocked Balkan country.
Sharia Law: Coming to a Western Nation Near You?
by Cinnamon Stillwell FrontPageMagazine.com September 25, 2008
http://www.meforum.org/article/1987
Georgetown University's Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) will be hosting a conference on October 23 that asks the loaded question: "Is There a Role for Shari'ah in Modern States?"
The Saudi-funded ACMCU and its founding director, John Esposito, one of the foremost apologists for radical Islam in the academic field of Middle East studies, have certainly been doing their bit to make the idea more palatable.
The Saudi prince for whom ACMCU was named has been pumping millions of dollars into Middle East studies at Georgetown, Harvard, UC Berkeley, and beyond, and as the case of Esposito demonstrates, it magnifies the voices of scholars with a decidedly uncritical bent.
As a result, ACMCU analysis regarding Sharia (or Islamic) law tends to focus not on its injustices (amputation, stoning, hanging, honor killing, punishment for blasphemy, execution of apostates, persecution of non-Muslims, sanctioned wife-beating, female genital mutilation, and so on), but rather on repackaging it in ways that will appeal to Western sensibilities.
The concept of a more "moderate" version of Sharia law that is compatible with democracy is at the forefront of this effort.
Is the world facing Thermobaric Terrorism?
By David Eshel - Defense Analyst
http://actionsbyt.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/new-type-of-terrorism/
The not so distant threat could involve a new terrorist weapon: the Thermobaric bomb
Canadian defense scientists are leading an international effort to devise protection against new and more powerful terrorist explosives designed to flatten buildings and rupture people’s internal organs.
This kind is of weapon, developed during the Cold War in the former Soviet Union, is known highly lethal in confined surroundings, such as underground tube systems and rail carriages.
According to Tom Burky, a leading explosives expert: ” Thermobaric bombs, which the U.S. military is striving to perfect, may also be emerging as a weapon of choice for terrorists”.
Monday, September 15, 2008
AN IRON BURKHA DESCENDS ON EUROPE - ENGLAND IS TOAST
Abul Taher
ISLAMIC law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases.
The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.
Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.
Previously, the rulings of sharia courts in Britain could not be enforced, and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims.
It has now emerged that sharia courts with these powers have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester with the network’s headquarters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
Two more courts are being planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, said he had taken advantage of a clause in the Arbitration Act 1996.
Under the act, the sharia courts are classified as arbitration tribunals. The rulings of arbitration tribunals are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to give it the power to rule on their case.
Siddiqi said: “We realised that under the Arbitration Act we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts. The act allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals. This method is called alternative dispute resolution, which for Muslims is what the sharia courts are.”
The disclosure that Muslim courts have legal powers in Britain comes seven months after Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was pilloried for suggesting that the establishment of sharia in the future “seems unavoidable” in Britain.
In July, the head of the judiciary, the lord chief justice, Lord Phillips, further stoked controversy when he said that sharia could be used to settle marital and financial disputes.
In fact, Muslim tribunal courts started passing sharia judgments in August 2007. They have dealt with more than 100 cases that range from Muslim divorce and inheritance to nuisance neighbours.
It has also emerged that tribunal courts have settled six cases of domestic violence between married couples, working in tandem with the police investigations.
Siddiqi said he expected the courts to handle a greater number of “smaller” criminal cases in coming years as more Muslim clients approach them. “All we are doing is regulating community affairs in these cases,” said Siddiqi, chairman of the governing council of the tribunal.
Jewish Beth Din courts operate under the same provision in the Arbitration Act and resolve civil cases, ranging from divorce to business disputes. They have existed in Britain for more than 100 years, and previously operated under a precursor to the act.
Politicians and church leaders expressed concerns that this could mark the beginnings of a “parallel legal system” based on sharia for some British Muslims.
Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: “If it is true that these tribunals are passing binding decisions in the areas of family and criminal law, I would like to know which courts are enforcing them because I would consider such action unlawful. British law is absolute and must remain so.”
Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “I think it’s appalling. I don’t think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state.”
There are concerns that women who agree to go to tribunal courts are getting worse deals because Islamic law favours men.
Siddiqi said that in a recent inheritance dispute handled by the court in Nuneaton, the estate of a Midlands man was divided between three daughters and two sons.
The judges on the panel gave the sons twice as much as the daughters, in accordance with sharia. Had the family gone to a normal British court, the daughters would have got equal amounts.
In the six cases of domestic violence, Siddiqi said the judges ordered the husbands to take anger management classes and mentoring from community elders. There was no further punishment.
In each case, the women subsequently withdrew the complaints they had lodged with the police and the police stopped their investigations.
Siddiqi said that in the domestic violence cases, the advantage was that marriages were saved and couples given a second chance.
Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “The MCB supports these tribunals. If the Jewish courts are allowed to flourish, so must the sharia ones.”
ISLAMIC law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases.
The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.
Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.
Previously, the rulings of sharia courts in Britain could not be enforced, and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims.
It has now emerged that sharia courts with these powers have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester with the network’s headquarters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
Two more courts are being planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, said he had taken advantage of a clause in the Arbitration Act 1996.
Under the act, the sharia courts are classified as arbitration tribunals. The rulings of arbitration tribunals are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to give it the power to rule on their case.
Siddiqi said: “We realised that under the Arbitration Act we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts. The act allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals. This method is called alternative dispute resolution, which for Muslims is what the sharia courts are.”
The disclosure that Muslim courts have legal powers in Britain comes seven months after Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was pilloried for suggesting that the establishment of sharia in the future “seems unavoidable” in Britain.
In July, the head of the judiciary, the lord chief justice, Lord Phillips, further stoked controversy when he said that sharia could be used to settle marital and financial disputes.
In fact, Muslim tribunal courts started passing sharia judgments in August 2007. They have dealt with more than 100 cases that range from Muslim divorce and inheritance to nuisance neighbours.
It has also emerged that tribunal courts have settled six cases of domestic violence between married couples, working in tandem with the police investigations.
Siddiqi said he expected the courts to handle a greater number of “smaller” criminal cases in coming years as more Muslim clients approach them. “All we are doing is regulating community affairs in these cases,” said Siddiqi, chairman of the governing council of the tribunal.
Jewish Beth Din courts operate under the same provision in the Arbitration Act and resolve civil cases, ranging from divorce to business disputes. They have existed in Britain for more than 100 years, and previously operated under a precursor to the act.
Politicians and church leaders expressed concerns that this could mark the beginnings of a “parallel legal system” based on sharia for some British Muslims.
Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: “If it is true that these tribunals are passing binding decisions in the areas of family and criminal law, I would like to know which courts are enforcing them because I would consider such action unlawful. British law is absolute and must remain so.”
Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “I think it’s appalling. I don’t think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state.”
There are concerns that women who agree to go to tribunal courts are getting worse deals because Islamic law favours men.
Siddiqi said that in a recent inheritance dispute handled by the court in Nuneaton, the estate of a Midlands man was divided between three daughters and two sons.
The judges on the panel gave the sons twice as much as the daughters, in accordance with sharia. Had the family gone to a normal British court, the daughters would have got equal amounts.
In the six cases of domestic violence, Siddiqi said the judges ordered the husbands to take anger management classes and mentoring from community elders. There was no further punishment.
In each case, the women subsequently withdrew the complaints they had lodged with the police and the police stopped their investigations.
Siddiqi said that in the domestic violence cases, the advantage was that marriages were saved and couples given a second chance.
Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “The MCB supports these tribunals. If the Jewish courts are allowed to flourish, so must the sharia ones.”
Saturday, September 13, 2008
EDITED OUT PARTS OF PALIN ABC INTERVIEW
CLICK ON TITLE TO SEE THE FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT WITH UNDERLINED, BOLD TEXT SHOWING THE PARTS LEFT OUT
A transcript of the unedited interview of Sarah Palin by Charles Gibson clearly shows that ABC News edited out crucial portions of the interview that showed Palin as knowledgeable or presented her answers out of context. This unedited transcript of the first of the Gibson interviews with Palin is available on radio host Mark Levin's website.
The sections edited out by ABC News are in bold. The first edit shows Palin responding about meeting with foreign leaders but this was actually in response to a question Gibson asked several questions earlier:
GIBSON: Have you ever met a foreign head of state?
PALIN: There in the state of Alaska, our international trade activities bring in many leaders of other countries.
GIBSON: And all governors deal with trade delegations.
PALIN: Right.
GIBSON: Who act at the behest of their governments.
PALIN: Right, right.
GIBSON: I’m talking about somebody who’s a head of state, who can negotiate for that country. Ever met one?
PALIN: I have not and I think if you go back in history and if you ask that question of many vice presidents, they may have the same answer that I just gave you. But, Charlie, again, we’ve got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time. It is for no more politics as usual and somebody’s big, fat resume maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment, where, yes, they’ve had opportunities to meet heads of state … these last couple of weeks … it has been overwhelming to me that confirmation of the message that Americans are getting sick and tired of that self-dealing and kind of that closed door, good old boy network that has been the Washington elite.
Next we see that Palin was not nearly as hostile towards Russia as was presented in the edited interview:
GIBSON: Let me ask you about some specific national security situations.
PALIN: Sure.
GIBSON: Let’s start, because we are near Russia, let’s start with Russia and Georgia.
The administration has said we’ve got to maintain the territorial integrity of Georgia. Do you believe the United States should try to restore Georgian sovereignty over South Ossetia and Abkhazia?
PALIN: First off, we’re going to continue good relations with Saakashvili there. I was able to speak with him the other day and giving him my commitment, as John McCain’s running mate, that we will be committed to Georgia. And we’ve got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable and we have to keep…
GIBSON: You believe unprovoked.
PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on Russia, under the leadership there. I think it was unfortunate. That manifestation that we saw with that invasion of Georgia shows us some steps backwards that Russia has recently taken away from the race toward a more democratic nation with democratic ideals. That’s why we have to keep an eye on Russia.
And, Charlie, you’re in Alaska. We have that very narrow maritime border between the United States, and the 49th state, Alaska, and Russia. They are our next door neighbors.We need to have a good relationship with them. They’re very, very important to us and they are our next door neighbor.
GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?
PALIN: They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see
Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.
GIBSON: What insight does that give you into what they’re doing in Georgia?
PALIN: Well, I’m giving you that perspective of how small our world is and how important it is that we work with our allies to keep good relation with all of these countries, especially Russia. We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.
We also see from Palin's following remark, which was also edited out, that she is far from some sort of latter day Cold Warrior which the edited interview made her seem to be:
We cannot repeat the Cold War. We are thankful that, under Reagan, we won the Cold War, without a shot fired, also. We’ve learned lessons from that in our relationship with Russia, previously the Soviet Union.
We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.
Palin's extended remarks about defending our NATO allies were edited out to make it seem that she was ready to go to war with Russia.
GIBSON: And under the NATO treaty, wouldn’t we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?
PALIN: Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help.
But NATO, I think, should include Ukraine, definitely, at this point and I think that we need to — especially with new leadership coming in on January 20, being sworn on, on either ticket, we have got to make sure that we strengthen our allies, our ties with each one of those NATO members.
We have got to make sure that that is the group that can be counted upon to defend one another in a very dangerous world today.
GIBSON: And you think it would be worth it to the United States, Georgia is worth it to the United States to go to war if Russia were to invade.
PALIN: What I think is that smaller democratic countries that are invaded by a larger power is something for us to be vigilant against. We have got to be cognizant of what the consequences are if a larger power is able to take over smaller democratic countries.
And we have got to be vigilant. We have got to show the support, in this case, for Georgia. The support that we can show is economic sanctions perhaps against Russia, if this is what it leads to.
It doesn’t have to lead to war and it doesn’t have to lead, as I said, to a Cold War, but economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, again, counting on our allies to help us do that in this mission of keeping our eye on Russia and Putin and some of his desire to control and to control much more than smaller democratic countries.
His mission, if it is to control energy supplies, also, coming from and through Russia, that’s a dangerous position for our world to be in, if we were to allow that to happen.
That answer presented Palin as a bit too knowledgeable for the purposes of ABC News and was, of course, edited out. Palin's answers about a nuclear Iran were carefully edited to the point where she was even edited out in mid-sentence to make it seem that Palin favored unilateral action against that country:
GIBSON: Let me turn to Iran. Do you consider a nuclear Iran to be an existential threat to Israel?
PALIN: I believe that under the leadership of Ahmadinejad, nuclear weapons in the hands of his government are extremely dangerous to everyone on this globe, yes.
GIBSON: So what should we do about a nuclear Iran? John McCain said the only thing worse than a war with Iran would be a nuclear Iran. John Abizaid said we may have to live with a nuclear Iran. Who’s right?
PALIN: No, no. I agree with John McCain that nuclear weapons in the hands of those who would seek to destroy our allies, in this case, we’re talking about Israel, we’re talking about Ahmadinejad’s comment about Israel being the “stinking corpse, should be wiped off the face of the earth,” that’s atrocious. That’s unacceptable.
GIBSON: So what do you do about a nuclear Iran?
PALIN: We have got to make sure that these weapons of mass destruction, that nuclear weapons are not given to those hands of Ahmadinejad, not that he would use them, but that he would allow terrorists to be able to use them. So we have got to put the pressure on Iran and we have got to count on our allies to help us, diplomatic pressure.
GIBSON: But, Governor, we’ve threatened greater sanctions against Iran for a long time. It hasn’t done any good. It hasn’t stemmed their nuclear program.
PALIN: We need to pursue those and we need to implement those. We cannot back off. We cannot just concede that, oh, gee, maybe they’re going to have nuclear weapons, what can we do about it. No way, not Americans. We do not have to stand for that.
Laughably, a remark by Gibson that indicated he agreed with Palin was edited out:
PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he said — first, he suggested never presume to know what God’s will is, and I would never presume to know God’s will or to speak God’s words.
But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side.
That’s what that comment was all about, Charlie. And I do believe, though, that this war against extreme Islamic terrorists is the right thing. It’s an unfortunate thing, because war is hell and I hate war, and, Charlie, today is the day that I send my first born, my son, my teenage son overseas with his Stryker brigade, 4,000 other wonderful American men and women, to fight for our country, for democracy, for our freedoms.
Charlie, those are freedoms that too many of us just take for granted. I hate war and I want to see war ended. We end war when we see victory, and we do see victory in sight in Iraq.
GIBSON: I take your point about Lincoln’s words, but you went on and said, “There is a plan and it is God’s plan.”
Gibson took her point about Lincoln's words but we wouldn't know that by watching the interview since it was left on the cutting room floor. I urge everybody to see just how the unedited version of the first interview compared to what we saw on television by checking out the full transcript. It is a fascinating look into media manipulation via skillful editing.
A transcript of the unedited interview of Sarah Palin by Charles Gibson clearly shows that ABC News edited out crucial portions of the interview that showed Palin as knowledgeable or presented her answers out of context. This unedited transcript of the first of the Gibson interviews with Palin is available on radio host Mark Levin's website.
The sections edited out by ABC News are in bold. The first edit shows Palin responding about meeting with foreign leaders but this was actually in response to a question Gibson asked several questions earlier:
GIBSON: Have you ever met a foreign head of state?
PALIN: There in the state of Alaska, our international trade activities bring in many leaders of other countries.
GIBSON: And all governors deal with trade delegations.
PALIN: Right.
GIBSON: Who act at the behest of their governments.
PALIN: Right, right.
GIBSON: I’m talking about somebody who’s a head of state, who can negotiate for that country. Ever met one?
PALIN: I have not and I think if you go back in history and if you ask that question of many vice presidents, they may have the same answer that I just gave you. But, Charlie, again, we’ve got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time. It is for no more politics as usual and somebody’s big, fat resume maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment, where, yes, they’ve had opportunities to meet heads of state … these last couple of weeks … it has been overwhelming to me that confirmation of the message that Americans are getting sick and tired of that self-dealing and kind of that closed door, good old boy network that has been the Washington elite.
Next we see that Palin was not nearly as hostile towards Russia as was presented in the edited interview:
GIBSON: Let me ask you about some specific national security situations.
PALIN: Sure.
GIBSON: Let’s start, because we are near Russia, let’s start with Russia and Georgia.
The administration has said we’ve got to maintain the territorial integrity of Georgia. Do you believe the United States should try to restore Georgian sovereignty over South Ossetia and Abkhazia?
PALIN: First off, we’re going to continue good relations with Saakashvili there. I was able to speak with him the other day and giving him my commitment, as John McCain’s running mate, that we will be committed to Georgia. And we’ve got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable and we have to keep…
GIBSON: You believe unprovoked.
PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on Russia, under the leadership there. I think it was unfortunate. That manifestation that we saw with that invasion of Georgia shows us some steps backwards that Russia has recently taken away from the race toward a more democratic nation with democratic ideals. That’s why we have to keep an eye on Russia.
And, Charlie, you’re in Alaska. We have that very narrow maritime border between the United States, and the 49th state, Alaska, and Russia. They are our next door neighbors.We need to have a good relationship with them. They’re very, very important to us and they are our next door neighbor.
GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?
PALIN: They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see
Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.
GIBSON: What insight does that give you into what they’re doing in Georgia?
PALIN: Well, I’m giving you that perspective of how small our world is and how important it is that we work with our allies to keep good relation with all of these countries, especially Russia. We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.
We also see from Palin's following remark, which was also edited out, that she is far from some sort of latter day Cold Warrior which the edited interview made her seem to be:
We cannot repeat the Cold War. We are thankful that, under Reagan, we won the Cold War, without a shot fired, also. We’ve learned lessons from that in our relationship with Russia, previously the Soviet Union.
We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.
Palin's extended remarks about defending our NATO allies were edited out to make it seem that she was ready to go to war with Russia.
GIBSON: And under the NATO treaty, wouldn’t we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?
PALIN: Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help.
But NATO, I think, should include Ukraine, definitely, at this point and I think that we need to — especially with new leadership coming in on January 20, being sworn on, on either ticket, we have got to make sure that we strengthen our allies, our ties with each one of those NATO members.
We have got to make sure that that is the group that can be counted upon to defend one another in a very dangerous world today.
GIBSON: And you think it would be worth it to the United States, Georgia is worth it to the United States to go to war if Russia were to invade.
PALIN: What I think is that smaller democratic countries that are invaded by a larger power is something for us to be vigilant against. We have got to be cognizant of what the consequences are if a larger power is able to take over smaller democratic countries.
And we have got to be vigilant. We have got to show the support, in this case, for Georgia. The support that we can show is economic sanctions perhaps against Russia, if this is what it leads to.
It doesn’t have to lead to war and it doesn’t have to lead, as I said, to a Cold War, but economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, again, counting on our allies to help us do that in this mission of keeping our eye on Russia and Putin and some of his desire to control and to control much more than smaller democratic countries.
His mission, if it is to control energy supplies, also, coming from and through Russia, that’s a dangerous position for our world to be in, if we were to allow that to happen.
That answer presented Palin as a bit too knowledgeable for the purposes of ABC News and was, of course, edited out. Palin's answers about a nuclear Iran were carefully edited to the point where she was even edited out in mid-sentence to make it seem that Palin favored unilateral action against that country:
GIBSON: Let me turn to Iran. Do you consider a nuclear Iran to be an existential threat to Israel?
