Geopolitics, "exporting democracy" and other forms of imperialist adventure: Latin America, Middle East and elsewhere.

HEADLINES

5/7/10

RAY McGOVERN: LOOSE LIPS OF PUNDITS AND POLITICIANS COULD SINK THE UNITED STATES. The former CIA analyst reprises the injunction of World War II that "loose lips sink ships" as an admonition of soldiers with information about impending military operations to keep quiet about it lest the information fall into the hands of the enemy. In McGovern's adaptation, it was precisely the loose talk by political leaders (of both major parties) and by the mainstream media that talked of "weapons of mass destruction" that propelled the Iraqi invasion in 2003. Just so, the promiscuous "macho talk" about the threat of Iran's nuclear development by this same cast of characters could well propel the U.S. into an equally if not more disastrous military action against Iran.

Websites:

Anti-war.com:  http://antiwar.com/  

Information Clearing House: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

Arab News: coverage of Middle East News from Saudi Arabia: http://www.arabnews.com/  

Dawn: Pakistani English language daily, much news on Middle East and India: http://www.dawn.com/2006/01/17/index.htm  

Foreign Policy in Focus: http://www.fpif.org/

Focus on the Global South: http://www.focusweb.org/

Middle East Report: http://electroniciraq.net/news/

Analysis & views:

5/7/10

RAY McGOVERN: LOOSE LIPS OF PUNDITS AND POLITICIANS COULD SINK THE UNITED STATES. The former CIA analyst reprises the injunction of World War II that "loose lips sink ships" as an admonition of soldiers with information about impending military operations to keep quiet about it lest the information fall into the hands of the enemy. In McGovern's adaptation, it was precisely the loose talk by political leaders (of both major parties) and by the mainstream media that talked of "weapons of mass destruction" that propelled the Iraqi invasion in 2003. Just so, the promiscuous "macho talk" about the threat of Iran's nuclear development by this same cast of characters could well propel the U.S. into an equally if not more disastrous military action against Iran.

4/17/10

Alfred McCoy comments on "self-defeating" pattern in U.S. foreign policy with its tendency to support corrupt dictators from Diem in South Viet Nam to Karzai in Afghanistan.

4/15/10

PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: A "VITAL NATIONAL SECURITY INTEREST OF THE UNITED STATES." These 8 words at the end of an Obama news conference trigger a rhapsody of anticipation of two New York Times writers that they may "signal a shift" in U.S. policy, perhaps even a pull back from the virtually unconditional support of Israel in that conflict. They do admit that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a similar statement, but it did not "signal a change" in Bush policy; and if Obama thinks he now has trouble with an intractable Congress, he may have seen nothing yet if he tries to carry this "signal" into hard practice.

4/13/10

KYRGYSTAN: A NEW KID ON THE BLOCK FOR AN OLD ARENA OF CENTRAL ASIAN GEO-POLITICS. The U.S., in its bid to expand its air base 40 km from the Russian border, is the "new kid," entering an arena of historical conflict between such other Eurasian powers as Russia and China.

4/3/10

PRESIDENT HAMID KARZAI BUSY EXPLAINING THAT HE DIDN'T MEAN WHAT HE SAID ABOUT U.S. AND AFGHAN RELATIONSHIP. Immediately after Obama's trip half way around the world for a 30 minute meeting with him, Karzai creates "consternation" in Washington by allegations that "foreigners" were making false allegations about fraudulent elections and that the U.S./NATO operation was demonstrating a thin curtain between invasion and cooperation/assistance. He calls Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and assures her that he was talking about foreign news agencies, not the U.S. government, and Clinton accepts his "clarification" and pledges continued "cooperation/assistance."

3/26/10

IF THE US COULDN'T CONTROL LATIN AMERICA, HOW COULD IT EXPECT TO ACHIEVE A SUCCESSFUL ORDER ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD? Noam Chomsky reprises this rhetorical question by National Security Adviser in Nixon presidency at time of U.S. overthrow of Salvadore Allende in Chile. The determination to have a "successful" (U.S. dominated) world order, expressed in NATO and other regional military alliances, continues to be expressed in U.S. Latin American policy. The location of 6 military bases in Colombia to provide a "hub" for Pentagon operations in the region is an important indication of the priority still attached to Latin America in policy-makers' aspirations for world imperial dominance.

3/21/10

IS THERE A "CRISIS" IN U.S./ISRAELI RELATIONS STEMMING FROM ISRAELI INTRANSIGENCE IN CONTINUING SETTLEMENTS CONSTRUCTION? Not really, says Alexander Cockburn, this has been standard fare of posturing in U.S. foreign policy as far back as the Carter administration. Time after time, U.S. Presidents and other leaders have denounced Israeli actions, but the power of the Israeli lobby in U.S. politics is such that these denunciations and threats of retaliation are reduced to impotent whimpers and American policy remains as "Zionist" in orientation as Vice President Biden proclaims himself to be.

3/14/10

ALEXANDER COCKBURN: OBAMA HAS DONE WELL THE JOB OF ANY U.S. PRESIDENT IN THE AREA OF FOREIGN POLICY. He has, says Cockburn, done the "job" of improving the country's "malign potential for harm" in foreign affairs. From Russia to Honduras, his policies have put a smoother edge on the harsh rhetoric and swaggering style of the Bush administration, making U.S. world domination all that more effective in advancing the American Empire.

2/27/10

IF THE U.S. DOMINATED THE OAS, IT WILL HAVE NO SUCH LUCK WITH A NEW ORGANIZATION, CLACS. The Organization of American States operated pretty much as a puppet of the U.S., taking no actions that would offend their master. As a sign of growing independence of Latin American countries, a Unity Summit of 32 countries in Cancun establishes the Community of Latin American and Caribbean states, with the U.S. and Canada excluded, and CLACS takes actions, unthinkable for OAS, of condemning the U.S. embargo of Cuba and supporting Argentina against the U.K. in their dispute over the Falkland Islands.

2/25/10

U.S. "HUMANITARIAN MILITARY INTERVENTION" IN SOMALIA: PLENTY OF INTERVENTION. HUMANITARIAN AID? NOT SO MUCH. The doctrine of humanitarian military intervention long promoted by Susan Rice, now U.S. ambassador to the UN, is based on as asserted "responsibility to protect" (R2P) people unfortunate enough to find themselves in "failed states" whose governments cannot provide that protection. Somalia's government is certainly "failed" after a U.S.-sponsored Ethiopian invasion, and the UN has taken on itself to deliver relief supplies to people in what the UN describes as the world's greatist humanitarian crisis. The U.S. throws a big road block in the exercise of R2P because the aid is allegedly being siphoned off by the Shabab resistance against that "failed" government. R2P is starting to look a lot like the seige of Gaza or Fallujah in which people will be starved until "insurgents" come to heel.

2/20/10

HILLARY CLINTON'S TOUGH TALK ABOUT IRAN: WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT? Mark Weisbrot raises this question as the Secretary of State says, rather "undiplomatically," that Iran is "moving toward a military dictatorship." Weisbrot thinks this cannot out of sympathy for victims of human rights abuses in Iran, as such statements make life harder for dissidents who can be labelled as allied with Iran's "enemies." Rather, he thinks, hers is one note in a chorus of efforts being conducted to prepare the way in U.S. public opinion for the view that Iran is a "threat" against the U.S. sufficient to justify an assault against that country. With 61% of Americans already perceiving Iran as a "threat" to the U.S., the ground is fertile for the cultivation of this propaganda. Weisbrot feels that the cultivation may be for a "crop" of assault that will await a future President with more desire and more opportunity (i.e., not already being "tied down" by two wars) to carry out a new conflict. Commenters on Common Dreams re-post of this article suggest that this may be too sanguine a view, as a powder keg of readiness to strike Iran may await only a precipitating "incident" that those hoping to provoke an assault on Iran could perpetrate.

COMMON DREAMS:

2/6/10

A FILM ABOUT ANOTHER TIME THAT MAY BE A FILM FOR OUR TIME. "The Most Dangerous Man in America," produced by two Berkley CA "lefties," is in process of premier showings across the country. While it is "about" Daniel Ellsberg and the release of the Pentagon Papers, it is also about citizen action (and inaction) with reference to government secrecy about its military operations that is as relevant as the latest expose about secret drone raids in AfPak, death squads in Honduras or U.S. government plans for "regime change" in Iran.

2/4/10

Pepe Escobar sees "Pentagon logic" as nudging Obama administration toward invasion of Iran.

1/31/10

U.S. PLAYS "DEFENSE" AGAINST IRAN IN PERSIAN GULF AREA. General David Petraeus tells New York Times that the Pentagon is placing "special" ships off the coast of Iran and anti-missile systems in 4 unspecified Arab states. An unidentified Administration source says these moves have three goals: to "deter" Iran from nuclear attacks, to "re-assure" Arab states to prevent their "going nuclear" themselves, and to "calm" the Israelis to avert attacks by them on Iranian nuclear facilities

1/28/10

A FEW WORDS IN THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS MAY HAVE A SERIOUS BITE FOR U.S. FOREIGN POLICY. In a speech with little focus on foreign policy issues, the President says ominously that on the matter of nuclear weapons development, Iran must carry out its "obligations" and that: "As Iran's leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: they, too, will face growing consequences," This suggests that recent utterances in the neo-conservative think tanks in D.C. about U.S. encouragement of "regime change" in Iran are getting more of the President's ear.

1/21/10

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT WANTS MORE SUITS ON THE GROUND IN AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN. A long-awaited "civilian surge" of diplomats and technocrats is being pushed as part of the new Obama "counter-insurgency" strategy that will substitute bureaucrats for soldiers for an enduring presence in these countries. These functionaries will be permanent guests of these countries to help them with everything from agricultural reformer to "counter-propaganda" to counter the appeal of the Taliban to local populations.

12/9/09

JUST WHO RUNS U.S. LATIN AMERICAN POLICY: BARACK OBAMA OR JIM DeMINT? Brendan Cooney suggests he might vote for DeMint, as the South Carolina Senator was able to reverse the U.S. policy of non-recognition of the November election unless it was preceeded by the return of ousted President Zelaya. DeMint's contacts in the world of Honduran oligarchs and his actions to hold up diplomatic appointments are given major credit for the reversal, while Obama is described as a "cardboard" figure in international relations who is easily knocked over by right-wing opposition.

11/24/09

WITH IMPENDING NATIONAL ELECTIONS AND BOYCOTT OF THEM BEING PROMOTED, HONDURAS IS IN CRISIS. WASHINGTON PRACTICES ITS USUAL IMPERIALISM. A press release reports that the Harris Corporation, a digital computer firm headquartered in Melbourne Florida, has been awarded a $38 million contract to provide services to the U.S. base at Soto Cano, Honduras. The expansion of this base is part of the SouthCom expansion of U.S. military presence in the region, dramatized by 5 new bases in Colombia, whose authoritarian government is anathema to most of Latin America.

11/20/09

Asia Times columnist sees Obama visit to China as a brief "dalliance" between two countries that find themselves seriously at odds.

11/15/09

JIM DeMINT FLEXES HIS SENATORIAL MUSCLE AND ATTAINS A CHANGE IN U.S. POLICY ON HONDURAS. The Republican Senator from South Carolina, already notable for using his Senatorial position to block health care and immigration reform action, adds to his resume of obstruction a determined effort to reverse Obama administration policy in opposition to the Honduran coup. His tactic here, as elsewhere, was to put a "hold" on presidential appointments. He released that hold early this month, just at the time that Secretary of State Clinton was announcing that the U.S. would accept the coup-sponsored November 29 election as an authentic expression of the will of the Honduran people, a reversal of position that McClatchy Newspaper article attributes to DeMint's influence.

11/13/09

"OBAMA WANTS HIS WAR OPTIONS CHANGED." This headline to an Associated Press story about the President's consideration of altered plans for AfPak operations is called the "headline of the year" by Jayne Lyn Stahl. who is set to wondering about the implications of this frame for the style of presidential decision-making. It suggests a dependence on his "advisors" as passive as might be indicated if he were a baby crying for a change of his diaper. In Stahl's view, Obama should listen to the "options" suggested by his own conscience and the feelings of the American people, rather than on an excessive reliance on his "advisors," who tend to be war hawks of various feathers.

11/2/09

"NOTHING SUCCEEDS LIKE FAILURE IN IMPERIAL WASHINGTON." Saul Landau offers this assessment of U.S. foreign policy. While it applies to other spectacular but continued failures like the "war on drugs," Landau focuses on the policy of American embargo of Cuba, a policy or 49 years duration and counting as the U.S. rejects a UN condemnation of that policy. While some U.S. Presidents have tweaked and tinkered with the embargo, it remains in place as its proponents still say after all these years, "give it time."

10/29/09

"A DIPLOMATIC BAY OF PIGS IN FULL VIEW OF THE WORLD." A former Sri Lankan representative in UN so characterizes the annual ritual in which the General Assembly (without enforcement powers) overwhelmingly votes to condemn the U.S. embargo on Cuba, with the U.S. and a handful of other countries opposing, creating a yearly renewal of anti-American feelings in the world. A just-completed repetition of that ritual, with UN representatives of an Obama administration pledged to improve U.S. relations with Cuba, is met with despair among hopeful world diplomats

10/23/09

THE LESSONS OF HISTORY ABOUT COUNTER-INSURGENCY WARS: WILL OBAMA HEED THEM? Nick Turse reviews decades of efforts to contain insurgency through "long war" efforts, focussing on failed such efforts in well-known Viet Nam and lesser known Philippines. But will Obama and his military and foreign policy advisers "learn" those lessons? Several commenters on Common Dreams reprint of article express skepticism about this.

COMMON DREAMS:

10/19/09

Impotence of U.S. in Af/Pak operation is seen as Asia Times columnist as a harbinger of negative effects of reduction of U.S. influence in the Middle East

10/17/09

IS BARACK OBAMA A "BAD COMPANION" FOR EUROPE ON THE INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL SCENE? Naomi Klein thinks this may be the case. As French President Sarkozy celebrates Obama's Nobel Peace Prize as symbolizing a "return to the heart of the people," Klein reviews what appears to be a strong and negative influence on Europe of U.S. foreign policy on matters of international concern. With such incidents as the climate change conference, the international conference on racism, and world reactions to Goldstone report on alleged war crimes associated with the invasion of Gaza, Obama's government is showing itself as a ringleader in some obstructive behavior that is questionable at best when it comes to issues of world peace and justice.

10/12/09

OTHER PEOPLES' GOVERNMENT: HILLARY CLINTON GOES TO BELFAST. As a "devolution deal" to transfer many government function in Northern Ireland from the British Parliament to the Northern Ireland Assembly, the U.S. Secretary of State goes before the Assembly today to urge ratification of the deal. (Imagine the Foreign Minister of any world country appearing before Congress to urge any change in internal political arrangements).

10/8/09

LOBBYISTS HIRED BY HONDURAN COUP ARE DOING THEIR LOBBY-THING IN WASHINGTON. Official U.S. policy of condemnation of the coup is apparently being tempered by U.S. lobbyists hired by the coup at a cost of at least $400,000 who have succeeded in achieving "mixed" and "back channel" expressions of U.S. intention toward the coup. Some of these lobbyists are "cold war veterans" like Otto Reich who go back to earlier clandestine Latin American operations, and who are now framing coup support as an extension of earlier U.S. policy in supporting any anti-American political movements: then to oppose the Soviet Union, now to counter the "danger" of Chavez and Venezuela. The lobbyists have ties to Secretary of State Clinton and Senator McCain, and Senator Jim DeMint leads a group of Republican Senators in coup support.

10/5/09

"WELCOME TO IRAQ DEJA VU, AND ANOTHER PHONY CRISIS." Eric Margolis, columnist for Toronto Sun, so tags the current effort to work up international action against Iran from the same fabricated threat of "weapons of mass destruction" that was used to launch the Iraqi invasion. For example, the "new" supposedly missile-launching site has long been known from spy satellite intelligence but only now is this being conflated, along with other questionble "intelligence," into a cause for international intervention (economic or military) against the Iranian "threat."

10/2/09

THE HONDURAN COUP AS A SCHOOL PLAYGROUND SQUABBLE IN U.S. POLITICS: A KID PULLS A SNEAKY TRICK, ANOTHER CALLS HIM FOR IT AND GETS CALLED A BULLY, PRINCIPAL CAN'T DECIDE HOW TO DEAL WITH IT. This is Al Giordano's version of an episode in which Senator Jim DeMint, (R., S.C.) proposed to use Foreign Relations Committee funds for a "fact-finding" trip to Honduras which would be a little-disguised propaganda effort of behalf of the coup. Committee chairman John Kerry (D., MA), says he can't use committee funds and DeMint turns "crybaby" and accuses Kerry of being a "bully." U.S. State and Defense Departments get involved in settling the dispute but vaccilates between supporting the crybaby and the bully.

10/2/09

3,000 U.S. Marines go ashore in Philippines. Is it for help in flood relief or to counter Muslim insurgency?

9/29/09

Honduran coup government imposes then lifts restrictions on free speech as U.S. representatives give mixed messages of condemnation of the coup and of Zelaya.

9/24/09

OBAMA'S UN SPEECH: SO PROUDLY (SORT OF) WE (SOME OF US) HAIL. John Nichols delivers a trademark Nation review of one of the President's speeches, finding in its soaring rhetoric the promise of a foreign policy more like that of FDR than of GWB---along with a caveat at the end that it remains to be seen whether this rhetoric will implemented in action. Many commenters on Common Dreams reprint of this article are skeptical that Obama's are "anything but" words, citing an alleged track record of eloquent pronouncements out of synch with tawdry policies.

COMMON DREAMS

9/18/09

OBAMA'S ISRAEL-PALESTINE GAMBLE: A DIPLOMATIC WAY TO STOP ISRAELI SETTLEMENT? Ira Chernus notes the discrepancy between the President's statement that settlement cessation is not a negotiable demand and then proceeding to negotiate with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on that very issue. Rather than join the chorus of condemnation of U.S. policy on the issue, Chernus says this is the way "diplomacy" works, as things get arranged behind the scene with public denial that the arrangements are going on. In other words, have faith in Obama's ultimate honesty in the face of his apparent dissembling.

9/18/09

16 members of Congress to Obama: U.S. needs to slow down on escalation of its military presence in Colombia

9/17/09

Eastern European nations are angered at apparent intention of Obama to drop plan for a "missile defense shield" in the region.

9/14/09

ADVOCATES OF "TOUGHER" U.S. STANCE AGAINST IRAN GO INTO FULL COURT PRESS MODE. AIPAC and other advocacy groups send their lobbyists to Washington and influential members of Congress are hearing their pleas for severe economic sanctions, if not military attack on nuclear facilities, as Obama's end-of-September "deadline" for diplomatic negotiations approaches. While some analysts see signs of progress on the diplomatic front, articles in New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post are pressing for the strongest possible sanction, former UN ambassador John Bolton even saying that sanctions won't be enough and that military action must be front and center of the "table" of U.S. options.

9/11/09

SAMANTHA POWER; LOOKING FOR MR. GOOD WAR. She may have been canned during the Obama presidential campaign for an indiscreet remark about Hillary Clinton, but she re-surfaces in his administration as a member of the National Security Council, where she "fits right in" as a liberal hawk. Renowned for her books promoting military "humanitarian intervention" (and ignoring those several situations in which the U.S. has been a party to perpetrating humanitarian disasters) she now settles on Afghanistan as the "good war" which must be prosecuted for the benefit of the Afghan people.

9/4/09

WHEN WORLD GOVERNMENTS WANT TO DEMONIZE LEFT-LEANING LATIN AMERICAN GOVERNMENTS, THEY CAN ALWAYS ACCUSE THEIR LEADERS OF BEING "ANTI-SEMITIC." The 2006 bombing of a synagogue in Caracas was quickly branded by the world media as yet another instance of the anti-semitism of Hugo Chavez, this impression being fostered by U.S. Jewish human rights groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the Weisenthal Center. Even when it was established that anti-semitic defacements at the synagogue site were a deflecting effort in a simple economic crime, the idea was perpetuated by these agencies and much of the world's press. This was of a piece with a long history of such anti-semitic labels against governments like those of Nicaragua or Guatemala with which the U.S. had major differences. By such bogus charges, any public discussion of Israeli involvement in supporting repressive regimes in Latin America could be brushed aside as "anti-semitic" speech.

9/3/09

IS GEORGE W. BUSH STILL PRESIDENT? This question might be asked, as President Obama relies increasingly on Republican support for expanded military operations in Afghanistan, as growing restiveness about the operation among the constituents of Democrats makes them more reluctant to support the President in this aspect of his foreign policy.

8/30/09

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT WILL CUT OFF AID TO HONDURAN COUP; OR WILL IT? Robert Naiman reports that, 2 months after Zelaya was forcibly removed from office, the U.S. may finally comply with U.S. law requiring termination of foreign aid for countries whose leadership is changed by coups. At least that is the recommendation of State's "staff," but there is no guarantee that Secretary Clinton will agree with it and issue the cut-off announcement. Naiman furnishes a State Department number and asks readers to call it to urge her to take that action. Commenters on the article express some skepticism that these "recorded messages" will overcome all the political pressures that have kept the U.S. on the sideline of effective opposition to the coup.

8/30/09

U.S. pleases Russia, alienates eastern European allies with suggestions that missile shield plans in Czechoslovakia and Poland may be dropped in favor of alternative locations

8/13/09

"WE'RE NOT GOING TO KEEP THE WINDOW OPEN FOREVER." This statement by Hillary Clinton in CNN interview highlights the Obama administration's increasing "impatience" for Iran to make a "diplomatic response" to demands for suspension of its nuclear weapons development efforts. Spurred by intense pressure from congressional hawks and the Israeli lobby, the administration is speaking of a possible deadline of September 30 after which sanctions such as a petroleum embargo, either unilateral as some in Congress are proposing or multi-lateral as seemingly favored by Obama, would be instituted. Some Middle East experts warn that such actions would be ineffective in changing Iranian policy and merely consolidate the hold on Iran of an aggressive Iranian government.

8/10/09

Hillary Clinton, in Africa, promises increased military aid to African countries

8/8/09

NOT SUPPORTING ANYONE IN PARTICULAR. Letter from State Department official to Republican Senator Richard Lugar seems to spell the end of official U.S. effort to end the reign of the military coup in Honduras. In the letter, Zelaya is largely blamed for his inappropriate behavior before the coup for having brought on the event. Common Dreams prints another news article on the same letter and elicits vigorous condemnation by many on that site's comments section.

COMMON DREAMS

8/3/09

Roger Noriega (R) joins Lanny Davis (D) in a bi-partisan lobbying effort in support of Honduran coup.

7/29/09

Does the U.S. (or any other nation or international body) have a right to "humanitarian intervention?" Brussels Tribunal member Jean Bricmont discusses this issue in the light of the 2005 UN resolution enshrining the world community's "responsbility to protect" (R2P) people against abuses in their own countries. Bricmont says that R2P subverts the very purpose of UN's founding: to protect the sovereignty of "weaker" nations of the world from the actions of the stronger ones. This protection fails when countries like the U.S. engage in military operations justified on the basis of "freeing" a people from the supposed humanitarian outrages of their own leaders. William Blum calls such operations "Freeing the World to Death," a practice condemned by Bricmont's analysis

7/29/09

U.S. State Department cancels diplomatic visas for 4 members of Honduran coup

7/28/09

Israeli rabbis pronounce a curse on Obama for his settlement policy. Rallies demand alteration in U.S. foreign policy of demanding end to expansion of settlements, and rabbis say this policy portends the "disintegration" of America. Meantime street rallies express their disapproval of special U.S. envoy George Mitchell by displaying signs demanding that he "go home."

7/25/09

HARD AND SOFT POWER: MORE THAN ONE WAY TO MAKE A COUP. Glenn Ford contrasts Obama's actions (and inactions) on the Honduran coup with what George Bush might have done if he were still President. Bush would probably have threatened "regime change" against the Zelaya government because of its alleged connivance with an "enemy" of U.S. foreign policy, Chavez in Venzuela. Obama's approach is different in style, if with perhaps the same effect. He makes "democratic noises" opposing the military action (which is not called a coup because it would deprive the legal right of the U.S. to help support the Honduran government), sends only low-level representatives to a "reconciliation" meeting in Costa Rica and otherwise seems to be playing a game of running out the clock on Zelaya's presidency.

7/24/09

The Honduran coup and U.S. hypocrisy about "violating the Constitution " The coup justifies its seizure of power by the claim that Zelaya had violated the constitution by trying to amend it to allow his own re-election. Republican operatives like McCain explicitly approve the coup on this basis while the Obama administration dithers about any effective U.S. action against it. The hypocracy of these condemnations lies in the fact that other exercises in which Latin American leaders have amended constitutions for their own re-elections have been condoned by U.S. officials---when these were countries that were allies of U.S. interests in the region.

7/22/09

Secretary of State Clinton's statement that Israeli would be covered by U.S. "nuclear umbrella" against Iranian nuclear attack is criticized by some in Israeli government who think it implies the "acceptability" of a nuclear-armed Iran.

7/19/09

Hillary Clinton doesn't "get it" about the power of non-violent protests to correct social evils. Speaking specifically about resolution of the crisis in Honduras, the Secretary of State condemns "any actions that might lead to violence." Al Giordano takes up the implications of "lead to" in that statement, saying it indicates opposition to current protests like the nonviolent blockade of public roads. In condemning "any actions that might lead to violence" she would put aside a long history of nonviolent actions like those of Gandhi in India or the Freedom Riders in the U.S. south whose nonviolent actions "led to" the violent actions of police authority against them.

7/19/09

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert lectures U.S. on insistence of immediate freeze of settlement activity.: Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports on Olmert's writing in Washington Post that this U.S. stance harms the "peace process" worked out between Bush and Sharon, which allowed for additional settlement building in the interest of maintaining the "stability" of the settlements. He argues that the U.S. focus on this issue is a "waste of time" which is better spent on the real peace problems, which are countering Islamist militancy, beefing up Palestinian security and addressing the nuclear threat from Iran.

7/18/09

Who's in charge of U.S. foreign policy? In examining U.S. government actions in relation to the Honduras coup, Mark Weisbrot notes a discrepancy between Obama's seeming opposition to the coup and H. Clinton's implicit or explicit support. On further analysis of Weisbrot's article and accompanying comments, it appears that the U.S. involvement in the coup may actually be coming from a "permanent government' of civil servants and quasi-public agencies who are continuing their career-long patterns of intervention in Latin American affairs.

7/17/09

"THE UNITED STATES COMPROMISED MORE THAN IT EVER HAD IN THE OAS ON THE CUBA ISSUE." ROUGH TRANSLATION: WE GOT OUR BUTTS KICKED AT SAN PEDRO SULA. State Department diplomats spin as "progress" their failed efforts to place "conditions" on Cuba's return to membership in the OAS---at a meeting Honduras in June shortly before the coup there. (No indication here of a connection between the two events.)

