WarSclerotic

The United States of Obama are imploding, Danmillerinpanama, Dan Miller, April 9, 2014

What, if anything, do “we” now stand for and why?

An article published on April 9th by the Gatestone Institute International Policy Council is titled U.S.: The Great Problem that Needs to be Solved. Written by Elliot Abrams, it contends that the problem has at its center the world view of President Obama. His world view is based primarily on ideology rather than reality; its bases are evident in all that He and His minions do and fail to do.

The problem also impacts domestic policy, implemented by Executive Decree when He “won’t wait.” If the Democrats control neither house of the Congress following the November elections, there will likely be increasing numbers of Executive Decrees. There will also probably be more Executive refusals to enforce Federal laws the Obama Administration does not like. Attorney General Holder testified before the House Judiciary Committee on April 8th that

There is a vast amount of discretion that a president has — and, more specifically, that an attorney general has . . . .  But that discretion has to be used in an appropriate way so that your acting consistent with the aims of the statute but at the same time making sure that you are acting in a way that is consistent with our values, consistent with the Constitution and protecting the American people. [Emphasis added.]

Whose values are “our values?” Which “American people” are to be protected from what and whom?

Executive Decrees and the increasing dominance of Executive “values” over those on which our laws are based are among the consequences of elections, about which President Obama once bragged but now complains. When weak, He has to appear to His followers to be strong in asserting their values. Our RINOs frequently oblige by cowering before Him.

This article, however, is about foreign policy — an area in which He evidently considers American weakness more effective than American strength in bringing and keeping peace. It is not.

According to the Gatestone article,

When the Iranians started building a nuclear weapons program, it was the United States that said — three presidents have said — “You are not permitted to do that.” There was at least someone saying, “No, this is not a Hobbesian ‘war of all against all’: there are certain rules here that everyone will live by, and we, the United States, will enforce them.”

This started a long time ago — certainly after World War II, when the U.S. effected these rules against the Soviet Union. Obviously that is not the way the current U.S. Administration views the Middle East or its role there.

. . . .

You hear this from the president over and over again. “Global citizen;” “new era of engagement.” He used that line in about 10 different speeches starting with his first State of the Union “reset.”

In the Administration’s analysis of the world situation, there seems to be a great problem that needs to be solved; and the problem is the United States. It needs to break and overcome these old habits. Some of you might think instead that we have a great problem with Islamic extremism. That is not the  president’s view. The president made this really quite remarkable statement in his Cairo speech: “I consider it as part of my responsibility as president of the United States is to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.” [Emphasis added.]

Think about that. It’s really quite astonishing. I would say that if a president made that comment about Judaism or Christianity most of us would say, “That’s really quite bizarre. It is actually not his job.” [Emphasis added.]

To pick out and isolate Islam as the one religion, criticisms of which he has the responsibility to correct, is actually amazing. [Emphasis added.]

You look at the Administration’s policy: what is the goal here? What is he trying to achieve? It is certainly not a human rights policy; he seems remarkably indifferent to human rights everywhere.

Start with June 2009 in Iran: completely indifferent to the uprising that could conceivably have overthrown the Ayatollahs. Maybe it could not, but we shall never know. Or China: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s first trip there. When she was asked, “Why don’t you say more about human rights?” she said, “We know what they’ll say in response.” So much for human rights in China, for human rights in Russia.

. . . .

One of the things that have changed in this administration is that people who are fighting for democracy in places such as Turkey, Russia or China, do not feel that they have any moral or political support coming from Washington, in a way that they have over the years. [Emphasis added.]

They are just not interested. On the humanitarian side, also not interested. When the president visited Africa, there were a fairly good number of articles in the newspapers talking about how disappointed Africans were. After all, they had gotten a lot of attention from President Bush. Now they had an African American president. Surely the amount of attention would be doubled, tripled. Instead, of course, it had largely disappeared. [Emphasis added.]

The key job for humanitarian activities in Africa is the Africa desk at USAID, the Assistant Administrator for Africa. It has been vacant for over a year and a half. The president did not even bother to fill the job.

What is he interested in doing? Military strength? Clearly not.

The Gatestone article is long but well worth reading and considering.

The Israel – Palestinian “peace process.”

Peace has to be out there somewhere.
I’ll find it using my magic Process!

 

On April 3rd, in an article titled Secretary Kerry and his Israel – Palestinian “peace process,” I argued that the process has become more important than peace, which will not in any event be among its results. Secretary Kerry, evidently backed by President Obama, consistently maintains that any failure of the process will be mainly the fault of Israel — not of the Palestinians and certainly not of the process.

