tagged w/ US Foreign Policy
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In Egypt, up to a hundred thousand demonstrators have again engulfed Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest against the ruling military council. The rally involves supporters from opposite ends of the political spectrum, with secular activists rubbing shoulders with Islamists - joined in a common cause. For more on this, and the wider picture in Egypt, RT talks to Jacob Hornberger, the President of the Future of Freedom Foundation.In Egypt, up to a hundred thousand demonstrators have again engulfed Cairo's... more
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The Ayatollah ordered the entire nuclear project to be closed down because it was the work of the devil
Turning round a story is one of the most difficult tasks in journalism – and rarely more so than in the case of Iran. Iran, the dark revolutionary Islamist menace. Shia Iran, protector and manipulator of World Terror, of Syria and Lebanon and Hamas and Hezbollah. Ahmadinejad, the Mad Caliph. And, of course, Nuclear Iran, preparing to destroy Israel in a mushroom cloud of anti-Semitic hatred, ready to close the Strait of Hormuz – the moment the West's (or Israel's) forces attack.
Given the nature of the theocratic regime, the repulsive suppression of its post-election opponents in 2009, not to mention its massive pools of oil, every attempt to inject common sense into the story also has to carry a medical health warning: no, of course Iran is not a nice place. But ...
Let's take the Israeli version which, despite constant proof that Israel's intelligence services are about as efficient as Syria's, goes on being trumpeted by its friends in the West, none more subservient than Western journalists. The Israeli President warns us now that Iran is on the cusp of producing a nuclear weapon. Heaven preserve us. Yet we reporters do not mention that Shimon Peres, as Israeli Prime Minister, said exactly the same thing in 1996. That was 16 years ago. And we do not recall that the current Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in 1992 that Iran would have a nuclear bomb by 1999. That would be 13 years ago. Same old story.
In fact, we don't know that Iran really is building a nuclear weapon. And after Iraq, it's amazing that the old weapons of mass destruction details are popping with the same frequency as all the poppycock about Saddam's titanic arsenal. Not to mention the date problem. When did all this start? The Shah. The old boy wanted nuclear power. He even said he wanted a bomb because "the US and the Soviet Union had nuclear bombs" and no one objected. Europeans rushed to supply the dictator's wish. Siemens – not Russia – built the Bushehr nuclear facility.
And when Ayatollah Khomeini, Scourge of the West, Apostle of Shia Revolution, etc, took over Iran in 1979, he ordered the entire nuclear project to be closed down because it was "the work of the Devil". Only when Saddam invaded Iran – with our Western encouragement – and started using poison gas against the Iranians (chemical components arriving from the West, of course) was Khomeini persuaded to reopen it.
(click on the link for the complete article)The Ayatollah ordered the entire nuclear project to be closed down because it was the... more
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The U.S. is sending another escorted aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, saying it's a routine mission. An escalating verbal conflict between Tehran and Washington has been also made worse by the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist on Wednesday. Karen Kwiatkowski, a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, who worked in the Pentagon and the National Security Agency explained to RT that Western powers are unlikely to invade Iran.The U.S. is sending another escorted aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, saying... more
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LONDON -- Wikileaks has published a U.S. diplomatic cable advising Washington to engage in "retaliation" against European countries opposed to genetically modified crops.
Quoting the whistleblowing website, British daily the Guardian writes that in 2007, France banned cultivation of genetically modified corn, produced by American biotech giant Monsanto.
This prompted then-U.S. ambassador to France Craig Stapleton - who is also a friend and business partner of former U.S. President George Bush - to write home and ask the administration in Washington to retaliate against the EU, and especially target those countries that failed to support generically modified crops.
"Europe is moving backwards not forwards on this issue with France playing a leading role, along with Austria, Italy and even the (European) Commission. Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voice," write Stapleton.
The newspaper also said that some of the newly published cables revealed that many American diplomats, posted in countries around the world, worked directly to promote the use of GMO crops as their government's strategic and commercial imperative.LONDON -- Wikileaks has published a U.S. diplomatic cable advising Washington to... more
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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says Iran is laying the groundwork for making nuclear weapons someday, but is not yet building a bomb and called for continued diplomatic and economic pressure to persuade Tehran not to take that step.
As he has previously, Panetta cautioned against a unilateral strike by Israel against Iran's nuclear facilities, saying the action could trigger Iranian retaliation against U.S. forces in the region.
"We have common cause here" with Israel, he said. "And the better approach is for us to work together."
