Critics Fear Collider Could Doom Earth

The most powerful atom-smasher ever built could make some bizarre discoveries, such as invisible matter or extra dimensions in space, after it is switched on in August.

But some critics fear the Large Hadron Collider could exceed physicists' wildest conjectures: Will it spawn a black hole that could swallow Earth? Or spit out particles that could turn the planet into a hot dead clump?

Ridiculous, say scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French initials CERN - some of whom have been working for a generation on the $5.8 billion collider, or LHC.

"Obviously, the world will not end when the LHC switches on," said project leader Lyn Evans.

David Francis, a physicist on the collider's huge ATLAS particle detector, smiled when asked whether he worried about black holes and hypothetical killer particles known as strangelets.

"If I thought that this was going to happen, I would be well away from here," he said.

The collider basically consists of a ring of supercooled magnets 17 miles in circumference attached to huge barrel-shaped detectors. The ring, which straddles the French and Swiss border, is buried 330 feet underground. news.aol

Queen of Hawaii demands independence from 'US occupiers'

The United States is an illegal occupying force that should hand the 132 islands of Hawaii back to the monarchy overthrown more than a century ago, according to members of a Native Hawaiian sovereignty movement.

For almost two months, the self-proclaimed Hawaiian Kingdom Government has peacefully occupied the grounds of the Iolani Palace, residence of the islands' last two monarchs, operating a shadow government from a tent erected in its stately grounds.

Her Majesty Mahealani Kahau, a descendant of Hawaii's last king who was elected "head of state" by the group, and her ministers gather each day to debate how to achieve their goal of restoring Native Hawaiian rule.

"We are here, we are real, we are in business," declares the group's website, which outlines its aim to "remove all laws, policies, rules and regulations" of the "occupying power" and "return Hawaii's independent status".

The group, which claims 1,000 followers, is demanding the dissolution of the State of Hawaii and the return of land and bank assets totalling billions of dollars.

Hawaii has about 200,000 Native Hawaiians, or kânaka maoli, out of a population of 1.3 million. The Hawaiian Kingdom Government is just one of a number of sovereignty groups, many with similar names, waging independence campaigns.

All aim to "right the wrong" inflicted on Native Hawaiians in 1893 when a small, mostly American group of sugar plantation owners and other businessmen overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy with the support of US troops sent ashore from a Navy warship. Telegraph

Why The Patriot Act is Unconstitutional

Judge Andrew Nepalitano speaks about why the Patriot Act is unconstitutional and why he endorses Ron Paul

Whistleblower: FISA ‘compromise’ advances police state agenda

Retired AT&T engineer Mark Klein has condemned the Senate’s Wednesday cloture vote on the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.

The bill, if passed by final vote planned for July 8, would revise the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to retroactively grant immunity to customers’ civil lawsuits against telecommunications companies who participated in the National Security Administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, on the condition that they can provide documentation that they were told ahead of time that their activities were legal.

Klein, in November 2007, urged Congress not to allow such immunity, having gone public with his story of a secret room in AT&T’s San Francisco switching center, which required NSA clearance to enter. All Internet traffic, he said, was being diverted to equipment in the room, as he discovered during his time maintaining optical splitters that handled data to and from AT&T customers.

“[My] thought was George Orwell’s 1984 and here I am forced to connect to the Big Brother machine,” Klein told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann in a November 2007 interview.

Documents Klein obtained, along with conversations he had with colleagues, suggested that 15 to 20 other sites such as this were in other offices across the country, ABC News reported. The documents, acquired by Wired.com, were submitted as part of a 2006 class action lawsuit, currently awaiting further action in the 9th Circuit US Appeals Court, filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

“[Wednesday]’s vote by Congress effectively gives retroactive immunity to the telecom companies and endorses an all-powerful president,” Klein said. “It’s a Congressional coup against the Constitution.”

“This cynical deal is a Democratic exercise in deceit and cowardice,” he went on. “Congress has made the FISA law a dead letter–such a law is useless if the president can break it with impunity. Thus the Democrats have surreptitiously repudiated the main reform of the post-Watergate era and adopted Nixon’s line: ‘When the president does it that means that it is not illegal.’ This is the judicial logic of a dictatorship.” Raw Story

Iran ready to strike at Israel’s nuclear heart

Iran has moved ballistic missiles into launch positions, with Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant among the possible targets, defence sources said last week.

The movement of Shahab-3B missiles, which have an estimated range of more than 1,250 miles, followed a large-scale exercise earlier this month in which the Israeli air force flew en masse over the Mediterranean in an apparent rehearsal for a threatened attack on Iran’s nuclear installations. Israel believes Iran’s nuclear programme is aimed at acquiring nuclear weapons.

The sources said Iran was preparing to retaliate for any onslaught by firing missiles at Dimona, where Israel’s own nuclear weapons are believed to be made.

Major-General Mohammad Jafari, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard, told a Tehran daily: “This country [Israel] is completely within the range of the Islamic Republic’s missiles. Our missile power and capability are such that the Zionist regime – despite all its abilities – cannot confront it.”

An editorial in a government newspaper, Jomhouri Eslami, said: “Our response will hit right at their temple.”

The sabre-rattling coincided with a visit to Israel yesterday by the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, for talks with his Israeli opposite number, Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi. This intensified speculation that Israel was seeking US approval for a possible attack on Iran.

“Although the visit had been planned well in advance, we got the feeling he was coming to make sure we’ll obey the strict timetable agreed with the US,” said an Israeli defence source. He refused to elaborate.

President George Bush has approved the linking of Israel to a US infrared satellite detection system that could spot Shahab missile launches within seconds.

This should enable the Israeli air force to destroy such missiles in the booster stage. The system will also give the Israelis about 15 minutes to seek shelter before any warhead hits. Times

Iran to ready thousands of graves for enemy soldiers

Iran is to dig 320,000 graves in border districts to allow for the burial of enemy soldiers in the event of any attack on its territory, a top commander said on Sunday.

"In implementation of the Geneva Conventions... the necessary measures are being taken to provide for the burial of enemy soldiers," the Mehr news agency quoted General Mir-Faisal Bagherzadeh as saying.

"We have plans to dig 15,000 to 20,000 graves in each of the border provinces or a total of 320,000," the general said, some of them mass graves if necessary.

Bagherzadeh said Iran was keen to "reduce the suffering of the families of the fallen in any attack against our country... and prevent any repetition of the long and bitter experience of the Vietnam War."

His comments came as the United States continued to refuse to rule out an eventual resort to force against Iran over its contested nuclear programme, which the West fears is cover for a drive to build an atomic weapon.

They also came as Israeli officials spoke of their determination to prevent Iran developing a nuclear capability at all costs. AFP

US and UK Terrorism Against Iran

Reporter Details Congressionally Approved Covert Funding Of Terrorists In Iran. Military, intelligence, and congressional sources say secret war is vamped to bring down Iranian leadership

Award-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has detailed a move by the Bush administration, with Congressional backing, which represents a "major escalation" in covert military operations aimed at destabilizing the Iranian leadership.

Hersh also details how The CIA and the United States Special Operations Forces have long-standing ties to the PEJAK, the outlawed breakaway faction of the PKK terrorist group in Iran, as well as other Sunni fundamentalists that former intelligence officials say "can also be described as Al Qaeda."

Hersh describes how the neocon White House has vamped up secret efforts to work with the same terrorist groups that were once populated with figures such as Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted for his role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was fingered as one of the leading planners of the September 11th attacks.

