4 August, 2010 — Information Clearing House Obama Warned Israel May Bomb Iran By Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity We write to alert you to the likelihood that Israel will attack Iran as early as this month. This would likely lead to a wider war. www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26077.htm Israel-Lebanon Tensions Flare After Skirmish Leaves Four Dead By [...]
3 August, 2010 — Information Clearing House Pakistan No Obedient Ally By Eric Margolis WikiLeaks data shows how volatile nation is forced to act against own self interests. www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26070.htm The CIA & The ISI: More In Common Than We Think? By Nida Khan Drones Kill 12 Children Playing Outside’ – ‘A Family Buries 15′ – [...]
Israel is massing warplanes in the Caucasus for an attack on Iran, it was revealed yesterday. Preparations are underway to launch the military attack from Azerbaijan and Georgia, reports our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej, quoting military sources.
The thunderous events set in motion by Israel’s storming of the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship in the peace flotilla challenging the blockade of Gaza, have thrown important light on the overall situation in the Middle East. Turkey has emerged as the major protagonist among the forces that support the Palestinian cause. This is extremely ironic given that the country has been a loyal member of NATO for six decades and “Israel’s most important friend in the Muslim world” (New York Times, May 31, 2010) for as long as one can remember, markedly so in the post-Cold War period and even under the present government.
Three videos to savour. The first, highlights of the landmark speech of Erdogan following the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Massacre, with musical accompaniment. The last, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters sings We Shall Overcome for the people of Palestine. If you loved “The Wall”, this is its natural continuation. Waters was born to do this and we love him! Playing Piggy in the Middle, an absolutely hilarious “mindreading” of Mark Regev while he is being interviewed. New Subtitles device lets us know what he’s thinking while he talks.
The videos below show images of the passengers on the Turkish Gaza aid ship Mavi Marmara immediately after the Israeli attack, published for the first time by TV Net today.
As the true nature of the massacre on the Mavi Marmara becomes apparent now that witnesses can speak out, so too is the scale of the pre-planned propaganda blitz conducted by the Israelis, a blitz that was launched in tandem with the armed attack.
Activists say some people who were initially on the flotilla are missing. They are also telling stories of horror, carnage and pure barbarism at the hands of Israeli officials. In a shocking account, Humanitarian Aid Foundation (?HH) President Bülent Y?ld?r?m, who returned on Thursday, said a photographer, whose first name was Cevdet, was shot in the forehead by a soldier one meter away from him. ‘Our Cevdet [K?l?çlar], he is a press member. He has become a martyr. All he was doing was taking pictures. They smashed his skull into pieces.
Gaza returnees share horror stories from Israel – Activists who were on the flotilla bringing aid supplies to Gaza that was attacked on Monday continued to recount the horror of the attack and its aftermath on Thursday. Many of them speak of a wounded Turkish citizen being shot in the head by an Israeli soldier.
A word on the legal position, which is very plain. To attack a foreign flagged vessel in international waters is illegal. It is not piracy, as the Israeli vessels carried a military commission. It is rather an act of illegal warfare.
The Iranian government is “surprised” Russia signed on to a US proposal for a tighter embargo to punish the Islamic republic for its nuclear programme, Special Ambassador Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi told reporters in Moscow last week. Indeed, Iran’s sensational last-minute agreement to a proposal by Turkey and Brazil – virtually identical to one proposed seven months ago by the US and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – was intended to forestall just such an eventuality.
31 May, 2010
On April 20, roughly a month before the Joint Declaration between Iran, Turkey, and Brazil was announced in Tehran, President Obama conveyed, in writing, to President Lula that, to be acceptable to the United States, a deal to refuel the TRR would need to include Iran’s shipment of 1,200 kg of LEU to Turkey for “escrow” for one year, pending the delivery of new fuel. In the deal they brokered with Iran, Brazil and Turkey delivered on every one of those points. Obama’s letter says nothing about a U.S. requirement that Iran halt its enrichment program, or even stop enriching uranium at near-20 percent levels — which Obama Administration officials now claim are irredeemable flaws in the Brazil-Turkey deal.
The efforts of Brazil and Turkey to find a negotiated solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, which generated a negotiated agreement with Iran last week, must be seen in the context of a growing challenge to the international political order.
In his inaugural speech in January 2009, US president Barack Obama promised a new beginning in foreign policy towards Iran, saying “we will extend a hand if you are willing to un-clench your fist”. He didn’t actually mention Iran by name then, but everyone knew he was saying that the Bush administration’s confrontational approach to the Islamic Republic was being replaced by a more reasonable policy based on mutual dialogue. Well, we better return to examine everything else promised in that address – about “decent jobs and affordable healthcare” and “America being a friend to each nation and to every man, woman and child” – because the 44th president is now shown to be a liar.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hit out at the United States Thursday, challenging its muscular approach on Iran that sidelined diplomatic efforts he made this week to resolve the showdown.
If I were in Washington this morning, I would run down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to Congress with a big Brazilian flag, as the young Brazilians run down the Avenida Paulista in Sao Paulo during the ‘football’ match, shouting ‘Golllllll!’
Before reading the wonderful book by Belén Fernández “Coffee with Hezbollah”, I never would have imagined it possible to read about the post-destruction aftermath of Lebanon and smile at the same time. The pretext alone, a hitchhiking trip from Turkey to southern Lebanon simply “feels” dramatic, especially when the memory of Brides on Tour, was still fresh. Would two young, attractive, independent women meet a better fate than the raped and assassinated Pippa Bacca, travelling in the same way, with each new step being not only a test of their own wits and good fortune, but also a constant surrender to trust in a world wracked by its encounter with the ultimate violence?
InI RSS
This work is licensed under a CreativeCommons License.
English