Panetta's remarks on CBS' Face the Nation, which were taped Friday and aired Sunday, reflect the long-held view of the Obama administration that Iran is not yet committed to building a nuclear arsenal, only to creating the industrial and scientific capacity to allow one if its leaders to decide to take that final step.
(more at link)Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says Iran is laying the groundwork for making nuclear... more
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How will nuking of Iran affect the Indian sub-continent and the world?
(NEW DELHI) - The US, NATO and Israel Defense Forces are ready to attack Iran with nuclear weapons. Covert wars had already started during Libyan attacks.
The US scientists have warned the US government
The Union of Concerned Scientists recently have warned that, should the USA use nuclear weapons in Iran, of say 1 megaton yield, it would kill 3 million people in Iran and another 35 million will die of radiation fallout in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. [The video animation is enclosed][1]
A simple representation of the computer simulation below shows how radioactive wind will blow first 48 hours. Hot, dry air, blowing from arid-plains of Iran, Afghanistan will carry radioactive dust into the Indian sub-continent, and blow right across the northern Gangetic plains.
A group of thirteen top physicists, including five Nobel laureates, in the United States had warned President George W Bush not to use nuclear weapon in Iran. [The URL of the letter given below] [2]
The warning initiated by Jorge Hirsch, a professor of physics at the University of California at San Diego, was signed by more than 1,800 physicists who categorically rejected the new U.S. nuclear weapons policy of preemptive use of the nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states, aggressor or non-aggressor, alike.
Scientists are generally a-political. They follow a philosophy that their discipline seeks welfare for the humankind and, therefore, they seldom directly get involved in politics of science or technology. What is unprecedented here is that a group had come out against Bush administration’s policy of (a) using nuclear weapons, (b) using the weapons preemptively, i.e. without any overt or covert threat of aggression, and (c) against nations that are non-nuclear, and who are defenseless against the aggression of the United States of America.
The mainstream media, globally, has been complicit in the incessant western warmongering. It has failed to warn the people of the dangers inherent in such illegal and irresponsible acts of the past and present US administration, the British administration and the French administration. Nothing unusual or unprecedented, though.
Hence the actions of the Union of Concerned Scientists and the group of physicists in taking the extraordinary step of directly communicating with the people and with the administration is not merely commendable, it is an indictment of western democratic institutions.
How will nuking of Iran affect the Indian sub-continent and the world?
Since I am an Indian, one of my main concerns since 9/11 has been the impact of US policies on the survival and sustainability of West Asia and the Indian sub-continent. The people of the sub-continent have millennia-old history of trade and commerce with West-Asia. Interaction with Europe is merely three centuries old…and that interaction has led to death, destruction, mayhem, misery, exploitation, devastation……and now utter decimation stares us in our face.
There are many ways warm air blows from West-Asian region into the sub-continent. Strong surface winds from West-Asia, picking up sand and dust, blow right across Northern India, including India’s capital New Delhi. This is normal warm air current as winter ends, spring crawls up and summer begins, but just before the Monsoon winds arrive from the South. During winter we have bone-chilling, strong surface winds in northern India coming from the West-Asian region. There are currents that blow across the dry west-Asian region and enter the Himalayas via the Karakorum Range. Particles of dust picked up by these winds are rained out or snowed and these flow through the hundreds of perennial rivers originating in the Himalayas. Worth noting is the fact air currents from this region also blows across Europe.
When Iran is nuked, these winds will suck up radioactive dust and deposit them right across Northern India, including the Himalayas.
Since the US started its unprovoked aggressions in West-Asia, post 9/11, depleted uranium nano particles carried by these winds have already contaminated vast regions of Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. It is the geography, and history is never far behind; they are not coming to Asia on a humanitarian mission. They need our resources and want to eliminate each one of us.
Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq amount to two nuclear attacks on Indian people by two elected US Presidents in less than ten years. The third one is not far behind. Since Depleted Uranium particles were traced at Aldermaston, UK, by Dr Chris Busby, effectively the entire Europe has also been dosed with ionizing radiation from Iraq Wars, and hence the US and NATO forces have attacked their own civilians too. Attacks by NATO forces on European civilians amounts to treason.
21 countries in West and South Asia affected from radiation contamination can say the something more serious: the civilians in these 21 countries have been attacked by the US and NATO forces without their respective governments being an aggressor. It is a demented extension of “the right of preemptive action” by an utterly depraved US, British and French administrations, an outright policy of genocide, or omnicide, choose your own term. But none of these people ever raised a finger against the US or any western nation; majority still believes that Americans are civilized. Does it matter now?
