WarSclerotic

Large explosion rocks northern Iranian city – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Blast shakes Iranian city of Qazvin which some claim is site of secret nuclear facility.

News agencies

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency says a heavy explosion has rocked Qazvin city in the country’s north, and that authorities expect many casualties.

However, local Governor Saeed Mirbaha was quoted as saying by Fars there were no deaths in the explosion, but firemen and rescue workers have intensified efforts to control a raging fire that has covered the sky in a large part of Qazvin city.

The city’s emergency department said two rescuers had been badly injured from smoke inhalation.

The Tuesday report said the explosion happened in a storage facility in Qazvin, a commercial city with many stores. The city was once the seat of Persia’s ancient capital and is located roughly 100 miles northwest of Tehran.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the city might also be home to a secret nuclear facility. According to their report Iranian officials in the past had strongly denied claims by “a cult-like” group of Iranian exiles called Mujahedin Khalq Organization, or MKO, who claim there is a secret nuclear enrichment facility in Abyek, in Qazvin.

According to the Times, the MKO has ties to “neoconservative opponents” of Iran’s nuclear program in Washington.

An additional report claimed the in 2009, Fars reported that an inspection team from the International Atomic Energy Agency inspected a uranium mine in central Iran – a possible reference to the facility.

Earlier, the semi-official Fars news agency said the explosion happened in a wood and oil storage facility, leaving nearly 50 people injured – many in serious condition. Many cargo depots are located in the city, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of the capital, Tehran.

Fars also said police have closed off roads to the area where the explosion took place, in an old neighborhood.

Immense Explosion in Iran May Have Nuclear Origins – Middle East – News – Israel National News.

An immense explosion has been heard throughout the northern Iranian city of Qazvin, semi-official Fars news agency reported, and many casualties are expected from the blast.

Around 1.1 million people live in the city, which is located about 100 miles north of Tehran.

The blast may be related to nuclear development in Iran, according to the Los Angeles Times. Iranian officials in the past have strongly denied claims by Mujahedin Khalq Organization, or MKO, a cult-like Iranian exile group, that it has a secret nuclear enrichment facility in Abyek, near the major city, according to the daily.

The source of the blast remains undetermined. Several mystery explosions have been reported in the past several years in the region, none of which were ever verified.

A fire has now broken out in the city, local reports say, and as many as 50 people are injured. State media blames an oil depot for the blast.

China publishes PM adviser’s hawkish book on Jerusalem | The Times of Israel.

Dore Gold’s ‘The Fight for Jerusalem’ calls for city to remain undivided under Israeli sovereignty — in contrast to Beijing’s policy

Dore Gold (Photo credit: Moshe Shai/Flash90)

The Foreign Ministry of China has published a book about Jerusalem by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser Dore Gold, whose core thesis appears to contradict Beijing’s positions on the Middle East conflict.

Gold’s “The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City,” first published in 2007, argues that the city needs to remain united under Israeli sovereignty, based on the Jewish people’s historical rights and Israel’s responsibility to safeguard the holy sites in the Old City. China’s official position, by contrast, requires a division of Jerusalem.

Last May, President Xi Jinping announced a four-point proposal to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, calling for the creation of a Palestinian state on the basis of the pre-1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

According to Gold, who earlier this year rejoined the Prime Minister’s Office as a part-time foreign policy adviser, the new-found interest in his book has to do with Beijing’s increased focus on regional policy.

“China right now is in a learning phase. They want to understand the Middle East,” Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told The Times of Israel last week in his Jerusalem office. “Therefore, a book that explains an Israeli view — I believe it’s a mainstream view in the state of Israel — on Jerusalem is something of interest to them. Not just purely to learn the facts but to see also the analysis: why does Israel claim that Jerusalem has to remain united under Israeli sovereignty, what’s the underlying logic of that?”

Gold, who still serves as president of the hawkish Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said his book — a former New York Times bestseller — explains that Jerusalem was always a Jewish city, and argues that its holy sites would be in danger of destruction if any authority other than Israel were to rule over the Old City.

