"Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, pestilences and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." (Matthew 24:8-9).
"Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done" (Mark 13:30).
November 27, 2011
Egyptian Military Using Nerve Gas on Protesters Demanding End to Military Rule
No-one will be allowed to pressure the armed forces, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council has warned, as he asked political leaders to support new PM Kamal al-Ganzuri. His comments came amid mass protests demanding an end to military rule.
"We are faced with enormous challenges,” Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi told reporters on Sunday. “We will not allow troublemakers to meddle in the elections, and we will not allow any individual or party to pressure the armed forces,” he declared in a robust statement.
He has also asked two possible presidential candidates, the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, and ex-Arab League chief Amr Mussa, to “support the government of Kamal al-Ganzuri.”
Tantawi warned of “extremely grave” consequences if the nation does not pull through its current crisis, and urged voters to turn out for the parliamentary elections starting on Monday.
However, people gathering on Tahrir Square for a fresh wave of protests against Egypt's ruling military council do not share Tantawi’s optimism about the elections or the probity of the country’s military rulers.
Tantawi is facing mounting pressure to step down immediately, along with his fellow generals on the ruling military council, to make way for a civilian presidential council and a “national salvation” government to run the nation's affairs until a president is elected.
"The people calling for the elections are mistaken; how can we hold elections when protests continue and the country is in chaos?” asked Wajeeh Abdul Salam, a protester in Tahrir Square. “The military council has engineered the issue of elections so the people are distracted from its mistakes.This just proves they've failed in the administration and running of the country over the past months," he added.
The vote is now seen by many activists as serving the military's efforts to project an image as true democrats and the nation's saviours.
Another protester, Armani Salaha, is calling for the military council to return “to their barracks and start protecting the country." He says the military have “demonstrated they are incapable of leading the country over the last nine months.”
The next parliament is expected to be dominated by the country's most organized group, the Muslim Brotherhood, who decided to boycott the ongoing protests to keep from doing anything that could derail the poll.
However, the outcome of the vote is likely to be seen as flawed given the growing unrest and the suspension by many candidates of their campaigns in solidarity with the protesters.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which advocates Islamic reforms and a democratic system, but which has a history of terrorist violence and has been branded an extremist movement by some countries, claims it is set to win the majority of seats.
Political analyst Dr. Marcus Papadopoulos says if the Muslim Brotherhood comes to power, it may lead to a new Libya-like conflict with the West.
”If the people vote them in you could see in a few years time NATO or the British and Western press talking about how awful the regime is there, how dangerous it is, and then you are back to a situation where there is discussion about NATO air strikes against Egypt.”
The latest protests on Tahrir Square have been going on for over a week, with 42 people killed and more than 2,000 wounded. Well over 100,000 gathered in downtown Cairo for a ninth day on Sunday demanding the ruling military leadership steps down in favor of a civilian presidential council.
The majority of Egyptians will go and vote in the first elections after the revolution, predicts Dr. Ahmed Abu Alwafa, Chief of Public International Law at Cairo University, sharing his perspective on the upcoming parliamentary elections in Egypt.
It's an increasingly unstable time in Egypt and it seems Monday's parliamentary election threatens to split Egyptians even further: Some call for a boycott of the vote, others, like the Muslim Brotherhood, now encouraging people to go to the polls.
The Muslim Brotherhood has high hopes for the election and polls suggest they could win up to 40 per cent of the seats. The west considers the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, but not the Egyptian people, Dr. Ahmed Abu Alwafa says.
If the Muslim Brotherhood comes to power, it will not violate any international agreements, with Israel for example, because “it is fundamental for Islamic law to carry out treaties and honor them,” – if the other party fulfills its part.
When the revolution kicked off in January, the Muslim Brotherhood played a pivotal role in organizing the protests. Now, the Muslim Brotherhood does not participate in protests anymore because they do not want to deteriorate relations with the military in power, calling supporters to come and vote.
“Political dealings are to be held in the interests of the Egyptian people and if the Muslim Brotherhood wins this election – they will try to nominate a [leader] person accepted by them, to carry out their aspirations and programme. If they see that the former IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei is the right person – they will nominate him,” argues Dr. Ahmed Abu Alwafa.
The Egyptian military has been using a banned chemical agent to deal with hundreds of thousands of protesters, according to several news sources.
At least 23 Egyptians have died and more than 1,700 have succumbed to a lethal gas military forces have been using during the past three days in clashes in and around Cairo's Tahrir Square.
The International Business Times reports that demonstrators have been struck with "dangerous levels of CR gas over the past two days of protests" and Australia's The Age said Wednesday that the canisters are marked "Made in the USA."
CR gas is an intense and lethal version of CS gas, called "tear gas," widely used by police for crowd control.
Wikipedia notes that CR gas has effects that are "are approximately 6 to 10 times more powerful than those of CS gas." CR causes intense skin pain and irritation, and can lead to blindness and death by asphyxiation.
CR gas was widely used by South African police during the height of Apartheid in the 1980s and its use was widely condemned by international bodies.
Former IAEA official Mohammed ElBaradei has confirmed in Twitter that Egyptian forces have used "tear gas with [a] nerve agent."
The Arabist, an Egyptian blog covering the protests Tuesday, quoted an Egyptian neurology expert as saying this "is not the regular tear gas used in January [during protests]" and was causing "extra-pyramidal symptoms -- involuntary jerks in extremities and trunk mimicking a convulsive seizure."
''It is some kind of neuro-toxic nerve gas,'' doctor Mohamed Aden, who usually works at the Cairo University hospitals, told Australia's The Age. ''We are seeing people whose upper respiratory tract is in convulsion - we have to give them diazepam to relax the muscles to allow them to begin to breathe again.''
The Australian paper continued: "A young man was rushed into the clinic, unconscious and fitting, as the doctor spoke. For at least five minutes it was touch and go as medics administered treatment. Finally he drew breath and the team moved to one of the four patients who had just been carried in, a man with gunshot wound to a leg."
Protesters in Egypt are once again being subjected to tear gas made in the U.S.A. Demonstrators rallying against the military dictatorship told the British media that spent tear-gas cartridges used by police bear the name and address of Combined Systems Inc. (CSI).
The Pennsylvania-based company was exposed earlier this year when its tear gas was used during rallies aimed at Hosni Mubarak.
CSI, which specializes in “crowd control devices,” sold the tear gas to the Egyptian Interior Ministry. The export of teargas to foreign governments is not prohibited under U.S. law.
Some demonstrators told The Guardian that the gas this time seemed more powerful than what was used by Egyptian police in February.
The nation’s interim leader, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, has promised to turn over the government to civilians…in July.
Pakistan on Saturday blocked vital supply routes for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan and demanded Washington vacate a base used by American drones after coalition aircraft allegedly killed 24 Pakistani troops at two posts along a mountainous frontier that serves as a safe haven for militants.
The incident was a major blow to American efforts to rebuild an already tattered alliance vital to winding down the 10-year-old Afghan war. Islamabad called the bloodshed in one of its tribal areas a "grave infringement" of the country's sovereignty, and it could make it even more difficult for the U.S. to enlist Pakistan's help in pushing Afghan insurgents to engage in peace talks.
A NATO spokesman said it was likely that coalition airstrikes caused Pakistani casualties, but an investigation was being conducted to determine the details. If confirmed, it would be the deadliest friendly fire incident by NATO against Pakistani troops since the Afghan war began a decade ago.
A prolonged closure of Pakistan's two Afghan border crossings to NATO supplies could cause serious problems for the coalition. The U.S., which is the largest member of the NATO force in Afghanistan, ships more than 30 percent of its non-lethal supplies through Pakistan. The coalition has alternative routes through Central Asia into northern Afghanistan, but they are costlier and less efficient.
Pakistan temporarily closed one of its Afghan crossings to NATO supplies last year after U.S. helicopters accidentally killed two Pakistani soldiers. Suspected militants took advantage of the impasse to launch attacks against stranded or rerouted trucks carrying NATO supplies. The government reopened the border after about 10 days when the U.S. apologized. NATO said at the time the relatively short closure did not significantly affect its ability to keep its troops supplied.
But the reported casualties are much greater this time, and the relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. has severely deteriorated over the last year, especially following the covert American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town in May. Islamabad was outraged it wasn't told about the operation beforehand.
The government announced it closed its border crossings to NATO in a statement issued after an emergency meeting of the Cabinet's defense committee chaired by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
It also said that within 15 days the U.S. must vacate Shamsi Air Base, which is located in southwestern Baluchistan province. The U.S. uses the base to service drones that target al-Qaida and Taliban militants in Pakistan's tribal region when they cannot return to their bases inside Afghanistan because of weather conditions or mechanical difficulty, said U.S. and Pakistani officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive strategic matters.
The government also plans to review all diplomatic, military and intelligence cooperation with the U.S. and other NATO forces, according to the statement issued after the defense committee meeting.
