Émission de radio L'Autre Monde

Émission de radio L'Autre Monde

jeudi 3 juin 2010

LM: La colère: Où est passé le bon sens, les lois et le jugement moral? (Corée du Nord, Israël et la barbarie, les armes nucléaires et le G8/G20)

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L'Autre Monde 3 juin 2010: La colère: Où est passé le bon sens, les lois et le jugement moral? (Corée du Nord, Israël et la barbarie, les armes nucléaires et le G8/G20)


Pour écouter, ou pour télécharger, simplement cliquer sur le lien ici:

L'Autre Monde 3 juin 2010

120 min / Radio de l'UQAM, CHOQ FM



Diffusion en direct : Jeudi à 11:00h
Animation : François Marginean
Archives d'émission



Au programme cette semaine, 3 juin 2010:

Émission spéciale de 2h: Actualité; pétrole, Corée du nord et armes nucléaires, Israël et les actes barbares hors-la-loi, l'humanité perd le nord, la folie du G8/G20. Le monde ne va pas bien...

Soyez de la partie les jeudis dès 11h sur les ondes de CHOQ FM, la radio officielle de l'UQÀM, l'alternative à Montréal et dans le monde!


***Hyperliens vers les sources des informations discutées sur l'émission d'aujourd'hui:

Actualité:


VOIR LES NOUVELLES INTERNATIONALES : Alan Hart et 9/11


Study: Many Sunscreens May Be Accelerating Cancer

Almost half of the 500 most popular sunscreen products may actually increase the speed at which malignant cells develop and spread skin cancer because they contain vitamin A or its derivatives, according to an evaluation of those products released today.


Le cirque du G8/G20 sera en ville, avec toute la cavalerie

François Marginean [Article mis à jour le 28 mai 2010] On est reconnu pour ce à quoi on est bon. Les Japonais sont reconnus pour leurs sushis, leurs robots et leurs sumos parce qu’ils sont bons dans ces domaines. Les Français font de grands vins et sont reconnus pour cela, ainsi que pour leur cuisine. [...]


Toronto police prepare for G20 urban warfare


Alex Jones: Canadian conspiracy

The next time you struggle to comprehend how someone could spend their time trolling the internet in order to defend and downplay whatever government cover-up or abuse is in the news this week, consider the fact that they may be on a government payroll. The Canadian government has been caught paying a media group to monitor online political discussion and respond to misinformation, in order words to spread state-sanctioned propaganda, in the latest scandal to hit the Harper administration.


Toronto police get 'sound cannons' for G20 - Long-range acoustic devices can be used for crowd control

Riotous protesters marching at the G20 summit next month may be greeted with ear-splitting “sound cannons,” the latest Toronto police tool for quelling unruly crowds.

MANIFESTATION à OTTAWA
Le criminel de guerre NETANYAHU
à Ottawa le 31.05.2010.
Les autobus partiront devant le Hall Building of Concordia University
(Coin Maisonneuve O et Mackay) à 13:00 pour la démonstration à 17:00.
Bienvenue à tous. Réservez


Nuremberg: It’s Lessons For Today! The Film The Pentagon Doesn’t Want You To See!


Blurred Out: 51 Things You Aren't Allowed to See on Google Maps

Depending on which feature you use, Google Maps offers a satellite view or a street-level view of tons of locations around the world. You can look up landmarks like the Pyramids of Egypt or the Great Wall of China, as well as more personal places, like your ex’s house. But for all of the places that Google Maps allows you to see, there are plenty of places that are off-limits. Whether it’s due to government restrictions, personal-privacy lawsuits or mistakes, Google Maps has slapped a "Prohibited" sign on the following 51 places.


Former CIA Officials Admit To Faking Bin Laden Video

Two former CIA officials have admitted to creating a fake video in which intelligence officers dressed up as Osama Bin Laden and his cronies in an effort to defame the terrorist leader throughout the middle east.

The details are outlined in a Washington Post article by investigative reporter and former Army Intelligence case officer Jeff Stein.

The details are outlined in a Washington Post article by investigative reporter and former Army Intelligence case officer Jeff Stein.

Stein’s sources told him that during planning for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the CIA’s Iraq Operations Group considered creating a fake video of Saddam Hussein engaged in sexual acts with a teenage boy, then flooding Iraq with copies of the tape.

That idea, along with faking Iraqi news bulletins, never came to fruition according to the former CIA officials, because agreement on the projects could not be reached between the Iraq Group and CIA’s Office of Technical Services.

However, the two sources reveal that the agency did previously concoct at least one fake Bin Laden video:

The agency actually did make a video purporting to show Osama bin Laden and his cronies sitting around a campfire swigging bottles of liquor and savoring their conquests with boys, one of the former CIA officers recalled, chuckling at the memory. The actors were drawn from “some of us darker-skinned employees,” he said.

The former officials told Stein that the project was taken over by the military after it ground to a halt:

The reality, the former officials said, was that the agency really didn’t have enough money and expertise to carry out the projects.

“The military took them over,” said one. “They had assets in psy-war down at Ft. Bragg,” at the army’s special warfare center.

This latest revelation bolsters evidence that the intelligence agencies, and perhaps more significantly, the military have been engaged in creating fake Bin Laden videos in the past.


Crazy: Some in CIA wanted to create fake Saddam Hussein sex video, report asserts

Stein notes, however, that the CIA did make a video in which a fake Osama Bin Laden enjoys a campfire and the company of his associates while bragging about their juvenile paramours.

The agency actually did make a video purporting to show Osama bin Laden and his cronies sitting around a campfire swigging bottles of liquor and savoring their conquests with boys, one of the former CIA officers recalled, chuckling at the memory. The actors were drawn from “some of us darker-skinned employees,” he said.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I hate to say I told you so .... no, actually I rather like it. But I did tell you so! Neener, neener, neener!!!! :)

Which brings us back to Osama bin Laden:
A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government


Japan party quits coalition over US base

Japan's Social Democratic Party, SDP, has decided to leave the ruling coalition government amid a row over the controversial presence of the US military in the country.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Obama's bullying (and using that false flag attack n the South Korean warship) to force Japan's PM to allow the US base to stay on Okinawa might bring down the entire Japanese Government.

In diplomatic circles this is known as a "whoopsie!"



Pétrole:


The more oil spills change, the more they stay the same.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Deja' vu!!! June 13th 1979


Ten Things You Need (But Don't Want) To Know About the BP Oil Spill

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19408

The Deepwater Horizon disaster reminds us what can happen -- and will continue to happen -- when corporate malfeasance and neglect meet governmental regulatory failure.

The corporate media is tracking the disaster with front-page articles and nightly news headlines every day (if it bleeds, or spills, it leads!), but the under-reported aspects to this nightmarish tale paint the most chilling picture of the actors and actions behind the catastrophe. In no particular order, here are 10 things about the BP spill you may not know and may not want to know -- but you should.

Ten Things You Need (But Don't Want) To Know About the BP Oil Spill

by Daniela Perdomo

Global Research, May 29, 2010

AlterNet - 2010-05-27

How the owner of the exploded oil rig has made $270 million off the disaster, and nine other shocking, depressing facts about the oil spill.

