Clipmarks | merrie's 'israel' clips

It Must Suck Being Joseph "Yellow-Cake" Wilson IV Now!

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:58:54 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: In his speech, Ambassador Joseph Wilson described himself as the investigator sent to Niger by the government and says the government sent him there and not the CIA (a lie). Wilson said there was nothing to the uranium story (another lie), described the US as "occupiers" of Iraq (a shocking statement at the time), and described a conspiracy to help Israel dominate the Palestinians.

Joe Wilson repeated the lie for several years that the Iraq was not seeking uranium from Niger even though five days after Wilson's NYT op-ed, George Tenet put out a statement describing how the person the CIA sent to check out the Niger story (Joe Wilson) found that the Iraqis had indeed tried to open up trade talks, which were interpretted by government officials in Niger as an attempt to purchase uranium ore.

AP Exclusive: US removes uranium from Iraq

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107ap_iraq_yellowcake_mission.html

Clip Source: gatewaypundit.blogspot.com

Do you remember when Valerie Plame sent her husband Joe Wilson to Niger?

Although she denied it several times, Plame did indeed come up with the idea that her husband would be an ideal candidate to sort out the Niger/Iraq uranium sale question.

In fact, here's a copy of the memo--

And, here's the transcript from the memo:

Notes: Niger/Iraq uranium meeting CIA 2/19/02

Meeting apparently convened by Valerie Wilson, a CIA WMD managerial type and the wife of Amb. Joe Wilson, with the idea that the agency and the larger USG could dispatch Joe to Niger to use his contacts there to sort out the Niger/Iraq uranium sale question. Joe went to Niger in late 1999 in regard to Niger's uranium program, apparently with CIA support.

Valerie Plame sent Joe.

A month before Robert Novak wrote his column, Ambassador Joseph Wilson spoke out against the Bush Administration and Israel at the Far-Left 2003 IRAQ FORUM Conference.

The audio is still posted HERE (40:38 in duration)

Tags: joe wilson, valerie plame, niger, "yellow-cake"robert novak, richard armitage

BBC's First Warped Headline Before It Gets Changed

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:21:35 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Our Special One Year Analysis of the BBC demonstrated how its headline selection for stories focused on combat and terrorist attacks was inconsistent and favored the Palestinian side. Stories about Palestinian attacks never directly named the aggressors,
headlines such as "Rocket injures dozens in Israel" were used.

Indeed, even the latest BBC headline "Bulldozer rampage hits Jerusalem", is also fundamentally flawed, failing to attribute the attack to the Palestinian individual who carried it out. It was not the city of Jerusalem, the subject of the headline, that was murdered, but at least three innocent Israelis.

For accurate coverage and the latest developments from Jerusalem on this breaking story, see English-language Israeli sources such as The Jerusalem Post, Ha'aretz and YNet News. You can also read the thoughts of HonestReporting's Backspin blog editor who happened to be in downtown Jerusalem at the time of the terror atttack.

Clip Source: www.honestreporting.com

At the time of writing, more details are emerging on today's (Wednesday July 2) terror attack on Jerusalem's busy Jaffa Street thoroughfare. A Palestinian resident of Jerusalem went on the rampage in a bulldozer, attacking two buses, a number of cars and innocent passers-by, killing at least three people and wounding dozens more before being shot by an Israeli policeman.

While BBC Online currently covers the story "Bulldozer rampage hits Jerusalem," this was not the original headline. Offering a glimpse into the BBC's warped journalism

This pattern was also repeated on the BBC's television coverage (screenshot below from BBC World).

That this terror attack took place opposite Jerusalem Capital Studios, the local headquarters for many international media outlets, including BBC, Sky News and CNN, ensured that footage and coverage were available almost immediately.

Tags: bbc, news, media bias, bulldozer, jerusalem, palestinian

Two Die, 30 Injured As Attacker Rams Buses In Jerusalem

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:52:40 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: two weeks after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza. A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters the group did "not expect it will influence the Gaza calm."

Israel Radio described the driver as a 30-year-old Arab who was known to the authorities because of a criminal record. The attack was the first serious episode in Jerusalem since Palestinian from East Jerusalem shot dead eight students at a yeshiva school in March.

Rosenfeld, the police spokesman, said the driver came from one of several large Palestinian villages in the East Jerusalem area.

The earthmover appeared to have been driven out of a construction site on Jaffa Road. Hundreds of people were reported to have fled the area.