The Pakistani army said Saturday that NATO helicopters and fighter jets carried out an "unprovoked" attack on two of its border posts in the Mohmand tribal area before dawn, killing 24 soldiers and wounding 13 others. The troops responded in self-defense "with all available weapons," an army statement said.
Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani condemned the attack, calling it a "blatant and unacceptable act," according to the statement.
A spokesman for NATO forces, Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, said Afghan and coalition troops were operating in the border area of eastern Afghanistan when "a tactical situation" prompted them to call in close air support. It is "highly likely" that the airstrikes caused Pakistani casualties, he told BBC television.
"My most sincere and personal heartfelt condolences go out to the families and loved ones of any members of Pakistan security forces who may have been killed or injured," said Gen. John Allen, the top overall commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, in a statement.
The border issue is a major source of tension between Islamabad and Washington, which is committed to withdrawing its combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Much of the violence in Afghanistan is carried out by insurgents who are based just across the border in Pakistan. Coalition forces are not allowed to cross the frontier to attack the militants. However, the militants sometimes fire artillery and rockets across the line, reportedly from locations close to Pakistani army posts.
American officials have repeatedly accused Pakistani forces of supporting — or turning a blind eye — to militants using its territory for cross-border attacks. But militants based in Afghanistan have also been attacking Pakistan recently, prompting complaints from Islamabad.
The two posts that were attacked Saturday were located about 1,000 feet apart on a mountain top and were set up recently to stop Pakistani Taliban militants holed up in Afghanistan from crossing the border and staging attacks, said local government and security officials.
There was no militant activity in the area when the alleged NATO attack occurred, local officials said. Some of the soldiers were standing guard, while others were asleep, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said map references of all of the force's border posts have been given to NATO several times.
Pakistan's prime minister summoned U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter to protest the alleged NATO strike, according to a Foreign Ministry statement. It said the attack was a "grave infringement of Pakistan's sovereignty" and could have serious repercussions on Pakistan's cooperation with NATO.
Munter said in a statement that he regretted any Pakistani deaths and promised to work closely with Islamabad to investigate the incident.
The U.S., Pakistan, and Afghan militaries have long wrestled with the technical difficulties of patrolling a border that in many places is disputed or poorly marked. Saturday's incident took place a day after a meeting between NATO's Gen. Allen and Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in Islamabad to discuss border operations.
The meeting tackled "coordination, communication and procedures ... aimed at enhancing border control on both sides," according to a statement from the Pakistani side.
The U.S. helicopter attack that killed two Pakistani soldiers on Sept. 30 of last year took place south of Mohmand in the Kurram tribal area. A joint U.S.-Pakistan investigation found that Pakistani soldiers fired at the two U.S. helicopters prior to the attack, a move the investigation team said was likely meant to notify the aircraft of their presence after they passed into Pakistani airspace several times.
A U.S. airstrike in June 2008 reportedly killed 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops during a clash between militants and coalition forces in the tribal region.
Pakistan says it will press ahead with its Iran gas pipeline deal despite a strong opposition by the United States, Press TV reports.
PressTV November 25, 2011
Pakistan's Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Friday that Islamabad will not accept any dictation regarding its internal affairs from any foreign country, adding that exporting gas from Iran is in the country's best interest.
The remarks came as a reaction to earlier pleas by Washington's Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter that the Pakistani government abort its multi-billion dollar gas pipeline project with Iran.
“Pak-Iran gas pipeline is not a good idea….However, the plan to get gas from Turkmenistan is a better idea,” Press TV correspondent quoted Munter as saying on Friday.
The USD 7.6 billion gas pipeline deal, which was signed in June 2010, aims to export a daily amount of 21.5 million cubic meters (or 8.7 billion cubic meters per year) of Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.
Last month, Pakistan's Minister of Oil and Natural Resources Asim Hussain said the Iran-Pakistan natural gas pipeline would be inaugurated before the end of 2013, one year ahead of the original schedule.
Maximum daily gas transfer capacity of the 56-inch pipeline, which runs over 900 km of Iran's soil from Asalouyeh in Bushehr Province to the city of Iranshahr in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, has been given at 110 million cubic meters.
Iran and Pakistan finalized the details of the deal during bilateral talks held in Tehran in October 2007.
The deal comes in the face of Washington's efforts to isolate Iran economically through UN Security Council sanctions and its own unilateral penalties over Tehran's nuclear programs.
Iran ranks second in the world in natural gas resources after Russia with available gas reserves estimated at over 33 trillion cubic meters.
In addition to exporting gas to Turkey, Armenia, and Pakistan, the country is currently negotiating gas exports to Iraq.
Iran Counters Increase in Threats from the U.S. and Israel by Threatening to Hit Turkey
Iran will target NATO's missile defense installations in Turkey if the U.S. or Israel attacks the Islamic Republic, a senior commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saturday.
Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guards' aerospace division, said the warning is part of a new defense strategy to counter what he described as an increase in threats from the U.S. and Israel.
Tensions have been rising between Iran and the West since the release of a report earlier this month by the International Atomic Energy Agency that said for the first time that Tehran was suspected of conducting secret experiments whose sole purpose was the development of nuclear arms.
The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of trying to produce atomic weapons, and Israel, which views Tehran as an existential threat, has warned of a possible strike on Iran's nuclear program. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes.
"Should we be threatened, we will target NATO's missile defense shield in Turkey and then hit the next targets," the semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Hajizadeh as saying.
Tehran says NATO's early warning radar station in Turkey is meant to protect Israel against Iranian missile attacks if a war breaks out with the Jewish state. Ankara agreed to host the radar in September as part of NATO's missile defense system aimed at countering ballistic missile threats from neighboring Iran.
A military installation in the Turkish town of Kurecik, some 435 miles (700 kilometers) west of the Iranian border, has been designated as the radar site, according to Turkish government officials.
Hajizadeh said the United States also plans to install similar stations in Arab states, which has spurred Iran to alter its military defense strategy.
"Based on orders from the exalted commander in chief, we will respond to threats with threats," he was quoted as saying.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, is also commander in chief of Iran's armed forces.
Another senior Guard commander, Yadollah Javani, threatened that Tehran will target Israel's nuclear facilities should the Jewish state attack Iran.
"If Israel fires a missile at our nuclear facilities or vital installations, it should know that Israel's nuclear centers will be the target of our missiles," the semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted him as saying.
Also Saturday, the chief of Iran's elite Quds Force said he doesn't fear assassination and is ready for "martyrdom."
The comments by Quds Force commander Brig. Gen. Ghassem Soleimani were published in several Iranian newspapers. The Quds Force is the special foreign operations unit of the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard, and Soleimani is a key figure in Iran's military establishment but rarely speaks in public.
Tensions have increased in recent weeks between Iran and the U.S., with several American neoconservatives urging the Obama administration to use covert action against Iran and kill some of its top officials, including Soleimani.
The force has been accused by the Americans of involvement in an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington. Two men, including an alleged member of Iran's Quds Force, have been charged in New York federal court in the case.
Iran has dismissed the American claims as a "foolish plot", saying U.S. officials have offered no proof.
November 25, 2011
Iran Believes U.S. Presidential Elections Will Prevent Attack
Analysis of potential attack plans published on supreme leader’s website
By Paul Joseph Watson, Infowars.com November 25, 2011
A candid analysis published on the official website of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, contends that the United States is highly unlikely to support an attack on Iran in the short term due to the upcoming presidential elections in 2012.
YNet News describes the publication of a piece written by Dr. Amir Mohebian, a senior political commentator, as “unusual,” in that it details three different scenarios under which Iran could face a US/Israeli attack.
1. An all out war of attrition that would combine aerial and ground forces attack.
2. Limited war as a preparatory action for political proceedings. This would include hitting Iran’s control centers for the purpose of disrupting the stability of the Islamic regime. The best case scenario here would be that war leads to the regime’s fall; the worst case would see Iran surrendering at the negotiating table.
3. A war on specific targets with the aim of destroying the regime’s assault capabilities, especially against the “Zionist regime.”
Taking into account next year’s US presidential elections, Mohebian concludes that “the chances of an all out war against Iran are close to nothing.”
Although Iran believes that the presidential elections are a roadblock to US involvement in an attack, the opposite could just as easily be true. After all, the prospect of the 2004 presidential election did not stop the Bush administration from invading Iraq in 2003.
Given that virtually all of the Republican frontrunners support war with Iran, Obama adopting the same policy is hardly going to harm his re-election chances. Indeed, neo-conservatives have consistently lobbied Obama to attack Iran, advising him that it’s the only way to rescue his political legacy.
In addition, Mitt Romney’s criticism that a nuclear Iran would be the consequence of Obama’s re-election would be completely nullified if his administration was to green light the attack. Establishment Republicans hoping to defeat Obama by posing as being tougher on foreign policy would have the rug pulled out from under them if Obama was to sign off on an assault on Iran which is supported by roughly half of Americans.