It's been 37 days since BP's offshore oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, crude oil has been hemorrhaging into ocean waters and wreaking unknown havoc on our ecosystem -- unknown because there is no accurate estimate of how many barrels of oil are contaminating the Gulf.

Though BP officially admits to only a few thousand barrels spilled each day, expert estimates peg the damage at
60,000 barrels or over 2.5 million gallons daily. (Perhaps we'd know more if BP hadn't barred independent engineers from inspecting the breach.) Measures to quell the gusher have proved lackluster at best, and unlike the country's last big oil spill -- Exxon-Valdez in 1989 -- the oil is coming from the ground, not a tanker, so we have no idea how much more oil could continue to pollute the Gulf's waters.

The Deepwater Horizon disaster reminds us what can happen -- and will continue to happen -- when corporate malfeasance and neglect meet governmental regulatory failure.

The corporate media is tracking the disaster with front-page articles and nightly news headlines every day (if it bleeds, or spills, it leads!), but the under-reported aspects to this nightmarish tale paint the most chilling picture of the actors and actions behind the catastrophe. In no particular order, here are 10 things about the BP spill you may not know and may not want to know -- but you should.

1. Oil rig owner has made $270 million off the oil leak

Transocean Ltd., the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig leased by BP, has been flying under the radar in the mainstream blame game. The world's largest offshore drilling contractor, the company is conveniently headquartered in corporate-friendly Switzerland, and it's no stranger to oil disasters. In 1979, an oil well it was drilling in the very same Gulf of Mexico ignited, sending the drill platform into the sea and causing one of the largest oil spills by the time it was capped... nine months later.

This experience undoubtedly influenced Transocean's decision to insure theDeepwater Horizon rig for about twice what it was worth. In a conference call to analysts earlier this month, Transocean reported making a $270 million profit from insurance payouts after the disaster. It's not hard to bet on failure when you know it's somewhat assured.

2. BP has a terrible safety record

BP has a long record of oil-related disasters in the United States. In 2005, BP's Texas City refinery
exploded, killing 15 workers and injuring another 170. The next year, one of its Alaska pipelines leaked 200,000 gallons of crude oil. According to Public Citizen, BP has paid $550 million in fines. BP seems to particularly enjoy violating the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and has paid the two largest fines in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's history. (Is it any surprise that BP played a central, though greatly under-reported, role in the failure to contain the Exxon-Valdez spill years earlier?)

With Deepwater Horizon, BP didn't break its dismal trend. In addition to choosing a
cheaper -- and less safe -- casing to outfit the well that eventually burst, the company chose not to equip Deepwater Horizon with an acoustic trigger, a last-resort option that could have shut down the well even if it was damaged badly, and which is required in most developed countries that allow offshore drilling. In fact, BP employs these devices in its rigs located near England, but because the United States recommends rather than requires them, BP had no incentive to buy one -- even though they only cost $500,000.

SeizeBP.org estimates that BP makes $500,000 in under eight minutes.

3. Oil spills are just a cost of doing business for BP

According to the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, approximately
$1.6 billion in annual economic activity and services are at risk as a result of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Compare this number -- which doesn't include the immeasurable environmental damages -- to the current cap on BP's liability for economic damages like lost wages and tourist dollars, which is $75 million. And compare that further to the first-quarter profits BP posted just one week after the explosion: $6 billion.

BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, has solemnly promised that the company will cover more than the required $75 million. On May 10, BP announced it had already spent $350 million. How fantastically generous of a company valued at $152.6 billion, and which makes $93 million each day.

The reality of the matter is that BP will not be deterred by the liability cap and pity payments doled out to a handful of victims of this disaster because they pale in comparison to its ghastly profits. Indeed, oil spills are just a
cost of doing business for BP.

This is especially evident in a recent Citigroup analyst report prepared for BP investors: "Reaction to the Gulf of Mexico oil leak is a buying opportunity."

4. The Interior Department was at best, neglectful, and at worst, complicit

It's no surprise BP is always looking out for its bottom line -- but it's at least slightly more surprising that the Interior Department, the executive department charged with regulating the oil industry, has done such a shoddy job of preventing this from happening.

Ten years ago, there were
already warnings that the backup systems on oil rigs that failed on Deepwater Horizon would be a problem. The Interior Department issued a "safety alert" but then left it up to oil companies to decide what kind of backup system to use. And in 2007, a government regulator from the same department downplayed the chances and impact of a spill like the one that occurred last month: "[B]lowouts are rare events and of short duration, potential impact to marine water quality are not expected to be significant."

The Interior Department's Louisiana branch may have been particularly confused because it appears it was closely fraternizing with the oil industry. The Minerals Management Service, the agency within the department that oversees offshore drilling, routinely accepted gifts from oil companies and even considered itself a part of the oil industry, rather than part of a governmental regulatory agency. Flying on oil executives' private planes was not rare for MMS inspectors in Louisiana, a
federal report released Tuesday says. "Skeet-shooting contests, hunting and fishing trips, golf tournaments, crawfish boils, and Christmas parties" were also common.

Is it any wonder that Deepwater Horizon was given a regulatory exclusion by MMS?

It gets worse. Since April 20, when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, the Interior Department has
approved 27 new permits for offshore drilling sites. Here's the kicker: Two of these permits are for BP.

But it gets better still: 26 of the 27 new drilling sites have been granted regulatory exemptions, including those issued to BP.

5. Clean-up prospects are dismal

The media makes a lot of noise about all the different methods BP is using to clean up the oil spill. Massive steel containment domes were popular a few weeks ago. Now everyone is touting the "top kill" method, which involves injecting heavy drilling fluids into the damaged well.

But here's the reality. Even if BP eventually finds a method that works,
experts say the best cleanup scenario is to recover 20 percent of the spilled oil. And let's be realistic: only 8 percent of the crude oil deposited in the ocean and coastlines off Alaska was recovered in the Exxon-Valdez cleanup.

Millions of gallons of oil will remain in the ocean, ravaging the underwater ecosystem, and 100 miles of Louisiana coastline will never be the same.

6. BP has no real cleanup plan

Perhaps because it knows the possibility of remedying the situation is practically impossible, BP has made publicly available its
laughable "Oil Spill Response Plan" which is, in fact, no plan at all.

Most emblematic of this farcical plan, BP mentions protecting Arctic wildlife like sea lions, otters and walruses (perhaps executives simply lifted the language from Exxon's plan for its oil spill off the coast of Alaska?). The plan does not include any disease-preventing measures, oceanic or meteorological data, and is comprised mostly of phone numbers and blank forms. Most importantly, it includes no directions for how to deal with a deep-water explosion such as the one that took place last month.

The whole thing totals 600 pages -- a waste of paper that only adds insult to the environmental injury BP is inflicting upon the world with Deepwater Horizon.

7. Both Transocean and BP are trying to take away survivors' right to sue

With each hour, the economic damage caused by Deepwater Horizon continues to grow. And BP knows this.

So while it outwardly is putting on a nice face, even
pledging $500 million to assess the impacts of the spill, it has all the while been trying to ensure that it won't be held liable for those same impacts.

Just after the Deepwater explosion, surviving employees were held in
solitary confinement, while Transocean flacks made them waive their rights to sue. BP then did the same with fishermen it contracted to help clean up the spill though the company now says that was nothing more than a legal mix-up.