7/16/09

ANTI-INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION PROTESTERS USED TO "RAISE A RIOT" AGAINST OFFENDING PRODUCERS; NOWADAYS PROTESTERS ARE "TWITTERED" INTO STREET ACTION. Philip Giraldi assesses the recent protests against allegedly fraudulent elections in Iran and Moldavia, and sees a continuing pattern from the multi-colored revolutions from Ukraine to Georgia which featured U.S.-backed NGOs who were prepared to contest an election even before its completion. A staff of 6 Twitterers in Moldavia were able to "raise" in a few hours a protest of 15,000 people to demonstrate against an apparently fair election that resulted in the election of a Communist.

7/16/09

Israeli "mind games" and military exercises in Persian Gulf are described as possibly leading to U.S. involvement in conflict with Iran.

7/13/09

U.S. intervention in a political crisis in Latin America? That's so 20th Century!: As leaders in Latin America, including Hugo Chavez, cry out to the U.S. to take an active role in settling the conflict between coup and counter-coup forces in Honduras, Obama administration continues to "distance itself" from such intervention, claiming that it is trying to maintain the hands-off policy that the region's countries have heretofore said they wanted from the U.S.

7/9/09

Honduran coup: Made in the USA and tolerated by the USA for as long as possible:. Mark Weisbrot contrasts this coup of 2009 with that of Venezuela in 2002. In the earlier coup, the U.S. operated covertly to support the plotters against Chavez and openly to recognize the coup duing its brief existence. In Honoduras, the covert support is a matter of some doubt, but the U.S. reluctance to denounce the coup or take any decisive action against it occurred against a background of a very strong military establishment in Honduras, nourished and trained within the U.S.A.

7/6/09

Obama administration speaks out of both sides of its mouth about an Israeli attack on Iran .  While Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says that any such attack would be blamed on the U.S. with "disastrous" consequences, Vice President Joe Biden, in a TV interview, says the U.S. won't stand in the way of any attack that Israel deems to be necessary as a response to an "existential threat."

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/07/05/biden-israel-entitled-to-attack-iran/

7/5/09

There you go again, Mr. Obama.  William Blum, keeper of the "Anti-Empire Report" which documents the endless string of U.S. interventions in the affairs of other nations, welcomes President Obama to this parade of interventions, with reference to U.S. connections to "electoral fraud" in Iran and the military coup in Honduras.  He also welcomes aboard the newly-minted Senator from Minnesota, Al Franken, who shows every sign of being an enthusiastic recruit to the cause of U.S. imperialism

 http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/07/much-ado-about-nothing/

7/5/09

PRESIDENT OBAMA, BEFORE YOU GO TO MOSCOW, WOULD YOU PLEASE READ YOUR E-MAILS?  If you do, you'll find an "emergency e-mail" from Cindy Sheehan asking you to condemn Israel for its act of "piracy" in kidnapping and imprisoning Cythnia McKinney and others, including Ireland's Nobel laureate, for attempting to take humanitarian aid to Gaza.  Ireland has already taken  that action on behalf of one of its citizens, how about the U.S.?  Just hit the "reply" button and tell Cindy what you plan to do, she will forward your response to the rest of us.

http://www.countercurrents.org/sheehan020709.htm

7/4/09

On Latin American policy, has Obama been a GOB or a JAAP?  Using the administration's actions and inactions on the Honduran coup as a starting point, Alexander Cockburn assesses whether Obama as been a GOB (Good  Obama) or JAAP (Just Another Awful President) on the matter.  Mostly Cockburn comes down on the side of the JAAP label, as he notes the continuity of the Honduran military coup with a long history of U.S. sponsorship through its School of the Americas training of the thugs who helped maintain elite corporate dominance in the region.  As the ALBA revolution in Latin America has proceeded, the Obama administration had been forced to get on the "side of history" by denouncing the coup, but has shown nothing near the level of active moves to force a more "democratic" resolution of the crisis in Iran.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn07032009.html

7/3/09

CHALMERS JOHNSON: BASELESS U.S. EXPENDITURE FOR EMBASSIES AND MILITARY BASES WILL SPEND U.S. EMPIRE INTO BANKRUPTCY.  Recent announcement, almost ignored by the press, that the U.S. would be spending many millions of dollars to build a Vatican-sized embassy in Pakistan, highlights a new twist on a very old story: that of "over-extended" empires which bankrupt themselves by such expenses for "administering" their empires.  Chinese lenders who hold the bank-notes on the funding of these extravagances are awaiting loan defaults to create "the end of the United States as we  know it."

http://tomdispatch.com/post/175091/chalmers_johnson_baseless_expenditures

7/2/09

Moral absurdity in the age of Obama:.  Paul Street undertakes a wide-ranging survey of the Obama administration's finally calibrated "morality" in responding to world events.  This calibration seems to be based on the President's "loved philosopher" Reinhold Niebuhr's idea of the "paradox of grace" for a world superpower that requires it to commit "sin" in the interest of promoting its wider mandate to spread goodness around the world.  To cite recent examples, Obama spoke of the "extraordinarily painful" incident of Neda Soltan's killing during a protest against the Iranian elections, but has never spoken with such intensity of the pain inflicted by U.S. troops or those of Israel on civilians in Irag, Afghanistan and Gaza,  close to a "shit happens" attitude about the "collateral damage" created when an imperial power is on its civilizing mission.  The position on the Honduran coup is a more nuanced version of this attitude.  While verbally condemning the assault on democracy involved in the coup, the government is unwilling to exert the pressure it could bring to bear on a country in which the opposition leaders are more in line with U.S. neo-liberal policies than the "leftist" leader whom the coup ousted.

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21841

6/19/09

Neo-conservative hawks and former presidential candidate McCain are pushing President Obama to abandon his "cautious" response to the electoral crisis in Iran, as many of these people seem to be seizing an opportunity to scuttle the President's "out-reach" to Iran and promote their larger agenda of "regime change" in Iran.

http://original.antiwar.com/luban/2009/06/18/electoral-chaos-energises-neoconservative-hawks/

6/18/09

"He does not want to be seen as meddling in Iranian domestic politics."  New York Times description of the "muted" response of President Obama toward the protests in Iran against the election there. This comes as various advisers, including his Vice President and Secretary of State, are urging a "stronger" response. Others approve the caution, saying U.S. official report might hurt the protesters by making it "appear" that their actions are U.S.-instigated. Behind these concerns about "appearance" may be the sense that explicit Presidential endorsements of insurgent actions in other countries should be avoided to allow U.S. "clandestine" operations to do their work.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/us/politics/18prexy.html?th&emc=th

6/11/09

U.S State Department talking from both sides of its mouth on nuclear North Korea:.  Nominee for State Department deputy for south Asia says the U.S. will "not accept" a nuclearized North Korea; while the Special Envoy to the region says the U.S. has "no intention" of invading the country, leaving it ambiguous as to just what U.S."non-acceptance" would entail. Nominee:

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/06/10/state-dept-nominee-us-wont-accept-nuclear-north-korea/

ENVOY

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/06/10/us-special-envoy-no-intention-of-invading-north-korea/

6/10/09

U.S. envoy to Middle East, George Mitchell says that, despite U.S. differences with Israel over settlements policy, U.S. commitment to Israeli security is "unshakeable."

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200961002735655132.html

6/8/09

Speak softly and carry a big Secretary of State.  After President Obama's "out-reach" speech to the "Muslim world" in Cairo, his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, warns on  Sunday TV program that the U.S. might undertake a "first strike" against Iran to prevent its nuclear weapons development.  That, or "another enemy" of Iran might make the strike.  While not identifying that "other enemy" or indicating a U.S. response to such strike, she is obviously talking about Israel as, during the same interview, she extends the "nuclear umbrella" to that country if it were to be attacked by Iran.

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/06/07/clinton-threatens-to-attack-iran-the-way-that-we-did-iraq/

6/4/09

As Obama prepares to give "the speech," he should be planning a visit to Gaza.:.  So says Medea Benjamin, whose Code Pink organization is sponsoring unauthorized trips to Gaza, which is under Israeli siege.  Apparently there is no place in his itinerary for any such visit, nor to the separation-walled West Bank; and his time is being filled with royal dinners with the Saudi Arabian Prince and in conferences with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10573.shtml

6/4/09

Obama, in Cairo, "speaks frankly" to Muslims about control of terrorism, while he "reaches out" by allowing members of Muslim Brotherhood opposition to Egyptian President Mubarak to attend the speech.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5442266/Barack-Obama-to-speak-of-new-partnership-with-Middle-East-in-Cairo-speech.html

6/4/09

Shadowy hand of Israeli intelligence seen in Senate report on Iran's "nuclear warhead" capability.: Gareth Porter for Inter Press Service describes recent news reports, resulting from deliberations of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to the effect that the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate of 2007 which down-played Iran's nuclear capability represesnted a coverup of a "laptop document" showing Iran was in possession of "nuclear warheads."  Porter's analysis traces this "information" to likely sources in Israeli intelligence, and indicates that the document (documents) in question actually refer to electronic equipment associated with re-entry of Iranian space missile, not to "nuclear warheads."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47081

6/3/09

Robert Fisk doubts that Arabs will pay much attention to Obama's "Muslim world" speech. As Obama prepares to speak in Egypt, he may find an audience deeply jaded by discrepancies in the past between what U.S. Presidents say and do about Muslim relations.  A commenter on Common Dreams post of Fisk article (June 2 10:30 am) suggests that Muslims would "listen" well enough if Obama went to a West Bank apartheid wall and said "tear down this wall, Mr. Netanyahu" or the Egypt/Gaza border and said "tear down this border crossing barrier, Mr. Mubarak."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/02-4

6/3/09

Obama arrives in Saudi Arabia to begin Middle East peacemaking mission.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8081191.stm

6/1/09

Ramzy Baroud says that President Obama's impending trip to the Middle East is based on the myth of a unidimensional "Muslim world," ready to be manipulated by the latest rhetorical flourishes in U.S. foreign policy

 http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KF02Ak04.html

5/31/09

Game is on for Benjamin Netanyahu:.  This "game,"  as described by Ramzy Baroud and played so successfully by many predecessors of the Israeli PM, involves his "sitting down" with a U.S. President and exchanging a pleasant "consensus" on their desire for a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian conflict.  The next move is to visit Congress and be lionized by the Zionist-influenced figures of that body; then returning to counter-productive (for peace) illegal settlements, apartheid walls and seiges of Gaza or Lebanon or X-other threatening entity.  A key "move" in the game is his visit to Capitol Hill as he in effect "goes around" the U.S. President to the Congress which is the real focus of the Israel-lobby power. Point-set-match.

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21580

5/25/09

Dick Cheney slips and lets a big cat out of the bag of U.S. foreign policy as related to terrorism.:   In a speech, the former Vice President enumerates as one of the grievances against the U.S. that motivates terrorist attacks an American foreign policy favoring Israel.  Ray McGovern sees this as truth out of the mouth of a neo-con, and this motivation is likely to see little change with an Obama Israeli policy little different from the Bush/Cheney one.

\http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22693.htm

5/23/09

From "disastrous backlash" to "refreshed" plans.:U.S. attack on Iran goes back on the Pentagon's table:.   These are terms used by Defense Secretary Gates a month ago and then this week.  With the White House conference between Obama and Israeli PM Netanyahu concluded, it is unclear whether what Gates' description of Obama's order for an upgrade is a real threat of U.S. action of the sort Netanyahu would like to see, or whether it is a matter of "international posturing," especially part of an effort of the U.S. to restrain Israel from making any such attack.

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/05/22/obama-orders-update-to-iran-attack-plan/

5/11/09

"We want to respect their sovereignty, but..."  As President Obama meets with the "sovereign" heads of state of Afghanistan and Pakistan, he makes it clear to these U.S.-supported "sovereigns" that they must  condition their independence on U.S. needs to "defeat Al Qaeda," because that is a "U.S. national interest."  If Pakistani civilians in the Swat Valley are killed by U.S. drones and U.S. eradication of the poppy fields on which Pashtun peasants depend for their livelihoods---and by U.S.-demanded Pakistani military assault on the region---that is all in the U.S. "national interest."  Actually, writes Pepe Escobar, the real U.S. interest in AfPak is a "balkanization" of the region in which no national unities will interfere with the "big prize" in the Great Game of geo-politics in the area: the U.S. ability to control the oil pipe line in Balochistan in southwest Pakistan, to prevent Iranian, Russian or Indian control of yet another vital "stan": Pipelinestan.  (Zbigniew Brzezinksi, where are you hiding out now?)

http://atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KE08Df02.html

5/11/09

Debate is raging in Obama administration over whether the most serious security threat is Al Qaeda (the AfPak operation) or Iranian nuclear threat (the threat of choice of AIPAC)

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46787

5/9/09

THE EVERYDAY EXTREMISM OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY DELIBERATIONS.  Tom Engelhardt describes with biting satire the hyperbole of "crisis" that is part of the everyday news coverage of the "dire situation" in Pakistan.  This includes reports of "almost daily" meetings on the subject, although the outcome of these "meetings" is often a foregone conclusion.  These deliberations illustrate as well the arrogance of American people and their leaders in assuming that  "American national security" justifies intrusions of American power in any place in the world where a "crisis" in international relations occurs.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175069/everyday_is_doomsday_in_washington

5/1/09

Asia Times columnist Pepe Escobar comments on the "hysteria" being generated by the media and by U.S. and Pakistani governments as a small band of Taliban insurgents are beginning to operate fairly close to Islamabad.  Escobar sees this as a fake emergency being propagated to further the Obama administration AfPak strategy of broadening the scope of the current "overseas contingency operation" and the Pakistani government's desire to promote their suppression of Pashtun tribesmen.  The two governments find a common tactic in fingering a new "boogeyman" to replace the disappeared leaders of al Qaeda like Osama bin Laden.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KE01Df01.html

5/1/09

U.S. FAKES A LONG PASS TO WIN A "TWO STATES" SOLUTION IN THE MIDDLE EAST, THEN FALLS ON THE BALL TO RUN SOME MORE CLOCK.  President Obama's recent statement of the relation between Israelis and Palestinian calls for the restoration of the "Arab Peace Initiative" of 2002 as the basis of a settlement.  However he cites only the most Israeli-favorable terms of that initiative, including Palestinian renunciation of violence and an "Arab states" (i.e. U.S. client states) role in its enforcement.  What Obama omits to mention is that the initiative defines, as a precondition of further action, that Israeli must withdraw its control to the borders existing before the 1967 war.  Israel, especially under its more "hard line" new government, hasn't the faintest intention of doing that, and the failure to put the Arab demand "on the table" means that will be no peace settlement and Israel has bought yet more time to create "conditions on the ground" (settlements, separation walls) that will make future "two-state" settlement all the harder

http://www.counterpunch.org/cantarow04302009.html

4/28/09

Obama and the pirates.  Writer in Nation expresses concern over "mixed signals" sent by Obama administration in the matter of Somali piracy.  On the one hand, Defense Secretary Gates maintains a "take it easy" attitude of minimizing the overall geo-political significance of the piracy incidents.  On the other, neo-con figures in the foreign policy establishment are drawing an assumption about the relation between Somali militants and Al Qaeda that threaten an "anti-terrorist" invasion of Somali.  The writer fears that Obama may be tempted to undertake just such action as a way of enjoying some "success" to temper the bad news from Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090511/rothmyer?rel=hp_currently 

4/27/09

U.S. STRATEGISTS AGREE ON ONLY ONE THING ABOUT PAKISTAN; THAT THE SECURITY SITUATION THERE IS DIRE AND APPROACHING A "TIPPING POINT."  As al Queda forces push ever closer to Islamabad, U.S. policy advisers struggle for a "new strategy" before the last "new strategy" of Obama was even put in place. There is little consensus, however, in what that strategy should be, especially the relationship of the U.S. to the disappointingly meagre efforts of the Pakistani government to contain the insurgency.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/66890.html

4/24/09

Asia Times columnist says U.S. government faces a "ticking clock" in determining its policy toward the repressive regime in Myanmar.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/KD25Ae02.html

4/17/09

Ominous rumbles from Pakistan: Will the country go the way of Swat?  Release of a radical cleric and his triumphant speech before thousands of Islamist supporters at the Red Mosque in Islamabad raises a question whether the Pakistani government is moving toward broadening of its decision to allow the imposition of Islamic law in the northwest territory of Swat.  If this occurs, its raises the troublesome spectre for American foreign policy of an "ally in the war against terrorism," and a nuclear-armed one at that, becoming part of the anti-American insurgency that flourishes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/255/story/66369.html

4/15/09

Bloom is off the rose in Georgia.  The 2003 popular uprising, with covert U.S. support, that deposed a pro-Russian government in favor of a pro-American one, produced a "rose revolution" now severely on the wane, as demonstrations grow against Mikheil Saakashvili, who prosecuted an unsuccessful war against Russia last year.  The fall of this government could well endanger the "grand game" geo-political strategy of Zbigniew Brzezinski, foreign policy advisor to both Carter and Obama, who envisioned U.S. presence in Georgia  a "beachhead" for American operations in Afghanistan.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/04/a-rocky-beachhead-instability-in-georgia-puts-us-geostrategic-plans-at-risk/

4/14/09

U.S. Navy Seals sharpshooters kill 3 Somali pirates aboard a small boat holding a U.S. hostage, thus ending "negotiations" for his release.  The incident follows a weekend in which the Obama adminstration was taking a beating in news media (including Wall Street Journal and New York Times) for his "inaction" in the matter and came with assurance that the President himself ordered the shooting.  Critics note that the whole "pirate" affair has occurred with little media or public interest or understanding of long and recent history of U.S. "action" in Somalia, including support of an Ethiopian invasion that killed 16,000 Somalia civilians or the denial of fishing livelihoods by many of the Somalias who became pirates.  As well, the shooting operation was undertaken in the face of warnings that it would tend to escalate the level of violence between pirates and international shippers.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/apr2009/soma-a13.shtml

49/09

Heym I was just doing my job!  This is, in effect, Steve Rosen's claim as he sues his former employer, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC.).  His civil suit filings claim that the traffic between government officials and "foreign policy advocacy" outfits like AIPAC are part of the normal system for the transfer of information about government intentions that such outfits need if they are to do their jobs.  After he was indicted for just such trafficking on behalf of  AIPAC he was fired, leading to the pending lawsuit.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/04/why-steve-rosen-is-suing-aipac/

4/9/09

Kazakhstan may be playing a role in a renewed "Great Game" of central Asian politics as Obama makes gestures toward accommodating Iran's nuclear ambitions.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KD10Ak03.html

3/25/09

U.S. AND CHINESE NAVIES PLAY CAT-AND-MOUSE; A GAME OF TACTICS AND STRATEGY.  A recent incident of a U.S. ship being "harassed" by Chinese Navy as it was engaging in surveillance in Chinese waters of a new class of submarine illustrates, says William S. Lind, how foreign policy decisions may be tactically appropriate but strategically disastrous.  Tactically, it was advantageous to China to develop those submarines to close the gap with the United States in its naval forces. Tactically, it was advantageous to the U.S. Navy to have information about these new Chinese weapons.  Strategically, the U.S. presence in Chinese waters and the Chinese harassment of a U.S. ship was counter-productive of the mutual need of the two countries to avoid a military conflict the result of which would be destruction of the power of both countries and the rise of a chaotic world situation of Fourth Generation "non-state" powers. The tactical question is how you can better prevail in a conflict; the strategic question is how you avoid that mutually-destructive conflict.

http://www.counterpunch.org/lind03242009.html

3/18/09

Whither U.S. policy in the Middle East?  Bill and Kathleen Christison examine this question, beginning with the observation that Obama  "does not want to be the American leader who loses the American empire." In his quest to preserve U.S. imperial dominance, the only really viable options the Christisons can see is that: (a) he continue to "bumble along" the path of U.S. dithering in Middle Eastern affairs set by President Bush; or "(b) that he will yield to the pressures of the Israel lobby and the military-industrial complex to engage in escalated military operations which seem to center, for now, on the possibility that Iran will the focus of such operations.  Based on developments so far (like lack of presidential protection for the Freeman appointment), they fear that the second option will become the reality of policy;

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22231.htm

3/16/09

Is a new period of "good neighbor" policy in relations between the U.S. and Latin America in the offing?: Jake Johnston assays this possibility, based on such hopeful signs as a friendly relation between Obama and lefist leaders like Chavez and Morales, the apparent lack of U.S. interference in El Salvador's election, and signs of a lightening intensity of U.S.-support of war on drugs in Mexico.  Some proof of this prospect may come as leaders convene next month in the Summit of the Americas.

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20884

3/15/09

WHAT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION (DEFENSE SECRETARY GATES) PROMISED, THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION (DEFENSE SECRETARY GATES) WILL DELIVER.  President Bush in 2007 promised to deliver $30 billion in military aid to Israel over the "next decade."  To finish out the decade under a new presidency, Israeli newspaper Haaretz says Obama administration has indicated its intention to honor that commitment

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070318.html

3/12/09

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told the Palestinian Authorty that the U.S. pledge of $900 million for their assistance will not be paid unless both parties in a contemplated Palestinian coalition, Hamas and Fatah, proclaim Israel's "right to exist" and renounce violence.  No word on whether the mega-billions of U.S. military aid to Israel will be contingent on Israel's recognition of the right of Gaza to "exist" as the siege thereof continues with U.S. approval or whether the IDF will renounce violence against Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070450.html

3/12/09

Chalres Freeman touches thrid rail of U.S. politics and gets knocked out of the box.:.  The intended appointee to a top post in the national intelligence system was a long-time critic of Israeli policy, a position that resulted in his angry "withdrawal" from consideration for the post.  He and his supporters claim that his downfall resulted from the influence of the "Israel lobby" on U.S. politics in general and that in particular of President Obama, who has made recurring efforts to "distance himself" from any critics of Israel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/washington/12lobby.html?th&emc=th

3/11/09

H. CLINTON TREADS LIGHTLY IN THE LAND OF B. NETANYAHU AND A. LIEBERMAN.  On her "peace" mission to the Middle East, new U.S. Secretary of State shows herself as a kindred spirit with the new Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Israel, almost "apologizing" that the U.S. is not being more aggressive toward Iran.  Meantime Avigdor Lieberman displays some "pure and unadulterated racism" by proposing an anti-Arab program of "no citizenship without loyalty." 

http://www.counterpunch.org/kaminer03102009.html  

3/10/09

U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East: Change we might beleive in.: Columnist for the Lebanon Daily Star is surprised at the sea change noted in Obama administration efforts to replace military threats and economic sanctions with sit-down diplomatic talks with Iran, Syria and Hizbollah, with similar approaches to Hamas but a matter of time.  Israeli influence on U.S. and U.K. is seen to be on the wane.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_id=99896

3/7/09

A think tank influential in Bush administration, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, issues a report advocating aggressive U.S. stance toward Iran's alleged development of nuclear weapons, and the report is endorsed by Special Envoy for Asia, Dennis Ross, who resigned from WINEP before accepting his administration post.  WINEP was founded by a former official of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and has been described as a major instrument of influence of the "Israel lobby" on U.S. foreign policy.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46019

ON WINEP:

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1568.html

3/6/09

Hillary Clinton joins the parade of "farcical" diplomatic trips to the Middle East.:  On her current mission, Clinton is offering that familiar hand of U.S. friendship to Israel in its defense of those who supposedly would destroy it, speaks with the (no longer) President of the Palestinian Authoity who has no legimitacy with the Palestian people, and ignores or demonizes the legitimate government of Hamas.  Though she offers a tepid "unhelpful" characterization of Israel settlements continuing to grow in the West Bank, her trip does not point toward what former U.S. Senator James Abourezk calls the only way the "peace process" will ever proceed: when and if the U.S. demands that Israel stops the settlements.

http://www.counterpunch.org/abourezk03052009.html

3/3/09

NOT ONLY IN AMERICA: THE WORLD BECOMES "POST-RACIAL" IN U.S. FAILURE TO PARTICIPATE IN WORLD CONFERENCE ON RACISM.   As "Durban II' convenes to highlight a rising tide of ethnic hatred and tension in the world, the U.S.---allegedly under "Jewish lobby" influence---refuses to participate because of expectation that conference will treat Zionism as a form of racial discrimination. 

http://www.alternet.org/audits/129674/ 

3/3/09

New York Times gets information from sources "on condition of anonymity" within Obama administration sources that the President last month sent a "secret letter" to Russian President Medvedev offering to pull back the U.S. missile shield in eastern Europe in return for Russia's exerting influence on Iran not to develop long-range nuclear weapons systems. While Medvedev is yet to respond, Russia's Foreign Minister is expected to respond to H. Clinton in her visit to Russia this week. (Does the Russian language have 4-letter words?)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/washington/03prexy.html?th&emc=th

2/28/09

Pat Buchanan is fearful the neo-con "war party" will have its way on Iran.:   Election of a more right-leaning government in Iraq and the appointment to a State department portfolio on Iran for Dennis Ross are among the signs indicating that Iran's development of nuclear weapons (questionable) may be used to justify pre-emptive military action against Iran.  In sharply opposing any such scenario, the conservative writer notes that the West's nuclear capacity has thwarted any threat of nuclear attack from Russia for many decades.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22113.htm

2/21/09

Will Obama policy toward Israel and Palestine be a "clean break from the past?"  The self-professed path-breaking President has his opportunity, says Saleh Obeid, noting that the "past" of Presidential policy began with Truman's recognition of the state of Israel and continued through every administration with a highly protective relationship between the U.S. and Israel.  Before his inauguration, Obama disdained comment on the Gaza invasion, saying the "country has only one President at a time."  A month into his reign as the "one President," the country is still waiting for him to speak (beyond ignoring one arguably anti-Israel question raised by Helen Thomas at his first press conference)

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/an-underdogs-dilemma/

2/21/09

Indian government officials said to be smarting under the perception that U.S. relations with Pakistan are more important to Obama administration than their relations with India.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/KB21Aa04.html

2/20/09

Hillary Clinton's tour of Asia is described by AP as being like a campaign swing as she is "cautious" about President Obama's "still emerging" policies but "ebullient" in soaking up the embraces of happy crowds.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090220/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/as_clinton_asia_scene

2/18/09

Thaw in U.S. relations with Venezuela suggested in State Department's praise of the referedum "process" by which Chavez was granted additional tenure, State refrains from commenting on the outcome, that is "Venezuela's business."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45800

2/13/09

Memo to Richard Holbrokoke: "Afghanistan is the side show and Pakistan is the main event." So says Asian affairs expert Peter Lee, noting that U.S. focus on "bullyragging" Pakistan into counterinsurgency operations against Taliban operating from Pakistani bases is a "strategic blunder of historic proportion."  Such policy fails to recognize how tribal Pashtun nationalism is being co-opted by the Taliban, making Pakistan itself a major target of terrorist  actions.  Seeing Pakistan as the "main event" would lead toward policies aimed at helping Pakistan to encourage the integration of the Pashtuns into the national society.

http://www.counterpunch.org/lee02122009.html  

2/10/09

Iran's fist is clenched for a reason.  Title of article by Muhammed Sahimi in which he explores the history of Iranian insecurity based on incursions on its sovereignty by other nations.  President Obama's offer to extend a hand to Iran if it will "unclinch its fist" fails to acknowledge the reason for its sense of insecurity and need for self-protection, given the history of a CIA coup against its government in 1953 and the U.S. support of Iran in the Iraq-Iran war, among other hostile acts of the U.S. against Iraq.  Understanding the reason for its clenched fist would be a great start toward thawing the relations between the two countries.

