WarSclerotic

Barak, son…

I posted this story on my facebook and two facebook groups as well as on Zohar’s page with the comment:

Bottom line: Don’t trust the MSM any more than the government. They tried to demonize Snowden, then attacked Greenwald as a co-conspirator. They have transformed themselves into tools for the new 21st century police state which calls itself “democracy.”

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/aug/19/edward-snowden-national-newspapers (via shareaholic.com)

I urge you to begin doing likewise, if you aren’t already doing so.  With the MSM in full coverup mode, the only way to get the truth out is by spreading it as widely as each citizen’s contacts allows.  I consider it an ethical obligation at this point to go proactive on the Amerikan police state.

​I was heartbroken when the OWS movement died over the winter.  The issue of the 99% is as valid today as then.  (Even more so!)  Now add to that the NSA’s spying on all US citizens and you have the grounds for a mass movement to arise that can actually turn the country around.

I know, I know… Call me a naive “optimist.”  What other options are there?

Did you ever see the vid I edited when OWS started?  I was alone in Tel Aviv when the movement began in NY.  After the Brooklyn Bridge police action I decided to make it to encourage the movement to spread through the whole country.

Creative, non-violent resistance must be promoted at EVERY possible turn.  I simply don’t believe the American people will go gently into that awful night of tyranny that is now clearly upon them.  If we don’t turn things around, the US is on the straight and narrow to be the next USSR.

Amazing vid you sent me before we got cut off.   I’ve subscribed to that outfits channel.

Please consider joining a small group I’ve started called “Snowden for President 2016.”  He’s not old enough, I know.  It’s the principal and the irony that I was after.  If you like it, invite your whole FB contact list to join.  Otherwise, invite them to join another group on the topic that you like.

Up till now, I’ve never pushed my ideas on people, merely presented them.  Though it’s tacky and potentially annoying to people, we no longer have the luxury of adhering to our ideals of “politeness.”  This message needs to be screamed at the top of our lungs to EVERYONE.

“Restore America to its citizens.”

Or some better slogan that captures the horrendous inequality of distribution of income as well as the overwhelming intrusion of the government into our lives via the NSA et al.

If it’s within your ability, get out in front on this, son.  Your own self respect as well as the future of the free world is at stake.  Nobody is too small to make some difference.

I’m actually jealous of your being at Columbia now.  The strike I helped lead in 1972 was about horrible government policy that compared to today seems relatively small.

http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/imageserver/imageserver.pl?oid=cs19720505-01&key=&getpdf=true

Please call and be with me whenever you think of it.  I’ll always be happy if you do.

Godspeed…

Abba

Partner of reporter at center of NSA leak detained in UK – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page.

( I’m not surprised at this point, are you?  The notion that the West stands for and defends human rights is no more than the memory of another era long past.  God help the world. – JW )

‘Israel intensifying bid to rally support for Egypt military rule’ | The Times of Israel.

It’s ‘army or anarchy,’ Israeli official tells NY Times, rebuffing claims that Jerusalem is ‘undercutting’ Western efforts

Egyptian army soldiers take their positions on top and next to their armored vehicles while guarding an entrance to Tahrir square, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Aug. 16, 2013 (photo credit: AP/Hassan Ammar)

The Israeli government intends to step up this week a campaign urging the United States and Europe the European Union to back the interim military government in Egypt, despite the regime’s rise to power through violence and its ongoing crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, The New York Times reported late Sunday.

The report cited a senior Israeli official who, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied claims that Israel’s involvement was “undercutting” Western diplomatic efforts in Cairo. The Israeli official said that, for now, the choice in Egypt was “army or anarchy.”

“We’re trying to talk to key actors, key countries, and share our view that you may not like what you see, but what’s the alternative?” the official was quoted as saying. “If you insist on big principles, then you will miss the essential — the essential being putting Egypt back on track at whatever cost. First, save what you can, and then deal with democracy and freedom and so on.”

Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the general who orchestrated the military takeover that ousted president Mohammed Morsi and replaced him with an interim government led by Hazem el-Beblawi, was said to have cultivated close ties with Israel during his tenure as head of military intelligence in Egypt.