"It could have been a lot worse," said Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman. Police referred to the driver as a terrorist but his motive and identity were not immediately made known.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

JERUSALEM: The Palestinian driver of a huge, yellow earthmover went on a rampage in central Jerusalem Wednesday, ramming several cars and two buses before a police officer clambered onto the careening vehicle and shot him dead, police and witnesses said.

Officials said at least two people were killed and 30 were injured.

The episode spread panic as the driver used the Caterpillar earthmover's massive serrated scoop to overturn the bus from the Eged public transport company and leave a swath of tangled wreckage 200 yards long, plowing over at least five cars and colliding with a second bus.

Police believed the driver may have planned to drive the earthmover into a crowded market nearby.

"There's no doubt that it was a terrorist attack," Rosenfeld said. The driver was killed, the police spokesman said, when "one of our special patrol units made contact with him and stopped him from moving further along the street.

"No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place almost

Tags: jerusalem, palestinian, bulldozer, terrorist, 30-year-old arab

McCain vs. Obama On National Security

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:31:41 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: that espouses the destruction of the State of Israel as its fondest wish and pledges undying enmity to the United States to possess the weapons to advance their malevolent ambitions." He also rejects "unconditional dialogues" with Iran.

Obama has delivered messages on Iran that were more mixed. But that only makes diplomacy more important. If we must use military force, we are more likely to succeed, and will have far greater support at home and abroad, if we have exhausted our diplomatic efforts." In the same speech, however, Obama promised: "aggressive, principled diplomacy without self-defeating preconditions....Obama missed a vote on a controversial amendment offered by Sen. Jon Kyl and Lieberman that proposed labeling Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Obama called the amendment a repeat of the mistakes that led to war in Iraq; however, he had cosponsored an earlier bill declaring the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization

Clip Source: newsblaze.com

IRAQ WAR

John McCain cosponsored the 2002 vote to authorize the use of force against Iraq, arguing at the time that Saddam Hussein was "a threat of the first order." Although he was a vehement critic of the administration's "mismanagement and failure" during the early war years, he advocated the surge of additional troops to Iraq and the need to stay as long as necessary to win the war.

In 2002, when he was an Illinois state senator, Barack Obama opposed the war. However, after he was elected to the U.S. Senate, he voted against early proposals by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and others to set a timetable for withdrawal; now Obama votes consistently in favor of establishing a timetable. Obama's plan for exiting Iraq would send home one or two combat brigades a month, with most combat troops out by the end of 2009.

IRAN POLICY

McCain has been clear about his position on Iran. In February 2008, he told an audience: "I intend to make unmistakably clear to Iran we will not permit a government

Tags: mccain, obama, iraq, iran, missile defense, nuclear weapons, north korea, guantanamo bay

Scholars Make Finds In Search Of Nazi Archive

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:35:35 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: The 50 million pages stored in this central German spa town since the mid-1950s previously had been used by Red Cross staff to respond to inquiries about missing persons or the fate of family members, and later to document compensation claims.

The gray metal shelves and cabinets contain 16 miles (25 kilometers) of transport lists, camp registries, medical records, forced labor files and death certificates of some 17.5 million people subjected to Nazi persecutions.

Taken together with written and oral testimonies and the transcripts of war crimes trials, the dry data at Bad Arolsen add texture to the known picture of the Holocaust, from the first concentration camps created within weeks of Hitler's rise to power in January 1933 to the defeat of Nazism in May 1945.

"It was much more than I expected," said Trouve.

investigative researcher Randy Herschaft contributed to this article from Bad Arolsen

Clip Source: bennauro.blogspot.com

It was the first concentrated academic sweep of the long-private archive administered by the International Tracing Service since it opened its doors last November to Holocaust survivors, victims relatives and historical researchers.

German historian Christel Trouve said the nameless millions of forced laborers began to take shape as individual people as she studied small labor camps _ which existed in astonishing numbers.

Among the striking revelations was the identification of the man who rescued an 8-year-old boy in Buchenwald, Israel Meir Lau, who later became Israel's chief rabbi.

Lau had said his rescuer was a person called Fyodor from Rostow. Kenneth Waltzer of Michigan State University found it was Fyodor Michajlitschenko, 18, arrested by the Gestapo in 1943, who gave the small boy ear warmers and treated him like a father in Block 8 until the camp's liberation.

From prison brothels to slave labor camps, 15 scholars concluded a two-week probe Thursday of an untapped repository

Tags: holocaust survivors, victims relatives, historical researchers, bad arolsen, germany, buchenwald, gestapo

Damascus Reviewing Ties With Iran

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:07:25 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Damascus, 26 June (AKI) - Syria may be 'reconsidering' its relationship with Iran, according to unnamed French government officials.