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/sahimi.php?articleid=14219

2/8/09

Who will bail out America as it enters the graveyard of history?  Tom Engelhardt raises that question in an essay on the impending U.S. "quagmire" in Afghanistan, as that country becomes the graveyard of yet another "empire."  Zbigniew Brzezinski once boasted that, by helping to bog down the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, the U.S. gave the Soviet Union its "own Viet Nam war."  Apparently learning nothing from Soviet (and others countries' experience) in Afghanistan, U.S. policy-makers are proceeding toward a situation in which only other countries of the world can "bail out" the American Empire, and there seems little political will for those other countries to furnish the required "stimulus package."

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175030/the_empire_v_the_graveyard

2/5/09

The Russians made them do it!  This is the assertion to the New York Times of unnamed "officials" of the U.S. Defense and State departments with the impending decision in Krygyzstan to order the U.S. air base out of the country.  Russian "pressure" is suggested since, for some reason, Russia has not cared for the location of U.S. air bases near their borders in central Asia. (Never mind that citizens of that country have long engaged in protest against the U.S. base, perhaps the work of "outside agitators,")  The U.S is now "scrambling" for an alternative base in the region to support the escalated military action in Afghanistan that Obama has promised and is already starting to deliver

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/world/europe/05kyrgyz.html?th&emc=th 

2/2/09

With President Obama, Araba leaders hope for change in U.S.policy on Israel and Palestine, but patience is running out: Former Saudi diplomat surveys numerous indications that Arab states feel increasing urgency to demand that U.S. advance the peace process along the lines of the Arab Initiative, and adopt an equally tough stance between the combatants in Gaza.  Otherwise, portents of support for "Holy Jihad" are sweeping across the Arab world.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21871.htm

2/1/09

"INSTITUTIONALlZING THE FREEDOM AGENDA"  A U.S. foreign policy "agenda" of this title was pronounced by President Bush, affirmed in a 2007 Advance Democracy Act of Congress, and seems well on its way to being "institutionalized" in the Obama administration.  The agenda was begun in the 1980s under President Reagan, and featured counter-insurgency operations in Latin America and the formation of the National Endowment for Demcracy which has been involved in clandestine "democracy" operations in Venezuela and elsewhere aimed at the very "regime change" which Bush said was not U.S. policy.  Every indication is that there will be far more continuity than change of personel and projects with the new administration.

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20417

1/29/09

Is somebody throwing sand in the gears of a U.S. diplomatic outreach to Iran?  That somebody may be Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who continues the role he has played since the presidency of George H.W. Bush in trying to discourage diplomatic initiatives with U.S. adversaries.  The new version of his old trick is to claim this week that Iran is involved in "subversive activity" in Latin America.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/01/is-gates-undermining-another-opening-to-iran/

1/28/09

Velvet glove and mailed fist.  Justin Raimondo so summarizes the net effect of two simultaneous events.  While President Obama on Arab TV soothingly tells Muslims that Americans want to be their "friends," he re-iterates that the security of Israel is "paramount" in U.S. interest in the Middle East, and U.S. drones continue an escalation of military action against Pakistan with attacks that kill still more Muslim civilians.

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=14152

1/27/09

Barack Obama endorses the Arab Leagure proposal for peace in the Middle East...His version of it:   Noam Chomsky notes how Obama's "new" approach to the region's conflicts looks very much like the "old" one of George W. Bush.  He puts the main burden of conflict reduction on the shoulders of the Palestinians (on the Fatah faction thereof, which has very little legitimacy among the Palestinian people) and fails to recognize the critical role of Israeli actions, with U.S. support, that make impossible the "two-state solution" with guaranteed security of both Palestine and Israel that is the essence of the Arab League proposal.

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20364

1/26/09

"On the wrong side of history."  Jewish peace activist Uri Avnery takes this phrase from Barack Obama's inauguration address, twists it into an interpretation that this is a "message" to Israel about its Palestinian policies, and sees in the Obama election a U.S. political "jump to the left" while Israel is about to take a further "jump to the right" in its national elections.  All the commenters (so far) on the Counter Currents posting of this article take sharp exception to Avnery's interpretation of Obama's Middle East policy.

http://www.countercurrents.org/avnery250109

1/26/09

Israeli president not expecting Mitchell to put any "pressure" on Israel:.  President Obama's "special envoy" to the Middle East, George Mitchell, will be "getting information" only, says President Simon Peres, noting that he will be talking with Fatha and Israeli leaders but not with Hamas; and no break is expected in continuity with Bush administration's indifference or futility in "pressuring" Israel on its West Bank settlements or its Gazan blockade.

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/01/25/obamas-envoy-wont-introduce-any-new-policies-israeli-president-assures/

1/24/09

.Just as happened under the Bush administration, drone attacks on "terrorist" targets inside Pakistan kill a number of civilians, including at least 3 children.  Rather than stopping these attacks, Obama sends a new envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, leading foreign policy adviser in both the Bill Clinton administration and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5575883.ece

ON HOLBROOKE'S BACKGROUND:

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20355

1/23/09

Asia Times columnist says Barack Obama may need a new "playbook" for Gaza in which he understands the suffering of Palestinian refugees in Jabaliya as well he does those who are victims of rockets in Sderot.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KA24Ak02.html

1/22/09

"Tough choices" on Palestine await new Obama administration.   Hamas has emerged from its recent battle with Israel in Gaza "unbroken" and extremely popular through all of Palestine.  The choice is between the Israeli project of "isolating" Hamas and supporting Fatah in any "unity government," or allowing Hamas a major if not dominating role in any such government.  The prospect of Hamas once again winning a democratically-conducted election raises the fear of grave offense to America's "staunch ally," Israel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/world/middleeast/22gaza.html?th&emc=th

1/17/09

Rice and Livni sign a "memorandum of understanding" on Gaza that looks a lot like a war pact: The U.S. and Israel foreign ministers sign an agreement that is called a "vital component" toward a ceasefire, as the U.S. agrees to enhance its help to Israel in stopping the smuggling of arms to Hamas.  Absent any involvement at all of Hamas in this "understanding," a Middle East expert says "this agreement commits the coming administration (Obama) to further collaboration with the Israelis on the Gaza issue."

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/01/2009116164457134763.html

1/15/09

Frida Berrigan finds a "thin ray of hope" in questioning of Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton that the Obama administration may move to curb Israeli violence by pulling back on arms deals with Israel.

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5791  

1/14/09

Israeli PM Olmert brags about his influence on George W. Bush, a claim that the State Department vigorously denies.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45401

1/14/09

Norman Finklestein: It;s time for the US. and Israel to join the rest of the world on the Palestinian issue: The rest of the world, including Hamas, is ready to resolve the long conflict by establishing a two-state solution along the 1967 border, but Israel is resistant to any such diplomacy and, with U.S. encouragement, provokes Hamas aggressiveness which it has used to justify its own attempt to suppress the Palestinians by military intimidation.

http://www.counterpunch.org/finkelstein01132009.html

1/12/09

"Maybe now isn't the time to go abroad in search of monsters to destroy."  Benjamin Schwarz sees in the words of President-elect Obama and his closest foreign policy advisors a disconcerting tendency to continue and expand U.S. interventionism in the affairs of other countries in the interest of promoting "democracy and freedom" in the U.S. understanding of those terms.  What Obama, like all American Presidents, refers to as  a mandate of American world "leadership," those in other countries see as American arrogance, creating resentments that make American hegemony even harder to obtain.  The trend in the world toward a multi-polar world with diminishing opportunity for one country dominance, described in a recent National Intelligence report, suggests that the "change" in world politics is not at all what Obama and his predecessors have been promoting.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200901/editors-choice

1/10/09

House joins Senate in endorsing Israel and condemning Hamas in their conflict.  By vote of 390--5 (22, mostly members of Progressive Caucus, voting "present"), House approves a resolution blaming Hamas terrorism for the Israeli invasion of Gaza and even praises Israel for its "humanitarian" approach to Gaza.  A day earlier the Senate had approved a similar resolution by a voice vote. Kucinich, Paul, Moore (WI), Rahall and Waters are the sole nay votes

TEXT OF LEGISLATION: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.res.00034:

THE VOTE: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll010.xml

1/10/09

It's nearly official: U.S. Mideast policy in Obama administration to be determined by Israel: Jewish news agency JTA reports that two key figures in the U.S. Israeli lobby will likely be appointed to major posts in upcoming administration.  As long rumored and feared in some quarters, Dennis Ross, a highly Israeli-partisan hawk from the Clinton administration, is expected to be named special Middle East assistant in the State Department.  Dan Shapiro, an architect in Congress of the Syria Accountability Act which, on behalf of Israel, condemned Syrian terrorist action against Israel, is slated to be appointed to the Middle East desk of the National Security Council.

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/01/08/1002094/ross-shapiro-likely-to-land-govt-jobs 

1/9/09

U.S. Senate expresses "unwavering committment" to Israel's welfare and recognizes its right to act in self defense to protect citizens against acts of terrorism: This resolution passes by voice vote. The vote "also allows for the long-term improvement of daily living conditions of the ordinary people of Gaza," according to Senator Harry Reid.  Given that Israel continues heavy bombardment of Gaza using the "unwavering commitment" of U.S. munitions and that humanitarian aid to the besieged population is being denied by both Israel and Egypt, the lawmakers may need to specify how Israeli-supported action can possibly improve the "daily living conditions" of Gazans, short of their total extermination.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/01/08-9

1/9/09

El Salvador joins Venezuela and Bolivia on the "bad boys" list of U.S. democracy promoters:.  The "pro-democracy" crowd of the Agency for International Development and the National Endowment for Democracy is gearing up for yet another effort to intervene in elections in a Latin American country in order to keep it open for U.S. investers in the U.S. "backyard."  The occasion is this year's national elections, in which a leftist party is threatening to push El Salvador into the "Bolivarian revolution" of Latin American autonomy from U.S. domination.  Campaigning is beginning to threaten would-be opposition voters with the spectre that the U.S. might retaliate with further crackdowns on Salvardoran immigrants in the U.S., drastically reducing income for the "remittances" of immigrants to their home country folks

http://nacla.org/node/5363  

1/6/09

Gaza and the Bay of Pigs: Can you spell fait accompli?:   Barack Obama may need not only to learn to spell it but to deal with the consequences of the lame duck actions of an outgoing Republican administration that has created a "fact on the ground" of a U.S.-sponsored invasion of dubious legality and lack of prospects for success, just as JFK "inherited" the Bay of Pigs fiasco from a lame duck Eisenhower. Michael Carmichael says that the invasion of Gaza by Israel with U.S. support and military personnel has the same capacity of derailing the Obama administration  before it starts that the Bay of Pigs operation had in 1961. Was this the existential challenge to a young Obama administration foretold by the Prophet Biden?  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21646.htm  FOR A SIMILAR VIEWPOINT, SEE

http://sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/?p=131

1/5/09

The "anti-democratic" character of U.S. policy towards Latin America has a long history:.  This was the assertion of a book by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, written but suppressed in the 1970s, in a history going back to George Kennan's bald statement in the 1950s that U.S. economic exploitation of Latin America would have to be accompanied by turning a blind eye to issues of authoritarianism and human abuses in these countries.  These views are discussed  by Herman in a recent Z-net interview.

http://www.zmag.org/zvideo/2962  

1/3/09

"Strategic partnership" between India and the United States is likely to be re-evaluated as new governments take office in both countries.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JL25Df02.html.

12/18/08

U.S. seeks UN approval to make Somalia a "free-fire zone" in the "war on piracy.":  Chris Floyd so describes the effort to elicit UN sanction for other countries,  with "Somalia government approval" to conduct raids against piracy "hang outs" in Somalia.  Being that the "Somali government" (what is left of it) is U.S. backed (through its Ethiopian surrogate), this approval should be no problem.  Main stream media and even the "progressive blogosphere" have generally failed to inform the public on the U.S. role in creating the very "piracy" activities that the U.S. is now so eager to suppress.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11375

SEE ALSO:

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=935&Itemid=1

12/13/08

Some Arab countries see delpoyment of anti-piracy navies of the coast of Somalia as a trojan horse threatening Arab national security:   At a Cairo meeting, countries in the Red Sea area plan their own anti-piracy measures, while concern is expressed that U.S., Indian and other foreign vessels operating in the area may be there as a pretext to assert foreign dominance over Arab affairs.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44897

12/12/08

"Unclear at best"  Writer for AntiWar.Com posts this tag on the reported intention of President-elect Obama to provide a "nuclear umbrella" for Israel, promising a "devastating" nuclear attack on Iran should that country launch a nuclear attack on Israel.  Even Israeli leaders are said to be "puzzled" by the offer, since Iran has no immediate such capability, Israel has sufficient weapons itself to launch a retaliatory attack and the umbrella seems merely a "bellicose" gesture at odds with Obama's promised emphasis on diplomacy in dealing with Iran

http://news.antiwar.com/2008/12/11/obama-to-offer-nuclear-umbrella-to-israel/

12/10/08

"Even the short man can see the sky; when will the international community see what's happening in Somalia?"  A Somali peace activist is so quoted in an Amnesty International report.  "What is happening" is that there is a brutal Ethiopian occupation there, supported if not instigated by the United States that, in the name of fighting terrorism, has terrorized the people and contributed to their starvation.  What is happening is also that the "international community" has been using Somali coastal waters as a dumping ground for toxic wastes.  Sadia Ali Aden sees U.S. policy toward Somalia as a "litmus test" of the commitment of an Obama administration to a truly "humanitarian" (as opposed to an imperialist) effort to allow the people of Africa to see the sky (and see more than Blackhawk helicopters.)

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=922&Itemid=1

12/8/08

Obama to Iran: Do you want to do this"the hard way or the easy way?"  In a Meet the Press interview described as the President-elect having delivered "mixed signals" to Iran, he holds out the possibility of diplomatic talks (the easy way) or tighter sanctions (the hard way) that might be used by the U.S. in regard to Iran's alleged threat to develop nuclear weapons.

http://news.antiwar.com/2008/12/07/obama-attempts-to-clarify-iran-position/  

12/7/08

BREAKING U.S. SANCTION AGAINST TECHNOLOGY EXPORTS TO IRAN WITHOUT BREAKING U.S. LAWS.  A number of multi-national corporations like the oil tool manufacturer Schlumberger are able to carry on operations in Iran which critics say involve risk in technology transfers that could be used by Iran to develop nuclear weapons.  Lawyers for these firms say, apparently correctly, that they are operating in conformity with."all applicable (U.S.) laws and regulations."  A Boston Globe special report.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2008/12/07/oil_firm_sidesteps_sanctions_on_iran/?

12/7/08

Will next State Department be a "team of rivals" or "Hillary-land"?  Apparently it will be the latter as Clinton accepted the nomination on condition of being able to select her own staff and advisers.  So far she has tapped personal loyalists for her "kitchen cabinet" and officials from the Bill Clinton adminstration for under-Secretary positions. (For an old H. Clinton imagery, she may be baking cookies with friends in Foggy Bottom.)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5299035.ece

12/7/08

"I'm the Senator from Illinois, not the Senator from Kogelo.".  Barack Obama's statement during a 2006 visit to Africa.  It symbolizes the dilemma of Africans who believe and/or hope that the presence in the White House of a man with immediate African roots will promote African interests in U.S. foreign policy.  The problem, says Kenyan poet Mukama Wa Ngugi, is that Obama will have to be responsive to U.S. political pressures, and may disappoint Africans on such matters as support of AIDS eradication, U.S. imperialism in Somalia and the development of an African military command.  It comes down, he says, to whether Africans will be able to pressure Obama to be responsive to their expectations. (Again, the idea of power from the grassroots; or should we say veldt-roots?)

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/19869  

12/5/08

Pirates of Somalia may be "blessing in disguise" for U.S. foreign policy:.  Mike Whitney describes a plan underway for the U.S. Navy to begin patrolling the waters off Somalia, ostensibly to control the "piracy" there, but also to prop up U.S. and other foreign interests in maintaining control over Somalia after the U.S.-backed Ethiopian occupation leaves the country.  This control involves the continued plundering of fishing stocks off the Somalia coast as well as the dumping of toxic wastes in the area by several foreign countries. (Are you listening, Larry Summers?)

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney12032008.html 

12/3/08

As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton will face a tall order of expectations if she is to implement Obama's campaign promises for improvement of Latin American relations, especially in light of some her somewhat contrary record in that regard.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/welcome-secretary-clinton-obamas-promises-be-kept

12/2/08

While many in Israel hail Obama's nomination of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, there is skepticism in the Arab world that her nomination signals no likely change in the pro-Israeli policy of the Bush administration.

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=472437

12/1/08

Hawks expected to make a "soft power" nest in Obama administration:. The expected announcement today of Obama's "security team"---Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, James Jones---will bring to the fore people noted for their emphasis on strong military action.  Still, people in the transition team suggest that their appointment will coincide with a "sweeping shift" of U.S. foreign policy away from large scale military operations like those in Iraq and Afghanistan and toward operations that involve more emphasis on diplomacy and preventing conflicts before they occur.  Among other things, the new policy would alter the ratio between soldiers and foreign service workers, a ratio that Obama described as saying the military has more members of its marching bands than personnel available to do the soft power work of winning hearts and minds.  The focus of these conflict-preventing efforts will be the "failed states" of the world. (Footnote to all this: Gates has been saying this for some time and it has been Bush's idea as well; so the "sweeping shift" may be more rhetorical than real: "change we can talk about."  For one thing, foreign services officers have been notably reluctant to being assigned to "failed states" like Somalia.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/us/politics/01policy.html?_r=1&hp  

11/28/08

Barack Obama, you're no John F. Kennedy (or are you?):   Gareth Porter sketches out a parallel between the situations in which the two Presidents come into power, with intentions in both cases to end an unpopular military conflict.  JFK's intentions for Viet Nam withdrawal were frustrated by the resistance of his Generals and Admirals in the field, though both his Secretary of Defense (McNamara) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Maxwell Taylor) were supportive of his policy even as his National Security Advisor (McGeorge Bundy) opposed it.  In Obama's case, with the prospective retention of Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense and appointment of General James Jones as National Security Advisor and Admiral Mike Mullen likely to continue as chairman of JCS,  his three closest military advisers will be  men who have generally opposed a timetable for Iraqi withdrawal.  With the same reluctance of General Petraeus and other military leaders in the field to support timetables, Obama may face an even stronger case of internal resistance to his foreign policy by his military aides than did JFK.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44888  

11/27/08

Will George Bush's war on Somalia become Barack Obama's war on Somalia?:  This question is posed by Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report in reviewing the history of the U.S. intervention in Somalia: its support of an Ethiopian invasion that dislodged the Islamic Courts government, which provided the only semblance of order in the country in its recent history; and its own military actions from off-shore bases.  With rising Islamic resistance and flagging Ethiopian will to continue the operation, Obama is likely to have to decide whether to continue yet another "war" that the U.S. cannot win.

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=906&Itemid=1

11/25/08

"The American elections were important for Israel. The Israeli election will be important for America, too.": " The first proposition is self-evident from the extensive coverage of the U.S. election in Israeli media. The second is less so, as American media gives little attention to the Israeli national elections slated for February 2009. Uri Avnery notes that the hawkish Likud party has forged a substantial lead in the polls and, given that party's refusal to consider the Saudi peace proposal of 2002, suggests a "dilemma" for the next President: if he makes any serious effort at putting contending parties back on the road to peace, he may find himself in conflict with the Israeli state, an uncomfortable if not unthinkable situation for a U.S. President.

http://www.antiwar.com/avnery/?articleid=13809  

11/24/08

The long shadow of President Bill Clinton could fall over a secretary of State Hillary Clinton in matters of Latin American policy: .  A writer for Narco-News notes President Clinton's cozy relationship with "free trade" and human rights violation forces in the hemisphere and his "golden tongue" after he left the presidency by virtue of which he brought into his and Hillary's family income some $2 million in fees for speaking to the business oligarchies of Latin America.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2008/11/sen-clinton-if-named-secretary-state-cant-escape-husbands-golden-tongue

11/17/08

Hillary Clinton as Obama's secretary of state? Would that mean Bill Clinton on steroids in U.S. foreign policy?: Justin Raimondo argues that this appointment would be fatal to the fulfillment of Obama promises to lighten the hand of American imperialism in foreign policy.  As first lady and as a presidential candidate, she out Bill Clintoned-Bill Clinton in her support of Israel  and in the Slavophobia that produced the dysfunctional Yugoslav war and could ignite a volatile U.S. relationship with Russia. Her appointment, Raimondo says, would create a "co-presidency" with a person whom the voters rejected as President in the primary elections.

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13774  

11/16/08

Less stick, more carrot: In formulating his policy toward Iran, President-elect Obama might want to listen to Scott Ritter:  The former UN weapons inspector, noted for his opposition to the "intelligence" that asserted Iraq's WMD possession, says Obama must be ready from "day one" of his administration with coherent and rational policies in U.S. dealings with Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Russia.  In this first installment of a series he focuses on Iran, noting that early in the presidential campaign Obama took a nuanced approach toward Iran as a threat to world peace, then moved toward a "tougher" stance in response to pressure first from Hillary Clinton and then John McCain. Now, with that "pressure" off him, he might hopefully return to his original stance (though his first post-election press conference was not encouraging), recognizing the cause and effects between Iranian intransigence and its threats from Israel and the U.S., and perhaps re-focussing from Iran's unlikely (too expensive) pursuit of nuclear enrichment and toward the program of its more likely development of missile delivery systems.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21223.htm

11/10/08

What did the U.S. gain from its cross-border raid on Syria?:  Very little, really, as it represented an attack on a country that had been exercising a stabilising influence on conflicts in the Middle East.  Its effect, clearly, was to inflame further world public opinion against the U.S., as the hypocrisy of the U.S. outrage against Russia for violating Georgian sovereignty is somehow put to rest when it came to U.S. violation of Syrian sovereignty.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21184.htm

11/9/08

Ivan Eland: "Muscular liberals" try to muscle their way into control of U.S. foreign policy: Will Obama as President act on his "instincts" and try to "retract the empire" by withdrawing from unsustainable military and imperialist  adventures abroad in light of domestic economic crisis?  Or will he allow a group of "muscular liberals" the like of Susan Rice, Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrooke to  maintain and expand foreign interventions like Darfur for "humanitarian" reasons? Eland hopes for the former, fears the latter.

http://anti-war.com/eland/?articleid=13736

11/8/08

As Obama transition "vets" the next members of their presidential administration, Indian writer Vijay Prashad vets a member of the transition team:,  Sonal Shah, who now works for Google on its "global development strategy" but is associated as well with transition team head's John Podesta of the liberal (neo-liberal?) think thank, Center for American Progress, is the target of Prashad's interest. He notes particularly her associations in her native state of Gujurat, India, which gave Ghandi to the world but is now the epicenter of a "Hindu right" movement that is sharply anti-Muslim and anti-Christian and the recipient of much support from the Shah family, including Sonal.  When the phone rings at 3 A.M. for another Obama appointee, will Sonal Shah be picking it up?

http://www.counterpunch.org/prashad11072008.html  

11/7/08

The American Empire: Bush almost killed it," but Obama seems to be resurrecting it: The view of sociologist Pablo Ouziel, noting with some dismay the tendency of leading "intellectuals" to abandon their role as critics in favor of offering their intellectual support to a wave of nationalist fervor that seems to be sweeping across the country in the wake of Obama's election.

http://www.countercurrents.org/ouziel061108.htm  

11/3/08

Will the next U.S. President be able to forge "grand bargains" that will reduce conflict in the Middle East?:  Jim Lobe assesses this possibility as a contrast to Che Guevara's long-ago prediction of the demise of U.S. world power as the country became bogged down in "one, two and three Vietnams."  With U.S.-involved conflicts raging from Pakistan to Somalia, Lobe raises the counter possibility that "grand bargains" among the various belligerents in the area can be achieved by vigorous diplomatic effort, the kind of activity in which Saudi Arabia is already playing a role of leadership. (Hear that, Obama, McCain? Better get yourself a hell of a Secretary of State.)

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=13708

11/1/08

Is George W. Bush plannig a "parting gift " to his successor in office?   Jonathan Freedlander speculates on this question in the aftermath of the cross-border raid on Syria by U.S. forces.  Is the action designed as a "souvenir" of his administration's emphasis on pre-emptive violence as a first solution to international problems?  We don't know but, based on past historical examples of such "gifts," the period of transition that follows this week's election may be fraught with many dangers of unchecked exercise of presidential powers.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21126.htm

11/1/08

Without consideration for humanity or decency: International law prohibits any intrusions on the sovereignty of a nation that are not motivated by such "considerations."   The raids by U.S. forces across the border from Iraq to Syria, which violate decency and humanity by their brutal assaults on civilians, are "plausibly denied" by official U.S. military since they are carried out by "Special Forces" that notoriously operate without sanction from their nominal commanders.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cloughley10312008.html  

10/25/08

Will Dennis Ross be a ket foreign policy advisor in an Obama presidency?  If he is, says Ira Glunts, the world may be in for some trouble. A Middle East "diplomat" from the Clinton era, Ross was then and continues today as he campaigns for Obama to be an unswerving supporter of Israeli foreign policy.  He, as well as Obama, have given signals in their public utterances that the next administration cannot or will not restrain an Israeli attack on Iran if Israel deems such an attack as necessary for its "security."

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/10/a-bright-shining-lie-dennis-ross-and-the-run-up-to-an-attack-on-iran/ 

10/24/08

An international conference of donor nations decides it must give humanitarian aid to the country of Georgia for the destruction wrought in its conflict with Russia, even though Georgia's government was primarily responsible for that destruction.  The U.S. agrees to kick in $1 billion for this "bailout" with motives having to do with protection of western oil interests as well as a geo-political challenge to Russia in its "near-abroad" area.

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13667  

10/23/08

The Right Wing is beginning to show some "Obama love."   Margaret Kimberley notes the recent conversion to Obama support by such right-wing luminaries as William Buckley's son Christopher and Christopher Hitchens, a sometime-liberal writer and an early Obama critic who has now come around to his support for the same reason as Buckley: Obama's evolution as a staunch world imperalist and his appeal to the "soft" form of white racism which sees Obama as a comfortable answer to an otherwise "dangerous" black population. It appears that Obama is indeed "reaching across the aisle."

