WarSclerotic

Navy Yard Shooting: Curious UPDATES – Trazodone, SWAT Stand-down and “My ELF Weapon” | American Everyman.

by Scott Creighton

In the wake of the Navy Yard mass casualty event, the official story has gotten so strange, it seems to be slipping off the MSM’s radar.

From cryptic messages carved in shotguns to local tactical teams being sent away from the scene when they were needed most, reports of the events that unfolded on Sept. 16th in the highly controlled Navy Yard just get stranger by the day.

Did you know it was the same FBI tactical team that “found” Dzhokhar Tsarnaev that was on the scene in the Navy Yard and “found” Aaron Alexis? Did you know it was the FBI who eventually dismissed the stories about the other two shooters?

Toss into the mix the report out now that the suspect, Aaron Alexis, may have been on Trazodone when this happened (Trazodone is used to induce sleep and reported has a “hypnotic” effect) , and you have a rather odd story unfolding… or… you have a very clear one depending on your perspective.

Allow me to explain (as much as that is possible):

Trazodone

First of all, let’s address the report about Aaron being prescribed Trazodone.

According to a report from the Washington Post, you can expect to find large doses of Trazodone in Aaron Alexis’ autopsy report.

Some will focus on this as “proof” that he was on a powerful anti-psychotic medication and therefore it’s proof positive that he did it and the culprit is Big Pharma.

Don’t buy it.

Trazodone is NOT an SSRI, the class of anti-depressant that is accurately linked to suicides, psychosis and fits of violence.

Trazodone is what’s called a SARI which is a different class of compounds, effectively doing the same thing as an SSRI but in a slightly different way.

Feel free to compare the side effects of Trazodone to those of the SSRIs.

There are conflicting reports on the side effects of Trazodone and some may be closer to the standard SSRIs than the Wikipedia page suggests though they are reported as very rare. Check here and here (this one says these effects are more prevalent in young adults and children) for more details.

What’s interesting about Trazodone is that it does have a sleep-inducing, almost “hypnotic effect“

The Washington Post writes that Aaron was prescribed this drug after his incident in Rhode Island when he told police he was hearing voices in the walls of a hotel (I guess he heard the room next to his?) and complained that someone was using microwaves to keep him from sleeping.

According to reports, he was given more of the medication 5 days later when he went to a hospital complaining of anxiety.

This is interesting for two reasons and neither of them mean he was actually the guy who carried out the mass casualty event.

It could mean that someone was setting him up and they were using some kind of Extremely Low Frequency emitting device to agitate him prior to the event.

This agitation would lead to erratic behavior which would lead to stories in the paper about him being crazy just prior to the event.

Since Trazodone is commonly prescribed to help people sleep these days, it could very well be that it’s simply a side effect of sorts of this prolonged agitation of the patsy.

Or, and this is more interesting, once they marked him for the patsy and set him up with his special pass at the Navy Yard and had him in place in the hotels in the area, at some point after the agitation campaign, they took Aaron and dosed him up on Trazodone until they were ready to plant him at the scene.

The Trazodone would have kept him docile and half asleep in a “hypnotic state” until they needed him and since he already had a prescription for the drug due to the agitation campaign, finding large doses of it in his system in the autopsy wouldn’t raise any red flags.

Either way, it’s an interesting development.

Local SWAT Team sent away

This story is very interesting and rather revealing.

According to the BBC, the local highly trained and equipped tactical team was sent away, ordered to stand down, just minutes after calls of the shooting started coming in.

One of the first teams of heavily armed police to respond to Monday’s shooting in Washington DC was ordered to stand down by superiors, the BBC can reveal.

A tactical response team of the Capitol Police, a force that guards the US Capitol complex, was told to leave the scene by a supervisor instead of aiding municipal officers. ” BBC

This is a huge story when you juxtapose it with another which got VERY LITTLE PRESS:

11:07 a.m. — Law enforcement official reports the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives emergency response team is sent to the scene. It is the same one that helped Boston police apprehend Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The official notes the team includes approximately 20 specially trained, locally stationed agents.”

11:50 a.m. — A senior Navy official tells CNN’s Barbara Starr that a suspected shooter is dead.

The suspect was identified as Aaron Alexis, 34, a former Navy reservist and a current military contractor, the Washington FBI Field Office told CNN. His identity was confirmed by fingerprints and a picture ID card.CNN Timeline of events

That’s right… the same crew that supposedly found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sent in around 11:00 or so on Monday. The body of the suspect was discovered a short while afterwards.

