03/19/12

Permalink US, Israel Intel Officials Agree: Iran Has No Nuclear Weapons Program

You wouldn’t know it by the repeated claims to the contrary by President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but top US and Israeli intelligence officials overwhelmingly agree that not only is there no evidence Iran has an active nuclear weapons program, but strong evidence that the old program they had was indeed abandoned. Iran’s old nuclear weapons program hadn’t gotten very far, and was abandoned in 2003. This is exactly what was said several years ago in the US National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, a claim which irked then-President Bush. Though Iran’s lack of a nuclear weapons program is really inconvenient for hawks, intelligence officials say that assessment hasn’t changed. Indeed, while we seem to be down to the question of “when” and not “if” the US or Israel will attack Iran over the non-existent program, mixed with claims of Iran reaching some point of no return, there is broad agreement that Iran never even decided to try to build an atomic bomb.


Permalink Israel's Netanyahu pestered SWIFT to stop services to Iran: Israel official

An Israeli official says the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) discontinued offering services to Iran upon the persisting demands by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On March 15, SWIFT CEO Lazaro Campos said in a statement that the society has decided to discontinue offering services to Iranian banks which are subject to financial sanctions imposed by the European Union. This is while the Israeli official, whose name was not announced, indicated that, in meetings with US president Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Netanyahu had demanded Iran’s expulsion from the SWIFT, the Ha’aretz reported. According to the unnamed Israeli official, Netanyahu told Obama that "we need SWIFT swiftly.” Following the SWIFT's announcement on Thursday, Netanyahu’s office “congratulated SWIFT for its decision” in a statement issued later on the same day.

Russia Today: SWIFT reaction: Iran 'will retaliate', closing Hormuz Strait - Tehran’s threats to block the Strait of Hormuz in response to sanctions are not mere words, warned Iran’s senior spokesman on sanctions. As long as the West ignores international law to promote its interests, Iran will retaliate, he said. Closing the strait would be a response equal to the West’s unlawful severing of Iran from global commerce, believes Iran’s senior spokesman on Western sanctions and former intelligence minister Ali Falahian. “I suggest that the West take seriously our threat to close the Strait of Hormuz,” he said on Sunday, as cited by the Israeli-based news website DEBKAfile.

AWIP: Iran Cut off From Global Financial System


Permalink President Obama signs Executive Order allowing for control over all US resources

On March 16th, President Obama signed a new Executive Order which expands upon a prior order issued in 1950 for Disaster Preparedness, and gives the office of the President complete control over all the resources in the United States in times of war or emergency. - The National Defense Resources Preparedness order gives the Executive Branch the power to control and allocate energy, production, transportation, food, and even water resources by decree under the auspices of national defense and national security. The order is not limited to wartime implementation, as one of the order's functions includes the command and control of resources in peacetime determinations.

White House: Executive Order -- National Defense Resources Preparedness


Permalink Yemen: 2,000 Killed Since Uprising Began

A new statement today from Yemen’s Ministry of Human Rights has put the overall death toll in the nationwide unrest of the past year at over 2,000. They also reported that some 22,000 people were wounded. - The figure is dramatically different from Amnesty International’s report earlier this year, which put the figure at 200 protesters. The ministry’s number also included military defectors, however. Coming up with reliable figures in Yemen is next to impossible, as the unrest spanned a number of regions with a number of different causes. Large death tolls, like those in the nearly year-long battle over the Abyan Province, are likely not included.


Permalink Ayub Asaliya was on his way to school last Sunday

My heart keeps breaking over him, the loving hand touching his face, the loss felt by the person cupping his cheek for the last time. Is that his father? Ever since I first saw his photo, I cannot recall where but there was no name for him, he symbolized all the martyred children of Palestine for me. I didn't know who he was but I kept his photo on my desktop and have been looking at it for days. Today, for no particular reason I came upon Shayna's blog, and a post she had written titled Ayub Asaliya:

Ayub was a little twelve-year-old boy on his way to school who was killed by the IDF “shelling”. Hearing about little Ayub really hit me hard. I think it is because he was on his way to school. The little boy was doing the “right thing” headed to school, and his life here was taken from him by dudes conducting war in a civilian population. I don’t like when people use emotionally charged words to convey their message. But I think about it, it really is like little Ayub was murdered on the way to school. I don’t think a child deserves that. I don’t know when I will stop crying over Ayub. I think what happened to him, speaks to the wrong of conducting war on a civilian population. I wish I could find a picture of Ayub from when he was alive, because I would like to post it here.