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=843&Itemid=1  

10/20/08

From reluctant warriot to interventionist: The evolution of John McCain:    McClatchy newspaper article traces in some detail the GOP presidential contender's change from an earlier "maverick" with reference to U.S. military adventurism to ardent support of the Iraqi War and an advocate of regime change in other "rogue states."  The sea change in this evolution toward interventionism came with his assumption of the leadership of the New Citizenship Project, a neo-conservative entity. (The article fails to mention that McCain has been chairman of the Board of International Republican Institute, an "interventionist" arm of the GOP that matches the Democratic one that has been chaired by Madeleine Albright.)

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/54379.html

On International Republican Institute: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Republican_Institute  

10/19/08

"The noteworthy thing about this national defense strategy statement is that it says nothing directly about American national defense.": William Pfaff's observation about the National Defense Statement issued in June, which is all about the "Bush doctrine" of spreading democracy and combatting "extremism" wherever it rears its ugly head in the world. Our military effort is described as an effort to prevent other world forces from interfering with our interventions throughout the world in pursuit of this "doctrine."  Pfaff speculates on why such a statement would be issued 6 months before the retirement of the aforementioned Bush, and suggests that it may foretell the continuation of this interventionist foreign policy in the next administration, be it Republican or Democrat.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21048.htm

10/11/08

Between Obama and McCain, who owuld be tougher on Iran and more friendly to Israel?  Israeli newspaper Haaretz describes a stand-off between them on this question as both pledge unswerving support for Israel; on Iran, Obama threatens "dire consequences" of Iran's acquiring of nuclear weapons, while McCain says he would not wait for UN approval to launch an attack on Iran if American interests seemed to require such attack.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1027578.html

10/5/08

U.S. Navy may be mucking in provocative behavior in Black Sea off the coast of Georgia:   Georgia officials claim, without U.S. verification, that Georgian coast guard personnel have boarded a U.S.destroyer, the U.S.S. Mason, for "training" purposes.  This activity is expected to be an irritation to Russia, already upset by what it claims is the U.S. use of "humanitarian" cover to give military supplies to Georgia which has vowed to "reclaim" its breakaway provinces.

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=407496  

10/5/08

Iraq and Afghanistan you say? Didn't you hear? The U.S. has been occupying another country since 2004: That would be Haiti, which got a "regime change" under U.S. sponsorship in 2004 and remains in what amounts to a colonial relationship with foreign political and economic domination, as it undergoes the "shock therapy" of IMF-imposed privatization and elimination of social services that keep the country's people in a dire strait of poverty.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/10/haiti-in-solidarity-with-its-five-freedoms/  

10/1/08

Lion and the fox: In the first presidential debate, it was "Obama the cerebral calculator of interests versus McCain the passionate warrior.":  This is the way Ira Chernus describes the contrasting "narratives" in a debate that was supposed to have been focussed on foreign policy.  McCain's focus on "victory" and "national pride" contrasts with Obama's determination to be "smarter" about the wars we fight and how we fight them.  On Chernus' view, McCain's is the politically winning narrative, as people will choose passion over intellect. The ultimate outcome may depend on whether foreign policy or the U.S. economy is the ultimate determining issue because in the latter area, Obama "wins" with the American electorate.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/30  

9/30/08

The "foreign policy" presidential debate: Good for Obama but was it good for the country?   Kevin Zeese notes that, a dozen times during the September 26 debate, Barack Obama expressed his "absolute agreement" with John McCain on points of foreign policy and displayed an affable and "agreeable" personality in sharp contrast with McCain's barely-concealed disdain for him.  While the "nice guy" approach worked politically as Obama enjoyed a substantial post-debate bounce in the polls, Zeese wonders whether a "debate" that excluded voices of policy difference like those of McKinney, Nader and Barr really served well the need for a presidential campaign to put forward policy alternatives for the voter.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/%e2%80%9csenator-mccain-is-absolutely-right%e2%80%9d/  

9/28/08

INn Friday night's debate, "Obama was the young hawk trying to 'out-hawk' the old uber-hawk.."  This assessment from a leading light of "Progressives for Obama," Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel.  While it disappointed the "progressive" supporter, she admits that Obama was not courting her vote (he already has that in his pocket) but that of "swing" voters who are apparently responsive to the "hawk" position in foreign policy, shown by the fact that such voters tended to believe that Obama had "won" the debate

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/365135

9/19/08

U.S. air strikes in Pakistan: Defense secretary asserts a "right;" CIA head describes them as a "tickle:". In BBC interview, Robert Gates asserts the right of the U.S. to engage in these raids when necessary to "protect American troops" in Afghanistan.  Michael Hayden says that the raids are useful as a "tickle" to test the responsive force of the militants.  Amidst these tickles and assertions of right, Pakistani civilians continue to be killed and the country's leaders and people are outraged at these assaults on their country's sovereignty.

http://news.antiwar.com/2008/09/18/gates-defends-right-of-us-military-launch-attacks-into-pakistan/

9/16/08

The U.S. "defense of democracy...in Georgia:.   VP Cheney, on a visit to the country of Georgia, pledges to help rebuild Georgia's military after its defeat by Russia and also supports the country's application to join NATO.  NATO says wait a minute. Georgia, the "fledgling democracy" that the U.S. pledges to support, is not "democratic" enough to join NATO, citing the government's crackdown last year on opposition forces. NATO's Secretary-General is also upset about a EU-brokered peace deal that left substantial numbers of Russians in South Ossetia, and he may well have been influenced as much by the spectre of world war if Georgia carried out its announced intention to recover its "break-away" provinces, and NATO, with Georgia as a member, might be obliged to go to its military assistance.

http://news.antiwar.com/2008/09/15/nato-head-reiterates-georgia-support-slams-eu-brokered-peace-deal/  

9/9/08

U.S. decides on a "soft power" approach to Russia on its Georgian invasion:.  After speaking toughly about possible economic sanctions and even military action, the Bush administration seems now prepared to adopt the stance of most of the rest of the world: to condemn Russian actions without taking substantive retaliatory measures.  In this they are said to wish that "the European Union had been willing to take firmer action than issuing tepid statements criticizing Russia's conduct."  Such "tepid statements" for the moment seem to be the hallmark of U.S. policy as well. (But look out for the anti-Russian stances by both major parties' presidential candidates, which may amount to something a little warmer than "tepid" as each party may challenge the "toughness" stance of the other.) 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/washington/09policy.html?th&emc=th  

9/7/08

(B)illions for defense; not one dime for Georgia:.  Michael Collins for "Scoop" Independent News paraphrases the old saw about funding defense versus paying tribute.  He reviews the history of the conflict between Russia and Georgia that culminated in the war in South Ossetia and focuses particularly on the U.S. plan to provide more than $1 billion to Georgia's defense: a move that Collins sees as likely to recycle funds back into the same U.S. financial interests that backed the "rose revolution" of 2003 by means of which the current Russia-hating government of Georgia came into being.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0809/S00087.htm

9/5/08

Joe Biden: "No daylight" between the U.S. and Israel?  A self-professed Zionist, the Vice Presidential nominee has made that "no daylight" statement as an assurance of total U.S. support of Israeli actions and they include support for Obama's call (since retracted) for an "undivided" Jerusalem under Israeli control.  Still, says a Palestinian writer, Biden has "shivered the spines" of Israelis by some indications that he, unlike all U.S. Presidents since Jimmy Carter, is open to making some demands on Israeli in the direction of conciliation with the Palestinians.

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18681   

8/31/08

A new Cold War led by a younger generation of political leaders?  This is the perspective of a British writer, reflecting on a "generation gap" between older leaders who urge caution in returning to an era in which only the threat of "mutual destruction" stands between war between Russia and the West.  Actually this new generation of hawks is led by a decidedly older figure, Dick Cheney, who makes a visit to Georgia this week to re-iterate a hard-line U.S. stance against Russian aggression against countries on its border, while older skeptics warn that any move to include Georgia in NATO would already have precipitated a world war against Russia as it was pursuing its own "realistic" actions on its own borders.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/new-kids-on-the-bloc-cold-warriors-913936.html

8/31/08

Palestinian writer gives U.S. Secretary of State a grade on her efforts at a "two-state solution" to the Israel/Palestine conflict: A fat zero:  As Rice babbles about "staying the course" on a "peace process," she is mouthing platitudes in U.S. foreign policy that allow the Zionist consolidation of its control throughout Palestine and its genocidal operation against Gaza to continue without fear from an American government which promises it would never force Israel to do anything (like rein in its settlement projects) that the country does not want to do

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/08/the-farce-continues/

8/30/08

“There are reasons why we did a military lead, as a matter of foreign policy."  This statement was made a "senior U.S. official" to the Baltimore Sun.  He refers to the prominence of the military in the "humanitarian" relief effort taking place in war-torn Georgia.  Russia has accused both the U.S. and NATO of the "foreign policy" aim of using the Georgian emergency as a pretext for countering Russian influence in the area.

http://news.antiwar.com/2008/08/29/relief-agencies-furious-as-us-military-takes-over-aid-operations/

8/30/08

Power of the Israel lobby in U.S. politics? Just ask Jimmy Carter:.  The former President was essentially "dissed" at this week's Democratic National Convention, as the DNC was fearful that any enthusiastic convention embracing of a public figure openly critical of Israeli policy might alienate Jewish voters.  His "appearance" was the "bare minimum" that could be provided an ex-President, involving a walk across the stage and a video clip showing his work in post-Katrina New Oreans.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20649.htm

8/29/08

August surprise in U.S. presidential election?: Russian President Vladimir Putin suggests that the White House may have "stirred up" Georgia to attack a dissident part of its country in an effort to help a "candidate" (presumably McCain) in the November election. “They needed a small victorious war,” says Putin.  (The alleged operation seemingly did not work, as Georgia was anything but "victorious" in the war, and Obama managed to put himself on the same side as McCain and the White House, choosing Joe Biden as his running mate after Biden's friendly visit to the U.S. Georgian "ally,"  insuring that the candidate of "change" would not change the anti-Russian and pro-Georgian policy of the United States.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/world/europe/29putin.html?th&emc=th

8/27/08

Russia to the west: You supported Kosovo's independence of Serbia; we can certainly support the "breakaway" areas of Georgia:.   Russia's recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia raises diplomatic hassles around the world and is sure to promote Russia-baiting in the U.S. presidential election, but the Russian President insists their military and diplomatic actions in support of those areas is necessary to save the lives of Russians there and anyhow, didn't the West similarly support the breakaway republic of Kosovo?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/world/europe/27russia.html?th&emc=th

8/26/08

With Joe Biden set to be nominated for Vice-President this week and having just returned from a trip to the country of Georgia to bolster Obama's anti-Russian credentials, the "sitting" Vice-President follows suit with a trip to promote Cheney's "war hawk" stance on providing more military aid to the "fledgling democracy" of Georgia.  While Cheney's views have not prevailed in the Bush administration policy, this may yet change as the U.S. goes into a campaign season in which "toughness" over Russian "aggression" in Georgia may lead to an (ahem)-waving contest between the candidates.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/25/AR2008082502142.html?wpisrc=newsletter

8/22/08

According to U.S. envoy to NATO, the U.S. warned Georgia not to invade South Ossetia earlier this month lest it provoke Russian retaliation, Georgia invaded anyway, Russians retaliated with counter-assault, leaving U.S. politicians of both parties spluttering about how you can't invade other countries in the 21st century.

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=308844  

8/21/08

As "speculation centers" on Joe Biden as Obama's running mate, Glenn Greenwald focuses on his record as a "war hawk."  Proceeding from an observation that an American President must "start a war almost as an initiation ritual," Greenwald finds Biden may just fit the bill as a Vice-Presidential running mate who will hold out the promise of Obama as still another President who will practice that "ritual."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/19/rice/index.html

8/19/08

South Ossetia 2008 is not Czechoslovakia 1968 : U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice so equates the Russian invasion of Georgia in 08 with the Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 68.  She adds ominously that Russia will not "get by with" the kind of aggression they unleased in the earlier invasion. John Taylor notes that there is a world of difference in the two situations, including that Russia is no longer the aggressively communist entity that was the Soviet Union and that in fact the U.S., which along with Israel armed the Georgian attack on the "breakaway" province that precipitated the Russian response, is more like Soviet Union today in having an ideologically aggressive foreign policy, except that now it's "democracy" rather than "communism" that is used to justify empire-driven international aggression.

http://www.antiwar.com/taylor/?articleid=13321  

8/15/08

U.S. government officials, from the UN Ambassador to the President, wax indignant about Russian violation of Georgian sovereignty after it responds militarily to Georgia's siege of Ossetia. An Antiwar.com columnists notes the utter hypocrisy of this with a brief review of the sordid history of the numerous assaults on other nation's sovereignty by the U.S. itself, in operations ranging from the very clandestine to the very open.

http://www.antiwar.com/bandow/?articleid=13300

8/13/08

"In (Bill Kristol's world, Putin's Russia is stalin's USSR, and poor, doe-like little Georgia - a bastion of freedom - is is in danger of being devoured by the insatiable Russian bear.": Justin Raimondo attempts to explode this myth of Russian evil and Georgia innocence, which seems to be motivating GOP foreign policy, as it plays out in a media environment that ignores the "Menchevik" origins of the dictatorial Georgian government, a viewpoint shared by Kristol and by one of Georgia's most famous/notorious citizens, Josef Stalin.  Caveat: Raimondo's piece winds up as a funds appeal for antiwar.com as one of the few news agencies battling the neo-conservative tendency of world media coverage of current events.

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13292  

8/11/08

A Truthdig article by Chris Hedges, reproduced on Common Dreams, assesses the consequences of any U.S. and/or Israeli attack on Iran, which he sees as including the collapse of the U.S. and world economies, as well as the consolidation of fascist control of America.  In an extraordinary thread of comments on the Common Dreams page, contributors enter into thought-provoking dialogue on the consequences of such attack for the presidential election, how, whether and even if such calamity can be avoided and whether the country's two-party political system can muster the will or resources to avert it. (This was published a week ago, but it's one that progressives "can't miss.")

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/04/10790/

8/10/08

Does the U.S. have a horse in the current conflict between Rusia and Georgia? The U.S. is strongly betting on and supporting Georgia, says a columnist for Prison Planet.  Ever since clandestine U.S. operations helped bring in the anti-Russian government in the "rose revolution" of 2003, Georgia has been a "client state" of the U.S., carrying the water of U.S. geo-political strategy (opposing Russian power) in the area, as well of the neo-conservative global agenda of dominating oil resources.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/us-attacks-russia-through-client-state-georgia.html

SEE ALSO:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/09/AR2008080900440.html?wpisrc=newsletter  

8/8/08

"IFf we wish to find our prophetic voice, we must learn to speak about the crimes of our leaders and also look at ourselves honestly in the mirror.":

To a Unitarian Universalist meeting in Texas, Robert Jensen delivers, in the spirit of a biblical prophet, a Jeremiad of condemnation of all Americans, not just their criminally guilty leaders, for the imperialist sins perpetrated against the rest of the world.  Not  a comfortable message, but comfort has never been the office of the prophet.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20450.htm

8/7/08

President Bush's farewell address to Asia, delivered in Thailand, raises questions about the U.S. support of the 2006 military coup in the country that replaced a democratically-elected Prime Minister.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JH08Ae01.html  

7/25/08

Obama, while in Israel, "clarifies" his position of willingness to talk to Iran:.  According to Israeli newpaper Haartz, he explains to PM Olmert that these talks would be to give Iran a "clear ultimatum" after which, if Iran failed to "co-operate" with efforts to stop its nuclear development, "action" against the country could legitimately be undertaken. (History has seen this kind of pre-war "diplomacy" before.)

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1005286.html

7/17/08

"Everybody who wanted to elected or re-elected to any office came to see and be seen" is Uri Avnery's description of a spectacularly successful meeting of the U.S. Israel lobby group AIPAC, at which all major presidential candidates and many members of Congress appeared to praise AIPAC's agenda of supporting Israel's demands for sanctions against Iran and U.S. approval if not active involvement in an Israeli military strike.  One product of that meeting was the drafting by AIPAC of  House Resolution 362, demanding just such sanctions.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9590

Text of H.R. 362:

http://bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=384508  

7/16/08

Washington consensus working again on Iran:   An influential Republican (Shelby) and Democrat (Dodd) on Senate Banking Committee agree to take up proposal for expanded sanctions against Iran in an effort to change that country's "behavior."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/15/national/w095830D40.DTL

7/16/08

Crack in the Washington consensus: Dennis Kucinich condemns anti-Iran resolution in House: The resolution, Kucinich asserts, uses the pretext of condemning an attack on a Jewish embassy in Argentina in 1994 to make undocumented assertions about continued threats from Iran and elsewhere that he feels may be used as justification for a strike on the country.  Rather, Kucinich believes, Congress should be demanding of the President that he wage an aggressive campaign of diplomatic negotiation with Iran.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0715-16.htm  

7/13/08

“Poorly conceived, poorly timed, and potentially dangerous."  Three retired U.S. military leaders so characterize a proposal in Congress that would encourage a more belligerent U.S. actions toward Iran, especially an embargo that would force Iranian shipping to submit American inspections.  The "potential dangers" they cite include the potential disrupting oil shipment that would raise the price of oil, and a complication of U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Actually the "timing" may be rather inspired, as members of Congress in re-election campaigns may want to display to the voters their "tough" credentials on Iran.)

http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0711-04.htm  

7/6/08

Born on the Pariser Platz:.  Opened to fanfare on July 4 in a U.S.-owned plat of land near the Brandenberg Gate in the heart of Berlin, the massive new structure is treated with disdain by Berliners as a "triumph of banality" for its mental hospital appearance and as a symbol of U.S. influence in the "new" Germany that many Germans don't care to acknowledge. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0704/p04s01-woeu.html  

6/30/08

When Seymour Hersh speaks... In an article in the current issue of The New Yorker magazine, Hersh again displays his familiarity with behind-the-scenes maneuvering within the Bush administration, in this case the continued and escalated effort, described in a "Presidential Finding," of U.S. clandestine efforts against Iran, designed both for "regime change" and to disrupt the country's supposed effort to develop nuclear weapons. A focus of the article is the relation between this activity and the so-called "Gang of Eight" in Congress, including Democratic leaders, who have attempted to exercise some restraint and some of whom feel the Administration has made promises in that direction that have not been delivered. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh?currentPage=all

6/29/08

Should U.S. government intervene in Zimbabwe to save the people of that country from the Mugabe regime?:   No, says co-founder of a libertarian website, noting the woeful history of invasions and sanctions in U.S. foreign policy.  Rather, he says, Americans should be allowed as individuals to support the people of Zimbabwe in their struggles for freedom, and the borders of the U.S. should be thrown open to refugees from conflict in that or any other country

http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2008-06-26.asp

6/26/08

Israel to U.S.: Let's have you go bomb Iran:.  Military consultant to CBS News says that Israel is "pressuring" a U.S. raid on Iran before Bush leaves office, fearing that his successor might be less Israeli-friendly.  Their further message to the U.S. is: if you don't do it, we will; and their preparations on the ground indicate this intention, though they lack an air force to carry out the raid.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/24/eveningnews/main4206201.shtml

6/19/08

Venezueala may be in process of being added to the "axis of evil" in U.S. war on terrorism:   U.S. Treasury department freezes the U.S. assets of two Venezuelans, a diplomat and a travel agent, accused of having provided financial assistance to Hezbollah. An assistant Treasury Secretary says:  "It is extremely troubling to see the government of Venezuela employing and providing safe harbor to Hezbollah facilitators and fundraisers,"   The travel agent calls the allegations "pure lies" and denies that he even knows Hezbollah.

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=218147

6/19/08

"Reports of the death of the Monroe Doctrine are greatly exaggerated": History professor writes of the history of thinking of the "liberal establishment" on the relationship between the U.S. and Latin America.  The Council on Foreign Relations, a linchpin of that "establishment" had, in the 1970s, urged a modification of the Monroe Doctrine insistence on U.S. monopoly of power in the region.  More recently, the CFR has issued far more belligerent statements toward Venezuelan and other Latin American "threats" and Barack Obama seems on the verge of resurrecting the supposedly dead Monroe Doctrine with an "Obama Doctrine" that looks at Cuba, Venezuela and other leftist countries as threats to U.S. interests that must be "dealt with."

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/17881  

6/17/08

Remeber when Nikita Khruschev punded his shoe on a table and screamed "we will bury you!"?Now George Bush, in Britain on the last legal of "farewell tour" of Europe, keeps his shoes on but notifies Iran that the U.S. is keeping the possibility of military action against the country "on the table."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/bush-threatens-iran-with-military-action-848488.html

6/16/08

Obama's foreign policy: In the "great tradition" of Democratic Party presidents: :.  John Pilger anticipates that, as President, Barack Obama would follow the lead of Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and Clinton in an aggressive foreign policy that insists on maintaining and enhancing American power around the world.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9338  

6/12/08

Did Barack Obama make a "right turn" on foreign policy with his AIPAC speech? Did he use his turn signal? Stephen Zunes, in an article in Foreign Policy in Focus, joins Uri Avnery in the indignation of both that, as they feel, Obama betrayed his progressive supporters by what they see as a pandering appearance between the Israeli lobby group on the day after he attained the majority of delegates for the Democratic Party nomination. Some commenters on the Common Dreams reprint of the article share this sense of betrayal, but others say he had signalled a militaristic position long before this speech.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/11/9558/  

6/12/08

Libyan leader Gaddafi weighs in on U.S. presidential election, blasting Barack Obama for his pro-Israeli stance, suggests an "inferiority complex."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7450000.stm

6/7/08

"American want their country to stop being the neighborhood bully and instead be a good neighbor":  John Pfeffer of Foreign Policy in Focus attempts to define a U.S. policy in which progressives can believe and actively promote during the current political campaign season.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=2680  

6/5/08

Hey, Barack Obama, you just won the Democratic presidential nomination; What will you do now? "I'm going to AIPAC World!":  Hours after his nomination was secured in Tuesday night primaries, Obama went to the conference of the Israeli lobbyist group, following on the heels of pro-Israel "tough guy" presentation by John McCain and Condoleezza Rice's veiled jab at him as being in favor of negotiation with Hamas.  As Robert Scheer says, Obama's appearance follows a 54-year period of extremely pro-Israeli speeches at these conference, and he "wowed" this "tough" crowd. (Wow for AIPAC may mean woe for Gaza.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20080604/cm_thenation/1096326710

TEXT OF OBAMA SPEECH:

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/06/04/prepared-remarks-obama-at-aipac-policy-conference/

6/4/08

What are prospects that a President Obama would be influenced by the Palestine-sympathetic words and actions of former President Carter?  Not good, says SSA Editor Jerry Rose, who notes the likelihood that Carter will join such other personages as Obama's grandmother, pastor and fund-raiser who will be cast aside as embarassing or inconvenient to his race-neutral, ethics-assertive and pro-Israeli campaign.

http://www.countercurrents.org/rose030608.htm

6/4/08

America's chief "diplomat, Condoleeza Rice, sounds off against Iran at AIPAC meeting: Secretary of State says that talks with Iran are "pointless," so long as (she says) the country continues to pursue its effort to develop a nuclear weapon.  She "stops short" of endorsing VP Cheney and Israeli PM Olmert's calls to keep military action against Iran "on the table."  (Another Obama visit to "reassure" the AIPAC crowd may be in the offing, maybe even the occasion for his throwing the would-be Hamas negotiator, Jimmy Carter, under the bus at the same time he rattles his own sabre against Iran).

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/washington/04diplo.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1212570934-wpMB19Shlnl2hAhBdzfY2w  

6/3/08

A moment of sanity in U.S./Israel/Palestine relations.  Last week the State Department informed 7 Gazans already selected for Fulbright grants for study in the United States that their grants would be withheld because the Israeli government would not give them visas to leave the besieged Gaza.  Faced with "outrage" among some political leaders in both the U.S. and Israeli, the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem now informs these people that their grants will be honored, provided the Israeli government gives them the necessary "security" clearances, which it promises to try to do. (A moment of sanity...this too will probably pass.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/02/world/middleeast/02fulbright.html?th&emc=th  

6/3/08

On kicking ass and the U.S. presidency: Is George W. Bush a practitioner of the "madman" theory of international relations articulated by Richard Nixon during the Viet Nam conflict?  Like Henry Kissinger in an earlier day, Colin Powell more recently was taken with Nixon's suggestion that, if the country's enemy believes the U.S. President is a madman who will "do anything," it will give the U.S. greater leverage in negotiation with that enemy.  This is one interpretation of that "Doctor Strangerlove" moment described by General Richardo Sanchez in his Iraqi war memoir when he tells of the surreal "kick ass pep talk" that Bush delivered to U.S. troops by teleconference prior to the devastating assault on Fallujah in 2004.  (If the Nixon "theory" is that of a mere "bluff" in international relations, the world could breathe a little easier about the possibility, for example, that a U.S. President would literally "do anything" like an "insane" nuclear invasion of Iran.  As the actual siege of Fallujah and numerous other extreme measures in Irag and elsewhere indicate, such actions by Bush or a future President Strangelove may be all-too imaginable; think Hiroshima/Nagasaki).

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/02/9354/

5/27/08

Jimmy Carter at Hay-on-Wye: The quartet is singing way off key on Gaza and the U.S. is the errant director of its discordant noises:    The former President appears at a small Welsh town and drops some bombshells of opinion and asserted fact: that the other 3 members of the "quartet" of powers (UN, EU and Russia) supporting Israel in the Gaza blockade are "supine" behind a misguided U.S. policy, that Fatah in Palestine should share power with Hamas rather than trying to destroy it, that Israel possesses 150 never-acknowledged nuclear weapons, that the U.S. should withdraw from the Iraqi occupation completely and immediately.  (The appearance is mixed news at best for Barack Obama, as Carter urges Clinton to get out of the primary races and "all but" endorses Obama.  However, Obama has already done a "Jeremiah Wright" job on Carter by denouncing his efforts to negotiate with Hamas and, in his current mode of "courting" the Jewish vote, may need to throw  Carter "under the bus" with that growing number of "embarassing" supporters).