If there's anything to learn from this disaster, it's that companies like BP don't make mistakes at the expense of others. They are exceedingly deliberate.

8. BP bets on risk to employees to save money -- and doesn't care if they get sick

When BP unleashed its "Beyond Petroleum" re-branding/greenwashing campaign, the snazzy ads featured smiley oil rig workers. But the truth of the matter is that BP consistently and knowingly puts its employees at risk.

An internal BP document shows that just before the prior fatal disaster -- the 2005 Texas City explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 170 -- when BP had to choose between cost-savings and greater safety, it went with its bottom line.

A
BP Risk Management memo showed that although steel trailers would be safer in the case of an explosion, the company went with less expensive options that offered protection but were not "blast resistant." In the Texas City blast, all of the fatalities and most of the injuries occurred in or around these trailers.

Although BP has responded to this memo by saying the company culture has changed since Texas City, 11 people died on the Deepwater Horizon when it blew up. Perhaps a similar memo went out regarding safety and cost-cutting measures?

Reports this week stated that fishermen hired by BP for oil cleanup weren't provided protective equipment and have now fallen ill. Hopefully they didn't sign waivers.

9. Environmental damage could even include a climatological catastrophe

It's hard to know where to start discussing the environmental damage caused byDeepwater Horizon. Each day will give us a clearer picture of the short-term ecological destruction, but environmental experts believe the damage to the Gulf of Mexico will be long-term.

In the short-term, environmentalists are
up in arms about the dispersants being used to clean up the oil slick in the Gulf. Apparently, the types BP is using aren't all that effective in dispersing oil, and are pretty high in toxicity to marine fauna such as fish and shrimp. The fear is that what BP may be using to clean up the mess could, in the long-term, make it worse.

On the longer-term side of things,
there are signs that this largest oil drilling catastrophe could also become the worst natural gas and climate disaster. The explosion has released tremendous amounts of methane from deep in the ocean, and research shows that methane, when mixed with air, is the most powerful (read: terrible) greenhouse gas -- 26 times worse than carbon-dioxide.

Our warming planet just got a lot hotter.

10. No one knows what to do and it will happen again

The very worst part about the Deepwater Horizon calamity is that nobody knows what to do. We don't know how bad it really is because we can't measure what's going on. We don't know how to stop it -- and once we do, we won't know how to clean it up.

BP is at the helm of the recovery process, but given its corporate track record, its efforts will only go so far -- it has a board of directors and shareholders to answer to, after all. The U.S. government, the only other entity that could take over is currently content to let BP hack away at the problem. Why? Because it probably has no idea what to do either.

Here's the reality of the matter -- for as long as offshore drilling is legal, oil spills will happen. Coastlines will be decimated, oceans destroyed, economies ruined, lives lost. Oil companies have little to no incentive to prevent such disasters from happening, and they use their money to buy government regulators' integrity.

Deepwater Horizon is not an anomaly -- it's the norm.


Daniela Perdomo is a staff writer and editor at AlterNet. Follow Daniela on Twitter. Write her at danielaalternet [at] gmail [dot] com.


Global Research Articles by Daniela Perdomo



© Copyright Daniela Perdomo, AlterNet, 2010

The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19408


Gulf of Mexico oil spill called worst in U.S. history

The Gulf of Mexico undersea gusher has already spilled more oil than the Exxon Valdez disaster -- possibly more than twice as much, making it the largest oil spill in U.S. history -- government scientists said Thursday.

Webmaster's Commentary:

And I expect that even this admission is a severe understatement.


Gulf Spill Put at 25,000 Barrels A Day, Passing Exxon Valdez

The US government now estimates that up to 25,000 barrels of oil a day are spewing from BP's Gulf of Mexico well, meaning the spill has already far eclipsed the previous worst U.S. oil spill, the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.


Coast Guard Tells Louisiana Residents Oil Spill is not an Environmental Disaster

Two days before the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced that the Deepwater Horizon accident had easily eclipsed the Exxon Valdez disaster as the nation’s worst-ever oil spill, U.S. Coast Guard representative Edward Stanton downplayed the seriousness of the matter at a town hall meeting in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana.

“I don’t consider this an environmental disaster,” Stanton told an audience of concerned fishermen and local residents. “But it is an economic disaster.”

Stanton’s remarks did not sit well with those listening. Attendees wanted to know why the U.S. government wasn’t being more active to stem the hemorrhaging of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. They also questioned federal officials’ reluctance to challenge BP, operator of the oil platform, and its attempts to break up the oil using toxic chemicals.


BP's Photo Blockade of the Gulf Oil Spill

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/05/26/the-missing-oil-spill-photos.html

As BP makes its latest attempt to plug its gushing oil well, news photographers are complaining that their efforts to document the slow-motion disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are being thwarted by local and federal officials—working with BP—who are blocking access to the sites where the effects of the spill are most visible. More than a month into the disaster, a host of anecdotal evidence is emerging from reporters, photographers, and TV crews in which BP and Coast Guard officials explicitly target members of the media, restricting and denying them access to oil-covered beaches, staging areas for clean-up efforts, and even flyovers.


Limits on access to oiled waters, coast frustrates journalists

When a photographer from The Times-Picayune earlier this week tried to hire a plane to fly over Grand Isle, the charter plane company was told that the flight could not descend below 3,000 feet.

Southern Seaplane owner Rhonda Panepinto said her husband called the BP Command Center on Tuesday for permission to fly photographer Ted Jackson over Grand Isle, so that he could take pictures of the impact of the spreading oil from the Deepwater Horizon well. But the plane company was told by a BP contractor that media flights weren't allowed in the restricted air space established by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Webmaster's Commentary:

America's Chernobyl

I just sent the following to my local papers. You should do the same.

---

Some observers have claimed that the BP Gulf Oil Disaster is Obama’s “Katrina.” Sadly, this is far worse. The Gulf Oil Disaster and scandal has reached the point of being America’s Chernobyl.

It was known from a similar disaster in 1979 (involving many of the same players) that gulf blowouts were possible. Yet the US Government issued waivers for environmental impact studies for gulf drillers to free those drillers from the costs. Acoustic Preventers, mandated in every other oil-producing nation, are optional in the US, and as they cost a half million each, rarely used. Then we have the Mineral Management Service, the official US Government agency that collects oil lease revenues and is supposed to exercise oversight on the drilling of oil in the United States, recently exposed as allowing the oil companies to fill out the inspection and audit reports while the officials themselves wallowed in online porn, drugs, and hookers supplied by the oil companies.


Energy Expert: Nuking Oil Leak Only Thing we Can Do

Youve Got to be Kidding me!!!


Oilpocalypse Now Take I

"The best expert estimates I have seen are that minimally we have 2.9 MILLION GALLONS of Oil escaping into the Gulf each day. The volume of methane is about treble that. BP, in an effort to camouflage its true scale is pumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of even more toxic oil dispersant into the volcano. To get an idea of the scale think of the largest stadium you know, fill it with oil every day, dump it on the surrounding landscape, and then refill it TWICE each day. Then you begin to get an approximation of the volume of oil escaping."

