Ali Abunimah discusses current developments on CounterSpin

Audio, CounterSpin, 24 February 2007

"[The Mecca Agreement] is not an obstacle to peace -- what it is is an obstacle to US and Israelis' railroading of the Palestinians into an unjust, untenable and unsustainable deal. The Israelis and the Americans want the Palestinians basically to capitulate, to give up on what Palestinians see as their most fundamental rights." Ali discusses Condoleezza Rice's latest trip to the Middle East in an interview on CounterSpin.

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"You and I and the Next War"

by Uri Avnery

Global Research, February 24, 2007

""WE ARE ready for the next war," a reserve soldier told a TV reporter this week, on the scene of a brigade-size maneuver on the Golan Heights.

What war? Against whom? About what? This was not stated, and not even asked. The soldier saw it as self-evident that war will break out soon, and it seems that he did not particularly care against whom.

Politicians are used to expressing themselves more cautiously, in words like "If, God forbid, a war should break out…" But in Israeli public discourse, the next war is seen as a natural phenomenon, like tomorrow's sunrise. Of course, war will break out. The only question is against whom.

AND INDEED - against whom? Perhaps Hizbullah again?

Quite possibly. In the Knesset and the media, a lively debate took place this week about whether Hizbullah has already regained all the capabilities it had before the Second Lebanon War, or not yet......

Our commentators reacted by declaring that "no later than this summer" the Israeli army will be compelled to attack in Lebanon in order to remove the danger, and, on this occasion, also to eradicate the shame and restore to the army the "deterrent power" that was lost on the battlefields of that unfortunate war.

OR PERHAPS Syria, this time? That is also possible. After all, this week's brigade maneuver, the first for a long time, was held on the Golan and obviously directed against Damascus......

Preparations go well beyond training the forces on the ground. They also have a psychological dimension. The day before yesterday, an extra-large front page headline in Haaretz announced: "Syrian Arms Race With the Help of Iran". The other media followed suit. It was said that Russia was supplying Syria with huge quantities of anti-tank weapons, of the kind that penetrated even the most advanced Israeli tanks in the recent war. And, as if that was not enough, Russia is also providing Syria with anti-shipping missiles that would be a real threat to our navy, and long-range missiles that can reach every corner of Israel.

The news story puts together three countries - Syria, Russia and Iran - which are, quite fortuitously, the three members of Bush's new "axis of evil"........

Truth is that no danger lurks in that direction. There is not the slightest possibility that Syria would attack Israel. The military capabilities of Syria, even with all the Russian arms they may get, are vastly inferior to those of the Israeli army. That is the considered view of the entire Israeli intelligence community. If Syria rearms, it is for defensive purposes. They are, quite justly, afraid of Israel and the United States.....

AND PERHAPS these are simply diversionary tactics, in order to shift attention away from the real target of the next war - Iran?......

A cynical Prime Minister, entrapped in such a situation, could easily be tempted to start another military adventure, in the hope that it would give him back his lost popularity and divert attention from his private and political troubles. If this is the aim, it really does not matter much against whom - Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians or Iranians. The main thing is that it should happen as soon as possibly, preferably this summer at the latest. What remains is to convince the public of the presence of an existential danger, but in our country that is not too difficult.

ALL THIS reminds one, of course, of another outstanding leader - George W. Bush. Amazing how these two find themselves in almost the same situation......

But it seems that the American system has created a terrifying situation: President Bush has two more years in office - and in this time he can start any war at will, even though now the American public has clearly shown in the congressional elections that it loathes the Iraq war. As Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful military forces in the world, he can widen and deepen the war in Iraq, and at the same time start a new war against Iran or Syria......

Thus, one single person can cause a world-wide catastrophe. He has no brakes, but has a strong drive towards war: to fulfill his "vision" (dictated to him by God Himself in private conversation) and to retouch his image in history......

The neo-cons, who still reign supreme in Washington, are convinced that a rain of many hundreds of smart bombs on all the nuclear, military, governmental and public installations in Iran could "do the job". Their friends in Israel will applaud, since that would relieve Israel of the need to do something similar, if on a smaller scale......

Bush and Olmert and the Next War - HELP!"