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19985.htm   

5/22/08

Obama backs off oin pledge to talk to Iranian leader:.  As McCain has hammered Obama as an "appeaser" for his promise to talk with "leaders" of Iran, his campaign now indicates that such talks would only be done after "diplomatic preparation" and would not necessarily be with the rabid anti-Israeli Ahmed Ahmedinejad.  His foreign policy advisor, Susan Rice (called "our" Dr. Rice in the campaign) says that: "He hasn't named who that leader will be. It may, in fact be that by the middle of next year, Ahmadinejad is long gone." (And today Obama speaks at a Jewish synagogue in Boca Raton.)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/22/barackobama.usforeignpolicy

ON FLORIDA JEWS' "DOUBTS" ABOUT OBAMA:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/us/politics/22jewish.html?th&emc=th

5/21/08

Barack Obama and the "serious anti-imperialist left":  Gary Leupp visits once again the issue of the response of Obama to Jeremiah Wright, and finds in his condemnation of his former pastor a symbol of the general incapacity of Americans "liberals" to mount an honest critique of the history of American imperialism that Wright articulates in his sermons.  "Serious" anti-imperialists are about as well received as were the unpopular "Jeremiads" of the biblical prophet.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/05/%e2%80%9cthe-fruit-of-the-way-they-think%e2%80%a6%e2%80%9d/

5/17/08

Israeli tail wags the U.S. dog again:  After President Bush makes a belligerent anti-Iranian speech to the Israeli Knesset, Iraqi official says that Israel expects the U.S. to take "tangible action" with military force option  "on the table" to stop Iran's nuclear development.  Meanwhile, the U.S. announces support for nuclear energy development for "peaceful purposes" of its client state, Saudia Arabia.

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=171756  

5/11/08

John Negroponte's speech to Pakistan forum of National Endowment for Democracy presages a Pakistani operation to add to the legacy of the NED as the "handmaiden" of U.S. policy in different regional power struggles.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JE10Df01.html   

4/22/08

Twisting the tiger's tale: 21st Century style: In old style Chicago politics, a man would run for Mayor by telling voters he'd like to "punch King George in the nose," a play for Irish votes since U.S./British foreign relations were obviously not relevant to Chicago government.  In a contemporary update, Hillary Clinton, campaigning in Pennsylvania ahead of today's primary, similarly "talks tough" about Iran, saying that the U.S. could "obliterate" Iran if it engaged in nuclear attack against Israel (though it has no such weapon or means to deliver it).  Perhaps she has an eye on the critical vote of Philadelphia Jews, many of whom are attracted to her opponent by his own ringing endorsement of our "staunch ally," Israel.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Vote2008/story?id=4698059&page=1  

4/8/08

Carnegie Endowment writer wants U.S. "democracy promoting" overseas put on a "better track" by the next presidential administration:   The "track" to which he is referring is the runaway proclivity of government-related agencies to interfere with if not manipulate other countries' elections. With former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the chair of the National Democratic Institute, a prime one of those "democracy-promoting" agencies and a leading foreign policy advisor for Hillary Clinton, the prospect for such track-changing may not be all that bright. (see attached comment).

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/07/8133/

3/31/08

Whether it's President McCain, Obama or Clinton, Israel will have no problem with the next U.S. president:All three candidates seem safely pro-Israeli in taking the country's side in the Palestinian conflict. The candidate of "change," Obama, made a fleeting expression of compassion for the Palestinians, and Israel lobby outrage led him to "clarify" that their suffering results from the misbehavior of their own Hamas leadership.

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/17011  

3/23/08

Colombia under Uribe is (to quote Hugo Chavez) the "Israel of Latin America": (Like Israel, Colombia is a long-term client state of the U.S., its aggressions against its neighbors supported and applauded by the American political establishment, including its recent cross-border military incursion in Ecuador to assassinate a FARC leader who was involved in a humanitarian effort to try to release Ingrid Betancourt, an operation that had the desired effect of neutralizing the influence of Venezuela on the region's international relations.  The author of this article, James Petras, might have added, based on information contained herein, that the FARC guerillas are the "Hamas of Latin America," diplomatically isolated by the "reconciliation" of Columbia with Venezuela and other South American governments following the incident, and by their efforts to negotiate peace with the Colombian regime, only to have their efforts repulsed by the U.S.sponsored desire to keep the conflict going for its own geo-political interests in the region.

http://www.counterpunch.org/petras03222008.html

3/23/08

Cheney says the U.S. will place no "pressure" on Israel that might threaten that country's "security."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7310012.stm  

3/21/08

Dick Cheney's current tour of the Middle East suggests he is trying to stir up support for an assault on Iran, as he speaks of the grave threat of an Iranian "process by which they're trying to enrich uranium." Isn't this deja vu Iraq, in which we went to war over an alleged Iraqi process of trying to produce WMD's?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/21/wiran121.xml  

3/20/08

The devil is in the details of "The Speech" by Barack Obama:.  Obama has his "Houston moment" of a speech in which he tries to address "head on" the unspoken influence of race on the presidential campaign.  In "distancing" himself from the views of his own pastor, this is the way he characterizes one of these views:  "a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam."   This and other views ascribed to Pastor Wright are actually the views of a majority of black Americans, says Black Agenda Report editor Bruce Dixon, and he wonders why the expression of that view should be banished from a campaign that, as Dixon sees it, is an effort by a black man to garner support from blacks on their "nationalistic" desire to have one of their own as President, leaving him free to court white voters by his resistance to supposed black "extremism."

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=562&Itemid=1

3/13/08

Is Fallon's resignation the "Oh, shit" moment with regard to Iran?  David Lindorff evokes the os moment from horror films, that moment when innocents realize the mad killer is in the room and just about to strike and when they are helpless to prevent it.  As Admiral Fallon resigns as commander of CENTCOM after his objection to bellicose U.S. moves toward Iran and as other military moves suggest heightened alert for possible attack, it may be time for the nervous world to cover its collective face and yell "oh shit!" (If you think Lindorff is an off-the-wall fool on this, read some of the numerous comments attached to this article.)

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/12/7638/  

3/11/08

404 members of Congress live in an Orwellian world in which "history never happened."."  Last week the House of Representatives passed 404-1 (Ron Paul the single negative vote) a resolution condemning Hamas for its "relentless" rocket attacks on Israel.  It did this without the slightest effort to put the condemned behavior in any kind of historical context, any recognition of the long history of Israeli suppression of Palestinians and the vast disproportion between the amount of state violence against the people in the open air "prison" which Gaza has become and that exercised by Hamas insurgents.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/03/wake-up-time-from-orwells-nightmare/

3/8/08

U.S. said to be deeply involved in a Colombian raid into Ecuador in which a FARC leader was killed  Raul Reyes had been negotiating for release of hostages held by FARC, with assistance of Venezuelan and French leaders.  In what Bill Van Auken calls a "preemptive strike," forces trained and equipped by C.I.A., with U.S. intelligence information from an intercepted phone conversation (or was it an e-mail? see accompanying headline) between Reyes and Chavez, used "smart bombs" to strike a FARC camp inside Ecuador in which Reyes and around 20 of his comrades were killed. The U.S. involvement is said to be motivated by desires to isolate Chavez diplomatically and to give a "hands off" message about French meddling in South America, the "backyard" of the U.S.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19475.htm  

3/8/08

About that email from Reyes to Chavez that was used to "justify" the Colombian incursion on Ecuadorian territory: Greg Palast says it's a "fake":   U.S. intelligence conflated a reference to the number 300 into the totally evidence-lacking assertion that the Venezuelan President was sending (by Reyes) $300 million to the FARC for them to buy uranium to make WMDs.  In praising the operation, President Bush, with no challenge from U.S. media, says it was justified by the "terrorist" threat of FARC.  In Palast's view, both Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama justify the charge against them of being foreign policy "amateurs" for quickly endorsing Colombia's action in terms of the country's "right to defend itself." (Sound like justification for Israel to invade Lebanon or Gaza?)  Au contraire, Mr. Palast, Clinton and Obama may be demonstrating their bona fides as authentic professionals in the world of U.S. imperialism.

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/300-mllion-chavez-farc-fake

3/4/08

U.S. democracy-spreading in action in Kurdistan:.  Grassroots activist describes the penetration of American and multi-national influence in both the Turkish and Iraqi Kurdish regions.  This is accomplished to some degree by funding of local NGOs by U.S. agencies like the National Endowment for Democracy.  They thus gain local voices for foreign interests like the head of the Kurdish Human Rights Project, who writes and speaks in support of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and even conditionally an invasion of Iran if that were in the U.S "interest."

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/16742

3/1/08

U.S. diplomacy is trying to convince China and India of the necessity of their cooperation in the rivalry of all three countries with Russia.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JC01Df02.html

2/25/08

An "independent" Kosovo will apparently be anything but idependent of U.S. control:   With quick recognition of the break-away country from Serbia, the U.S. violates the agreement to respect the "territorial sovereignty" of Serbia and prepares to install a Paul Bremer/Iraq style viceroy government in which all "independent" action will be subject to approval of a caretaker associated with  U.S.-based International Crisis Group, funded by George Soros money to promote U.S. economic imperial expansion and on whose board sits Zbigniew Brezezinski, Barak Obama's foreign policy "guru," and Wesley Clark, the commander of the Yugoslavian "humanitarian intervention."

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/02/washington-gets-a-new-colony-in-the-balkans/

2/23/08

U.S. to Serbia: We just wanted to be your friends and you couldn't even protect our embassy:  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice blames Serbian government for failing to thwart attacks on U.S. embassy in Belgrade in reprisal for U.S. support of Kosovo's declaration of independent.  She says, rather petulantly, that the U.S. is only in the NATO force in Kosovo for the benefit of Serbia itself.

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=56521  

2/22/08

"Milosevic is dead", says a Serbian commentator; but Serbian nationalism is not:.  That is one interpretation of the violence that has swept through Serbia as street mobs have attacked the U.S. embassy among other "foreign" businesses like Nike and McDonald's in protest of U.S. and E.U. support of Kosovo's declaration of independence.  In the New York Times report on the situation, it is suggested that the great majority of Serbs are supporters of the "moderate" pro-Western government, and only 10% are willing to go to war over the matter. The violence is said to be limited to a small number of "losers of the transition" from the nationalist agenda of Milosevic who fell from power 8 years ago, those unable to take advantage of the glories of a new (western-oriented) "democracy."  So, as in the U.S. street riots of the 1960s, in Serbia it's "burn baby" as authoritative figures characterize the violence as reflecting not general alienation in the black (in this case Serbian) community but that of a tiny "hoodlums and radical" component of that community.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/world/europe/22kosovo.html?th&emc=th

2/20/08

What will U.S. policy toward Cuab be as Fidel Castro steps down ? Wait 'til November (maybe a tad longer) to see.:.  Although President Bush makes tough noises about how Cuba "must" move toward democracy, officials say review of policy really awaits outcome of November's election and the policies of the next President.  Of the three leading candidates, McCain's reaction is close to that of Bush while Clinton and Obama make typically ambiguous statements.  Obama's position seems most open to Cuban detente, but a political analyst notes that the Democratic nominee, whoever it may be, is likely to "veer to the center" on the issue, as he or she is faced with the political necessity to win Florida's electoral votes, which may require accommodation to the visceral anti-Castroism of much of the Cuban-American electoral constituency

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=12392  

2/20/08

Miami Herald weighs in with assessment of Fidel Castro'slong political career in Cuba:.  The Herald's long practice of negative coverage of events in Castro Cuba continues in its coverage of the President's decision to resign.  Almost pointedly disappointed in the tepid Little Havana street responses to the news, the Herald publishes a column which describes Castro as essentially a "wily survivor" and cites various Cuban-American "experts," nearly all of whom agree with the one whose assessment closes the piece: that Castro is leaving Cuba "in a mess."

http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/425623.html

2/19/08

Muted reactions noted among Cubans in Miami's Little Havana in response to news of Fidel Castro's resignation of the Cuban presidency.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/424373.html

2/18/08

"Humanitarian intervention ": The hook that activates the "liberal" side of a neo-con/liberal popular front:As Kosovo declares its independence with likely U.S. approval, Justin Raimondo notes the similarity in U.S. military intervention in allegedly "genocidal" situations from Yugoslavia to Iraq.  The country's attacks on the Serbs were based on the same exaggerated reports of "atrocities" that were instrumental in getting "liberal hawk" support for the invasion of Iraq.  As this pattern continues, who knows what further humanitarian aggression lies ahead. Darfur, any one?

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12378   

2/13/08

Neo-conservatism and U.S. foreign policy in the next presidency: "Just like old times, only better "  Justin Raimondo's assessment of the "change" that will come after November's election, whether it results in the election of President McCain, Clinton or Obama. Raimondo unearths the "monster" that many had left for dead after its having been discredited over the misbegotten Iraqi adventure, but in fact it has only been sleeping or hiding in dark alcoves (like the World Bank?), ready to emerge again. With McCain already one of neo-conservatism's most reliable fellow-travellers, the prospect of a Democrat as President is not much more daunting, as the movement's ability to contain investigation of its Iraqi capers by a Democratically "controlled" Congress shows that they have nothing to fear from a Senator Obama or a Senator Clinton presidency. Plus ca change, plus e'est la meme chose.

http://antiwar.com/justin/    

2/11/08

U.S. and Russian "nuclear deal" has Iran sputtering on the sideline.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JB09Ak03.html  

2/1/08

"Despots Masquerading as Democrats."  Title of an essay in a Human Rights Watch report describing the tendency around the world---from Pakistan to Egypt---for autocratic governments to wrap themselves in the mantle of democracy by holding sham elections and engaging in un-democratic abuses of people's civil rights.  The so-called "democracies" of the world---from the E.U. to the U.S.---encourage these shams by giving the stamp of approval to these leaders---as when Bush praised Pakistan as being "on the road to democracy" after he suspended the country's judiciary becuse their dissent from his actions.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41021  

1/30/08

Straight-talking John McCain says "There's going to be more wars"...and Pat Buchanan expresses concern that, if he is elected President, "more wars" are going to be the result as McCain has a career record of being "in everybody's face."

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7924

1/29/08

Norman Podhoretz takes another bite at the apple of bombing Iran.  Having made the "case" for that action in a Commentary article a year ago, the guru of neo-conservatism comes back to re-iterate that position in a fresh article in the same journal.  He argues that Iran represents such a "threat" to the lives of millions of people (in and outside of Iran) that a pre-emptive bombing to avert the country's development of nuclear weapons is fully justified.  He admits "consequences" like retaliatory Iranian action against Israel and a huge spike in the price of oil, but says that Bush (or his successor) must have the courage to take this action.  Did we mention he's a Rudy Giuliana campaign adviser? 

The article:

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/printArticle.cfm/Stopping-Iran-br--Why-the-Case-for-Military--Action-Still-Stands-11085

SCOTT MACCLEOD'S CRITIQUE:

http://time-blog.com/middle_east/2008/01/bombbombbomb_bombbomb_iran_1.html  

1/19/08

Bush does a scimitar dance with the King of Saudi Arabia while the Middle East burns around them:.   Robert Fisk so describes the scene in Damascus as the U.S. President brings billions of U.S. dollars to the Kingdom, receives an "Order of Merit" from the King and indulges in elaborate celebratory rituals that bear no relation to what Fisk calls the "bloody reality" of the carnage in the region.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/18/6450/

1/16/08

Evidence grows that Strait of Hormuz "provocation"was a Pentagon-orchestrated effort toinfluence world opinion against Iran:  Inter Press Service analyst assembles the pieces of a puzzle showing how a "routine" confrontation between U.S. shipping and Iranian patrols was escalated into a "crisis" that would be useful to Bush on his Middle East trip which included an agenda of rallying Gulf Arab countries' action against Iran.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40801  

1/14/08

George Bush's excellent day in the United Arab Emirates:.  On his "legacy-making" tour of the Middle East, the President "gently nudges" his UAE hosts and other authoritarian Arab leaders toward greater democracy, takes off his gloves in denunciation of the Iranian "threat,"  visits a desert encampment to play with a Crown Prince's falcons, then returns to his opulent suite in one of the world's most expensive hotels. Oh what a day!

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=3643  

1/14/08

Meanwhile, back in the sheikdom, was Bush listening to himself??  Folks in that row of turbaned Arab leaders who listened impassively to his speech in the United Arab Emirates were distinctively "cool" in their responses to that speech.  Noting that he called for Arab states to practice more democracy and to join the U.S. in "isolating" Iran from the international community, critics said he missed a couple of things.  He missed the fact that the U.S. has allowed only a tenuous democracy in Iraq with an elected government which, ironically, turns out to be closely allied with Iran. And he missed the fact that, unlike the U.S., Arab states are largely able to attain the "prosperity" he praised them of enjoying by maintaining close economic ties with Iran.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/24721.html  

1/14/08

Iranian spokesman says U.S. has "lost face" over the incident in the Strait of Hormuth and should apologize to the world and the region.  In the Oriental and Islamic (not to mention the U.S. where sports teams compete for "bragging rights") worlds of emphasis on face, them are fightin' words, mister

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080113/wl_mideast_afp/iranusmilitarybush  

1/14/08

And no, Virginia, there's no Santa Claus in the form of Dmocratic opposition to Bush's Middle East policies:.  Writer John Mearsheimer, who got in much hot water with a co-authored book on the influence of the "Israel lobby" in the U.S., notes that there is hardly a peep of opposition among "serious" candidates of either party to Israel's tail wagging the dog of U.S. policy, whether it concerns Israeli's harsh policies in the West Bank and Gaza or that country's insistence on the existential "threat" of Iran.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/13/6349/

1/12/08

Was "Filipino Monkey" the voice behind the recent "Iranian" threa tto U.S. shipping in Persian Gulf area?   People familiar with shipping activity in that area cite long-standing experience with a person or persons of that moniker who are electronic "hecklers" who insert their comments, often aggressive and obscene, into ship-to-ship communications.  This intepretation is consistent at least with the peculiarity of the "threat" at the Strait of Hormuz which promised to blow up an American ship and which precipitated new U.S. claims about dangers from Iran.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/01/navy_hormuz_iran_radio_080111/

1/11/08

But that's yesterday's news; Remember the U.S. Navy saying it "almost" fired on Iranian patrol boatsafter it got a threat from them to blow up a ship?   After Iran releases a video with a contradictory version of the communications between U.S. and Iranian officials, the Navy admits that the threatening message could have come from somewhere else, but that the behavior of the Iranian patrol boats was still "provocative" in some unspecified way, perhaps that they came at the U.S. vessels in a "swarm."

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23036718-5005961,00.html

1/10/08

Iran releases its own video with a very different version than the Pentagon of the "confrontation" of American naval vessels with Iraqi patrol boats in Strait of Hormuz.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2008-01-10T123138Z_01_DAH038208_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN-USA-SHIP.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage2  

1/9/08

Israeli PM Olmert states the obvious on Bush trip to Israel: U.S. President is Israel's "strongest and most trusted ally." 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=I0U1S0ZD2AIM1QFIQMFCFGGAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2008/01/09/wbush109.xml 

1/8/07

Imperialist U.S. foreign policy rides tall in the saddle at New Hampshire presidential debates:.  Unless Ron Paul is elected President, any of the candidates, Republican or Democrat, who participated in the NH debate can be counted upon to extend the aggressive foreign policy of the Bush administration.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jan2008/deba-j07.shtml  

1/8/07

What happened in the Strait of Hormuz? A confrontation between U.S. naval vessels and a number of Iranian small patrol boats at the entrance to the Persian Gulf is described by Iranian government and FARS news agency as an "ordinary occurrence" while Pentagon describes the situation as anything but ordinary, an extremely "provocative" threat from one of the boats to "blow up" a naval vessel in the course of which the U.S. ship "almost" fired on the provocator. The ghost of the Gulf of Tonkin lingers about the affair.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080107/wl_mideast_afp/usiranmilitarynavy_080107195429

12/22/07

"Liberal imperialists" like Peter Beinart seems to be "launching a search for another folksy Arkansas governor to put in the White House": Abetted by pundits from the neo-conservative side of the political spectrum, people like the New Republic editor are pronouncing another "it's the economy, stupid!" scenario for the 2008 presidential campaign.  In this dubious "paradigm" for the election, people are "tired of" U.S. involvement in other peoples' troubles and want their leaders to deal with bread-and-butter domestic issues like the sub-prime mortgage meltdown or rising gas prices. While this paradigm might seem to indicate a rising star for foreign policy "rookies" like Obama or Huckabee and a setting one for foreign policy tough guy/girl candidates like Clinton and Giuliana, it may seriously overestimate the public's sharing with these pundits the view that Bush administration "success" in the Middle East and in the war on terror are real enough that the country's leaders can safely retreat to the nation's internal economic problems...as if these problems were somehow divorced from war and rumors of war around the world.

http://www.antiwar.com/hadar/?articleid=12094

12/22/07

U.S./India nuclear deal generates headaches for Indian politicians and symbolizes a growing political and cultural connection between the two countries.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IL22Df01.html  

12/17/07

Hold your horses: John Bolton says Bush needs to "rein in" Condoleeza Rice:   The former (unconfirmed) UN ambassador tells Der Spiegel in an interview that Rice is the mouthpiece of "liberal career diplomats" in the State Department whose agenda is counter to that of neo-conservatives like themselves.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22934959-5005961,00.html

12/17/07

For thousands of Hmong tribesmen in Laos, the Vietnam War never ended:  The CIA hired and trained Laotian civilians, mostly Hmong, to carry on guerilla operations against the government.  With a communist government still in power, these former allies of the U.S. find themselves relentlessly purused and persecuted without any remnant of U.S. support.  Is this a portent of what will occur after U.S. withdrawal (or is already happening) to Iraqis who in any way supported the U.S. invasion or occupation? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/world/asia/17laos.html?th&emc=th

12/12/07

Is the world ready for peace to break out?  William Blum describes the "close call" in the U.S. and Israel of peace breaking out following the NIE indication that Iran is no imminent nuclear threat.  As Uri Avnery in Israel says, what one might think would be a day of celebration following this news was more like a day of national disaster, as leaders in this country as in the U.S. rushed to assure their people that the threat of Iran remains undiminished.  As Blum says, we need our enemies, and not toothless tiger ones at that.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/

12/12/07

George Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have become "best friends" as Germany and the U.S. have found convergence on many aspects of foreign policy, and observers say the relationship seems to be one of "personal warmth."  Maybe Chancellor Merkel wasn't as offended by last year's shoulder rub as current photographs seemed to suggest.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/11/AR2007121102107.html?wpisrc=newsletter

12/11/07

Israeli "opposition" leader Benjamin Netanyahu visits French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the two leaders ignore the NIE report in the U.S. to reaffirm the danger of Iran's nuclear ambitions and in support of UN sanctions against the country.  This will be news to some Israeli peace activists, but Netanyahu says there is no "opposition" in Israel to the government's stance on the issue of Iran.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/933153.html  

12/11/07

"Twisting the tiger's tale"; Miami-Cuban style: Years ago, you could get elected Mayor of Chicago by attracting the Irish vote with strident anti-English statements, though they were irrelevant to Chicago political issues, a practice called "twisting the tiger's tail."  In 2007 Florida, GOP presidential candidates McCain, Romney and Hukabee are stumping the state promising to re-open a case dear to the hearts of Cuban exiles, indicating that, as President, they would seek indictments of Fidel and Raul Castro for their alleged role in downing the 1996 flight of an exile project, Brothers to the Rescue.  The political relevance of these campaign tactics is questioned in a Miami Herald article.

http://www.miamiherald.com/979/story/340004.html

12/10/07

New Israeli ambassador to Britain says war with Iran may be "unavoidable."   He disdains the recent NIE report in the U.S. downplaying Iran's nuclear threat and insists that international military action will be unavoidable unless Iran "co-operates" with efforts to restrain its nuclear ambitions. With Israel being the tail that seems to wag U.S. foreign policy, this may portend more U.S. involvement in that war than the NIE report would seem to indicate.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847289613&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull  

12/10/07

China sees in U.S. intelligence report which downplays Iran's nuclear threat an opportunity to improve its chances of thwarting international sanctions against Iraq.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IL07Ak02.html

12/9/07

Arab Gulf states leaders clash with U.S. Defense Secretary Gates over issue of U.S. support for Israel's nuclear weapons.

http://www.bahraintribune.com/ArticleDetail.asp

12/7/07

Not to be deterred: U.S. secretaries of defense and state press on with their campaign for international sanctions against Iran:  In a "regional security" conference of Gulf states, Defense Secretary Gates chides Iran and its sympathizers in the Arab world for "cherry picking" the findings of the National Intelligence Estimate which downplays the "nuclear threat" of Iran, while they reject the NIE claim that Iran is helping to arm the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Deja vu the shifting "explanations" of why we went to war with Iraq?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071208/ap_on_re_mi_ea/gates_iran

12/7/07

"Split-second decision making that can affect the lives of millions of people:   Hillary Clinton's characterization of the U.S. presidency, used to disparage the qualification of one of her opponents to make those decisions.  A blogger says that, in contrast, this description should lead to a re-assessment of U.S. power on the world stage, a power that allows the country's leader to "take out a village" and then forget that he had even made that "decision," as Gerald Ford once told the blogger he had forgotten whether he had authorized Indonesia in "taking out" villages and people in East Timor.

http://www.newsc.blogspot.com/

12/7/07

U.S. agenda for "democracy spreading" gets a United Nations cover:.  A new UN "Democracy Fund" is established with much of the personnel and all of the ideology of U.S. groups like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an "arm" of the U.S. Democratic Party which "intervened" so creatively in the effort to topple Hugo Chavez in Venezuela as well as in the Orange, Cedar and Rose revolutions in Ukraine, Lebanon and Georgia.  With the UN agency now gearing up, we may expect international intervention in elections around the world to reach a new level of intensity and legitimacy.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=11&ItemID=14457  

12/7/07

French and German leaders vow to "keep up the pressure" on Iran despite U.S. intelligence report downplaying nuclear threat from the country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/world/middleeast/07iran.html?th&emc=th  

12/6/07

On diminshed Iran threat: What did Bush know and when did he know it?  After National Intelligence Estimate drastically downplayed the likelihood of Iran developing nuclear weapons, the President says that he didn't know the substance of this assessment until a recent "briefing."  Amy Goodman interviews investigative report Gareth Porter, who finds that statement "absolutely incredible" since Bush also says that the Director of National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, told him in July about impending changes in the intelligence assessment.