"The Finding was focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change," and involved "working with opposition groups and passing money," Hersh reveals, quoting an unnamed "person familiar with its contents."

Congress, under Democratic leadership, approved a $400 million request for funding late last year, according to Hersh's sources, military, intelligence, and congressional officials with direct knowledge of the top secret Presidential Finding, which by law must be issued when covert intelligence operations get underway.

The corporate media has somewhat downplayed the revelations, which essentially highlight once again how the so called "war on terror" is a complete fiction, as US elites are funding Sunni extremists intent on destroying the Shiite Iranian leadership.

Hersh spoke about the article in an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley: FULL ARTICLE

Sarkozy calls for changing the way Europe is being built

President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday called for a profound change to the way Europe is being built as France prepared to take the helm of the European Union.

"There have been errors in the way that Europe has been built," Sarkozy said in a television interview as France was to take over the presidency of the 27-nation bloc starting on Tuesday.

"We must therefore profoundly change our way of building Europe," he said.

Sarkozy was hoping to lead the European Union into a new era of unity, but Ireland's rejection of a key treaty meant to streamline EU institutions has all but derailed his ambitious agenda.

"Something isn't right. Something isn't right at all," Sarkozy commented. AFP

US treasury chief says seeking Russian sanctions on Iran

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said here Monday he would discuss with Russia's leaders the possibility of imposing new sanctions on Iran.

Asked on Echo of Moscow radio if he thought additional sanctions were needed he said "yes" and added he would encourage Russia to follow the European Union, which last week imposed new sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

"We believe that multilateral cooperation is the most effective," said Paulson ahead of a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev.

In comments voiced over with a Russian translation, he added that the United States was hoping to work with the Russian government and banking system in its efforts to tighten the screws on Tehran.

The new EU sanctions on Iran notably ban the country's largest bank, Bank Melli, from operating in Europe.

Russia, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has taken a cautious approach to the sanctions issue.

Washington suspects the Islamic republic of developing a nuclear weapons programme, something Tehran denies.

However in May Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told a French newspaper he did not think Iran was trying to acquire nuclear weapons, echoing Moscow's long-standing assertion that it has seen no evidence supporting the claim.

The US treasury secretary added he hoped US legislators could make enough progress on legislative changes to allow Russia to join the World Trade Organisation before US President George W. Bush leaves office in January. Raw Story

Iran Threatens to Cut Off Key Persian Gulf Oil Line if Attacked

LA TIMES: The commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard said the government might shut down vital oil lanes through the Persian Gulf if the country were attacked by the United States or Israel.

Ahmadinejad target of 'Rome X-ray plot', diplomat says

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the target of an "X-ray radiation plot" during his trip to Rome for the UN food summit earlier this month, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.

The news agency quoted Iran's ambassador to Italy, Abolfazl Zohrehvand, as saying that the plot was to use extreme radiation in the place where Ahmadinejad was due to stay.

The diplomat spoke out after Ahmadinejad himself charged that he had been the target of an assassination plot during his landmark trip to Iraq in March and his aides spoke of a similar attempt in Rome.

"One day before Ahmadinejad's trip, I checked and found out that the (security) X-ray machine set up in the place where he was staying gave off excessive radiation," Zohrehvand said.

He said that the regular radiation level of such equipment in Italy was "300" but on this machine it had reached "800".

He gave no indication of the units he was using but radiation is normally measured in millirems with the average American experiencing a total annual exposure of an average of 360, according to medical websites.

"First we suspected the machine was broken and after replacing it with another one it turned out that the radiation was controlled from another source," the ambassador said.

"When the president entered this place, the radiation increased and exceeded '1,000' so that the intensity of the radiation was completely felt inside the building," he added. FULL STORY

US says won't allow Iran to shut key Gulf oil route

The commander of the US navy's Fifth Fleet warned on Monday that the United States will not allow Iran to shut the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil supply route in the Gulf.

"They will not close it... They will not be allowed to close it," Vice-Admiral Kevin J. Cosgriff said at a press conference in Bahrain, where the Fifth Fleet is based.

His remarks followed comments by the chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards who issued a new warning last week against any attack against the country over its controversial nuclear drive.

"It is natural that when a country is attacked it uses all of its capabilities against the enemy, and definitely our control of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz would be one of our actions," Jafari said.

The strait between Iran and Oman is a vital conduit for energy supplies, with as much as 40 percent of the world's crude oil from Gulf oil producers passing through the waterway.

There have been several confrontations between Iranian and US vessels in the Gulf this year. AFP

Bill Clinton says Barack Obama must 'kiss my ass' for his support

Bill Clinton is so bitter about Barack Obama's victory over his wife Hillary that he has told friends the Democratic nominee will have to beg for his wholehearted support.

Mr Obama is expected to speak to Mr Clinton for the first time since he won the nomination in the next few days, but campaign insiders say that the former president's future campaign role is a "sticking point" in peace talks with Mrs Clinton's aides.

The Telegraph has learned that the former president's rage is still so great that even loyal allies are shocked by his patronising attitude to Mr Obama, and believe that he risks damaging his own reputation by his intransigence.

A senior Democrat who worked for Mr Clinton has revealed that he recently told friends Mr Obama could "kiss my ass" in return for his support.

A second source said that the former president has kept his distance because he still does not believe Mr Obama can win the election.

Mr Clinton last week issued a tepid statement, through a spokesman, in which he said he "is obviously committed to doing whatever he can and is asked to do to ensure Senator Obama is the next president of the United States ".London Telegraph

US gives 'major' boost to covert ops in Iran: report

The United States gave a major boost to covert operations against Iran with Congress's approval last year of President George W. Bush's request for 400 million dollars, a US magazine reported Sunday.

The move reveals a "major escalation" in clandestine operations aimed at destabilizing the Islamic republic's religious leadership amid concerns over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, said the report in the New Yorker magazine citing former military, intelligence, and congressional sources.

Among the methods being used are increased US support for minority and dissident groups and intelligence gathering about Iran's nuclear facilities, said the article, written and reported by Seymour Hersh.

Although such covert activities in Iran are not new on the part of the United States, the magazine said the "scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded."

The Congress approved Bush's request for funding late last year, according to sources with knowledge of the top secret Presidential Finding, which by law must be issued when covert intelligence operations get underway.

The Presidential Finding is conveyed to a select group of Congressional leaders and their intelligence committees, otherwise known as the Gang of Eight, the report said.Full article

America Is the Rogue Nation

One gets the impression that there are some people in Washington who believe that Israel or the U.S. can bomb Iran's nuclear reactors, fly home, and it will be mission complete.

It makes you wonder if perhaps there is a virus going around that is gradually making people stupid. If we or Israel attack Iran, we will have a new war on our hands. The Iranians are not going to shrug off an attack and say, "You naughty boys, you."

Consider how much trouble Iraq has given us. Some 4,000 dead and 29,000 wounded, a half a trillion dollars in cost and still climbing, and five years later, we cannot say that the country is pacified.

Iraq is a small country compared with Iran. Iran has about 70 million people. Its western mountains border the Persian Gulf. In other words, its missiles and guns look down on the U.S. ships below it. And it has lots of missiles, from short-range to intermediate-range (around 2,200 kilometers).

More to the point, it has been equipped by Russia with the fastest anti-ship missile on the planet. The SS-N-22 Sunburn can travel at Mach 3 at high altitude and at Mach 2.2 at low altitude. That is faster than anything in our arsenal.