During hearings on April 8th before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary Kerry

performed a post-mortem on the recent collapse of the Middle East peace talks. According to Kerry, the Palestinian refusal to keep negotiating past April and their decision to flout their treaty commitments by returning to efforts to gain recognition for their non-existent state from the United Nations was all the fault of one decision made by Israel. [Emphasis added.]

That “fatal” decision was to announce seven hundred new apartments for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem. “Poof, that was the moment,” Mr. Kerry said. 

[T]o blame the collapse on the decision to build apartments in Gilo—a 40-year-old Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem that would not change hands even in the event a peace treaty were ever signed and where Israel has never promised to stop building—is, to put it mildly, a mendacious effort to shift blame away from the side that seized the first pretext to flee talks onto the one that has made concessions in order to get the Palestinians to sit at the table. But why would Kerry utter such a blatant falsehood about the process he has championed? [Emphasis added.]

The answer is simple. Kerry doesn’t want to blame the Palestinians for walking out because to do so would be a tacit admission that his critics were right when they suggested last year that he was embarking on a fool’s errand. The division between the Fatah-run West Bank and Hamas-ruled Gaza has created a dynamic which makes it almost impossible for Abbas to negotiate a deal that would recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders were drawn even if he wanted to.

Or perhaps it’s necessary because Kerry sees the making of increasing demands as the proper function of the Palestinians and bowing to those demands, with her destruction to follow, as the proper functions of Israel. That is the view which the Palestinian Authority demands as its price for pursuing the process. At some point, however, Israel cannot continue to yield to increasing demands and the process fails. That appears to be where things now stand.

Or perhaps the underlying delusion is necessary due to President Obama’s Cairo promise, one of the very few that He meant and has kept:

I consider it as part of my responsibility as president of the United States is to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.

“Negative stereotypes” or reality?

The P5+1 nuke farce

The Iran Scam continues and is likely to get worse. During the testimony of Secretary Kerry before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 8th, Chairman Menendez (D-N.J.)

panned a recent Wall Street Journal headline: “Obama Administration Shows Optimism on Iran Nuclear Talks.”

“I’m trying to glean where that’s from,” he said. “…With no sanctions regime in place, and understanding that every sanctions that we have pursued have needed at least a six-month lead time to become enforceable, and then a greater amount of time to actually enforce, that the only option left to the United States to this or any other president, and to the West, would be either to accept a nuclear-armed Iran or to have a military option.”

Kerry dismissed breakout as “just having one bomb’s worth, conceivably, of material, but without any necessary capacity to put it in anything, to deliver it, to have any mechanism to do so, and otherwise.”

He then admitted that “our goal” is not eliminating nuclear capability as much as “proving that this is a peaceful program.” [Emphasis added.]

He said WHAT?

Did he really say that? Was it a Freudian slip? What ever it was, it appears to reflect Obama Administration policy: start with assumptions that with “moderate” Iranian President Rouhani now in charge (he isn’t; to the extent that anyone is, it’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei) and that his charm offensive was and is sincere (it wasn’t and isn’t). Those assumptions easily evolve into sufficient “proof” for the P5+1 process that Iran has and wants only a “peaceful program.” Is the P5+1 farce, like the Israel – Palestinian “peace process,” all about the process? It seems to have little to do with keeping Iran from having, getting or using nuclear weapons.

Conclusions

Foreign policy under President Obama and Secretary Kerry is a mess. The policy is to negotiate regardless of the costs, and to require the only reasonably free and democratic nation in the region, Israel, to negotiate with Palestinians who “merely” desire to eliminate her. Israel does not even have a recognized part to play in the P5+1 farce. If something — anything — works, good; Obama – Kerry will claim the credit. If negotiations fail, if there is another Intifada and/or if Iran gets (or keeps) and uses nuclear weapons resulting in many thousands or millions of deaths? Oh well, Obama – Kerry tried real hard so it couldn’t be their fault. Perhaps they will get Nobel Peace consolation prizes

The “peace process” and the P5+1 scam are only two of many available examples of the implosion of the United States of Obama as a principal force for international good –stability and democracy with freedom. As she continues to implode and to create a vacuum, something(s) will take her place. Stability may eventually come, but with neither democracy nor freedom. That seems to be the direction in which the United States of Obama are themselves headed.

Ofek 10 Enters Orbit: “Intelligence in Any Condition”.

