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Topics - Michael Tee

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31
3DHS / CNN Senior Middle East Editor Forced Out Over a Tweet
« on: July 09, 2010, 12:10:55 AM »
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=cnn-middle-east-editor-leaves-after-fadlallah-tweet-2010-07-08

In another purge reminiscent of the Helen Thomas affair, CNN's senior Middle Eastern editor was forced to quit after tweeting a laudatory condolence over the passing of Ayatollah Fadlallah.

Zio-Nazi control over the US MSM is becoming hilarious.  Praise Israel and its murderous leaders to the skies all day, every day, but God help you if you so much as tweet a good word for an ayatollah, even one like Fadlallah, who swam against the current of Iran's conservative clergy in trying to bring women's rights into the 21st century.

32
3DHS / An Inconvenient Truth
« on: July 07, 2010, 12:18:18 AM »
<<The history of Israel and its relationship with the U.S. is infinitely complex, but there’s one damning fact that’s ignored as often as The Question: There was not a single act of Arab terrorism against Americans before 1968, when the U.S. became the chief supplier of military equipment and economic aid to Israel.

. . .

<<Very few Americans today are aware that the question of American and Jewish self-interest was first raised at the time of Israel's founding by officials in the highest levels of the U.S. government. In 1948, several members of Harry Truman's Cabinet predicted that the creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East would spur Arab violence against Jews and Americans, advising the president to shun Israel.

<<These included Secretary of State George Marshall, Defense Secretary James Forrestal, and George Kennan, then the leading policy strategist in the State Department. They argued that if the United States helped to set up an independent Jewish nation it would provoke terrorist attacks on Americans and inaugurate an endless war between Arabs and Jews. “There are 30 million Arabs on one side and about 600,000 Jews on the other,” Forrestal told those in the administration who favored recognizing Israel. “Why don’t you face up to the realities?”


http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-04/thaddeus-russell-does-us-support-for-israel-threatens-american-safety/

33
3DHS / Iran Arms Syria with Radar - WSJ
« on: July 02, 2010, 09:03:12 AM »
Iran Arms Syria With Radar
System Could Help Tehran Dodge Israeli Strike; a Blow to U.S. Strategy on Damascus

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By CHARLES LEVINSON

JERUSALEM—Iran has sent Syria a sophisticated radar system that could threaten Israel's ability to launch a surprise attack against Iran's nuclear facilities, say Israeli and U.S. officials, extending an alliance aimed at undermining Israel's military dominance in the region.




    * WSJ.com/Mideast: News, video, photos

The radar could bolster Syria's defenses by providing early warning of Israeli air-force sorties. It could also benefit Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group based in Lebanon and widely believed to receive arms from Syria.

Any sharing of radar information by Syria could increase the accuracy of Hezbollah's own missiles and bolster its air defenses. That would boost Hezbollah defenses, which U.S. and Israeli officials say have been substantially upgraded since 2006, the last time Israel fought the southern Lebanon-based group.

The mid-2009 transfer was described in recent months by two Israeli officials, two U.S. officials and a Western intelligence source, and confirmed Wednesday by the Israeli military. Though they didn't name the system's final recipient in Syria, these and other officials described it as part as a dramatic increase in weapons transfers and military coordination among Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.

Iran and Syria both denied that a radar transfer took place.

The increased sophistication of the weapons transfers and military cooperation among the three signal an increased risk of conflict on Israeli's northern border. U.S. officials worry any new fighting would be more likely to include Syria, which hasn't directly engaged Israeli in combat since 1974.

The radar transfer could potentially violate a 2007 United Nations Security Council resolution that bans Iran from supplying, selling or transferring "any arms or related materiel."

Though officials say the transaction took place about a year ago, Israel and the U.S. haven't publicized it, a departure from years past when Israeli officials were often eager to trumpet Iranian arms transfers to Syria and Hezbollah as violations of Security Council resolutions.