Should the US become embroiled in yet another theater of conflict, Obama could rely on the same rhetoric that helped his predecessor defeat John Kerry, by claiming that it would be unwise to change horses in the middle of a race.
Since Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama has deployed more US troops than Bush ever did and embroiled the US in more wars than at any time under Bush, the notion that a pesky presidential election will abate his administration’s lust for more bloodshed is a naive assumption.
November 21, 2011
Palestinian Bid for Statehood Stalled in the UN Security Council
Palestinian negotiator Erekat remarked that peace negotiations in Israel are over. It testifies to Jewish madness that he spoke at a conference in Tel Aviv. Indeed, on that same day Israel sent the PA $100 million in tax transfers. Erekat is definitely right. Everyone knows the conditions for peace for each side, and they are irreconcilable: The Palestinians cannot forfeit their ‘right of return,’ and we Israelis cannot accept it. Everything else is settled: the Israeli government has agreed to abandon the Temple Mount and outlying settlements, and the PA agreed to leave three settlement blocs to the Jews. Given the situation, a Palestinian declaration of statehood is the most logical course of action. It simply avoids the problem. The Palestinian government is fine with de facto abandonment of the right of return. The one problem the PA faces with statehood is that refugees would be able to move from Lebanon and Syria into the West Bank, breaking the fledgling state. The Palestinians would love for Israel to continue guarding their borders. A de jure Palestinian state is not bad at all for Israel, the only better alternative being to expel the Arabs from Judea and Samaria. - A word of truth from the Palestinians, Israeli Uncensored News, May 16, 2011
Now that their bid is stalled in the UNSC, we can ponder whether it was wise. And yes, it was.
Regardless of whether he has won UNSC approval, Abbas has won the UNGA to his side. This is something that Jewish state has never accomplished even once. In effect, Abbas has achieved a moral victory.
He did not harm his relations with the White House. Obama probably hates him just as he hated Netanyahu before, but that does not change the fact that Washington has no other party to support in the PA. To underscore that fact, the White House released $200 million in aid that it had threatened to withhold if Abbas applied to the UNGA for statehood recognition.
Nor will Israel be able to withhold tax transfers for long. Nor can it abandon Fatah militarily, unless we are willing to allow Hamas to take over the West Bank.
The Israeli arguments against the Palestinian bid were proved silly. Thus, to claim that mutually agreed-upon borders are a prerequisite for Palestine’s UN application is preposterous because the Jewish state itself came into being without a border agreement with its neighbors.
Arab diplomats revolted against Abbas for forcing their hand with his UNGA application. Indeed, they as well as their US and EU counterparts felt starkly irrelevant as Abbas dumped diplomatic intrigues in favor of appealing directly to people of the world. But they, too, will be forced back to the table by the US.
Perhaps Abbas miscalculated, imagining that he could push Obama into supporting his bid. Well, the US president is far more cynical than the Fatah leader had thought. Perhaps the peace process is now more dead than ever because the UNGA proved powerless against Jewish influence in Washington.But in the end Abbas was going down, anyway. And at least he is going down as a courageous leader who used his last chance to gain independence for his people—who happen to be our enemies.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has informed the U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development of her decision to unblock $50 million worth of aid for the Palestinian National Security Forces and $148 million worth of other security assistance, The Associated Press reports.
These aid packages were blocked in August ahead of the Palestinian Authority’s bid for recognition and statehood at the United Nations. Lawmakers also put on hold the release of some $192 million worth of economic assistance for infrastructure and other projects in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority’s bid for recognition of an independent state and for membership into U.N. organizations has prompted debate about the future of U.S. aid to the territories. The U.S. Congress and the Obama administration have opposed the Palestinian bid and are pushing for the continuation of peace talks with Israel.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has recently been accepted as a full member by UNESCO, prompting the United States to cut off aid to the U.N. specialized agency. The United States is required by law to stop funding U.N. entities that accept the Palestinian Authority as members.
The Obama administration convinced House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl) that giving 'security assistance' to the 'Palestinian Authority' is a good idea, and $200 million of aid money to the 'Palestinians' has been unfrozen.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that she would release her block on two separate sections of security aid – one for $50 million , and the second for $150 million.
An additional $200 million in economic assistance is still being withheld by both the State and Foreign Relations Appropriations Subcommittee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Both the security and economic funds were frozen by Congress in August, in response to the PA’s strategy of seeking unilateral recognition of statehood during the UN General Assembly in September.
A second key house leader, State and Foreign Relations Appropriations Subcommittee Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), had used her committee to freeze only the economic aid, believing PA security forces aided in countering the influence of Hamas. Ros-Lehtinen’s move has removed the last roadblock to the security aid package.
Funding packages can be blocked by either chairwoman, and need the support of both representatives in order to be released.
In recent weeks, Ros-Lehtinen received extensive documentation from the administration explaining why releasing the security funds supported both America’s and Israel’s interests.
A committee spokesman said that Ros-Lehtinen received over 1,000 pages of documentation on this aid money from the White House. I wonder whether in their three years in the White House, they have produced 1,000 pages of documentation on Iran.
Today is the first day of the Global Week of Action Against the Apartheid Wall. We will be participating in this weeks actions. You can read the campaign statement here.
First, some information about the wall.
The Wall or “Separation Barrier”, is not actually a barrier that separates Israel and the Occupied Territories, but a massive construction, 8 metres tall and equipped with guard towers and razor wire. Rather than sitting on the Green Line, the wall cuts deep into the West Bank, itself. In fact 85% of the wall is located in the West Bank. When the Wall is finished, it will be about 810km long and will result in the de-facto annexation of 46% of the Occupied West Bank.
Already, in the Wall’s “first phase” some 14,680 dunums have been confiscated and razed for the path of the Wall; and over 102,000 trees have been uprooted. Many of which were olive trees, which are extremely valuable to Palestinian farmers and their families. The wall is an obvious attempt to seize more territory, for Israeli Settlers, 98% of which will be included in the de-facto annexed areas.
Birds-eye view of part of the wall
The Wall violates Palestinians’ rights to Freedom of Movement and creates Ghettos. Palestinians in the West Bank find themselves cut off from their lands and surrounded by the wall, settlements or settler-only roads. This has the affect of creating a network of Ghettos, with very limited access to the outside world and to the basic services which communities require in order to live in a dignified manner.
According to the former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Territories:
“Qalqiliya, a city with a population of 40,000, is completely surrounded by the Wall and residents can only enter or leave through a single military checkpoint open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.”
The Wall violates Palestinians’ rights to property. Because of the Wall many Palestinians find themselves unable to reach cultivatable land. Either because the path of the wall blocks access or because it has been confiscated. In the ‘First Phase’ of construction 14,680 dunums of land was confiscated for the Wall. The amount of land that can be seized for the Wall’s construction is disproportionate to the Wall’s actual size. This is because the Wall also employs the use of “Buffer Zones”. These areas of land running alongside the wall can be anywhere between 300 metres to 1.2 miles wide. Palestinians are banned from these areas.The result is the further loss of Palestinian land. For farmers, the inability to reach and cultivate their land means the loss of their livelihoods and ability to provide for their families.
The Wall Violates Palestinians’ rights to proper Health and Education. Due to the Wall, the people in many West Bank villages have no access to Doctors or Hospitals. For example, although the United Nations Hospital in Qalqiliya was built to provide medical care to Palestinians in the Northern West Bank, the Wall has made this an impossibility.Students and Teachers have been cut off from their schools, by the Wall. For example, in Ad Dab’a students are no longer able to attend secondary school, as access in is prevented by the wall. Some schools are also faced with the threat of being demolished to make room for the wall.
In 2004 The International Court of Justice deemed the Wall to be illegal. Following its proceedings regarding the legal consequences of the Wall’s construction, The Court found that the Wall violated a number of laws, including the 4th Geneva Convention and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Court concluded that the Wall must be torn down :
“Israel is under an obligation to terminate its breaches of international law; it is under an obligation to cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall being built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, to dismantle forthwith the structure therein situated, and to repeal or render ineffective forthwith all legislative and regulatory acts relating thereto, in accordance with paragraph 151 of this Opinion.”
In spite of this ruling, Israel has continued construction of the Wall. The Wall, as it stood during the Summer of 2010, was 520 Kilometres long and 64% complete. Despite Israeli rhetoric, the further construction of the wall and the large amounts of funds spent to construct tunnels and roads for the settlers (Israel has spent 2 Billion Shekels on this ), indicates Israel’s desire to make the Apartheid Wall and the occupation of the West Bank a permanent reality.
The construction of the Wall is ongoing.