The Ofek 10 Satellite was successfully launched last night (Wednesday) from Palmahim airbase. Head of MAFAT’s Space Administration, Amnon Harari said that “at ten o’clock we launched the Ofek 10 satellite after an effort of several years of development and production. The launch is a continued process. Until now everything we had planned works flawlessly. There are still quite a few steps before we can say that the success is a full one”.

Harari further said that “the satellite is a radar-based observation satellite that should give us intelligence in any visibility condition, day, night and all weather conditions. The satellite was launched using an Israeli Shavit launcher. Over the years there have been required changes due to the need to raise the spacecraft weight. A satellite is a strategic element and we work according to a multi-year plan. It has performed a series of autonomous actions.”

On the entry of the satellite into operational service Harari said: “We are beginning a process of several months of tests and then it will enter operational service. Every hour and a half it orbits around the Earth. Dozens of engineers and personnel of the Intelligence Corps will sit tonight in front of the monitors to pick it up. The difference between it and other satellites is that Ofek 10 very flexible in its maneuvering and it can be directed to collect real-time targets. The Intelligence Corps’ Satellite Unit personnel tell it to leap from one target to the other; it finds them and keeps going. We can change where it looks at. The radar is its camera that gives a picture visibility similar to an optical image. We are also working on optical satellites and radar satellites. The satellite is cruising at an altitude of 400 to 600 kilometers”.

Ofer Doron , CEO of the Israel Aerospace Industries’ Space Division said the “We have developed the satellite over years. Elta made the radar. The satellite has exceptional photographic ability, but it is very small and it’s designed to deliver very precise, high quality images under all conditions”.

Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon said that “the successful launch of the Ofek 10 satellite last night is a further testimony to Israel’s impressive ability to develop and lead at the forefront of technology. Ofek 10 is meant to improve Israel’s intelligence capabilities and allow the defense establishment to better deal with threats both close and far, all hours of the day and in all weather conditions. We continue to increase the vast qualitative and technological advantage over our neighbors.

This is the time to congratulate those involved in the making in the Ministry of Defense, the members of the Space Administration of MAFAT and people of IAI, IMI, Elbit and Rafael, for continuing the development of sophisticated and unique systems, world –leading ones, aimed to protect the State of Israel and its citizens. Israel is blessed with a defense industry that is exceptional in its quality, its creativity and its commitment to the security of the state and its citizens, and a remarkable ability to reach every time a new peak and reach another record.“

The project is led by the Space Administration of MAFAT (the Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure) at the IMOD and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is its main contractor. Other defense industries, including IMI (which developed the two rocket engines of the satellite launcher and pyrotechnic systems that are in it) and Elbit Systems were involved in the making of the launcher, the satellite and the photographic equipment installed on it

▶ Dror Yikra – PROCLAIM FREEDOM ! – דְּרוֹר יִקְרָא by the Macabeats – YouTube.

( Shabbat shalom & Happy Pesach!  – JW )

He will proclaim freedom for all his children
And will keep you as the apple of his eye
Pleasant is your name and will not be destroyed
Repose and rest on the Sabbath day.

Seek my sanctuary and my home.
Give me a sign of deliverance.
Plant a vine in my vineyard.
Look to my people, hear their laments.

Tread the wine-press in Bozrah,
And in Babylon that city of might
Crush my enemies in anger and fury.
On the day when I cry, hear my voice.

Plant, Oh God, in the mountain waste
Fir and acacia, myrtle and elm
Give those who teach and those who obey
Abundance peace, like the flow of a river.

Repel my enemies, Oh zealous God.
Fill their hearts with fear and despair.
Then we shall open our mouths,
And fill our tongues with Your praise.

Know wisdom, that your soul may live,
And it shall be a diadem for your brow.
Keep the commandment of your Holy One
Observe the Sabbath, your sacred day.

__________________________________________

Transliteration:
Dror Yikra l’ven im bat
V’yintsorchem k’mo vavat.
Na’im shimchem velo yushbat.
Sh’vu venuchu b’yom Shabbat.

D’rosh navi v’ulami
Va’ot yesha ase imi
Neta sorek b’toch karmi
She’e shav’at b’nei ami.

Dror pora b’toch botsra
Vegam bavel asher gavra
Netots tsarai be’af evra
Sh’ma koli beyom ekra.

Elohim ten bamidbar har
Hadas, shita brosh tidhar.
Velamazhir velanizhar
Shlomim ten k’mei nahar.