"So, why the lecture on the ocean ecosystem? Because the Gulf produces as much or more oxygen than the entire Amazon Rain Forest."


Hearings: Rig's blowout preventer last inspected in 2005

"...The chief mechanic on the Deepwater Horizon testified Wednesday that he was at a planning meeting 11 hours before the rig exploded at which the BP company man overruled drillers from rig owner Transocean and insisted on displacing protective drilling mud from the riser that connected the rig to the oil well.

"..."I recall a skirmish between the company man, the OIM (offshore installation manager), the tool-pusher and the driller," said Doug Brown, one of 115 rig workers who survived the April 20 disaster. "The driller was outlining what would be taking place, whereupon the company man stood up and said, 'No, we'll be having some changes to that.' It had to do with displacing the riser for later on. The OIM, tool-pusher and driller disagreed with that, but the company man said, 'Well, this is how it's gonna be,' and the tool-pusher, driller and OIM reluctantly agreed."

"...The implication was that the Transocean employees expected they might have to take emergency action because of BP's push to remove the drilling mud.

"...Before Brown came to the witness stand at the hearings in Kenner, a ship captain with 15 years of drilling experience told the joint investigative panel that he doesn't know why a rig would displace the protective column of heavy mud with light seawater before closing off a well.

Deliberate sabotage the reason for the Gulf oil disaster?


Renowned Marine Biologist Carl Safina on the BP Oil Spill’s Ecological Impact on the Gulf Coast and Worldwide

CARL SAFINA: Well, that this is not just a regional disaster, although it certainly is, but that the Gulf of Mexico is a tremendous engine of life and also a tremendous concentration zone, where animals from the whole open Atlantic Ocean funnel into the Gulf for breeding and millions of animals cross the Gulf and concentrate there on their northward migration and then fan out to populate much of North America and the Canadian Arctic, the East Coast, the Canadian Maritimes. So it’s a real hotspot, and it’s a terrible place to foul.

===

We are FUCKED!


Obama administration blocked efforts to stop BP oil drilling before explosion

"In 2009, the Obama administration intervened to support the reversal of a court order that would have halted offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Obama’s Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has long had close ties to the industry, specifically cited BP’s Deepwater Horizon operation as one that should be allowed to go forward, according to a group involved in the court case.

A Washington DC Appeals Court ruled in April 2009 that the Bush administration’s five-year plan for offshore oil and gas drilling (covering 2007 to 2012) was not based on a proper review of the environmental impact of the drilling. Only days before the ruling, the Obama administration had granted BP a “categorical exclusion,” exempting it from an environmental impact study for the Deepwater Horizon project."


BP CEO disputes claims of underwater oil plumes


Oil spill creates huge undersea 'dead zones'

The world's most damaging oil spill – now in its 41st continuously gushing day – is creating huge unseen "dead zones" in the Gulf of Mexico, according to oceanologists and toxicologists. They say that if their fears are correct, then the sea's entire food chain could suffer years of devastation, with almost no marine life in the region escaping its effects.


'It has the smell of death': Experts warn BP could fall after shares tumble another 16%

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1282870/BP-shares-plunge-15-oil-giant-admits-oil-spill-August.html

Analysts today warned BP could collapse as its shares tumbled yet further after the latest bid to plug the oil well leak in the Gulf of Mexico failed.

More than £15billion was wiped off the British oil giant's market value, with its share price down by as much as 16 per cent on the FTSE-100 index.

The company has so far spent almost £690million trying to cap the well. It could also be hit with huge fines from the U.S. government as well as costly legal action.

Such is the damage to its reputation, experts fear it may not survive and with its share price in a downward spiral, it is increasingly likely it could be taken over.


BP Shares Plunge 20% in one day

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/01/bp-shares-drop-gulf-oil-spill

I was waiting for this, But I actually thought it might fall even farther. Ah well the week isn't over yet.

Shares in BP plunged as much as 20% at one stage this morning – wiping another £14bn off the company's market value – after the oil producer failed over the weekend to stop its catastrophic oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP has now lost £44bn of its market capitalisation since 20 April, when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded. By 10am the shares had staged a partial recovery from early lows of 420p, after their biggest fall in 18 years, but were still trading 14% lower, at 427p.

The company said a containment cap will be connected towards the end of the week, although the spill could worsen in the meantime. BP has spent almost $1bn (£700m) so far attempting to plug the leak, but said it was "too early" to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated with the incident. The total bill could rise to as much as $12bn, according to UBS.

The new strategy is the company's "best option", BP chief executive Tony Hayward said in a statement today.

The company has received as many as 30,000 claims, mostly from businesses in the US states of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, which involve loss of earnings or bereavement suffered by families of the 11 workers killed when the rig caught fire.


BP: ‘We’re not blaming anyone yet’

General manager says relief well expected to be completed in August is 'end point' for efforts to stop spill

Oil giant BP has said it is responsible for the Gulf oil spill, but now the company seems to be reserving the right to blame someone else.

Webmaster's Commentary:

After the most complete remediations possible have done in the Gulf by BP (an acronym which, by now, should stand for "biohazard provocateurs"), this company should be forbidden from ever doing any offshore drilling anywhere near the US again, period, end of discussion.

Ocean Circulation Group

BP reported on May 17 that a tube it had inserted into a broken pipe was gathering more than one-fifth of the oil gushing from the Gulf of Mexico spill, but that sliver of good news was offset when scientists reported that the spill had found its way into the Gulf of Mexico's powerful loop current, and that oil could be headed for Florida and the East Coast of the United States. Here, a chart from the Ocean Circulation Group shows the spill (in black) dipping down into the loop current (orange and red).

BP's 'top kill' mission halts the oil gush – but is it stable?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/27/bp-oil-spill-top-kill

Experts warn that leak is far from being permanently fixed as weather service predicts unusually strong hurricane season


BP Suspends "Top Kill" For Second Time After Trying Two Junk Shots. Less Than 10% of Injection Fluids are Staying Inside the Leaking Pipes

BP’s renewed efforts at plugging the flow of oil from its runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico stalled again on Friday, as the company suspended pumping operations for the second time in two days, according to a technician involved with the response effort.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Watch for the White House to try to throw Rahm Emmanual to the wolves (over Sestek) to distract the suckers from the oil and the DOW.


BP top kill halted due to "snag," another giant underwater plume of oil discovered

The New York Times reported today that BP's "top kill" effort has been halted due to a snag.

A "snag?" Perhaps that is a reference to the estimated 165 to 170 thousand pounds per square inch of pressure that is blowing oil and natural gas from the floor of the Gulf like a volcano, and now also blowing out the drilling "mud" that BP is attempting to inject in the opening to seal it.


TOP KILL Fails - Gulf oil spill BOP Blown A Huge Hole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQOBprAQzvk&feature=player_embedded

Webmaster's Commentary:

This is the sudden increase in visible debris and oil I referred to further down the page4.


ABC SHOWING ALL ROV "TOP KILL" VIDEO FEEDS AT ONCE


GULF-OIL DISASTER - Spring-loaded camming device

Webmaster's Commentary:

It occurs to me that after they cut the ruins of the old riser away from the top of the Blowout Preventer, snugging that new riser down onto the pipe against that oil flow is going to be like trying to screw the nozzle into your garden hose while it is turned on full blast.