At the same time, Israel is reacting violently to those Palestinians who are rightfully protesting the Wall. Numerous protests against the Wall’s construction have been violently repressed by Israeli Forces. Such have been a continuous happening since the early days of the Wall’s construction. However, even since the ruling of the ICJ, Israeli Forces have met these protests with disproportionate violence and arrests. According to stopthewall.org, thousands have been injured and hundreds arrested. In March 2010, Israeli Forces shot and killed Mohammed Abdelqader Qadus (16) and Usaid Abd Qadus (19), while the teenagers were protesting the Wall.
Bassem Abu Rahme, another Palestinian killed while peacefully protesting the Wall
Excerpt from the Campaign Statement:
“The Arab Spring has changed the Middle East. Solidarity protests have shaken Tunisia, the people in Egypt have literally closed down the Egyptian embassy. To the north, hundreds of Palestinian refugees together with Syrians and Lebanese have torn down the fences in the Syrian occupied Golan Heights and Lebanon and they did what Israel fears: Palestinian refugees stepped on their ancestral lands.
Emboldened by impunity, Israeli reaction was murder, repression, and more walls. Israeli authorities already announced the construction of a wall along the Egyptian border and in the Syrian Golan Heights.
However, no walls will shield Israeli apartheid against our spirit of rebellion and our calls for justice and self-determination.”
Russia Stands by Syria's Assad
Syria's opposition leader says he has failed to convince Russia to back calls for the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad over his violent crackdown on anti-government protests. - Syria opposition fails to convince Russia over Assad, BBC News, November 17, 2011
Russia stood by President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday as Arab and Western countries sought to pile pressure on the Syrian leader to halt a violent crackdown on his opponents.
The Arab League has suspended Syria and given it until the end of the week to comply with an Arab peace plan to end bloodshed that has cost more than 3,500 lives, by a U.N. count.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose country is one of Syria's few remaining foreign friends, said demands for Assad's removal would destroy the initiative, which calls for dialogue between the Syrian government and its foes.
"If some opposition representatives, with support from some foreign countries, declare that dialogue can begin only after President Assad goes, then the Arab League initiative becomes worthless and meaningless," Lavrov said.
He was speaking after talks with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who said the world must bring all the influence it could to bear on Syria to change course.
Lavrov said a raid on Wednesday by the Free Syrian Army on an Airforce Intelligence complex on the outskirts of Damascus was "already completely similar to real civil war."
Opposition sources said Syrian army defectors had killed or wounded 20 security police in the early-morning attack, the first of its kind in an eight-month revolt against Assad.
It was not possible to verify the casualty toll. The authorities have not mentioned the attack. Syria has barred most foreign media since unrest began in March.
"The attack itself was significant because of the target and the ability to pull it off. It's much too soon to tell if this is the beginning of a trend of armed opposition to the regime," a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States did not have any contact with the Syrian Free Army but did not condone any use of violence.
He rejected the suggestion that Syria was virtually in civil war, saying: "We believe it's very much the Assad regime carrying out a campaign of violence, intimidation, and repression against innocent protesters."
RETALIATORY RAIDS
Residents of Harasta, the suburb where the Airforce Intelligence compound is located, said army deserters had fired rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns for 10 minutes, provoking a security sweep that netted about 70 people.
Together with Military Intelligence, Airforce Intelligence is in charge of preventing dissent within the armed forces.
Syria blames the violence on foreign-backed armed groups who it says have killed more than 1,100 soldiers and police.
Hundreds of people have been killed this month, one of the bloodiest periods in the revolt that began in March.
Catherine Altalli, of the opposition Syrian National Council, said Wednesday's assault was understandable after the violence, detention and torture used on peaceful protesters.
"I am not saying this is right. There have to be limits," she said. "But what is unacceptable is that every day bodies come out with marks of torture from Air Force Intelligence buildings and other secret police dungeons across Syria."
Syria's pervasive security apparatus, dominated by Assad's minority Alawite sect, underpins the power structure that has enabled Assad and his father before him to rule for 41 years.
The bloodshed in Syria has angered other Arab and Western nations, whose criticism of Assad led to several attacks on diplomatic missions in Damascus and other cities this week.
Syrian state media said the authorities had vowed to prosecute anyone who carried out such attacks.
FRANCE HELPING OPPOSITION
France, which withdrew its ambassador from Damascus on Wednesday, said it was encouraging Syrian opposition groups, which include the Paris-based Syrian National Council, but remained opposed to outside military intervention.
"We have had contacts with them ... in any case we are helping them, we are encouraging them to get organized," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told French BFM radio.
France was the first Western nation to recognize Libyan rebels in March, but has yet to endorse any Syrian group.
While the West appears to have no appetite for military intervention in Syria, a leader of Syria's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood said Turkish military action might be acceptable.
"If other interventions are required, such as air protection, because of the regime's intransigence, then the people will accept Turkish intervention. They do not want Western intervention," Mohammad Riad Shaqfa, who lives in exile in Saudi Arabia, told a news conference in Istanbul.
Ankara is considering imposing sanctions on Syria, has hosted opponents of Assad and is working with the Arab League to increase pressure on Damascus, but denies any plan to intervene militarily in its southern neighbor.
No U.N. sanctions against Syria seem likely given opposition from Russia and China, which last month vetoed a draft Security Council resolution condemning Damascus.
Now France, Britain and Germany plan to ask the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee to approve a resolution condemning the violence in Syria, before putting the non-binding measure to a vote in an Assembly plenary session.
Burhan Ghalioun, head of the Syrian National Council, called for a calming of sectarian tensions between Alawites and majority Sunni Muslims, especially in the restive city of Homs.
"We have seen in the last few weeks kidnappings, assassination and score-settling among members of the same people, even from within the sons of the revolution, which poses a dangerous threat to the gains of the revolution and offers a big service to the regime," he said in a statement.
By Lord Stirling, Rense.com Originally Published on September 18, 2008
Russian Rear Admiral Andrei Baranov has disclosed that 10 Russian warships are already anchored at the Syrian port of Tartus. Russian engineering crews are widening and dredging the port to accommodate additional Russian warships.
The Russians are making clear their intentions of using the large Russian naval presence in Tartus as a deterrent to Israeli air strikes against Syria using the powerful anti-air missiles on-board the Russian naval warships. These missile systems can sweep the sky over most of Syria and knock down Israeli F-15 and F-16 fighters. This changes the balance of power in the air over Syria.
This also places a tripwire for World War III in place in the Middle East. Any attack on Iran will also involve a war with Syria and Lebanon. This will now involve Russian military forces in direct support of the Iranian/Syrian alliance. Russia is a major nuclear power with the power to destroy every American and NATO city. George Bush has just agreed to sell Israel 1,000 very advanced American bunker buster bombs for use in the coming war with Iran, Syria, and Lebanon.
By Jubin Goodarzi, The United States Institute of Peace
Since 1979, the alliance between Syria and Iran has had significant impact in both shaping Middle East politics and thwarting the regional goals of the United States, Israel and Iraq.
Syria and Iran are the two parties most responsible for spoiling U.S.-backed peace efforts between the Arabs and Israel in order to promote their own Arab and Islamic interests. For the United States, they were also the most troublesome countries during the U.S. intervention in Iraq because they aided, abetted or armed insurgents.
The two regimes share common traits. They are both authoritarian and defiantly independent, even at a political or economic cost. Iran is predominantly Shiite. Although Syria is predominantly Sunni Muslim, its ruling family is Alawite, a Shiite sect.
At the same time, they are odd political bedfellows. Syria’s Baa’thist ideology is strictly secular and socialist. Iran’s ideology is rigidly religious and, in principle, opposed to atheist communism and its offshoots. Yet their common strategic goals have held the alliance together for three decades, despite repeated attempts to rend them apart.
November 16, 2011
Iranian Students Chant 'Death to America' and 'Death to Israel' While Forming Human Chain to Defend Nuclear Site
Iran is taking seriously the reported threat of a military strike against its nuclear facilities, a senior Iranian official said Tuesday while insisting that any such action would be "very silly."
With tensions again rising over Iran's nuclear program, Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and head of the government's human rights council, insisted his country would never give up its right to acquire nuclear technology.
Questioned about reported threats of a military strike, Larijani told reporters: "No threat to Iran is taken superficially by the people in charge. We are fully prepared to confront any challenge. And to attack Iran may not be very difficult."
Military strikes would be "very silly," Larijani added on the sidelines of a visit to the United Nations. He also referred to the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists which the Islamic state has blamed on Israel and the United States.
"If you kill two scientists there are hundreds more, if you hit one place then another one will be built," he said.
"We are very proud that we know this technology and science. We are very proud that we are number one in the region. Nobody can deprive Iran of this capability," he declared.
Larijani repeated accusations that Israel "with the cooperation of the United States" was behind the killings in January 2010 and November last year of two Iranian nuclear scientists.
He was also asked about an explosion on Saturday at a military base near Tehran in which a top missile expert was killed. Larijani said first signs indicated "an accident" but that an investigation was underway.