Clip Source: www.adnkronos.com

In a report published on Thursday in pan-Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat, French officials said Iran and Syria do not agree on a number of issues and that may result in a rift.

According to French sources, Syria opposes the idea of a confessional Iraqi state under Iran's influence.

French officials also claim another point of contention is Lebanon, where they say Syria does not want any further involvement in the fragile political situation or to strengthen the Shia militia and political organisation, Hezbollah.

The French officials said Syria is more interested in strengthening and developing its ties with the European Union, western countries and negotiating with Israel.

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad is also ready to sign an agreement with the EU, which would become a tool for Syria to normalise its relations with the body and create political, trade, social, cultural and security links.

Tags: syrian president bashar al-assad, iran, lebanon, hezbollah, shia militia, european union

The Lava Lamp Candidate

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:30:43 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: ElBaradei's New Brief, Same as His Old Brief [Steve Schippert]

The buzz circulating now is that IAEA Director Mohammed ElBaradei said on al-Arabiya that Iran could be months away from producing a nuclear weapon, as noted by AllahPundit at Hot Air and Jeff Stein at Congressional Quarterly.

What's more, just about all analyses completely ignore Iran's pursuit of a plutonium-based weapon through external acquisition and production beyond Iran's borders and beneath the IAEA and Western international radar. Syria is only now entertaining the idea of limited and restricted IAEA inspections of the nuclear facility destroyed by Israel last September 6.

This "only line of defense" claim comes from the same UN "nuclear watchdog" that has no enforcement mechanism and the same one that failed to detect and/or deter North Korea, India, and Pakistan from developing nuclear weapons.

http://tank.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTg2MjNmOTc1YTkzMGI4YjA1YWE0MTYyN2Q0YzNiMjc=

Clip Source: townhall.com

Tags: el baradei, iaea, "nuclear watchdog", iran, nuclear weapon, syria, pakistan, north korea, india

The Israeli "Dry Run"On Iran's Nuclear Facilities

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:40:27 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Looks like there would be a side benefit from an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities: the blind, toothless UN atomic "watchdog" -- Mohamed El Baradei -- promised to resign if Iran is targeted.

US officials reported on Friday that more than 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s staged a complex operation over the Mediterranean during the first week of June. The aircraft traversed more than 900 miles, about the distance from Israel to Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment facility; the exercise also tested the refueling of planes and helicopters tasked with rescuing downed pilots.

El Baradei wasn't pleased.

He warned that any attack on Iran would turn the entire Middle East "into a fireball."

Russia's response: as Iran's preeminent nuclear technology supplier, Russia is concerned with its cash flow. It also warned Israel not to attack. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov instructed Israel not to use force, claiming there is no proof Iran is trying to acquire atomic weapons.

Clip Source: directorblue.blogspot.com

Tags: iaea, el baradei, ahmadinejad, russia, stratfor, john bolton

Top Ten Communist Jokes Competition

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:25:54 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: 10) A KGB officer is walking in the park and he sees and old Jewish man reading a book.
The KGB says "What are you reading old man?" The old man says "I am trying to teach myself Hebrew."

7) A man saves up his ruples and is finally able to buy a car in Soviet Russia. After he pays his money the he is told he will have his car in three years.
"Three years!" he asks "What month?"
"August"
"August? What day in August?" He asks
"The Second of August" is the reply
"Morning or Afternoon?"
"Afternoon. Why do you need to know?"
"The plumber is coming in the morning."
KGB says "Why are you trying to learn Hebrew? It takes years to get a visa for Israel. You would die before the paperwork got done."
"I am learning Hebrew so that when I die and go to Heaven I will be able to speak to Abraham and Moses. Hebrew is the language they speak in Heaven." the old man replies.
"But what if when you die you go to Hell?" asks KGB.
And the old man replies, "Russian, I already know."

Clip Source: timesonline.typepad.com

Top Ten Communist Jokes

1) Three workers find themselves locked up, and they ask each other what they’re in for. The first man says: “I was always ten minutes late to work, so I was accused of sabotage.” The second man says: “I was always ten minutes early to work, so I was accused of espionage.” The third man says: “I always got to work on time, so I was accused of having a Western watch.”

And here are the nine runners-up:

2) An old man is dying in his hovel on the steppes.
There is a menacing banging on the door.
‘Whose there?’ the old man asks.
‘Death ‘comes the reply.
‘Thank God for that,’ he says, ‘I thought it was the KGB.’