Some analysts say Israel believes Iran wants to escalate tensions on Israel's northern border with Lebanon and Syria to divert attention from its nuclear program. Israel has shied away from publicizing the transfer, these people say, to avoid playing into Iran's hands by increasing domestic pressure on Israel's government to take military action.

The radar report is likely to place greater pressure on the Syria strategy of the Obama administration, which has aimed to tamp down tensions with Syria as it tries to rebuild diplomatic ties.

U.S. officials including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who sent a high-level trade delegation to Damascus in June, continue to argue that Washington has the best hope of altering Syrian President Bashar Assad's behavior, and weakening his alliance with Tehran, through diplomatic dialogue.

A White House spokesman declined to comment on the transfer.

Israeli officials confirmed in private the transfer of the advanced radar, but the military wouldn't release specifics in response to queries by The Wall Street Journal.

"Iran is engaged in developing Syrian intelligence and aerial detection capabilities, and Iranian representatives are present in Syria for that express purpose," the Israeli military said in a statement. "Radar assistance is only one expression of that cooperation."

Ahmed Salkini, the spokesman for the Syrian Embassy in Washington, called the report of the radar shipment "classic Israeli PR stunts aimed at diverting the world's attention from the atrocities they are committing in Gaza and other occupied territories, and we will not continue wasting our time" commenting on them.

Iran denied that it had sent sophisticated radars to Syria. "It is absolutely not true," said Mohamad Bak Sahraee, spokesman for Iran's mission to the United Nations. Hezbollah officials in Beirut declined to comment.

Syria, which has long struggled against Israel's superior military, has its own interest in acquiring advanced radar. Israeli fighter jets bombed a Syrian site in 2007 that Israelis say housed a nuclear reactor in the final stages of construction. Syria said it was a defunct military facility.

Some military analysts have suggested that Israel was able to slip into and out of Syrian air space during that raid by jamming older Syrian radar.

In the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, "There was no opposition to our jets. We flew freely," said Cpt. Ron, an active duty Israeli F-16 pilot, who under Israeli security restrictions would allow himself to be identified only by his first name and rank. "In the next Lebanon war, we know it will not be like that."

Israeli officials have in recent months accused Iran and Syria of transferring to Hezbollah Syrian-made M-600 missiles, capable of striking targets in Tel Aviv within a few hundred feet of accuracy; advanced shoulder launched anti-aircraft missiles; and an arsenal of short-range rockets that Israeli officials say has grown to more than 40,000, from 12,000 in 2006.

U.S. and Israeli officials also say Hezbollah has received training in Syria on more advanced radar-guided, truck-launched anti-aircraft missiles, though they say it isn't clear whether those weapons systems have been transferred from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In April, Israeli President Shimon Peres publicly accused Syria of transferring Scud missiles to Hezbollah, an accusation that U.S. officials privately affirmed.

The public accusation marked the first time Western intelligence agencies believe a state may have transferred ballistic missiles to a non-state militia that the U.S. and Israel consider a terrorist group. The missiles would give Hezbollah the ability to hit virtually all of Israel from Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

Syrian, Lebanese and Hezbollah officials have denied the Scud transfer.

A radar deal stands to further shift the region's strategic balance.

Israeli and U.S. officials wouldn't say how they determined the shipment took place or discuss the radar's type or capacity.

But they say it would give Syria and its ally Iran improved visibility of Israeli air space and provide early warning of any imminent Israeli strike. Amid Iran's nuclear standoff with the West, Israeli officials have suggested they could strike Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

More advanced radar technologies would also likely increase the accuracy and lethality of Hezbollah missiles aimed at Israeli cities and incoming Israeli aircraft.

"An effective long-range radar is the kind of thing you'd need to make longer-range missiles accurate," said David Fulghum, an electronic warfare and radar expert. "Up till now, [Hezbollah] was just sort of lighting the fuse and shooting them to land wherever."

A clear picture of the skies above Israel and Lebanon would give Hezbollah greater freedom of movement during any conflict, since the group would know when its fighters were at risk of being bombed from the air.