Keep in mind that the shooter was still being sought though gunfire stopped sometime around 9 am.

They even continued to report on two other shooters as late as 12:14 that same day.

12:14 p.m.: Police say they are looking for two other possible suspects. One was described as a white male in a khaki tan military uniform with a handgun. Authorities also were on the lookout for a black male, about 50, who may have had a long gun. That person was wearing an olive, drab colored, possible military style uniform, Lanier said.” CNN Timeline of events

Later, it was the FBI who ruled out the possibility of other shooters being involved.

7 p.m.: FBI investigators rule out additional shooters but Metropolitan Police still sought one person to discern if there was any involvement.” CNN Timeline of events

Now, I don’t claim to be Sherlock Holmes, but to me, that seems a bit obvious, doesn’t it?

Someone wanted to keep out of the mix the tactical team that was capable of taking out the shooter (shooters?) very early on in the event.

Why is that?

Then, in comes the same crew that staged the “shoot-out” with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at the boat… the “shoot-out” with the UNARMED Dzhokhar Tsarnaev that is.

Minutes later the body of the suspect is discovered and shortly afterward the same agency announces that there is in fact only one suspect, despite eye-witness reports and reports from the local authorities.

What does that tell you?

“My E-L-F Weapon”

ABC News has reported from “sources” that the shotgun supposedly used by Aaron Alexis had two little phrases carved into it’s stock: “better off this way” and “My E-L-F Weapon”

The first. “better off this way”, is  a rather cryptic phrase which brings to mind the writing on the walls inside the boat where the same FBI tactical team held their “shoot-out” with the remaining Boston Bombing suspect. It’s obviously made to look like a confession of sorts.

see? He did it. No questions. There is his confession. He was crazed. End of story.

The other one, “My E-L-F Weapon” is sure to light the alternative investigative community on fire and seems more geared to that end.

At this point the story is simply something fed to ABC news, kinda like “I AM THE JOKER” was in the wake of the Aurora massacre. We don’t know if it’s true or not, the “JOKER” quote was completely made up in order to help put to rest questions about the event which were surfacing as soon as the mass casualty event took place. It was completely fictional but designed to make James Holmes look more guilty and crazy at the same time.

This story may end up being just more of the same.

Or it could be a red-herring tossed out there to prime the pot for the labeling of the “conspiracy theorists”, which the Huffington Post took to like a fish to water:

Investigators told the Washington Post that they are not sure whether Alexis was referring to that incident or Naval programs that use low frequencies, such as the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), a joint effort with the Air Force often cited by conspiracy theorists.” Huffington Post

Conclusion

There’s certainly a managed feel to all of this, isn’t there?

From the useless display of lowering a sniper onto a roof via helicopter (no sniper wants his position given away by putting him in place like that. It reduces his efficiency and turns him into an immediate target. it was clearly done for production value of the newscast) to turning away a qualified tactical team, something is seriously wrong with what happened last Monday in Washington.

The suspect had a powerful tranquilizer in his system. The tactical team is sent away in lieu of bringing in the guys who staged the “shoot-out” in Boston. There are “confessions” of a sort found etched in the suspects brand new shotgun.

It’s no wonder the news is running from this story as fast as they can.

Congress and their owners like billionaire Bloomberg are pushing the gun-grabbing agenda fast and furious. Don’t look too close, just take our word for it, give up your guns and get to work at WalMart before it all hits the fan.

But these are curious days we live in, aren’t they? And this story is just one of many.

Rouhanimania Will Upstage Bibi at UN « Commentary Magazine.

Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu outlined his agenda for his trip to New York for the opening of the General Assembly of the United Nations this month. Netanyahu will hope to remind both his American ally and the international community of the nuclear threat from Iran and, as the New York Times reports, restated a four point plan that would take the world back from the brink of a confrontation:

Mr. Netanyahu told his cabinet that Iran must stop enriching uranium, remove enriched uranium from the country, close its nuclear plant near Qum and stop what he called “the plutonium track.”

“Until all four of these measures are achieved, the pressure on Iran must be increased and not relaxed, and certainly not eased,” the prime minister said in a statement released by his office.