An oversized version of a rather common mountaineering device might provide a much-needed anchor to allow a winch down or downhaul line to pull the new pipe into position rather thjan attempt to push it against the oi flow with those ROVs.

Just a suggestion for any BP people checking this site out...

Click for larger image


Louisiana oil spill in photos


"Top Kill" Has FAILED In the Attempt to Plug the Oil Leak Using Mud ... Now BP Will Try to Add Some "Junk" to the Mix to Try to Seal the Holes

Here's the scoop: BP's attempt to stop the oil spill using the "Top Kill" method has failed.

How do I know?

Well, as the New York Times notes:

BP officials, who along with government officials created the impression early in the day that the strategy was working, disclosed later that they had stopped pumping the night before when engineers saw that too much of the drilling fluid was escaping along with the oil.

Indeed, BP stopped pumping "mud" for more than 16 hours (the material gushing out of the leaking riser didn't stop during that time).

Basically, BP has failed in trying to drive enough "mud" down the well to provide enough weight to tamp down the oil gushing out. It didn't work.


Prominent Oil Industry Insider : "There’s Another Leak, Much Bigger, 5 to 6 Miles Away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDGAoU1H2gM&feature=player_embedded

2gM&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1">2gM&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="385">

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/prominent-oil-industry-insider-theres-another-leak-much-bigger-5-6-miles-away


Scientists: Newly discovered Gulf oil plume is 22-miles long, six-miles wide

Marine scientists have discovered a massive new plume of what they believe to be oil deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico, stretching 22 miles (35 kilometers) from the leaking wellhead northeast toward Mobile Bay, Alabama.

The discovery by researchers on the University of South Florida College of Marine Science's Weatherbird II vessel is the second significant undersea plume recorded since the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20.

The thick plume was detected just beneath the surface down to about 3,300 feet (1,000 meters), and is more than 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) wide, said David Hollander, associate professor of chemical oceanography at the school.


Scientists find evidence of large underwater oil plume in gulf

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Scientists have found evidence of a large underwater "plume" of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, adding to fears that much of the BP oil spill's impact is hidden beneath the surface.

The scientists, aboard a University of South Florida research vessel, were testing the water in sites east and northeast of the leak's source. The university said they detected traces of dissolved oil as deep as 1,300 feet below the surface.

Hollander said that he believed the plume might have stretched more than 20 miles from the site of a leak on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, where the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sank April 22. It has not yet reached Florida.


Third Giant Underwater Oil Plume Discovered

Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.


US House votes quadrupling of per-barrel oil tax

The US House of Representatives on Friday voted to more than quadruple a per-barrel oil tax that fills a special trust fund to pay for damages from major spills like the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

The measure called for raising the eight-cent-per-barrel tax to 34 cents, raising nearly 12 billion dollars over 10 years for the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which currently holds about 1.5 billion dollars.

The legislation, which passed by a 215-204 margin, also aimed to raise the cap on per-incident trust fund expenditures from one billion dollars to five billion dollars.


BP Admits Oil Could Flow For Months (Years?)


The Gulf Oil Spill Tracker

A great way to track what's really going on in the Gulf:

The Gulf Oil Spill Tracker.


Third Giant Underwater Oil Plume Discovered

Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.


Something odd happening at the BP well head.

Webmaster's Commentary:

All of a sudden there is a huge plume of oil and debris coming up from much lower down on the blowout protector!


Halliburton to Buy Boots & Coots for $232 Million

Oil giant Halliburton (HAL: 26.66, 0.8, 3.09%) announced late Friday that it will purchase emergency response oil control company Boots & Coots (WEL: 2.95, 0.01, 0.34%) in a deal valued at around $232 million.
--------

Pretty nice how that worked out for Halliburton, huh? Buying an oil clean-up company a week before a rig disaster...


BP used cheaper casing on oil well to save money, Congress papers show

The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that precipitated the vast Gulf of Mexico oil spill came after the well was capped with a relatively cheap type of casing, BP papers have revealed.

The decision to use the riskier method to finish its Macondo well was taken partly on cost grounds, according to the document.

In the days before the blast, the oil giant selected a casing that provided only a single layer of protection to prevent gas from leaking into the well, according the details obtained by The New York Times from a Congressional investigator.

Webmaster's Commentary:

There are, apparently, no standards and practices which must be rigorously observed by any oil company operating in the US, to keep people - and the environment - safe.

When the regulatory agencies are "in bed" with the corporations they are supposed to be policing, it is an absolute recipe for the kind of disaster we are seeing unfolding right now.


BP didn't test mud prior to critical pipeline procedure, driller testifies

BP decided not to perform a test on the mud at the bottom of the well before starting to place the final cement lining that may have been the source of gas that eventually blew out the well, according to testimony at investigative hearings in Kenner.

The top drilling supervisor on the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, Offshore Installation Manager Jimmy Harrell, testified Thursday that BP decided to forego a "bottoms-up" test that would have examined the condition of drilling mud sitting in the zone where a casing shoe was about to be placed to protect the well from natural gas or oil pressing in against the hole.


Oil spreading much farther than thought; Obama returns to Gulf Coast

New evidence emerged Friday that the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico was spreading more broadly than previously thought as BP continued its fitful efforts to stop the worst oil spill in U.S. history and President Obama returned to the Gulf Coast to assess the damage.


Obama halts drilling at deep-water Gulf rigs

Obama announces a halt to drilling operations at all 33 deep-water rigs in the Gulf of Mexico for 6 months or until a presidential commission completes its work. Some of the rigs are already drilling and will have to stop. Others were preparing to drill and will have to stop those preparations until the commission finishes.


Public opinion turning against Obama on oil spill

The American public is losing its patience with President Obama over his handling of the Gulf Coast oil spill.

In the five weeks since an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig sent hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, Obama had largely escaped political fallout. But as BP attempts yet again to seal the leak, a new USA Today/Gallup Poll finds a majority of Americans unhappy with Obama's handling of the spill. According to the poll, 53 percent rate Obama's handling "poor" or "very poor"; 43 percent believe Obama is doing a good job.

Webmaster's Commentary:

If "TOP KILL" fails to stop the Gulf Oil volcano, I think we can count on attacking, well, anybody next week as a distraction.

And while Obama bears a share of the blame for his handing out of waivers and exemptions to BP, the fact is that the entire government has failed in their role of caring for the national infrastructure, which is what WE THE PEOPLE pay them to do. The Federal Government is so totally subverted by Israeli dual nationals that they spend all their time screaming about who is a better friend to Israel, and shoveling money and weapons to Israel as hard as they ca. Meanwhile, our roads are crumbling our coal mines caving in, our bridges are collapsing, and of course, the Deepwater Horizon wreck is gushing oil onto the Gulf States harder than DC gushes red ink!

So, what do we hear from the White House? That Obama will invite Benjamin Netanyahu to a meeting next week to discuss Israel's security! This hard on the heels of the documentary proof that Israel is in fact a nuclear state and has so many nuclear weapons they have been trying to sell them off to countries like South Africa!

