WarSclerotic

McCain: U.S. leadership on Syria “shameful and disgraceful” – CBS News.

Leigh Ann Caldwell

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. (CBS/Chris Usher)

(CBS News) The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday the United States is not doing enough to help the rebels defeat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying the U.S. should be providing the Syrian rebels with weapons.

“The fact is, the United States has played no leadership role,” Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., said on “Face the Nation.”

“The United States of America’s performance so far has been shameful and disgraceful,” he said. “The President of the United States should be speaking out for the people of Syria.”

McCain’s comments comes one day after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said “the sand is running out of the hourglass” for the Assad regime.

McCain had strong words for Senator Clinton and the Obama administration. “How many times has Secretary Clinton said that in the last 14 months?” McCain asked. “And by the way, when was the last time the President of the United States stood up and said we are with these people.”

McCain said Washington can’t continue to sit on the sidelines and just talk about a Syrian defeat. He told host Bob Schieffer that in addition to speaking out for Syrian rebels, the U.S. should be providing them with weapons.

“Right now, Bashar al-Assad is able to massacre and slaughter people and stay in power, thanks to the supply of Russian arms, thanks to Iranians that are on the ground,” McCain said.

Schieffer asked McCain how the U.S. knows which rebels to give aid to, amid concerns of a lack of information on the factions of the regime’s opposition.

“The fact is that these people are not, have not been taken over by extremists or al Qaeda, but they could be if this conflict drags on for months and even years,” McCain said. “I am confident that if we overthrow Bashar al-Assad the people of Syria will do exactly what the Libyan people did yesterday and that is vote for a democratic and freely-elected government.”

Turning to another conflict, Afghanistan, one in which the United States is deeply involved, McCain said President Obama is not focused on winning there.

“The president continues to announce withdrawals rather than strategies for victory,” McCain said, who just returned from a visit there.

International donors on Saturday pledged $16 billion in civilian aid at a conference in Tokyo. The money is to assist the country as international security forces withdraw.

On “Face the Nation,” McCain said Afghan President Hamid Karzai needs to fight corruption plaguing his country. “He has pledged to do that. We must hold him to that,” McCain said, adding that the other major challenge to Afghanistan’s success is the militant group, the Haqqani network, that is working with the Pakistan spy agency.

“We have to go after the Haqqani network and we have to go after them wherever they are. And we have to see progress in cleaning up and corruption,” McCain said.

Abbas accepts Ahmadinejad invitation to visit Tehran – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Palestinian president to attend Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Tehran at end of August

Elior Levy

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has accepted an invitation to attend the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Tehran, extended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday. This will most likely be Abbas’ first visit to the Islamic Republic.

Abbas received the invitation from Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian during a meeting in Amman on Sunday. The Palestinian leader thanked the Iranian deputy minister for the invitation, sent his regards to Ahmadinejad and promised to attend the summit.

The Iranian president also invited his Egyptian counterpart, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi to attend the summit. According to Iran’s state news agency IRNA, Ahmadinejad told Morsi that Tehran is not placing any restrictions on expanding bilateral ties which had been cut off in 1979 following the Egypt– Israel peace treaty.

Haniyeh and Ahmadinejad in Tehran (Photo: Reuters)

He stressed that Iran is willing to cooperate with the new Egyptian government in regional and international issues. Morsi, on his part, accepted the invitation and stressed that the Non-Aligned Movement is protecting the interests of Islamic and other developing states.

Iran will receive the rotating presidency of the movement from Egypt for three years during the Tehran summit.

In the past, Abbas accused Iran of impeding reconciliation efforts between Fatah and Hamas several times while Ahmadinejad slammed him for his lack of mandate to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is urging Arab countries to keep their promises and send tens of millions of dollars to his cash-strapped government.

Charles Krauthammer Predicts Israel Will Attack Iran if They Think Obama Will Win November Election | Video | TheBlaze.com.

Israel will attack Iran if they think President Barack Obama will win again in November, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer predicted Friday.

“If they think Obama will win the election, I think it‘s likely they will attack before because afterwards there’s no telling how Obama would punish Israel, and Israel would be vulnerable to any sanctions or other measures from the United States,” Krauthammer said Friday on Fox News.

Pointing out Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s words earlier this year that Israel would attack Iran in April, May or June, Krauthammer said the “clock is running.”

“I think they’re simply waiting to make sure that these sham negotiations are declared over rather than put on life support as a way to say all options have been tried, now we have to defend ourselves,” he said.

Iran on Saturday said it has a plan to block the Strait of Hormuz if it feels its interests are “seriously threatened,” and last week issued a new threat to “wipe” Israel “off the face of the earth” if the Jewish state attacks.

In show of force, Syria holds large-scale military drill | The Times of Israel.

