Paper, rapped for outing Obama note, claims campaign pre-approved leak
What initially seemed to be a journalistic scoop of dubious moral propriety now seems to be a case of an Israeli paper being played by the Barack Obama campaign. Maariv, the second most popular newspaper in Israel, was roundly criticized for publishing the note Obama left in the Kotel. But now a Maariv spokesperson says that publication of the note was pre-approved for international publication by the Obama campaign, leading to the conclusion that the "private" prayer was intentionally leaked for public consumption.
At around 5am last Thursday, Obama arrived at the Kotel, or Western Wall, abutting the holiest site in Judaism, the Temple Mount. Accompanied by the Rabbi in charge of the site, Shmuel Rabinovich, he reportedly heard Psalm 122, which contains a prayer for the peace of Jerusalem, touched the wall briefly and then deposited a note of prayer into a crack between the ancient stones, in keeping with the tradition of visitors to the site. On his way out, he was briefly heckled, with one man calling out that "Jerusalem is not for sale" and "Remember what you see here." Trying to drown out the critics, a few supporters chanted his name.
Subsequently, it was reported that a yeshiva student filched the note that Obama placed in the wall and then Maariv published it in the next day's newspaper.
For that "scoop" the paper has come under fire. Yediot Aharonot, the country's most popular daily, published an article Friday saying it had also obtained the note but decided not to publish it, to respect Obama's privacy. Other Israeli media outlets initially ignored the story, or picked it up only after the initial publication had triggered a controversy.
"Lord - Protect my family and me," reads the note.
"Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will."
However, it now appears that Maariv had collaborated with the Obama campaign in getting the "private" prayer, with its "modest" supplicaton to the Lord, out to the public, buffing his Christian credentials and showing his "humility."
A Ma'ariv spokesman was quoted in the Jerusalem Post as saying that "Barack Obama's note was approved for publication in the international media even before he put in the Kotel, a short time after he wrote it at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem."]
The paper added that is was "pleased" with its "journalistic accomplishment."
[Update as to Maariv's statement as published in Haaretz on July 28]: "Obama's note was published in Maariv and other international publications following his authorization to make the content of the note public. Obama submitted a copy of the note to media outlets when he left his hotel in Jerusalem."]
If correct, It appears that Obama made Maariv and other media an instrument of his will. The media, of course, was a most willing tool.
The campaign might be less pleased with another pronouncement by Maariv: "In any case," the spokesman said, "since Obama is not a Jew, publishing the note does not constitute an infringement on his right to privacy." Apparently, to the paper, Gentile prayer doesn't count.
If the Maariv statement about pre-approval of publication of the note is true, it would mean that the Obama campaign had managed the event brilliantly, if deceptively, getting the double benefit of appearing to be victimized by the invasive Israeli press and prayer-thieving Jew while at the same time leaking out his humble Christian plea to the Lord.
Revelation of this latest Obama collaboration with the media might detract a bit from the perceived sincerity of the prayer and strike some as an especially cynical use of the Kotel and an obstensibly private prayer to the Deity as a campaign prop. Most politicians suffice with getting a photo-op. Obama may be the first to take a prayer-leak on the Wall.
#1
" Apparently, to the paper, Gentile prayer doesn't count."
Or simply that Gentile prayer AT THE WALL has no special status, unlike Jewish prayer. Cause JEWS were obliged to bring sacrifices to the Temple, and gentiles were not (gentiles were not even allowed entry) and the loss of the Temple is a Jewish loss, and the Wall is holy to JEWS as a fragment of the Temple.
That was a brief fling, even by European romantic standards. One day after his speech before an adulating Berlin crowd last week, Barack Obama said more NATO troops would allow the U.S. to cut its presence in Afghanistan. The "billions of dollars" saved, he told CNN on Friday, could "finance lower taxes for middle-class families."
Ah, not so fast. On Sunday the Secretary General of the opposition German Free Democrats, Dieter Niebel, responded to Mr. Obama by telling the Bild am Sonntag that "Under no circumstances will the German taxpayer pay with more money and more troops for Afghanistan for tax cuts in the U.S."