The 58-year-old general and his close circle, the report said, have kept in close contact with Israel even as fighting erupted on the streets of Cairo, killing 173 over the weekend and, all told, over 800 people since Wednesday’s dismantling of two encampments of Morsi supporters in Cairo — an act that sparked fierce clashes.

The Israeli official who spoke to The New York Times said that Israeli ambassadors would work to convince foreign ministers across Europe that the military-backed government in Cairo was the only way to prevent Egypt from falling even deeper into chaos.

US officials have been grappling with the question of what magnitude of violence would warrant cutting aid to Egypt. And while Israeli decision makers largely believe Washington should back el-Sissi, some experts expressed concern that openly backing the military in the midst of daily blatant violations of Egyptians’ human rights could damage Israel’s credentials as a democracy.

“Israel does not have to support the (Egyptian) regime, especially not publicly. It is not our place to defend all the measures taken, this is not our business,” said Giora Eiland, a former chairman of Israel’s National Security Council.

At the same time, Eiland suggested that international condemnations of the Egyptian military’s actions have been excessive. He said Israeli and Western interests are “much closer” to the interests of el-Sissi and his secular allies.

“Even if we don’t share the same values, we can share the same interests,” he said. “The Israeli interest is quite clear. We want a stable regime in Egypt.”

“At the end of the day, the US has to realize the real potential, reliable partner is the combination of the coalition of secular people in Egypt and the current military regime,” he added.

But two former Israeli ambassadors to Egypt, Eli Shaked and Yitzhak Levanon, disagreed, and said that Israel had handled the situation in Egypt extremely well.

Levanon said that rather than “pushing” governments to act one way or another, Israel has been “expressing what we believe is best for the region.”

Shaked claimed that Israel had “acted very discreetly” and said that Jerusalem “did not have any illusions about the possibility of a democracy in Egypt,” a mistake he said was made by boththe US and the EU.

“I understand Washington and Europe with their criticism, but there is no alternative to letting the army in Egypt try by force,” he explained, adding that it wasn’t about picking between “good guys and bad guys,” but rather of deciding “who is less harmful.”

The US and European Union have criticized Egypt’s crackdown on Morsi’s supporters.

President Barack Obama has suspended a planned military exercise with Egypt, and US Sen. John McCain has led a chorus of voices urging a halt in the $1.3 billion in military aid the US sends to Egypt each year.

“For us to sit by and watch this happen is a violation of everything that we stood for,” the Republican senator told CNN. “We’re not sticking with our values.”

Obama has not made a decision. But suggestions like McCain’s have raised concerns in Israel that tough US action could shake the alliance with Egypt — and even prompt Egypt to retaliate against Israel.

“The Israeli and Egyptian security establishments are operating inside a bubble and, for the time being, there are no signs that relations between them have cooled,” wrote Alex Fishman, a military affairs commentator for the Yediot Ahronot daily. “But the Egyptian street is beginning to press, and the current regime is going to have to toss it a bone. Regrettably, it is going to be an Israeli bone it tosses.”

Israeli officials say the peace accord remains intact, and dismiss speculation that it could be threatened.

Shaked, the former Israeli ambassador in Egypt, told AP the scenario of the Camp David accords unraveling was highly unlikely. He said it was highly doubtful the United States would cut off aid to Egypt and even if it did, he could not envision Egypt canceling the peace treaty.

“They have no interest in engaging in another conflict they have neither the time nor the energy for,” he said. “They need us now, with or without American aid.”

Times of Israel staff and AP contributed to this report.

Dozens of Egyptian policemen killed in North Sinai blast | JPost | Israel News.

IDF deploys sixth Iron Dome battery | The Times of Israel.

Newest missile-defense cannon first to be manned solely by reserves soldiers; six more Iron Domes planned

An Iron Dome battery deployed near Eilat, which came under fire last week. (photo credit: Flash90)

One day after a rocket was fired from Sinai toward Eilat, and amid mounting tension in Egypt, the IDF last Wednesday brought a sixth Iron Dome anti-missile battery online, boosting the country’s burgeoning air-defense array, it was confirmed Sunday.