Hadof kamai el kana
B’mog Levav uvimgina
V’narchiv pe unemalei’ina
L’shoneinu l’cha rina.

De’ei chochma lenafshecha
Vehi keter l’roshecha
N’tsor mitsvat kdoshecha
Shmor Shabbat kodshecha.

______________________________

דְּרוֹר יִקְרָא לְבֵן עִם בַּת.
וְיִנְצָרְכֶם כְּמוֹ בָבַת.
נְעִים שִׁמְכֶם וְלֹא יֻשְׁבַּת.
שְׁבוּ נוּחוּ בְּיוֹם שַׁבָּת:

דְּרוֹשׁ נָוִי וְאוּלַמִי.
וְאוֹת יֶשַׁע עֲשֵׂה עִמִּי.
נְטַע שׂוֹרֵק בְּתוֹךְ כַּרְמִי.
שְׁעֵה שַׁוְעַת בְּנֵי עַּמִּי:

דְּרוֹךְ פּוּרָה בְּתוֹךְ בָּצְרָה.
וְגַם אֱדוֹם אֲשֶׁר גָּבְרָה.
נְתוֹץ צָרַי בְּאַף וְעֶבְרָה.
שְׁמַע קוֹלִי בְּיוֹם אֶקְרָא:

אֱלֹהִים תֵּן בַּמִּדְבָּר הַר.
הֲדַס שִׁטָּה בְּרוֹשׁ תִּדְהָר.
וְלַמַזְהִיר וְלַנִּזְהָר.
שְׁלוֹמִים תֵּן כְּמֵי נָהָר:

הֲדוֹךְ קָמַי חַי אֵל קַנָּא.
בְּמוֹג לֵבָב וּבִמְגִנָּה.
וְנַרְחִיב פֶּה וּנְמַלֶּאנָה.
לְשׁוֹנֵנוּ לְךָ רִנָּה:

דְּעֵה חָכְמָה לְנַפְשֶׁךָ.
וְהִיא כֶתֶר לְרֹאשֶׁךָ.
נְצֹר מִצְוַת אֱלֹהֶיךָ.
שְׁמֹר שַׁבָּת קָדְשֶׁךָ:

Israeli launches spy satellite after US refusal to push for Iran’s weapons program’s dismantlement.

Launch of Ofek-10 spy satellite

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided not to delay the launch of Israel’s improved Ofek 10 spy satellite Wednesday night April 9, hours after the six powers and Iran wound up another round of talks in Vienna on comprehensive accord on its nuclear program. Israel decided to show some muscle over the Obama administration’s consent to raise Iran’s weapons program at the next round of nuclear negotiations next month, debkafile’s Washington and Jerusalem sources report. But this assurance, relayed also to the Saudi government, was not accompanied by information on the points to be raised, or the US response if Tehran continued to maintain that its weapons program is non-existent and therefore not up for negotiation with the world powers.

Neither did Washington reply to questions from Jerusalem about how US negotiators would act in the light of the latest intelligence data supplied by Israel, Britain and Holland attesting to accelerated Iranian work on its putatively non-existent weapons program.  The Israeli prime minister is still waiting for an answer from Washington. But at least one American official admits to knowing the truth.
“It would take Iran just two months to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon,” US Secretary of State John Kerry told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday in a downbeat assessment of efforts to curb Tehran’s nuclear program.
High-ranking US and Israeli sources told debkafile early Thursday April 10 that it is becoming harder than ever, in the context of US-Israel relations, to disentangle the stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from the ineffectual nuclear talks with Iran.
The top level of the US administration appears to have fallen into two factions pulling in opposite directions: One group, led by President Barack Obama and National Security Advisor Susan Rice, wants Israel to carry the can for progress or for obstacles in negotiations with the Palestinians, while appeasing the latter and letting Iran off the hook on the concerns of Israel (and other Mid East nations).

The opposing group, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, favors more flexibility and is trying to mediate between the White House and Jerusalem.
National Security Adviser Rice is the toughest nut to crack in this regard.
The rift between the two factions led to the cancellation of Kerry’s White House meeting with the president that was scheduled for Tuesday, April 8 for an evaluation of the Israel-Palestinian peace track and whether or not to end US involvement.

Rice would have urged the US to pull out and lay the blame squarely at Israel’s door.

By postponing this confrontation, Kerry bought time for another bid to salvage the negotiations. And indeed, his envoy Martin Indyk has kept low-profile talks going between the two sides.