If you are an American, don’t ever forget that the United States of America has been directly committing war crimes since 1991. Each political leader since 1991 is directly or indirectly involved. Every military commander is involved. Every soldier is involved. Using the Nuremberg principles, a trial would result in millions of indictments for genocide.
(click on the link for the whole article and to access the in-text links)How will nuking of Iran affect the Indian sub-continent and the world?
(NEW DELHI)... more
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The USS John C Stennis is reportedly heading into the Persian Gulf in response to Iranian war games held earlier this month, 12/29/11. (photo: US Navy)
By Robert Parry, Consortium News
29 December 11
ith the typical backdrop of alarmist propaganda in place, the stage is now set for a new war, this time with Iran. The slightest miscalculation (or provocation) by the United States, Israel or Iran could touch off a violent scenario that will have devastating consequences.
Indeed, even if they want to, the various sides might have trouble backing down enough to defuse today’s explosive situation. After all, the Iranians continue to insist they have no intention of building a nuclear bomb, as much as Israeli and American officials insist that they are.
So, this prospective war with Iran – like the one in Iraq – is likely to come down to intelligence assessments on Iran’s intentions and capabilities. And, as with Iraq’s alleged WMD, the many loud voices claiming that Iran is on pace to build a nuclear bomb are drowning out the relatively few skeptics who think the evidence is thin to invisible.
For instance, the recent report from the International Atomic Energy Agency about Iran’s supposed progress toward a nuclear bomb was widely accepted as gospel truth without any discussion of whether the IAEA is an unbiased and reliable source.
In framing the story in support of the IAEA, the major U.S. newspapers and TV networks ignored documentary evidence that the IAEA’s new director-general was installed with the support of the United States and that he privately indicated to U.S. and Israeli officials that he would help advance their goals regarding Iran.
These facts could be found easily enough in WikiLeaks cables that the U.S. news media has had access to since 2010. Yet, the Big Media has ignored this side of the story, even as the IAEA report has been touted again and again as virtually a smoking gun against Iran.
This pattern of ignoring – or downplaying – evidence that runs counter to the prevailing narrative was a notable feature during the run-up to war with Iraq. It is now being repeated not just by the right-wing news media, but by the New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC and other centrist-to-left-leaning outlets.
(click on the link for the full article)The USS John C Stennis is reportedly heading into the Persian Gulf in response to... more
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A U.S. super-secret spy plane believed to be in Iranian possession could be a major loss for the U.S. military -- and a major gain for Iran.
According to a senior U.S. military source with intimate knowledge of the Sentinel drone, the aircraft likely "wandered" into Iranian air space after losing contact with its handlers and is presumed to be intact since it is programmed to fly level and find a place to land, rather than crashing.
"This is a big prize in terms of technology," a senior U.S. military source told Fox News.
The spy plane uses the same stealth technology as the drone used to monitor the compound during the raid that killed Usama bin Laden, U.S. military sources told Fox News on Monday.
Military sources confirmed that the Iranians have the RQ-170 drone, which is so advanced that the U.S. Air Force has not distributed even a photo of it. However, they did not say that the Iranians shot down the spy plane, as was reported by Iran's official IRNA news agency.
(more at link)A U.S. super-secret spy plane believed to be in Iranian possession could be a major... more
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A US government informant acting as a member of the Zetas, a drug cartel in Mexico, helped thwart an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States on American soil. Now Obama's top national security aides are seeking new international sanctions against Iran. Pepe Escobar, correspondent for the Asia Times, tells us who's to gain from the situation.A US government informant acting as a member of the Zetas, a drug cartel in Mexico,... more
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Today, the UN General Assembly hosted the speech of two of the most important world leaders, US President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Despite the fact that President Obama's speech lasted three times longer than his French counterpart, Sarkozy's speech was more sensible, and indirectly challenged the words uttered by Obama.
Though he did not plead directly for UN recognition of a Palestinian state, Sarkozy spoke for a majority when he stated that sixty years of occupation and the status quo of protagonists in the peace talks did not work. He also suggested it might be time to change a dead-end formula, and engage the international arena in the process. Sarkozy has always felt that Europe, and perhaps more appropriately France, should have a key role in the negotiations in the Middle East. After the United States, France has the largest Jewish diaspora in the world.