Maneuvers begin with naval forces repelling a simulated attack from sea

A Syrian soldier aims a light machine gun from his position in a foxhole during operation Desert Storm 20 years ago (photo credit: Tech. Sgt. H. H. Deffner/Department of Defense)

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria’s military began large-scale exercises simulating defense against outside “aggression,” the state-run news agency said Sunday — an apparent warning to other countries not to intervene in the country’s crisis.

The exercise began Saturday with naval forces in a scenario where they repelled an attack from the sea, and will include air and ground forces over the next few days, SANA agency said. State TV broadcast footage of missiles being fired from launch vehicles and warships.

Some in the Syrian opposition have appealed to the West for foreign forces to step in to stop bloodshed that they say has left more than 14,000 dead since an uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011. So far, the West has shown little appetite to intervene.

Special U.N. envoy Kofi Annan acknowledged in an interview published Saturday that the international community’s efforts to find a political solution to the escalating violence in Syria have failed.

“The evidence shows that we have not succeeded,” he told the French daily Le Monde.

Annan, the special envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League, is the architect of the most prominent international plan to end the crisis in Syria.

His six-point plan was to begin with a cease-fire in mid-April between government forces and rebels seeking to topple Assad. But the truce never took hold, and now the almost 300 U.N. observers sent to monitor the cease-fire are confined to their hotels because of the escalating violence.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that time is running out on Syrian peace hopes and warned that the Syrian state could collapse.

Speaking in Japan, Clinton said Annan’s acknowledgement that his peace plan is failing “should be a wake-up call for everyone.”

She said last month was the deadliest for the Syrian people in the 16-month revolt, but added that the opposition “is getting more effective in defense of themselves and going on the offensive against the Syrian military.”

Defense Minister Dawood Rajiha attended the maneuvers and praised the “exceptional performance” of the naval forces which showed “a high level of combat training and ability to defend Syria’s shores against any possible aggression.”

“The navy carried out the training successfully, repelling the hypothetical attack and striking at given targets with high precision,” the report said.

For Iran, all the world’s an anti-Semitic stage | Daniel S. Mariaschin | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel.

The United Nations has become a favored platform for Iran to spread its ongoing message of anti-Semitism. And why not? The world body has countless conferences and meetings each year, with global media in attendance, an easy megaphone for Tehran to commandeer to get its message across: that Israel and the Jews are to blame for all of the world’s problems — past, present and future.

Most recently, the Tehran regime displayed its Israel/Jewish obsession via a speech by Iranian Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi at an event in conjunction with the UN International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Rahimi said the Talmud teaches Jews that they are a superior race. In his remarks, he also blamed the Talmud for the worldwide spread of illicit drugs, reportedly claiming that “Zionists” firmly control the illegal drug trade. He is quoted as saying:

The Islamic Republic of Iran will pay for anybody who can research and find one single Zionist who is an addict. They do not exist. This is the proof of their involvement in drugs trade.

It was reassuring to see that, this time, Iran’s hateful rhetoric did not escape condemnation by top global leaders. The European Union’s high representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, responded and reiterated “the EU’s absolute commitment to combating racism and anti-Semitism.”

Other global leaders quickly spoke out against the outrageous comments. But much more action is needed.

Too often Iran’s vile words are left unchecked.

Why are global forums giving Iran the stage in the first place? Time after time, Iran abuses the privilege and responsibilities that come with membership in the United Nations.

Iran can claim no credentials as a good global citizen. It is the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, a fact we are reminded of at this time of year when we commemorate the AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires. The Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) building was bombed in July 1994, and, overwhelmingly, evidence singles out top Iranian officials for a direct role in the attack that killed 85 and wounded 300. As the home to the heart of the largest Jewish community in all of Latin America, the AMIA attack was symbolic of Iran’s hatred of Israel and Jews.

There is a connection between hatred of Jews and of Israel, and threatening their destruction. And it is this correlation that global leaders need to focus on when it comes to Iran. Words matter, and we cannot ever assume that Iran’s threats are empty.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of course has the most name-recognition when it comes to publicly spouting anti-Israel venom. Ahmadinejad’s avowal that Israel must be wiped off the map and his Holocaust denial (which he reaffirms nearly annually at the United Nations in New York at the start of the General Assembly), coupled with his nation’s disregard for the human rights of its own citizens, make for a somber reality.

But such repugnant views are part and parcel of Iran’s policies that permeate every aspect of its leadership. Speeches such as Rahimi’s represent the agenda of a country that is ramping up its nuclear weapons production. Soon, if not stopped, those toxic words will have the most deadly muscle behind them.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei spouts anti-Israel propaganda regularly. In February, according to WND.com, a news website used by some major media, a top Khamenei strategist said it would be justified by Islamic law to kill all Jews and destroy Israel. Khamenei has also publicly referred to the “cancerous tumor” of Israel.