PALIN: I believe that under the leadership of Ahmadinejad, nuclear weapons in the hands of his government are extremely dangerous to everyone on this globe, yes.
GIBSON: So what should we do about a nuclear Iran? John McCain said the only thing worse than a war with Iran would be a nuclear Iran. John Abizaid said we may have to live with a nuclear Iran. Who’s right?
PALIN: No, no. I agree with John McCain that nuclear weapons in the hands of those who would seek to destroy our allies, in this case, we’re talking about Israel, we’re talking about Ahmadinejad’s comment about Israel being the “stinking corpse, should be wiped off the face of the earth,” that’s atrocious. That’s unacceptable.
GIBSON: So what do you do about a nuclear Iran?
PALIN: We have got to make sure that these weapons of mass destruction, that nuclear weapons are not given to those hands of Ahmadinejad, not that he would use them, but that he would allow terrorists to be able to use them. So we have got to put the pressure on Iran and we have got to count on our allies to help us, diplomatic pressure.
GIBSON: But, Governor, we’ve threatened greater sanctions against Iran for a long time. It hasn’t done any good. It hasn’t stemmed their nuclear program.
PALIN: We need to pursue those and we need to implement those. We cannot back off. We cannot just concede that, oh, gee, maybe they’re going to have nuclear weapons, what can we do about it. No way, not Americans. We do not have to stand for that.
Laughably, a remark by Gibson that indicated he agreed with Palin was edited out:
PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he said — first, he suggested never presume to know what God’s will is, and I would never presume to know God’s will or to speak God’s words.
But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side.
That’s what that comment was all about, Charlie. And I do believe, though, that this war against extreme Islamic terrorists is the right thing. It’s an unfortunate thing, because war is hell and I hate war, and, Charlie, today is the day that I send my first born, my son, my teenage son overseas with his Stryker brigade, 4,000 other wonderful American men and women, to fight for our country, for democracy, for our freedoms.
Charlie, those are freedoms that too many of us just take for granted. I hate war and I want to see war ended. We end war when we see victory, and we do see victory in sight in Iraq.
GIBSON: I take your point about Lincoln’s words, but you went on and said, “There is a plan and it is God’s plan.”
Gibson took her point about Lincoln's words but we wouldn't know that by watching the interview since it was left on the cutting room floor. I urge everybody to see just how the unedited version of the first interview compared to what we saw on television by checking out the full transcript. It is a fascinating look into media manipulation via skillful editing.
Friday, September 12, 2008
MICHELLE OBAMA'S THESIS
Saturday, September 6, 2008
NEWS ROUNDUP
Two hillbillies walk into a restaurant. While having a bite to eat, they talk about their moonshine operation.
Suddenly, a woman at a nearby table, who is eating a sandwich, begins to cough. And, after a minute or so, it becomes apparent that she is in real distress.
One of the hillbillies looks at her and says, 'Kin ya swallar?' The woman shakes her head no.
Then he asks, 'Kin ya breathe?' The woman begins to turn blue and shakes her head no.
The hillbilly walks over to the woman, lifts up her dress, yanks down her drawers and quickly gives her right butt cheek a lick with his tongue.
The woman is so shocked that she has a violent spasm and the obstruction flies out of her mouth. As she begins to breathe again, the Hillbilly walks slowly back to his table.
His partner says, 'Ya know, I'd heerd of that there 'Hind Lick Maneuver' but I ain't niver seed nobody do it!'
=====
Leaving Islam
By Jamie Glazov
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Mohammad Asghar, an ex-Muslim who came out of Islam after discovering its true teachings. Together with studying the Qur’an for over twenty-five years, he has also been writing his commentary on its verses - an endeavor, he hopes, that will help non-Muslim leaders, as well as ordinary citizens, understand the true messages they convey to Muslims.
READ FULL ARTICLE click here
=====
British Ignore Jihad and Islamic Supremacism To Their Peril (Part Two of Two)
Jeffrey Imm
Part One can be found here.
UK Security Minister Views UK as "World Leader" Against TerrorismIn July 2007, Admiral Sir Alan West was appointed UK Home Office Security Minister. Security Minister West (former "First Sea Lord") has a distinguished naval history, service in the Falklands war, and role in naval intelligence during the first Gulf War. He calls himself a "simple sailor." On July 31, 2007, he stated that he was uncertain as to the basis for the growing Jihadist terrorism in the United Kingdom, despite the numerous reports, studies, and public statements of Islamic supremacists. Sir West told American audiences that "[w]e need to dig deeper as a country to find out why this particular form of terrorist extremism is happening."
Full Article click here
=====
Morocco: Terror cell planned attack against UN force
Rabat
- An Al-Qaeda cell dismantled by Moroccan police last week had been planning a terrorist attack against United Nations' peacekeeping forces in the Western Sahara, an Arab newspaper has claimed.
According to Rabat security sources cited in the Arab daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat, members of the Fath al-Andalus cell were planning to attack soldiers from the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara based in al-Ayoun.
According to investigations, the five members of the cell had been in contact via the Internet with Arab Afghanis that had also operated in Iraq, Algeria and Lebanon and were ready to teach them long distance bombing techniques.
Full story click here
Suddenly, a woman at a nearby table, who is eating a sandwich, begins to cough. And, after a minute or so, it becomes apparent that she is in real distress.
One of the hillbillies looks at her and says, 'Kin ya swallar?' The woman shakes her head no.
Then he asks, 'Kin ya breathe?' The woman begins to turn blue and shakes her head no.
The hillbilly walks over to the woman, lifts up her dress, yanks down her drawers and quickly gives her right butt cheek a lick with his tongue.
The woman is so shocked that she has a violent spasm and the obstruction flies out of her mouth. As she begins to breathe again, the Hillbilly walks slowly back to his table.
His partner says, 'Ya know, I'd heerd of that there 'Hind Lick Maneuver' but I ain't niver seed nobody do it!'
=====
Leaving Islam
By Jamie Glazov
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Mohammad Asghar, an ex-Muslim who came out of Islam after discovering its true teachings. Together with studying the Qur’an for over twenty-five years, he has also been writing his commentary on its verses - an endeavor, he hopes, that will help non-Muslim leaders, as well as ordinary citizens, understand the true messages they convey to Muslims.
READ FULL ARTICLE click here
=====
British Ignore Jihad and Islamic Supremacism To Their Peril (Part Two of Two)
Jeffrey Imm
Part One can be found here.
UK Security Minister Views UK as "World Leader" Against TerrorismIn July 2007, Admiral Sir Alan West was appointed UK Home Office Security Minister. Security Minister West (former "First Sea Lord") has a distinguished naval history, service in the Falklands war, and role in naval intelligence during the first Gulf War. He calls himself a "simple sailor." On July 31, 2007, he stated that he was uncertain as to the basis for the growing Jihadist terrorism in the United Kingdom, despite the numerous reports, studies, and public statements of Islamic supremacists. Sir West told American audiences that "[w]e need to dig deeper as a country to find out why this particular form of terrorist extremism is happening."
Full Article click here
=====
Morocco: Terror cell planned attack against UN force
Rabat
- An Al-Qaeda cell dismantled by Moroccan police last week had been planning a terrorist attack against United Nations' peacekeeping forces in the Western Sahara, an Arab newspaper has claimed.
According to Rabat security sources cited in the Arab daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat, members of the Fath al-Andalus cell were planning to attack soldiers from the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara based in al-Ayoun.
According to investigations, the five members of the cell had been in contact via the Internet with Arab Afghanis that had also operated in Iraq, Algeria and Lebanon and were ready to teach them long distance bombing techniques.
Full story click here
Saturday, August 30, 2008
DAILY ALERTS
To contact the Presidents Conference:click here
In-Depth Issues:
()
-->Report: Iran Supplied Hizbullah with Advanced Missiles - Roee Nahmias (Ynet News) Iran has supplied Hizbullah with missiles equipped with advanced navigation mechanisms which can accurately hit extensive targets inside Israel, the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi reported Friday, quoting Arab sources. In addition, the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Siyasa reported Tuesday that 300 Iranian experts were working to build an array of antiaircraft missile installations on the mountain range in western Lebanon.
Iran Condemned for Surge of Youth Hangings - Michael Theodoulou (Times-UK) Iran, the world's most prolific executioner after China, has hanged a woman and four men for murder in defiance of mounting criticism from human rights groups. The latest hangings brought to 232 the number executions in Iran this year, compared to 317 in 2007, according to Amnesty International. Of particular concern is the number of youths facing execution for crimes they committed as children. Amnesty International told the Times, there are "at least 132 juvenile offenders known to be on death row." Human Rights Watch said Iran "leads the world in executing juvenile offenders."
Ten Roadblocks Removed in the Hebron Area (IDF Spokesperson's Office/IMRA) During the past few weeks, ten roadblocks were removed in the Hebron area in order to improve the routine life of the Palestinian population. Approximately 100 IDF checkpoints were removed in the past months in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.
PA, Germany Sign Agreement to Establish 55 Police Stations in West Bank (Maan News-PA) Palestinian Interior Minister Abd Ar-Razaq al-Yahya and German Representative to the PA Klaus Burkhardt on Thursday signed a joint agreement to establish 55 new police stations in the West Bank.
Brand Israel - Haskell Nussbaum (Jerusalem Post) September marks the beginning of an ambitious new pilot program, being run by the consul-general in Toronto, Amir Gissin, to "rebrand" Israel. Starting with print ads in bus shelters and billboards, and continuing with radio and editorial content, Israel will be portrayed as an innovative leader in technology that brings real benefits to people. "Explaining why we are right is not enough," says Gissin. "Our goal is to make Israel relevant and attractive to Canadians and to refocus attention away from the conflict." The writer is the author of 101+ Ways to Help Israel: A Guide to Doing Small Things that Can Make Big Differences.
