February 2010

The CIA: a continuing threat to U.S. persons or interests?

by Paul Woodward 02.04.2010

The Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair reassured the House Intelligence Committee yesterday that he understands that killing Americans is a “very sensitive issue” and that the agency must always “get specific permission” to do so. I wonder how much comfort that provides to the family of Jim and Veronica “Roni” Bowers and their two [...]

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Israeli report claims $2bn stolen from Palestinians

by Paul Woodward 02.04.2010

Jonathan Cook writes: Over the past four decades Israel has defrauded Palestinians working inside Israel of more than US$2 billion (Dh7.4bn) by deducting from their salaries contributions for welfare benefits to which they were never entitled, Israeli economists revealed this week. A new report, “State Robbery”, says the “theft” continued even after the Palestinian Authority [...]

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Hamas denied entry to Dubai after killing

by Paul Woodward 02.04.2010

From The National: Dubai’s chief of police, Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, confirmed that a Hamas delegation would not be allowed to enter the UAE following the slaying of one of its senior operatives in the emirate. Mahmoud al Mabhouh was killed in his hotel room on January 20. Gen Tamim said: “We will not [...]

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Mousavi: the Iranian revolution has failed to eradicate tyranny

by Paul Woodward 02.04.2010

From The National: Iran’s main opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, declared yesterday that the 1979 Islamic Revolution had failed to “eradicate the roots of tyranny and dictatorship” that marked the shah’s era. His scathing remarks represented his strongest challenge to the Tehran government in months and came at an acutely sensitive time – as Iran [...]

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Lebanon’s AK-47 index may be pointing to war

by Paul Woodward 02.04.2010

From The National: [Abu Mahdi, an arms dealer in southern Beirut] says the high point for the price of the AK-47 was in the period of major Sunni and Shiite sectarian tension that preceded the May 2008 clashes between Hizbollah and its allies against groups of Sunnis loyal to the government. “In the days before [...]

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Arab politicians ‘facing increased persecution’ in Israel

by Paul Woodward 02.04.2010

Jonathan Cook: Leaders of the Arab minority in Israel warned this week that they were facing an unprecedented campaign of persecution, backed by the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, designed to stop their political activities. The warning came after Said Nafaa, a Druze member of the Israeli parliament was stripped of his immunity last week, [...]

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On Israel-Palestine, no more of the same

by Paul Woodward 02.03.2010

Yossi Alpher: President Obama and Mr. Mitchell must recognize that in the current regional strategic lineup, Syria is more relevant than Palestine. Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, declares himself ready to deal. A Syrian-Israeli process has a better chance of getting underway than a Palestinian-Israeli process. A successful Syrian-Israeli effort offers the United States, Israel and [...]

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How to talk to a jihadist

by Paul Woodward 02.03.2010

Andrew Sullivan: Watching senators and pundits huff and puff about Mirandizing terrorists when they should apparently be declared enemy combatants and tortured at length is a depressing spectacle. To see political leaders in the West have such a low view of the American judicial system and such an elevated view of the world-historical significance of [...]

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‘It’s better to join the Taliban; they pay more money.’

by Paul Woodward 02.03.2010

When President Obama announced his 30,000-strong troop surge in December he said: “these additional American and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011.” It was another example of what has become all [...]

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Israeli commander: ‘We rewrote the rules of war for Gaza’

by Paul Woodward 02.03.2010

From The Independent: A high-ranking officer has acknowledged for the first time that the Israeli army went beyond its previous rules of engagement on the protection of civilian lives in order to minimise military casualties during last year’s Gaza war, The Independent can reveal. The officer, who served as a commander during Operation Cast Lead, [...]

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Avi Shlaim – Blair: Gaza’s great betrayer

by Paul Woodward 02.03.2010

From The Guardian: The savage attack Israel ­unleashed against Gaza on 27 December 2008 was both immoral and unjustified. Immoral in the use of force against civilians for political purposes. Unjustified because Israel had a political alternative to the use of force. The home-made Qassam rockets fired by Hamas militants from Gaza on Israeli towns [...]

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Blair lied in build-up to Iraq invasion, claims Clare Short

by Paul Woodward 02.03.2010

From The Times: The former development secretary was scathing about Mr Blair’s failure to ask Washington to delay the invasion despite warnings that the military and aid officials were not ready. “I think he was so frantic to be with America that all that was thrown away. If he had done that, his place in [...]