Zionism and the United States

The Cultural Connection

A Good Article
By LARRY PORTIS
CounterPunch

"......I agree with Naveh that the US influence over the Zionist enterprise is important. What is less understood is how Israel has become a model for the US. Recently the work of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt has raised the question of how Israel, through the Zionist lobby in the US, has perhaps come to exercise a virtually direct control over US policy in the Middle East. This is an important debate in which others, such as Noam Chomsky and Bill and Kathleen Christison have made important contributions. In this debate, in my opinion, the cultural connections between Zionism and the United States should not be minimized......

The associations envisioned by Jefferson are eloquent: the notion of a chosen people-the Elect-to whom providence has assigned a spiritual mission linked to the conquest of a particular land. All this provides the basis for an affinity that is, in fact, more than elective-it is divine. More specifically, both chosen peoples were, ultimately, "people without a land" called upon to colonize "a land without a people".

When we speak of the colonizers, of America and Palestine, it is logical to forget the indigenous inhabitants of both places, for it was the land that was colonized--not the people living on it. The importance of the American Indians and the Palestinians comes from the fact that they have figured as obstacles to the fulfillment of the missions in question. Both groups have, in different ways, been characterized as lower forms of civilization slowing the march of progress. Both peoples have been described as savage and cruel.......


For all of these reasons, the rhetoric of nationalism in the Israel-Palestine conflict tends to reinforce established cultural values, values stemming from American historical experience. It is also why, in the United States, many people find it difficult to take seriously Palestinian claims, just as they could not take seriously the claims of the "Indian Nations". The similarities, in any case, are striking. One century later, the Palestinian resistance to colonization and ethnic cleansing is being dealt with in much the same ways as that of the Indians: forced evacuation, concentration in "reservations" (which could be called "Bantustans" or "autonomous territories"), periodic massacre and racist humiliations......"

Windbag du Jour: Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas Spokesman.

Mishaal: Hamas to maintain political flexibility without bowing to pressures

All Wind...., All The Time....




The New and Improved Hamas.





"CAIRO, (PIC)-- Khaled Mishaal, the political bureau chairman of the Hamas Movement, has affirmed that his Movement would continue to pursue political flexibility but would never bow to pressures......"

Israel seeks all clear for Iran air strike

"Israel is negotiating with the United States for permission to fly over Iraq as part of a plan to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

To conduct surgical air strikes against Iran's nuclear programme, Israeli war planes would need to fly across Iraq. But to do so the Israeli military authorities in Tel Aviv need permission from the Pentagon.

A senior Israeli defence official said negotiations were now underway between the two countries for the US-led coalition in Iraq to provide an "air corridor" in the event of the Israeli government deciding on unilateral military action to prevent Teheran developing nuclear weapons.

"We are planning for every eventuality, and sorting out issues such as these are crucially important," said the official, who asked not to be named......

Last week Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, announced that he had persuaded Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad for the past six years and one of Israel's leading experts on Iran's nuclear programme, to defer his retirement until at least the end of next year.

Mr Olmert has also given overall control of the military aspects of the Iran issue to Eliezer Shkedi, the head of the Israeli Air Force and a former F-16 fighter pilot......."

Grandchild Abdullah as Much a Traitor to the Palestinians as the Grandfather Abdullah

Jordan urges Palestinian compromise

"Jordan's King Abdullah has said that the new Palestinian unity government must adhere to the demands of the Middle Eastern Quartet that include recognising Israel, renouncing violence and abiding by peace deals.

King Abdullah's comments, the first from an Arab leader, came in an interview with Israel's Channel Two, and will air on Saturday. His statements are the first from the region to cast a doubt on the willingness of major Arab donors to side-step a US-led embargo of the Hamas-led government unless it commits to the conditions.

'Not alone'

"You're not alone on this," Abdullah said in the interview when asked about Israeli concerns that the power-sharing deal between Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and Fatah leader, fails to meet the Quartet's demands.

"There's international common ground - not just western but also Arab and to an extent Muslim - that believe that there have to be certain criteria that the new government has to accept if we're going to move the process forward," Abdullah said.......

Jordanian officials have privately supported US-led efforts to isolate the Hamas government that took power after winning the January 2006 elections, unless it embraced Middle East peace moves.....

While the unity government agreement contained a vague promise to "respect" previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements it fell short of what the Quartet wants.