The Chinese people and government have a deep appreciation for the ancient civilization of the Jewish people, as they see themselves as an ancient civilization as well, Gold said. “Their own diplomatic approach to territorial disputes is related to the issue of historical rights. I don’t think Israel is going to get involved in the question of historical rights in the South China Sea or in Tibet or other places. But it is interesting that that is an issue for them and the whole restoration of the Jewish state is based on historical rights,” he said.

Gold first connected with the Chinese government in 2012, when his center hosted in Israel a delegation from a think tank affiliated with the Communist Party’s Central Committee. After he delivered a briefing on Jerusalem, they expressed interest in translating his book, which in Chinese is simply called “Jerusalem.” According to Gold, “a few thousand” copies of his book were printed in China, aimed mainly at diplomats and people dealing with policy matters.

On the cover of the Chinese edition of “The Fight for Jerusalem,” Gold is described as a “famous Israeli politician.” On the back cover of the book, the translators note that “undoubtedly, in this book the writer expresses his own ideas of history, national feelings and value judgments, some of which we do not agree with. But we tried our best to keep the original text and do not abridge anything in order to maintain the integrity of the book, and also give researchers more Israelis views.”

‘Hamas Will Rise to Power in Judea and Samaria,’ Israel National News, Tova Dvorin, May 6, 2014

(Nevertheless, the peace process will continue, sorta.

“Abbas’s actions brought Hamas to power in Gaza and now it will rise to power in Judea and Samaria,” Liberman warned, stressing that “no matter when elections are, Hamas will win and take control of the Palestinian Authority.”

Avigdor Liberman, Flash90

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) sharply criticized Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday, at a Diplomatic Corps dinner hosted at the Presidential Residence for Israel’s 66th Independence Day.

“Abbas’s actions brought Hamas to power in Gaza and now it will rise to power in Judea and Samaria,” Liberman warned, stressing that “no matter when elections are, Hamas will win and take control of the Palestinian Authority.”

He added that “there are, especially in Europe, those who do not want to see the Palestinians not trying for peace. The time has come to remove the mask from the face of Mahmoud Abbas and show that he clearly rejects peace.”

Hamas continues to be adamant over its control of a “unity” government, expressing over and over again that it would remain in control of both Gaza and the PA after elections and insisting that Ismail Haniyeh would rule the government.

Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a senior official and co-founder of Hamas, took issue with claims of a united military force last week, spewing sharp criticism over the issue to Reuters.

“Nobody will touch the security sections in Gaza. No one will be able to touch one person from the military group. Nobody asked for that,” Zahar declared. He also claimed that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is “lying” about being in charge of a unity government and charged him with vying for the continuation of US aid.

Hamas and Fatah’s reconciliation deal last month has raised security concerns in Israel and utterly torpedoed peace talks.

However, as Liberman may have alluded, the European Union (EU) has dismissed those concerns based on its conviction that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, not Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, would remain in charge of a unity government.

“The EU expects any new government to uphold the principle of non-violence, to remain committed to achieving a two-state solution and to a negotiated peaceful settlement … including Israel’s legitimate right to exist,” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton insisted last month.

 “The fact that President Abbas will remain fully in charge of the negotiation process and have a mandate to negotiate in the name of all Palestinians provides further assurance that the peace negotiations can and must proceed.”

Iranian FM: I won’t allow official Holocaust denial | The Times of Israel.

Zarif, grilled by lawmakers over softened stance, says new diplomacy has isolated Israel, Netanyahu

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at a press conference in Tehran, Sunday, December 22, 2013. (Photo credit: AP/Vahid Salemi)

TEHRAN, Iran — Hard-line lawmakers grilled Iran’s foreign minister on Tuesday on Tehran’s official step-back from past policies of denying the Holocaust.

Mohammad Javad Zarif was summoned to parliament and questioned in a session that was broadcast live on state radio on Tuesday.

Comprised of religious figures, former lawmakers and officials as well as some current MPs, the critics were unhappy about Zarif’s more moderate foreign policy, including what they call his “reactionary stance towards the bastard (Israeli) Zionist regime and the Holocaust.”

Zarif said that, as long as he is foreign minister, he will not allow Iran’s reputation to be damaged with statements about “Holocaust denial.”

Zarif fought back against the increasingly scathing criticism from the hardliners, saying his pragmatic approach to diplomacy had stolen Israel’s thunder.