The newest battery is the first to be operated solely by reserves soldiers and is part of a plan to introduce further reserves “one after another,” according to Col. Zvika Haimovitch, the commander of the IAF’s Aerial Defense Division’s Active Defense Wing.

“This weekend we introduced an additional Iron Dome battery, based on reserves manpower, which will protect the citizens of Israel in times of emergency,” Haimovitch told the army’s weekly Bamahaneh magazine.

The short-range, air-defense system was first introduced in March 2011, after years of contemplation and deep-seated reluctance to both the concept and the notion of an expensive rocket-defense system.

In Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012, however, the IDF’s five Iron Dome batteries intercepted 86 percent of the 421 rockets flying toward populated areas — far surpassing virtually all expectations — “and dramatically changing the face of the campaign,” according to then-defense minister Ehud Barak.

Designed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the mobile unit is equipped with a tracking radar, a command-and-control center and several missile-firing launchers, which can address simultaneous threats from 4 to 70-plus kilometers away.

The newest battery is part of Israel’s multilayered air-defense system and one of a projected dozen Iron Dome batteries necessary to protect the country from short- and medium-range threats during a time of war.

The several dozen soldiers who will run the battery, trained as part of what will soon be a full reserves battalion, went through a refresher course at the IAF’s Air Defense School, practicing on a simulator and reacquainting themselves with the system, Bamahaneh reported.

“Most of the reservists are veterans of the unit and a small number of them are IAF technicians who were trained to use the system,” said the commander of the new battery, Maj. Itamar Abu.

Maj. Itamar Abu (photo credit: Courtesy IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

During Operation Pillar of Defense, Abu was pulled out of university studies and drafted back into service, hastily assembling the fifth Iron Dome squad out of reserves and conscripted soldiers. The battery was supplied to the IDF on Thursday,^, November 15; deployed one day later in the Tel Aviv region; and, one day after that — Saturday, November 17 — recorded its first combat intercept.

The rocket fired toward Eilat on Tuesday came two days after five men were killed at a rocket-launching site in northern Sinai and one week after the airport in Eilat was closed in accordance with security assessments.

Regional unrest sparks anti-Israel, US conspiracy theories | The Times of Israel.

( As always, Islam is blameless.  All their problems are caused by the Jews and their Western stooges. Pathetic… –  JW )

From Iran to Egypt, Muslims believe Western powers attempting to destabilize Mideast for personal gain

Lebanese citizens gather at the site of a car bomb explosion in southern Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013. (Photo credit: AP/Hussein Malla)

An Iranian legislator accused Israel and the US Saturday of plotting to instigate widespread crises and instability within Islamic countries by operating and funding double agent militias in regions throughout the Middle East.

According to Iranian state-run news site PressTV, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iran’s Majlis Council, claimed that the militias were composed of “Takfiri,” an Islamic legal term used to describe a Muslim who accuses another Muslim of apostasy.

“The US and Israel seek to get Muslim countries entangled in domestic problems, and to that end, they use Takfiri groups, which are the puppets of the US and their regional allies,” Boroujerdi said.

Boroujerdi accused Israel of flaring up violence in Lebanon, pointing at Thursday’s blast that ripped through a stronghold of the Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah and resulted in the death of at least 24 people as well as the injury of hundreds more in a suburb south of the country’s capital.

“This is the continuation of the moves designed by the US and Zionists long ago to disrupt security in regional countries, so that they could capitalize on the internal divisions in Islamic countries to ensure the security of the Zionist regime,” the Iranian lawmaker stated.

Boroujerdi’s claims echoed Friday statements made by Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, who similarly said that Takfiri were behind the deadly car bomb attack.

“According to information and indications, it’s most likely that a Takfiri group was behind [the] explosion and their operatives are known,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech in the southern town of Aita al-Shaab near the Israeli border.

Lebanese officials estimated that the attack was carried out by activists opposed to Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria’s ongoing civil war.

Nasrallah went on to boast about Hezbollah’s determination and said that his organization will stand undeterred by forces that attempt to undermine the group’s assistance of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime across the border.