Erwin Huber, chairman of the center-right Christian Social Union of Bavaria, called Mr. Obama's statement "a disappointment for Europe and Germany." Mr. Huber, who belongs to the sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, also said that "it is the opposite of solidarity and partnership when one side is to make more sacrifices and the other gains an advantage from it."
Welcome to President Bush's world, Senator Obama. The myth is that Mr. Bush's "unilateralism" has so antagonized America's allies that they will rush to share more of the war burden once the Texan is back in Crawford. But Europeans have long enjoyed the free ride of U.S. military protection while enjoying even more their freedom to criticize how that protection is provided. Mr. Obama's attempt to link European security commitments to American tax cuts was the kind of "unilateral" political faux pas that won't make European defense burden-sharing any more likely.
#1
Mr. Huber, who belongs to the sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, also said that "it is the opposite of solidarity and partnership when one side is to make more sacrifices and the other gains an advantage from it."
apparently, irony is not an EU commodity
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/29/2008 9:51 Comments ||
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#2
"political faux pas "
Get used to it if the smiling empty-headed empty suit idiot Obama gets elected.
#3
Erwin Huber, chairman of the center-right Christian Social Union of Bavaria, called Mr. Obama's statement "a disappointment for Europe and Germany."
Hier es uberrascht wenig. Sort of the way we see it on this side as well Herr Erwin.
#4
Seems Steve Jobs is not the only one with a reality distortion field. The effects seem to linger for about 24 hours and then reality slips in (to some).
It has been nearly seven years since the September 11th attacks, but the U.S. Treasury Department continues to shield critical information from the public about the financial activities of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT). Treasury has evaded demands for improved disclosure of its investigations. The public has a right and a need to know the factual findings of these important investigations, such as the names of the terrorists and important details of their financial records. Such disclosures will allow the public, specifically financial institutions, to ensure that terrorists are unable to move money through the banking system. It will also allow victims of terrorism to obtain the necessary information to know who is responsible for their injuries and losses. Shielding these important facts from the public domain allows terrorists to exploit bureaucratic turf-battles to wage their deadly jihad. To date, Treasury has not publicly provided a sound reason for this secrecy. The time has come to change these policies.
#4
Most likely they are trying to keep their sources, means of detection and the amount of information they have secret.
This is more important than wiretaps...choking their revenue stream will bring them to heel sooner.....as witness the number of AQ defectors complaining about low pay, lack of pay, etc., etc.,
Posted by: James Carville ||
07/29/2008 10:46 Comments ||
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#6
Anomalies were found in increased short-sell contracts with brokers of tourist industry stocks - cruise companies, listed resorts, etc - prior to 9-11. Buyers sold same soon after the tragedy. While there was some initial disclosures, the story died. I endorse the offical position on 9-11, but I am concerned of areas of coverup. It is true that the Justice Dept submitted an Amicus brief in support of the position of the Saudi government - and private individuals in the Saud royal family - in the 9-11 lawsuit. Cui bono?
Posted by: Omuger Oppressor of the Veal Cutlets1477 ||
07/29/2008 19:05 Comments ||
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#7
"The public has a right and a need to know the factual findings of these important investigations,"
NO IT DOES NOT! THe public does not have a right to know intelligence data.
sometimes you leave a big source running in place, especially a good one, that is trusted by the enemy, and completely unaware that he is compromised.
Following the money is what treasury does. This is politicization of the process, and may cost the intelligence community valuable sources.
War On Terror: It's bad enough that Americans are bad-mouthing American troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. But an alarming number of Muslim-Americans are plotting to kill them.
It's a story you don't like to hear from the mainstream media: U.S. soldiers increasingly are the prime targets of terrorism, both at home and abroad. And those who want to do them harm include fellow citizens. Thanks to the anti-war crowd, the trend may only worsen. The ACLU recently pressured the Pentagon to shut down a domestic counterterror unit set up after 9/11 to protect troops and bases. And a new congressional report finds that the U.S. government has no "coordinated strategy" to deal with grass-roots jihadists who more and more are meeting, training and conspiring to kill troops over the Internet.