There is every indication that Prime Minister Netanyahu is at the end of his tether on what he regards as the Obama administration’s unfair appreciation of the concessions Israel made to keep the talks alive in the face of Palestinian negativism. Sources in Jerusalem say White House lenience toward the Palestinians hardens the intransigence of their leader Mahmoud Abbas and so undermines the entire peace effort.
At least for now, Netanyahu is taking a hard line himself, debkafile’s Jerusalem sources report. Wednesday, Netanyahu punished Abbas for his unilateral application to 15 UN agencies to bypass negotiations with a dose of his own medicine. He ordered all Israeli ministerial contacts cut off with their Palestinian peers and the cancellation of VIP privileges for Palestinian high-ups.

For a show of Israeli muscle, he ordered the Israel military spy satellite Ofek-10 to be launched from the Palmachim air base Wednesday night. By Thursday morning, it was circling in earth orbit every 99 minutes from an altitude of 600 kms. Ofek-10’s improved surveillance capabilities include high-resolution cameras able to distinguish between objects of half a meter and operate in varying lighting and weather conditions.
That afternoon, the entry of the Samson cargo plane, the new Super Hercules C130J, into service with the Israeli Air Force took place in a public ceremony. Samson markedly extends the IAF’s ability to carry troops forces and hardware over any point in Iran. It was the first of six giant air transports to be delivered by the end of next year. The message the show was meant to convey was that Israel is again preparing to conduct a military strike on Iran’s nuclear program after being pressed by Obama into holding back for some years.

The old confrontation between Obama and Netanyahu is therefore back in full force. Will the Israeli prime minister continue to tough it out on either or both the Palestinian and Iranian nuclear tracks? That is anyone’s guess. But Wednesday, he was heard to say that a sovereign nation has the right to say no.

Pat Condell eviscerates “Islamophobia” – YouTube.

The lie of the century.

Who is to blame for “Islamophobia” in the UK?
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/418…

The truth about the “wave of attacks on Muslims” after Woolwich murder
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknew…

“Tell Mama” exaggerated anti-Muslim attacks
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/and…

Fewer anti-Muslim hate crimes after Woolwich murder than feared
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/ju…

Muslim hate monitor to lose backing
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalist…

The real agenda behind the push for “Islamophobia”
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/419…

Pew Forum survey: “The world’s Muslims: Religion, politics and society”
http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/th…

Fall in “Islamophobic” crime, while MCB spins the opposite
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/and…

Hate crime stats deflate “Islamophobia” myth
http://www.nationalreview.com/article…

The invention of Islamophobia
http://www.signandsight.com/features/…

The Islamisation of Britain in 2013
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/411…

Islamisation: The cultural suicide of the West
http://chersonandmolschky.com/2014/01…

You can download an audio version of this video at
http://patcondell.libsyn.com/

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http://www.patcondell.net

Israel Hayom | Kerry to Lieberman: I did not blame Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “We are standing up for ourselves with determination and wisdom” • Economy Minister Naftali Bennett: “Settlement blocs must be annexed. … The time has come to present an alternative to the entire Oslo concept.”

Shlomo Cesana, Yoni Hirsch, Lilach Shoval, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Israel’s new spy satellite means closer tabs on Iran – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Ofek 10 will use optical imaging to send back sophisticated intelligence of the region; to be used in monitoring Iranian military activity.

Yoav Zitun

Israel’s defense establishment was radiating satisfaction Thursday after the successful night launch of its new spy satellite, the Ofek 10, which experts say will allow for closer observation of Iranian covert activity.

“Dozens of engineers were sitting at their screens last night to follow the satellite and be in contact with it,” Ofer Doron, CEO of the Israel Aerospace Industry’s space division, said Thursday.

“An hour and a half after its launch, it passed over our ground station and made contact. We will see it a few more times today, and we conducts checks in the coming months before we can declare it operational and broadcast the first images.”

The Ofek 10 (Ofek is Hebrew for Horizon)  is the latest in a series of spy satellites launched by Israel in recent years to transmit data gathered using multiple methods, including optical imaging involving highly sensitive cameras and radar, says Ynet military and defense analyst Ron Ben-Yishai.

The satellite is a significant step up in Israel’s ability to accurately monitor a target area, even in poor weather. For example, if the Iranians try to disguise certain activity, such as placing missiles in their launchers, Israel will now be able to identify that activity in half the time.