Netanyahu’s right that these are exactly the measures needed to ensure that Iran really is stopped from developing a nuclear weapon but the chances of this argument getting much of a hearing next week are slim and none. Even if Netanyahu brings cartoon characters in costume with him to the U.N. podium to illustrate the imminent danger of Iran’s growing stockpile of refined uranium as well as their plutonium alternative in a follow-up to the cartoon red line straight out of Wiley Coyote’s Acme catalogue that he drew last year, it’s almost certain he will be overshadowed by the appearance of the West’s great hope for peace with Iran: the Islamic regime’s new President Hassan Rouhani. Though evidence of Rouhani’s alleged moderation is still lacking, the contrast with his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is so great that many in the media and official Washington are starting to speak of him as an Iranian version of Bobby Kennedy. With Rouhanimania in full bloom in New York, the Israeli insistence on telling the truth about Tehran’s intentions and the need for the West to not get suckered into another round of dead-end negotiations with the Iranians will make Netanyahu appear to be a party-pooper.

Full credit should be given to Iran for doing everything possible to feed the Rouhanimania of a Western foreign policy establishment and media eager to help President Obama back down from his repeated promises to stop Iran. As the Washington Post reported yesterday, the real boss of Iran, Supreme Leader Grant Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorsed Rouhani’s outreach by saying it was time for “heroic leniency.” The regime also freed 11 political prisoners in an effort to weaken the critique of Iran’s appalling human rights policy.

But the main centerpiece of the Iranian charm offensive remains Rouhani, a veteran Islamist who was one of Ayatollah Khomeini’s foot soldiers and later served as part of the country’s security apparatus when it began sponsoring international terrorism such as the attack on the Jewish communal building in Buenos Aires, Argentina that took the lives of 85 persons. Rouhani has exchanged letters with President Obama and has become the almost obsessive focus of many in the West on the idea that Iran is about to change its policies. As I wrote yesterday, Rouhani’s statements about accepting Syria’s wishes about its future and offer of closing one of its nuclear facilities are being interpreted as signs that his presidency can provide a reset of relations with Iran.

While prisoner release and nuclear reactor shutdowns would be welcome, those who buy into Rouhanimania need to understand whom it is they are dealing with and put his strategy into the context of Iran’s long-term goals.

Permitting Rouhani to run in the fake presidential election that Iran held was a masterstroke by Khameini. Though a rigid Islamist tyrant, he seems to have a grasp of international public opinion. Allowing Ahmadinejad to become the public face of Iran around the world was a terrible mistake. The former Iranian president’s public embrace of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial made it easier for Westerners to understand just how brutal the Islamist state really is. Removing him from the picture and replacing him with someone that can be represented as a moderate who desires peace changes nothing of substance in Tehran but it is just the excuse to embark on a new round of diplomacy with Iran that the Obama administration desired.

As long as Rouhani surrenders nothing of value to the West — including its right to pursue nuclear capability — he will serve a useful purpose for a regime that has suffered from the international sanctions applied against it in recent years. But those who buy into Rouhanimania need to understand that his goal is the lifting of those sanctions, not stepping back Iran’s sponsoring of international terrorism, ceasing its military intervention in the Syrian civil war or giving up its nuclear options. Moreover, as long as he keeps the West engaged in diplomacy there is no chance the U.S. or Israel will be able to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities before it is too late.

It may be too much to hope for the U.S. to see through this charade but these are points to remember as we watch Rouhani become everyone’s favorite Iranian in the UN media crush.

Iran president blames Israel for ‘instability,’ calls for peace… – YouTube.

By F. Brinley Bruton, Staff Writer, NBC News

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani blamed Israel for causing “injustice to the people” of the Middle East during an exclusive interview with NBC News in which he also called for peace, saying Iran is not “looking for war.”

Unlike his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rouhani struck a moderate tone on many issues, but he deflected a question from NBC News’ Ann Curry about whether he believed that the Holocaust was “a myth.”

“I’m not a historian. I’m a politician,” he replied. “What is important for us is that the countries of the region and the people grow closer to each other, and that they are able to prevent aggression and injustice.”

Rouhani’s comments came in his first interview with a U.S. news outlet since his June election. The interview was broadcast Thursday on TODAY.

David Lom / NBC News

NBC News’ Ann Curry speaks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday. It was Rouhani’s first interview with a U.S. news outlet since being elected.