Senior officers of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, an arm of Iran’s military that enforces Tehran’s policies, also regularly tout the regime’s extreme views. The Guard asserts itself worldwide on behalf of Tehran and spreads anti-Israel propaganda far and wide. The Guard’s power and deep financial resources enforce Tehran’s strategy.

After a new series of missile tests, Revolutionary Guard General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said Iran would not hesitate to “wipe them [Israel] off the face of the earth,” if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear production facilities, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA and other news reports.

The tone taken by Iran — the seemingly gleeful challenge to Israel — is abhorrent and cause for alarm. Anti-Israel venom appears to be fundamental to the ideology of the Tehran regime. To what end?

Here’s one way to send the Iranians a clear message: Deny them the platforms from which they spout their vile rhetoric. At the very least, world leaders should simply get up and walk out.

Rogue arms dealer Iran elected to UN panel negotiating international treaty on arms trading | The Times of Israel.

( And we thought the UN couldn’t be more grotesque ? – JW )

15-member team currently at work at UN HQ in New York. It’s ‘like choosing Bernie Madoff to police fraud on the stock market,’ says UN watchdog group, urging Ban Ki-moon to intervene

Iranian navy frigate IS Alvand passing through Egypt’s Suez Canal in February 2011 (photo credit: AP file photo)

In what one critic called a move akin to placing Bernie Madoff in charge of thwarting fraud on the stock market, Iran has been elected as one of the 15 members of the United Nation’s Arms Trade Treaty conference.

It was chosen for the conference, currently under way in New York, precisely as the UN Security Council slammed Tehran’s illegal arms deals, including shipments to Syria, and while the international community continues to censure and sanction Iran for its refusal to halt its nuclear program.

The Army Trade Treaty Conference aims to negotiate an international treaty regulating arms dealing. The vote on membership in the conference was held last Tuesday, and Iran was elected, alongside Japan and South Korea, as one of three countries representing the Asian group.

The choice of Iran was condemned by UN Watch, a Geneva-based monitoring group. “Right after a UN Security Council report found Iran guilty of illegally transferring guns and bombs to Syria, which is now murdering thousands of its own people, it defies logic, morality and common sense for the UN to now elect this same regime to a global post in the regulation of arms transfers,” said Hillel Neuer, UN Watch’s executive director.

On Friday, a UN report written by members of the Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee found that “Iran has continued to defy the international community through illegal arms shipments.” At least two of these cases involved Syria, according to the report, which underlined the point that the regime of President Basher Assad “continues to be the central party to illicit Iranian arms transfers.”

“This is like choosing Bernie Madoff to police fraud on the stock market,” Neuer said.

UN Watch, which first reported on Iran’s participation in the conference, called upon UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to condemn the decision to give Iran “a position of responsibility in regulating the arms trade.” Ban should remember that the UN Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt its nuclear program, Neuer said.

The Iranian media, on the other hand, have been having a field day with Tehran’s election to the conference, boasting that their country “has been elected as deputy for the talks.”

The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), for example, reported that “some 193 participating countries unanimously voted in favor of Iran during the fourth day of the meeting under way in the United Nations headquarters, to draft a bill on regulating arms trade in the world.”

PM: P5+1 has decreased, weakened… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

07/08/2012 14:17

Netanyahu reiterates during meeting with ADL representatives that P5+1 should go back to original demand that Tehran totally stop enriching uranium, export all previously enriched material.

Photo: Marc Israel Sellem

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel and the P5+1 countries are operating for the common good against Iran’s nuclear program but expressed concern that the P5+1 has decreased and weakened demands made in the previous rounds of negotiations.

Netanayhu made the comments during a meeting in Jerusalem with a group of Anti-Defamation League Regional Board Chairs from around the US led by National Chair Robert G. Sugarman and National Director Abraham H. Foxman.

P5+1 – the US, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany – held negotiations with Iranian officials in Istanbul last week to discuss the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

The prime minister reiterated that the P5+1 should go back to its original demand that Iran totally stop enriching uranium and export all previously enriched material and dismantle the underground nuclear facility near Qom.

Netanyahu answered a range of questions during the meeting on issues including Iran, proposals for legislation replacing the Tal Law and African migrants.

While Israel continues to say the Iranians are using talks with the world powers to waste time, Jerusalem is tellingly still not calling for them to be discontinued, even as last week’s “technical talks” in Istanbul led to nothing more than an agreement to meet again.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton issued a statement shorty after the talks saying that a “full day” of “technical discussions” went on until 1 a.m., and that the P5+1 provided further details of their proposals given to Iran two months ago, and that Iran shared “further details of their proposal.”

Experts, the statement read, “explored positions on a number of technical subjects.”