Far from being just Obama's Katrina, the oil disaster is the Federal Government's Chernobyl. We are finding out that the government inspectors in charge of oil drilling safety were spending their taxpayer-funded time watching porn on their taxpayer-funded computers while allowing the oil companies to fill out the inspection and audit reports!

If you are not angry, there is something seriously wrong with you.


Safety fluid was removed before oil rig exploded in Gulf

If the final cement plug wasn't in place yet, removing the mud would be at odds with "good oil-field practice" outlined in 2003 by the federal Minerals Management Service. The MMS report, prepared by WEST Engineering Services, warns against single-point failures -- counting on one mode of protection -- by saying that "mud weight is the first round of defense against a kick, followed up by" the blowout preventer. Removing the mud left the blowout preventer as the only failsafe.

"To displace mud above the position of the upper plug with water before setting the upper plug means that you are relying on one barrier for the duration; this is not good," said a deepwater drilling expert who did not want to be identified because he does business with BP. The expert is not involved in the Deepwater Horizon project.


GULF OIL SPILL COULD HAVE BEEN SEALED IN 8 HOURS?

The DEEPWATER HORIZON sinking caused twisted 21 inch riser piping to start leaking in three places at 5,000 feet in the Gulf Seabed. Sadly the proven methods to STOP THE LEAK still have not been used since 042010 until today at 052010 for reasons unknown. BP, Governor of Florida and Governor of LA were all given, along with the President, the Counter Pressure Plug information from a UK inventor Branko R. Babic as he invented same in 1991 for Kuwait Oil Fires above the ground and they will work underwater with ROV welding special thick steel tubes with washers to be welded to the interior while the tubes allow full flow of gas, oil, water through tubes into the gulf.


Is BP trying to cap the Gulf oil well, or keep it flowing? (opinion)


(NaturalNews) Today, I spent my time interviewing people on the Gulf Coast from Mississippi to Louisiana. Several of those interviews were conducted on camera, and you'll be seeing those videos as early as tomorrow here on NaturalNews. Interestingly...


Classified info reveals extent of spills in Cdn. Arctic

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - Millions of litres of harmful contaminants — including sewage and jet fuel — have been spilled across great swaths of Canada's pristine Arctic in recent years, an analysis by The Canadian Press has found.

A classified government database reveals the alarming extent to which Canada's North has been an accidental dumping ground for dangerous liquids. And it shows one of the most frequent offenders is the federal government.

This never-before released information comes to light as the Harper government reviews its Arctic environmental-protection rules in the wake of a catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.



Corée du Nord:


North Korea: We're Heading To 'The Brink Of War'

North Korea's most powerful state organ said Friday that South Korea faked the sinking of one of its own warships and warned that the Korean peninsula was edging ever closer to war.

Pyongyang has made similar statements through state media since a multinational probe said last week that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine downed the vessel, killing 46 sailors in the worst attack on the South Korean military since the Korean War.

This time, though, the comments were delivered at an extremely rare press conference in the North Korean capital presided over by a uniformed official with the secretive country's National Defense Commission, which is headed by leader Kim Jong Il.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I would like to hope that some adults in the room of international diplomacy (read: Russia and China) will exert all possible efforts to ratchet down the tension here.

This is a tinderbox situation, which could be ignited by any spark right now, and neither the citizens of North or South Korea need, or want, a war.

Unfortunately, however, there are certain people in the leadership of the US who could certainly use one heck of a distraction right now, looking at the miserable state of the US economy, several wars around the globe going colossally badly, and the horrendous mismanagement of the worst oil spill disaster in US history.


Who is staging a War between North and South Korea?

Tensions between North and South Korea continue to escalate: On Friday, North Korea blamed its southern neighbor of staging the sinking of its own warship, which killed 46 soldiers, denying any responsibility for the tragedy.

North Korea has also warned that any retaliation for the incident would lead to armed conflict, and potentially “all-out war.” North Korea’s denial runs at odds with a recent multinational probe that determined that a North Korea torpedo downed the ship.

Russian experts disagree and claim it would be incredibly simple for dozens of countries to obtain a Soviet Made torpedo, use it against a ship and claim afterwards it was fired from North Korea.


Clinton Calls for ‘Retaliatory’ Acts Against North Korea

Tensions continued to rise on the Korean Peninsula today, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton following up the latest North Korean threats of war with a pledge to see “retaliatory” acts taken against the reclusive nation.

Moreover, while Clinton insisted on an “international” response she has already failed to convince China to join in whatever UN Security Council measures the US plans, meaning the US retaliation will likely consist of several more speeches of increasing bellicosity, interspersed with North Korean responses.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Clinton can do absolutely nothing without China on board, and was completely unable to get any movement from China regarding North Korea during her visit there.

Once again, Secretary of State Clinton has demonstrated that she has absolutely no grasp of international diplomacy whatsoever. Her near-pathological stridency attempts to mask the reality that she has been able to get very much of any real value accomplished for the US.


Letter to Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of state
There was no Explosion. There was No Torpedo.

13. What is the 2nd accident that caused the serious damage after getting out of 'Grounding' ?

(1) Rock crash (2) Explosion (3) Fatigue Fracture (4) Collision

Anything else? Those might be enough ..

(1) There was no rocks in that area torn down. - Rock Excluded !
(2) Couldn't find a slight sign of explosion - Explosion Excluded !
(3) The crack started from the bottom - Fatigue Fx. Excluded !

The rest one is ' Case (4) - It's Collision '.

That's why I get to the conclusion - The 1st accident is 'Grounding' and the 2nd one is 'Collision' - with every knowledge, experience and analysis.

14. Collision with what ?

(1) Might be a military vessel. - The rule of military government prohibits fishing at night and required to be back before 1 hour earlier the time of sun-set in that area.
(2) Maybe, of course, one of 'Above-water vessel' or 'Under-water vessel'
(3) Who knows? Only God knows?

15. Brief of my opinion

(1) The most important thing is there were two series of accidents not one.
(2) The 1st accident was 'Grounding' with the evidences above.
(3) The 'Grounding on a sand' made some damages and led flooding but itself didn't make those serious situation torn down in two.
(4) The 2nd accident hit a count-blow to sink.
(5) I couldn't find even a slight sign of 'Explosion'.
(6) The 2nd accident was 'Collision' with my analysis above.


Analysts question Korea torpedo incident

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/05/asian_analysts_question_korea_torpedo_incident.html?hpid=news-col-blog

How is it that a submarine of a fifth-rate power was able to penetrate a U.S.-South Korean naval exercise and sink a ship that was designed for anti-submarine warfare?

Such questions are being fueled by suggestions in the South Korean and Japanese media that the naval exercise was intended to provoke the North to attack. The resulting public outcry in the South, according to this analysis, would bolster support for a conservative government in Seoul that is opposed to reconciliation efforts.

As fanciful as it may sound to Western ears, the case that Operation Foal Eagle was designed to provoke the North has been underscored by constant references in regional media to charts showing the location where the ship was sunk -- in waters close to, and claimed by, North Korea.

"Baengnyeong Island is only 20 kilometers from North Korea in an area that the North claims as its maritime territory, except for the South Korean territorial sea around the island,” Japanese journalist Tanaka Sakai wrote in the left-leaning Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus.

He called the sinking of the ship “an enigma.”