"It's not just ... the international players, but also the Arab countries are also expecting the new Palestinian government to adhere to the policies that we have set out in the Quartet, and in the Arab Quartet also," Abdullah said, referring to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

King Abdullah said Abbas should be given "the mandate to start negotiations with the Israelis," and the new government should be in "full compliance with the Arab Accord as well as international commitments"....."

Tony Blair makes Comical Ali seem the voice of reason

The former Iraqi regime spokesman's boasts seem almost prophetic. Unlike the prime minister's deluded declarations

Marina Hyde
Saturday February 24, 2007
The Guardian

".....And so it was, listening to Tony Blair sing the praises of his Iraq adventure on the Today programme on Thursday, that my mind began to wander. If it wasn't all such a bleeding mess, I thought vaguely, the prime minister's delusions of success would be almost comical......

Listening again to Blair's Today interview, it is easy to imagine his declarations as simply one melody in a discordant symphony, a series of those beloved soundbites that could be spliced with contrapuntal news of actual events. "We should be immensely proud." Crash! A six-hour firefight in Ramadi leaves 12 dead. "What we had to do was rebuild an Iraqi army and police - we did that." Bang! A US soldier dies and three are injured by a roadside bomb in Diwaniya. "It is better now that [Saddam] has gone." Wallop! A car bomb factory is discovered in Baghdad. Just as it was with his apparent inspiration, Comical Ali, it becomes ever more difficult to avoid the suspicion that the prime minister is living in a parallel universe, where success and failure are merely states of mind......

His prime ministerial imitator, however, is assumed to have far loftier plans, with the North American lecture tour a seeming inevitability. Enthralled audiences can no doubt expect more insights such as we gained on Thursday, when the PM appeared to justify Iraq's sprightly journey in the direction of civil war with the observation: "You can't absolutely predict every set of circumstances that comes about." Well quite. You can, however, have a vague punt on possible outcomes, and if you are over the age of 15, not involved in a still-unfathomed platonic infatuation with the US president, and willing to listen to intelligence you didn't pilfer off the internet, you might hazard the road ahead was slightly more pitfall-ridden than seems to have been judged.......

But the smile fades when recalling other pronouncements. "Do not be hasty because your disappointment will be huge," the old crazy warned. "You will reap nothing from this aggressive war, which you launched on Iraq, except for disgrace and defeat." "We will embroil them, confuse them, and keep them in the quagmire," he said later, adding that "they cannot just enter a country of 26 million people and lay besiege to them! They are the ones who will find themselves under siege."

There are, of course, rather fewer than 26 million people in Iraq these days, but even those who dispute the precise extent of the population depletion might agree that it comes to something when, in hindsight, several statements by this preposterous character seem more prophetic than anything spouted by the British government at the time......"

US Attack on Iran: An Accident Waiting to Happen

By Linda S. Heard

".......Think about it! As the world goes about its business as usual, the US could well be on the brink of attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities using nuclear-tipped bunker busters. Evidence there is such a plan on the table is coming thick and fast but there is nothing we can do about it......

One of the most disturbing things is the way the new US Defense Secretary Bob Gates keeps insisting his country has absolutely no plans to attack Iran.

Dan Plesch, one of Britain’s leading commentators on defense and security doesn’t believe him. “American military operations for a major conventional war with Iran could be implemented any day,” says Plesch.

“They extend far beyond targeting suspect WMD facilities and will enable President Bush to destroy Iran’s military, political and economic infrastructure overnight using conventional weapons.”

Professor of International Law Francis A. Boyle doesn’t believe him. He wants George W. Bush and US Vice President Dick Cheney impeached before they can start a wider war in the Middle East. “I believe that they [the neoconservatives] would like the opportunity to break the taboo of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and indicate to the world -- we here in the United States are fully prepared to use nuclear weapons and we just used them against Iran,” he recently said on Talk Nation Radio.

Former UN weapons inspector, turned peace activist, Scott Ritter isn’t swallowing Gates’ assurances either. Here’s what he said on the subject during a recent lecture: “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to war with Iran. It’s going to happen. There’s nothing we can do to stop it.”......

In truth, there could be method in his madness. Various papers penned by his neocon friends before he took office (“Clean Break” and the Project for the New American Century’s “Rebuilding America’s Defenses”) make clear the Bush administration’s end goal, which is control of this region and its resources to stem the rise of competitors.