Israeli officials have said before that the nation’s satellite program is aimed at boosting intelligence-gathering capabilities in the face of Iran’s nuclear program and Iranian support for militant groups in neighboring Arab countries.

IAI said Thursday that the satellite, which cost hundreds of millions of shekels, will orbit at an altitude of 400-600 km above the Earth, circumnavigating the planet, in an elliptical orbit, every 90 minutes.

The satellite weighs 380 pounds and is considered small relative to the “high definition images it will provide, which will offer the highest level of intelligence.”

Nuclear talks: Iran may compromise on plutonium at Arak | JPost | Israel News.

By REUTERS

 04/10/2014 15:06

Iran says ready to redesign Arak to lower plutonium output; Russia sees growing chance of compromise; West fears could yield bomb material.

 Iran has made a proposal that would significantly lower plutonium production at a planned reactor, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying, signalling flexibility on a key issue in talks to end the nuclear dispute with world powers.

The comment by Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s atomic energy organization, was the latest sign that a compromise may be possible over the Arak research reactor, which the West fears could yield weapons-usable material. Iran denies any such aim.

The fate of the heavy-water plant, which has not yet been completed, is one of the central issues in negotiations between Iran and six major powers aimed at reaching a long-term deal on Tehran’s nuclear program by an agreed July 20 deadline.

Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China on Wednesday ended their last round of negotiation in Vienna and said they would start drafting an agreement at their next meeting there on May 13. But officials said significant gaps needed to be bridged.

The website of Iran’s English-language state television Press TV, citing Salehi late on Wednesday, said Iran had offered a “scientific and logical proposal to clear up any ambiguities” over the Arak reactor.

“In our plan, we explained that we would redesign the heart of the Arak reactor, so that its production of plutonium will decrease drastically,” Salehi was quoted as saying.

RUSSIA SEES ARAK COMPROMISE

The West is worried that Arak, once operational, could provide a supply of plutonium – one of two materials, along with highly enriched uranium, that can trigger a nuclear blast.

The Islamic Republic has said that the 40-megawatt reactor is intended to produce isotopes for cancer and other medical treatments. It agreed to halt installation work at Arak under a six-month interim accord struck on Nov. 24 which was designed to buy time for negotiations on a comprehensive deal.

Russia’s chief negotiator suggested after the April 8-9 talks that progress had been achieved on Arak. “The possibility of a compromise on this issue has grown,” Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.

Heavy-water reactors like Arak, fueled by natural uranium, are seen as especially suitable for yielding plutonium. To do so, however, a spent fuel preprocessing plant would also be needed to extract it. Iran is not known to have any such plant.

If operating optimally, Arak – located about 250 km (150 miles) southwest of Tehran – could produce about nine kg of plutonium annually, the US Institute for Science and International Security says.

Any deal must lower that amount, Western experts say.

Last week, Princeton University experts said that annual plutonium production could be cut to less than a kilogram – well below the roughly 8 kg needed for an atomic bomb – if Iran altered the way Arak is fueled and lowered its power capacity.

Israel launches Ofek 10 radar-based spy satellite | JPost | Israel News.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN

04/09/2014 23:34

IAI and Defense Ministry launch satellite that can take photos of Earth targets irrespective of weather conditions.

The Defense Ministry and Israeli Aircraft Industries launched a spy satellite into orbit from Palmahim Air Base on Wednesday night.

The satellite, called Ofek 10, uses radar systems for observation.

It was carried into space by a Shavit (“Comet”) launch vehicle.

It soon entered orbit, and is scheduled to undergo a series of checks to ensure that key functions are working correctly.

The SAR (Synthetic aperture radar) satellite has advanced day and night photography capabilities, and will work in all weather conditions, the Defense Ministry said.

The launch was jointly carried out by IAI and the Defense Ministry’s Space Administration, which is a part of the Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure.

Israel maintains an extensive spy satellite program, which has seen the Defense Ministry invest hundreds of millions of shekels a year in space development and the satellite industry.

Defense officials said the program significantly upgrades the nation’s strategic capabilities, and strengthens the hi-tech sector. The first Israeli military satellite, Ofek 1, went into space in 1988.

Israel is one of 12 countries able to produce and launch its own satellites.

It takes an average of eight years to develop each new satellite.

CAIR’s Jihad against Honor Diaries | National Review Online.

( Sad that only FoxNews has the guts to take on radical Islam’s propaganda apparatus.  But hey, anything bad about Islam is not PC in the MSM. – JW )

The “civil rights” group hides Islam’s denial of civil rights to Muslim women.