After years of bellicose rhetoric from ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the foreign minister added that the new government had managed to put an end to Israel’s portrayal of Iran as “a danger” over its nuclear ambitions.

“We shall not allow the Zionist regime — who is illegally in possession of chemical and nuclear weapons and is the biggest violator of non-proliferation laws — to portray Iran as a danger,” Zarif said.

Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu shamelessly makes a scene saying Iran denies the Holocaust, Iran wants to build a nuclear bomb to carry out another Holocaust,” he went on.

“But my colleagues and I are telling the world Iran is opposed to anti-antisemitism and genocide,” he said.

The Iranian foreign minister added that the Islamic Republic’s new approach has led to the international isolation of Israel.

“The government’s foreign policy has taken away peace and comfort from Netanyahu and has isolated him internationally and this is a great victory that all the resistance forces of the region have each appreciated us for,” he said, according to a translation by the semi-official Iranian Fars news outlet.

After the questioning, the hard-line legislators said they were “satisfied” with Zarif’s “explanation.”

In 2005, Ahmadinejad prompted an international outcry when he called the Holocaust a “myth.”

His successor, Hassan Rouhani, a moderate, has offered outreach in place of saber-rattling and Holocaust denial.

The summoning and grilling of Zarif is apparently part of the hard-liners’ increasing pressures on the Rouhani administration.

Zarif and Rouhani have sought to soften that anti-Israeli image, despite supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei repeatedly casting doubts over the existence and scale of the Holocaust.

The Holocaust remains a polarising issue in Iran, but the leadership appears to be united in seeking to reduce tensions with the world.

Khamenei, who has the final say on key state affairs including nuclear policy, has lent qualified support to Rouhani to push for a permanent deal that would ultimately lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its atomic drive.

Western powers suspect Iran’s atomic drive masks military objectives despite Tehran’s insistence that it only seeks peaceful applications of the technology to produce electricity and medical isotopes and conduct research.

Senior US officials to visit Israel this week | The Times of Israel.

National Security Advisor Susan Rice will lead delegation meeting with Netanyahu, Peres ahead of resumption of Iran nuclear talks

By AFP and Rebecca Shimoni Stoil May 6, 2014, 6:19 pm

US National Security Advisor Susan Rice (photo credit: AP/Craig Ruttle/File)

News Bulletin: Obama Believes He’s Too Good for Us, Commentary Magazine, Peter Wehner, May 6, 2014

How hard life must be for The One We’ve Been Waiting For, who must travel in this fallen world, amongst mortal man, tolerating such folly and failure? It’s little wonder that Mr. Obama, whom top aides referred to in the 2008 campaign as the “Black Jesus,” is disappointed in the world.

The president thinks we have failed him. In reality, he has failed us

Poor Barack Obama.

According to David Remnick, a biographer of the president and the editor of the New Yorker, “The profile [of President Obama] that I published in the New Yorker was somebody that eerily, eerily seemed to be claiming himself–it was a sense of not giving up, but of deep frustration–that was the profile that I published in the New Yorker. Somebody frustrated and disappointed.”

Remnick went on to add, “And that’s what’s frustrating to me sometimes about Obama is that the world seems to disappoint him. Republicans disappoint him, Bashar al-Assad disappoints him, Putin as well.” (H/T: the Weekly Standard.)

How hard life must be for The One We’ve Been Waiting For, who must travel in this fallen world, amongst mortal man, tolerating such folly and failure? It’s little wonder that Mr. Obama, whom top aides referred to in the 2008 campaign as the “Black Jesus,” is disappointed in the world.

But in return consider this: Think about how disappointed the world must be in Barack Obama. The man who promised to slow the rise of the oceans, heal the planet, and end a politics that breeds division and conflict and cynicism–who promised us new beginnings and hope and change–has overseen an increasingly disordered and chaotic world, enemies who are emboldened and allies who are alienated, the worst economic recovery on record, startling failures plaguing his signature domestic achievement, a record number of Americans on food stamps and in poverty, a widening gap in income inequality, and a riven and polarized political culture.

These are the hallmarks of a failed presidency. And the president and his courtiers are already settling on their explanation: Barack Obama was simply too good for the world.

The president thinks we have failed him. In reality, he has failed us.

Our World: Rand Paul’s support for Israel | JPost | Israel News.