3)Pravda announced that it welcomed letters to the editor. All correspondents were required to include their full name, address and next of kin.
Neil

4) Q. "Why do the KGB operate in groups of three?" A. "One can read, one can write and one to keep an eye on the two intellectuals."
Lee Jakeman

Tags: russia, stasi, kgb, pravd, stalin

Where Is Sgt. Gilad Shalit?

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 01:10:31 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Included in the petition was a handwritten letter from Shalit that the family received about two weeks ago.

The court is expected to discuss the case on Sunday.

Clip Source: astuteblogger.blogspot.com

The parents of an Israeli soldier being held captive in the Gaza Strip asked Israel's high court on Saturday to delay opening border crossings with the territory until their son's release is guaranteed.

An Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and the Hamas Islamist group in control of the Gaza Strip went into effect on Thursday. The agreement is meant to halt cross-border fighting as well as gradually and partially ease Israel's economic blockade of the enclave.

Sergeant Gilad Shalit, was captured on June 25, 2006 aged 19 by Palestinian gunmen who tunneled into Israel from Gaza.

The family petitioned the court to prevent the implementation of any agreement to open Gaza's border crossings or to ease the economic blockade until Shalit "is freed from his captors or a guarantee for his release is given."

Tags: sgt gilad shalit, hamas, israel's economic blockade, gaza strip

US Diplomacy On Iran Amid Reported Israeli Attack Exercise

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:35:29 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: "I can certainly understand that, given the fact that the president of Iran has talked about wiping Israel off the map," he said. "So Israel does see Iran as an existential threat. But again, I am going to have to kick any questions about what was intended by this exercise, what its purpose was, what they hoped to accomplish, to the Israeli government. They're the competent officials to talk about those issues."

Israel staged a long-range air strike to destroy an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1980, and last September it bombed a facility in northern Syria said by some analysts to have been a reactor being built with North Korean help.

Iran insists its nuclear program is entirely peaceful, but Israel and key Bush administration officials, among others, believe it is seeking a weapons capability.

Clip Source: voanews.com

The United States Friday reiterated its commitment to a diplomatic resolution of the Iran nuclear issue amid a report Israel conducted a simulated attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

U.S. officials are expressing understanding for Israel's concern about the Iranian nuclear program and pointedly have not criticized the reported exercise.

But they are reiterating the Bush administration's commitment to a two-track diplomatic strategy of incentives and sanctions to try to get Iran to drop its uranium enrichment project, and say they still hold out hope diplomacy will work.

An Iranian technician works at the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facilities (UCF), 420 kms south of Tehran (File)

Israeli exercise was conducted over the Mediterranean Sea earlier this month. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

A senior official who spoke to reporters here said he did not think the Israeli military exercise would affect the Iran diplomacy

Tags: israeli military exercise, iran diplomacy, nuclear issue

Didn't Realize What He Was Saying?

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:26:03 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Once again, this suggests that there is too little adult supervision of a candidate unaccustomed to speaking on the world stage about issues in which there are lots of code words, indeed in which every word (e.g. “preconditons,” “immediate withdrawal”) has meaning to Americans’ foes and friends.

Clip Source: www.commentarymagazine.com

An advisor, Daniel Kurtzer, to Barack Obama says that Obama didn’t realize what he was saying to AIPAC when he used the term”undivided” in reference to Jerusalem. According to Kurtzer, Obama had “a picture in his mind of Jerusalem before 1967 with barbed wires and minefields and demilitarized zones.” Kurtzer says that only after the speech did Obama realize it was a “code word” to use the phrase, “but it does not indicate any kind of naivete about foreign affairs.”

Not understanding that a key term is a code word, not having a current picture of Jerusalem, and not anticipating the implications of having to reverse field within 24 hours sure sounds naive. Even more so, if the advisor says Obama didn’t understand what he was saying. But wait a minute. Didn’t Obama have advisors on Israel assisting him with the speech? Where were they?

Tags: barack obama, advisor, daniel kurtzer, ”undivided” jerusalem, aipac, foreign affairs

Sarkozy's Plan For ME Economic-Diplomatic Union

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:36:09 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Hence it is interesting to note that, notwithstanding the neoconservative accusations that Europe is "anti-Israeli", EU-Israeli trade has seen a threefold increase in the last decade alone. This confirms the EU as Israel’s major trading partner and the number-one market for Israel’s imports—surpassing even the United States in volume.