When asked by Curry about the fact that Ahmadinejad had people believing that Iran wanted to wipe Israel off the map, Rouhani replied: “What we wish for in this country is rule by the will of the people. We believe in the ballot box.”

Curry also asked Rouhani to respond to comments by Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, who has called him a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Rouhani described Israel as “an occupier and usurper government” that “does injustice to the people of the region, and has brought instability to the region, with its warmongering policies.”

He added Israel “shouldn’t allow itself to give speeches about a democratically and freely elected government.”

Netanyahu has previously hinted at the possibility of Israeli military strikes on Iran over the country’s controversial nuclear program if Western sanctions and diplomacy fail.

However, Rouhani also said it was important that countries across the Middle East learn to peacefully coexist.

“We are not seeking … and looking for war with any nations. We are seeking peace and stability among all the nations in the region,” Rouhani said.

In an exclusive interview with NBC’s Ann Curry, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country is asking for peace, stability and the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction.

Rouhani replaced Ahmadinejad who had been quoted as describing the Nazi Holocaust as “a myth” while in office. In 2009, Ahmadinejad dropped language from a speech at a U.N. conference on racism that branded the Holocaust “ambiguous and dubious.”

Rouhani’s comments underscored the shift in tone since he was elected with just over 50 percent of the vote. During his inaugural address, the new president spoke of engagement with the West to end bruising sanctions over his country’s controversial nuclear program.

Rouhani also appeared to pledge his support for increasing Iranians’ access to the Internet and other political and social freedoms.

“We want the people, in their private lives, to be completely free, and in today’s world having access to information and the right of free dialogue, and the right to think freely, is the right of all peoples, including the people of Iran,” he said.

When asked whether his government would stop censoring the Internet, Rouhani said “a commission for citizens’ rights” would be established.

“Does that mean that people in Iran will have access now to Twitter and to Facebook?” Curry asked.

“The viewpoint of the government is that the people must have full access to all information worldwide,” Rouhani replied. “Our opinions on this should based on protection of our national identity and on our morals.”

Officials in Washington, D.C., say the time is right for Iran, which wants a deal to get out from sanctions that are crippling its economy. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports.

In the interview with Curry, Rouhani also said his country will never develop nuclear weapons and that he has the clout to make a deal with the West on the disputed atomic program.

“In its nuclear program, this government enters with full power and has complete authority,” he said, adding that Iran has repeatedly pledged that “under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever.”

Rouhani, who earned a Ph.D. from a Scottish university, was the only non-conservative in the field during the election to replace Ahmadinejad. He got more than 18 million votes while five conservative candidates combined garnered just under 18 million.

Rouhani also discussed how he and President Barack Obama have exchanged letters in which they traded views on “some issues.”

“From my point of view, the tone of the letter was positive and constructive,” Rouhani said of the note he got from the White House congratulating him on his election.

The two countries severed diplomatic ties in 1980 after students supporting the Iranian revolutionaries who overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

“It could be subtle and tiny steps for a very important future,” Rouhani told Curry. “I believe the leaders in all countries could think in their national interest and they should not be under the influence of pressure groups. I hope to witness such an atmosphere in the future.”

Rouhani’s is due to appear next Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly — where Western diplomats regularly walked out during Ahmedinejad’s fiery speeches.

NBC News’ Tracy Connor and Henry Austin contributed to this report.

Obama may hold direct meeting with Rouhani | The Times of Israel.

Washington indicates it ‘remains ready to engage’ with Tehran ‘on the basis of mutual respect’ to resolve nuke issue

( Mutual respect?  More like “honor among thieves.” – JW )

US President Barack Obama (photo credit: AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais/File)

Three days after top Obama administration officials indicated the US president had no plans to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, senior officials in Washington said Obama was open to a direct meeting with his counterpart in Tehran.

“We remain ready to engage with the Rouhani government on the basis of mutual respect to achieve a peaceful resolution to the nuclear issue,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday.

Earlier Wednesday, Rouhani appeared on NBC News, saying in an interview that he was “empowered” by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to reach a deal on the nuclear issue, adding that Tehran had no intention of developing nuclear arms.

“We have time and again said that under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever,” he said.

He added that the tone of the letter Obama had sent him was “positive and constructive.”

Meanwhile Wednesday, US-educated Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif indicated his interest in high-level meetings with US officials.

“Zarif has been communicating his hopes for a number of meetings,” The Wall Street Journal quoted a senior US official as saying.