"The Cheonan was a patrol boat whose mission was to survey with radar and sonar the enemy’s submarines, torpedoes, and aircraft ... " Sakai wrote.

"If North Korean submarines and torpedoes were approaching, the Cheonan should have been able to sense it quickly and take measures to counterattack or evade. Moreover, on the day the Cheonan sank, US and ROK military exercises were under way, so it could be anticipated that North Korean submarines would move south to conduct surveillance. It is hard to imagine that the Cheonan sonar forces were not on alert."


The liberal Hankyoreh newspaper in Seoul echoed a similar theme.

“A joint South Korean-U.S. naval exercise involving several Aegis warships was underway at the time, and the Cheonan was a patrol combat corvette (PCC) that specialized in anti-submarine warfare. The question remains whether it would be possible for a North Korean submarine to infiltrate the maritime cordon at a time when security reached its tightest level and without detection by the Cheonan,” it reported.


American spy satellites were also monitoring the exercise, “so the U.S. would have known that North Korean submarines had left their ports on a mission,” adds Scott Snyder, director of Center for U.S.-Korea Policy at the Asia Foundation.

“The route the North Korean submarines apparently took was from the East Sea, not directly from the North across the NLL,” or Northern Limit Line, the sea boundary unilaterally imposed by Seoul. “Essentially, they went the roundabout way and came at the ROK vessel from behind,” he said.

But Bruce Klingner, chief of the CIA’s Korea Branch in the 1990s, said “anti-submarine operations are far more difficult than is often realized.

“Beyond the obvious difficulty in tracking something that is designed to operate quietly, navies are confronted with natural acoustical phenomena as shallow, noisy littoral waters and layers of water salinity which can provide cover for submarines.”

Moreover, says Terence Roehrig, a professor at the Naval War College, “the Cheonan was an older Pohang-class corvette and not one of these [newer] ships.”

“Satellite and communications coverage of sub bases can tell when subs have left base…” adds Bruce Bechtol, Jr., professor of international relations at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College. “It cannot tell locations of submarines once they are at sea -- unless they surface or communicate.”

“A mini-submarine like the type that is assessed to have penetrated the NLL is designed specifically for covert maneuvering in shallow waters like those that exist off of the west coast of the Korean Peninsula,” he said.

“It appears from the reports that [the South Korean Ministry of Defense] has released that a submarine departed port off the west coast of North Korea, accompanied by a support vessel. The submarine perhaps could have come fairly close to the NLL using diesel power, then switched to battery power, which is much quieter,” Bechtol added. “The submarine could have then slipped past the NLL at an appropriate time and waited for a ROK ship to approach.”


Suspicions about what happened, Bechtol said, are unwarranted.

“The fact of the matter is, a submarine did infiltrate into South Korean waters -- and they have done so in the past fairly frequently," he said.

"It is their mission.”


Did an American Mine Sink South Korean Ship?

Hardly any of the relevant facts that counter the official verdict have made headline news in either South Korea or its senior ally, the United States.

The first telltale sign of an official smokescreen involves the location of the Choenan sinking - Byeongnyeong Island (pronounced Pyongnang) in the Yellow Sea. On the westernmost fringe of South Korean territory, the island is dominated by a joint U.S.-Korean base for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations. The sea channel between Byeongnyeong and the North Korean coast is narrow enough for both sides to be in artillery range of each other.

There’s yet another possibility, that a U.S. rising mine sank the Cheonan in a friendly-fire accident.

In the recent U.S.-China strategic talks in Shanghai and Beijing, the Chinese side dismissed the official scenario presented by the Americans and their South Korean allies as not credible. This conclusion was based on an independent technical assessment by the Chinese military, according to a Beijing-based military affairs consultant to the People Liberation Army.

Hardly any of the relevant facts that counter the official verdict have made headline news in either South Korea or its senior ally, the United States.

The first telltale sign of an official smokescreen involves the location of the Choenan sinking - Byeongnyeong Island (pronounced Pyongnang) in the Yellow Sea. On the westernmost fringe of South Korean territory, the island is dominated by a joint U.S.-Korean base for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations. The sea channel between Byeongnyeong and the North Korean coast is narrow enough for both sides to be in artillery range of each other.

Anti-sub warfare is based on sonar and acoustic detection of underwater craft. Since civilian traffic is not routed through the channel, the noiseless conditions are near-perfect for picking up the slightest agitation, for example from a torpedo and any submarine that might fire it.

North Korea admits it does not possess an underwater craft stealthy enough to slip past the advanced sonar and audio arrays around Byeongnyeong Island, explained North Korean intelligence analyst Kim Myong Chol in a news release. "The sinking took place not in North Korean waters but well inside tightly guarded South Korean waters, where a slow-moving North Korean submarine would have great difficulty operating covertly and safely, unless it was equipped with AIP (air-independent propulsion) technology."

The Cheonan sinking occurred in the aftermath of the March 11-18 Foal Eagle Exercise, which included anti-submarine maneuvers by a joint U.S.-South Korean squadron of five missile ships. A mystery surrounds the continued presence of the U.S. missile cruisers for more than eight days after the ASW exercise ended.

Only one reporter, Joohee Cho of ABC News, picked up the key fact that the Foal Eagle flotilla curiously included the USNS Salvor, a diving-support ship with a crew of 12 Navy divers. The lack of any minesweepers during the exercise leaves only one possibility: the Salvor was laying bottom mines.

North Korea Warns UN to Be Wary of False Evidence of Sinking

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-29/china-south-korea-to-deepen-ties-amid-north-tension-update1-.html

North Korea warned the United Nations to be wary of evidence that it said falsely accuses the country of torpedoing a South Korean warship, likening the case to the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003.

May 29 (Bloomberg) -- China agreed to deepen ties with South Korea and Japan at an annual summit overshadowed by accusations that its ally North Korea sank one of the South’s warships. The North rejected the charges as “sheer fabrication” to justify a “a war of aggression against it.”


We didn’t sink South Korean warship: North Korea

In the first press statement two months after the sinking of the South Korean warship “Cheonan” in March, North Korea Friday said it was not involved in the incident, and asked Seoul to conduct an “objective and fair” probe.

Webmaster's Commentary:

See THE BIG LIE SELLING YOU WAR WITH NORTH KOREA


Russia sends its mightiest warships for drills in Far East

Flagships of three Russian fleets have united in Russia's Far East for the large-scale naval exercises in the Sea of Japan in June, a Pacific Fleet spokesman said on Wednesday.

The flagship of the Black Sea fleet, the Moskva missile cruiser, arrived at a naval base near Vladivostok on Wednesday and teamed up with the flagship of the Northern Fleet, the Pyotr Veliky nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser, and the flagship of the Pacific Fleet, the Varyag guided-missile cruiser.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Take a look at the following map:

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/eastsea.htm

The Sea of Japan borders both North and South Korea.

What Russia is saying to North and South Korea, to the US, and the world with this exercise is, "cool your jets, folks; no monkey business!"


Russia wants '100% proof' N.Korea sunk ship

MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia will not support efforts to punish North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship until it is fully convinced Pyongyang was behind the incident, a foreign ministry spokesman said Thursday.