“If the battle with these Takfiri terrorists requires that I and all Hezbollah should go to Syria, we will go for the sake of Syria and its people and for the sake of Lebanon and its people,” Nasrallah said.

Though the Hezbollah leader dismissed accusations that Israel was in fact behind the deadly attack, Nasrallah asserted that Takfiri groups had been infiltrated by US and Israeli intelligence operatives.

“If you are working for Israel, our hands will reach you if the state fails to do so,” he said.

Interestingly, the “Brigade of Aisha, the Mother of the Faithful,” a previously unheard-of group which claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack, accused Nasrallah himself of being an “agent of Israel” as well as of Iran.

In a video published by the group, a masked man threatened further attacks against what he called the “Iranian colonies” in Lebanon, and warned Nasrallah that Hezbollah would not be exempt from such attacks.

”Nasrallah, you and your organization have received a message from us,” the masked man said. ”Be warned.”

Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Assad on Sunday said Israelis were the ones who benefited from civil unrest in the Arab world.

In Egypt as well, media outlets, political commentators and laypeople across the board have accused Israel and the US of deliberately sparking the country’s ongoing strife in order to attain dominance of the region.

On Saturday, The Tamarod movement, a youth group that was instrumental in the protests which led to the ouster of president Mohammed Morsi , called on Egyptian officials to cancel the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement and to decline US aid. Tamarod representatives reported that at least 300,000 people had signed a petition to end the peace treaty with “the Israeli entity,” and to refuse US aid to Egypt.

Egyptian social media was also abuzz with anti-Israel and, to a somewhat higher degree, anti-American chatter, as a number of cartoons spreading rapidly throughout Twitter and Facebook imply that Israel and the US are attempting to tear the Egyptian country and the Middle East apart.

One cartoon shows a recognizable Uncle Sam figure wearing a US flag hat along with a man wearing an Israeli flag hat, placing the Egyptian country in a boiling cauldron filled with blood. Alongside the two men are an additional couple of steaming cauldrons, with the countries of Iraq and Syria drenched in blood boiling inside them.

Muslim Brotherhood members lashed out at the US as well, claiming that the country had not stood up to the task of protecting a democratically elected government.

“The army says the Americans are supporting the Brotherhood, but the Brotherhood says the Americans are backing [Egyptian Army Chief Abdel-Fattah] el-Sissi,” Egyptian journalist Ahmed Fadl told the Guardian.

“Both sides use the same arguments.”

Obama clogged up in the ‘heart of the Arab world’ | The Times of Israel.

The president has been reluctant to leverage US aid to influence events in Egypt, despite mounting impatience of a growing number of Washington lawmakers

President Barack Obama announces that the US is canceling joint military exercise with Egypt amid violence, on August 15, 2013 (photo credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON — In June 2009, President Barack Obama made a landmark speech setting out a new US policy toward the Middle East — and the world. To deliver it, the newly elected president traveled to Egypt, which his then-press secretary Robert Gibbs described as “a country that in many ways represents the heart of the Arab world.”

Four years later, the Cairo streets through which Obama traveled are burning. The past week’s violence in Egypt may finally push the US toward a conclusive decision — propping up or cutting off Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s military-controlled interim government.

Obama’s Cairo speech laid down clear guidelines for a Middle East policy based on respect and support for democratic governance and popular expression. In the ensuing four years, Egypt has forced the Obama administration to reassess the balance between support for these moral principles and America’s pragmatic strategic interest.

In the speech, Obama said he would “welcome all elected, peaceful governments, provided they govern with respect for all their people,” and warned against those who “advocate for democracy only when they are out of power; once in power, they are ruthless in suppressing the rights of others.”

But even then, Obama’s stance reflected a tension between the values expressed and America’s pragmatic interests. At the time, critics blasted Obama for hypocrisy, arguing that his visit to Egypt reinforced the leadership of then-president Hosni Mubarak, under whose administration many democratic principles were disregarded. Obama claimed to support democracies, yet Mubarak’s Egypt remained a key US ally. The administration walked an increasingly difficult line between supporting democratic activism, and providing massive amounts of US aid for Mubarak’s regime, which was repressing such activism.