There were basically two obstacles to that goal: Iraq and Iran. Iraq has been dealt with and now there is only one. Bush has vowed that he will not leave office with the prospect of Iran achieving a nuclear arsenal any time soon......

Interestingly, former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, once a fervent advocate of full spectrum US domination, recently warned a Senate committee that the Bush administration might resort to such tactics. A false flag operation would allow the US to play victim and frame any attack on Iran in a defensive light. Just as it did before going into Iraq, the White House is demonizing the Iranian leadership......"

The Delusions of Hamas

All Wind...., All The Time.....

مشعل: حماس تحتفظ بمرونة في أدائها السياسي ولكنها لا تخضع للضغوط

"القاهرة - المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام

التقى خالد مشعل، رئيس المكتب السياسي لحركة المقاومة الإسلامية "حماس" عدداً من المثقفين والسياسيين والنواب ورجال الفكر ورؤساء تحرير بعض الصحف في مصر، بغرض إطلاعهم على الرؤى المستقبلية الخاصة بالقضية الفلسطينية، بعد توقيع اتفاق مكة بين حركتي "حماس" و"فتح".

ومن أبرز الذين حضروا اللقاء المستشار طارق البشري، والدكتور محمد سليم العوا الأمين العام للاتحاد العالمي لعلماء المسلمين، والبروفيسور عبد الوهاب المسيري، والكاتب فهمي هويدي والدكتور محمد عمارة.

وقد حرص مشعل، في اللقاء الذي تم مساء الجمعة (23/2) قبل مغادرته القاهرة لاستكمال جولته العربية غير المعلن عن تفاصيلها لأسباب أمنية، وأداره الكاتب والإعلامي فهمي هويدي، على الحديث بلغة متفائلة، محورها أن الموقف العربي ليس كله سيئاً، وأنه ليس صحيحاً أن ننظر إلى الأمور على أن الموقف الرسمي العربي يدار بواسطة الولايات المتحدة.

كما حرص على تأكيد أنه لمسَ مواقف عربية رسمية مشجعة عن ذي قبل، وأن الحالة العربية تتعافى، والموقف العربي بات موحداً أكثر من ذي قبل، خصوصاً بعد توقيع اتفاق مكة والالتزام العربي به، وباعتبار، كما قال مسؤول في وفد حماس لـ "قدس برس"، أن اتفاق مكة المكرمة أظهر الموقف الفلسطيني الموحد الذي تلتزم به الدول العربية، والذي ستتحرك به قبالة العالم الخارجي للمطالبة بوقف حصار الشعب الفلسطيني.

وقد ركز اللقاء على الاستماع لوجهات نظر المثقفين والمفكرين المصريين بشكل أساس في الأحداث بعد إطلاعهم على تطورات الأوضاع الفلسطينية والعربية كما قرأها وفد حماس في اللقاءات الرسمية، ودار حوار حول بعض النقاط بعمق، فيما تم التطرق لبعض النقاط الأخرى بصورة سريعة نظراً لارتباط الوفد الفلسطيني بالسفر.

وقد كان من الحضور أيضاً بعض نواب البرلمان عن جماعة الإخوان المسلمين، والدكتور عصام العريان، ومفكرون يساريون وناصريون، واللواء صلاح الدين سليم، والدكتور حسن نافعة ومجدي مهنا وجمال الغيطاني وعدد آخر من الباحثين والمفكرين.

وقد أظهر اللقاء أن رؤية "حماس" للوضع، خصوصاً ما بعد اتفاق مكة، تدور حول التأكيد على أنه لا يوجد تنازل أو تشدد، حيث أكد مشعل أن الحركة اشتقت لنفسها طريقاً محصلته أن يكون لديها مرونة تتحرك بموجبها، ولكنها لا تتنازل أو تتلقى أوامر أو تخضع لضغوط من أي دول سواء كانت مصر أو إيران أو سوريا أو السعودية.

وأضاف: "إن كل دولة تعلم أن حماس لها أجندتها، وأنه إذا كانت هناك سلبيات في الدور العربي فهناك إيجابيات يجب النظر لها، ولا يجب النظر للأمور نظرة قاتمة".