In the most recent case, a federal jury last week convicted three Toledo, Ohio, Muslims of plotting to attack U.S. military personnel in Iraq and elsewhere. Mohammed Amawi, Marwan El-Hindi and Wassim Mazloum were learning to shoot guns and make explosives while raising money to fund their plans to wage jihad against U.S. troops. Amawi and El-Hindi are U.S. citizens, and Mazloum immigrated to the U.S. legally from Lebanon. In addition, El-Hindi's two cousins from Chicago face trial next year for conspiring to kill American soldiers. The Toledo case is just the latest in a string of troop-killing plots by homegrown terrorists.
• Earlier this month, Muslim convert and al-Qaida trainee Christopher Paul, a U.S. citizen also from Ohio, pleaded guilty to planning to use bombs to blow up U.S. military bases overseas.
• In March, Hassan Abu-Jihad, a Muslim convert and former U.S. sailor, was convicted on federal charges of sending classified information on naval ship movements to an al-Qaida Web site, and arranging to obtain weapons to attack U.S. military installations.
• Last year, six Muslim men, including a naturalized U.S. citizen from Jordan, were charged with plotting to attack troops stationed at Fort Dix in New Jersey.
• In 2005, three black Muslim converts from Torrance, Calif., were jailed for planning to attack Army recruiting stations.
• In 2003, a group of Virginia jihadists, some of whom were born in the U.S., were busted for training to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
• Last week, a student in Tampa, Fla., pleaded guilty to terror charges after police found him and a co-defendant with pipe bombs near a South Carolina naval brig holding enemy combatants. His plea deal says he produced terror videos "to be used against those who fight for the United States."
Homegrown American jihadists are waging a battle against U.S. troops right here at home — not in Anbar province or Kandahar — but right here, in Torrance, Toledo and Tampa.
The Pentagon ought to make force protection a priority over the privacy concerns of the ACLU crowd, who by turning the military into the enemy has put the lives of troops at risk on American soil. It shouldn't apologize for monitoring Islamists who pose a threat to facilities.
Posted by: tu3031 ||
07/29/2008 09:35 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
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#1
This certainly bolsters the case for those who beleive that Islam is a mental disorder, not a religion.
#4
Not to mention the recent statement that the FBI, Homeland Security and local and state police are keeping watch on 20,000 active jihadis at this time.
#5
One additional please, don't forget the FBI and intelligence analyst Ms. Linda Franklin and a host of others back in Oct of 2002:
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- John Allen Muhammad, one of two men accused in the sniper-shooting deaths of 10 people in the Washington, D.C., area in 2002, was sentenced to death by a Virginia judge today for murdering a man at a gas station.
A jury in Virginia Beach, Virginia, convicted Muhammad of capital murder, terrorism, conspiracy and firearms violations in November for the death of Dean Harold Meyers, 53, who was gunned down in Manassas, Virginia, in October 2002. Meyers was the seventh sniper victim.
The same jury a week later recommended a sentence of death for the crime. Prince William County Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. today accepted the jury's recommendation and formally imposed the death penalty, county sheriff's Captain Brenda Perkins said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News.
Muhammad's execution is scheduled for Oct. 14, pending appeals, Cable News Network said. Muhammad, 42, a U.S. Army veteran, and Lee Boyd Malvo, 18, a native of Jamaica, are accused of 13 shootings in Washington, Maryland and Virginia during a three-week period in October 2002.
A jury in Chesapeake, Virginia, in December convicted Malvo of murdering a woman outside a suburban shopping center and recommended a sentence of life in prison. Both sniper trials had been moved from the Washington area because of publicity about the case.
This is the third in the series of articles by Madeleine Gruen and Frank Hyland on the threat of terrorism in the United States. This article will provide Counterterrorism Blog readers with an in-depth analysis of one of the groups in the United States whose expressed ideology is in accord with Al Qaeda's - As Sabiqun.