Iran's conventional forces include an army of 540,000 men and 300,000 reserves, including 120,000 Iranian Guards especially trained in unconventional warfare. It has more than 1,600 main battle tanks and 21,000 other armored combat vehicles. It has 3,200 artillery pieces, three submarines, 59 surface warships and 10 amphibious ships.

It's been receiving help in arming itself from China, North Korea and Russia. Unlike Iraq, Iran's forces have not been worn down with bombing, wars and sanctions. It also has a new anti-aircraft defense system from Russia that I've heard is pretty snazzy.

So, if you think we or Israel can attack Iran and not expect retaliation, I'd have to say with regret that you are a moron. If you think we could easily handle Iran in an all-out war, I'd have to promote you to idiot.

Attacking Iran would be folly, but we seem to be living in the Age of Folly. Morons and idiots took us into an unjustified war against Iraq before we had finished the job in Afghanistan. Now we have troops tied down in both countries.

For some years now, I've worried that we seem to be more and more like Colonial England – arrogant, racist, overestimating our own capacity and underestimating that of our enemies. As the fate of the British Empire demonstrates, that is a fatal flaw.

The British never dreamed that the "little yellow people" could come ashore by land and take Singapore from the rear or that they would sink the pride of the British fleet, but they did both.

I suppose no one in Washington can imagine the Iranians sinking one of our carriers in the Persian Gulf. How'd you like to be the president who has to tell the American people that we've lost a carrier for the first time since World War II? More

Inside a NWO Control Grid Tradeshow

Since the CIA’s al-Qaeda does not pose a threat to the “homeland” and the domestic terrorists routinely paraded before us are nothing more than a sick joke, the question is: what the heck will all the “toys” in this video be used for? Obviously, they will be used against you, that is if you resist the government or dare organize in protest. It is no mistake there are Black Hawk helicopters buzzing around Denver, Colorado, as I write this, and it is also no mistake there are Marines in Indianapolis. As Lee Rogers writes, it is all about engineering us to accept the NWO control grid. “Homeland Security” is a growth business… and so is fascism.

"GET READY FOR A WORLD CURRENCY"

'Get Ready for the Phoenix' appeared in Economist Newspaper in 1998

THIRTY years from now, Americans, Japanese, Europeans, and people in many other rich countries, and some relatively poor ones will probably be paying for their shopping with the same currency.

Prices will be quoted not in dollars, yen or D-marks but in, let's say, the phoenix. The phoenix will be favoured by companies and shoppers because it will be more convenient than today's national currencies, which by then will seem a quaint cause of much disruption to economic life in the last twentieth century.

Copyright of The Economist is the property of Economist Newspaper Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission.

However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

The Economist: Get Ready for the Phoenix


South American Union Will Also Have Common Currency

Asian union could end Aussie dollar

'Dutch Jimmy Carter' accuses Israel of terrorism in new book

The emotion in Andreas Van Agt's voice as he lambastes Israel's behavior seems puzzling for a man of his status. It is especially intriguing when one is reminded that this blue-eyed professed idealist is an astute statesman who presided as the Dutch prime minister for five years, until 1982.

"My involvement in the Middle East is certainly unusual," Van Agt confessed in an interview with Haaretz at his home in Nijmegen, where he discussed Israel, the Palestinians, European foreign policy, the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.

Currently, Van Agt is writing a book about the Israeli-Arab conflict. In December he launched an info-site (www.driesvanagt.nl) about the subject, in which he accuses Israel of brutal treatment of the Palestinians, violating international law and implementing racist policies.

Among other illustrations, the site contains one snapshot of a graffiti slogan said to have been sprayed by Jewish settlers on a Hebron wall, reading: "Arabs to the gas chambers."

Last year, Van Agt spoke as keynote speaker at a controversial solidarity rally with the Palestinian people in Rotterdam, where he lamented the Dutch boycott of Hamas, calling it wrong "and even stupid." He has also been outspoken in accusing the Israel Defense Forces of acting like a terrorist organization. Haaretz

Native Americans Secretly Sterilized - George H.W. Bush

Native Americans Secretly Sterilized - Then United Nations ambassador George H.W. Bush used U.S. government money to sterilize undesirables around the world, including 25-50% of Native American women of child-bearing age (statistically, ages 15-44).

Le Téléprésident: Sarkozy tightens his grip over French state TV

Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to increase government control over state TV yesterday sparked an outcry from his political opponents who accused him of tightening a Berlusconi-style grip on the airwaves and dragging France back into its dark age of postwar censorship and propaganda.

The French president's proposed "cultural revolution" for France's five state TV channels prompted an uproar when he announced that in future, he and his cabinet would appoint the head of French state TV, instead of an independent body.

Sarkozy, known as the Téléprésident, prides himself on his numerous TV appearances, carefully studies his own ratings and has privately confided that he would have liked to have been a TV executive. So it was no surprise that he took direct control of the project to overhaul French state TV. He argued that a government appointment of the head of France Televisions was more "democratic". This has reopened the festering row over the president's influence over the media and closeness to his press and TV baron friends who are willing to lean on, censor or even sack journalists who displease him.

Last month, a fresh row erupted after Sarkozy was accused of influencing the appointment of a newsreader, Laurence Ferrari, to the leading private channel TF1, run by one of the his closest friends. Her ousted predecessor was rumoured to have upset the president, who is conscious of his height, by asking if he ever felt "like a little boy in a big boy's playground".

The left-leaning daily Liberation yesterday ran a front page headline: "France Sarkovision". Staff at state TV and radio unfurled banners saying "Television hold-up" in protest against any future government appointment of their boss.

"This is the methodical organisation of a propagandist strategy to control the media. It's low-grade Berlusconi," said the socialist MP Arnaud Montebourg. "Unlike Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, Nicolas Sarkozy doesn't have the means to buy the television stations he dreams of. Instead, he has decided to take control of them, with a striking mix of brutality and cynicism," said an editorial in Le Monde. London Telegraph

The Final Stages of the New World Order

Rice urges NKorea to give up all nuclear weapons despite 'attachment'

The United States pressed North Korea Saturday to follow up on a breakthrough by abandoning its full atomic weapons programme -- one where Washington sees signs of "emotional attachment" from Pyongyang.

"At the end of this (process), we have to have the abandonment of all programmes, weapons and materials," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after talks in Seoul with her South Korean counterpart Yu Myung-Hwan.

Rice was visiting South Korea before travelling on to China on Sunday as part of six-nation talks now focused on verifying a North Korean nuclear inventory submitted Thursday and on dismantling the full programme.

A day after delivering the long-awaited nuclear inventory or declaration, the North on Friday blew up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon reactor in a televised event to affirm its commitment to denuclearisation.

US envoy Sung Kim said that, while attending the event, he saw signs of an "emotional attachment" to the Yongbyon plant among engineers working there, including plant director Ri Yong-ho.

When asked if the North Koreans were so wedded to the programme that they might not give all of it up, Kim replied that the disarmament process was set up in phases to "test their commitment" each step of the way. Full article

Rice urges Israel to give up all nuclear weapons despite 'attachment'

Israel: Air strike on Iran will succeed

An Israeli plane refueling an F-16

A former senior Israeli general claims the regime is capable of carrying out a 'successful' air strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

"We could do it today," said Isaac Ben-Israel, a former air force general, in an interview with Der Spiegel published Saturday.

Ben-Israel added that the only factor stopping Tel Aviv from launching the strike was the prospect of stopping Iran's nuclear program through other means.

Washington, Tel Aviv and their European allies accuse Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program and demand the country abandon its uranium enrichment.

Iran, however, insists its nuclear activities are aimed at providing fuel for its under-construction power plants.