By adopting a strategy of constructive engagement in the Middle East through the MU, France and the EU could try—through the use of both diplomatic and economic resources—to achieve the kind of goals that the Bush Administration is trying to advance through the use of its military power: Challenging the status quo in the Middle East, while advancing the cause of peace and political and economic reform.

Clip Source: www.nationalinterest.org

Sarkozy’s support for modifying France’s "Arabist" foreign policy is an indication that Europeans like him have concluded that they cannot continue to secure their interests in the Middle East—their "strategic backyard"—with which they maintain strategic, business and demographic ties, by burnishing their "pro-Arab" credentials, distancing themselves from Israel, and propping-up bankrupted and corrupt political elites.

That policy may have helped to secure short-term economic interests and re-direct the hostility of the "Arab street" against the United States. But the same policy also made it difficult for the Europeans to play the role of mediator between Arabs and Israelis. And perpetuating the rule of Arab autocrats has only helped to turn the strategic and economic periphery of Europe into one of the least advanced and most unstable parts of the global economy. The Middle East not only exports oil to the EU, but also hundreds of thousands of poor and angry immigrants

Tags: mediterranean union, nickolas sarkozy, ankara, middle-eastern, north-african, economic/diplomatic alliance

Obama and Iran:The Democrats Modern-Day McGovern

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:36:56 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Judging from last week's address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Sen. Barack Obama doesn't want voters to see him as soft on Iran and its genocidal President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Iranians "understand - sometimes, it seems, better than a lot of Americans do - that if American power collapses in Iraq, if we abandon our allies" then "our position throughout the region will become much weaker and Iran's position much stronger," Lieberman added. The Senate - including well over half of the Democrats - voted for the amendment, which passed 76-22. Obama, who was absent, said he opposed the amendment because it could be used as pretext to invade Iran. Obama denounced Kyl-Lieberman as "reckless" and criticized his chief rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, for supporting it.

However tough he tries to sound when talking to AIPAC, Barack Obama's real sympathies are with the George Soros/MoveOn.org wing of the Democrat Party.

Clip Source: www.aim.org

On September 26, 2007, Sens. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, and Joseph Lieberman, Connecticut Independent Democrat, introduced a nonbinding amendment to the defense authorization designating the IRGC a terrorist group because of its role in killing American soldiers. "The consequences of this Iranian terrorism in Iraq have been immense and terrible for our men and women in uniform and for their families and friends at home," Lieberman said in explaining the need for the amendment. "According to LTG Ray Odierno, the deputy commander of our forces in Iraq, Iranian-supplied weapons were responsible for a full one-third of American combat deaths [in July 2007].That builds on a similar record in preceding months. Let me repeat that: Up to a third of the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq in July were caused by sophisticated explosive devices used by people trained in Iran, with those devices supplied by Iran. That means the Iranians and their agents are killing our troops."

Tags: aipac, joseph lieberman, jon kyl, irgc, designated terrorist group, george soros, moveon.org, obama

Saudis Pushing U.N. Démarche Against Israel

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 23:37:00 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: The dispute over oil appears to be part of a larger rift between the two countries, with a London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi reporting recently that relations have reached their lowest point in years.

The Saudis seek strong American backing against Iran," Mr. Gold, a former Israeli U.N. ambassador who has written extensively on the kingdom, said. "They don't want to hear from Condi Rice about diplomatic progress between Abbas and Israel. They want to know what America is doing about Iran."

The Saudis, he said, base their policies on their strong alliance with America — or on Arab consensus.

When the Israeli government earlier this month announced that it was planning to build nearly 900 new housing units in Jerusalem, [S]ecretary-General Ban issued a strong statement: Israel's "continued construction in settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory" violates international law and Israel's obligations under the road map and the Annapolis process.

Clip Source: www.nysun.com

The White House has not said whether President Bush will attend an oil summit, billed as a meeting of major oil producers and consumers to address rising petroleum costs, on June 22 in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Prime Minister Brown of Britain has said he will attend, and the Saudis are hoping that other high-level Western officials, including Mr. Bush, will follow suit.

Washington has urged oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia to pump more oil to increase supply. But Saudi officials say the weak dollar and Israeli hints of an impending military attack on Iran, not declining production, are to blame for high prices.

Some Riyadh watchers trace the shift to a National Intelligence Estimate on Iranian nuclear progress, published in December. The report convinced the Saudis that America was not going stop Iran, a Saudi foe, from obtaining a nuclear weapon, the president of the Jerusalem Policy Center for Public Affairs, Dore Gold, said.

Tags: president bush, pm brown, oil summit, riyadh, nie, iranian nuclear progress, dore gold, former isreali u.n.ambassador