وقد دار حوار حول التأثيرات المحتملة لضرب إيران على حركة "حماس" والقضية الفلسطينية، وحرص قادة الحركة على تأكيد الفارق بين "التأثير" و"القضاء" على حماس، منوهين إلى أن أي تطور يقع يؤثر، فمحاولة ضرب حزب الله أثرت على "حماس"، وخروج الحركة من الأردن أثر عليها، وكذا غزو العراق، وضمن هذا ضرب إيران لو حدث، فكل تطور سلبي يؤثر على الوضع الفلسطيني، ولكنه لا يعني أنه يقضي على الحركة.

وقد لفت مشعل الأنظار إلى أن غالبية الحديث يدور حول ضرب الولايات المتحدة لإيران وتأثير هذه الضربة عليها، في حين أن لا أحد يتحدث عن قدرة إيران على صدّ هذه الضربة، الأمر الذي فهم منه ضمناً أن مشعل يشكك في قدرة واشنطن علي ضرب إيران لعلمها بقوة هذه الأخيرة وقدرتها على الرد.

وحول الدور المصري في اتفاق مكة، دار حوار مطوّل، لا سيما وأن الأيام الأخيرة قبل وصول وفد "حماس" شهدت مناقشات وكتابات تدور حول ضعف الدور الخارجي للقاهرة الذي تمثل في توقيع اتفاق حكومة الوحدة الوطنية الفلسطينية، وكشف النقاب خلال المناقشات عن أن ما جرى في مكة كان مقرراً أن يجري في القاهرة، لأن قادة "حماس" سبق أن عرضوا فكرة عقد هذا اللقاء بين "فتح" و"حماس" في القاهرة، بيد أن الدور السعودي سبق، وكان مكملاً للدور المصري.

وقد أكد العديد من المتحدثين من الطرفين المصري والفلسطيني أن "حماس" لا تلام للجوئها للسعودية وتوقيع الاتفاق هناك، ونفي مسؤولو الحركة أن يكونوا قد سمعوا لوماً من القاهرة لتوقيع الاتفاق في مكة التي رعت الاتفاقات السابقة، مؤكدين أنه لا "حماس" ملومة ولا القاهرة يجب أن تلام لتوقيع الاتفاق بعيدا عنها خصوصا أنه جرى بالتنسيق معها. "

Ashes & Dust ...

By Layla Anwar

".......The American cowards bombed Ramadi today.
Many homes were demolished. A family of thirteen was buried under the rubbles. More than 26 civilians were killed, out of which 4 women and several children. Two infants, the youngest was 1 month old.
Men rushed to the ruins trying to rescue whatever human form they can find.
Bare hands, rugged, dust covering their faces and hair, digging and digging...
Most had nothing but a shirt on. No vest, no sweater, no nothing, just a shirt, in this bitter cold.
And I watched their feet, they were wearing plastic slippers in winter, no socks, no shoes...no nothing.
I watched even more carefully and most were very thin and looked malnourished...
They finally managed to pull the little infant out from under piles of thick bricks.
A dust covered baby with an ashen complexion and her tiny lips ripped apart.
A small piece of greyish white cloth was handed and she was wrapped in it in a tiny bundle...

Then the camera zoomed in on the eyes of the onlookers. They all had this one common, identical expression.
A kind of a hollow, lingering gaze like being here and not here.
Then the camera zoomed in even closer... and behind the hollowness in the eyes, lied the utter void, an endless void. A tunnel of despair that seemed to stretch to eternity...
A younger man, not older than 16 wept then stared back at the camera and he kept staring and I saw a lingering death about to explode, in his deep black eyes.......

A lost infant in the ashes, lost faces in the dust, a lost finger in the garbage dumps, a lost mother in the debris, a nation lost in the fire, a country lost in the greed ....and eyes lost in that endless tunnel of helplessness, anguish and despair...
Lost in the total emptiness, in the void of the living dead.

Where is Gilad Atzmon, I need him to hum something to me, I am choking with endless Grief...
You sleep well now."

By Naser Jafari

Lawrence of Arabia was really a Zionist, historian claims

An Interesting Article That Exposes British Treachery and the Pro-Zionist Arab Kings Who Played a Role in the Creation of Israel.

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Published: 24 February 2007

"It appears to be revisionism on a grand scale. Popular imagination, fed on Peter O'Toole's portrayal in David Lean's film classic Lawrence of Arabia, will have a hard time absorbing the startling assertion by the historian Sir Martin Gilbert that its hero was in fact a "serious Zionist" who believed in a "Jewish state from the Mediterranean shore to the River Jordan".