On Monday, Carney indicated that Obama had no current plans to meet with his Iranian counterpart at the United Nations General Assembly next week, in a carefully worded statement that did not fully rule out such a meeting. The comments came a day after the president revealed that he had exchanged letters with the recently elected Rouhani.

Carney said Monday afternoon that the Obama administration continues to “hope that this new Iranian government will engage substantively to achieve a diplomatic solution” and that the United States “remains ready to engage with the Rouhani government on the basis of mutual respect to achieve a peaceful resolution.”
The two leaders will overlap for two days at next week’s United Nations General Assembly in New York, with Obama expected to address the plenum on Tuesday morning, and Rouhani to address the same forum for the first time on Tuesday afternoon.

Obama’s comments plus the chronological overlap had seemed to some to signal that the two might meet, unofficially, on the sidelines of the annual meeting. “We currently have no plan for Obama to meet with his Iranian counterpart next week,” Carney said.

Carney’s carefully worded statement did, however, appear to leave the possibility open for a hurriedly arranged or “chance” meeting between the two leaders in the halls of the United Nations building.
All eyes now are on the UN General Assembly next week. Even if there is no “chance” encounter between Obama and Rouhani, Zarif is scheduled to meet with EU top diplomat Catherine Ashton to discuss nuclear policy and to set up future meetings of the P5+1 working group.

On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal quoted a senior Obama administration official as saying that even if no direct exchange occurs between Obama and Rouhani, the “tone of confrontation” between Washington and Tehran has “significantly diminished.”

Other officials reportedly said they would be watching Rouhani’s General Assembly speech closely to “see how forward-leaning” it is.

Negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program have hit a deadlock concerning the future of the 20% enriched uranium being produced at the formerly secret Fordo plant. Iran wants to simply agree to a freeze in enrichment in exchange for having the stringent sanctions placed against Tehran lifted. The United States wants the plant to be dismantled altogether, and wants Iran to hand over all of its highly enriched uranium.

Uranium for civilian energy purposes requires 5% enrichment, whereas weapons-grade uranium is considered to be 20% enriched or greater.

Washington does not see Iranian suspension of enrichment as meeting its demands, but as a confidence-building measure.

The Obama administration has indicated that it would be willing to consider discussing relaxing some sanctions if enrichment is suspended. It has not publicly signaled how conciliatory it is willing to be.
Michael Adler, a public policy scholar and expert in Iranian nuclear policy at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center, says that there are a number of options for conciliatory steps that the administration can take.

Among the options for the US would be to offer a road map that would delineate what Iran gets to keep in the end, a gradual relaxation of sanctions, and statements specifying the degree to which the US could answer Iran’s concerns regarding continuing a civilian nuclear program.
Adler says that Obama’s correspondence with Rouhani was a step toward returning to the table in that it “shows respect and a willingness to talk.”

Conditions, he says, could be ripe for a resolution to the impasse. “The US has been trying to hold serious talks. The Iranians say they want talks, they have a different team in place, and the president is following up on it.”

Adler noted that Rouhani was the chief Iranian nuclear negotiator during the period in which parts of Iran’s nuclear program were voluntarily suspended a decade ago. Rouhani, Zarif, and Atomic Energy Organization of Iran chief Ali Akbar Salehi are all seen in Washington as relative moderates who may prove amenable to negotiation.

Hatred of Jews :: Gatestone Institute.

No matter how hard or how often we Muslims try, we are never able finally to end the connection our lives seem to have with the lives of the Jews.

Watching Arab and Islamic television, especially during the holy month of Ramadan, brings the viewer to the inescapable conclusion that we have no real lives of our own, no unity and no value: our only motivation is having the Jews as a common enemy, with our lives dependent on them. We treat the Jews the way the rabid Christian anti-Semites treated them in the Middle Ages, blaming them for every illness, tragedy and misfortune. We blame them for the failures of Islam while only we are at fault for the catastrophes that befall us.

Almost no Ramadan evening goes by without tedious “historical” dramas on Al-Jazeera and the other Arab TV channels, whose objective is to brainwash viewers with anti-Semitic propaganda. They deal with the Jews’ denial of the Prophet Muhammad’s message, Jewish attempts to poison him and their betrayal of him at the Battle of the Trench in Al-Medina. Almost all the series’ end on the same note: the message is always that the fate of the Jews in the Palestine they stole from the Arabs will be the same as that Muhammad wreaked on them at Khybar, they will be slaughtered and their women and children will be sold into slavery.