Thanks to the diligent efforts of the US counter-terrorism community, most of what we hear about homegrown terrorism comes from news reports of failed plots. We read relatively little, though, about how the actors in these plots became radicalized. The primary precipitant in any terrorism case is exposure to radical ideology. In large part, the ideology will determine the target of an attack and the level of motivation to carry the plan through.
See also GLOBAL POLITICIAN > DO ARAB STATES ALREADY HAVE THE BOMB? SAUDI ARABIA as PDeniable cover and covert $$$ funding source for Paki NucWeapsDev + Testing.
There is a scene in the famous film about drug addiction, Requiem for a Dream, where the addict pushes his mother into the closet, then unlocks her TV which she had padlocked to the wall, and rolls it across many city blocks to a pawn shop. There, he sells it for 20 dollars and goes off to get high with his friend.
Then he passes out.
This scene came to mind recently when I was waiting for a flight at a US airport and watching a story about Pakistan on CNN. The story focused on how Pakistan's military command is trying to convince some extremely sceptical and recalcitrant members of the United States Congress to fork over a few F-16s that, the military says, are virtually essential to resisting the Taliban threat in Pakistan.
Here we have yet another case of an addict trying to fulfil its decadent addiction - in this case weapons - through any sort of manipulation and extortion it can think up. In fact, the truth is that the military's claims that F-16s are essential the war on terror is an outright lie. First of all, Pakistan's military doesn't very much directly engage with Taliban warlords. When military action does take place, it is usually the poor kids from the paramilitary (which means: not fully military) Frontier Corps that do the dying. F-16s don't enter the picture.
Second, Pakistan doesn't fight the Taliban militants the way the US in Afghanistan does. The Americans like to surround the militants with armoured vehicles, then hit them with airstrikes, then follow this up with a ground assault and helicopter gunships. Pakistan usually foregoes the use of airstrikes and gunships. F-16s don't enter the picture.
Third, dropping bombs from up high on the Taliban would be a self-defeating exercise because it would further increase the impression that Pakistan's war on warlords is a job outsourced from Washington DC, when in fact it must be something the Pakistanis want. F-16s shouldn't enter the picture.
In other words, F-16s have nothing to do with the most pressing national security issue afflicting the Pakistani nation, yet here I am, thousands of miles from Pakistan, listening to the pre-eminent news station in the world, and the lead story about Pakistan isn't the oil-food-currency crisis in the country or the economic development in NWFP or the issue of Pashtun nationalism, it is a squadron of airplanes.
What for?
According to Pakistani military expert, Shuja Nawaz, and various other international groups,
Pakistan has a larger standing army than the United States of America. Pakistan spends nearly as much more on its military than on its education as does the United States of America. Pakistan has more high ranking military officials, including at least two hundred more generals, than the United States of America.
Pakistan has a larger standing army than the United States of America. Pakistan spends nearly as much more on its military than on its education as does the United States of America. Pakistan has more high ranking military officials, including at least two hundred more generals, than the United States of America. Pakistan sends more officers and troops to the UN Peacekeeping mission than 99 per cent of the rest of the world. Yet listening to this news story one gets the impression that such a heavily militarized country cannot defeat a few Taliban warlords unless and until it gets those ten or twelve F-16s.
Something is very wrong with such a picture. All signs point to addiction; one in which the military has successfully co-opted Pakistan's civilian structure as well.
No doubt Prime Minister Gilani, on his way to Washington DC now, is coming to politely shout at the US congresswoman holding up the deal for the F-16s. To accomplish this, he will endeavour to make American policy experts believe that the fate of the entire future of the world rests on the procurement of these aged aircrafts. As he does this, the US media will pick up on the story and tell everyone that Pakistan is run by such a bunch of inept loons that what separates a functioning republic from a nuclear caliphate is merely one squadron of aged planes. The worldwide community will then proceed to simultaneously bite their nails and laugh at Pakistan, all of which will make Pakistanis even more ashamed of their nation than they already are. This is the sort of self-hatred that addiction arouses.