The International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors' meets in Vienna on Thursday and Friday, and western powers want a resolution condemning Iran over a new report on its nuclear drive.
The United States and its European allies accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear bomb. Tehran denies the charge. Reports that Israel or another nation could launch a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities have stoked the tensions.
Iranian students, one holding a picture of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, form a human chain outside the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility, vowing to strongly respond to any strike by arch-foe Israel, Fars news agency reported. The students chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel." (AFP)
AFP November 15, 2011
Hundreds of Iranian students on Tuesday formed a human chain around one of the Islamic republic's nuclear sites, vowing to strongly respond to any strike by arch-foe Israel, Fars news agency reported.
"We are promising the leaders of world arrogance (the West) that even if one bullet is fired towards Iran we will demolish Tel Aviv in three days," Fars quoted a student leader as saying in a speech at the Isfahan uranium conversion facility.
Chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," the students carried a Wild West-styled wanted poster depicting US President Barack Obama's as a fugitive from law.
The demonstration comes about a week after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported "credible" evidence that Iran had worked towards nuclear weapons.
Iran criticised the Vienna-based atomic watchdog for giving up its "earlier objectivity" in the report, which it rejected as "baseless" and hewing to Israeli and US intelligence.
Tuesday's student gathering, which is not the first of its kind in the past decade of Iran's stand-off with the West over its controversial nuclear drive, comes amid speculation of an Israeli military strike.
The rumours were further stoked by a news report saying that Israel's foreign intelligence service Mossad was behind a deadly munitions blast in Iran last weekend.
In an interview published Sunday in Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he sees no more room for compromise in the battle over Tehran's contested nuclear programme.
At the same time, Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani warned Tehran must review its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog due to the hostile nature of the report.
Subject to four sets of UN sanctions and several Western sanctions over its enrichment programme, Iran has so far refused to freeze its uranium enrichment activities.
Washington and its Western partners want the IAEA board to approve a "clear resolution" condemning Iran at a scheduled meeting on Thursday and Friday. This could even go as far as to referring Iran to the UN Security Council.
Israel Behind Massive Blast Outside Tehran to Impede Iran's Ability to Develop and Deliver a Nuclear Weapon
Iran hasn't accused Israel of causing the bomb blast at an ammunition depot near Tehran, and Israel hasn't taken credit. But the blast, which killed the founder of Iran's missile program, fits a pattern.
By Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor November 14, 2011
Iran today buries a senior commander of its missile force, amid claims that the huge explosion that killed him and at least 16 others at a Revolutionary Guard base on Saturday was the work of Israeli agents.
Maj. Gen. Hassan Moghaddam was heralded by fellow commanders as the "founder" of Iran's missile program, which has deployed ballistic missiles with ranges up to 1,500 miles -- enough to reach Europe. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) praised his role in developing artillery and missile units. His importance was such that even Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei attended the funeral.
That background would make Moghaddam a prime target in what appears to be a concerted Spy vs. Spy campaign – from assassinations and facility explosions, to three destructive computer viruses, by Iran's count – that have dealt setbacks to Iran's controversial nuclear and ballistic missile programs in recent years. Speculation that Moghaddam was the latest casualty, in the series of strikes that Iran blames on Israel and the US, has been spurred by the fact that such a critical Guard officer was present and killed, during what Iran calls an "accident" involving a routine transfer of munitions.
"Iran's current missile capability is owed to commander Moghaddam's efforts," Brigadier General Abbas Khani told the official IRNA news agency. "Due to his role ... the enemy always wanted to identify and eliminate him," he said.
Iran has in the past blamed the "Zionist regime" and the US for being secretly behind what it styles a campaign of sabotage. Neither the US nor Israel have ruled out military strikes to prevent Iran acquiring a bomb. Analysts say the death of Moghaddam may be part of a broader, unconventional fight that has been on-going for years.
"Without concluding that this was an assassination, it fits in line with the kind of actions that have...deprived Iran of some of its top influential leadership" in nuclear and missile efforts, says Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London. "Missiles are a major component of having a nuclear weapons capability, and this is the first time that we've seen some hint that the missile aspect is bearing the brunt," says Mr. Fitzpatrick, who edited a comprehensive 150-page dossier on Iran's ballistic missiles earlier this year.
The Islamic Republic insists its nuclear program is only to produce energy. Yet the latest report on Iran's efforts by the UN's watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), released last week, found a "systemic" effort by Iran to master weapons-related nuclear work, until it was halted in 2003.
Though some experts question the validity of the IAEA intelligence, the IAEA claimed that some weapons-related work "may" still continue.
Suspicious blast
The blast Saturday, 30 miles west of Tehran, was so large it could be heard and felt in the capital.
As Iran declared it would launch an investigation – and warned that any "foreign hand" would be met with revenge – one Western intelligence source credited Israel's Mossad intelligence service.
"Don't believe the Iranians that it was an accident," the unidentified Western source told Time in a report from Jerusalem. "There are more bullets in the magazine."
The Israeli government has been at the forefront of calls for military action to disrupt Iran's nuclear program. It does not accept the conclusions of a US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran in late 2007 – and reportedly reaffirmed earlier this year – that Iran gave up its nuclear weapons work in the autumn of 2003, and has made no subsequent decision to go for a bomb.
The latest NIE report included data from "cutting-edge surveillance techniques," and the results of a six-year effort by US soldiers "working with Iranian intelligence assets," according to a report last June by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker.
The techniques involved surreptitiously replacing street signs in Tehran with similar looking ones implanted with radiation sensors, "say, near a university suspected of conducting nuclear enrichment," the New Yorker reported.
"American operatives, working undercover," also exchanged bricks from a "building or two" in central Tehran thought to house enrichment activities, "with bricks embedded with radiation-monitoring devices," wrote the New Yorker.
Close to a bomb?
None of those actions, and others described in the magazine, revealed an ongoing nuclear weapons program. The IAEA report largely confirmed that analysis, with the data it spelled out in unprecedented detail last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, said on Sunday that the IAEA report was limited to information that "can be proven; facts that can be presented in court."
"In practice there are many other things we see, and hence the leading states in the world must decide what do to in order to stop Iran," said Netanyahu. "The efforts thus far did not prevent Iran from progressing towards a bomb, and it is closer to acquiring it, sooner than people think."
Israeli newspapers on Sunday carried reports intimating that the Jewish state was behind the latest blast in Iran and other events going back to a 2007 explosion at another missile base.
A headline in Maariv asked, "Who is responsible for attacks on the Iranian army?" noted Time, over a story that simply listed a half dozen violent setbacks for Iran's nuclear and missile programs.
Other Israeli newspapers listed an October 2010 blast at a Shahab missile facility, the killings on the streets of Tehran of three nuclear scientists in the past two years, and the Stuxnet computer worm that caused a portion of Iran's thousands of spinning centrifuges – which enrich uranium for nuclear fuel, or at higher levels of a nuclear bomb – to operate out of control.
"It hasn't stopped Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability," says Fitzpatrick of IISS. "Iran is only a political decision away from having a nuclear weapon – a political decision and a certain amount of time."
If the IAEA report and intelligence is correct, he says Iran "has already conducted a lot of the weapons development research, and stockpiled enough low-enriched uranium (LEU) for at least two if not four weapons," if enriched further.
Espionage and assassinations
Fitzpatrick said that the Stuxnet malware was "probably overhyped," but "appears to have knocked out 1,000" of Iran's centrifuges, a sizable portion of the roughly 8,000 that Iran has installed. Still, Iran today has more LEU than it did before the virus took hold in Iran's nuclear facilities, and its ballistic missile force can deliver nuclear weapons, even though shrinking them to fit any warhead remains a hurdle.
"I would be very surprised if there were not other efforts in the works" to undermine Iran's progress, adds Fitzpatrick. "So Iran's nuclear weapons community has to be constantly looking over its collective shoulders anticipating further efforts.
"The countries that ... won't abide [a nuclear-armed Iran] don't want to undertake military attack," he says, "so there are a range of other tools they are aggressively employing to try to stop Iran's program without resorting to military attack."
Even among the leadership of the IRGC – which controls Iran's missile program, and has many links, at least, with its nuclear efforts – Moghaddam appears to have had a special place as one of the few favored by Iran's supreme religious leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
"A major part of (our) progress in the field of missile capability and artillery was due to round-the-clock efforts by martyr Moghaddam," Saeed Qasemi, an IRGC commander, told the conservative news website rajanews.com, according to the AP.
"The exalted leader had a special interest in him," said Mr. Qasemi.
A photograph that emerged in Tehran showed a younger Ayatollah Khamenei -- who has made all final state decisions in the Islamic Republic for more than two decades -- holding his left hand to the epaulet of the Guard uniform of the young, bearded Moghaddam.