Continue reading on Examiner.com Sarkozy upstages President Obama at the UN - National Foreign Policy | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/foreign-policy-in-national/sarkozy-upstages-president-obama-at-the-un#ixzz1Yd3fMfM6Today, the UN General Assembly hosted the speech of two of the most important world... more
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Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestinian delegation that came to New York, summed up her view of the events to come:
'We expect an American veto but we expect the Europeans to take a principled stand, as always.'
As far as the Europeans go, both French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British diplomatic head William Hague met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, but there has been no indication thus far as to the results of those meetings. Abbas is expected to deliver an application to UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon for membership for the state of Palestine on Friday.
Benjamin Netanyahu extended an invitation to Abbas for direct talks in New York between the two men. Abbas had declined at first, but today was reported to have indicated that he 'might' accept.Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestinian delegation that came to New York,... more
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The murder of Burhanuddin Rabbani has been forcibly denounced by Kabul and its Western allies, the former having already pointed the finger at the Taliban for the act, emphasizing that it was planned and executed to prevent Rabbani from continuing his important work as mediator in finding common ground for peace with the Taliban factions.
President Barack Obama has called the death a 'tragic' loss while President Karzai called Rabbani a patriot who sacrificed his life for his country. Obama and Karzai agreed that Rabbani's death will not be a deterrent for a solution that will allow Afghans to live in freedom, security and prosperity.
Rabbani, chairman of Afghanistan s High Peace Council, was killed Tuesday morning by a false Taliban envoy who had managed to hide explosives under his turban, which he detonated in Rabbani's home in Kabul, which is located in the diplomatic quarter of the capital city.The murder of Burhanuddin Rabbani has been forcibly denounced by Kabul and its Western... more
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Special US commandos are deployed in about 75 countries around the world - and that number is expected to grow.
Somewhere on this planet a US commando is carrying out a mission. Now, say that 70 times and you're done ... for the day. Without the knowledge of much of the general American public, a secret force within the US military is undertaking operations in a majority of the world's countries. This Pentagon power elite is waging a global war whose size and scope has generally been ignored by the mainstream media, and deserves further attention.
After a US Navy SEAL put a bullet in Osama bin Laden's chest and another in his head, one of the most secretive black-ops units in the US military suddenly found its mission in the public spotlight. It was atypical. While it's well known that US Special Operations forces are deployed in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, and it's increasingly apparent that such units operate in murkier conflict zones like Yemen and Somalia, the full extent of their worldwide war has often remained out of the public scrutiny.
Last year, Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post reported that US Special Operations forces were deployed in 75 countries, up from 60 at the end of the Bush presidency. By the end of this year, US Special Operations Command spokesman Colonel Tim Nye told me, that number will likely reach 120. "We do a lot of travelling - a lot more than Afghanistan or Iraq," he said recently. This global presence - in about 60 per cent of the world's nations and far larger than previously acknowledged - is evidence of a rising clandestine Pentagon power elite waging a secret war in all corners of the world.
The rise of the military's secret military
Born of a failed 1980 raid to rescue American hostages in Iran, in which eight US service members died, US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) was established in 1987. Having spent the post-Vietnam years distrusted and starved for money by the regular military, special operations forces suddenly had a single home, a stable budget, and a four-star commander as their advocate.
Since then, SOCOM has grown into a combined force of startling proportions. Made up of units from all the service branches, including the Army's "Green Berets" and Rangers, Navy SEALs, Air Force Air Commandos, and Marine Corps Special Operations teams, in addition to specialised helicopter crews, boat teams, civil affairs personnel, para-rescuemen, and even battlefield air-traffic controllers and special operations weathermen, SOCOM carries out the United States' most specialised and secret missions. These include assassinations, counterterrorist raids, long-range reconnaissance, intelligence analysis, foreign troop training, and weapons of mass destruction counter-proliferation operations.
One of its key components is the Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, a clandestine sub-command whose primary mission is tracking and killing suspected terrorists. Reporting to the president and acting under his authority, JSOC maintains a global hit list that includes US citizens. It has been operating an extra-legal "kill/capture" campaign that John Nagl, a past counterinsurgency adviser to four-star general and soon-to-be CIA Director David Petraeus, calls "an almost industrial-scale counterterrorism killing machine".
This assassination programme has been carried out by commando units like the Navy SEALs and the Army's Delta Force as well as via drone strikes as part of covert wars in which the CIA is also involved in countries like Somalia, Pakistan, and Yemen. In addition, the command operates a network of secret prisons, perhaps as many as 20 black sites in Afghanistan alone, used for interrogating high-value targets.