People like to say that Pakistan's addiction - to weaponry and military hardware and brass medals and tin skinned rulers - is due to its confrontation with India, with which the nation is waging a purported cold war, for which it needs to match its counterpart blow for blow, as did the US and the USSR.
Yet, illusion is all this is.
A cold war implies a bit of parity. Between India and Pakistan nothing like this exists. Economically, financially, monetarily, militarily and most importantly, in terms of self-worth, India outstrips Pakistan by a significant margin. If there was a cold war once, its long been won by the Indians.
A cold war implies a bit of parity. Between India and Pakistan nothing like this exists. Economically, financially, monetarily, militarily and most importantly, in terms of self-worth, India outstrips Pakistan by a significant margin. If there was a cold war once, its long been won by the Indians. Pakistan is the USSR in the 1980's. Getting a few F-16s will do nothing to restore the balance of power. All you have today are military commanders, relics from an earlier time, trying to feed their addiction (and their friends' defence contracts) by simultaneously begging and screaming to the US Congress.
Then, when these tricks don't work, all of a sudden there is an upsurge of attacks by the Taliban warlords, and Peshawar looks like its going to fall. This frightens the US and it goes rushing into the closet and hands to the Pakistani leaders the keys to its padlocked possessions.
At this point, Pakistani leaders get high.
Then they pass out.
(Usually in Europe or Dubai).
How long can this addiction go on? NWFP is being sacrificed to it as we speak. That leaves only three provinces after that.
The writer is a political commentator.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/29/2008 07:38 ||
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[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Yep. And until there's a reliable alternative logistics route into Afghanistan, or Afghanistan becomes a moot item, Pakistan will remain a necessary evil.
#2
Forget what you hear and read about some need to beg starving Afghan farmers to end Opium production. These farms are run by wealthy industrialists who live in large guarded estates, close to the fields. Not one farmer, inside of Helmand District, has EVER been targeted by Taliban. Why? Taliban gets a huge share of drug profits.
F16s are worthless in defoliation, which is badly needed. While little Afghan heroin makes it into the US, bumper crops are driving down the global price. That means those who might resist heroin use would be more likely to use it.
Posted by: Omuger Oppressor of the Veal Cutlets1477 ||
07/29/2008 19:13 Comments ||
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The Iraqi government reported that during 2006, a total of 16,273 soldiers, police officers, and civilians were murdered in that country. In 2007, a total of 16,425 murders took place in the United States. While the deaths of U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq as well as the murder of innocent civilians in that country receive unprecedented media attention, our own press all but ignores the violence now becoming just a fact of life in our own country.
I sympathize with the author's point of view, but we've also got ten times the population of Iraq. That makes Iraq's death rate ten times ours.
While the majority of Iraqi homicides were the result of that nation's many Muslim factions fighting one another for political control, a large number of U.S. murders can be attributed to drugs and gang violence. Considering that sad comparison, Americans could easily face a more bleak future than will the Iraqis.
While the news media is very quick to announce the deaths of U.S. troops serving in Iraq, they simply ignore the rising violence in this country. We have lost 4,114 soldiers since the start of the Iraq War in March of 2003. During that same time period, more than 89,000 Americans have fallen victim to murder inside the borders of their own country (Figures for the first half of 2008 are based on the number of murders occurring in major cities and past FBI statistics).
While we are constantly reminded of the number of the death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq, it pales in comparison to the annual number of U.S. murders. The loss of every soldier is certainly a tragedy and represents a life-changing loss to that soldier's family. However, those 4,114 families can take some comfort in the fact that their loved-one died in the service of his country and was in control of his own destiny. In contrast, tens of thousands of American families can find no comfort because their loved-one died a senseless death at the hands of a murderer...For them there will be no taps, no folded flag, no heroic sacrifice, only a violent and untimely death.