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/12/5/what_did_bush_know_on_iran  

12/5/07

“We should all look under the hood fo these intelligence reports" ...says a Republican Senator (Lindsey Graham) in response to new NIE which downplays the nuclear threat posed by Iran.  He joins President Bush in trying to salvage the public perception of an Iranian threat, an effort which the New York Times says represents an administration policy "in disarray."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/washington/05prexy.html?th&emc=th

12/4/07

Theran is working relentlessly to build a nuclear bomb!!....Oh, never mind.  National Intelligence Estimate made this alarmist assessment in its 2005 report and Bush and Cheney have "relentlessly" pursued that line.  Now, in its 2007 report, the NIE admits that it was mistaken in 05, that by 2003 Iran had abandoned a plan for military use of nuclear energy and that the program had almost certainly not been re-started.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/world/middleeast/04intel.html?th&emc=th

RAY MCGOVERN HAILS THIS REPORT AS THE ADVENT OF A "MIRACULOUS" DECLINE IN "FAITH-BASED INTELLIGENCE."

http://www.antiwar.com/mcgovern/?articleid=12001  

12/3/07

Paul Wolfowitz, "architect" of Iraqi war as Deputy Secretary of Defense, later forced to resign as head of World Bank, is offered a new government position in the State Department, leading a panel to advise Condoleezza Rice on issues of...arms control

http://www.newsweek.com/id/73273  

11/29/07

U.S. may be one provocation away from going to war with Iran: President Bush, at Annapolis summit, says U.S. would "support" Israel if attacked by Iran.  Given that "attack" is often a matter of interpretation of an "incident" that may in fact be a provocation, this puts U.S. policy on a precarious path of "supporting" their ally in the nearly-inevitable military response to any such incident

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/11/28/bush_us_would_back_israel_against_iran/6325/  

11/22/07

What's the state of play with Iran as a nuclear power and "existential threat"n to Israel?:   While Bush, Cheney and their neo-conservative cheering section are seemingly preparing for World War III to "save" Israel from Iranian aggression, their own Secretary of State and former CIA director are publicly playing down this threat and even the Israeli foreign minister and others of that country's hawks are advocating a less hysterical approach to the perceived "threat."

http://www.antiwar.com/hadar/?articleid=11943

11/21/07

Mike Whitney skewers the Faustian bargain between Benazir Bhutto and the neo-conservative political establishment in America in which she accepts U.S. sponsorhip of her bid to re-assume control in Pakistan in return for agreeing to fight the neo-con's "bloody war" against the Taliban, whom she previously supported.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/11/princess-ferragamo-at-the-barricades-the-push-for-regime-change-in-pakistan/  

11/19/07

If it worked in Iraq (?), it will work in Pakistan (?):.  U.S. military "planners," noting the "great success" in Anbar Province, Irag, in arming Sunni sheik forces to combat al Qaeda, are considering expanding that strategy to Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, as the tiny contingent of U.S. forces in Pakistan may be expanded and dispatched to the area to help train tribal leaders in their hoped-for assistance in quelling the nest of "insurgent" activity centered in this area. News of "friendly fire" incidents in which U.S. forces kill their supposed allies may not help Afghan acceptance of this arrangement.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/washington/19policy.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1195470590-xMLmpAyrPTaIdq0THG9UYw&oref=slogin  

11/18/07

IAEA gives Iran a B- report card on its compliance with UN demands on nuclear enrichment: The UN's watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, says that Iran is "reactive rather than proactive" about its compliance and U.S. seizes on that assessment to push for new round of UN sanctions on Iran for nuclear non-compliance (while Israel and Pakistan sail along on their D grades in the subject).

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40092

11/14/07

Asia Times: U.S. "grand scheme" for peace in Pakistan from Bhutto's U.S.-sponsored return seems to have fallen through as she calls for Musharaff's resignation.  In another "scheme," her return to power could facilitate U.S. hope to gain control over Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IK15Df01.html  

11/11/07

"The engine needs impetus and they're looking for us to find the fuel."   A private military interrogation contractor describes to UK Guardian the heavy pressure that U.S. military intelligence places on interrogators to extort from detainees any evidence of Iranian involvement in the Iraqi insurgency, such evidence being regarded as "gold."  The informant says such "information" is not fabricated, but detainees are encouraged to believe that such golden information is their ticket to get out of jail.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2209036,00.html  

11/9/07

A New York Times article describes the violence of "cults" in oil-rich Nigeria, whose politics is described as drenched in blood by the use of such cults by rival political factions. (Sound anything like Iraq?)  What the Times neglects to say but might have said is that this may be precisely the kind of situation in which the new military AFRICOM command may be prepared to intervene: "failed" (corrupt and violent) countries with lots of oil some of whose folks are not happy with the "foreign companies" that exploit that resource

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/world/africa/09nigeria.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

FOR A NIGERIAN EDITORIAL OPPOSING AFRICOM PLANS, SEE:

http://allafrica.com/stories/200709280143.html

11/8/07

Bush's "War on Terror" trumps his "freedom agenda."  His administration's continued support of Musharaff in the face of his suppression of dissent in Pakistan spells the "death knell" of a foreign policy supposedly based on a "spread of democracy" around the world.

http://www.antiwar.com/ips/gharib.php?articleid=11875

11/6/07

Turkey gets less than it asked for in its "deal" with the U.S.   PM wins promise of "sharing intellienge" between U.S. and Turkish militaries in the Turkish fight against Kurdish rebels, and President Bush urges Turkey not to invade Iraq.  Left unsaid is whether the U.S. would launch air strikes against rebel targets. Whether Turkey will indeed be so restrained remains to be seen.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7079391.stm

11/5/07

Asia Times notes "thaw" in relationship between the U.S.A. and North Korea.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/IK06Dg01.html  

10/26/07

A U.S. "turn toward unilaterism" on Iran.  New York Times characterization of the U.S. decision to institute sanctions against the country because of its alleged nuclear aspirations, after many months of failure to bring the international community on board with these actions.  "Analyst" Andrew Cordesman puts a sugar-coat on the action, saying it is a sign of "restraint" that the U.S. is substituting sanctions for war, though the sanctions should be seen as a "warning shot across the bow."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/washington/26assess.html?th&emc=th

10/26/07

First Kuwaiti reaps the rewards of incompetence.  Contractor which is building U.S. embassy in Green Zone in Baghdad, a project which is behind schedule and accused of shoddy workmanship and safety violations, is rewarded by State Department with several lucrative contracts to build U.S. embassies elsewhere.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/20821.html  

10/25/07

Canadian government and media show double standard in their concerns about "human rights violations" in Burma and Haiti: Condemnation of the brutal suppression of dissent in Burma was vociferous and immediate, while the aftermath of the ouster of Aristide with U.S. and Canadian support was treated very differently.  The regime which was installed to replace Aristide was also brutally repressive of pro-democracy demonstrators seeking Aristide's return, but the media largely ignored these incidents and Canada actually joined with the U.S. and other countries in urging the UN "peacekeeping" force to engage in more aggressive action against the demonstrators.

http://www.counterpunch.org/boychuk10232007.html

10/20/07

Four-and-a-half years after Charlotte Beers resigned from the State Department, her "shared values" re-branding of America looks as much as ever like a failed propaganda project: . "Shared Values" depicted the allegedly favorable treatment of Muslims in America just prior to the Iraqi invasion.  Sheldon Rampton, co-author of Weapons of Mass Destruction, "revisits" the project in light of recent studies suggesting it may have been more "effective" in influencing public opinion than critics had believed.  These studies apart, Rampton asserts that the project was falsely operated under the banner of a State Department organization that represented itself as "private" and "non-political," two things that it certainly was not.

http://www.counterpunch.org/rampton10182007.html  

10/17/07

Defense Secretary Gates wants a united world front against Iran's "nuclear ambitions" with "all options on the table." : He makes these remarks to a speech to (where else?) the Jewish Institute for National Security.

http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSN1534850420071016

10/16/07

Myanmar's "saffron revolution," in its support by the United States, bears the marks of other "revolutions" of countries on Russia's periphery that may be masking U.S geo-political interests behind a facade of "democracy" promotion

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IJ17Ae01.html   

10/1/07

First the stick, now the carrot. U.S. General Petraeus, noting the meeting between Iraqi and Iranian PMs in which Iran promised to stop supporting Iraqi insurgency, says U.S. would welcome the opportunity to "reciprocate," perhaps by releasing Iranians in U.S. custody

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/01/wshia101.xml

9/25/07

Madeline Albright surfaces politically and raises some issues about U.S. foreign policy:   The former Secretary of State under Bill Clinton notoriously said that the loss of human lives associated with sanctions against Iraq was "worth it."  Now campaigning on behalf of a second Clinton (Hillary), Albright puts a face of extremism on Islam, saying that the religion encourages killing, ignoring the numerous instances of genocidal mass murders that pervade the Bible of the Christian and Jewish faiths

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/09/questioning-madam-secretary-about-the-mercy-credits-of-genocidaires/  

9/11/07

In interview with German news magazine Spiegel Online, El Baradei disputes claims of U.S. officials that efforts of his IAEA to avert catastrophe associated with Iranian nuclear development are a "diversion" to the benefit of Iran.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,503841,00.html  

9/5/07

Tom Engelhardt updates his studies of triumphalism in American foreign policy, the "victory culture" that defines imperial domination as the goal of that policy.  With "defeat" as unthinkable in this culture, the country is faced in Iraq and Afghanistan, as it was in Vietnam, with a catastrophic failure in military operations that political leaders must paper over by re-defining "success," by resorting to body counts and other numerical indications of "progress."

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174832/empire_of_stupidity  

9/2/07

Is Pentagon plannig a "3 day blitz" against Iran?   Security expert at the Nixon Center so tells London Sunday Times, saying officials believe that Iran is already practicing a "proxy war" against the U.S. by its support of Iraqi insurgency.  The "thinking" is that pin-prick attacks will not do the job, but that total destruction of Iranian military will be required.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2369001.ece

8/26/07

Juan Cole compares U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 as similar "fiascos" based on misguided apprehensions about the outcome of these adventures.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IH25Ak03.html  

8/25/07

The policy of American embargo on Cuba is like the Chicago Cubs: "An infallible loser for an astonishing length of time ."    In Cuba, it's 48 years and counting (for the Cubbies, who counts?) of U.S. policy of trying for force "democracy" on Cuba, a policy embraced equally by Presidents of both parties and by the recent action of a Democratic congress as well as by most of the party's presidential candidates.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.chapman24aug24,0,2004290.story

8/14/07

Para-scandal in Colombia doesn't deter Bush administration's support of Uribe regime with involvement with drug lords as a foil to Venezuela's influence in Latin America:   A "peace process" intended to disarm paramilitary forces using death squad tactics in the country's "war on drugs" reveals the depth of government involvement in narco-politics.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/080807a.html  

8/10/07

The paradox of American democracy support in the Middle East:.  Last week's by-election in Lebanon, in which a U.S.-friendly candidate surprisingly went down to defeat, highlights a reality that is emerging across the region: that for all the U.S. promotion of free elections, they typically result in the election of people and parties not enjoying the "kiss of death" of U.S. support.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/10/world/middleeast/10arab.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

8/4/07

State Deppartment to presidential candidates: Please shut up:.  Department rebuke is delivered to candidates of both parties who have suggested actions like the bombing of holy sites in Saudi Arabia (Tancredo) or the military pursuit of terrorists in Pakistan (Obama), saying these comments complicate U.S. efforts to maintain diplomatic relations with countries involved in the war on terrorism. Official says in effect: after a candidate gets elected, then he/she will be able to say what he/she will do about these problems

http://www.usadaily.com/article.cfm?articleID=42320

8/4/07

U.S. arms aid to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel: A foreign policy out of focus.  Matthew Duss, in an article in Foreign Policy in Focus, argues that the proposed U.S. expansion of arms sales in the Middle East goes seriously off-target from President Bush's announced "democracy" agenda for the region.  While Secretary Rice touts the deal as the U.S. "working with these states to give a chance to the forces of moderation and reform,"  Duss notes that the Arab states are anything but "reformist," and that Israel's iron glove treatment of the Palestinians hardly qualifies as "moderate."

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4440

8/1/07

Admiral Mullen, nominee as new Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, wants U.S. to "stay engaged" militarily throughout the world, but to do this in "partnership" with military efforts of other nations.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0801/p02s01-usmi.html  

8/1/07

With U.S. military aid in the offing, Saudi Arabia expresses interest in joining a U.S.-backed peace summit between Israel and Arab countries.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6925583.stm

7/31/07

Barack Obama tells the Foreign Affairs crowd what they want to hear:.  In an article in that magazine favored by the "liberal" foreign policy elite, Obama makes it clear that, as President, he would not depart in any significant way from the Bush administration's pursuit of world hegemony through diplomatic bullying and pre-emptive military action.  See the first linked comment for a foreign observer's reaction to the overall paucity of presidential leadership being offered which would resurrect old-fashioned "statesmanship;" also the response of this headline writer to the comment.

http://www.countercurrents.org/damon280707.htm

7/29/07

In my hand is the envelope containing the name of the neo-con pundits' favorite presidential candidate. And the winner is...Hillary Clinton??? The nattering nabobs of conservatism are thrilled by Clinton's more "presidential" stance (compared to Obama) on a question about willingness to "negotiate" with international bad guys.  The question is whether they are trying to jump on a perceived Clinton bandwagon; or "set up" the Democrats to choose the candidate whom they feel the Republicans can most easily beat.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003809860_hillary28.html  

7/28/07

Is Chavez replacing Castro as the "dictator" de jure in South Florida politics?  Some Venezuelan exiles are teaming with Cuban ones to carry on the latter's tradition of inserting Latin American policies into the focus of concern of presidential candidates. Mitt Romney is the latest candidate who is perhaps hearing the siren song similar to the one that allowed George W. Bush to get elected and re-elected through his support from south Florida Cuban-Americans.

http://www.miamiherald.com/884/story/185285.html

7/27/07

Syria may be coming back into Bush administration cross-hairs as a "lower-hanging fruit." Neo-cons like Michael Gerson, though preferring an attack on Iran, are suggesting that Syria will be an easier target as a country allegedly operating as a mainstay of the insurgency in Iraq.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18069.htm  

7/24/07

Good guys, bad guys.  This script may work for an old Hollywood western but its employment as a paradigm for settlement of the Israel/Palestine conflict by George Bush and the newest "peace envoy" Tony Blair is nothing but a "trap for fools" being designed for perpetual frustration of the aspirations of the Palestinians. So says Uri Avnery, with apologies to Rudyard Kipling.

http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery07232007.html  

7/23/07

Ira Chernus notes how the "top tier" of Democratic candidates---Clinton, Obama, Edwards---all engage in a "double-speak" about U.S. foreign policy to respond both to popular demands for Iraqi withdrawal and the foreign policy elite's demand that the country pursue its policy of imperial hegemony in the Middle East and around the world.  A key word in this language is "stabiliy," as our withdrawal from Iraq as well as our non-intervention in the rest of the world is predicted on the Iraqis fully cooperating with this hegemony, this imperial U.S. dominance.  Kucinich and Richardson don't speak this language so they don't "qualify" for the presidency by the pundits and pollsters who dictate who are the "top tier" candidates.

http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=11333

7/7/07

Asia Times:  Vladimir Putin got a lobster dinner and little else from his visit with George Bush.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/IG07Ag01.html  

7/6/07

So what's the big deal about the USS Nimitz visiting an Indian port? Nuclear weapons on board?  Probably not, but that is not the point of protest of Indians, who see the visit as emblematic of a broader American policy project of putting its aggressive imprint on the Asian continent, as it has already done in the Middle East

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=66&ItemID=13227  

6/30/07

Linda McQuaig, sometimes called Canada's Michael Moore, has published a book of that title showing how Canada has devolved from a traditional role in international relations as a peacekeeper and a mediator into one which has staked its future on subservience to the United States both militarily and economically.  Its new Defence Minister, for example, has promised "no more girlie man peace-keeping" as he pursues a "war ethic" for Canada in company with the bully whose coat he is holding.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=51&ItemID=13168

6/24/07

US "democracy fund" a big bust in Iran  A U.S. program purportedly aiming at spreading democracy in Iran is referred to as khaneh ankaboot (spider's nest) by angry editorialists who denounce it as an agent of U.S. interference and attempted regime change.  Even dissidents in Iran have disdained association with the program, observing some of their colleagues have been jailed for any degree of such association. A New York Times Magazine article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/magazine/24ngo-t.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=a0b2dc3bab4878de&ex=1340337600&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss  

4/29/07

As Boris Yeltsin is laid to rest, Asia Times publishes an analysis of the possible rise of a new Cold War as the Russian leader credited with the "dismantling" of the Soviet Union passes into history.  The controversy centered on U.S. plans for anti-missile installations in Poland and the Czech Republic threatens to re-ignite a latent conflict between the U.S. and Russia in their continuing rivalry for world geo-political dominance.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/ID28Ag01.html

4/23/07

Doing foreign policy, Bush administration style.  New York Times reports that U.S. officials knew in January 2007 before it happened that China was likely to fire a "test" missile shoot down a satellite, but disdained to give public warning or to take any action to try to deter China from an action that was widely seen as a threat to shoot down a U.S. satellite facility.  Instead, officials "drafted a protest" before the event to be issued after it occurred.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/washington/23satellite.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th  

4/21/07

Let us build our anti-missile defense system in Europe and we'll help you build your missile-defense system.  Alica in Wonderland?  No, it's apparently the U.S. strategy to get Russia to drop its opposition to U.S. missile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic. Thus is the U.S. responding to European allies' complaints they are not being "agile" enough in dealing with Russia.  As actually contorted as this proposal may be, it could work out nicely for the profits of the defense industry in both countries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/21/world/europe/21missile.html?th&emc=th  

4/17/07

Plan Colombia isn't working...if its true aim is to eradicate narco-trafficking in the country.  Extensive U.S. aid to the country has been used mostly in efforts to control cocaine production, while hectares of coca production increase and the real use of U.S. money has been to prop up the right-wing government and the para-militaries in the country.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=9&ItemID=12596  

4/13/07

Asia Times says U.S. is building up India as a "strategic counter-weight" against China.'

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/ID14Df01.html  

4/3/07

The steamroller that ran out of steam.  Condoleezza Rice's latest "diplomacy mission" to the Middle East was to have gotten assurance from Arab nations of a willingness to negotiate a settlement and to have read the riot act to Israeli PM Olmert that his country must begin to observe the long-neglected  benchmarks on the "road map to peace."  The Arabs cooperated but Olmert said "no thank you" to the steamroller and the "peace movement" in Israel responded in a tepid manner.

http://www.countercurrents.org/avnery030407.htm  

4/3/07

Robert Fisk: Iran is playing a game of humiliation with the West in the current incident of detention of British Marines.  And they play the game very very well after decades of practice going back at least to the "Iranian hostage crisis" of the 1970s, as Bush and Blair mutter imprecations to release the hostages, while Iran parades "repentent" hostages before the world.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17460.htm

4/2/07

"RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE SOURCES" CONTINUE TO REPORT LIKELY U.S. ATTACK ON IRAN, MAYBE ON APRIL 6 GOOD FRIDAY.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173879220977&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull  

3/31/07

Nancy Pelosi to go to Syria, whose embassy calls the event "momentous" while White House says it's a "really bad idea."

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/070331/1/47k1y.html  

3/30/07

"Is this a comedy or a horror show?"  asks a Jordanian journalist, reflecting a widespread disdain of analysts for the "diplomacy" of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as she undertakes still another muddled "diplomatic" mission to the Middle East. Only mainstream U.S. media bothers to report with any seriousness her fluctuating schemes for "parallel" or "triangular" or whatever "different geometries" (her term) emerge in the process, while actually only Saudi Arabia is doing any signficant diplomatic work in the area.

http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=10746

3/29/07

All's not quiet on the Iranian border.  Russian news agency says that "Russian intelligence" is reporting the build-up of U.S. forces, both ground and air, on the Iranian border with a presumed intention of launching a "quick take out" military operation against Iran.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070327/62697703.html

3/28/07

U.S. general tries to assure Russia that the "missile defense shield" proposed for European locations is not intended as threat to Russia but to help protect that country as well against "rogue states" like North Korea and Iran.  Looking at the map and noting the location of these "shields," Russians remain a bit skeptical.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-03-28T111316Z_01_L28545659_RTRUKOC_0_US-SHIELD-RUSSIA-USA.xml  

3/28/07

U.S. Arab "ally" scotches rumors of a Dubai-based operation with plans to invade Iran with government's announcement that its soil will not to used to launch attacks against its neighbors, "especially Muslim ones."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L27163479.htm  

3/26/07

Setting the scene for a Middle East power play:    U.S. raid in January of Iranian offices in Kurdistan capital Arbil may have led to a retaliatory action that now threatens to escalate conflict in the Persian Gulf: the Iranian capture, detention and possible trial of 15 British sailors and Marines.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2393336.ece

3/24/07

Former UN ambassador John Bolton advocates action to promote regime change in Iran, not militarily but by a combination of "internal dissent and outside pressure."

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3380195,00.html  

3/24/07

In a Persian Gulf heavily militarized by forces of both the West and of Iran, British sailors on a "routine patrol" involving the boarding of Iranian ships in search of smuggled cargo are detained by Iranians, and British officials announce themselves as "extremely disturbed" by the matter.  The problem is the thin line between extremely disturbed and finding a causa belli for an all-out assault on Iran.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/24/world/europe/24britain.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

3/22/07

Trading Democracy for peace in the Middle East:   U.S. policy for dealing with Egypt changes course; support is withdrawn for democratic reforms in the country as Egypt is sought as an ally in helping to revive the Middle East "peace process" between Israel and Palestine.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070321/pl_afp/usegyptconstitution

3/18/07

"American politicians need to get over their fear of the Isralei lobby and tend to America's business". And that "business," according to Charley Reese, is to deal diplomatically with the threat posed by Russian military power.

http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?

3/18/07

What does George W Bush read?  Increasingly, he reads history books of a strong neo-conservative and Islamophobic cast.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0316-01.htm

3/18/07

U.S./Israeli war games are scaled back in consideration of the tension of a looming confrontation with Iran.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-03-18T105538Z_01_ARM839312_RTRUKOC_0_US-ISRAEL-USA-IRAN.xml  

3/16/07

Justice, mercy and the Bush Administration. On his tour of Latin America, Bush was met by angry demonstrators in Guatemala, where he told the people that U.S. laws would be carried out with "respect" for those arrested, while Guatemalans, whose families and friends made up most of the arrestees in last week's "sweep" in New Bedford MA, were receiving different stories about the "respect" shown their countrymen.

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0315-31.htm

3/15/07

American dson't agreee with key element of Bush foreign policy.  Only 15% of those questioned in recent polls indicate approval of a policy of "regime change" efforts to lessen the threat of other countries by converting them from dictatorship to democracy. Most say the U.S. should "stay out of other countries' affairs."

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/15043

3/13/07

Iran: "Beleived to be seeking nuclear weapons and has expressed unremitting hostility about the Jewish state":  Reason enough for a "liberal Democrat" (Shelley Berkley of Nevada) to join the party's leadership in stripping from a military appropriations bill a provision that Bush could not take military action against Iran without congressional approval.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070312/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq

3/12/07

Bush is pushing the image of the U.S. as a "compassionate" nation in his tour of Latin America.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070312/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/bush_latin_america  

3/12/07

U.S. plans for a Pan-African agenda of dominance throughout the continent is being countered by the same aspirations of China for influence in the region.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IC13Ad01.html  

3/6/07

In the Middle East, Israel and Saudi Arabia are new bedfellows and the U.S. tucks them in: New Seymour Hersh article in The New Yorker details a "redirection" of U.S. policy in which we are now taking the side of Sunni Arabs (the supposed backbone of the Iraqi insurgency) in Iraq and throughout the region, a development resulting from a mutual fear in Washington, Tel Aviv and in Sunni Arab capitols of the Iranian threat which was "emboldened" by the Iraqi occupation.  So far, the U.S. Congress has not weighed in on the "redirection."

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070305fa_fact_hersh

3/6/06

President Bush wants to create jobs, decrease poverty and inequality. In south Philly?  No, in South America, specifically in Brazil as he seeks a Latin American ally against the growing influence of Venezula's Chavez.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/world/americas/06latin.html?hp

3/4/07

Confrontation and diplomacy: Does U.S. participation in upcoming talks on "Iraqi security" that will include meetings with Iranian and Syrian representatives signal a "dramatic change" in U.S. Middle East policy toward a more diplomatic and less confrontational approach? Not so, says Peter Symonds, all the signals point toward Secretary Rice using these talks to issue further demands and ultimatums on both Iran's alleged support of the Iraqi insurgency, and its alleged development of nuclear weapons.

http://www.countercurrents.org/iran-symonds030307.htm  

3/2/07

Imperial over-reach.  Chalmers Johnson completes his "inadvertent trilogy" on American foreign policy, and his latest book receives an extended review by David Lendmen.

http://www.countercurrents.org/us-lendman020307.htm  

2/28/07

Opening a "second front" in the Middle East?  U.S. signals what UK Telegraph calls a "dramatic shift" in policy by announcing plans to attend Iraq "stabilisation" talks with Syria, Iran and Iraq...while maintaining its first front threat of military action against Iran.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=XUDQRN5L51DULQFIQMFSFFWAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2007/02/27/niraq127.xml

2/27/07

Keeping a military attack on Iran "on the table."  All three "leading" Democratic presidential candidates assert the necessity of doing this, thereby joining other Democrats in insisting that the decision to take it off the table and execute an attack should be a matter of congressional prerogative.  An analyst indicates the danger of this position, as it perpetuates a build-up of ready invasion forces and the possibility of either accidental igniting of a conflict or that U.S. belligerence will precipitate an extreme Iranian reaction.

HTTP://www.commondreams.org/views07/0226-25.htm

2/26/07

Michael Klare:  Bush has decided to attack Iran, but this won't happen until after a few months of "soap opera" on the international diplomatic stage.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IB27Ak01.html

2/26/07

UN and US at odds about the reliability of intelligence about Iran's intentions on nuclear power:   U.S. claims of intelligence showing Iran's move for nuclear enrichment to produce nuclear weapons are received very critically by the UN's watchdog nuclear agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/latimes843.html  

2/24/07

In Iran as in the US, people go shopping in a time of crisis. Assured by their leaders that there is nothing new about the world's countries lining up against Iran, and that those warships in the Gulf of Persia wouldn't "dare" attack Iran, Iranians indulge in that country's equivalent of the orgy of Christmas shopping as they flock to Tehran markets in anticipation of Noruz.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4874340e-c2e3-11db-9e1c-000b5df10621.html  

2/23/07

You got it right, Vladimir Putin: The Russian Prime Minister's recent denunciation of U.S. global geo-political strategy was not the raving of a paranoiac. American actions speak louder than the protesting words of their leaders.  Their anti-missile defense system is actually a missile "offensive" system designed to provide protection for a "first strike capability."  Their location of these bases in Poland and Czechoslovakia makes it clear that their "strike" intentions are directed toward Russia, not the Middle East. Their Star Wars project for "full spectrum dominance" in space completes the picture of a policy, pursued by the last three American Presidents, of continuing the Cold War after it supposedly ended, with the continued aim to develop a world with but a single center of power (the U.S.)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ENG20070220&articleId=4873

2/22/07

One way of curbing those expensive "Congressional junkets".  Prof. Jorge Hirsch notes that, should the U.S. launch a nuclear attack on Iran, every one of the 535 members of Congress would be subject to arrest for war crimes if he/she appeared in any of the the 104 member countries of the International Criminal Court that meets in The Hague.  The Court's definition of war crimes would indict Congress for allowing the development of nuclear weapons without supervision of their use, even when the Commander in Chief has indicated the possibility of a nuclear strike.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HIR20070221&articleId=4883

2/21/07

'History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme'... said Mark Twain.  The history of the current buildup of aggressive action against Iran "rhymes" perfectly with that which led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.  The U.S. President is acting like believers in an end of the world prophecy who, when the saucers did not arrive to pick them on a designated doomsday, redefined their sense of "reality" and went on believing in their own prophecies.