I knew this was the boy in my photo. After googling his name I came upon another photo of him. Yes, it was the same boy. AFP says he was killed last Sunday.


Permalink Gunboat diplomacy: America launches Persian Gulf surge

Washington is planning to deploy even more ships, subs and choppers to the Persian Gulf despite the fact that it already stations aircraft carriers in the region. This was confirmed by Chief of Naval Operations Jonathan W. Greenert. - Speaking during a Friday breakfast in Washington, Greenert told reporters about the bold plans to deploy more patrol boats, minesweepers, Sea Stallion helicopters and drone subs – all keeping an eye on Iran, which is clearly uncomfortable with being surrounded by the warships of a hostile country. While Greenert had already announced plans to up the number of minesweepers in the region to eight on Wednesday, his latest statements shine a light on the Navy’s long-term perspective. First of all, Greenert talked about deploying five more patrol boats equipped with Gatling guns and close-range missiles capable of hitting Iranian shores from four miles away. “It’s like being in an alley with a rifle and maybe what you need is a sawed-off shotgun,” he said, talking about the Gatling guns. Secondly, the Navy is planning on sending torpedoes that can compensate for the “turbidity” and “particulate” drags of the Gulf waters, as Greenert put it. Thirdly, Drone minesweeping submarines, or as Greenert called them “some underwater unmanned neutralization autonomous units.” And finally, more aircraft carriers, though this is still to be discussed with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.


Permalink U.S. Faces a Tricky Task in Assessment of Data on Iran

While American spy agencies have believed that the Iranians halted efforts to build a nuclear bomb back in 2003, the difficulty in assessing the government’s ambitions was evident two years ago, when what appeared to be alarming new intelligence emerged, according to current and former United States officials. - Intercepted communications of Iranian officials discussing their nuclear program raised concerns that the country’s leaders had decided to revive efforts to develop a weapon, intelligence officials said. That, along with a stream of other information, set off an intensive review and delayed publication of the 2010 National Intelligence Estimate, a classified report reflecting the consensus of analysts from 16 agencies. But in the end, they deemed the intercepts and other evidence unpersuasive, and they stuck to their longstanding conclusion.


Permalink Emergency Meeting in Response to Saturday Night NYPD Brutalization of People in Zuccotti Park

As hundreds of people joyously celebrated the six month birthday of Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park, the largest gathering in months without police barricades, the NYPD declared the park closed at 11:30 pm. They moved into the park swinging batons, beating people attempting to exercise rights that are supposed to be legally guaranteed. The New York Times reported that scores were arrested. Throughout the day, people had been celebrating. And throughout the day the NYPD was brutalizing and arresting people. Earlier in the day, the New York Times reported, “One sergeant grabbed a woman wearing a green shirt by the bottom of her throat and shoved her head against the hood of a car. A moment later, another officer approached and forcefully pressed her head against the car before placing her into the back of a police truck.” As the police moved into the park, we saw them grabbing people by the neck. The NYPD has no constraints. They think they can do this with impunity.

PressTV: American 99-percenters call for rallies in unity with detained protesters
Sandy English: New York City police brutalize, arrest Occupy Wall Street protesters
Russia Today: NYPD marks OWS anniversary with violent crackdown and arrests - VIDEO, PHOTOS


Permalink The Torture Report: What the Documents Say About America’s Post-9/11 Torture Program

The “war on terror,” brought to light by Freedom of Information Act litigation. As the lead author of the ACLU’s report on these documents, Larry Siems is in a unique position to chronicle who did what, to whom and when. This book, written with the pace and intensity of a thriller, serves as a tragic reminder of what happens when commitments to law, common sense, and human dignity are cast aside, when it becomes difficult to discern the difference between two groups intent on perpetrating extreme violence on their fellow human beings. Divided into three sections, The Torture Report presents a stunning array of eyewitness and first-person reports—by victims, perpetrators, dissenters, and investigators—of the CIA’s White House-orchestrated interrogations in illegal, secret prisons around the world; the Pentagon’s “special projects,” in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; plots real and imagined, and much more. [Video] [Larry Siems's blog - The Report Chapters] [The CagePrisoners Interview]

Russia Today: Beatings, sexual abuse, electric shock: US torture camps 'still operative'


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