Sir Martin, who plans to back up his myth-challenging claim in his next book, declared here this week that TE Lawrence, long regarded as the unrivalled prototype of the British Arabist, "had a sort of contempt for the Arabs, actually. He felt that only with a Jewish state would the Arabs make anything of themselves."

The British Jewish historian who has written histories of Israel and the Holocaust, as well as his monumental biography of Winston Churchill, made front-page news here when he told The Jerusalem Post during the city's international book fair: "The most interesting thing from an Israeli perspective is about Lawrence of Arabia. The great Arabist, right? The man who supported the Arabs and pushed for Arab nationhood in the 1920s. He is always pictured wearing Arab robes. What is so astonishing ­ which you'll see in my next book, Churchill and the Jews ­ is that he was a serious Zionist."

Sir Martin revealed last night that a series of minutes written by Lawrence, which he uncovered in the National Archive, demonstrated his sympathy with the Zionist cause. Working for Churchill in 1921, for example, he clearly identified "the area of Palestine from the Mediterranean to Jordan" as the "Jewish National Home".

While the discoveries overturn many popular assumptions about Lawrence in Britain and much of the Arab world, they will come as less of a surprise to prominent historians here.

Norman Rose of the Hebrew University, and a leading expert on the history of Zionism in Britain, leaves little room for doubt about Lawrence's admiration for Chaim Weizmann in his biography of the Belarus-born Zionist who became a British citizen in 1910, was the leading lobbyist for the 1917 Balfour declaration pledging a Jewish homeland, and the first President of Israel.

The biography quotes Lawrence as telling the Archbishop of Jerusalem, a sceptic about Weizmann, that the Zionist leader "is a great man whose boots neither you nor I are fit to black". When Weizmann finally settled in Palestine in 1934, and told his friend Lewis Namier that he regretted not having done so a decade earlier, Namier could not resist replying that Lawrence had remarked to him of Weizmann that "one does not build the National Home by living in a villa in Addison Road". This was hardly, to put it mildly, the sentiment of an anti-Zionist.

Lawrence, who had played a leading part in co-ordinating the Arab revolt against the Turks to serve British interests, mediated and translated at the post war Jewish-Arab accord between the future King Feisal of Iraq and Weizmann, which allowed for "large-scale immigration" of Jews to Palestine and implementation of the Balfour declaration in return for the Arab state promised ­ and then reneged on ­ by the British.

Professor Rose said yesterday: "I am no expert on Lawrence, but this was when many people did not see a contradiction between a Jewish National Home and Arab independence."

In 1921, when Churchill was Colonial Secretary, Lawrence worked closely with him as an adviser from the Department's Middle East Department, travelling with him to the Cairo conference when Feisal was assigned the kingship of Iraq and his brother Abdullah the Emirate of Transjordan.

It was from this period that several of the documents uncovered by Sir Martin originate. Lawrence, for example, wrote that part of Abdullah's job would be to "check anti-Zionism" and prevent infiltration from what is now Jordan into the "Jewish National Home".

It seems logical to imagine that working so closely with the minister, he shared at the time Churchill's warmth to the idea of a Jewish homeland, and probably an eventual Jewish state. "Churchill was pro-Zionist," says Professor Rose. "No question." "

***

It appears that nothing has changed in over 80 years. The Arabs, with their stooge kings and princes, are still doing the bidding of the West and Zionism, while they destroy and colonize the Arab world and finish off what is left of Palestine. The British used the Arabs in the 1920s to fight and expel the Ottomans. For their stupidity, they got rewarded by being divided and colonized and by having Palestine stolen and the Palestinians expelled. Still, most of the Arab world allies itself with the West! Huge U.S. military bases have been established in several Arab countries and these are used to attack and devastate other Arab and Muslim countries. We are told that Iran is the enemy and Israel is our "ally!" Will the Arabs ever wake up from their long stupor and learn?

Darth Vader Spells it Out

Cheney hints at Iran strike

US Vice-President Dick Cheney has raised the possibility of military action to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.

"He has endorsed Republican senator John McCain's proposition that the only thing worse than a military confrontation with Iran would be a nuclear-armed Iran.