Israel Leads OECD in R&D - Gali Weinreb (Globes) Israel tops the OECD in terms of civilian R&D expenditure as a proportion of GDP, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported. Israel spent 4.7% of GDP on civilian R&D expenditure. The OECD average was 1.7%; Japan and South Korea each spent 3.2%, and the U.S. spent 2.2%.
Israel's Kibbutzim Finding New Life as Hotels - Sarah Wildman (Dallas Morning News-New York Times) The newfound capitalist success of the kibbutz hotel movement is an oxymoron. Across the country, kibbutzim, the socialist collective farms created by early Zionist pioneers, increasingly have encouraged visitors to be paying guests rather than volunteers. With a couple of years of relative peace and a few capitalist changes, kibbutzim have become a draw again for Israelis who are weary of city life, for global volunteers and for tourists.
Four Questions about American Jewish Demography - Ira M. Sheskin (Jewish Political Studies Review) The most probable number of Jews living in the U.S. is between 6.0 and 6.4 million. It thus appears that the number of Jews in the U.S. is currently higher than the number in Israel, though this is very likely to change in the future. The writer is associate professor of geography and regional studies at the University of Miami and has completed or is currently working on 43 major demographic studies for Jewish federations throughout the U.S.
Useful Reference:
Photos from Hamas Summer Camp: Campers Receiving Paramilitary Training (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)
For Researchers: Search the Daily Alert Archive All back issues of Daily Alert since May 2002 are available online and are searchable.This invaluable Internet resource documents the recent history of Israel and the Middle East. See also israelresearch.org Insider information on Israel's national security issues - filtered, sifted, and stored for easy retrieval - from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
U.S. Refuses to Follow France's Lead and Talk with SyriaThe U.S. refuses to follow France's lead and will not talk to Syria until it decides to take a "positive role" in international affairs, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Thursday. French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Wednesday that he would visit Damascus on September 3-4, after welcoming Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Paris last month.
Wood restated U.S. policy that precludes any dialogue with Syria unless it decides "to play a positive role, stay out of the internal affairs of Lebanon, stop supporting terrorists and be a productive player on the world scene....Today, it has not been."
"Until Syria plays a positive role in the region, it is going to continue to isolate itself," he said. Washington continues to blacklist Damascus as a state sponsor of terrorism. (AFP)
See also Israel: Assad Not Serious about Peace
Syria's rush to take advantage of the conflict in Georgia and the Russia-U.S. rift to cozy up to Moscow seems to indicate that it is not interested in serious negotiations with Israel even with U.S. participation, diplomatic officials in Jerusalem said on Thursday. "It is not at all clear what the Syrians want," one Israeli diplomatic official said. "They say that above all, they want American involvement in the talks with Israel, but then they side clearly with the Russians during a time of great tension with the U.S. and NATO." (Jerusalem Post)
Iran Says 4,000 Atomic Centrifuges Working - Hashem Kalantari"There are currently close to 4,000 centrifuges active at the Natanz enrichment facility....Another 3,000 centrifuges are being installed," Deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Sheikh Attar told Iranian state television, the official IRNA news agency reported. President Ahmadinejad said last month Iran had more than 5,000 centrifuges running. (Reuters)
One Dead in Attack on Lebanese Helicopter - Zeina KaramAttackers opened fire on a Lebanese military helicopter Thursday, killing an army officer and forcing the craft to make an emergency landing, a senior security official said. The area where the helicopter came under fire is a predominantly Shiite region southeast of Sidon and a Hizbullah stronghold. (AP)
See also Hizbullah Downs Lebanese Chopper, Thinking It Israeli - Amos HarelHizbullah downed a Lebanese Army helicopter on Thursday in what Israeli officials believe was a case of mistaken identity. Israeli officials noted that Hizbullah has recently been trying to improve its anti-aircraft capabilities with the goal of downing Israeli planes. (Ha'aretz)
Abbas: No Resettlement of Palestinians in Lebanon - Bassem MroueAbout 400,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants live in a dozen refugee camps in Lebanon, which were set up in 1948. On a visit to Beirut on Thursday, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said, "The refugees should have the right of return to their homeland and we are negotiating this with the Israelis....We are against permanent resettlement" of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. (AP/Washington Post)
Egypt to Open Its Border with Gaza on WeekendEgypt will open its border with Gaza for two days on Saturday and Sunday to allow stranded and humanitarian cases to cross, Hamas sources in Gaza said Thursday. Some 1,500 Egyptians stuck in Gaza will go home on Saturday and 400 Palestinian patients will leave for medical treatment in Egypt on Sunday. (Xinhua-China)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Report: Israel Reaches Strategic Decision Not to Let Iran Go Nuclear
The Israeli government has recently decided in a special discussion that it will not hesitate to use whatever means necessary to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the Israeli daily Ma'ariv reported. Because of Israel's lack of strategic depth, Jerusalem has consistently warned it will not settle for a "wait and see" approach, but rather use preemption to prevent any risk of being hit in the first place. Former Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh visited Switzerland and Austria last week, after both countries announced massive long-term investments in Iranian gas and oil fields for the next decade.
"Talk of the Jewish Holocaust and Israel's security doesn't impress these guys," Sneh said wryly. Hearing his hosts speak of their future investments, Sneh replied, "It's a shame, because Ido will light all this up." He was referring to Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, the recently appointed commander of the Israel Air Force. "Investing in Iran in 2008," Sneh told his Austrian hosts, "is like investing in the Krups Steelworks in 1938, it's a high-risk investment." The Austrians, according to Sneh, turned pale. (Jerusalem Post)
Militants Take Control of Hamas Council - Khaled Abu ToamehThe results of a recent election held for one of Hamas' key decision-making bodies are likely to hinder efforts to free kidnapped IDF soldier St.-Sgt Gilad Shalit, sources in Gaza told the Jerusalem Post on Thursday. The secret ballot was held for the Shura (Consultative) Council, made up of Hamas' senior political and religious leadership and tasked with discussing all important issues. The names of the Shura Council members are kept secret. Sources said the vote resulted in a major victory for the "young guard" in Hamas, most of whom are affiliated with the movement's armed wing, Izzadin al-Kassam.
The sources described the victory as a "coup," pointing out that the newly-elected members were far more radical than those ousted from the council. "The Shura Council of Hamas is now dominated by warlords, thugs and militiamen," one source said. "The new members are not as educated as their predecessors." Another source said, "From now on, the armed wing of Hamas is expected to play a bigger role in the decision-making process....
The political leadership of Hamas has definitely been weakened." A Palestinian academic closely associated with Hamas said, "The new members are less patient and less experienced....These are the guys who carry the guns and control the situation on the ground." (Jerusalem Post)
Two Israeli Arabs Arrested in Islamic Jihad Plot to Kill Israeli Pilots, Scientists - Jack Khoury and Yuval AzoulayTwo Israeli Arabs from Shfaram have been arrested on suspicion of belonging to Islamic Jihad and planning attacks that included assassinating Israeli pilots, scientists and university professors. The two are also suspected of planning a shooting attack on an army checkpoint near Ramallah. Anis Sappori, 20, who studies at Bir Zeit University in Ramallah, and Hussam Khalil, 19, who studies in Jordan, were arrested together with three Palestinians, all members of Islamic Jihad. Khalil has confessed to his involvement. (Ha'aretz)
Israel Arrests Fatah Man Who Was Pardoned But Returned to Terror - Michael FreundSecurity forces on Thursday arrested a Fatah operative in Nablus who had been given a pardon by Israel as part of agreements between Israel and the PA. The security establishment said Adham Lubada had returned to terror activity and production of explosive belts following his pardon. (Jerusalem Post)
Israel Allows Protest Boats to Leave Gaza - Yaakov Katz and Herb KeinonIsrael allowed two boats carrying international activists and seven Palestinians to leave Gaza on Thursday and sail without interruption back to Cyprus. An official said Israel had been aware of who was on board the ships - including the identity of the Palestinians - and had not interfered since none of the passengers posed a security risk. "None of the passengers was dangerous to Israel, and they were not coming into Israel, so there was no reason to stop them," the official said. "If a boat, however, tried to take wanted Hamas terrorists out of Gaza, that would be a different story." (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Israeli Perspectives after the Georgia War
Assad Working Post-Georgia World to His Advantage - Aluf BennThe old world, where America ruled by dint of its military and economic might, and preached to others in the name of fighting terror and spreading democracy, is yielding to a bipolar system. In the new world, starring leaders like Vladimir Putin, Hu Jintao, Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there is no meaning to noble ideals, only to power. The leader who understood the significance of the change better than others, and is working to leverage it to his advantage, is Syrian President Bashar Assad. Searching for allies, Assad is putting Syria up for sale. Assad was quick to take Russia's part in its war with Georgia, lent it public support, and agreed to heighten Russia's naval presence at its port in the city of Tartus. (Ha'aretz)
Russia Is Not the Soviet Union - Guy BechorThe Russians have no interest in embarking on a new cold war. During Assad's recent visit to Moscow, Putin and Medvedev refused his requests to sell advanced missiles to the Syrians, and added a few conditions: First, they will sell Syria defensive weapons only. Second, they will not be selling Syria arms that would change the status quo of full Israeli supremacy over Syria. Third, everything they sell will be paid for in cash, in advance. The Russians know very well that Syria's economy is unstable.
They know that the Iranians help the Syrians with payments, but they also know that Iran itself is facing great difficulties. Russia is not the Soviet Union. By invading Georgia, Russia caused itself economic and political damage that may take years to repair. The investors who lifted the Russian economy are simply running away now: $12 billion was taken out of Russia in the past two weeks.