A still shot from the anti-Semitic TV miniseries “Khaybar”. (Image credit: MEMRI)

That kind of incitement lends the Jews a Satanic power, it makes us think they can manipulate events around the world and are historically responsible for planning and carrying out every evil that exists. In reality, however, all it does is glorify their capabilities and achievements to the extent of turning them into a self-important legend. Thus we ourselves construct the myth of the genius of the Jews, their intellectual might and creative talents, while personally I am not entirely sure they deserve the reputation: they are mere mortals like everyone else, and often less.

In my opinion, the situation has reached such proportions within the nation of Islam that it is now a national mental illness, a collective obsession for which I see no cure. We accuse the Jews of wanting to rule the world, but one of the causes of our illness is that we expect Islam to take over the world.

Regression and the lack of social and governmental flexibility, along with poverty and ignorance, perpetuate the impotence of the nation of Islam and make it impossible for us to change, develop and progress — a frustrating, ugly situation. While we have dreams of ruling the world, we wallow in disease and poverty, and we are behind the times in all the modern fields of endeavor. Our various regimes enjoy religious and tribal backing, that is why they are anti-democratic and cannot be saved. We find comfort only in recklessly bringing untold masses of children into a world with nothing to offer them.

The countries of western Europe were all lucky enough, or wise enough, to cast off the political rule of fanaticism in the Middle Ages and to separate church and state. Today Christianity is a normative social value, a matter of personal conscience, and it dictates and practices enlightenment rather than violence and oppression. The separation of church and state made it possible for Europeans – and Americans – to progress, and it gave them a tremendous advantage over the rest of the world. We, on the other hand, are still living in the Dark Ages.

The Christians’ enlightened, moderate attitude toward the Islamic communities in European cities, which is partially a function of fear, causes our extremist Muslim brothers to escalate their violence toward the communities hosting them, mistakenly assuming that Christian moderation is the result of the weakness of Western society. The result is that as time passes Islamophobia grows greater.

Despite the new Enlightenment, many Europeans, among them the leaders of the European Union, are still fundamentally and militantly anti-Semitic. Instead of attacking the Jews head-on the way their ancestors did — by simply passing discriminatory laws, forcing them to live in ghettoes and killing them — they now politically correctly attack Israel, pretending that Israelis are not Jews.

Beneath their political correctness their ancient, inbred anti-Semitism still smolders. For some Christians, as for the Muslims, hatred of the Jews is built on an ancient religious foundation, a legacy from the Middle Ages, and it is so basic and so well rooted that they are willing to support the Muslims in almost anything, as long as it harms the Jews in some way.

The result is that we Muslims make the mistake of thinking Europeans really care about them, especially the Palestinians. We are wrong: Europeans simply hate the Jews more than they hate and fear us.

The bitter truth is that the Europeans usually intervene in a crisis only if it gives them the opportunity for Jew-bashing. When hundreds of thousands, even millions, of Muslims are slaughtered – by other Muslims, such as the massacre in Syria and the recent upsurge of violence in Darfur – the apathetic European leadership does not lift a finger.

At the same time, the European Union is obsessed with its need to condemn, sanction and boycott the Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. It does not even mention Syria, with its hundred thousand civilians murdered by the government and its millions of refugees, or the atrocities being committed in the Arab-Muslim world, the rapes of women and children, the beheadings and the wanton cruelty and murder, to say nothing of exploitation, discrimination, slavery and other crimes against humanity.

To my great sorrow, everywhere in the world where there are Muslims there is murder, mass bloodshed and terrorist attacks. We should leave the Jews alone, they are not responsible for our tragedies and hating them will not cure the nation of Islam or bring it successfully into the 21^st century.

WH: Obama tells Rohani sees way to resolve nuclear issue – Israel News, Ynetnews.

In exchange of letters, US president tells Iranian counterpart that Washington is ready to resolve its nuclear dispute with Tehran

Reuters

President Barack Obama has told Iran’s President Hassan Rohani in an exchange of letters that the United States is ready to resolve its nuclear dispute with Iran in a way that allows Tehran to show it is not trying to build weapons, the White House said on Wednesday.