Since the start of the Iraq War, U.S. news casts have been filled with images of a violent Iraq. However, the press has failed to report that many of our own cities have become lawless war zones. Consider the following number of murders in major U.S. cities which occurred in 2007 alone:
-Philadelphia...394
-Chicago...442
-New York...494
-Baltimore...282
-New Orleans...209
On April 27, 2007, New Orleans recorded its 62nd murder of the year. At that time, the city's population was 223,000. On that same day, Iraq had recorded 6,523 murders for the year in a country with a population of 29,267,000. Analysis of those figures gives New Orleans a murder rate of 1 in every 3,597 people, while the murder rate for Iraq is much lower with 1 in every 4,486 people...So where is the non-stop media attention and protests for those being slaughtered in New Orleans?
We have heard President Bush as well as administration officials often justify our involvement in Iraq by telling us that our troops are saving Iraqi citizens from Saddam's infamous 'rape rooms.' Though Bush may have made saving Iraqi women from rape a priority, he has never even commented on the large number of American women raped in this country annually. In 2005 alone, 92,837 rapes were reported in the U.S. Considering that rape is an incredibly under-reported crime, is much higher ( Most experts believe that only about 1 in 10 rapes are reported, the actual number occurring in this country is believed to be closer to 920,000).
The press and our politicians do not like to talk about sobering U.S. crime statistics for a number of reasons. The mainstream press does not like to delve too deeply into the subject due to the fact that minorities commit a disproportionate amount of crime. Politicians tend to shy away from the subject for that same reason, but also because high crime rates make elected officials appear useless and ineffectual. In the case of President Bush, his refusal to defend the U.S.-Mexican border has left many Americans victims of violent crimes at the hands of illegal aliens. In fact, illegal aliens now account for 29 percent of this nation's prison population.
The reasons why someone turns to a life of crime are numerous, but a child without two parents who lives at or below the poverty level, is much more likely to go to prison than to college. With out-of-wedlock births sky-rocketing, a worsening economy, and illegal aliens (and drug gangs) continuing to stream across the border, we can expect the violence in our beleaguered cities to continue to unabated.
Whether you are killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq or a drug dealer in the United States, dead is dead.
#1
Like nude dancing and flag burning, homicide is a form of "protected speech" in American inner cities - as long as the perps and vics are from the "proper" aggreived social groups, peeps just looking for "respect." That's the liberal outlook, anyway...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/29/2008 11:29 Comments ||
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#2
The raw numbers may be about the same, but Iraq is about 1/10th the pop. of the U.S.
So that makes it about 10X more dangerous.
#3
"...The mainstream press does not like to delve too deeply into the subject due to the fact that minorities commit a disproportionate amount of crime."
in addition minorities are disproportionately the victims of violent crime
also, a pretty substantial percentage of murder victims are themselves convicted felons.
#4
I think the article hits it's mark. I'll take it a step further. Of those US cities listed, how many of them have gun control? hmmmmmm
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
07/29/2008 12:40 Comments ||
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#5
Big Jim: What percentage of the US murders are insurgents killing for political reasons? What percentage of Iraqi deaths are gang-bangers fighting for drug turf?
#6
10X more dangerous overall, but not the case for certain cities - Analysis of those figures gives New Orleans a murder rate of 1 in every 3,597 people, while the murder rate for Iraq is much lower with 1 in every 4,486 people.
Figures don't lie.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/29/2008 12:52 Comments ||
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#7
also, a pretty substantial percentage of murder victims are themselves convicted felons.
That I did not know, mhw. It does rather change things, doesn't it?
Figures don't lie.
Lies, damned lies, and statistics, Bobby dear. But I s'pose that technically it isn't the figures themselves that are doing the misleading.
#8
Wow, New Orleans has a murder rate thats higher than Iraq overall. That includes the kurdish areas and other sections of Iraq that are safer.
How about compare the most dangerous cities in Iraq to the most dangerous in the US? Or just compare national rates as Big Jim has done.
You dont NEED to say that Iraq is no more dangerous than the US to make the case that the surge was right and this is not a quagmire. Saying silly things just sets one up for attacks from the left, and distracts from real accomplishments. Why set up a straw man?
#10
Bill Roggio has written an an article on just this subject. The readers comments go into more detail.