Moreover, at this time Russia is closely associated with Israel no less so and possibly more so than with Syria. A million and a half former Russians reside in Israel, and Israel's high-tech industry is highly important for the Russian economy. The writer is head of Middle Eastern Studies at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya. (Ynet News)
Welcome to History - Shlomo AvineriWhat happened in the Caucasus is reminding many people that Russia has never been a nation state in the usual sense of the term, but has always been an empire - whether in czarist or Soviet guise. And under Vladimir Putin it is again becoming what it had been in the past. The writer is professor emeritus at Hebrew University and former director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Ha'aretz)
Russia Aware of Israel's Low Profile in Georgian Crisis - Herb KeinonAnatoly Yurkov, the charge d'affaires at Russia's embassy in Tel Aviv, told the Jerusalem Post in an interview that Moscow appreciated the balanced position Israel had taken throughout the Georgian crisis, as well as its "low profile." After Russia's recognition of the breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia, the dominant position in Jerusalem is that this is not Israel's fight, that it has critical strategic interests in its relationship with Moscow, and that it is not a superpower that needs to sound off on every issue.
Jerusalem, which has already sent humanitarian aid to Georgia, has offered to send humanitarian aid to North Ossetia in Russia to help it deal with the influx of refugees there. (Jerusalem Post)
Other Issues
The Gaza CeasefireSince June, when Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, the blockade of Gaza has been relaxed but not lifted. Some items - like frozen meat, soft drinks, shampoo and clothes - have become commoner. But Israel still bans goods which it says may be used for making weapons, including metal pipes, fertilizer, and batteries. Most petrol stations remain closed.
Since the truce began, militants have launched some 40 rockets and mortars into southern Israel, but Israel has so far refrained from firing back. Israel says Hamas is using the lull to stock up its arsenal with more sophisticated weapons. It is already thought to have Iran-supplied rockets that could reach Ashdod, Israel's fifth-largest city and main port, some 38 km. (23 miles) north of Gaza. (Economist-UK)
Forward to the Past - Jonathan SpyerIn recent weeks, a number of prominent Fatah figures have suggested that their movement might abandon its commitment to a "two-state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and return to the pre-1988 demand for Israel's replacement by a single state in the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
In fact, the "one-state solution" has been the end-goal of modern Palestinian nationalism for the greater part of its history and its reemergence should come as no surprise. It is apparently hoped that rebranding Fatah-style Palestinian nationalism using the language of the U.S. civil rights movement of 50 years ago might cause at least some observers not to notice that the one-state solution coincidentally involves the disappearance of a legally constituted Jewish state, and the consequent termination of the right of self-determination of Israeli Jews.
In other words, the one-state solution includes the full realization of the program of Palestinian nationalism. The writer is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center, IDC, Herzliya. (Ha'aretz)
Israel to Display the Dead Sea Scrolls on the Internet - Ethan BronnerSpecialists in Jerusalem have begun digitally photographing every one of the thousands of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls with the aim of making the entire file available to all on the Internet. Equipped with high-powered cameras with resolution and clarity many times greater than those of conventional models, and with lights that emit neither heat nor ultraviolet rays, the scientists and technicians are uncovering previously illegible sections and letters of the scrolls, discoveries that could have significant scholarly impact.
The 2,000-year-old scrolls, found in the late 1940s in caves near the Dead Sea east of Jerusalem, contain the earliest known copies of every book of the Hebrew Bible. The texts, most of them on parchment but some on papyrus, date from the third century BCE to the first century CE. (New York Times)
A Boom in Israel's Exports to India - Neal SandlerAs India's economy grows, exports from Israel to the world's second-most-populous country are soaring. Netafim, a leading supplier of drip irrigation systems, has expanded its staff in India from fewer than 100 employees just four years ago to more than 700 and on Aug. 23 opened a second factory in Chennai. Makers of everything from chemicals to software are seeing similar surges.
Exports of nonmilitary goods and services from Israel to India jumped 40% in the first half of 2008 from the same period the year before, after reaching a record $1.6 billion for 2007 as a whole. Military business also is booming. A senior Israeli defense industry source estimates that Indian purchases now account for about one-third, or $1.67 billion, of Israel's $5 billion in annual defense exports, with India supplanting the U.S. as Israel's largest customer for weapons systems.
In the past two years Israeli real estate developers have committed billions of dollars to projects in India, constructing everything from housing to hotels and shopping malls. "We were debating between India and China and decided to go with the former because conditions there for foreigners to operate were a lot easier," says Segi Eitan, CEO of Property and Building.
Products from Israel accounted for less than 2 percent of India's $230 billion in total imports last year, but in key fields such as defense, agriculture, water, and high tech, Israel has what India is looking for. (Business Week)
Observations:
Listening to Iran - Terry Milewski (CBC News-Canada)
Since the time of Darius the Great, there have been ties of blood and history between Persia and Israel that are now, 2,500 years later, on a collision course. Some 60,000 Jews from Iran live in Israel. Menashe Amir is the voice of Israel in Iran. On Israel's state-run radio, he's been broadcasting daily to Iran, in Farsi, for 48 years.
For the past 15 years, he's also been hosting a fascinating Sunday call-in show. Iranians can call a number in Germany, so that they're not seen to be calling the "Zionist entity," and they're rerouted to Amir's studio.
In an interview with CBC News, Amir said the West has failed to understand the Iranian threat. He believes the regime is opposed by most Iranians but is consumed by an apocalyptic vision: the triumph of Shia Islam over the world. Western governments, he says, don't see that, for the Iranian mullahs, the destruction of the Jewish state is just a step along the way.
"On the same day, in the same speech that Ahmadinejad called for wiping off Israel from the map, he added that the destruction of Israel is the first step of our final confrontation with Western civilization."
Amir says the regime dreams of a new caliphate - an Islamic empire spanning the globe.
"They have the money, the missiles, they are seeking to have the nuclear bomb and the life of humankind is not important for them. I want to mention what Rahim Safavy, who was the chief commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran, said a few days ago:
'We shall win and you, the Westerners, shall lose because we gave 200,000 victims, martyrs, in eight years of war with Iraq and we have 300,000 disabled and injured in this war - and we don't care about it. But you, the Westerners, are afraid to give 4,000 or 5,000 victims and casualties, so the final victory will be ours.'"
Amir says the Iranian people don't share the regime's messianic vision. "Iranians are totally a different nation - a peaceful, polite, moderate people who want a good life, who adore the United States, who respect Canada, who like Western music....But the regime in Iran doesn't feel like they're Iranians. Mostly, firstly, they think they are Shi'ite Muslims and they have to work for the sake of Islam."
In-Depth Issues:
()
-->Report: Iran Supplied Hizbullah with Advanced Missiles - Roee Nahmias (Ynet News) Iran has supplied Hizbullah with missiles equipped with advanced navigation mechanisms which can accurately hit extensive targets inside Israel, the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi reported Friday, quoting Arab sources. In addition, the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Siyasa reported Tuesday that 300 Iranian experts were working to build an array of antiaircraft missile installations on the mountain range in western Lebanon.
Iran Condemned for Surge of Youth Hangings - Michael Theodoulou (Times-UK) Iran, the world's most prolific executioner after China, has hanged a woman and four men for murder in defiance of mounting criticism from human rights groups. The latest hangings brought to 232 the number executions in Iran this year, compared to 317 in 2007, according to Amnesty International. Of particular concern is the number of youths facing execution for crimes they committed as children. Amnesty International told the Times, there are "at least 132 juvenile offenders known to be on death row." Human Rights Watch said Iran "leads the world in executing juvenile offenders."
Ten Roadblocks Removed in the Hebron Area (IDF Spokesperson's Office/IMRA) During the past few weeks, ten roadblocks were removed in the Hebron area in order to improve the routine life of the Palestinian population. Approximately 100 IDF checkpoints were removed in the past months in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.
PA, Germany Sign Agreement to Establish 55 Police Stations in West Bank (Maan News-PA) Palestinian Interior Minister Abd Ar-Razaq al-Yahya and German Representative to the PA Klaus Burkhardt on Thursday signed a joint agreement to establish 55 new police stations in the West Bank.
Brand Israel - Haskell Nussbaum (Jerusalem Post) September marks the beginning of an ambitious new pilot program, being run by the consul-general in Toronto, Amir Gissin, to "rebrand" Israel. Starting with print ads in bus shelters and billboards, and continuing with radio and editorial content, Israel will be portrayed as an innovative leader in technology that brings real benefits to people. "Explaining why we are right is not enough," says Gissin. "Our goal is to make Israel relevant and attractive to Canadians and to refocus attention away from the conflict." The writer is the author of 101+ Ways to Help Israel: A Guide to Doing Small Things that Can Make Big Differences.
Israel Leads OECD in R&D - Gali Weinreb (Globes) Israel tops the OECD in terms of civilian R&D expenditure as a proportion of GDP, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported. Israel spent 4.7% of GDP on civilian R&D expenditure. The OECD average was 1.7%; Japan and South Korea each spent 3.2%, and the U.S. spent 2.2%.
Israel's Kibbutzim Finding New Life as Hotels - Sarah Wildman (Dallas Morning News-New York Times) The newfound capitalist success of the kibbutz hotel movement is an oxymoron. Across the country, kibbutzim, the socialist collective farms created by early Zionist pioneers, increasingly have encouraged visitors to be paying guests rather than volunteers. With a couple of years of relative peace and a few capitalist changes, kibbutzim have become a draw again for Israelis who are weary of city life, for global volunteers and for tourists.