By CAROLINE B. GLICK

05/06/2014 10:26

The hard truth is that while American isolationism is bad for the US, it isn’t necessarily bad for Israel.

Republican Senator Rand Paul is an isolationist. This ought to make him a natural ally for appeasers like Steve Walt and John Mearshimer and the whole blame Israel first crowd.

And indeed, he has taken positions, like opposing additional sanctions on Iran that placed him in their camp.

But Paul is a mixed bag.

Last week, following the PLO’s unity deal with terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Paul introduced the Stand With Israel Act. If it had passed into law, Paul’s act would have required the US to cut off all funding to the Palestinian Authority, including its security forces. The only way the administration could have wiggled out of the aid cutoff would have been by certifying that the PLO, Hamas and Islamic Jihad had effectively stopped being the PLO, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Paul’s conditions for maintaining aid would have required the President to certify to Congress that the PA – run jointly by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PLO –formally and publicly recognized Israel as a Jewish state; renounced terrorism; purged all individuals with terrorist ties from its security services; terminated all anti-American and anti-Israel incitement, publicly pledged not to engage in war with Israel; and honored previous agreements signed between the PLO and Israel.

Paul’s bill was good for America. Maintaining financial support for the Palestinian Authority in the aftermath of the PLO’s unity-with-terrorists deal constitutes a breach of US anti-terror law.

Financing the PA also harms US national security. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are financed by Iran. So by funding the PLO’s PA, which just united its forces with theirs, the US is subsidizing Iran’s terror network.

Ending US financing of the PA would certainly be good for Israel. Indeed, just by sponsoring the bill Paul has helped Israel in two critical ways. He offered Israel friendship, and he began a process of changing the mendacious narrative about the nature of the Palestinian conflict with Israel to one based on the truth.

By extending his hand to Israel, Paul gave Israel an opening to build relationships with political forces with which it has not traditionally had close ties. Because most of Israel’s supporters in Washington support an interventionist US foreign policy, isolationists like Paul have generally either stood on the sidelines of the debate, or in light of their desire to beat a quick retreat from the region, they have been willing, even happy to support the Arabs against Israel and blame Israel’s supporters for getting the US involved in the Middle East.

The hard truth is that while American isolationism is bad for the US, it isn’t necessarily bad for Israel. To date, under Democratic and Republican administrations alike, there has been a direct correlation between the level of US involvement in Israel’s affairs and US hostility towards Israel.

Paul’s pro-Israel detractors note that he also supports cutting off US military aid to Israel. But that doesn’t necessarily make him anti-Israel.

Despite the protestations of AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups, it is far from clear that Israel would be worse off if it stopped receiving US aid. Indeed, it is likely that Israel’s economy and military strength would both be enhanced by the strategic independence that an aid cut-off would bring about.

Yes, Paul is a complicated character. But that doesn’t make him Israel’s enemy. His bill was an act of friendship. And Israel can use more friends in Washington who actually do things that help it rather than suffice with declaring their support for Israel while standing by as its reputation is trashed.

And that’s the thing of it. The Obama administration can’t stop trash talking Israel. And more than ever before, Israel needs allies who are willing to take real action to defend it.

Israel received yet another reminder of this basic fact last Friday when Yedioth Aharonoth’s senior writer Nahum Barnea published an interview with unnamed “senior American officials” involved in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Those “officials,” it quickly became apparent, turned out to be the one and only Martin Indyk, Secretary of State John Kerry’s senior mediator.

In that interview, Indyk showed that among members of the Obama administration, Israel is friendless. Indyk’s interview, like serial anti-Israel statements made by Kerry, (most recently his anti-Semitic “Israel apartheid” remarks to the Trilateral Commission), and by President Barack Obama himself, was notable for its utter hostility to Israel and its Jewish leaders.

Not only did Indyk blame Israel for the failure of Kerry’s “peace process.” Like Obama and Kerry, Indyk insisted that Israel’s failure to bow to every PLO demand has opened it to the prospect of a renewed Palestinian terror war against it, to international isolation and to European trade embargoes.

Like Kerry, Indyk casually employed anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jewish cleverness and greed.