Iraq before the invasion had a per capita murder rate of 1 per million per day (about the same as LA and NYC during the crack wars). This was before the insurgency, and was just the "background noise" of crime in Iraqi society.
In the last several months, Iraq has had a murder rate less than before OIF. This means, not only are AQI and JAM smashed, but progress is being made against the many criminal gangs in Iraqi society.
Baghdad currently has a murder rate similar to Atlanta, which makes it more violent than some American cities like Detroit and Baltimore.
The most dangerous place in Iraq right now is Diyala, which is approximately 4 times as dangerous as Baghdad. Once Diyala is cleaned up, Iraq will be the safest it's been for a very long time.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/29/2008 15:43 Comments ||
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#11
So a more accurate statement might be in order. It looks like most of the murders in the U.S. take place in just a few cities. They may actually be as dangerous, maybe more, than Iraq. 98% of the geographical area of the U.S. is pretty damned safe. It's those, urban jungles if you will, that are the problem.
Back in June we observed several international events at the time that triggered some concern within the authors of this blog, essentially we observed a political time line unfolding that appears to be moving the United States towards a confrontation with Iran. At that time we picked June 23rd as the beginning of what we call a twelve week countdown, that was exactly 5 weeks ago today. Our twelve week metric is a diplomatic phase for the US and Iran to solve the nuclear issue, specifically we see it as the last major diplomatic push of Bush administration with Iran. Five weeks later we are growing more confident that our twelve week window was on target.
But that is also the point, there will be a lot of movement in the region. The period, which we are estimating to occur around September 15th, give or take a couple weeks, is essentially the last window for Israel to take military action during the Bush administration when excess US military forces will be in the region to adapt to any emerging challenge with Iran.
As we have noted in the past, in the Middle East this year Ramadan begins on Sunday, August 31st at sundown and will continue for 30 days until Monday, September 29th at sundown. It is worth noting there is a new moon on August 30th and September 29th. The Olympic Games end August 24th. If military action is going to happen, expect any pink lines established after that date to be a red line.
We believe there are seven weeks left for a diplomatic solution for the Iranian nuclear issue during the Bush administration, and after that point anything could happen.
#1
FREEREPUBLIC Poster > believes NEW YORK JIHAD greeting cards evidencias supports his premise that a major 2010 Terror attack, likely Nukular?, may be in the works agz NYC at that time???
Say what you want about the CVs of many of our leaders... few, if any, are saints. Say what you want about the sincerity of Lebanese politicians... sincerity is not a prerequisite for office.
Say what you want about foreign patrons... we all have them. Say what you want about sectarian interests often coming before national priorities... it's true. Say what you want about corruption in all its guises... it's there. But all these shortcomings in Lebanese politics are present across the board and, in a peculiarly Lebanese way, cancel each other out. Most importantly, they are nothing compared to the festering boil that is Hezbollah and its Iranian-financed weapons.
The latest impediment prolonging Lebanon's political constipation is the wording of the role of the Resistance in the upcoming ministerial statement. Hezbollah wants the same status it got in the 2005 statement, apparently without any consideration given to the moqawama's responsibility in initiating the catastrophic 2006 war, the threat of violence and then the use of its weapons to hijack the state and kill Lebanese civilians in May of this year, as well as its knack at being able to incorporate anything it deems necessary - including illegal phone lines - under the umbrella of the Resistance. There is also the small matter of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, by which the Lebanese government is bound and which calls for the disarmament of all armed groups.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2008 00:00 ||
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[8 views]
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#1
Smart move not putting your name on this. The "Resistance" might decide Lebanon don't need you...
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
While the news media is very quick to announce the deaths of U.S. troops serving in Iraq, they simply ignore the rising violence in this country. We have lost 4,114 soldiers since the start of the Iraq War in March of 2003. During that same time period, more than 89,000 Americans have fallen victim to murder inside the borders of their own country (Figures for the first half of 2008 are based on the number of murders occurring in major cities and past FBI statistics).
Say what you want about the CVs of many of our leaders... few, if any, are saints. Say what you want about the sincerity of Lebanese politicians... sincerity is not a prerequisite for office. 