In an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian, Mr Cheney said: "I would guess that John McCain and I are pretty close to agreement."

The visiting Vice-President said that he had no doubt Iran was striving to enrich uranium to the point where they could make nuclear weapons.

He accused Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of espousing an "apocalyptic philosophy" and making "threatening noises about Israel and the US and others".

He also said Iran was a sponsor of terrorism, especially through Hezbollah. However, the US did not believe Iran possessed any nuclear weapons as yet.

"You get various estimates of where the point of no return is," Mr Cheney said, identifying nuclear terrorism as the greatest threat to the world.

"Is it when they possess weapons or does it come sooner, when they have mastered the technology but perhaps not yet produced fissile material for weapons?"....."

FAMAS Capitulates One Step At A Time. Celebrate, Now!

Abbas to push PA gov't to fulfill Quartet demands

"Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Friday he was determined to push the planned Palestinian unity government into complying with Western demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements. Abbas was referring to the three principles drafted by the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators ? the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

"We did not change our position, we did not change our principles," Abbas told reporters after a meeting with the European Union's chief diplomat Javier Solana in Brussels. Abbas met Solana as part of a tour of European nations in efforts to build support for an eventual lifting of a crippling international aid embargo.

Abbas said that his Fatah party remained "committed to the principles of a two-state-solution, renouncing violence and terror and reiterating our commitment to agreements signed."....."

Windbag du Jour
All Wind, All The Time

The British retreat from Iraq brings peril for U.S. troops

By Juan Cole
Salon.com

"....In reality, southern Iraq is a quagmire that has defeated all British efforts to impose order, and Blair was pressed by his military commanders to get out altogether -- and quickly. The departure has only been slowed, for the moment, by the pleas of Bush administration officials like Cheney. And far from the disingenuously upbeat prognosis offered by the vice president, the British withdrawal could spell severe trouble for both the Iraqi government and for U.S. troops in that country...."

Amid the Lies and Prevarication in the Lead Up to the Iran Attack, Tony Blair Gets Cold Feet

By Kurt Nimmo

"Over at the Jerusalem Post, unsubstantiated allegation has become bedrock fact, a quite normal state of affairs for the neocon-infested corporate media, determined to set the attack Iran ball in motion.

“Israeli officials Thursday night urged ‘crisper’ and ‘faster’ moves to sanction Iran after a UN report found the Islamic Republic had expanded its program to obtain nuclear weapons,” the newspaper reports.

Last September, the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency made it clear no nuclear weapons program was detected in Iran.

In November, the CIA “found no conclusive evidence, as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear-weapons program running parallel to the civilian operations that Iran has declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency,” according to Seymour Hersh.....

Confronting a manufactured chimera, “a senior Israeli source in Washington” told the Jerusalem Post “I don’t think we’ve got endless amounts of time to deal with this problem,” in other words Iran must be attacked soon, or sanctions imposed, at least. “This is the time that these things have to be dealt with,” said the anonymous source, citing a recent IAEA report that notes.....

But the Israelis and the American neocons are not keen on accuracy, preferring instead exaggeration, fabrication, distortion, and outright lies—the same sort of fare they produced in late 2002 and early 2003 in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.

Finally, as the latest IAEA report makes the rounds, the Australian reports “senior British Government officials fear that US President George W. Bush will attack Iran before his final term in office ends,” worries that coincide with “with British Prime Minister Tony Blair declaring himself at odds with hawks [war criminal neocons] in the US administration by saying publicly for the first time that it would be wrong to take military action” against Iran. “I can’t think that it would be right to take military action against Iran…. What is important is to pursue the political, diplomatic channel…. I think it is the only way that we are going to get a sensible solution to the Iranian issue.”

Of course, when it came to Iraq, Blair fell right in with the murderous neocons, preferring mass murder to sensibility.

If ever there is held a Nuremberg-like tribunal for the neocon war criminals—and I’m certainly not holding my breath—Mr. Blair will naturally be right there in the docket along with his buddy Bush and Cheney."

Foreign devils in the Iranian mountains

Tehran accuses the US of staging covert operations from Pakistan to provoke ethnic and religious violence, and even the breakup of Iran. Tehran is also angered by what it sees as a US-Pakistan nexus manipulating the Afghan situation. Iran could retaliate against NATO in Afghanistan, or try to make Pakistan accountable. Both are bad options.