From the perspective of continued US aid to the PA, by far the most important part of Indyk’s remarks, like those that Kerry made to the Trilateral Commission, was his claim that the Palestinians will likely respond to the failure of Kerry’s peacemaking by initiating another terror war against Israel.

Indyk’s assertion – or was it a threat? – was notable because the US government is training and financing the Palestinian forces that would be directing the terror war.

Since 2007, the US has spent billions of dollars financing and training Palestinian security services and transforming them into a professional military. Trained using US doctrine, they are the strongest military force the Palestinians have ever fielded against Israel.

These forces – commanded by Abbas – share his supportive view of the terrorist mass murder of Jews. They share his position that Israel has no right to exist, that Jews have no history and are not a nation.

Since 1996, every Palestinian terror campaign has been directed by these security services. And as US Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, who served as the first commander of the US training mission has stated publicly, these US trained forces can be expected to turn their guns at Israel.

While the PLO was competing with Hamas for leadership, Abbas deployed these US trained forces against Hamas. Now that the PLO and Hamas are unified, these operations will necessarily end.

Moreover, these US trained forces are already involved in terrorism. Over the past six months, IDF commanders have repeatedly pointed fingers at PA security forces claiming that the steep rise in terrorist attacks against Israelis in Judea and Samaria is being organized and directed by them.

This is brings us to the second reason why Paul’s initiative is so important. While it is important for Israel to find new friends in Washington, it is even more important for it to change the narrative about the Palestinians and their conflict with Israel.

The false narrative, which claims that the PLO is moderate and that Mahmoud Abbas is a statesman and a man of peace, has made Israel’s old friends in Washington unable to understand reality. So unlike Paul, these friends are incapable of taking actions that actually advance Israel’s interests and strengthen its alliance with the US.

The false narrative of PLO moderation has monopolized the discourse on the Palestinians to the point where adherence to the two-state policy has more in common with a religious faith than a policy preference.

Indyk’s hysterical assault on Israel is textbook behavior of a believer lashing out at a person who exposes the utter falsity of his faith.

The believer cannot disown his phony messiah. So his only option is to present the party that unmasked the lie as the devil.

Hence, Indyk’s vulgar assault on Israelis.

But while Indyk’s faith is fanatical, many others share it in more moderate, but still devastating forms. And they too lash out at anyone who exposes their irrationality.

Case in point is the pro-Israel community’s opposition to Paul’s bill.

The day after Paul introduced his bill, AIPAC came out against it. AIPAC opposed the bill, according to the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin, (who herself violently opposed it), because its leadership believes that the PA security forces play a key role in fighting Hamas.

So a week after the Israeli government formally ended negotiations because the PA supports terror, AIPAC opposed ending US aid to the PA because, AIPAC claimed, it fights terror.

For her part, Rubin railed against Paul’s initiative claiming that it was “a phony pro-Israel bill.”

Paul submitted his bill for unanimous consent in order to fast track it to a vote and into law. AIPAC convinced some senators to vote against Paul’s bill, and so killed it.

In an interview with Newsmax’s Steve Maltzberg after the vote, Paul attacked AIPAC saying, “I think the American people, if they knew that [AIPAC opposed his bill], would be very, very upset and think, you know what, those people are no longer lobbying in favor of America and Israel if they’re not willing to put restrictions on aid to Palestine.”

In other words, Paul was saying, it is time to move on, and those who insist on acting as though nothing has changed since 1994 are not behaving as one would expect Israel’s friends to behave.

And he is right.

Paul may be a cynical opportunist. But that’s better than a messianic that prefers to believe that Israel is the devil than accept that the Peace Fairy doesn’t exist.

And yes, his refreshing embrace of the truth as the basis for US policymaking makes him a better friend to Israel today than AIPAC that refuses to accept the truth, (and like him, failed to support additional sanctions against Iran).

Rand Paul told Fox News after his bill failed to pass that he will not abandon the fight against US aid to the PA. We must hope that he is true to his word.

FM: Iran to Prevent Zionist Attempts at Spreading Iranophobia, Tasnim News Agency (Iranian), May 6, 2014

(As right left thinking people know, Iran is a bastion of truth, peace and brotherhood like Fatah and Hamas. — DM)

“ill-wishers of the Iranian nation” have mounted a massive propaganda campaign to represent Iran as a global threat in order to achieve their vicious objectives against the Iranian nation and the regional revolutionary nations and anti-Israel resistance front.