Iranian officials have complained that their nuclear scientists have been killed on the streets of Tehran – sometimes after their identities and work were disclosed by the UN.
Fereydoon Abbasi, a nuclear scientist who survived an attack a year ago, of a magnetized "sticky bomb" stuck to his car in traffic by a motorcycle-borne assassin, has since recovered and been named the director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
A colleague, Majid Shahriari, was killed moments earlier on the same day, in a similar attack in another part of Tehran.
Just days after those attacks last December, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, took part in talks with world powers about Iran's nuclear program in Geneva.
With a portrait of Mr. Shahriari beside him at the podium – a strip of black cloth across the upper left corner of the dead scientist – Mr. Jalili said it was "disgraceful" for the UN Security Council that the listing of Iranian scientists for sanctions, he claimed, had led directly to the killing.
Israeli newspapers on Sunday were thick with innuendo, the front pages of the three largest dailies dominated by variations on the headline "Mysterious Explosion in Iranian Missile Base." Turn the page, and the mystery is answered with a wink. "Who Is Responsible for Attacks on the Iranian Army?" asks Maariv, and the paper lists without further comment a half-dozen other violent setbacks to Iran's nuclear and military nexus.
For Israeli readers, the coy implication is that their own government was behind Saturday's massive blast just outside Tehran. It is an assumption a Western intelligence source insists is correct: the Mossad — the Israeli agency charged with covert operations — did it.
"Don't believe the Iranians that it was an accident," the official tells TIME, adding that other sabotage is being planned to impede the Iranian ability to develop and deliver a nuclear weapon. "There are more bullets in the magazine," the official says.
The powerful blast or series of blasts — reports described an initial explosion followed by a much larger one — devastated a missile base in the gritty urban sprawl to the west of the Iranian capital. The base housed Shahab missiles, which, at their longest range, can reach Israel.
Last week's report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran had experimented with removing the conventional warhead on the Shahab-3 and replacing it with one that would hold a nuclear device. Iran says the explosion was an accident that came while troops were transferring ammunition out of the depot "toward the appropriate site."
The explosion killed at least 17 people, including Major General Hassan Moqqadam, described by Iranian state media as a pioneer in Iranian missile development and the Revolutionary Guard commander in charge of "ensuring self-sufficiency" in armaments, a challenging task in light of international sanctions.
Coming the weekend after the release of the unusually critical IAEA report, which laid out page upon page of evidence that Iran is moving toward a nuclear weapon, the blast naturally sharpened concern over Israel's threat to launch airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. Half the stories on the Tehran Times website on Sunday referenced the possibility of a military strike, most warning of dire repercussions.
But the incident also argued, maybe even augured, against an outright strike. If Israel — perhaps in concert with Washington and other allies — can continue to inflict damage to the Iranian nuclear effort through covert actions, the need diminishes for overt, incendiary moves like air strikes. The Stuxnet computer worm bollixed Iran's centrifuges for months, wreaking havoc on the crucial process of uranium enrichment.
And in Sunday's editions, the Hebrew press coyly listed what Yedioth Ahronoth called "Iran's Mysterious Mishaps." The tallies ran from the November 2007 explosion at a missile base south of Tehran to the October 2010 blast at a Shahab facility in southwestern Iran, to the assassinations of three Iranian scientists working in the nuclear program — two last year and one in July.
At the very least, the list burnishes the mystique of the Mossad, Israel's overseas spy agency. Whatever the case-by-case reality, the popular notion that, through the Mossad, Israel knows everything and can reach anywhere is one of the most valuable assets available to a state whose entire doctrine of defense can be summed up in the word deterrence.
But it doesn't mean Israel is the only country with a foreign intelligence operation inside Iran. The most recent IAEA report included intelligence from 10 governments on details of the Iranian nuclear effort. And in previous interviews, Western security sources have indicated that U.S. and other Western intelligence agencies have partnered with Israel on covert operations inside Iran. Sometimes the partner brings specific expertise or access. In other cases, Iranian agents on the ground who might harbor misgivings about Israel are allowed to believe they are working only with another government altogether.
Saturday's blast was so powerful it was felt 25 miles away in Tehran, and so loud that one nearby resident with combat experience thought he had just heard the detonation of an aerial bomb.
"Frankly it did not sound like an arms depot from where I was because when one of those goes off, it is multiple explosions over minutes, even hours depending on the size of the facility," the resident says. "All I heard was one big boom. I was sure from the quality of the noise that anyone in its immediate vicinity was dead. Something definitely happened, but I would not trust the [Revolutionary] Guards to be absolutely forthcoming as to what it was."
Iran and North Korea Cooperate in Building Atomic Bombs
News media in Northeast Asia are reporting details of alleged cooperation between Iran and North Korea in trying to build atomic bombs. Such joint activities have been suspected for years.
South Korea’s foreign ministry and the national intelligence service say they cannot comment on fresh reports linking Pyongyang's atomic efforts to Iran.
Officials with the agencies considered at the forefront of monitoring North Korea's nuclear programs say the allegations, apparently leaked by diplomats in recent days, involve classified information.
The IAEA's most comprehensive assessment yet about Iran's nuclear programs details what it says is evidence of Iran's covert and continuous effort, since 2003, to build a nuclear bomb, going far beyond the stated goals of energy and medical research.
Last Friday, Iran's top envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, called the report a fabrication based on "lousy" intelligence by the United States and its allies.
The 25-page report has since been leaked and makes no mention of a link between Iran and North Korea. But last Friday U.N. investigators gave a private technical presentation to the 35 member states of the IAEA Board of Governors. Since then, diplomats have been quoted anonymously by South Korea media alleging that hundreds of North Korean scientists and engineers have been working at nuclear and missile facilities in Iran.
Covert trips
Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun says among the Iranian sites the North Koreans have been visiting are three research centers carrying out simulations of how to trigger nuclear weapons.
Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, which conducts research and analysis for the U.S. military and intelligence agencies, says experts, for years, have been suspicious about this type of cooperation.
"There've been stories of Iranians at the nuclear tests in North Korea, for example," Bennett said. "So if information is really being shared then you've got a much more dangerous situation because most people would argue that the North Korean nuclear program is out ahead of Iran and we don't want Iran having that assistance."
The London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies, in a report this year, characterized the cooperation as mutual. It said North Korea has a technological edge over Iran in uranium enrichment and the manufacture of nuclear-related equipment, such as high-strength steel. The IISS report said North Korea's weapons programs also benefit from Iranian technology.
Bennett, of the Rand Corporation, says the international community needs to pay more attention to the nuclear links between North Korea and Iran.
"But stopping that or even slowing it down is going to be complicated. The people can travel to Iran without having to go through places where we can't stop them," he said.
The South Korean media reports say the North Koreans enter Iran covertly through other countries, such as Russia and China. The North Koreans are said to be employed at 10 nuclear and missile facilities in Iran and are apparently rotated every few months.
Nuclear capability
The Washington Post reported November 7 that Western diplomats and nuclear experts briefed on the IAEA findings say that Iran has reached the threshold of nuclear capability with crucial technology linked to North Korea and Pakistan.
Iran and North Korea were customers of the network run by Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan. And both countries are under United Nations economic sanctions for their nuclear programs.
U.S. President Barack Obama, at the conclusion of Sunday's APEC Summit in Hawaii, told reporters the sanctions against Tehran have had "enormous bite" and he will consult with other nations about additional steps to prevent Iran for acquiring an atomic weapon.
North Korea has also been accused in U.N. and other reports of possibly supplying not only Iran but also Syria and Burma with banned atomic technology.
In August, German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported North Korea had provided Iran with a computer program that can help scientists identify self-sustaining chain reactions, vital for the construction of reactors and also in the development of nuclear explosives. Tracking cooperation
Analysts say they have also been tracking, since the 1980s, cooperation between Pyongyang and Tehran on missile development.
Of utmost concern is whether North Korea has given Iran some Russian designed advanced missiles. There is no evidence, however, that either North Korea or Iran has flight-tested the missile, known as the BM-25 or Musudan.
Russia denies its existence. Some analysts contend previous public displays of the Musudan in Pyongayng military parades were merely fakes. The missile is believed to be based on the former Soviet Union’s R-27, a submarine-launched missile with a range of between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometers, designed to carry nuclear warheads.
In a presentation at a think tank seminar in Seoul last week, Bennett of the Rand Corporation, said there is wide speculation about the size of North Korea's possible nuclear weapons arsenal. He said Pyongyang may not have any weapons yet but could have "as many as 20" with the number of reliable ones ranging between two and 16.
But Bennett is adamant that it would be wrong to characterize North Korea as a nuclear power because it has not demonstrated a working atomic bomb, despite carrying out tests of nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009.
The two Koreas have no diplomatic relations. They fought a three-year civil war to a stalemate in the early 1950's. They technically remain at war as no peace treaty has ever been signed.