The negotiators in Istanbul last week discussed issues such as Iran’s formerly clandestine Fordow facility near Qom, where high-grade enrichment is taking place.

The six powers want the bunkered, underground facility closed, but there are disagreements with the Iranian side on how this could be done or what exactly is going on in Fordow.

Herb Keinon contributed to this report

Book: Mossad agents targeted Iranian scientists – Israel News, Ynetnews.

New book by US-Israeli journalists claims Mossad agents carried out killings of Iranian scientists; ‘killings too sensitive for Mossad to share with foreign freelancers,’ authors argue

Orly Azulay

Israeli Mossad special agents are behind the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, a new book by US-Israeli CBS reporter Dan Raviv and former intelligence correspondent Yossi Melman argues.

Titled “Spies Against Armageddon,” the book claims that contrary to reports linking the killings to Iranian dissidents working for Israel, it is very unlikely that Israel would have contracted out such sensitive operations through a third party dissident group.

In their book, the writers claim that their in-depth study of 50 years of assassinations by Israel’s foreign-espionage agency yields the conclusion that the 20 suspectsnow being held by the Iranian government are not the killers.

“The methods, communications, transportation, and even the innovative bombs used in the Tehran killings are too sensitive for the Mossad to share with foreign freelancers,” Raviv and Melman wrote.

Therefore, the writers estimate that the assassinations of physicists and nuclear scientists in Iran have been what Israelis call “blue and white” operations, referring to the colors of their nation’s flag.

In one chapter of the book, the authors claim that despite the fact that Iran has no diplomatic relations with Israel and bans any visits by Israelis, Mossad operatives have had no trouble entering and leaving the country. They further said that Israel holds a hidden safe house in Iran which allows for Mossad agents to keep safe while executing the assassinations.

The book further reveals the Mossad’s close cooperation with Kurds and other ethnic minority groups inside Iran, stating that the Mossad believes that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

The authors further wrote of the close relationship between the Mossad and the CIA when explaining the efforts to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Clinton: Syria on brink of catastrophe as rebels advance. The region in danger.

DEBKAfile Special Report July 8, 2012, 12:26 PM (GMT+02:00)

Hillary Clinton warns of catastrophe to region

“There is still a chance to save the Syrian state from a catastrophic assault that would be very dangerous not only to Syria, but to the region,” said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Tokyo, Sunday, July 8.

She did not elaborate, but stressed earlier, “… the opposition is getting more effective in defense of themselves and going on the offensive against the Syrian military.”

debkafile’s military sources note that her over-the-top language comes at a pivotal moment in the Syrian conflict: The rebels are winning more and more territory and not only encircling Damascus but fighting inside the capital. To save itself, the Assad regime which still controls the army outside Damascus may in desperation open up its arsenals and deploy weapons of mass destruction in a bid to drive off the rebels while also spreading the flames to other parts of the region, including Israel.

Persian Gulf sources reported Sunday that inside the capital, the Syrian army no longer moves troops in military convoys for fear of rebel attack. They now travel in unmarked civilian vehicles. Some officers prefer to stay on base for fear of assassination or kidnap on their way home.

Clinton did not explain how the rebels were suddenly able in the last few days to develop their ubiquitous capabilities, rising numbers and military organization – or where they procured weapons for their wholesale offensive against the Syrian army.

According to debkafile’s intelligence and military sources, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have substantially stepped up the flow of munitions to the rebels. They are reaching combatants inside Syria as well as the trainees at Turkish military facilities.
Their numbers have, furthermore, risen to 50,000 armed men who are efficiently organized in 17 brigades. Fighting inside the country are 260 military units, each consisting of one or two battalions, which mostly range from 1,000-1,500 men – depending on the arena. Some are brigades of 3,000 men.
By the first week of July, the rebel army had put in place an efficient logistical system:

1. The Free Syrian Army had been able to establish a geographical presence in all of Syria’s provinces, barring the minority regions (Kurds and Druzes) which are outside the conflict, and the pro-regime Alawite region.
2.  A regional operational command was working in all those provinces (260). It was equipped with hi-tech communications connecting the provinces and linked to the FSA’s high command in Turkey.
3.  A well-organized arms smuggling ring was transferring weapons from one command to another as required for local attacks on Syrian military and security forces. This pipeline is fed by Turkish, Saudi and Qatari suppliers via Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Turkey..
4.  A foreign “military adviser” is posted at each provincial command center. They are usually special forces experts mainly from the British, French, Turkish, Saudi and Qatari armies.
Up until last month, the rebels were fighting primarily to sever a strategic strip of land from Idlib in the north to Deraa in the south in order to tie down the regime in Damascus and its Allawite loyalist forces in the west and center and cut it off from the rest of the country.

This goal has now been abandoned. Today, the anti-Assad forces are concentrating on a single objective: The regime’s overthrow.