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0219-23.htm

2/21/07

Turn up your worry clock a couple of notches...if you're concerned about a war with Iran, says U.S. Air Force retired Colonel Sam Gardiner. One notch concerns claims, not verified, that IED explosions in an area near the Afghan and Pakistani borders may have been carried out with clandestine U.S. involvement.  The other notch concerns a "surge within the surge," an emergency dispatch of a thousand troops from 3rd Infantry Division headquarters at Ft. Stewart GA, including a two-star General, for "command" duty in Baghdad, which makes some sense if the "surge" is really intended for re-inforcement at the Iranian border and a separate "command" will have to open up in Baghdad.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17121.htm

2/21/07

John Negroponte, new Under Secretary of State, intends to promote more assignment of career Foreign Service personnel to places of "turmoil" in the world to help support U.S. military operations in these areas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/washington/21negroponte.html?th&emc=th  

2/20/07

Ready, aim and wait for a "trigger":READY, AIM AND WAIT FOR A "TRIGGER": BBC security correspondent says Pentagon has selected numerous Iranian targets for attack which could be "triggered" by either a "confirmation" that Iran is going ahead with nuclear development, or an insurgent strike in Iraq which can be "traced" to Iranian involvement.

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6376639.stm

U.S. apparently not yet ready to apply the latter "trigger," as an attack Monday on a military outpost at Tarmiya, north of Baghdad, that killed two U.S. soldiers is reported in the New York Times without any mention of suspected Iranian involvement.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/world/middleeast/20iraq.html  

2/17/07

As Iran tests a missile capable of destroying a war ship, U.S. obliges by sending U.S.S. John Stennis to the area, supposedly with no intention to invade Iran, but with a crew of 5000 and 80 war planes on board.  What the U.S. does acknowledge is that it is attempting to deter Iran from purported intentions to disrupt the shipment of oil in the Gulf.

http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/sf/latimes216.htm 

2/14/07

"Sunni Crescent" of Arab opposition to Iran is a figment of US State Department imagination: Poll of public opinion across the Arab world shows more sense of threat from U.S. and Israel than from Iran, even in "Sunni" countries like Saudi Arabia, as Arabs seem less concerned about the divide between Sunni and Shiite than of that between Israel and Palestine.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/47913/ 

2/13/07

U.S. is "not doing enough" to stop Iran, according to top Israeli defense official.

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3364342,00.html  

2/12/07

"We know more than we can show..." says one of the U.S. military briefers at a show-and-tell presentation in Baghdad designed to produce evidence of Iranian involvement in the Iraqi insurgency.  What they could and did show were some ordinance involved in the making of improvised explosive devices which they said but didn't really show were traceable to arms factories in Iran. What they claimed but certainly did not show was that the Iranian government was responsible for these arms shipment. What they "glossed over" is the probability that not only the Mahdi Army of al Sadr whom they are targeting for suppression but some of the Badr Brigade forces operating with U.S. support are receiving these munitions from Iran.  Iraqi government officials and some Democrats in Washington express skepticism about the briefing's claims. For the Associated Press article, see:

http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/iran-sends-iraq-bomb-parts-us-officer/20070211155209990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

For New York Times article, see:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/world/middleeast/12weapons.html?  hp&ex=1171342800&en=644043fb3060b879&ei=5094&partner=homepage 

For Washington Post article, see:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/11/AR2007021100479.html?referrer=email  

2/11/07

How dodgy is this dossier going to be? As U.S. government prepares to release its "evidence" of Iranian involvement in assisting the Iraqi insurgency, officials are wary that this "dossier" may have the "dodgy" or dubious quality of some British intelligence assessments that led to the Iraqi War.  At  7:21 Saturday (2/10/07), Associated Press filed a story of an interview with Secretary of State Robert Gates with the "might be" qualifiers that we have come to know and hate where military "explanations" are concerned.  Referring to some enemy munitions that have been captured, Gates said that "I think there's some serial numbers, there may be some markings on some of the projectile fragments that we found (that point to Iran)." The AP reporter was alert enough to question how the Secretary could trace those numbers to the Iranian government, as opposed maybe to private arms dealers within the country.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070210/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/gates;_ylt=AnsyWISdrTzaLiNKf0ZHfZpI2ocA

In a second article posted at 4:43 P.M. Saturday,  the AP indicates that government officials are planning to have a briefing in Baghdad on Sunday on a 200-page dossier that promises to expand on Gates' "might be some" level of evidence.  Fearing that they would be "burned" on a day or two after still another report surfaced of misuse of intelligence before the Iraqi invasion, some "senior officials" of the Bush administration were said to have looked critically at the dossier and were "underwhelmed by the packaging."  In a packaging-conscious Administration, look for a possible delay in the briefing until the package can be re-wrapped more attractively.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070210/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iran_intelligence;_ylt=AjU9Dbkvqv332c0LAverkNZI2ocA

2/11/07

Who is Joshua Muravchik? Maybe the most dangerous man you've never heard of - The American Enterprise Institute, the neo-conservative think tank with which Muravchik is affiliated, uses its influence with Bush and Cheney to push an agenda of confrontation with Iran over that country's supposed nuclear intentions and capabilities.  Muravchik tells UK Guardian reporter Ewen MacAskill that, even to a "hawk" like himself, a U.S. invasion of Iran is unthinkable; but that an air strike is "another matter."  He asserts this as a near-inevitability and also acknowledges that an Iranian military response is highly likely, but that the danger of an Iran with nuclear arms makes such a pre-emptive strike "worth it," as we "have to gird our loins and prepare to absorb the counter-shock." Actually while your baby and the rest of us are girding our loins, Dr. M and the rest of the AEI crowd will be joining Cheney in the bunker from which they will conduct these and other adventures of Doctor Strangelove.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2010087,00.html#article_continue  

2/11/07

"We dare you"! Leader of Islamic Revolution in Iran promises a "comprehensive reaction" from Iran if U.S. assaults Iran, and street demonstrations are planned for across the country on February 11.

http://www.iran-daily.com/1385/2778/html/  

2/6/07

Nearly half of Danish people, in survey reported by Copenhagen newspaper,  regard George W. Bush as "a threat to world peace."

http://www.cphpost.dk/get/100268.html

2/6/07

In an atmosphere of public skepticism about its claims of "nefarious" involvement of Iran in the Iraqi insurgency, the White House is toning down its anti-Iranian rhetoric.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0206/p01s03-usfp.html

2/5/07

The Bush administration admits that it has no evidence of Iranian involvement in Iraq insurgency, after a new National Intelligence Estimate states that  "the involvement of these outside actors (Syria and Iran)  is not likely to be a major driver of violence or the prospects for stability because of the self-sustaining character of Iraq's internal sectarian dynamics." So gentlemen, drop your rhetorical weapons.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0203-02.htm

2/4/07

Secretary of State Rice's recent visit to the Middle East "in support of" the Palestinian Authority leader in his conflict with Hamas was actually a disaster for Abbas. Her ignorance or failure to recognize the realities of Middle East politics---especially Israel's violations of the "road map" to peace forbidding further settlements and its human rights violations in Palestine---simply strengthened Hamas by demonstrating the futility of Abbas' client relationship to the United States.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=12029

2/3/07

From the mess in Mesopotamia to the perils in Persia:  Ringmaster Cheney seems to be orchestrating a "change of subject" from Iraq to Iran, with his associates, the war profiteers, as the principal if not the sole beneficiaries of a new conflict.

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0202-27.htm

2/3/07

U.S. is expanding it support for Palestinian President Abbas in his struggle with Hamas in Palestine.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-02-03T103612Z_01_L287153254134_RTRUKOC_0_US-PALESTINIANS-USA-FORCES.xml  

2/2/07

David Lindorff: "This is madness! (attack on Iran):  But mad as it is, it is likely to happen unless Congress and the American people take it into their own hands and prevent a mad Administration from doing what it apparently intends to do, by denying Iran war funding and by impeachment of the war party.

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0201-20.htm    

2/2/07

Senator Jim Webb asks Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice whether the government claims that the President has the authority to invade Iran without congressional approval. Rice declines to answer, says she will answer in writing. After two weeks she has not written and Webb writes a follow-up letter, which is contained with this link.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002441.php

2/2/07

Navy strike group joining US military buildup in Middle East:Headed by USS Bataan, an assault ship, the group containing 7 ships, 2200 U.S. soldiers and Marines, helicopters and fighter jets, steams through the Suez Canal, and Navy officials speak of interdicting alleged terrorists and nuclear components headed for Iran.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467848831&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

2/2/07

Ahead of a planned to visit to Washington today, Russian foreign minister urges U.S. to desist from actions against Iran that are excessive to the actions of the UN Security Council.

http://www.irannewsdaily.com/view_news.asp?id=144680

1/28/07

Consider the irony: U.S. sends nuclear powered Submarine to ersian Gulf to deal with "Iranian threat" to develop non-military nuclear facilities - Under cover of a media establishment with "collective amnesia" about how international crises have been manufactured before and with a compliant "opposition" party in the U.S., things are moving smartly toward the U.S./Israeli intention for a military strike on Iran.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=67&ItemID=11963  

1/28/07

U.S. follows a well-worn path in providing arms to Fatah in their struggle with Hamas for leadership in Palestine.  Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran are among the other countries whose regimes were so favored by the U.S. before they became defined as our enemies, and Fatah may turn out to use their U.S. military support in a future conflict with our ally, Israel.

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0127-25.htm

1/24/07

President (Hillary) Clinton might be nicer than Pres. Bush toward Israel:   The Israel lobby's large contributions toward her campaign may have paid off in the form of a very forgiving attitude for Israeli actions like the separation wall and a very harsh attitude toward Palestinians whom she says must "control their terrorists" if they want favorable treatment.

http://counterpunch.org/frank01232007.html

1/21/07

"No one in a senior position in this administration seems to have even the vaguest notion of modern Middle Eastern history"  says a former speechwriter for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/ExRice_speechwriter_She_doesnt__have_0119.html  

1/19/07

Jimmy Carter calls on the Democratic Party to take the lead in re-establishing the "peace process" in the Middle East by virtue of which Israeli security will be coupled with that country's ending its Palestinian occupation and the ending of its persecution of Palestinians.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/17/AR2007011701712.html?referrer=email

1/19/07

New Pentagon chief Gates tells Arab leaders that Iran may have "overplayed its hand" on the world stage in trying to exploit what it sees as U.S. weakness because of problems in Iraq.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070118/ap_on_re_mi_ea/gates  

1/18/07

Did the 06 election make a difference?  Perhaps. As Castro lies near death and as Bush administration aggressively plans Cuba's post-Castro "transition" and as a Florida Congresswoman who approved of Castro's assassination is set to become chair of the House International Relations Committee, the election upsets the applecart as the lady is denied her chair and as a coalition of liberal Democrats and representatives of farm states interested in Cuba trade seems to have the first real chance in decades at repealing the longstanding Cuban embargo.

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=10343

1/13/07

Head of controversial democracy enhancement program for Cuba quits his job to become a foreign policy advisor in John McCain's tentative candidacy for the White House.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16450724.htm  

1/3/07

The question never asked: Tom Engelhardt, in a new year reflection, notes the U.S. military's scramble to find the resources to maintain and even "re-double" the "imperial mission" of the country.  With a bipartisan consensus on the need for such expansion, the question almost never asked is: why don't we "shrink the mission" to the scale of our resources to accomplish it?

http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/  

1/1/07

All the accolades at his funeral aside, Gerald Ford is characterized by Stephen Zunes has having pursued a foreign policy of "unprincipled realpolitik" which, among other things, needlessly prolonged the Viet Nam war.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1231-20.htm  

12/21/06

Documentary filmmaker demands apology from Florida Congresswoman Ilean Ros-Lehtinen, scheduled to be ranking Republican member of House International Relations Committee, who claimed that her remarks about approving of the assassination of Fidel Castro had been "altered" to misrepresent her remarks.  He released the uncut version of the video and this can be seen linked to this article.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16278450.htm

12/9/06

Asia Times writer notes the history of U.S./China relations, ever since Nixon's "Big Opening," as a vacillation between the two poles of treating China as a threat to be contained and as a partner with whom to be engaged; a hybrid policy the writer calls congagement.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/HL09Ad01.html  

12/8/06

Time for Pearl Harbor to retire:  Ira Chernus, writing for publication on 11/7/06, Pearl Harbor day but (coincidentally?) the day after release of the Iraq Study Group report, reflects that James Baker is to 9/11 as FDR was to Pearl Harbor, that both men are part of the same fantasy of U.S. thinking in which we see ourselves forever at the mercy of envious "evil doers" if we even once let down our vigilance and allow any other force in the world to challenge our benevolent dominance thereof.  Chernus would like to "retire" not only the Pearl Harbor of 65 years ago but the over-65 Baker so that we can, for once, "get real" about a complex world system of which we are but one part.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1207-20.htm  

12/7/06

Direction of the party:  Senior Fellow resigns from Carter Center in protest of Jimmy Carter's book blaming Israel for much of middle east conflict. Other politicians pile on, one Democratic congressman from New York saying that the book "clearly does not reflect the direction of the party."  If he's right, don't look for any major shift of U.S. policy toward Israel with the new Congress.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/06/AR2006120602171.html?referrer=email

12/6/06

Mark Weisbrodt:  If President Bush is serious about not "bearing grudges," it might be well for him to take advantage of a new opportunity for better U.S./ Venezuela relations and calling Chavez and congratulate him on his re-election.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1206-33.htm  

12/4/06

With prospects for Senate approval of his "interim" appointment as U.S. Ambassador to the UN slim to none, John Bolton will resign his post in a few weeks, according to the White House.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-12-04-bolton_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA  

12/4/06

A "near state of panic" in the Arab world: As Bush and top advisors seek support from Arab "allies" for containing the Iraqi insurgency, leaders in country after country express disappointment and confusion over American Mideast policy and embarrassment that they have been associated with that policy; even Iraqi PM Maliki "stood him up"on a planned meeting.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-usmideast3dec03,0,7181716.story?coll=la-home-headlines

11/24/06

Asia Times commentator notes the "startling significance" for the future of the Middle East of a newly emerging Iran/Iraq/Syria axis.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HK23Ak02.html

11/21/06

Green light for Israel?  Bush tells French President Chirac that there is a "possibility" that Israel will attack Iran and that he it "understand it" if they did.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112006B.shtml  

11/21/06

Canadian Middle East expert describes a version of the "New Middle East" strategy being pursued by Bush administration and  its allies:  a geo-political scheme for western hegemony in the region by creating the "creative destruction" of national entities and a balkanization and pacification of the region.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=NAZ20061116&articleId=3882  

11/20/06

Bombing A&W Root Beer: As Bush prepares for 10-hour visit to Indonesia, residents prepare a "welcome" by bombing an American commercial franchise and organizing massive protests. But not to worry, he won't witness these protests as he expects to make no public appearances there.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/HK18Ae01.html  

11/20/06

Bush stays at one of the "gleaming new hotels" in Ho Chi Min City (formerly Saigon) in Vietnam, emphasizes the country's commercial progress and avoids sites symbolic of American failure there in the 1970s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/world/asia/20prexy.html?th&emc=th

11/19/06

Put the blame on us:  Stephen Zunes notes that the ascendancy to power of Democrats in Congress is unlikely to diminish the unquestioning support of Israel in American foreign policy, as leaders like Pelosi and the great majority of Democrats have fully supported the Bush policy. In accounting for this, Zunes rejects the idea that criticism of Israeli policy is "political suicide," as everyone of the handful of Democrats in the critical camp won re-election quite handily, as a more even-handed approach to the Middle East is actually majority opinion in the country.  Rather, he blames "progressive groups" for their endorsement of Democrats (maybe like Sherrod Brown or Ned Lamont) who failed to take a principled stand against Israel's humanitarian violations.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1118-20.htm

11/19/06

DHS secretary Chertoff says U.S. interests are being threatened by activists, leftists and elitists in the European Union and the United Nations in their determination to bring international law to bear on the U.S.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111701395.html

11/17/06

Senate, in 85-12 vote, agrees to the nuclear deal with India that critics say will help promote a nuclear arms race in Asia.  Dominant feeling was that a "relationship" with India was more important than the risks involved.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/washington/17nuke.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl

Vote:

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_=00270

11/17/06

Hoping to "burnish his foreign-policy credentials," Bush begins a southeast Asian tour.  Where Viet Nam is concerned, he's off to a very bad start. Already embarrassed by the failure of the lame-duck Republican Congress to approve a Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement, he's confronted by the faux pas of the White House placing on its website the flags of the countries he is visiting; in Viet Nam's case, it placed the old flag of South Viet Nam, which cannot legally be displayed in the country.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/15/vietnam-bush-wrong-flag/  

11/13/06

Israeli leader laments electoral defeat of the party of George Bush, "possbily the friendliest President we have ever had."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/13/world/middleeast/13israel.html?th&emc=th

11/10/06

John Bolton headed out the door:  Joseph Biden, to be new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says there is "no point" in the Committee considering the making of his interim appointment as UN envoy permanent, as full Senate would not entertain the nomination.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6134734.stm  

11/7/06

Oh yeah, they voted also in Nicaragua on Sunday and Sandinistra Daniel Ortega is the apparent winner.  After the U.S. made massive efforts to prevent his election, Condoleezza Rice says the U.S. will "respect the decision" of the Nicaraguan people.  (Probably like we respected the Venezuelan peoples' election of Chavez by financing efforts at his recall.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061107/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/nicaragua_elections

11/1/06

Interventions R Us:  Numerous U.S. public figures in and out of federal government, including Florida Governor Jeb Bush, are issuing warnings to Nicaraguans about next Sunday's presidential election: that if leftist Daniel Ortega is elected, U.S. might cut off remittances to Nicaragua from their countrymen in the U.S.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1031-23.htm

10/29/06

What a difference a half-century makes: 50 years ago today, resolution of Suez crisis led to decline of European and beginning of U.S. dominance in the Middle East as the U.S. "stood up" to Israel and gained respect throughout the Arab world. Now, after Iraqi invasion and U.S. support of whatever Israel does, that American "hegemony" in the Middle East seems about to disappear.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1027-02.htm

10/25/06

Havana calling:  Denied a seat at Monday night's Florida U.S. Senate debate, Green Party-endorsed Brian Moore goes with a Houston church group to Cuba and speaks out there against the U.S. embargo of Cuba (which was strongly supported by both "opponents" at Tuesday's Florida Governor's debate).

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2006/10/24/a10a_moore_1024.html  

10/12/06

Bush asks himself a question and gives an ominous answer. Q: why doesn't he use military action against N. Korea as he did against Iraq?  A: because "diplomacy hasn't yet run its course" and in Iraq we "tried diplomacy" before we acted.  Comment: since Bush refuses to "try diplomacy" in the form of one-on-one talks with N. Korea and probably plans another "resolution" at the UN whose defiance by NK he will take as justification for war, is he setting up another fast track to invasion?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/washington/12prexy.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=bw

10/11/06

Some Alaskans prefer cold to Chavez' oil.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15719925.htm

Fox News commentators fall over one another to praise the patriotism and sacrifice of these brave Americans, even though only "a few" tribal elders in a few villages refused the "dictator's" offer, and those expected help from the state or federal government.  For earlier Fox apoplexy over Chavez' offer to help Harlem and Alaska residents with their heating costs, see:

http://www.newshounds.us/2006/09/21/.php

10/8/06

In faith-based foreign aid, Christian organizations participate in U.S. relief efforts abroad, but also export their particular conception of God.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/10/08/bush_brings_faith_to_foreign_aid/  

10/5/06

The U.S. embargo on Cuba, from its inception in 1959 and continuing today, has aimed at overthrowing Castro by introducing into Cuba an intolerable level of economic misery.

http://counterpunch.org/alarcon10052006.html

10/5/06

U.S. threat to "bomb Pakistan into the Stone Age" if it didn't cooperate with action against Afghanistan is not a recent invention of Pakistani PM Musharaff.  Eric Margolis reported a similar threat in a book published in 2002.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis52.html

9/26/06

“You can KISS MY A** you faggot piece of sh**": verbatim reproduction of an e-mail received by Robert Jenson after he appeared on a Fox talk show and defended the Chavez speech at the UN.  Noting the writer's unwillingness to spell out the common obscene words ass and shit but to do so with the far more hurtful term faggot, Jensen takes this as symptomatic of a tendency in right wing discourse. "The real threat is how this fusion of propriety and paranoia can trump humanity and analysis."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0925-32.htm

9/22/06

Investigative news editor of Raw Story reports that Pentagon is now in a "branches and sequels" stage of planning for military strikes against Iran, despite earlier resignation threats by some members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; B&S stage denotes specific operational plans after a decision for a certain action has already been made.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Pentagon_moves_to_secondstage_planning_for_0921.html  

9/22/06

Leading members of "opposition" Democratic Party blast Hugo Chavez for his UN speech characterizing Bush as "the devil."  Charles Rangel: you don't come to "my" country and criticize "my" President. With this attitude, maybe one understands Chavez' statement that it might be a good idea to move the UN out of NYC.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/9/21/141205.shtml?s=lh And Nancy Pelosi: Chavez fancies himself a modern day Simon Bolivar, is actually an "everyday thug."

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20060921/2006-09-21T164325Z_01_N21334844_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-VENEZUELA-USA-SPAT-DC.html

9/21/06

Hugo Chavez' address to the United Nations (transcript); his in-your-face challenge to what he calls the American "imperium" and neo-liberalism.

http://www.counterpunch.org/chavez09202006.html

9/15/06

Reuters obtains copy of a letter from IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei to a congressional committee in which he claims that parts of a U.S. report on the Agency's findings on Iran's nuclear development are "outrageous and dishonest."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060914/ts_nm/nuclear_iran_usa_dc_1

9/1/06

Former CIA analyst argues that war with Iran in the current nuclear crisis is not inevitable provided that there is a diplomatic solution in the context of attention to regional security, beginning with a recognition of the corrosive effects on that security of the "special" relationship of the U.S. and Israel.

http://counterpunch.org/macmichael08312006.html

9/1/06

Craig Paul Roberts: Democrats, who were complicit in the killing of thousands of humans from the air in Iraq and Lebanon, are focussing all their energy in getting people outraged about the shooting of about 500 gray wolves from the air in Alaska.

http://counterpunch.org/roberts09012006.html  

8/27/06

Former CIA analyst Ray Close, who predicted in 2002 that Bush would not take us to war with Iraq because of the disastrous consequences, now believes that a military air strike on Iran is likely before Bush leaves office, that his egoistic concern with the "legacy" of his presidency will override any rational calculation of the consequences of such action.

http://counterpunch.org/close08262006.html  

8/24/06

Bush administration and Iran: apparently looking for a pretext for war rather than a peace formula based on a regional security arrangement in which Iran would participate.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0823-03.htm  

8/13/06

Belgian writer cites U.S. support for Israel as the principal cause of the violence in the Middle East and advocates a "de-Zionization" of the American mind as the only solution to this problem. http://counterpunch.org/bricmont08122006.html

8/11/06

Israel is asking the U.S. to ship it rockets with cluster munitions to help it counter Hezbollah missile-launching sites. State Department is concerned, citing likelihood of more civilian casualties as well as "diplomatic repercussions."  If its Pentagon v. State, who do you think will win?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/world/middleeast/11military.html?_r=1  

8/7/06

U.S. government efforts at "regime change" in Cuba to depose Castro have an "almost cartoonist history" of spectacular failure.As Cuban now plans to "transition" to new leadership, U.S. redoubles the amount of money and effort being poured down the same rat-hole.

http://www.alternet.org/story/39804/

8/6/06

U.S. has a "transition plan" for post-Castro Cuba, and it looks like a reprise of the 1903 Platt Amendment that granted U.S. control of Cuba wherever it chose to exercise that control.   http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0805-25.htm  

8/3/06

Los Angeles Times writer laments the lost legacy of Ralph Bunche, the African-American diplomat who brokered an Arab/Israel peace agreement in 1949.  The writer suggests that Bunche would be appalled that two African American Secretaries of State, Powell and Rice, have allowed themselves to be enlisted in the Bush administration's "spin" on peace that really means war.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0802-30.htm

8/2/06

"America's dreams usually become the Middle East's nightmares."  Robert Fisk predicts a nightmare scenario for the current "dream" of Bush and Blair to put an international peace-keeping force in Lebanon that will fail again as it did before.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14309.htm

8/2/06

American Prospect columnist:  Bush is "mumbling indistinctly while Israeli bombs pummel Lebanon."  His mumbling gives one the impression that he is totally confused about international affairs and that is dangerous for U.S. and the world.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/01/opinion/main1855020.shtml

8/1/06

Noting the influence of the "Israeli lobby" on Congress, one member says the body is trying to "Out-AIPAC  AIPAC.

http://www.alternet.org/story/39679/

8/1/06

Former President Jimmy Carter decries the "band aid" nature of U.S. actions in the Middle East and calls for the development of a comprehensive diplomatic approach.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080106L.shtml    

7/31/06

As Bush continues to tout the raging conflict in Lebanon as a U.S. "opportunity,"  former aide expresses the skepticism of many in the foreign policy establishment:  "Lord, spare me. I don't laugh a lot. That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. If this is an opportunity, what's Iraq? A once-in-a-lifetime chance?"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/30/AR2006073000578.html?referrer=email  

7/30/06

U.S. is returning to a "drain the swamp" approach to dealing with Middle East insurgents that experts say is alienating European and Arab allies and may well fail to accomplish its aims, as Hezbollah is unlikely  to "disarm" absent compensation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/29/AR2006072900218_2.html?referrer=email

7/28/06

Now here's something uplifting:  Dennis Kucinich appears on Democracy Now! to speak in favor of his congressional resolution for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon. Taking a Michael Franti phrase, he says we "can't bomb our way to peace."

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/26/147221

7/27/06

Howard Dean goes to the head of the drum corps of Democrats denouncing Iraqi PM al-Maliki, calling him an "anti-Semite" for his failure to renounce Hezbollah and recognize Israel's right to defend itself.   http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/dean-calls-iraqi-leader-an-anti-semite/20060726201909990038?ncid=NWS00010000000001

7/27/06

Rice's scuttle diplomacy continues:  U.S. goes to bat again for Israel and gets reluctant endorsement from international conference for its policy opposed to calling for immediate cease-fire in Lebanon.  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14199.htm

7/25/06

Israeli PM al-Malika's visit to Washington highlights disagreements with U.S. policies regarding Israel, Iran and accountability of U.S. forces to Iraqi justice.  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/25/world/middleeast/25maliki.html?th&emc=th

7/25/06

Stephen Zunes furnishes critical analysis of the grounds used by U.S. House of Representatives in its resolution in support of Israeli action in Lebanon.

http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/2421.cfm#down  

7/24/06

Opinion: U.S. "cheerleading" for Israel may not always be in the best American interest. Case in point: the foot-dragging of U.S. in evacuating American citizens from Lebanon, as if not wanting to "embarrass" Israelis by suggesting that civilians might be at risk from their "surgical" strikes in Lebanon.   http://www.reason.com/links/links072106.shtml

7/24/06

British Foreign Minister, in split with Bush administration policy, condemns Israel's response to Lebanese militants as "disproportionate." 