“In his letter the president indicated that the US is ready to resolve the nuclear issue in a way that allows Iran to demonstrate that its nuclear program is for exclusively peaceful purposes,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

“The letter also conveyed the need to act with a sense of urgency to address this issue because, as we have long said, the window of opportunity for resolving this diplomatically is open, but it will not remain open indefinitely,” Carney said.

The White House spokesman noted that Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu said yesterday that the way to end the Iranian nuclear process was for Iran to stop enriching uranium, to ship out uranium that it has enriched… and to stop plutonium activity. The president yesterday said in his interview that the way for it to end would be for Iran not to weaponize its nuclear program.

“Any resolution would have to come through a verifiable compliance and a verifiable commitment by Iran to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions. That has long been our position. So, again, we’re ready to talk in the P-5 plus one as well as bilaterally with Iran, if Iran is willing to engage substantively on this matter.”

The White House comments are another sign of a potential thaw between the West and Iran on nuclear issues. The United States and its allies have imposed sanctions aimed at stopping Iran from seeking a nuclear weapons capability, but Iran has long insisted its program is for civilian purposes.

Rohani told NBC News on Wednesday that his administration will never develop nuclear weapons and that he has full authority to make a deal with the West on the disputed atomic program. According NBC, the Iranian president noted he had received a “positive and constructive” letter from Obama congratulating him on his election.

“It could be subtle and tiny steps for a very important future,” NBC quoted Rohani as saying.

Since Rohani was elected as president in June, he has called for “constructive interaction” with the world. The head of Iran’s nuclear energy organization said on Wednesday he saw “openings” on the nuclear issue.

Shaul Chorev, head of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission said Wednesday: “The picture that the Iranian representatives are portraying regarding openness and transparency of their nuclear program … stands in sharp contradiction with Iran’s actual actions and the facts on the ground.”

The issue was not whether Iran has “modified its diplomatic vocabulary … but whether it is addressing seriously and in a timely manner outstanding issues that have remained unresolved for too long,” Chorev told the annual meeting of member states of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Chorev accused Iran of “deception and concealment, creating a false impression about the status of its engagement with the agency … with a view to buy more time in Iran’s daily inching forward in every aspect of its nuclear military program”.

Chorev accused Arab states of using the IAEA meeting to “repeatedly bash” Israel and he urged members to reject an Arab-sponsored draft resolution calling on Israel to join a global anti-nuclear weapons pact.

Obama said on Tuesday that he is willing to test the willingness of Rohani to discuss the nuclear issue.

“There is an opportunity here for diplomacy,” Obama told Spanish-language network Telemundo in an interview. “And I hope the Iranians take advantage of it.”

Both Obama and Rohani plan to be in New York next week for the UN General Assembly, but the leaders do not currently have plans to meet, Carney said.

Iran’s Rouhani says he has full authority to negotiate a nuclear deal with the West | JPost | Israel News.

Iran’s Leaders Signal Effort at New Thaw – NYTimes.com.

TEHRAN — A series of good-will gestures and hints of new diplomatic flexibility from Iran’s ruling establishment was capped on Wednesday by the highest-level statement yet that the country’s new leaders are pushing for a compromise in negotiations over their disputed nuclear program.

“They’re putting stuff out faster than the naysayers can keep up,” said Gary Sick, an Iran expert with Columbia University. “They dominate the airwaves.”

Mr. Rouhani, preparing for a trip to New York next week for the annual gathering of the United Nations, kept up the dizzying pace on Wednesday in an interview with NBC News in which he declared that Iran would never “seek weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons” and that he had “full power and complete authority” to make a nuclear deal with the West.

There is plenty of skepticism in the West over the new tone emanating from Tehran, and Iran veterans have seen previous thaws in the diplomatic climate disappear seemingly overnight. Mr. Obama has spoken of testing Mr. Rouhani’s seriousness.

But Iran experts, citing the apparent end to Iran’s ideological taboo against direct talks with the United States as well as the apparent concurrence of the supreme leader, say that this new moderation seems different.

Tehran’s turnaround is all the more startling in view of the eight, often bizarre, years of Mr. Rouhani’s Holocaust-denying predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who relished every opportunity to ruffle the feathers of Western leaders. But Mr. Ahmadinejad’s bellicose nationalism drove Iran into a diplomatic isolation that left it with Venezuela and Syria for allies and saddled it with debilitating economic sanctions over its nuclear program, analysts said.