(much more, and in-text links, at link)Special US commandos are deployed in about 75 countries around the world - and that... more
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WikiLeaks cables have revealed that Catholic bishops played a key role in 2002's abortive military coup in Venezuela
In 1997 Eamon Duffy, president of Magdalene College, Cambridge, brought out the best one-volume history of popes that has ever been written. He called it Saints & Sinners.
In the light of the latest news from Venezuela I would respectfully urge him to set about writing a companion volume about the leaders of the church in Latin America. I suggest that he calls it Saints, Traitors & Sinners.
The church in that region has of course produced some remarkable saints – some of them unrecognised in the upper reaches of the Vatican. Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador; the six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter slain by the western-supported Salvadorean army on the campus of the Central American University; the prelates and clergy killed by the repulsive military regime in Argentina and Cardinal Raúl Silva, archbishop of Santiago de Chile at the time of Pinochet's putsch, were and are among the brightest stars in the church's firmament.
Yet the clergy had – and still has – its villains.
Among the latest revelations to emerge from WikiLeaks is that, in 2002, as plotters in Venezuela's capital Caracas were liaising with the US authorities about the conspiracy to topple President Hugo Chávez, the leaders of the Catholic church in that country were defying the instruction of Pope John Paul II to desist from having anything to do with the coup d'état. Instead they threw their lot in with Pedro Carmona, the extremist rightwing businessman, who took office for less than 48 hours during a brief military coup in April 2002.
The cables reveal that Cardinal Antonio Ignacio Velasco, the Salesian archbishop of Caracas, was on hand to sign papers purporting to legitimise the ridiculous Carmona as he dismissed the congress and the judges, and briefly sent Venezuelan politics back into the dark ages. Happily, the genuine popularity of the legitimate head of state was such that the Carmona gang and their military accomplices were routed and Chávez was restored to power.
In doing what he did, Velasco, who died in 2003, and the majority of his fellow bishops, betrayed not just the papacy but their compatriots at the instance of a foreign power – in this case, the United States. This added to the prelates' marginalisation in Venezuelan life by the majority who, unsurprisingly, see them as firm upholders of the establishment in a major oil-producing country, where half of the population live below the poverty line.
Velasco and his successors are remembered now as part of the camarilla that opposed the reform programme of the Chávez government, which, in the 12 years it has been in power, raised a quarter of the country's population out of poverty.
The US government's – not to mention the western media's – condemnation of Chávez has, for years, done much to blank out the successes of a government which is still not just legitimate but popular. Few in the west realise that extreme poverty has been cut drastically and unemployment has been halved so that no more than 7% of the population is out of work.
On 19 November 2002, several months after Velasco's catastrophic mistake, the US envoy to the Vatican, James Nicholson, reported to his masters in Washington that the Holy See was alarmed at the outlook for further civil violence in the coming months. "The pope himself has insistently asked the Venezuelan bishops to cool their political activism and instead encourage dialogue," he said.
But by that time it was too late. Despite the fact that a mass was reported to have been offered in Caracas on Wednesday for Chávez as he recovers from his emergency operation in Havana, leaders of Venezuela's Catholics are seen to be on the wrong side, the side of the rich. But wasn't there something in the gospels about rich people, camels and the eyes of needles?WikiLeaks cables have revealed that Catholic bishops played a key role in 2002's... more
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2 agents among 44 U.S. Embassy workers killed in 1988 bomb blast in Kenya
For a small cadre of CIA veterans, the death of Osama bin Laden was more than just a national moment of relief and closure. It was also a measure of payback, a settling of a score for a pair of deaths, the details of which have remained a secret for 13 years.
Tom Shah and Molly Huckaby Hardy were among the 44 U.S. Embassy employees killed when a truck bomb exploded outside the embassy compound in Kenya in 1998.
Though it has never been publicly acknowledged, the two were working undercover for the CIA. In al-Qaida's war on the United States, they are believed to be the first CIA casualties.
Their names probably will not be among those read at Memorial Day celebrations around the country this weekend. Like many CIA officers, their service remained a secret in both life and death, marked only by anonymous stars on the wall at CIA headquarters and blank entries in its book of honor.
Their CIA ties were described to The Associated Press by a half-dozen current and former U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because Shaw's and Hardy's jobs are still secret, even now.