Iranian foreign minister underlined that Tehran will never allow the Zionist regime of Israel to instigate Iranophobia in the world under the pretext that Iran is denying the Holocaust.

In an address to an open session of the Iranian parliament on Tuesday, Mohammad Javad Zarif lashed out at the Israeli regime for its propaganda campaign to demonize the Islamic Republic.

“Iran is an independent, mighty and stable country, but widespread propaganda and political activities are underway to portray Iran as a threat to the region and the global peace and security,” he explained.

He stated that “ill-wishers of the Iranian nation” have mounted a massive propaganda campaign to represent Iran as a global threat in order to achieve their vicious objectives against the Iranian nation and the regional revolutionary nations and anti-Israel resistance front.

Zarif made it clear that Tel Aviv seeks to provoke anti-Iran sentiments by resorting to the unsubstantiated claim that Tehran denies the Holocaust.

“(Israeli Prime Minister) Netanyahu shamelessly raises hue and cry that Iran is denying the Holocaust and says that Holocaust-denying Iran is after creating another Holocaust by producing an atomic bomb,” he noted.

Zarif also pledged that during his term as Iran’s foreign minister he will continue efforts to counter the Zionist-fomented misgivings about Iran’s denial of the Holocaust .

The foreign ministry will not allow the Zionists’ propaganda machine to portray Israel as a victim and to instill fear for Iran, Zarif stressed.

In September 2013, Foreign Minister Zarif had announced that Tehran condemns killing of Jews by Nazis but at the same time stressed that the Holocaust has become a pretext for Zionists to violate the rights of Palestinian nation.

Speaking to Tasnim News Agency at the time, Zarif stated that Iran always condemns any kind of massacre of mankind.

“We condemn killing of Jews by Nazis, in the very same way that we condemn massacre and suppression of Palestinians by Zionists.”

He stated that Iran will not allow Zionists to take advantage of the Holocaust for hiding their crimes, and added, “The Holocaust crime turned into a pretext which Zionists used 60 years ago to portray themselves as victims and provoke sympathy in the world in a bid to plunder the rights of Palestinian nation.”

Belmont Club » The Incredible Shrinking Man.

May 5th, 2014 – 4:32 pm

It’s the day after the White House Correspondent’s extravaganza and Washington wakes up to its dismally shrunken state. The New York Times describes president Obama’s unsuccessful attempt to kiss and make up with Angela Merkel.

President Obama tried to mend fences with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on Friday, calling her “one of my closest friends on the world stage.” But Ms. Merkel replied tartly that Germany still had significant differences with the United States over surveillance practices and that it was too soon to return to “business as usual.”

The crisis in the Ukraine is reported as a silver lining because of the power of shared danger to bring Germany and the US closer together again. “Some experts on Germany said the Ukraine crisis could give Mr. Obama and Ms. Merkel the foundation to rebuild their relationship, reminding them that despite the suspicion generated by the surveillance disclosures, their countries still have much in common.”

It’s just like the movies where Angela forgives Barack because he must save her from the menacing Putin, who has just entered the cave with a Tokarev in his hand. But if shared danger is the secret to romance then president Obama isn’t taking advantage of it. Instead, he’s hiding it.

The Daily Beast says “the Obama administration is seeking to hide the fact that North Korea possesses nuclear missile warheads, according to a report by Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon strategic analyst and director for forces policy at the office of the secretary of defense.”

According to the report, the Obama administration has sought to hide the alarming intelligence because it undermines efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons.Administration spokesmen sought to “walk back” the unwelcome intelligence of nuclear missile warheads with officials asserting that the nuclear strike capability is limited or untested.Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a proponent of the leftist “global zero” anti-nuclear initiative, said the same day that the intelligence was made public that neither Iran nor North Korea is capable of attacking the United States with nuclear weapons.

Israel should be flinging itself into Obama’s arms since it is being told that the coming agreement with Iran will have certain imperfections. “Some former U.S. officials and issue experts say Israel appears to have accepted Iran being allowed some degree of nuclear capability, Al-Monitor reports.”