"The Iranians have two interests," said a U.S. official who is familiar with the arms transfers. "They need Hezbollah to be a powerful threat against Israel, and they are interested in knowing what is coming to them from Israel."

Current and former U.S. officials who've worked on Syria said the U.S. and Israel have often had to trend lightly on the issue of Damascus's arms dealings for fear of stoking a broader Middle East war. President George W. Bush's administration was notified of Israel's planned 2007 attack on Syria.

For more than a half year, the U.S. kept secret its intelligence outlining the reactor's construction, fearing that publicizing it could pressure Israel and Syria into a conflict, said a former U.S. official who was part of the deliberations.

"We didn't comment on the reactor for six months" after Israel's attack, only then accusing the Syrians of building a reactor, this official said. "We wanted to find a way to use the situation for our advantage."

Indeed, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert communicated to Mr. Assad through third channels after the attack that Israel remained open to peace talks.

Many Syrian and Israeli officials said the two sides made progress on resolving their dispute over the Golan Heights region before Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip in early 2009 stalled the process.

34
3DHS / Subduing Afghans with mercenaries and foreign troops
« on: July 01, 2010, 02:33:28 AM »
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/06/30/afghanistans-record-june-toll-103-nato-troops-slain/

June closed with the deaths of a record 103 NATO troops, only 61 of whom were American.  No further break-downs were given, but of the "American" deaths, I am wondering how many were not even U.S. citizens but the usual pathetic bunch of green-card seekers who gambled and lost big-time.

Overall, looks like bad news for Afghanistan, because this is a formula that Obama can use indefinitely.  As some foreign "allies" drop out, Obama can sucker others into taking their place to provide the cannon fodder for his war, increasing drone attacks to further shift the loss of life from U.S. forces to the Afghan people.  This is starting to look like it might be a longer haul than I had expected.

35
3DHS / U.S. Shifting Goals in Afghanistan
« on: June 29, 2010, 06:17:27 PM »
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0627/begins-scaling-ambitions-afghan-occupation/

Looks like the beginning of the end.  An article in Foreign Affairs strongly suggests the  U.S. is about to abandon its pursuit of a strong central government in favour of regional power-sharing (read, loose association of various warlords, some more friendly or less friendly to Taliban-like Islamic extremists, with caveats that no more Sept-11-like assaults be launched in the U.S.A.  Please?)  

Why?  Because the public is getting tired of nine years of endless war based on promises of doing better next year and "finally getting it right" and all the other BS the military uses to cover up their ignorance and incompetence like a losing gambler tries to cover his bad luck and pretend that just one more roll of the dice will really, really, really bring home the bacon.

Sometimes you have to wonder if McChrystal really knew what he was doing when he gave that interview to Rolling Stone.  Saw the writing on the wall and figured out how to jump ship yet still avoid the "quitter" label as well as the "loser" label through one lousy little interview.

36
3DHS / Grandstanding
« on: June 28, 2010, 08:53:58 PM »
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28267189.htm

Hilarious.  The Democrat is "outraged" at the waste and theft.  Ha ha ha, WTF did she think has been going on there for almost a decade now?

Does anybody want to take bets on how long it will take before every cent of that "cut" will be restored?

The more I watch stuff like that, the more apparent it becomes what a sham the entire "democratic process" really has become in the U.S.A. (and probably in Canada as well, but that's another story.)  The real rulers of the country have decided that Afghanistan will be invaded and occupied until a reliable and secure puppet government is  in place and America has all the Afghan bases it requires.  In the meantime, temper tantrums of the "elected representatives" will come and go, always good for a headline or two, but never standing in the way of the objectives of the ruling class.

37
3DHS / Islamic websites question Petraeus' mental and physical health
« on: June 27, 2010, 11:47:16 AM »
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/foreign-policy/3873-the-islamic-view-of-mcchrystals-firing

One of the websites claims that Petraeus fainted before Congress due to the hopelessness of the American situation, and that he's a "weak sister" who won't be any more able than McChrystal to pull the chestnuts out of the fire.  They seem to feel the war is already won, only the Americans don't want to admit it.  Figures.