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Riz Khan – Iraq: Reopening sectarian wounds?

by Paul Woodward 02.03.2010

Al Jazeera English’s Riz Khan: Now, of course, in 2005 when the Sunni community generally boycotted the elections taking place then, there was violence on the street. And I wonder, because there’s, you know, if there’s a sense of being sidelined and excluded and being left out of any kind of voice in Iraqi politics? [...]

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The Iraqi oil conundrum

by Paul Woodward 02.03.2010

At TomDispatch, Michael Schwartz writes: How the mighty have fallen. Just a few years ago, an overconfident Bush administration expected to oust Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, pacify the country, install a compliant client government, privatize the economy, and establish Iraq as the political and military headquarters for a dominating U.S. presence in the Middle East. [...]

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Iraq’s coming civil war?

by Paul Woodward 02.03.2010

Steve Clemons at The Washington Note writes: As Iraq tilts towards March 7th elections, there are disconcerting trends unfolding inside the Maliki-run government that portend serious problems and potentially civil war in the not distant future. Iraq expert and military affairs specialist Tom Ricks recently commented on Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room on CNN that he [...]

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Iran says ready to send uranium abroad as UN wants

by Paul Woodward 02.02.2010

From the Associated Press: Iran said on Tuesday it was ready to send its uranium abroad for further enrichment as requested by the U.N. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the decision in an interview with state Iranian television. He said Iran will have “no problem” giving the West its low-enriched uranium and taking it back several [...]

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US missile test mimicking Iran strike fails

by Paul Woodward 02.02.2010

From Reuters: A U.S. attempt to shoot down a ballistic missile mimicking an attack from Iran failed after a malfunction in a radar built by Raytheon Co (RTN.N), the Defense Department said. The abortive test over the Pacific Ocean coincided with a Pentagon report that Iran had expanded its ballistic missile capabilities and posed a [...]

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Reconsidering America’s place in the world

by Paul Woodward 02.02.2010

In Nader Mousavizadeh‘s interesting analysis on America’s failure to deal effectively with so-called “rogue states”, he begins by pointing out that the world that created such states is gone: Obama came into office thinking that a more responsive diplomacy could rally global support for the old Western agenda, but that’s not enough. What’s needed, more [...]

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Israeli officers get ‘slap on wrist’ for white phosphorus use in Gaza

by Paul Woodward 02.02.2010

From The Times: Israel has reprimanded two senior army officers who were responsible for firing white phosphorus artillery shells at a UN compound during last year’s offensive in Gaza. In the first admission of any wrongdoing the Israeli military found that Brigadier-General Eyal Eisenberg and Colonel Ilan Malka were guilty “of exceeding their authority in [...]

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The New Intifada

by Paul Woodward 02.02.2010

As one pompous ass said to another on Monday: “I can think of few peoples who have contributed more to Western civilization than our two peoples. In both Rome and in Jerusalem, the foundations of Western culture were laid.” Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, at the beginning of a three-day tour of Israel, responded to [...]

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Greedy bastards

by Paul Woodward 02.02.2010

Michael Kinsley, smart as always: [Rush Limbaugh] said on his radio show that President Obama may be appealing to anti-Semitism with his recent populist criticism of banks and bankers. “There are a lot of people,” Limbaugh said, “when you say banker, people think Jewish.” He didn’t mention Goldman Sachs. Abe Foxman, longtime head of the [...]

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Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira’s Jewish supremacism

by Paul Woodward 02.02.2010

Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, was detained for questioning by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) in connection with the burning of a mosque in Yasuf, a village near Nablus, in December. He is head of the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Yitzhar, and is a disciple of Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsberg. The Jerusalem Post reports: While religious [...]

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Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan interviewed on Euronews

by Paul Woodward 02.02.2010

Euronews, Ali Ishan Aydin: How do you see the future of Turkey-Israel relations? After all that has happened, do you still think Turkey can mediate between Israel and Syria, and other Arab states? Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: Israel should give some thought to what it would be like to lose a friend like Turkey [...]

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Which is more dangerous: reckless or clueless?

by Paul Woodward 02.01.2010

When Obama took office, many citizens of this nation (including me) let out a sigh of relief, comforted by the thought that a reckless fool had been replaced a calm and sometimes inspiring realist. How can a year seem like such a long time ago? Engagement turned out to a piece of campaign pap that [...]

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