Meanwhile, the latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran concluded after some 240 inspections of the country's nuclear sites that there is no link between the use of nuclear material and the alleged studies of weaponization.

"Only once the critical point has been reached will we choose the final option," continued the former general, who is currently a member of the Israeli parliament from prime minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima Party.

Ben-Israel, who reportedly helped plan the 1981 air raid on Iraq's 'nuclear reactor, said that hitting Iran's scattered nuclear facilities would be 'more difficult'.

He also acknowledged that the Israeli air force had recently conducted a maneuver over the Mediterranean to simulate a raid on Iran.

"It was not the first such exercise, and it won't be the last," Ben-Israel said.

A recent New York Times report quoted Pentagon officials as saying that Israel orchestrated a military maneuver in early June as a rehearsal for a potential strike on Iran's nuclear sites.

Pundits believe the military charade to have been less a dry run for an attack on Iran than a message that Tehran must curb its nuclear plans. Iran rejected the report as 'psychological warfare' but warned that any attack on the country would trigger a 'devastating response'.

IRGC commander Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari warned Saturday that Israel is within 'the range of Iran's missiles' and that the regime despite all its abilities would not be able to confront the Islamic Republic.

'Israel within Iran's missile reach'

Top IRGC commander, Mohammad-Ali Jafari

A senior IRGC commander says Israel will not dare attack Iran as it is well within the range of the Islamic Republic's missiles.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran's defense capabilities today, in particular its missile power, enable it to repel any possible attack," Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Commander Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari cautioned.

"Israel is located entirely within the reach of our missiles. Our missile power is such that the Zionist regime, despite all its capabilities, would not be able to confront us," the top IRGC commander told the Iranian daily, Jam-e Jam, in an interview.

Maj. Gen. Jafari also argued that the United States and Israel would have to collaborate in order to engage in a military strike against Iran.

"It seems without the cooperation of the occupying regime of al-Quds, rhetoric cannot turn into action. Even though the US may believe it can unilaterally attack Iran, the US needs Israeli assistance," he added.

"This fact would be a deterrent factor for our enemy given the numerous vulnerabilities of the Zionist regime," Jafari continued.

"When a country comes under attack, it naturally uses all its capacities to confront the enemy," he said in reference to the country's ability to cut the stream of oil by closing the Strait of Hormuz.

"In case of an attack… oil prices will dramatically increase and this prevents the enemy from inching toward a military action against Iran," the IRGC commander continued.

The US and Israel have recently stepped up their rhetoric against Iran and are believed to be preparing the public for a war against the oil-rich country.

Maj. Gen. Jafari's remarks come after the recent release of a New York Times report quoting Pentagon officials as saying that over 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s staged a maneuver over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece between May 28 and June 12.

As part of the maneuver, Israeli jets flew over 900 miles, roughly the distance from their airfields to a nuclear enrichment facility in the central Iranian city of Natanz.

On June 6, a day after the military exercise, Israeli deputy prime minister Shaoul Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot that Tel Aviv would attack Iran if the country did not halt its nuclear activities.

Vidal: Bush ended US as a republic

Gore Vidal, US novelist, historian and social critic says the Bush regime has killed all of the constitutional links that made the US a republic.

On early Friday morning Iran time, in an exclusive interview with Press TV, Vidal said that President Bush has rid the country of the Bill of Rights, habeas corpus and the entire legacy of the Magna Carta in the name of war on terror.

He also criticized the House of Representatives for not impeaching President Bush, over a wide array of subjects such as disclosure of CIA agent Valerie Plame's covert status. Vidal did however single out Rep. Dennis Kuchinich for drawing up articles of impeachment against the president.

Vidal, long strongly critical of the Bush administration, said the administration has both an an explicit and covert expansionist agenda.

In his writings he has made the assessment that for several years, the administration and its associates, many of whom are magnets in the oil and gas industry have had clear aims to control the oil of Central Asia which is to follow on the heels of gaining effective control of the oil of the Persian Gulf--a project that took a new twist with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991.

That event inadvertently served as the basis for the neo-conservative American Project for the 21st Century document and policy guideline that has been the hallmark of the Bush-Cheney years.

Regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks, Vidal has written the American intelligence community clearly warned it was coming but the event provided political cover and pretext for the plans that the administration already had in place for invading Iraq--plans that can be traced to the waning days of the first Bush family presidency. Press TV

US, anti-Iran groups hold secret meeting

US officials and heads of four Kurdish anti-Iran groups have held a secret meeting in the Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah, a Kurdish website says.

The two-day meeting was aimed at coordination of the US and the anti-Iran groups on mounting more pressure on the Islamic Republic.

Ten American military officers and leaders of four Kurdish terrorist groups attended the meeting in the Palace Hotel in Sulaimaniyah, northern Iraq, the website said.

During the meeting, the Kurdish leaders called on the US officials to pursue the same policies, which led to fall of the Iraqi Baath regime, in a bid to overthrow the Iranian government.

The latest developments within the anti-revolutionary groups indicate that winning the US cooperation and support is the groups' objective.

Kurdistan Democratic Party's former Secretary Mostafa Hejri, had reportedly underlined cooperation with the US against Iran as a "necessity", in a meeting he held with students of Arbil University last year.

General Secretary of Komala terrorist group, Abdulah Mohtadi had also officially affirmed the need of monetary and arms support from the US.

Mostafa Hejri, Abdulah Mohtadi, secretary-general of a faction of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, Abdullah Hassanzadeh, and the general secretary of the Revolutionary Union of Kurdistan, Hussein Yazdanpanah were the four Kurdish leaders attending the meeting. Link

Ron Paul's Grave Warning On The Coming Iran War

'US builds 4 bases on Iraq-Iran border'

The US military has constructed four advanced bases 20 miles from Iraq's border with Iran, a senior Iraqi police officer has announced.

The bases, equipped with missile launch pads, have been set up over the past four months on the Iraq-Iran border; Iraqi al-Noor newspaper quoted the official as saying.

He added that one of the bases has been located 30 km (20 miles) from the first border town with Iran and houses remote-controlled launching pads as well as radar systems similar to ones used in Kuwait during the first Persian Gulf war.

"The bases do not serve military intentions and its staff would not be military personnel."

According to the official, the bases are only precautionary measures in case of a military strike against Israel by Iran.
A team consisting of high-profile US marines, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) alongside Pentagon experts oversee the bases. Press TV
What if Iran constructed four advanced bases 20 miles from Mexico's border with USA?

The Fear Factor

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann pointed out on Wednesday that several examples have now emerged of McCain himself suggesting that terrorism could be good for the GOP.

Russian space probe may save Earth from asteroid

Russian experts have said a space mission should be sent in 2012 to the Apophis asteroid to establish whether it will collide with Earth, adding that the Russian Phobos-Grunt spacecraft could be used for that purpose.

A report at a Moscow scientific conference said 99942 Apophis, or Asteroid 2004 MN4, with a diameter of 350m, is the biggest space threat to Earth.

In 2029, this near-Earth object will be at a distance of only 36,000 km (22,400 miles) - closer than satellites in geostationary orbit. Earth's gravity could change the orbit of Apophis in such a way that it would collide with Earth on its next approach in 2036.

"This could lead to an area equal to France turning into a desert," said Alexander Simonov, an author of the report.

The report authors also said that Apophis's exact orbit, with a precision of up to several tens of meters, should be calculated to determine whether the asteroid will collide with the Earth. This is only possible if a radio beacon is placed on the asteroid.