38
3DHS / Pattern Recognition
« on: June 24, 2010, 10:42:01 PM »
McChrystal/Obama
Singlaub/Carter
MacArthur/Truman

Funny how military insubordination to civilian Commanders in Chief seems to be restricted entirely to Democratic Presidents, isn't it?

Can anyone think of an insubordinate military officer in the 20th or 21st Century who mouthed off at a Republican C in C?

I think you will have a growing problem with an all-volunteer force and a crypto-Fascist supposedly "non-partisan" American military.

39
3DHS / Obama the Idiot
« on: June 19, 2010, 09:39:19 PM »
Is there anyone in this group who is so fucking stupid that he would lend money to someone he knows only from doing business with him, without getting as much as a signed IOU from him?

Well, your President seems to have done the equivalent with General Petraeus, according to a book by Jonathan Alter and referred to in an article by George Will:

<< . . . there’s the following exchange from 2009 between President Obama, General Petraeus, and Admiral Mullen about the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, taken from The Promise: President Obama, Year One, Jonathan Alter’s book on Obama’s first year:

<<OBAMA "I want you to be honest with me. You can do this in 18 months?"

<<PETRAEUS: "Sir, I'm confident we can train and hand over to the ANA [Afghan National Army] in that time frame."

<<OBAMA: "If you can't do the things you say you can in 18 months, then no one is going to suggest we stay, right?"

<<PETRAEUS: "Yes, sir, in agreement."

<<MULLEN: "Yes, sir.">>

http://www.thenation.com/print/blog/getting-out-2011

Beautiful, huh?  An "exchange" between them, memorialized only by the professional reputation of Jonathan Alter.  Nothing in writing signed by the good general.  No public hearing to record the good general's words indelibly for posterity.  Just an "exchange," one that happens to be vouched for by Jonathan Alter, hardly a rock-solid guarantor of credibility of anyone's word should push come to shove.

Obviously this fucking wimp has absolutely nothing in his hand when the time comes for Petraeus and Mullen to make good on their absurd and ludicrous promises.  The usual bullshit (cut and run, sacrifices of our brave men and women, the trust of our brave Afghan allies, armchair generals inside the Beltway versus men in the front lines braving rocket fire and bombs, etc., etc., etc.) will be brought to bear on Obama and the same promises made all over again (anyone remember "the light at the end of the tunnel?") and the fucking wimp will once again cave in and let the atrocity continue for another year and a half or two years.

The military-industrial complex sure got their money's worth out of this clown.  As did the insurance industry.  As did the mining industry.  As did the oil industry.  Fuck him.  I hope they amend the Constitution so George W. Bush can serve a third term.

40
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/06/15/congress-expresses-growing-concerns-about-afghan-war/

Good article listing the numerous failures to date of the MacChrystal plan and the government's tricky position in explaining them to the satisfaction of Congress.

IMHO, the alleged "dissatisfaction" of Congress or specific members thereof and the administration's "difficulties" in explaining them are just window-dressing or shadow play.   Congress will approve whatever must be approved to prosecute and/or escalate the war, but this is a foreshadowing of serious public concerns as well as Treasury limits that will soon force some hard choices on the war-mongers in Washington.

41
http://tinyurl.com/36ftsap

<<After several days underground, the founder of the secretive website WikiLeaks has gone public to disclose that he is preparing to release a classified Pentagon video of a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan last year that left as many as 140 civilians dead, most of them children and teenagers.>>

Fantastic!  The truth is coming out and those lying bastards can't keep a lid on it any more.  Took long enough, faced with the measures of suppression of the press that the murderous scum developed over the past decade (restricted access, pool reporters, embedding) but it's amazing how, one way or another, and no thanks to the MSM, the real truth eventually emerges.  Not that the American public gives a shit, but it might motivate some of the more laid-back Taliban fighters and their supporters to escalate their activities from lukewarm to red-hot.  Maybe someone's heart will be moved enough to let the Taliban have some of those ground-to-air missiles they seem to need so badly.  Ya never know.