A Good Article
By M K Bhadrakumar
Asia Times

"........The Iranian outburst was, conceivably, prompted by the spurt of trans-border terrorism inside Iran's Sistan-Balochistan province, which borders Pakistan. Ten days ago, a militant group called Jundallah killed 11 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards in an attack in the city center of Zahedan. Iranian state media reported that the attack was part of US plans to provoke ethnic and religious violence in Iran. Balochs are Sunnis numbering about 1.5 million out of Iran's 70 million predominantly Shi'ite population.

Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi alleged that in the recent past, US intelligence operatives in Afghanistan had been meeting and coordinating with Iranian militants, apart from encouraging the smuggling of drugs into Iran from Afghanistan. He said the US operatives were working to create Shi'ite-Sunni strife within Iran.

American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has copiously written about recent US covert operations inside Iran. With reference to the incidents in Zahedan, Stratfor, a think-tank with close connections to the US military and security establishment, commented that the Jundallah militants are receiving a "boost" from Western intelligence agencies. Stratfor said, "The US-Iranian standoff has reached a high level of intensity ... a covert war [is] being played out ... the United States has likely ramped up support for Iran's oppressed minorities in an attempt to push the Iranian regime toward a negotiated settlement over Iraq.".....

A Washington conference last year brought together representatives of Iranian Kurdish, Balochi, Ahvazi, Turkmen and Azeri organizations with the aim of forming a united front against the Tehran regime. An influential US think-tank, American Enterprise Institute (AEI), went a step further and prepared a report from the neo-conservative perspective on what a Yugoslavia-like federated Iran would look like......

"The Pentagon is especially interested in whether Iran is prone to a violent fragmentation along the same kinds of faultlines that are splitting Iraq and that helped to tear apart the Soviet Union with the collapse of communism," Bradley wrote......

The irony is that Afghanistan is being put to use as a launch pad by the US for sponsoring terrorism directed against Iran, when the raison d'etre of the US occupation of Afghanistan during the past five years has been for the stated purpose of fighting a "war on terrorism". Besides, Iranian cooperation at a practical level went a long way in facilitating the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Even Iran's detractors would admit that during the past five years, Tehran has followed a policy of good-neighborliness toward the Kabul government, no matter Washington's dominance over President Hamid Karzai. In fact, Iran figures as a major donor country contributing to Afghanistan's reconstruction......"

Revealed: The true extent of Britain's failure in Basra

By Patrick Cockburn

"The partial British military withdrawal from southern Iraq announced by Tony Blair this week follows political and military failure, and is not because of any improvement in local security, say specialists on Iraq.

In a comment entitled "The British Defeat in Iraq" the pre-eminent American analyst on Iraq, Anthony Cordesman of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, in Washington, asserts that British forces lost control of the situation in and around Basra by the second half of 2005.

Mr Cordesman says that while the British won some tactical clashes in Basra and Maysan province in 2004, that "did not stop Islamists from taking more local political power and controlling security at the neighbourhood level when British troops were not present". As a result, southern Iraq has, in effect, long been under the control of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri) and the so-called "Sadrist" factions.

Mr Blair said for three years Britain had worked to create, train and equip Iraqi Security Forces capable of taking on the security of the country themselves. But Mr Cordesman concludes: "The Iraqi forces that Britain helped create in the area were little more than an extension of Shia Islamist control by other means."......

Why is the British Army still in south Iraq and what good does it do there? The suspicion grows that Mr Blair did not withdraw them because to do so would be too gross an admission of failure and of soldiers' lives uselessly lost. It would also have left the US embarrassingly bereft of allies. Reidar Visser, an expert on Basra, says after all the publicity about the British "soft" approach in Basra in 2003, local people began to notice that the soldiers were less and less in the streets and the militias were taking over. "This, in turn, created a situation where critics claim the sole remaining objective of the British forces in Iraq is to hold out and maintain a physical presence somewhere within the borders of the governorates in the south formally left under their control, while at the same minimising their own casualties.' Mr Visser said.

In other words, British soldiers have stayed and died in southern Iraq, and will continue to do so, because Mr Blair finds it too embarrassing to end what has become a symbolic presence and withdraw them."