Four Questions about American Jewish Demography - Ira M. Sheskin (Jewish Political Studies Review) The most probable number of Jews living in the U.S. is between 6.0 and 6.4 million. It thus appears that the number of Jews in the U.S. is currently higher than the number in Israel, though this is very likely to change in the future. The writer is associate professor of geography and regional studies at the University of Miami and has completed or is currently working on 43 major demographic studies for Jewish federations throughout the U.S.
Useful Reference:
Photos from Hamas Summer Camp: Campers Receiving Paramilitary Training (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)
For Researchers: Search the Daily Alert Archive All back issues of Daily Alert since May 2002 are available online and are searchable.This invaluable Internet resource documents the recent history of Israel and the Middle East. See also israelresearch.org Insider information on Israel's national security issues - filtered, sifted, and stored for easy retrieval - from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
U.S. Refuses to Follow France's Lead and Talk with SyriaThe U.S. refuses to follow France's lead and will not talk to Syria until it decides to take a "positive role" in international affairs, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Thursday. French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Wednesday that he would visit Damascus on September 3-4, after welcoming Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Paris last month.
Wood restated U.S. policy that precludes any dialogue with Syria unless it decides "to play a positive role, stay out of the internal affairs of Lebanon, stop supporting terrorists and be a productive player on the world scene....Today, it has not been."
"Until Syria plays a positive role in the region, it is going to continue to isolate itself," he said. Washington continues to blacklist Damascus as a state sponsor of terrorism. (AFP)
See also Israel: Assad Not Serious about Peace
Syria's rush to take advantage of the conflict in Georgia and the Russia-U.S. rift to cozy up to Moscow seems to indicate that it is not interested in serious negotiations with Israel even with U.S. participation, diplomatic officials in Jerusalem said on Thursday. "It is not at all clear what the Syrians want," one Israeli diplomatic official said. "They say that above all, they want American involvement in the talks with Israel, but then they side clearly with the Russians during a time of great tension with the U.S. and NATO." (Jerusalem Post)
Iran Says 4,000 Atomic Centrifuges Working - Hashem Kalantari"There are currently close to 4,000 centrifuges active at the Natanz enrichment facility....Another 3,000 centrifuges are being installed," Deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Sheikh Attar told Iranian state television, the official IRNA news agency reported. President Ahmadinejad said last month Iran had more than 5,000 centrifuges running. (Reuters)
One Dead in Attack on Lebanese Helicopter - Zeina KaramAttackers opened fire on a Lebanese military helicopter Thursday, killing an army officer and forcing the craft to make an emergency landing, a senior security official said. The area where the helicopter came under fire is a predominantly Shiite region southeast of Sidon and a Hizbullah stronghold. (AP)
See also Hizbullah Downs Lebanese Chopper, Thinking It Israeli - Amos HarelHizbullah downed a Lebanese Army helicopter on Thursday in what Israeli officials believe was a case of mistaken identity. Israeli officials noted that Hizbullah has recently been trying to improve its anti-aircraft capabilities with the goal of downing Israeli planes. (Ha'aretz)
Abbas: No Resettlement of Palestinians in Lebanon - Bassem MroueAbout 400,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants live in a dozen refugee camps in Lebanon, which were set up in 1948. On a visit to Beirut on Thursday, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said, "The refugees should have the right of return to their homeland and we are negotiating this with the Israelis....We are against permanent resettlement" of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. (AP/Washington Post)
Egypt to Open Its Border with Gaza on WeekendEgypt will open its border with Gaza for two days on Saturday and Sunday to allow stranded and humanitarian cases to cross, Hamas sources in Gaza said Thursday. Some 1,500 Egyptians stuck in Gaza will go home on Saturday and 400 Palestinian patients will leave for medical treatment in Egypt on Sunday. (Xinhua-China)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Report: Israel Reaches Strategic Decision Not to Let Iran Go Nuclear
The Israeli government has recently decided in a special discussion that it will not hesitate to use whatever means necessary to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the Israeli daily Ma'ariv reported. Because of Israel's lack of strategic depth, Jerusalem has consistently warned it will not settle for a "wait and see" approach, but rather use preemption to prevent any risk of being hit in the first place. Former Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh visited Switzerland and Austria last week, after both countries announced massive long-term investments in Iranian gas and oil fields for the next decade.
"Talk of the Jewish Holocaust and Israel's security doesn't impress these guys," Sneh said wryly. Hearing his hosts speak of their future investments, Sneh replied, "It's a shame, because Ido will light all this up." He was referring to Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, the recently appointed commander of the Israel Air Force. "Investing in Iran in 2008," Sneh told his Austrian hosts, "is like investing in the Krups Steelworks in 1938, it's a high-risk investment." The Austrians, according to Sneh, turned pale. (Jerusalem Post)
Militants Take Control of Hamas Council - Khaled Abu ToamehThe results of a recent election held for one of Hamas' key decision-making bodies are likely to hinder efforts to free kidnapped IDF soldier St.-Sgt Gilad Shalit, sources in Gaza told the Jerusalem Post on Thursday. The secret ballot was held for the Shura (Consultative) Council, made up of Hamas' senior political and religious leadership and tasked with discussing all important issues. The names of the Shura Council members are kept secret. Sources said the vote resulted in a major victory for the "young guard" in Hamas, most of whom are affiliated with the movement's armed wing, Izzadin al-Kassam.
The sources described the victory as a "coup," pointing out that the newly-elected members were far more radical than those ousted from the council. "The Shura Council of Hamas is now dominated by warlords, thugs and militiamen," one source said. "The new members are not as educated as their predecessors." Another source said, "From now on, the armed wing of Hamas is expected to play a bigger role in the decision-making process....
The political leadership of Hamas has definitely been weakened." A Palestinian academic closely associated with Hamas said, "The new members are less patient and less experienced....These are the guys who carry the guns and control the situation on the ground." (Jerusalem Post)
Two Israeli Arabs Arrested in Islamic Jihad Plot to Kill Israeli Pilots, Scientists - Jack Khoury and Yuval AzoulayTwo Israeli Arabs from Shfaram have been arrested on suspicion of belonging to Islamic Jihad and planning attacks that included assassinating Israeli pilots, scientists and university professors. The two are also suspected of planning a shooting attack on an army checkpoint near Ramallah. Anis Sappori, 20, who studies at Bir Zeit University in Ramallah, and Hussam Khalil, 19, who studies in Jordan, were arrested together with three Palestinians, all members of Islamic Jihad. Khalil has confessed to his involvement. (Ha'aretz)
Israel Arrests Fatah Man Who Was Pardoned But Returned to Terror - Michael FreundSecurity forces on Thursday arrested a Fatah operative in Nablus who had been given a pardon by Israel as part of agreements between Israel and the PA. The security establishment said Adham Lubada had returned to terror activity and production of explosive belts following his pardon. (Jerusalem Post)
Israel Allows Protest Boats to Leave Gaza - Yaakov Katz and Herb KeinonIsrael allowed two boats carrying international activists and seven Palestinians to leave Gaza on Thursday and sail without interruption back to Cyprus. An official said Israel had been aware of who was on board the ships - including the identity of the Palestinians - and had not interfered since none of the passengers posed a security risk. "None of the passengers was dangerous to Israel, and they were not coming into Israel, so there was no reason to stop them," the official said. "If a boat, however, tried to take wanted Hamas terrorists out of Gaza, that would be a different story." (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Israeli Perspectives after the Georgia War
Assad Working Post-Georgia World to His Advantage - Aluf BennThe old world, where America ruled by dint of its military and economic might, and preached to others in the name of fighting terror and spreading democracy, is yielding to a bipolar system. In the new world, starring leaders like Vladimir Putin, Hu Jintao, Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there is no meaning to noble ideals, only to power. The leader who understood the significance of the change better than others, and is working to leverage it to his advantage, is Syrian President Bashar Assad. Searching for allies, Assad is putting Syria up for sale. Assad was quick to take Russia's part in its war with Georgia, lent it public support, and agreed to heighten Russia's naval presence at its port in the city of Tartus. (Ha'aretz)
Russia Is Not the Soviet Union - Guy BechorThe Russians have no interest in embarking on a new cold war. During Assad's recent visit to Moscow, Putin and Medvedev refused his requests to sell advanced missiles to the Syrians, and added a few conditions: First, they will sell Syria defensive weapons only. Second, they will not be selling Syria arms that would change the status quo of full Israeli supremacy over Syria. Third, everything they sell will be paid for in cash, in advance. The Russians know very well that Syria's economy is unstable.
They know that the Iranians help the Syrians with payments, but they also know that Iran itself is facing great difficulties. Russia is not the Soviet Union. By invading Georgia, Russia caused itself economic and political damage that may take years to repair. The investors who lifted the Russian economy are simply running away now: $12 billion was taken out of Russia in the past two weeks.
Moreover, at this time Russia is closely associated with Israel no less so and possibly more so than with Syria. A million and a half former Russians reside in Israel, and Israel's high-tech industry is highly important for the Russian economy. The writer is head of Middle Eastern Studies at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya. (Ynet News)
Welcome to History - Shlomo AvineriWhat happened in the Caucasus is reminding many people that Russia has never been a nation state in the usual sense of the term, but has always been an empire - whether in czarist or Soviet guise. And under Vladimir Putin it is again becoming what it had been in the past. The writer is professor emeritus at Hebrew University and former director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Ha'aretz)
Russia Aware of Israel's Low Profile in Georgian Crisis - Herb KeinonAnatoly Yurkov, the charge d'affaires at Russia's embassy in Tel Aviv, told the Jerusalem Post in an interview that Moscow appreciated the balanced position Israel had taken throughout the Georgian crisis, as well as its "low profile." After Russia's recognition of the breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia, the dominant position in Jerusalem is that this is not Israel's fight, that it has critical strategic interests in its relationship with Moscow, and that it is not a superpower that needs to sound off on every issue.