42
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2544-building-socialism-from-below-the-role-of-the-communes-in-venezuela

This is an excellent, longish, mildly to moderately difficult article by a teacher in the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa and a teacher of politics at the University of Regina (Saskatchewan.)

It's about the development of grassroots comunas (i.e., soviets or communes) in the urban barrios and in the countryside of Venezuela under the Chávez regime, which has established a "Ministry of Popular Power for the Comunas and Social Protection" to facilitate and encourage the development of the comunas.

The article is interesting for a number of reasons, one being that it provides a practical example of the possibilities of creating grassroots centres of power through participatory democracy rather than representative democracy, another being that it draws attention to the tensions between grassroots participatory democracy and the structures of a bourgeois state, such as Venezuela, even under the leadership of "leftists" such as the Chávez administration.  Because of the structure of the bourgeois state inherited from previous administrations, there is unavoidable tension between the appointees of the current federal administration (the mayors and governors) and the comunas (soviets or communes) themselves.  The article also deals with the potential for the future spread of jurisdiction of the soviets from the purely local to matters of national concern, essentially (as I understand this) through inter-soviet networking on a state, and then national, level.

It's a very encouraging article for those who might have bought into the MSM claptrap that socialism was dead.  The article deals, although not in much detail, with the "fall" of the Soviet Union, which it associates with the failure of true participatory democracy in a state which had become "Soviet" in name only.  Hopefully, the comuna movement would avoid the so-called "pitfall" of Russian communism, i.e., the conundrum of absolute power in a "People's Republic."

The article takes the form of an interview with a young, but apparently quite experienced, former student activist now engaged full-time in the development of the movement.  It's cautiously optimistic

The problems faced by the comunas in building socialism from the bottom up are dealt with frankly but hopefully.  The article is certainly not for anyone with the two-dimensional cartoon-like image of Venezuela (evil dictator, banana republic, captive nation) purveyed by the American MSM, but it's a realistic look at the problems of building true socialism in Latin America.

43
3DHS / Helen Thomas Affair Reviewed
« on: June 15, 2010, 12:05:27 PM »
http://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2010/06/helen-thomas-affair.html

Excellent take on the hypocritical shitstorm that enveloped the unfortunate reporter.  Blogger makes the point that nobody has ever been criticized in the MSM for suggesting that the Palestinians go back where they came from (a ludicrous suggestion in any case since the Palestinians didn't come from anywhere, they were born in what is now Israel) and a quote from David Ben-Gurion that, while strongly upholding Israel's right to exist, puts the issue squarely where it belongs (it's a matter only of which side has the superior force) and acknowledges very eloquently the Palestinians' legitimate claims on the land.  (Although nothing that the blogger posted confirmed to my satisfaction the authenticity of the B-G quote.

44
3DHS / Unfair Enforcement of Standards
« on: June 15, 2010, 01:41:51 AM »
I'm kind of pissed off and offended by the continued presence of the word "Kike" in the title of a thread but of course I recognize the right of BSB to use it as his language of choice to make a point he wants to make, and make it his way.

What pisses me off is that I can't spell "America" the way I think it ought to be spelled, with three K's, to make my point in the language that I wish to use to make my point my way.

I am going to knock off for the night, but if "Kike" is still there in the morning, then I reserve the right to spell "America" any way I like.  It is not so much the word "Kike" that offends me, although of course it is offensive, but the unfair enforcement of standards that rankles my ass.

45
3DHS / Huh? When Did This Happen?
« on: June 13, 2010, 12:32:35 PM »
A Ted Rall cartoon . . .

http://www.gocomics.com/tedrall/2010/06/10/

. . . indicates that the Supreme Court has ruled that cops don't have to read a suspect's Miranda rights any more.  This is HUGE!!!  Did it really happen?  When?

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