Apophis got its name from Egyptian mythology, where Apophis, or Apep the Destroyer, is the god of evil and destruction characterized as a serpent dwelling in eternal darkness.

The authors said the biggest ground-based radio telescopes cannot provide the necessary precision. "We propose the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft designed by the Lavochkin Russian scientific and production association as a platform for this mission," the report said RIA Novosti

McCain doesn't want to impeach Bush

Republican presidential candidate John McCain was asked Thursday his opinion of an attempt to impeach President Bush. His answer shouldn't surprise anyone.

If nothing else, the fact that a question was even asked shows that McCain's campaign doesn't do as rigorous a job as President Bush's handlers do in weeding out unfriendly questioners from town hall meetings.

"I appreciate this opportunity, Mr. McCain, to ask you a question," said a man attending the town hall meeting at Xavier University in Ohio. "Part one is in regards to the articles of impeachment brought up by Kucinich for Bush. What your stance is on that as far as manipulated intelligence to form the policy. And then the second is Professor Gatsby from Arizona was outside your office for sixteen days and didn't eat solid foods. I was wondering if you agreed to meet with him for the two hours he requested or does he have to be a corporate owner with multi-million dollars to meet with you."

The Republican senator laughed.

"I do not agree with quote 'articles of impeachment,'" McCain said, in reference to a resolution introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).

The second question was about an Arizona professor and 9/11 conspiracy theorist who staged a hunger strike outside McCain's office requesting a meeting with the senator. McCain said the professor ended his strike although he was refused an audience.

"I did not" meet with him, McCain said. "Because I don't take well to threats."

This video is from CNN.com, broadcast June 26, 2008.

The War for Drugs.

US Narco-Terrorism


Bush Admin. Caught "Providing Material Support to Terrorists"
This video shows 5 members of the Bush Administration team Caught "Providing Material Support to Terrorists"

North Korea Destroys Tower at Nuclear Site

In a gesture demonstrating its commitment to halt its nuclear weapons program, North Korea blew up the most prominent symbol of its plutonium production Friday.

The 60-foot cooling tower at the North’s main nuclear power plant collapsed in a heap of shattered concrete and twisted steel, filmed by international and regional television broadcasters invited to witness the event.

The tower is a technically insignificant structure, relatively easy to rebuild. North Korea also has been disabling — but not destroying — more sensitive parts of the nuclear complex, such as the 5-megawatt reactor, a plant that makes its fuel and a laboratory that extracts plutonium from its spent fuel.

Nonetheless, the destruction of the tower, the most visible element of the nuclear complex at Yongbyon, 60 miles north of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, affirmed the incremental progress that has been made in American-led multilateral efforts to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs. NYTimes

Sign Dennis Kucinich's Impeachment Petition

“…clear Presidential crimes…”

So says Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley in an interview with MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann about Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s 35 Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush – a document that Olbermann calls “a remarkably lengthy and thorough record of high crimes and misdemeanors.

Read more...

Impeachment: ... a top priority Congressman Dennis Kucinich, in an extensive interview on Democracy Now, explains the importance of proceeding with impeachment hearings as soon as possible. And, former prosecutor and author Vincent Bugliosi lays out his case for "The Prosecution of George Bush for Murder." Read more...

Kucinich introduces Bush impeachment resolution WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a former Democratic presidential candidate from Ohio, introduced a resolution to impeach President Bush into the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Kucinich announced his intention to seek Bush's impeachment Monday night, when he read the lengthy document into the...Read more: CNN

Military Murders

Russia's foreign minister warns against use of force on Iran

Russia's foreign minister on Friday warned against the use of force on Iran, saying there is no proof it is trying to build nuclear weapons.

Sergey Lavrov said Iran should be engaged in dialogue and encouraged to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency.

Lavrov made the statement when asked to comment on an Israeli Cabinet member's statement earlier this month that Israel could attack Iran if it does not halt its nuclear program.

"I hope the actual actions would be based on international law," Lavrov said. "And international law clearly protects Iran's and anyone else's territorial integrity."

Israel's military refused to confirm or deny a report Friday that its warplanes staged a major rehearsal this month for a possible attack on Iran.

The New York Times report quoted U.S. officials as saying more than 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s staged the maneuver over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece in the first week of June. It said the aircraft flew more than 900 miles (1,450 kilometers), roughly the distance from Israel to Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, and that the exercise included refueling tankers and helicopters capable of rescuing downed pilots.

Lavrov said Russia had asked both the United States and Israel to provide factual information to back their claims that Iran was working to build atomic weapons. "So far we have seen none, and the same conclusion was made by the International Atomic Energy Agency," he said.

"It's absolutely not right to speak matter-of-factly that Iran continues building nuclear weapons," Lavrov added. The Associated Press

US removes its nuclear arms from Britain

· Exit of 110 gravity bombs ends 54-year presence
· Change happened secretly over years, say scientists

The US has removed its nuclear weapons from Britain, ending a contentious presence spanning more than half a century, a report will say today. According to the study by the Federation of American Scientists, the last 110 American nuclear weapons on UK soil were withdrawn from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk on the orders of President George Bush.

The report's author, Hans Kristensen, one of the leading experts on Washington's nuclear arsenal, said the move had happened in the past few years, but had only come to light yesterday.

He described the withdrawal of the B-61 "freefall", or "gravity", bombs as part of a general strategic shift since the end of the cold war.

"The northern front is not very relevant any more for these deployments. The US nuclear posture is almost entirely focused on the southern region, in Incirlik [in Turkey] and Aviano [in Italy]."

Movements of the US arsenal are shrouded in secrecy. Kristensen said the first signs the bombs had left Lakenheath emerged in a US airforce document dated January 2007 on nuclear inspections.

The document lists inspections of US nuclear sites, but above an annexe listing emergency drills carried out at the sites, it notes "not applicable to Lakenheath".

Kristensen's report is posted today at fas.org/blog/ssp.

He says the removal of bombs from Lakenheath follows the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Greece in 2001, and that removal of such weapons from two Nato countries in less than a decade undercuts the argument for continuing deployment in other European countries.The removal from Britain would reduce the US arsenal in Europe to about 250.

Once officially declared, it could defuse current tensions with Moscow and possibly trigger matching cuts in the Russian stockpile. Guardian

Israel 'will attack Iran' before new US president sworn in, John Bolton predicts

John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, has predicted that Israel could attack Iran after the November presidential election but before George W Bush's successor is sworn in.

The Arab world would be "pleased" by Israeli strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.

"It [the reaction] will be positive privately. I think there'll be public denunciations but no action," he said.

Mr Bolton, an unflinching hawk who proposes military action to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons, bemoaned what he sees as a lack of will by the Bush administration to itself contemplate military strikes.

"It's clear that the administration has essentially given up that possibility," he said. "I don't think it's serious any more. If you had asked me a year ago I would have said I thought it was a real possibility. I just don't think it's in the cards."

Israel, however, still had a determination to prevent a nuclear Iran, he argued. The "optimal window" for strikes would be between the November 4 election and the inauguration on January 20, 2009.

"The Israelis have one eye on the calendar because of the pace at which the Iranians are proceeding both to develop their nuclear weapons capability and to do things like increase their defences by buying new Russian anti-aircraft systems and further harden the nuclear installations . Telegraph

Native Americans demand billions from US in land profits suit

A judge has hinted he would not award Native Americans the 46 billion dollars they have demanded in a lawsuit charging the US government cheated them out of profits from land held in trust since the 1800s.