November 4, 2011
Iran is 'Ready for War'; Obama Tells Allies that U.S. Will Attack Iran By Fall 2012
What few are realizing is a war with Iran will no doubt initiate at least a limited nuclear conflagration, the effects of which will change history forever. Diabolically couched as a pre-emptive strike on a rogue nation to save Israel and US interests, such a move will inevitably draw China and Russia into the conflict. Don't think so? When you come to realize that's exactly what they want, that's when you'll know you're waking up. When you know a New World Order is the desired outcome, you realize the old world order needs to be debunked, crippled and reset. The global financial and economic structure has been brought to the brink. Sovereignty is being scuttled worldwide, and the population is taking to the streets. - Zen Gardner, World War 3 A Foregone Conclusion?, Before It's News, November 03, 2011
President prepared to use war as re-election campaign tool
By Paul Joseph Watson, Infowars.com November 4, 2011
Barack Obama has told America’s allies that the United States will attack Iran before fall 2012 unless Tehran halts its nuclear program, a time frame that suggests Obama is willing to use war as a re-election campaign tool to rally the population around his leadership.
A subscriber-only report by DebkaFile, the Israeli intelligence outfit which has been proven accurate in the past, reveals that shortly after the end of NATO operations in Libya at the start of this week,
“President Barack Obama went on line to America’s senior allies, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Israel and Saudi Arabia, with notice of his plan to attack Iran no later than September-October 2012 – unless Tehran halted its nuclear weaponization programs.”
According to the report, the window of opportunity for an attack before Iran moves the bulk of its nuclear processing underground is quickly evaporating.
Obama’s directive contributed to the flurry of reports this week about NATO powers putting their Iran war contingency plans on standby.
“Obama’s announcement was not perceived as a general directive to US allies, but a guideline to blow the dust off the contingency plans for a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities which stayed locked in bottom drawers for three years,” states the report, adding that “Obama’s announcement spurred Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Israel into girding their navies, air forces, ballistic units and anti-missile defense systems for the challenges ahead.”
The imminent withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq is part of a program to re-arrange the United States’ presence in the Gulf. This dovetails with numerous reports over the past few weeks that large numbers of U.S. troops are being stationed in Kuwait.
“Military sources in the Gulf report that NATO and Persian Gulf leaders are treating the prospect of a US strike against Iran with the utmost seriousness,” states the article, adding that America plans to rebuild its Gulf presence as part “of a new US focus on cutting Iran down to size.”
The timing of a potential fall 2012 attack would of course coincide with Obama’s attempt to secure a second term in the White House. If by that time the United States has embarked on yet another military assault in the Middle East, it would undoubtedly play to Obama’s advantage, just as George W. Bush cited U.S. involvement in Iraq as a reason for voters not to “change horse” in the middle of a race back in 2004.
As we have previously reported, influential neo-cons within the U.S. have made it clear to Obama that they will give him political cover and an opportunity to resurrect his flagging political career if he launched an attack on Iran.
In February last year, vehement Israeli-firster and signatory to the infamous PNAC document Daniel Pipes wrote a piece for the National Review Online entitled, How to Save the Obama Presidency: Bomb Iran, encouraging Obama to “salvage his tottering administration” by giving orders “for the U.S. military to destroy Iran’s nuclear-weapon capacity.”
Rumors that Israel was preparing for an attack on Iran have been rumbling all summer, but they really came to the fore in early October when US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s October 3 Tel Aviv visit was used as an opportunity by Israeli hawks to convince Panetta to green light the attack. Just ten days later, details emerged of a highly dubious assassination plot in the United States that was blamed on Iran.
This week has seen a barrage of news and leaked information which confirms that Israel, the U.S. and the United Kingdom are all on a war footing in preparation for targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Much of that information came as a result of deliberate leaks by former Israeli intelligence chiefs Meir Dagan and Yuval Diskin, who are attempting to derail the attack on Iran and remove Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office.
DebkaFile has proven itself to be accurate in predicting the precise time frame of conflicts in the past, correctly reporting back in July that the war in Libya would come to a head in early September, which is when rebels seized Tripoli and Gaddafi went on the run.
Should Obama and the United States’ NATO allies lead the attack on Iran, Israel itself is likely to take a back seat, according to reports which suggest the Zionist state will concentrate on defending the home front against likely reprisal attacks carried out by Hizballah.
By Ian Drury and Rose Parker, Daily Mail November 3, 2011
Iran ratcheted up tensions in the Middle East yesterday when its foreign minister declared the country was ‘ready for war’ with Israel and the West.
In inflammatory remarks certain to fuel uncertainty in the volatile region, Ali Akbar Salehi warned that Tehran would ‘not hesitate’ to retaliate if attacked. His posturing came as Foreign Secretary William Hague urged Israel’s defence minister not to fan the flames during top-level talks in London.
Iran has come sharply back into focus following the end of the Libya conflict.
Mr Hague made it ‘very clear’ to Ehud Barak – who reportedly favours a pre-emptive strike against the rogue Islamic state – to pursue a diplomatic solution.
Iran’s hardliners, led by president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been increasingly aggressive in recent weeks sparking fears that the belligerent regime is close to producing a nuclear bomb.
Israel reacted on Wednesday by test-firing a new long-range missile.
Downing Street has also been warned that Iran is concealing technology to enrich uranium – used in atomic weapons – in a mountain base beneath the city of Qom to protect it from air strikes.
Britain is now developing plans for military action against Iran amid mounting alarm about the nuclear threat from Ahmadinejad, who has vowed to ‘wipe Israel off the face of the earth’. Submarines armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles and Royal Navy warships could be deployed within range of Iran and RAF planes could carry out reconnaissance, surveillance and air-to-air refueling.
Diplomats in Whitehall are keen to rein in Iran using a diplomatic solution but admit that ‘all options should be kept on the table’. However, the UK would take part only if the U.S. launched an attack.
Barack Obama is unlikely to strike before seeking re-election in a year, but the president is aware that action is needed before Iran acquires a nuclear bomb.
Last night, Mr Salehi, Iran’s foreign minister, said the regime was ‘ready for war’ while on a visit to Libya. He said:
‘We have been hearing threats from Israel for eight years. Our nation is a united nation. Such threats are not new to us.
'We are very sure of ourselves. We can defend our country.’
He warned of retaliation a day after Iran’s chief of staff said Israel and the West would be ‘punished’ for any attack on its nuclear sites.
General Hassan Firouzabadi said:
‘We take every threat, however distant and improbable, as very real, and are fully prepared to use suitable equipment to punish any kind of mistake.
‘The United States is fully aware that a military attack by the Zionist regime on Iran will not only cause tremendous damage to that regime, but it will also inflict serious damage to the U.S.’
Iran insists it has a nuclear programme only to produce energy. But a report by the International Atomic Energy Association, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, to be published next week, will conclude that Iran is attempting to produce nuclear weapons in defiance of UN sanctions.
Yesterday Mr Hague said it was vital to continue tackling ‘shared concerns such as ... the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear programme’. Jim Murphy, Labour defence spokesman, said:
‘Iran’s efforts to acquire and weaponise nuclear capabilities are well known.
'The international community has a responsibility to prevent this from happening through a combination of economic sanctions and diplomatic efforts.
‘Should the Government be thinking of going beyond that, this would be a very serious development indeed.’
Meanwhile, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a probe into alleged leaks of plans to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Ministers in Tel Aviv believe that domestic opponents who authorised the leaks were undermining the government and ‘gambling with Israel’s national interest’.
In other developments, Mr Hague accused Israel of undermining peace efforts by accelerating settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. He condemned the decision to build at least 2,000 apartments in Jewish-held areas in retaliation for Palestinian efforts to secure recognition as a state at the United Nations.
Speaking after yesterday’s talks, Mr Hague insisted the UK remained ‘fully committed to Israel’s security’. But he said:
‘I urged Israel to revoke the plan for new settlements and to avoid further provocative steps which only make more difficult the attempt to facilitate a return to talks.
'These steps undermine efforts to achieve peace, and increase Israel’s isolation.’
'The U.S. has unfortunately lost its wisdom and prudence in dealing with international issues. It only depends on power,' he said on a visit to the Libyan city of Benghazi.
'Of course we are prepared for the worst, but we hope they think twice before they put themselves on a collision course with Iran.'
In an interview published in Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, Mr Salehi had said that 'Iran was always ready for war'.
'Iran has alwaysbeen threatened by Israel. This is not new for us. We have been hearing threats from Israel for eight years,' he continued.
'Our nation is a united nation. Its roots are deep in history. Such threats are not new to us.
'We are very confident of ourselves. We can defend our country.'
An MoD spokesman said:
'The British government believes that a dual track strategy of pressure and engagement is the best approach to address the threat from Iran's nuclear programme and avoid regional conflict.
'We want a negotiated solution – but all options should be kept on the table.'