Jerusalem, which has already sent humanitarian aid to Georgia, has offered to send humanitarian aid to North Ossetia in Russia to help it deal with the influx of refugees there. (Jerusalem Post)
Other Issues
The Gaza CeasefireSince June, when Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, the blockade of Gaza has been relaxed but not lifted. Some items - like frozen meat, soft drinks, shampoo and clothes - have become commoner. But Israel still bans goods which it says may be used for making weapons, including metal pipes, fertilizer, and batteries. Most petrol stations remain closed.
Since the truce began, militants have launched some 40 rockets and mortars into southern Israel, but Israel has so far refrained from firing back. Israel says Hamas is using the lull to stock up its arsenal with more sophisticated weapons. It is already thought to have Iran-supplied rockets that could reach Ashdod, Israel's fifth-largest city and main port, some 38 km. (23 miles) north of Gaza. (Economist-UK)
Forward to the Past - Jonathan SpyerIn recent weeks, a number of prominent Fatah figures have suggested that their movement might abandon its commitment to a "two-state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and return to the pre-1988 demand for Israel's replacement by a single state in the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
In fact, the "one-state solution" has been the end-goal of modern Palestinian nationalism for the greater part of its history and its reemergence should come as no surprise. It is apparently hoped that rebranding Fatah-style Palestinian nationalism using the language of the U.S. civil rights movement of 50 years ago might cause at least some observers not to notice that the one-state solution coincidentally involves the disappearance of a legally constituted Jewish state, and the consequent termination of the right of self-determination of Israeli Jews.
In other words, the one-state solution includes the full realization of the program of Palestinian nationalism. The writer is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center, IDC, Herzliya. (Ha'aretz)
Israel to Display the Dead Sea Scrolls on the Internet - Ethan BronnerSpecialists in Jerusalem have begun digitally photographing every one of the thousands of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls with the aim of making the entire file available to all on the Internet. Equipped with high-powered cameras with resolution and clarity many times greater than those of conventional models, and with lights that emit neither heat nor ultraviolet rays, the scientists and technicians are uncovering previously illegible sections and letters of the scrolls, discoveries that could have significant scholarly impact.
The 2,000-year-old scrolls, found in the late 1940s in caves near the Dead Sea east of Jerusalem, contain the earliest known copies of every book of the Hebrew Bible. The texts, most of them on parchment but some on papyrus, date from the third century BCE to the first century CE. (New York Times)
A Boom in Israel's Exports to India - Neal SandlerAs India's economy grows, exports from Israel to the world's second-most-populous country are soaring. Netafim, a leading supplier of drip irrigation systems, has expanded its staff in India from fewer than 100 employees just four years ago to more than 700 and on Aug. 23 opened a second factory in Chennai. Makers of everything from chemicals to software are seeing similar surges.
Exports of nonmilitary goods and services from Israel to India jumped 40% in the first half of 2008 from the same period the year before, after reaching a record $1.6 billion for 2007 as a whole. Military business also is booming. A senior Israeli defense industry source estimates that Indian purchases now account for about one-third, or $1.67 billion, of Israel's $5 billion in annual defense exports, with India supplanting the U.S. as Israel's largest customer for weapons systems.
In the past two years Israeli real estate developers have committed billions of dollars to projects in India, constructing everything from housing to hotels and shopping malls. "We were debating between India and China and decided to go with the former because conditions there for foreigners to operate were a lot easier," says Segi Eitan, CEO of Property and Building.
Products from Israel accounted for less than 2 percent of India's $230 billion in total imports last year, but in key fields such as defense, agriculture, water, and high tech, Israel has what India is looking for. (Business Week)
Observations:
Listening to Iran - Terry Milewski (CBC News-Canada)
Since the time of Darius the Great, there have been ties of blood and history between Persia and Israel that are now, 2,500 years later, on a collision course. Some 60,000 Jews from Iran live in Israel. Menashe Amir is the voice of Israel in Iran. On Israel's state-run radio, he's been broadcasting daily to Iran, in Farsi, for 48 years.
For the past 15 years, he's also been hosting a fascinating Sunday call-in show. Iranians can call a number in Germany, so that they're not seen to be calling the "Zionist entity," and they're rerouted to Amir's studio.
In an interview with CBC News, Amir said the West has failed to understand the Iranian threat. He believes the regime is opposed by most Iranians but is consumed by an apocalyptic vision: the triumph of Shia Islam over the world. Western governments, he says, don't see that, for the Iranian mullahs, the destruction of the Jewish state is just a step along the way.
"On the same day, in the same speech that Ahmadinejad called for wiping off Israel from the map, he added that the destruction of Israel is the first step of our final confrontation with Western civilization."
Amir says the regime dreams of a new caliphate - an Islamic empire spanning the globe.
"They have the money, the missiles, they are seeking to have the nuclear bomb and the life of humankind is not important for them. I want to mention what Rahim Safavy, who was the chief commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran, said a few days ago:
'We shall win and you, the Westerners, shall lose because we gave 200,000 victims, martyrs, in eight years of war with Iraq and we have 300,000 disabled and injured in this war - and we don't care about it. But you, the Westerners, are afraid to give 4,000 or 5,000 victims and casualties, so the final victory will be ours.'"
Amir says the Iranian people don't share the regime's messianic vision. "Iranians are totally a different nation - a peaceful, polite, moderate people who want a good life, who adore the United States, who respect Canada, who like Western music....But the regime in Iran doesn't feel like they're Iranians. Mostly, firstly, they think they are Shi'ite Muslims and they have to work for the sake of Islam."
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
ITALY TO BAN BUILDING NEW MOSQUES
Italy, the worlds leader in the fight against Islam attempts to take it up a notch and put a ban on Mosque construction. If this passes look for a call to end all Mosque construction to spread across Europe.
As the Swedes have already looked to put an end to the Islamic calls to prayers being broadcast in their country. Muslims across the world use our freedoms against us in order to impose Islam on us.
To fight back we are going to have to bend our constitutions and treat Islam unlike other religions, as it is a political movement as well as a religion. Either that or Muslims will eventually dominate us. Take your pick.
As the Swedes have already looked to put an end to the Islamic calls to prayers being broadcast in their country. Muslims across the world use our freedoms against us in order to impose Islam on us.
To fight back we are going to have to bend our constitutions and treat Islam unlike other religions, as it is a political movement as well as a religion. Either that or Muslims will eventually dominate us. Take your pick.
Monday, August 25, 2008
RESPECT OUR CUSTOMS FIRST
Prime Minister John Howard - Australia
Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia , as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks.
Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques.
Quote:
'IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It.
I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali , we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians.'
'This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom'
'We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, Learn the language!'
'Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented.
It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools.
If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.'
'We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why.
All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.'
'This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this.
But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, 'THE RIGHT TO LEAVE'.
'If you aren't happy here then LEAVE.
We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted.
' Maybe if we circulate this amongst ourselves, American citizens will find the backbone to start speaking and voicing the same truths. If you agree please SEND THIS ON
Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia , as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks.
Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques.
Quote:
'IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It.
I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali , we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians.'
'This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom'
'We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, Learn the language!'
'Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented.
It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools.
If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.'
'We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why.
All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.'
'This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this.
But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, 'THE RIGHT TO LEAVE'.
'If you aren't happy here then LEAVE.
We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted.
' Maybe if we circulate this amongst ourselves, American citizens will find the backbone to start speaking and voicing the same truths. If you agree please SEND THIS ON
Sunday, August 24, 2008
OBAMA PAYBACK POLICY DECISIONS
By John A. Ross (08/22/08)
Many Americans would like to support a qualified African-American for president. The soon to be Democrat Party candidate for the office of the President of The United States, Barack H. Obama, needs, however, to be more forthcoming in answering fundamental questions.
Rather than eek out responses to questions that is and has been voting issues for most Americans like abortion, taxes, national security, international treaties and the United Nations-be candid. Forced to muddle through shifting platform positions on these and other issues is concerning and suggests that, predicated upon perceived public opinion, your position routinely changes.
It has become abundantly clear that your oratorical skills are exemplary, however, the citizens of America that will vote on November 4, 2008, for a president and not a college debate team leader.
A political moderate may be the ideal vice presidential running mate, to offset your recognized penchant to always lean and vote for controversial socialist issues.
Perplexing to most political moderates is your ill-defined ‘change’ mantra.
Are you, for example, advocating changing everything about America, or just our borders, culture and language?
Important policy statements you have made and carried by the mainstream media and press suggest, or infer, that illegal aliens are welcome, our cultural norms must be debated and all Americans need to learn Spanish.
In all fairness to you and the American people, what, conceptually, do you have in mind?
Your ‘change train’ has left large numbers of “show me” Americans at the train station and they all are not from Missouri.
By taking, heretofore, an insolent intellectually elitist approach to national security, you have scared many Americans. Raised by parents and grandparents that militarily or in some capacity participated in WWII, Korea, Cold War, Vietnam, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq, most Americans are more cautious.
Intimately familiar with the “fog of war,” the loss of loved ones, and the ever- present “negotiations” that communists resort to when they cannot win on the battlefield Americans are mystified by your cavalier approach.
Having never been introduced to the tools and psychology of warfare must be considered a blessing; however, unlike you most Americans do not have a Harvard education nor do they call themselves a “citizen of the world.”
They are just ‘Americans.’Senator Obama, what motivates you to hand $845 billion-dollars to the corrupt United Nations? Your Senate bill S.2433 will make Saddam Hussein’s ‘Oil for Food’ United Nations scandal look like a church bingo game.
Are you repaying Saddem Hussein’s Nadhmi Auchi for his financial support?
Senator Obama, that money needs to stay in America to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil and build a high-speed rail system.