The same tensions continued after Mubarak’s downfall. A June 2013 congressional report noted that then-president Mohammed Morsi “may at times act undemocratically, be more confrontational toward Israel, and limit its cooperation with the United States on intelligence and terrorism-related issues.” At the same time, it noted that the US had multiple strategic interests in maintaining close ties with Egypt.

In the 2014 budget, the administration requested a total of $1.55 billion for Egypt, including $1.3 billion in military aid — the same amount provided under Mubarak’s rule. The congressional report cast the apparent policy contradiction in optimistic terms, noting that the military aid could be used as leverage to ensure that the government behaves according to democratic principles.

America, however, has not played the leverage card — at least not yet. The strategic relationship with Cairo has been deemed too important to imperil by cutting aid.

The complex reality in Egypt was quite a challenge to Obama’s worldview: How to grapple with the nondemocratic ouster of a president who had been busy expanding presidential powers to undermine the fledgling democratic process that had seen him elected?

After taking office at the start of the year, Secretary of State John Kerry warned that “a hold up of aid might contribute to the chaos that may ensue because of their collapsing economy.” Until the most recent upswing of violence, officials in Congress say, the administration counseled would-be defunders to be patient.

Despite complaints that Morsi’s policies were increasingly undemocratic, the June congressional report noted that for both the Obama Administration and the US military, there was a desire to engage Morsi’s government “on a host of issues, including immediate economic support and Sinai security.”

As the situation in Egypt deteriorated rapidly, with Morsi’s ouster at the start of July and a headlong plunge toward chaos, the administration struggled increasingly to chart its role, still refraining from utilizing its $1.5 billion worth of leverage. The complex reality in Egypt was quite a challenge to Obama’s worldview: How to grapple with the nondemocratic ouster of a president who had been busy expanding presidential powers to undermine the fledgling democratic process that had seen him elected?

It was only in the past week, as Egypt descended into full-scale violence, that the US gestured toward the first major policy change toward Cairo since the beginning of the Arab Spring. Obama interrupted his vacation on the isolated Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard to condemn the escalation of violence by both the interim military government and pro-Morsi demonstrators. That criticism, however, paled in significance when compared to his announcement that the United States would cancel the joint military exercises that had been scheduled for September. Last month, the US delayed the shipment of four F-16 airplanes to the Egyptian military, but this was the first time that a bilateral show of unity was canceled.

More ominously for Egypt’s military leadership, Obama threatened further action. “Our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back,” Obama said Thursday. “Going forward, I’ve asked my national security team to assess the implications of the actions taken by the interim government and further steps we may take as necessary with respect to the US-Egyptian relationship.”

Events on the ground — and on Capitol Hill — may ultimately force the administration’s hand. There are nearly one dozen bills in Congress that would provide a legal basis for stopping Egyptian aid, should the country fail to meet various political and security tests. More and more players in Washington are pushing Obama to declare Morsi’s ouster to be a coup, and that would mean an automatic suspension of aid.

There is now a growing coalition of prominent senators — a rarity in usually partisan Washington — calling for suspension. The vocal Republican component includes historical enemies Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). In an interview on CNN after Obama’s announcement, McCain said that the US had “violated our own rule of law by not calling it for what it is because our law clearly states that if it’s a military coup, then aid is cut off. So initially we undercut our own values.”

The calls have also come from Obama’s own party. Both Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chairman of the powerful Armed Services Committee, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) have called to suspend aid.

The Obama administration’s policy on Egypt is slowly shifting, as it becomes less and less tenable to justify a business-as-usual approach. Under heavy criticism at home, and facing the enmity of both sides on the ground in Cairo, Obama’s policy toward the “heart of the Arab world” is plainly being pushed in a direction that the president was reluctant to take.

Israel Hayom | Iran claims to have 18,000 centrifuges.

Israel Hayom | Obama hung out to dry.

“Israel is perhaps the last country that still takes Obama seriously.”

Boaz Bismuth

Israel Hayom | The never ending story.

Dan Margalit