After hearing closing arguments that followed a 12-year marathon legal battle, US District Judge James Robertson on Wednesday indicated he was not ready to endorse an amount in the tens of billions of dollars as argued by lawyers representing the Native American plaintiffs.

The judge said he believed what was in dispute was whether the remedy should be in the millions or billions, or "10 digits or nine digits."

Lawyers for the Native Americans said the government had failed to pay out tens of billion dollars in oil, timber, mineral and grazing royalties from lands held in trust by the Department of Interior since 1887.

"Today, 500,000 Native Americans look to Washington with hope," plaintiffs' lawyer William Dorris told the court.

"They are not asking for a handout. They are simply asking for what is theirs."

Judge Robertson said an absence of reliable figures made it difficult to arrive at an equitable amount for the American Indians. AFP

Nuclear missiles could blow up 'like popcorn'

A design flaw in Britain's nuclear arsenal means that warheads could set off a chain reaction "like popcorn" if they were accidentally dropped, according to Ministry of Defence documents.

More than 1,700 warheads are affected by the problem which would cause them to explode one after another, an effect known as "popcorning."

A typical Trident nuclear missile contains three to six warheads, and some submarines carry up to 24 missiles, meaning the potential for disaster could be huge.

Defence companies try to prevent accidental explosions of warheads by designing them to be "singlepoint safe" which means that a sudden knock at a single point should not Defence documents.

More than 1,700 warheads are affected by the problem which would cause them to explode one after another, an effect known as "popcorning."

A typical Trident nuclear missile contains three to six warheads, and some submarines carry up to 24 missiles, meaning the potential for disaster could be huge.

Defence companies try to prevent accidental explosions of warheads by designing them to be "singlepoint safe" which means that a sudden knock at a single point should not detonate the plutonium core.

The typical scenario would see the weapon being dropped from a crane while being loaded on or off a submarine.

However, a nuclear-weapons safety manual drawn up by the MoD's internal nuclear-weapons regulator, and declassified last month, argues that this standard single-point design might not be enough to prevent "popcorning". Telegraph

Mafiosi Berlusconi v judges

Since first coming to power in 1994 Silvio Berlusconi has faced 17 judicial investigations into his complicated business affairs.

The Italian prime minister is one of the country's richest men, with a personal fortune estimated at $12bn.

He is currently facing two trials in Milan.

The first is for allegedly committing tax fraud at his Mediaset SpA television company.

In the second, he is accused of bribing his former British lawyer David Mills - the estranged husband of the British Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell - in exchange for allegedly "misleading" testimony in two trials during the 1990s. Both men deny the charges.

Mr Berlusconi has always complained that left-leaning magistrates are conducting a political witch-hunt.

And over the years while in office he has attempted several times to introduce legislation that would protect a serving prime minister from prosecution.

His last attempt, in 2003, failed in the constitutional court.

But now, just two months since winning the Italian election, another bespoke law to protect Mr Berlusconi and his business interests has reappeared.BBC

A Little History on the Rothschilds

Take a look at one of the most infamous families behind the scenes and pulling the strings behind every war since Napoleon.


More on the Rothschild:

The Power of the Rothschilds

The House Of Rothschilds and Israel

The Elders of Zion And The Masters of Discourse

Rothschild's History as Related by a Jewish Relation

The Rothschild's Are a daily threat

The Rothschild Bloodline

The Rothschild Dynasty and The Worldwide Conspiracy

The History of the House of Rothschild

Iran's Guards say U.S. to face "tragedy" if it hits Iran

Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned the United States on Wednesday it would face a "tragedy" if it attacked the Islamic Republic.

"We advise U.S. officials to be careful not to face another tragedy," Mohammad Hejazi, a senior commander of the elite Guards, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

"Our last word is that if you want to move towards Iran make sure you bring walking sticks and artificial legs because if you came you will not have any legs to return on," he said.

Hejazi's comments followed market talk of a military strike against the country's nuclear sites.

The standoff between the West and Tehran has sparked fears of a military confrontation that would disrupt oil supplies. Last week a report said Israel had practiced for a possible strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

Washington says it is focusing on diplomatic pressure to thwart Iranian nuclear work it suspects is aimed at making bombs but has not ruled out military action if that were to fail.

A senior Iranian official on Tuesday denied market rumors of an Israeli attack on one of Iran's nuclear facilities, which Tehran says are part of a peaceful drive to generate electricity.

The New York Times last week quoted U.S. officials as saying Israel had carried out a large military exercise, apparently a rehearsal for a potential bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities.

Many analysts say Iran's nuclear sites are too numerous, distant and fortified for Israel to take on alone. Full article

Israel To Trigger 3rd War

White House Weighs Striking Iran's Nuclear Complex, Which Could Trigger 3rd War In Region.

Israel has made it clear it intends to end Iran's nuclear program with or without U.S. support ? and before President Bush leaves office. David Martin reports on mounting tensions in Mideast.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen leaves Tuesday night on an overseas trip that will take him to Israel, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin. The trip has been scheduled for some time but U.S. officials say it comes just as the Israelis are mounting a full court press to get the Bush administration to strike Iran's nuclear complex.

CBS consultant Michael Oren says Israel doesn't want to wait for a new administration.

"The Israelis have been assured by the Bush administration that the Bush administration will not allow Iran to nuclearize," Oren said. "Israelis are uncertain about what would be the policies of the next administration vis-à-vis Iran."

Israel's message is simple: If you don't, we will. Israel held a dress rehearsal for a strike earlier this month, but military analysts say Israel can not do it alone.

"Keep in mind that Israel does not have strategic bombers," Oren said. "The Israeli Air Force is not the American Air Force. Israel can not eliminate Iran's nuclear program."

The U.S. with its stealth bombers and cruise missiles has a much greater capability. Vice President Cheney is said to favor a strike, but both Mullen and Defense Secretary Gates are opposed to an attack which could touch off a third war in the region.

U.S. intelligence estimates Iran won't be able to build a weapon until sometime early in the next decade. But Israel is operating on a much shorter timetable.

"The Iranians, according to Israeli security sources, will have an operable nuclear weapon by 2009. That's not a very long time," Oren said.

For now, the Bush administration is counting on new economic sanctions which took effect Tuesday to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear program. But nobody's counting on it. CBS

EU countries obstructing investigations into CIA renditions, report says

The "most important" of the CIA's secret detention prisons, or 'black sites', in the years immediately following the 11 September attacks was situated in Szymany, some 160km north of Warsaw, according to officers with the US intelligence service.

In a weekend article in the New York Times newspaper, unnamed CIA officers tell of one of the presumed dozens of sites, hitherto vehemently denied by the Polish government as having been located within the country.

One officer quoted in the article says James L. Parvitt, a former director of the agency's clandestine service, as saying: "Poland is the 51st state."

"Poland was picked because there were no local cultural and religious ties to Al Qaeda, making infiltration or attack by sympathisers unlikely," the paper quotes another anonymous agent as saying.

But above all, claims the paper's account of CIA officer recollections, the country was picked because "Polish officials were eager to co-operate."

The article highlights how Al Qaeda operative Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was rendered by a "capture team" from Rawalpindi, Pakistan, to a secret base near Szymany Airport in March, 2003.

The paper describes the site as the location where "the most important of the CIA's black sites had been established," citing interviews from 24 current and former US and foreign intelligence officials.

Poland has consistently denied accusations that its territory was host to such compounds since the first allegations of European participation in abductions and rendition flights first came to light. Full article

McCain says only World War III would justify draft

Only World War III would prompt Republican presidential candidate John McCain to bring back the military draft, McCain said on Tuesday.