(more at link)2 agents among 44 U.S. Embassy workers killed in 1988 bomb blast in Kenya
For a... more
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There are too many reasons, but they can be narrowed down to a few core issues that have troubled Egyptian citizens for a long time. It should also be noted that despite this anti-Americanism which has deepened since the Bush years, pre-revolution Egyptians wanted to leave their country to come to America. An oxymoron perhaps, but nevertheless a fact.
For decades, the US gave Egypt's dictator, Hosni Mubarak, a man despised by Egyptian citizens, total support and a very handsome $1.5billion purse to keep its army happy, and away from Israel's borders. Albeit the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was a cold one, Mubarak knew what to do in order to keep those dollars coming, and the US relatively at ease about Israeli security. While the same can be said about Jordan's King, Jordan's role as far as Israel's security is concerned is not as pivotal as Egypt's.
Egyptians citizens resented the hesitant and duplicitous rhetoric which emanated from Washington at the beginning of the uprising in late January which sought to topple the Mubarak regime. They never forgot it, despite the fact that eventually, the White House realized that the momentum of the revolutionary movement was irreversible, and that it had better get on the right side of history, even if it meant sacrificing Mubarak. US officials still dreamed that perhaps Suleiman, the second most hated figure in Egypt, could be a suitable replacement. Dream on.There are too many reasons, but they can be narrowed down to a few core issues that... more
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Bin laden never mentioned in McChrystal report or Obama speech
“Hunt for bin laden” a national shame
Conservative commentator, former Marine Colonel Bob Pappas has been saying for years that bin Laden died at Tora Bora and that Senator Kerry’s claim that bin Laden escaped with Bush help was a lie. Now we know that Pappas was correct. The embarrassment of having Secretary of State Clinton talk about bin Laden in Pakistan was horrific. He has been dead since December 13, 2001 and now, finally, everyone, Obama, McChrystal, Cheney, everyone who isn’t nuts is finally saying what they have known for years.
However, since we lost a couple of hundred of our top special operations forces hunting for bin Laden after we knew he was dead, is someone going to answer for this with some jail time? Since we spent 200 million dollars on “special ops” looking for someone we knew was dead, who is going to jail for that? Since Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney continually talked about a man they knew was dead, now known to be for reasons of POLITICAL nature, who is going to jail for that? Why were tapes brought out, now known to be forged, as legitimate intelligence to sway the disputed 2004 election in the US? This is a criminal act if there ever was one.
(more at link)Bin laden never mentioned in McChrystal report or Obama speech
“Hunt for bin... more
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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has just landed in Cairo a few minutes ago, as her plane was seen taxiing on the tarmac at the airport. As the first senior U.S. official to visit the country following the ouster of Mubarak, she is expected to meet with her counterpart, foreign minister Nabil el-Araby shortly after her arrival.
During her two-day stay she is also expected to meet with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, and newly elected Prime Minister Essam Sharaf; as other U.S. officials have done in Egypt before her arrival, she will also go to Tahrir Square, where she is to meet with representatives of Mubarak opposition forces that will include a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The January 25 Revolution Youth Coalition that was so pivotal in the successful uprising and demise of Hosni Mubarak has however declined an invitation to meet with the US Secretary of State. They remain stung by Clinton's initial comments during the protests which unequivocally supported the regime in power when she said that the Mubarak regime was 'stable'.
Continue reading on Examiner.com: Clinton arrives in Egypt; youth movement declines to meet with her - National Foreign Policy | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/foreign-policy-in-national/clinton-arrives-egypt-youth-movement-declines-to-meet-with-her#ixzz1GgEhLJcjUS Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has just landed in Cairo a few minutes ago, as... more
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Hamid Dabashi: Gaddafi gained power as anti-imperialist, made deal with Bush and pushed neo-liberal economics.
Born on June 15,1951 into a working class family in the south-western city of Ahvaz in the Khuzestan province of Iran, Hamid Dabashi received his early education in his hometown and his college education in Tehran, before he moved to the United States, where he received a dual Ph.D. in Sociology of Culture and Islamic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on Max Weber's theory of charismatic authority with Philip Rieff (1922-2006), the most distinguished Freudian cultural critic of his time. He is currently the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York, the oldest and most prestigious Chair in his field. He has also taught and delivered lectures in many North American, European, Arab and Iranian universities. His books include Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present, Future (2001), Iran: A People Interrupted (2007), and The Green Movement and the USA: The Fox and the Paradox (2010).Hamid Dabashi: Gaddafi gained power as anti-imperialist, made deal with Bush and... more
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