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0723-04.htm

7/23/06

Remember this one?  You can't set a deadline for Iraqi withdrawal, as this will embolden insurgents to act ahead of the deadline.  "Senior officials" in Israel say the U.S. has "given" Israel a week to continue its operations against Hezbollah before moving for a cease-fire. Won't this "embolden" Israeli operations?  

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/741445.html  

7/21/06

Lebanese conflict is described by political observers as having increased the chances of U.S. military action against Iran as a consensus of both neo-conservative and liberal political forces begins to emerge.  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34028  

For William Kristol's neo-con version see:

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/19/kristol-iran/

7/21/06

A Lebanese American, part of the exodus of Americans who have arrived from Lebanon to Cyprus, laments: "I feel embarrassed to be an American. They have given Israel the green light to destroy Lebanon." http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0721-02.htm  

7/20/06

As House finishes its extended debate on a resolution of approval of U.S. support of Israel and condemnation of Iran and Syria for the violence in Lebanon and Israel, Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduces an alternative resolution to urge the U.S. to engage in a full-press diplomacy effort to resolve the conflict.  Which resolution do you think will pass?

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060718_truthdig_exclusive_kucinich_bush/  

7/20/06

Happened while you blinked:  on 7/18/06 U.S. Senate passes resolution in support of Israel and condemnation of Syria and Iran which was introduced that day and passed by voice vote without amendment and apparently without debate. With no roll call, there is no public record of who may have voted for it except a list of the 61 co-sponsors of the resolution, which include "liberal" names like Kerry, Clinton, Durbin and Feingold as well as Florida's Bill Nelson. If public accountability is an element of "democracy," maybe we need to practice it rather than export it.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.res.00534: 

Note: if this link fails to take you to the legislation, please go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and, in the box for bill search, type in s.r. 534 and check the bill no. box, then go.  Don't give up!

7/20/06

Turkey accuses U.S. of "double standard" in opposing Turkish plans to cross a border to pursue Kurdish militants, while defending the right of Israel to pursue Hezbollah in Lebanon.  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2277648,00.html

7/19/06

Speak for yourself, Ken: Republican Party chairman intones "today, we are all Israelis" as U.S. Senate unanimously passes resolution to support Israel and condemn Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. House will fall in line today, but not unanimously as there are maybe 30 men and women of conscience and discernment left in the House.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/18/AR2006071801415.html?referrer=email

7/19/06

A "consensus" on Lebanon between Israel and its U.S. satellite is said to be emerging in diplomatic back channels. U.S. will lay back on "pressuring" Israel for a cease fire until Hezbollah is further weakened by Israeli attacks, then Madame Secretary Rice will go to Lebanon to arrange border security to prevent re-arming of the militants. Hopefully there will be something left of Israel and Lebanon to "secure"by then. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/world/middleeast/19mideast.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

7/18/06

Open letter to President Bush calls for the U.S. to apply the same standard of accountability for Israel in complying with UN resolutions that it did in the case of Iraq's compliance.

http://www.mediamonitors.net/michaelsladah&suleimaniajlouni1.html  

7/18/06

Tom Engelhardt's eloquent description of how the neo-con dream of a foreign policy based on FORCE and imperalist domination has in fact worked to fulfill the aspirations of another dreamer Osama bin Laden who may be thought of, in Yeats' words, as that: "rough beast, its hour come round at last, (who) slouches towards Bethlehem to be born."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0717-24.htm

7/18/06

President unplugged: microphone catches Bush at G8 summit saying to Tony Blair: "What they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/17/AR2006071700187.html?referrer=email

7/18/06

George F. Will, America's leading conservative columnist, blasts Condoleeza Rice, neo-conservatives and their media mouthpiece The Weekly Standard for blaming the Lebanese crisis on Iran.  http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/4052991.html

7/16/06

Gainesville SUN runs news analysis article from McClatchy (formerly Knight Ridder) Newspapers with title: "U.S. has little leverage to deal with global crises."

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060716/WIRE/207160350/1117/news  

Editor of SSA begs to differ: we have plenty of "leverage" (like withdrawing military support for Israel) if we had the political will to use it.

http://www.sunstateactivist.org/ssablog.php  

7/15/06

U.S. "cowboy diplomacy" (we don't negotiate with enemies, we defeat them) goes on in the Middle East, though the results so far have been disastrous.

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9310

7/14/06

U.S. stands alone in defending Israel's "right to defend itself" through its invasions of Gaza and Lebanon; vetoes UN resolution condemning Israel's action; first State Department official arrives in Israel since Secretary Rice went there last November:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13848003/

7/14/06

''Sometimes a show of force by one side can really clarify things." So said George Bush in justifying his policy of "disengagement" from attempts to settle Middle East conflict. Now Israel's "show of force" has indeed "clarified things," as U.S. tacit  support has helped create the escalated violence in that region today.  http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0713-30.htm

7/13/06

New State Department report articulates implications of "Bush doctrine" for Latin America: that "regime change" in Cuba in the interest of "democracy" is our policy and that any country that befriends Cuba will be treated as our enemy. Venezuela lawyer argues that the real target is Venezuela and any other leftist-leaning country in the region and says "regime change" will happen in Washington and not in Latin America.   http://www.counterpunch.org/pertierra07132006.html

7/13/06

Scapegoating Iran: faced with simultaneous Middle East crisis on several fronts, U.S. is tending to finger Iran's intransigence as the "common thread" in support of Islamic militancy and is pursuing a program of international condemnation of Iran.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR2006071201557_pf.html      

7/13/06

Defense consultant says that Iran's defiance of the U.S. which is the dismay of the West and has just landed it on the U.N. dock has helped the country gain respect and leadership in the Muslim world.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HG14Ak01.html

7/10/06

Times they are a-changin': U.S. "dangles"  before Russia the prospect of helping in that country's nuclear development in exchange for their support for American efforts against Iranian nuclear development.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060709/wl_afp/usrussianuclearpoliticsdiplomacy_060709043740

7/8/06

Study in contrasts: President Bush's comments on nuclear threat from North Korea following their missile launched into the Pacific Ocean are far less alarming than his threat-assessment about Iraq in 2003; for example our "missile defense system" had a "reasonable chance" to shoot down anything aimed at U.S.A.  Should that have been "fat chance?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/08/world/asia/08prexy.html?th&emc=th

7/4/06

"Bomb what?" (in Iran).  Military is resisting Bush administration threats to bomb Iranian "nuclear facilities," saying our intelligence can't locate any such facilities.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13819.htm 

Hear the interview about this with Seymour Hersh by Liane Hansen of NPR. 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5528057

6/29/06

Dennis Jett on threat of N. Korean nuclear attack:  "Sleep easy tonight, America. Your government is on guard and ready to protect you against a threat that does not exist with a defense system that does not work. Except in elections." 

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062806M.shtml                   

6/28/06

According to Geneva Convention an occupying power  "is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population"  Israel destroys bridges and other "objects indispensable" to the survival of people in Gaza; as did the U.S. in Fallujah and elsewhere.  Can you spell w-a-r   c-r-i-m-e-s?   

http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/7c4d08d9b287a4214OpenDocument

6/27/06

President Bush's recent "ultimatum" to Iran regarding its nuclear energy program ignores the fact that Iran was already agreeing under the Paris Accords to suspend any nuclear weapons development while reserving the right to nuclear enrichment enjoyed by all signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty  http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=9206

6/13/06

Its mission seemingly having been accomplished with the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Project for a New American Century has fallen into internal dissension and obituaries on the "death" of the organization are now being written.

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9132

6/8/06

Russian Foreign Minister tells Asia Times that the U.S. offer to negotiate with Iran on the assumption that Russia and China would co-operate with sanctions should these negotiations fail was not based on consultations with Russia and that such cooperation would be unlikely to happen.  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HF07Ak03.html

6/6/06

U.S. is pressuring European Union to join in the attempt to isolate and perhaps sanction Cuba, despite the country's success in overcoming poverty and poor health conditions. Problem is they didn't do it "our way" so they need to be punished. 

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0606-29.htm

6/6/06

A new deal is in the works in U.S. dealing with Iran: in exchange for Iran's nuclear "cooperation, " the country will be allowed to purchase parts for its air fleet from Boeing (er) the United States. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/06/world/middleeast/06diplo.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin  

6/3/06

Molly Ivins: Iran badge fabricator invited to White House as an "expert" on Iran to advise on policy.  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060531_molly_ivins_iranian_badge/  

6/1/06

Endgame to sanctions against Iran?  U.S. makes Iran an offer it can't (won't) accept. Secretary Rice says we are preparing a "package of sanctions" and that we could "go either way" with Iran. Any guess on which way that will be?  

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20060531%2F1724622939.htm&floc=NW_1-T

5/30/06

Veteran Middle East correspondent for The Guardian suggests that Bush policy of supporting Fatah element in Palestine against the controlling Hamas party may be replicating the effects on Iraq of U.S. policy exaggerating "sectarian" conflict between Shi-ites and Sunnis. 

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13417.htm  

5/27/06

Bush is the "decider" about any pre-emptive attack on Iran, but the U.N. and the U.S. Congress as well are deciders who should be (and are not) asking penetrating questions about whether any such attack should be undertaken. 

http://counterpunch.org/foley05262006.html  

5/25/06

Neo-conservative footprints on the bogus story about Iranian branding of Christians and Jews; leading neo-con newspapers featured the story, and Simon Wiesenthal Center may have had a hand in promoting the hoax.

http://www.alternet.org/story/36654/  

5/25/06

Conservative Canadian newspaper apologizes for running untrue story of Holocaust-style branding of Jews and Christians in Iran, a story to which Canadian PM Harper gave a degree of credence. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060524/wl_canada_nm/canada_iran_paperdA

5/24/06

Bush (again) aligns U.S. Middle East policy with support for Israel: tells PM Olmert we will defend Israel if attacked by Iran, agree with his plan for dealing with Fatah leader Abbas rather than Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/05/23/us.mideast/index.html

5/23/06

Protest is "muted" at Boston College graduation as Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice emphasizes her personal "success" story, largely avoids any policy issues and urges students concerned about violence in the world to "draw solace from education and historical perspective." http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/05/23/at_bc_protests_of_rice_muted/

5/23/06

Arab League President denies U.S. charges of nuclear weapons development in Iran, demands that IAEA produce the evidence. 

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={032CB39A-E70A-4752-A1B0-B3232BC5350A})&language=EN

5/22/06

Can't wait for the UN's economic sanctions: U.S. pressures European banks to restrict their financial dealings with Iran. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/22/world/middleeast/22iran.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

5/20/06

Washington Post columnist reports that, in March, the U.S. government "froze" planned talks with Iran about a diplomatic solution for the situation in Iraq because Rumsfeld and Rice did not want to "legitimate" the Iran regime by bringing it into the orbit of diplomatic negotiations. http://www.antiwar.com/orig/porter.php?articleid=9016  

5/19/06

National Post, a Canadian newspaper, says Iran has a law requiring Christians and Jews in the country to wear colors identifying their religion.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=11fbf4a8-282a-4d18-954f-546709b1240f&k=32073  

Iranian expert tells Montreal radio station this is "absolutely factually incorrect."   http://www.940news.com/locale.php?news=2512

5/17/06

Scottish newspaper, citing "Pentagon sources," reports on U.S. plan for non-nuclear bombing of Iran if "diplomacy fails."  

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13066.htm

5/16/06

As U.S. resumes diplomatic relations with Libya, notable for its repressive domestic policies, analysts see full retreat from the Bush administration priority on promoting "democracy" through its foreign policy. (Lifting the embargo against Libya in 2004 allowed U.S. oil companies to go back into a lucrative area for oil drilling. Resuming diplomatic recognition will provide protection to those companies).   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/15/AR2006051501443.html?referrer=email

5/15/06

Opinion: Bush should answer and not ignore the letter of the Iranian President accusing the the U.S. of arrogance and injustice in its foreign policy. By so doing he could open a genuine debate on the the legitimacy of the policies of both Iran and the United States.  http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/05/12/bushs_unanswered_letter.php

5/15/06

According to former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, the Bush administration will not approve of formal diplomatic talks with Iran because they're "evil". What, has Pat Robertson taken over U.S. foreign policy?:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1194031-2,00.html 

5/14/06

Modern day missionaries:  U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, along with other American operations in support of "democratization" in other countries, are hated for their demanding corporate globalization to accompany democratizing processes:

http://counterpunch.org/roelofs05132006.html  

5/13/06

Calling Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice a "liar," Boston College faculty member resigns in protest of her having been invited as school's commencement speaker:  http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0512-20.htm

5/13/06

The "spikes of activity" of the U.S. military that preceded the invasion of Iraq in 2003 are again being spiked in Iran; and the same attempt to mobilize UN forces behind an invasion is now going forward.  http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=67&ItemID=10255

5/12/06

Scott Ritter: U.S. considers attacking Iran through Azerbaijan:

http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=9599  

5/10/06

Kiss of death in Iran: local activists say U.S. efforts at "regime change" in that country are leading to increased repression against themselves as associated with "foreigners."  Don't they still shoot traitors in every country? 

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0509-11.htm   

5/6/06

Cheney's rebuke of Russia may signal neo-conservative warhawks' drive toward "new and bigger" enemies, their geo-political rivals Russia and China: 

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=8950

5/5/06

Pot calling the kettle: Cheney, McCain and Edwards all "warn" Russia not to initimidate its neighbors by its economic power and not to suppress internal dissent:  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/04/AR2006050401094.html?referrer=email

5/3/06

Exporting democracy: Chalmers Johnson on the absurdity of trying to impose American conceptions of government and economy on other countries: 

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=72&ItemID=10197

5/2/06

Israel, with western support, is "armed and dangerous" with nuclear weapons; Iranians see hypocrisy in western opposition to their nuclear development: 

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12894.htm

5/1/06

Reports from Middle East news sources say U.S. is trying to launch attacks on Iran from bases in Turkey, which is refusing to allow this: 

http://aliberaldose.blogspot.com/2006/05/at-rubicon-us-asks-turkey-to-host-iran.html

4/30/06

A picture gallery of Iran: how the country looks ahead of the possibility of its being bombed to protect the world from its "nuclear threat."

http://www.irandefence.net/showthread.php?t=32

4/28/06

"Spreading democracy" takes a back seat to seeking oil supplies as U.S. cultivates relationships with authoritarian but oil-rich countries: 

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1151AP_Oil_Allies.html

4/28/06

Some Jewish leaders lament Bush's statements about U.S. willingness to use armed might against Iran to protect its ally, Israel, fearing an anti-Israeli backlash in world opinion:   http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=12350&print=yes

4/28/06

Israel escalates its involvement with Iranian nuclear crisis by launching its own spy satellites against Iranian nuclear facilities: 

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0428/p01s02-wome.html

4/26/06

Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time; Democracy Now interview of author of a new book: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

4/26/06

Molly Ivins: calling the Israeli lobby the Israeli lobby: anti-semitism or rational discussion of U.S. interest?   http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=20708

4/25/06

Asia Times reports on covert U.S. operations inside Iran designed to de-stabilize the country and prepare for U.S. attack: 

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HD25Ak02.html

4/23/06

Regime Changes R Us.  Interview of Stephen Kinzer on Democracy Now: in 110 years, U.S. did "regime change" operations on 14 countries, from Hawaii to Iraq:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/21/132247

4/22/06

U.S. geo-political action shifts to Far East, with quiet build-up of military forces designed to "deter" or "defeat" China:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060420-121646-9379r.htm

4/16/06

Iranian sources claim the country is ready to exact a "price" if nuclear facilities are attacked: 40,000 trained and ready suicide bombers with U.S. and U.K targets: 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2136638,00.html

4/15/06

Poll shows rise of isolationist sentiment in America: a near-majority now say U.S. should "mind its own business" and let other countries get on as best they can:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060414/ts_alt_afp/uspolitics

4/14/06

U.S. blocks draft of UN resolution condemning Israel's attacks on Palestinian civilians: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1840718

4/14/06

Intelligence sources tell Raw Story that Pentagon is using Iraqi-based terrorist organization to conduct special-ops inside Iran in preparation for invasion: http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/US_outsourcing_special_operations_intelligence_gathering_0413.html

4/14/06

Mainstream media reaction to essay by two Harvard professors on Israel Lobby influence on U.S. foreign policy helps to make one of their points: that criticism of this influence is likely to get you an "anti-semtic" label:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0413-20.htm  

4/13/06

Have we heard this before (Dodgy Dossier #2)?  U.S. State Department says Iran could have a nuke in 16 days:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000100&sid=aduNTcpDuDd4&refer=germany 

Nuclear experts say this possibility is many years away from realization: http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/sf/nyt4_13_06.htm

4/12/06

Noting presence of U.S. bombers in Britain, Korean newspaper says bombing of Iran is about to begin: http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?no=284740&rel_no=1

4/12/06

The "wild speculation" of impending U.S. attack on Iran: orchestrated sabre-rattling or to be taken "seriously?" 

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_8444.shtml

4/12/06

U.S. sends aircraft carrier group to Caribbean for exercises it says are to demonstrate a "commitment to the region." Chavez has said they are part of a U.S. plan to invade Venezuela:  http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=104&sid=754611

4/11/06

Paul Krugman: Attack Iran? Yes he (Bush) would:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0410-26.htm  

4/9/06

U.S. cuts off aid to Palestine, whose Prime Minister calls it "blackmail." Why does he think his country should different from any other in U.S. treatment? http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/world/middleeast/09mideast.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

4/9/06

"Belligerent til  the bitter end:"  U.S. foreign aggressiveness could result in military actions against Iran, China, Russia, former Soviet satellites whose elections are deemed "unacceptable"---shut your eyes and pick a spot.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12652.htm  

4/8/06

Seymour Hersh in Apr 17 New Yorker: U.S. planning "surgical" nuclear attack on Iran, many military officers protesting:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18753382-23109,00.html

3/28/06

Hypocrisy in U.S. promotion of "democracy"; punishing countries unfriendly to neo-liberalism like Belarus for human rights violations, while condoning the same in policy-friendly countries like Egypt: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CLA20060328&articleId=2197

3/27/06

Former Republican congressman says U.S. must resist control of its foreign policy by Israeli lobby:  http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0326-22.htm

3/25/06

Ukranian deja vu: U.S. threatens sanctions against Belarus for its crackdown on protestors who claimed a fraudulent election: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/25/international/europe/25belarus.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

3/17/06

Iranian leaders are little concerned about American and British "regime change" intentions for Iran as they have strong support from nationalist feelings of Iranians:  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HC18Ak05.html

3/16/06

U.S. and Israel dissent in 170-4 UN vote to establish new Human Rights Counci: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/16/international/16nations.html?th&emc=th:    

3/16/06

Bush to issue "new" National Security Strategy paper today: aggressiveness and pre-emption still the hallmarks of our foreign policy: 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031502297_pf.html

3/15/06

Casus belli for war against Iran?  Bush administration may be planning to fabricate Iranian bio-terrorist plans to create worldwide Avian flu pandemic: 

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hirsch.php?articleid=8701

3/10/06

Katrina Vanden Heuvel: New direction for U.S./Russian relations is needed: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060308_vandenheuvel_russian_relations

3/10/06

Secretary of State proposes funding for a Radio Farda in Iran to support "dissident" voices there. Dennis Jett: this won't be any more successful than Radio Marti in Cuba:  http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030806T.shtml

3/6/06

Bush indulges India, neuters Pakistan: 

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HC04Df03.html

3/6/06

Bush on U.S./India nuclear pact: "What this agreement says is things change. Times change."  Indeed!  

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0303-06.htm

3/6/06

U.S. intervention in Venezuela based on threat to the "neo-liberal" plan to incorporate its economy into a participant in the global corporate economy: 

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0304-20.htm

3/1/06

India, in acquiescing in Americal imperial aggression has lost the moral high ground staked out by Gandhi and Nehru: 

http://counterpunch.org/ramakrishnan03012006.html

2/27/06

Geo-political goals of defense and corporate globalization are increasingly determining American diplomacy and foreign aid:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0227-24.htm

2/20/06

U.S. State Department, failing to find many anti-Chavez allies in Latin America,  appeals to governments around the world to "inoculate" Venezuela: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021706L.shtml

2/19/06

U.S. has new tool to pressure Latin American leaders to follow U.S. policy: it's called "visa revocation" and Otto Reich is promoting it: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13906074.htm

2/18/06

State Department announces that U.S. will help finance opposition forces in Syria as well as Iran:  http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,18187864%255E1702,00.html

2/17/06

A "geopolitical perfect storm:"  U.S. and Israeli policy toward Iran and Palestine, creates perfect condition for hostile relations in the Middle East": http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hadar.php?articleid=8557

2/17/06

Europeans are skeptical of U.S. "long war" plan:  http://www.hindu.com/2006/02/16/stories/2006021607981400.htm

2/14/06

New York Times: U.S. and Israeli officials considering a "regime change" operation against Hamas in Palestine:  http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-1107&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20060214%2F0453257646.htm&sc=1107  

2/14/06

Mexico's Vicente Fox consistently stands with U.S. in its anti-Latin American policies: http://www.counterpunch.org/ross02142006.html  

2/13/06

Condi Rice may be right: Syria and Iran are "stoking the fires" of anti-cartoon demonstrations, but self-defensively, as a pre-emptive display of the strength of insurgency should attacks against them be carried out:  http://counterpunch.org/chuckman02112006.html

2/12/06

Rice Warns Cartoon Protests Could 'Spin Out of Control'

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/politics/12cnd-policy.html

2/10/06

Zogby poll: increasing number of Americans (nearly half) think U.S. should "do some damage" to Iran if it proceeds with its nuclear development plans:  http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=8526

2/9/06

Anti-cartoon violence: Bush administration blames the violence, not the cartoons, says Syria and Iran behind the violence:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/08/AR2006020801062.html?referrer=email

1/28/06

Bush's "democracy spreading" in Middle East may have backfired in Palestine: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11686.htm

1/25/06

Chile's new President: ally or obstacle to American empire? http://counterpunch.org/petras01252006.html

1/25/06

Supporting empire, opposing Iraqi war as  "incompetent": is this the Washington Consensus?  http://www.counterpunch.org/zeese01252006.html

1/23/06      

American foreign policy and Iran's nuclear ambitions: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11634.htm

1/23/06      

Humanitarian intervention as "dangerous doctrine": http://www.focusweb.org/content/view/818/26/

1/21/06     

 U.S. shifting diplomatic resources from Europe to "dangerous and developing countries."  http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17883490%255E2703,00.html

1/21/06      

Thomas Barnett's new books promote the "piffle" that American imperialism is the force that will save the world from disintegration: http://www.antiwar.com/lind/?articleid=8422

1/20/06     

American imperialism compared with British: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0120-31.htm

1/20/06     

Crisis of American imperialism as Iranian oil sales converted to euro-dollars: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/     http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9698.htm  

1/18/06     

Is impending war against Iran an al-Qaeda "gambit" to lure U.S. into disastrous misstep in the Middle East?  http://counterpunch.org/shahid01172006.html

1/18/06      

Policy makers consider "Plan B" options if diplomacy to prevent Iran's nuclear development fails, including nuclear war, sanctions and oil embargo: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0118/p01s04-wome.html  But head of U.S. Energy Agency says world oil market can't afford to lose Iranian oil supplies: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060117/wl_nm/energy_iran_oil_dc_5

1/18/06     

Norwegian Finance Minister advocates economic sanctions against Israel for human rights violations: http://counterpunch.org/

1/17/06     

U.S./North Korean ties all but severed: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-01-15-korea-contacts_x.htm

1/17/06     

Niall Ferguson, British exponent of American Empire, predicts World War IV, a critique by Justin  Raimondo: http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8394

1/17/06     

Democracy push in Middle East favors Islamists' power, shown in recent elections in Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and Palestine,

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002742696_mideastdem16.html http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/16/news/pals.php#

1/16/06    

Democratic and Republican Senators say attack on Iran may be necessary: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N15194172.htm     http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5547789,00.html

1/16/06     

Democracy, warfare and revolution: the Middle East: http://www.antiwar.com/orig/giraldi.php?articleid=8391

1/16/06    

Economic boycott of Israel proposed: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11574.htm

1/14/06     

Spain defies U.S. to sell planes to Venezuela: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1984520,00.html  

1/12/06    

U.S. double standard in dealing with Palestine and Israel: http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3004

1/10/06      

U.S. financial aid to Israel, facts, figures and analysis:  http://www.washington-report.org/us_aid_to_israel/index.htm

1/10/06      

Belafonte: U.S. supports Venezuelan revolution: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11497.htm 

1/9/06     

Oil and U.S. policy in Central Asia: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0108-27.htm

1/9/06     

Impending nuclear attack on Iran: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0108-23.htm          http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20CH20060103&articleId=1714

1/6/06     

U.S. may abandon alliances like NATO in favor of "coalitions of the willing": http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010506C.shtml  

1/4/06      

Failure of American empire: This Won't Be the American Century: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0103-31.htm

1/4/06     

AIPAC working with H. Clinton and others to force Israeli agenda of anti-Iran action onto U.S. foreign policy: http://counterpunch.org/frank01032006.html

1/4/06     

Pentagon-supported pro-U.S, websites in Europe and Africa draw fire: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1229-04.htm  

1/4/06     

U.S. economic imperialism in Latin America: Morales and other "leftist" leaders: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1324

1/3/06    

Imperialist Anglo-American foreign policy: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20051221&articleId=1576

1/2/06   

John Bolton as UN ambassador, toxic effects: http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=10749

1/2/06   

NY Times editorial sees Iraqi election as U.S. success: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn01022006.html

12/31/05     

American foreign policy has aimed at world domination, since formulated by G. Kennan in 1948. It is this aim, expressed in Middle East policy, that inflames insurgency in Iraq: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1230-41.htm

12/31/05    

Who started it? Cycle of violence and retaliation between Palestinians and Israels? Usually the Israelis. http://counterpunch.org/petras12312005.html

12/31/05     

U.S. use of terrorism tactics in Latin America (School of the Americas): http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051226/klein 

11/12/05   

U.S. nuclear attack on Iran:  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10971.htm

11/11/05    

U.S. imperialism: Rose revolution   http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=NAG20051010&articleId=1063

Books

Robert Ivey, Fundamentalist Ideology May Cause Global Nuclear War: www.outward-inwarduniverse.blogspot.com

Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire: http://hnn.us/articles/3015.html  

Phyllis Bennis, Challenging Empire: http://www.interlinkbooks.com/BooksC/challeng_empire.html

Video, Films

Robert Fisk: the Great War for Civilization: interview on Democracy Now.http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11105.htm

OTHER PEACE & WAR SITES

Main page: Peace & War
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