Also, what the hell is the Civilian National Security Force that will duplicate our Department of Defense and Social Investment Fund Network that appears to be a payback to America haters Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn and MoveOn.Org’s George Soros?
The long and the short of it Senator Obama America needs answers to the aforementioned questions.
John Ross
Many Americans would like to support a qualified African-American for president. The soon to be Democrat Party candidate for the office of the President of The United States, Barack H. Obama, needs, however, to be more forthcoming in answering fundamental questions.
Rather than eek out responses to questions that is and has been voting issues for most Americans like abortion, taxes, national security, international treaties and the United Nations-be candid. Forced to muddle through shifting platform positions on these and other issues is concerning and suggests that, predicated upon perceived public opinion, your position routinely changes.
It has become abundantly clear that your oratorical skills are exemplary, however, the citizens of America that will vote on November 4, 2008, for a president and not a college debate team leader.
A political moderate may be the ideal vice presidential running mate, to offset your recognized penchant to always lean and vote for controversial socialist issues.
Perplexing to most political moderates is your ill-defined ‘change’ mantra.
Are you, for example, advocating changing everything about America, or just our borders, culture and language?
Important policy statements you have made and carried by the mainstream media and press suggest, or infer, that illegal aliens are welcome, our cultural norms must be debated and all Americans need to learn Spanish.
In all fairness to you and the American people, what, conceptually, do you have in mind?
Your ‘change train’ has left large numbers of “show me” Americans at the train station and they all are not from Missouri.
By taking, heretofore, an insolent intellectually elitist approach to national security, you have scared many Americans. Raised by parents and grandparents that militarily or in some capacity participated in WWII, Korea, Cold War, Vietnam, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq, most Americans are more cautious.
Intimately familiar with the “fog of war,” the loss of loved ones, and the ever- present “negotiations” that communists resort to when they cannot win on the battlefield Americans are mystified by your cavalier approach.
Having never been introduced to the tools and psychology of warfare must be considered a blessing; however, unlike you most Americans do not have a Harvard education nor do they call themselves a “citizen of the world.”
They are just ‘Americans.’Senator Obama, what motivates you to hand $845 billion-dollars to the corrupt United Nations? Your Senate bill S.2433 will make Saddam Hussein’s ‘Oil for Food’ United Nations scandal look like a church bingo game.
Are you repaying Saddem Hussein’s Nadhmi Auchi for his financial support?
Senator Obama, that money needs to stay in America to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil and build a high-speed rail system.
Also, what the hell is the Civilian National Security Force that will duplicate our Department of Defense and Social Investment Fund Network that appears to be a payback to America haters Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn and MoveOn.Org’s George Soros?
The long and the short of it Senator Obama America needs answers to the aforementioned questions.
John Ross
Thursday, August 21, 2008
THE NEW COLD WAR BEING BORN?
Caucasus: If Russia Acted Differently and Future Possibilities
By Michael Averko
A series of destabilizing responses were likely if Russia did not counterattack against the August 7 Georgian government strike into South Ossetia. Russia would have probably faced a significantly greater refugee crisis from what occurred. Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili might have had greater inclination to attack Abkhazia. Many Russians would be pressing the issue of why their government did not take action to deter the hypothetically stated situation.
These points relate to why Russia acted in the way it did. In doing so, the Kremlin no doubt considered the rhetorical backlash it would receive.
The Russian government was in a kind of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario. They knew that a reasonably based (as far as major powers conducting armed action) counterattack against the Georgian government was not going to be met with open arms from Western neo-liberals and neo-conservatives. On the other hand, a Russian non-military response would probably not result in significant benefits for Russia. On the contrary, some in the West would gloat about how their guy Saakashvili had his way with "Russian surrogates" and Russia.
Russian foreign policy takes into account the Western post-Soviet global advocacy that favors certain humanitarian issues over others. Western laxness to the 1995 ethnic cleansing of 150,000 Krajina Sebs and willingness to downplay Kosovo Liberation Army transgressions lead Moscow to believe that the West would not be so scornful of a "disproportionate" Georgian government attempt which victoriously retook South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
In 1992, Russia assumed the role of peacekeeper in the disputed South Ossetian and Abkhaz territories of the former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). As the strongest force in the Caucasus, the Russians were on better terms with the involved adversaries than the belligerents were with themselves.
Comparative references are made to the Russian counterattack on Georgia and the 2003 American led attack on Iraq. Saakashvili is nowhere near the threat that Saddam Hussein posed. At the same time, the territory of the former Georgian SSR borders Russia, whereas Iraq is not even in the same hemisphere as the United States. In 1991, there was an international consensus for turning back Saddam's invasion of Kuwait.
This included Syria and Turkey; two countries not known for seeing eye to eye. In 2003, Syria, Turkey and other nations expressed apprehension to the American led attack which overthrew Saddam. For now, it appears that the suffering caused by the Russian military action in Georgia will be considerably lower than what Iraq has experienced since 2003.
Georgia's best chance at successfully achieving a mutually agreed to jurisdiction in South Ossetia and Abkhazia involve factors that some will not find appealing. The least provocative factor grants the two regions great autonomy.
The other facet concerns Georgia and Russia redeveloping closer ties. South Ossetia and Georgia are not currently motivated to be a part of Georgia. Russia presently sees little reason to please Georgian desires in the two disputed territories.
Attention has been given to Abkhazia's ethnic makeup prior to the Soviet breakup (17.8% Abkhaz and 45.7% Georgian, as per the 1989 Soviet census). The roughly 35% non-ethnic Abkhaz/Georgian population took different positions on the Abkhaz-Georgian dispute.
Many fled post-Soviet war torn Abkhazia, with a good number remaining (according to a 2003 census of Abkhazia, 43.8% of the population is Abkhaz and 21.3% Georgian). The Abkhaz note that they were said to be a majority in their region going back to about the mid-19th century (based on not always accurate census taking).
During the Stalin era, the Abkhaz felt discriminated against when compared to the Georgians.
Abkhazia's situation reveals how disputed territories have different circumstances. Among the comparative specifics being history and human rights, in conjunction with the overall will of the people from the respective disputed territory. The disputed former Communist bloc territories are Kosovo, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Trans-Dniester.
Related articles:
Fallout From the Conflict in the Caucasus
Conflict in the Caucasus and Ukraine's Russia Friendly Side
By Michael Averko
A series of destabilizing responses were likely if Russia did not counterattack against the August 7 Georgian government strike into South Ossetia. Russia would have probably faced a significantly greater refugee crisis from what occurred. Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili might have had greater inclination to attack Abkhazia. Many Russians would be pressing the issue of why their government did not take action to deter the hypothetically stated situation.
These points relate to why Russia acted in the way it did. In doing so, the Kremlin no doubt considered the rhetorical backlash it would receive.
The Russian government was in a kind of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario. They knew that a reasonably based (as far as major powers conducting armed action) counterattack against the Georgian government was not going to be met with open arms from Western neo-liberals and neo-conservatives. On the other hand, a Russian non-military response would probably not result in significant benefits for Russia. On the contrary, some in the West would gloat about how their guy Saakashvili had his way with "Russian surrogates" and Russia.
Russian foreign policy takes into account the Western post-Soviet global advocacy that favors certain humanitarian issues over others. Western laxness to the 1995 ethnic cleansing of 150,000 Krajina Sebs and willingness to downplay Kosovo Liberation Army transgressions lead Moscow to believe that the West would not be so scornful of a "disproportionate" Georgian government attempt which victoriously retook South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
In 1992, Russia assumed the role of peacekeeper in the disputed South Ossetian and Abkhaz territories of the former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). As the strongest force in the Caucasus, the Russians were on better terms with the involved adversaries than the belligerents were with themselves.
Comparative references are made to the Russian counterattack on Georgia and the 2003 American led attack on Iraq. Saakashvili is nowhere near the threat that Saddam Hussein posed. At the same time, the territory of the former Georgian SSR borders Russia, whereas Iraq is not even in the same hemisphere as the United States. In 1991, there was an international consensus for turning back Saddam's invasion of Kuwait.
This included Syria and Turkey; two countries not known for seeing eye to eye. In 2003, Syria, Turkey and other nations expressed apprehension to the American led attack which overthrew Saddam. For now, it appears that the suffering caused by the Russian military action in Georgia will be considerably lower than what Iraq has experienced since 2003.
Georgia's best chance at successfully achieving a mutually agreed to jurisdiction in South Ossetia and Abkhazia involve factors that some will not find appealing. The least provocative factor grants the two regions great autonomy.
The other facet concerns Georgia and Russia redeveloping closer ties. South Ossetia and Georgia are not currently motivated to be a part of Georgia. Russia presently sees little reason to please Georgian desires in the two disputed territories.
Attention has been given to Abkhazia's ethnic makeup prior to the Soviet breakup (17.8% Abkhaz and 45.7% Georgian, as per the 1989 Soviet census). The roughly 35% non-ethnic Abkhaz/Georgian population took different positions on the Abkhaz-Georgian dispute.
Many fled post-Soviet war torn Abkhazia, with a good number remaining (according to a 2003 census of Abkhazia, 43.8% of the population is Abkhaz and 21.3% Georgian). The Abkhaz note that they were said to be a majority in their region going back to about the mid-19th century (based on not always accurate census taking).
During the Stalin era, the Abkhaz felt discriminated against when compared to the Georgians.
Abkhazia's situation reveals how disputed territories have different circumstances. Among the comparative specifics being history and human rights, in conjunction with the overall will of the people from the respective disputed territory. The disputed former Communist bloc territories are Kosovo, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Trans-Dniester.
Related articles:
Fallout From the Conflict in the Caucasus
Conflict in the Caucasus and Ukraine's Russia Friendly Side
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