Al-Monitor cites one former U.S. official who participated in consultations with Israel last month as saying officials there seem to “understand that there is a need for a domestic, indigenous civil nuclear program” if the Iranians are to satisfy their domestic opposition. Jerusalem officials instead have turned their attention to potential problems involved in policing any nuclear deal between Tehran and the the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany, the so-called “P-5+1″ group. …In addition, the U.S. insiders report Israel is concerned that any Iranian violations of a nuclear deal would be so gradual and slow that Washington would find it hard to identify a point in time when action is warranted.

“Some degree of nuclear capability” may result in Israel being somewhat nuked. Elliot Abrams at the Weekly Standard says Israel is getting ready for a bad Iran deal. Perhaps the deal will be similar to the one which disarmed Syria. Some Western analysts believe that despite the deal, it has a secret chemical arsenal, having surrendered one while keeping another.

Concerns are growing among Western intelligence services that Syria still has a significant and undeclared arsenal of chemical weapons, including crude chlorine-filled bombs, secret stockpiles of sophisticated nerve gasses or their components—and the scientific know-how to rebuild a larger-scale, higher-grade chemical weapons effort once the Bashar al-Assad regime has escaped the international spotlight. …To be sure, the deadly and publicly-declared chemical arsenal that Assad had a year ago, that allegedly was used to kill hundreds of people in August, and that he agreed to destroy in September under threat of an American attack is “no longer in existence” … but the inspectors are only commenting on the chemical arsenal Assad admitted he had. There’s mounting concern that the Syrian regime may have a second unconventional weapons program—one Assad never told the international community about.

If danger is the spice of life there’s plenty to come out of Southwest Asia.  The Daily Beast says “the CIA is dismantling its frontline Afghan counterterrorist forces in south and east Afghanistan, leaving a security vacuum that U.S. commanders fear the Taliban and al Qaeda will fill—and leaving the Pakistan border open to a possible deluge of fighters and weapons.”

These CIA teams are the actual “sword” against al-Qaeda; the men who come in the night to take them out. For security they relied on the “shield” us US conventional forces: “it relies on the U.S. military for protection and logistical support—especially at its far-flung bases in south and east Afghanistan. Just months ago, the talk in administration circles was that these paramilitaries would be significantly expanded in the near future. Now, it appears, the opposite is taking place.”

Now that the shield is being lowered then must the sword be sheathed. No sword and no shield means gone.

The CIA started recruiting and training these Afghan paramilitary groups only months after the intelligence agency first entered the country in 2001 ahead of invading U.S. troops, according to current and former U.S. and Afghan officials. They described the top-secret force in detail on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. …The Khost and Kunar-based units “are instrumental in blocking the Haqqani/al Qaeda mix that are responsible for spectacular attacks,” said one senior U.S. military official. “It’s not clear what will happen to either unit; there is no plan so far to absorb them.”

Soon after the CIA shuts down its al-Qaeda hunting teams the terrorist group Obama declared dead will probably make a zombie-like recovery from its historical grave.

Rather than being driven into Obama’s arms by danger, Japan appears to have concluded it is better to rely on itself. The Military Times reports that Japan is in a political debate over whether to amend its constitution to remove restrictions on its military.

Abe advocates a “breakaway from the postwar regime” as a way to overcome the humiliation as well as the education system, social values and historical views set by the occupation.A 2012 draft revision proposed by the Liberal Democrats promotes a conformist Japan with traditional patriarchal values, which place family units above individuals and elevate the emperor to a head of state. Civil liberties such as freedom of speech and expression can be restricted if considered harmful to public interest, according to the draft.“Our goal is to write a new constitution of our own that envisions a new era and serves a new role,” Yasuhiro Nakasone, a 96-year-old former prime minister who heads a group of lawmakers campaigning for a revision, said last week at a Tokyo gathering attended by hundreds of lawmakers, supporters and business lobbies.

Tokyo will go it alone. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but soon and for keeps. And so perhaps will Berlin. Angela Merkel’s insistence on curbing the NSA as a condition for cooperating with Obama may be aimed at freeing Germany from the fear of betrayal by the White House.  Merkel doesn’t fear a powerful American intelligence apparatus per se;  she just fears one in Obama’s romantic hands.

The president has shrunk himself. Too bad he shrank America along with it.