Many Americans are fearful the U.S. government will be forced to reinstitute the draft given the prolonged Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Asked about that possibility by a potential voter in Florida during a telephone "town hall meeting," McCain said: "I don't know what would make a draft happen unless we were in an all-out World War III."

The United States ended its last military draft in 1973 in the waning years of the Vietnam war, moving to an all-volunteer military force.

McCain, a Vietnam veteran, said the draft during that conflict weighed most heavily on lower-income Americans, and that this should not be repeated.

"I do not believe the draft is even practicable or desirable," McCain said. Reuters

'Agents Provocateurs' caught in the UK

George Galloway again catches the establishment trying to smear him. This time using Agents Provocateurs at last week's demonstration against Bush during his visit to London.

George Galloway initially complained to the police about police brutality during the demo. Today we have the very strong allegation of Agents Provocateurs, including naming and showing the photo of one of the London police officers involved.

http://www.spiderednews.com/GeorgeGallo ... nside.html
J’ACCUSE! - THE DREYFUS AFFAIR

George Galloway MP has just sent the following letter to the Home Secretary, concerning the actions of a police agent provocateur, who has been identified as Inspector Chris Dreyfus, at the anti-Bush demonstration.

I can now confirm that this man was Chris Dreyfus, an inspector in the police.

This man, to my direct knowledge, committed four criminal offences during the 30 minutes or so he stood next to me. First, he repeatedly chanted the arcane, antiquated Americana, “Kill the pigs!” This is a clear incitement to violence, indeed murder. If a Muslim demonstrator had been chanting it, say, outside the Danish Embassy, he would likely now be in prison. Secondly, he repeatedly (crushing me in the process) attempted to charge the crush barriers and the police line behind them. Thirdly, he repeatedly exhorted others so to do. Fourthly, he instructed a young demonstrator on the correct way to uncouple a crush barrier, which was successfully achieved and was subsequently thrown at the police, and was presumably one of the justifications for the deployment of a riot squad which eventually waded in to the protesters.



Home Secretary, there can hardly a more grave indictment of the conduct of the police force in a democratic country than this. People in the labour movement have often mythologised the state’s use of agents provocateurs throughout my 40 years experience and no doubt long before. But, to my recollection, we have never caught one red-handed before.

http://www.spiderednews.com/GeorgeGallo ... nside.html

Barack O'Bilderberger is America's Tony Bliar

March 5, 2007

Israeli interests First and...

"That effort BEGINS with a clear and strong commitment to the security of Israel: our strongest ally in the region and its only established democracy. That will always be my starting point. And when we see all of the growing threats in the region: from Iran to Iraq to the resurgence of al-Qaeda to the reinvigoration of Hamas and Hezbollah, that loyalty and that friendship will guide me as we begin to lay the stones that will build the road that takes us from the current instability to lasting peace and security."

Israeli interests last

March 2, 2007 “But IN THE END,” he added, “we also know that we should never seek to dictate what is best for the Israelis and their security interests. No Israeli prime minister should ever feel dragged to or blocked from the negotiating table by the United States.”

barack obama grovels before his Mongolian Khazar masters

Let's Bomb Iran

Visit LetsBombIran.com for lyrics and more protest videos.

Iran Could Make Nuke In 6 Months

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Iran could create a nuclear weapon in six months.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei spoke on Al-Arabiya television on June 20, discussing Iran's nuclear program, and the potential for the Middle Eastern country to produce a nuclear weapon.

"If Iran wants to turn to the production of nuclear weapons, it must leave the NPT, expel the IAEA inspectors, and then it would need at least, considering the number of centrifuges and the quantity of uranium Iran has...It would need at least six months to one year," ElBaradei said.

"Therefore, Iran will not be able to reach the point where we would wake up one morning to an Iran with a nuclear weapon," he said.

His interviewer then asked "If Iran decides today to expel the IAEA from the country, it will need six months to produce [nuclear] weapons?"

The IAEA chief answered, "It would need this period to produce a weapon, and to obtain highly-enriched uranium in sufficient quantities for a single nuclear weapon."

The ElBaradei interview was conducted one day after reports emerged of a large-scale military exercise by Israel.

U.S. officials said they thought the Israeli exercises were meant to warn Iran of Israel's abilities to hit its nuclear sites.

ElBaradei also warned that he will resign as chief of the UN nuclear agency if Iran is attacked by any country.

"I always think of resigning in the event of a military strike...If military force is used, I would conclude that there is no mechanism left for me to defend," he said.

"The reports this week of Israeli military maneuvers, which took place in early June, provoked the IAEA warning," said CBS News Foreign Affairs Pamela Falk, who is based at the U.N., "because atomic energy chief ElBaradei has been pleading with Iran to accept a new package of incentives before another round of sanctions would be imposed." WCBSTV

Aide: plot to kill Ahmadinejad thwarted at U.N. meet

An adviser of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said there was a plot to assassinate the Iranian president during a U.N. food crisis summit in Italy earlier this month, an Iranian daily reported on Tuesday.

It came a few days after Ahmadinejad, who often rails against the West, accused the United States and its allies of plotting to kidnap and kill him during a visit to neighboring Iraq in March.

Presidential adviser Ali Zabihi said Ahmadinejad's policies since his election in 2005 were threatening "the illegitimate interests" of many foreign powers and domestic circles, the Etemad-e Melli daily reported.

"Therefore they are thinking about his dismissal or assassination," Zabihi said in the northwestern city of Tabriz.

A plan to kidnap Ahmadinejad in Baghdad in March and a plot to assassinate him at this month's three-day summit in Rome were part of this, he said, without giving details, adding: "Both of those were aborted with God's help."

Ahmadinejad, widely expected to stand for re-election next year, visited Rome on June 3.

Reformist critics of the president have asked why the Iranian government has not lodged an official complaint about the alleged plot.

"Another assassination claim," the reformist Mardomsalari said in a front-page headline on Tuesday.

Full article here.

US applauds new EU sanctions against Iran

The United States welcomed on Monday new European Union sanctions imposed against Iran over the Islamic republic's refusal to halt its disputed nuclear activities.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the sanctions showed that Iran was becoming "increasingly isolated" and the international community was "serious about increasing the pressure on them" for ignoring UN resolutions.

"Certainly we would like to see Iran choose the other path and suspend its enrichment related activities and come to the negotiating table," Casey said.

"Ultimately though, absent that, we expect to see increased forms of diplomatic pressure and this action by the EU is part of it and certainly welcomed by us."

The new sanctions, which notably ban Iran's largest bank, Bank Melli, from operating in Europe, were approved during a meeting of EU agriculture and fisheries ministers in Luxembourg.

The measures also add another 20 individuals and 15 organizations to the EU's visa-ban and assets-freeze lists.

The EU move, running alongside a string of UN sanctions against Iran adopted since 2006, aims at persuading Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, which the international community fears are part of a nuclear weapons building program. AFP

Russia prepares for future combat in the Arctic

Russia must be ready to fight wars in the Arctic to protect its national interests in a region that contains large and untapped deposits of natural resources, a high-ranking military official said in an interview published Tuesday.

"After several countries contested Russia's rights for the resource-rich continental shelf in the Arctic, we have immediately started the revision of our combat training programs for military units that may be deployed in the Arctic in case of a potential conflict," Lt. Gen. Vladimir Shamanov, who heads the Defense Ministry's combat training directorate, told the Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) newspaper.