A special unit at the MoD has been instructed to work out the UK's strategy if the Army should invade Iran.
War planners will look at potential deployments of Royal Navy ships and submarines equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles and RAF fighter jets armed with precision-guided Paveway IV and Brimstone bombs and missiles, surveillance planes and air-to-air refuelling.
Mr Netanyahu's office said 2,000 new apartments would be built in Jewish areas of east Jerusalem.Officials said the move was a response to recent unilateral steps by the Palestinians, particularly its acceptance into the UN cultural agency UNESCO. He has blamed Israel for disruptions to the nuclear programme, including the mysterious assassinations of a string of Iranian nuclear scientists and a computer virus that wiped out some nuclear centrifuges.
But a report by the UN's nuclear watchdog due to be published next week will provide fresh evidence of Iran's activity, bringing the Middle East a step closer to another devastating conflict. It is the latest of a series of quarterly bulletins on Iran's arms programme, but will contain an unprecedented level of detail on research and experiments carried out in recent years. It comes as a draft report revealed China is continuing to provide advanced missiles and other conventional arms to Iran, in violation of UN sanctions against the regime.
The report, from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, revealed China sold $312 million of arms to Iran, second only to Russia. It also noted that after Russia began cutting back arms transfers to Iran in 2008, China became the largest arms supplier to the Iranian military. Most of the weapons transfers involved sales of Chinese anti-ship cruise missiles, including C-802 missiles that China promised the U.S. in 1997 would not be exported to Iran.
The report says:
'Because of the relatively short range of these missiles, China's provision of them to Iran does not violate the Iran, North Korea and Syria Non-proliferation Act of 2006, which seeks to prevent the transfer of only those missiles that can carry a 500kg warhead more than 300km.
'It is possible, however, that these transactions violate the Iran Freedom Support Act, or the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act of 2010, which both use the ambiguous term "advanced conventional weapons".'
TIMELINE OF DEVELOPMENT
February, 2009: IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran was not allowing UN inspectors to determine if it was working developing nuclear weapons.
June, 2009: IAEA reveals it was blocked from inspecting nuclear facilities, but Mr ElBaradei voices opposition to Israel support for military strike, saying it would turn region into 'ball of fire'.
July, 2009: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had agreed with President Barack Obama to engage with Iran until the end of the year, but the country would be free to take on the 'existential threat' with military force after the deadline passed. Mr Obama also gave Iran until September to adhere to IAEA proposals or 'face consequences'. Iran threatens to strike back at Israel if its nuclear facilities were targeted.
September, 2009: Second enrichment facility is revealed 20 miles north of Qom, Iran.
January, 2010: Masoul Ali Mohammadi - a particle physicist - is killed by a remote-control bomb as he left for work.
August, 2010: Iran acquires nuclear fuel rods from Russia and begins fuelling of Bushehr I reactor - reportedly to generate electricity.
October, 2010: Stuxnet computer worm infects systems at Natanz enrichment plant, causing centrifuges to crash and suspending work.
November, 2010: Second physicist, Majid Shahriar, killed when bomb was stuck to the side of his car by a motorcyclist.
July, 2011: Darioush Rezaie - third physicist involved in Iran's nuclear programme - shot dead.
Work to develop nuclear facilities began in the 1990s, with the Russian Federation providing experts, although the U.S. blocked the trade of equipment or construction of technology for Iran.
International attention was drawn to its developing nuclear potential in 2002 after an Iranian dissident revealed the existence of two sites that were under construction - a uranium enrichment facility in Natanz and a heavy water facility in Arak.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sought access to these facilities, but it wasn't until 2003 that Iran agreed to cooperate with it and suspend enrichment activities. The investigation revealed Iran had failed to meet several obligations, including divulging the importation of uranium from China.
The following year, work began on the construction of a heavy water reactor, but again Iran announced a suspension of uranium enrichment under the terms of the Paris Agreement.
After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election as president in August 2005, Iran removed the seals on its enrichment equipment and effectively rejected the Paris Agreement.
President Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had successfully enriched uranium in a televised address in 2006, where he announced the country had joined those with nuclear technology. Then U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had urged the UN Security Council to consider 'strong steps' to force Tehran to shelve its nuclear ambitions. Subsequently, the UN Security Council has passed seven resolutions on Iran insisting it ends its enrichment activities. These have included freezing the assets of people and organisations linked to its nuclear and missile programmes.
Three nuclear scientists working on the programme have been killed in the last two years and a computer virus also affected enrichment at the Natanz plant in 2010.
A secret campaign of surveillance, sabotage, cyberattacks and assassinations has slowed but not stopped Tehran's programme
Guardian November 3, 2011
The covert war on Iran's nuclear programme was launched in earnest by George Bush in 2007. It is a fair assumption that the western powers had been trying their best to spy on the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Iranian revolution, but the 2007 "presidential finding" put those efforts on a new footing.
Bush asked Congress to approve $400m for a programme of support for rebel ethnic groups, as well as intelligence gathering and sabotage of the nuclear programme.Part of that effort involved slipping defective parts such as centrifuge components into the black market supply to Iran, designed to blow apart while in operation and in so doing bring down all the centrifuges in the vicinity. The UK, Germany, France and Israel are said to have been involved in similar efforts. Meanwhile, western intelligence agencies stepped up their attempt to infiltrate the programme, seeking to recruit Iranian scientists when they travelled abroad.
That espionage effort appears to have paid dividends. In 2009, the US, British and French intelligence agencies were able to confirm that extensive excavations at Fordow, a Revolutionary Guard base near the Shia theological centre of Qom, were a secret uranium enrichment plant under construction. The digging had been seen by satellites, but only human sources could identify its purpose.
Barack Obama, Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy were able to reveal Fordow's existence at the UN general assembly in September 2009, a diplomatic setback to Iran.Russia, which had been Iran's principal protector on the world stage, was furious with Tehran at having been taken by surprise.
It is harder to gauge the impact of sabotage. Olli Heinonen, the former chief inspector of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said:
"I never saw any direct evidence of sabotage. We could see that they had breakages but it was hard to say if those were the result of their own technical problems or sabotage. I suspect a little of both."
Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's atomic energy organisation, complained to the press in 2006 about sabotage but vowed that Iran would overcome the challenge by making more of the centrifuges and other components itself.
But it was impossible to make everything at home. The computer systems which run the centrifuge operations in Natanz, supplied by the German engineering firm Siemens, were targeted last year by a computer worm called Stuxnet, reportedly created as a joint venture by US and Israeli intelligence. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad conceded that Stuxnet had caused damage, and last November, Iranian scientists were forced to suspend enrichment to rectify the problem. A few days later, however, the centrifuges were working once more.
The black operations have not been confined to hardware and computer systems. They have also targeted Iran's scientists. In July 2009, an Iranian nuclear expert called Shahram Amiri vanished while on a pilgrimage to Mecca. A year later, he surfaced in the US claiming he had been abducted by American agents, and in July 2010 he returned to a hero's welcome in Tehran.
US officials said he had been a willing defector who had been paid $5m for his help, but who had since had a mysterious change of heart. There have since been claims Amiri had been an Iranian double agent all along. The truth is unclear.
Other attempts to remove Iran's scientists have been blunter and bloodier.
Starting in January 2010, there were a series of attacks in Tehran on Iranian physicists with links to the nuclear programme. The first target was Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a physicist and lecturer at the Imam Hussein university, run by the Revolutionary Guards. He was on his way to work when a bomb fixed to a motorbike parked outside his house exploded and killed him instantly.
In November that year, assassins on motorbikes targeted two Iranian scientists simultaneously as they were stuck in morning traffic. In both cases, the killers drove up alongside their targets' cars and stuck bombs to the side. Majid Shahriari, a scientist at the atomic energy organisation, who had co-authored a paper on neutron diffusion in a nuclear reactor, was killed.
The other target, Fereidoun Abbasi-Davani, suspected by western officials of being a central figure in experiments on building a nuclear warhead, was only injured. Three months later he was promoted to the leadership of the nuclear programme.
A third scientist, Darioush Rezaeinejad, was killed in an attack in July this year, when gunmen on motorbikes shot him in a street in east Tehran. He was initially described in the Iranian media as a "nuclear scientist", but the government later denied he had any involvement in the programme.
Iran has blamed the attacks on the Israeli secret service, Mossad, and in August sentenced an Iranian, Majid Jamali-Fashi, to death for his alleged involvement in the Ali Mohammadi killing. He had confessed to being part of a hit-team trained in Israel, but it appeared likely he had made the confession under torture.
Despite the millions spent, stalled machines and deaths of leading scientists, Iran has steadily built up its stockpile of enriched uranium to 4.5 tonnes – enough for four nuclear bombs if it was further refined to weapons-grade purity. At most, the covert war has slowed the rate of progress, but it has not stopped it.
This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