Those sanctions have more than halved Iran’s oil sales, from 2.4 million barrels a day in 2011 to less than 1 million now, and inflation has spiked; the currency, the rial, has fallen by half. It was the danger of falling even deeper into this economic abyss, possibly threatening their hold on power, that prompted Iran’s leaders to mend ties not only with the West but with their own people, who desperately want more personal freedoms, analysts say.

“We are now at a unique moment in the Islamic republic’s history,” said Farshad Ghorbanpour, a political analyst close to Mr. Rouhani. “Economic reasons are now justifying political reasons to talk to the U.S.”

The current moment differs significantly from an earlier reform period under President Mohammad Khatami, when the rules on public behavior and freedom of expression were relaxed. But in contrast to the current situation, Mr. Khatami never had the serious backing of the Iranian political establishment. “Our supreme leader, Mr. Khamenei, has given the green light; that means there will be no groups trying to sabotage potential talks like in the past,” Mr. Ghorbanpour said.

When he arrives in New York next week, one expert said, Mr. Rouhani will be bringing along a package of proposals on Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes but the West believes is a cover for developing weapons.

“I think he will be able to discuss Iran putting a cap on the number of uranium enrichment centrifuges, the conversion of the stockpile of uranium enriched up to 20 percent into harmless fuel plates or dilute it down to 3, 5 percent,” said Mohammad Ali Shabani, a political analyst based in Tehran who holds moderate views. There could also be talks of Iran accepting more inspections by at some point ratifying an additional protocol to the United Nations’ nuclear nonproliferation treaty, Mr. Shabani said.

The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported that Mr. Rouhani might also be ready to close down Fordo, Iran’s highly secure mountain bunker, which is believed to be safe from any Israeli attack. But Mr. Shabani said this would not happen. “This site is Iran’s insurance card in case of a military attack,” he said. “I highly doubt Iran would close that down.”

Mr. Rouhani has also indicated that he prefers to negotiate over the nuclear case with the West on the highest political levels possible, and there was even talk of a meeting next week with Mr. Obama, an event that would have been all but inconceivable only weeks ago.

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said Wednesday that there were no plans for Mr. Obama to meet with Mr. Rouhani when both leaders are at the United Nations early next week. But he said the president was eager to see whether the issue of Iran’s nuclear program could be resolved.

“As we have long said, the window of opportunity for resolving this diplomatically is open, but it will not remain open indefinitely,” Mr. Carney said.

Mr. Obama, in an interview this week with Noticias Telemundo, mentioned “indications” that Mr. Rouhani “is looking to open dialogue with the West and with the United States in a way that we haven’t seen in the past. And so we should test it.”

Mr. Rouhani, asked in the NBC News interview if he thought Mr. Obama looked weak when he backed off from a threat to conduct a missile strike against Syria over a deadly chemical weapons attack outside Damascus on Aug. 21, replied: “We consider war a weakness. Any government or administration that decides to wage a war, we consider a weakness. And any government that decides on peace, we look on it with respect to peace.”

The diplomatic offensive by Mr. Rouhani and his foreign minister, Mr. Zarif, seems to have been planned months ago. Even as a presidential candidate he was emphasizing that détente with the West was the key to solving Iran’s domestic problems. “You must know that this key can solve the nuclear problem and the sanctions. It will lead to economic growth,” he said in one televised debate in May.

He has long made clear that Iran needs to show more transparency in its nuclear activities, to build trust with the West. “After that we will prevent new sanctions against our country, and gradually they will be lifted so we will be free of all of them,” Mr. Rouhani said.

The recent publicity campaign was probably carefully planned, too, experts said. “Actually it’s kind of a blitz attack that Iran is doing. Their intent is very clear, that is to distinguish themselves — this is the anti-Ahmadinejad,” said Mr. Sick, who was a national security adviser during the Iranian hostage crisis. “I’d say they’re succeeding. They’re also aware there’s a huge degree of skepticism in the West, particularly the United States, and there’s a standard body of opinion that nothing has changed in Iran.”

In the coming weeks and months Iran will be looking for reciprocal steps from the West, analysts say, so that Mr. Rouhani can point to some tangible rewards for his conciliation. Otherwise, nationalist voices in Iran will begin to attack his credibility.

“There has to be some sort of gesture by the U.S.,” Mr. Shabani said. “Iran’s hard-liners will want to see results within six months or so. If not, expect a lot more inflexibility from Iran.”