Under the Law of the Sea, coastal states can declare an Exclusive Economic Zone stretching 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the shore, but this area can be extended if it is a part of the country's continental shelf or shallower waters. Some Arctic shelves extend for hundreds of miles, creating the possibility of overlapping territorial claims.

Last August, as part of a scientific expedition, two Russian mini-subs made a symbolic eight-hour dive beneath the North Pole to bolster the country's claim that the Arctic's Lomonosov Ridge lies in the country's economic zone. A titanium Russian flag was also planted on the seabed. Russia first claimed the territory in 2001, but the UN demanded more evidence.

The expedition irritated a number of Western countries, particularly the U.S. and Canada.

The general said wars "are won or lost long before they start" and combat training was crucial for the success of any future military operations.

"The Americans, for example, recently conducted the Northern Edge 12-day large-scale exercise in Alaska, involving about 5,000 personnel, 120 aircraft and several warships," Shamanov said, adding that Russia could not ignore such a show of military force near vital Arctic regions.

He said the Defense Ministry would drastically change its approach to the combat training of highly-professional military units in the Leningrad, Siberian and Far Eastern military districts, which could participate in potential conflicts in the Arctic.

He also said two expert groups in his directorate were closely studying combat training models based on computer-assisted combat simulations that have been adopted by some foreign militaries. FULL STORY

'Iran conflict could open Pandora's box'

Jordanian King Abdullah II bin al-Hussein says creating any conflict with the Islamic Republic is like playing with Pandora's box.

"Iran poses issues to certain countries, although I have noticed over the past month or so that the dynamics have changed quite dramatically. For the first time, I think Iran is less of a threat," King Abdullah of Jordan said in an interview with Newsweek.

The Jordanian King went on to urge a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear issue, arguing that the region has already suffered 'enough crises'.

"We're a country and a region that supports dialogue as opposed to conflict. If there is conflict with Iran, I'm not too sure where this is going to lead us. I think you're playing with Pandora's box," he added.

When asked if Jordan was 'willing to live with a nuclear Iran', King Abdullah proposed that the world should 'engage with the Iranians', warning that a military strike on Iran would only elicit a reaction from the country. Press TV

Mossad's Dagan, an omen of Iran war

Mossad director's tenure has been extended for another year so that he could prepare for an attack on Iran, Israeli military sources say.

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has decided to keep Meir Dagan behind his desk at Mossad until the end of 2009 so he could take the necessary measures for a possible unilateral military action against Iran, DEBKA website which is close to Israeli intelligence agency quoted the sources as saying.

Israel's intelligence and military brass generally serve for four years, with a traditional one-year extension. Dagan's tenure was last extended by a year in 2007. He is now due to step down in 2009.

The 61-year-old external intelligence chief has played the key role in the main Israeli operations over the past six years, including on a Syrian facility last September, the sources said. Press TV

The Mossad chief has his critics at home. In Israel's clandestine agencies, some find his style excessively individualist, secretive and confined to fields which he finds interesting rather than objective initiatives.

Israel, widely believed to be the only possessor of nuclear arsenals in the Middle East, alleges that Iran is trying to develop a military nuclear technology.

Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), rejects the allegation as baseless. Tehran maintains it pursues its 'civilian' nuclear activities in the framework of the IAEA regulations to fulfill its growing energy demands.

Israeli police officer shoots himself in the head yards from French president Nicolas Sarkozy and wife Carla Bruni

Israeli tries to kill Sarkozy on Israeli trip, but Jewish authorities say it was suicide. Why would an Israeli cop commits suicide not far from Sarkozy?

French president Nicolas Sarkozy, his wife Carla Bruni and Israeli premier Ehud Olmert were at the centre of a security alert this afternoon after a policemancommitted suicide during an airport farewell ceremony.

Bodyguards scrambled to protect the three when the officer fatally shot himself in the head just yards from the red carpet.

The shooting occurred while a military band was playing, and the leaders apparently didn't hear anything.

Dark-suited men then quickly ushered Sarkozy and his wife up the stairs of their plane. In a panic, Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, rushed up the stairs ahead of her husband.

The incident marred Sarkozy's three-day trip to Israel, a visit meant to improve relations between the two countries.

French presidential spokesman Franck Louvrier could not be reached for comment on his mobile phone. Another presidential spokesman who was on another scheduled flight out of Tel Aviv said he knew nothing about the incident.

Israel Radio said the soldier who was shot was stationed 100 metres to 200 metres (yards) away from the plane. He shot himself as a band was playing. Two women soldiers who witnessed the shooting fainted and were treated by medics.

Israel's volunteer medical service Zaka said the soldier apparently committed suicide.

Police say there was no assassination attempt on Sarkozy. Daily Mail

Put oil firm chiefs on trial, says leading climate change scientist

James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.

Hansen will use the symbolically charged 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking speech (pdf) to the US Congress - in which he was among the first to sound the alarm over the reality of global warming - to argue that radical steps need to be taken immediately if the "perfect storm" of irreversible climate change is not to become inevitable.

Speaking before Congress again, he will accuse the chief executive officers of companies such as ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy of being fully aware of the disinformation about climate change they are spreading.

In an interview with the Guardian he said: "When you are in that kind of position, as the CEO of one the primary players who have been putting out misinformation even via organisations that affect what gets into school textbooks, then I think that's a crime."

He is also considering personally targeting members of Congress who have a poor track record on climate change in the coming November elections. He will campaign to have several of them unseated. Hansen's speech to Congress on June 23 1988 is seen as a seminal moment in bringing the threat of global warming to the public's attention. At a time when most scientists were still hesitant to speak out, he said the evidence of the greenhouse gas effect was 99% certain, adding "it is time to stop waffling". The Guardian

America's Military Machine Gearing Up for Total WAR

The Beast grows in destructive capacity when sensing death approaching. But this bloodbath and these actions may return to America in the forms of Marshall Law, mass hunger, crushed revolts and civil war - as they are returning now in forms of economic disintegration.

What the British are reading now about credit, housing, inflation and employment projections are what Americans heard in January and February. The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets. So far, it is a carefully programmed and artfully implemented design.

Bush's European tour put other Western players into orientation - England and Germany , especially - to what is ahead. But it will be more than financial shocks, it will be an invasion of the Middle East and subsequent Arab retaliation. The Arabs defeated the British Empire in the last Century and may defeat the American Empire in these decades. The world's people will be poor, starving and helpless to change matters.

The Democrats have handed Bush the money for continued war after posturing against it for two years. Obama is the man of the financial and power elite and is wearing the costume necessary to convince Liberals, Blacks and those Left-of-Center that there really is a two-party system. The Socialists and "Comrades" of a more revolutionary sort are mounting an incursion into the minds of Europeans (they will never convince the American worker of Marxism, however, though they think they can).

America is gearing for total war, feeding its military machine and may starve people unaligned with the Pentagon, if necessary, as it does other nations. The people have no political candidates and options remaining to stop the bloodbath they are conducting in the Middle East , not to mention the worldwide dislocations produced from their hegemonic megalomania and lawless rogues on Wall Street. The Beast grows in destructive capacity when sensing death approaching. But this bloodbath and these actions may return to America in the forms of Marshall Law, mass hunger, crushed revolts and civil war - as they are returning now in forms of economic disintegration.

What may lie ahead is America 's Karma, which it builds upon and sentences itself to with each passing day. Induction says the body count will be high here after the stakes are finally realized by those who will decide to join in battle for the American Dream of world domination through "any means possible", and those who will resist or remain neutral. For the uncooperative nations of the world, it can only be a future of America against it; and for Americans, an international "endless war" together with a domestic one of Brother against Brother. More