"We need to receive 100 percent proof of North Korea's role in the sinking of the corvette," the spokesman, Igor Lyakin-Frolov, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

"Our specialists are currently studying the materials of the investigation. We need to draw our own conclusions about what happened. Everything will depend on the situation and the body of evidence."


Beijing suspects false flag attack on South Korean corvette

By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer

(WMR) -- WMR's intelligence sources in Asia suspect that the March attack on the South Korean Navy anti-submarine warfare (ASW) corvette, the Cheonan, was a false flag attack designed to appear as coming from North Korea.

One of the main purposes for increasing tensions on the Korean peninsula was to apply pressure on Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to reverse course on moving the U.S. Marine Corps base off Okinawa. Hatoyama has admitted that the tensions over the sinking of the Cheonan played a large part in his decision to allow the U.S. Marines to remain on Okinawa. Hatoyama's decision has resulted in a split in the ruling center-left coalition government, a development welcome in Washington, with Mizuho Fukushima, the Social Democratic Party leader threatening to bolt the coalition over the Okinawa reversal.

The Cheonan was sunk near Baengnyeong Island, a westernmost spot that is far from the South Korean coast, but opposite the North Korean coast. The island is heavily militarized and within artillery fire range of North Korean coastal defenses, which lie across a narrow channel.

The Cheonan, an ASW corvette, was decked out with state-of-the-art sonar, plus it was operating in waters with extensive hydrophone sonar arrays and acoustic underwater sensors. There is no South Korean sonar or audio evidence of a torpedo, submarine or mini-sub in the area. Since there is next to no shipping in the channel, the sea was silent at the time of the sinking.

However, Baengnyeong Island hosts a joint US-South Korea military intelligence base and the US Navy SEALS operate out of the base. In addition, four U.S. Navy ships were in the area, part of the joint U.S-South Korean Exercise Foal Eagle, during the sinking of the Cheonan. An investigation of the suspect torpedo's metallic and chemical fingerprints show it to be of German manufacture. There are suspicions that the US Navy SEALS maintains a sampling of European torpedoes for sake of plausible deniability for false flag attacks. Also, Berlin does not sell torpedoes to North Korea, however, Germany does maintain a close joint submarine and submarine weapons development program with Israel.

The presence of the USNS Salvor, one of the participants in Foal Eagle, so close to Baengnyeong Island during the sinking of the South Korean corvette also raises questions.

The Salvor, a civilian Navy salvage ship, which participated in mine laying activities for the Thai Marines in the Gulf of Thailand in 2006, was present near the time of the blast with a complement of 12 deep sea divers.

Beijing, satisfied with North Korea's Kim Jong Il's claim of innocence after a hurried train trip from Pyongyang to Beijing, suspects the U.S. Navy's role in the Cheonan's sinking, with particular suspicion on the role of the Salvor. The suspicions are as follows:

1. The Salvor engaged in a seabed mine-installation operation, in other words, attaching horizontally fired anti-submarine mines on the sea floor in the channel.

2. The Salvor was doing routine inspection and maintenance on seabed mines, and put them into an electronic active mode (hair trigger release) as part of the inspection program.

3. A SEALS diver attached a magnetic mine to the Cheonan, as part of a covert program aimed at influencing public opinion in South Korea, Japan and China.

The Korean peninsula tensions have conveniently overshadowed all other agenda items on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visits to Beijing and Seoul.


THE SINKING OF THE CHEONAN. ANOTHER GULF OF TONKIN INCIDENT NKOREA-MODE?

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, in 1964, was a major turning point in US military involvement in Vietnam. It authorized Prezi Johnson by the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to retaliate for the purported attacks in the Gulf of Tonkin and to start an official war against N-Vietnam.

In 1965, President Johnson commented privately: "For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there."

In 1981, Captain Herrick and journalist Robert Scheer re-examined Herrick's ship's log and determined that the first torpedo report from August 4, which Herrick had maintained had occurred—the "apparent ambush"—was in fact unfounded.


Nuclear War Between Koreas: Brought To You By The U.S. Government

Kim Jong-Il’s nuclear belligerency was a creation of Uncle Sam

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, May 25, 2010


Kim Jong-Il has put North Korean troops on combat alert and threatened military action if the South trespasses in its waters as global stock markets freak out at the prospect of a war which, if it occurs, can be blamed on the U.S. government’s history of arming the Stalinist dictator with nuclear weapons.

Korean markets plunged 3.3 per cent overnight as investors were spooked at escalating tensions between the two countries following South Korea’s allegation that the North was responsible for the March 26 torpedoing of one of its warships
Kim Jong-il responded to the charge by putting his military on combat alert, telling them to “prepare for war,” and threatening action if South Korea trespasses in its waters off the peninsula’s west coast.

On Monday, President Obama also told the U.S. military to prepare for conflict as it plans to carry out anti-submarine and other naval exercises with South Korea.

As we have documented, North Korea’s nuclear belligerency was almost exclusively a creation of the U.S. government in that they armed the Stalinist state both directly and indirectly through global arms dealers under their control, namely Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan. While labeling North Korea as part of the “axis of evil,” the U.S. government was enthusiastically funding its nuclear weapons program at every stage.
Both the Clinton and Bush administrations played a key role in helping Kim Jong-Il develop North Korea’s nuclear prowess from the mid 1990’s onwards.

Just as with Saddam Hussein’s chemical and biological weapons program, it was Donald Rumsfeld who played a key role in arming Kim-Jong-Il.
Rumsfeld was man who presided over a $200 million dollar contract to deliver equipment and services to build two light water reactor stations in North Korea in January 2000 when he was an executive director of ABB (Asea Brown Boveri). Wolfram Eberhardt, a spokesman for ABB confirmed that Rumsfeld was at nearly all the board meetings during his involvement with the company.

Rumsfeld was merely picking up the baton from the Clinton administration, who in 1994 agreed to replace North Korea’s domestically built nuclear reactors with light water nuclear reactors. So-called government-funded ‘experts’ claimed that light water reactors couldn’t be used to make bombs. Not so according to Henry Sokolski, head of the Non-proliferation Policy Education Center in Washington, who stated, “LWRs could be used to produce dozens of bombs’ worth of weapons-grade plutonium in both North Korea and Iran. This is true of all LWRs — a depressing fact U.S. policymakers have managed to block out.”

“These reactors are like all reactors, they have the potential to make weapons. So you might end up supplying the worst nuclear violator with the means to acquire the very weapons we’re trying to prevent it acquiring,” said Sokolski.
The U.S. State Department claimed that the light water reactors could not be used to produce bomb grade material and yet in 2002 urged Russia to end its nuclear co-operation with Iran for the reason that it didn’t want Iran armed with weapons of mass destruction. At the time, Russia was building light water reactors in Iran. According to the State Department, light water reactors in Iran can produce nuclear material but somehow the same rule doesn’t apply in North Korea.

In April 2002, the Bush administration announced that it would release $95 million of American taxpayer’s dollars to begin construction of the ‘harmless’ light water reactors in North Korea. Bush argued that arming the megalomaniac dictator Kim Jong-Il with the potential to produce a hundred nukes a year was, “vital to the national security interests of the United States.” Bush released even more money in January 2003, as was reported by Bloomberg News.

Bush released the funds despite the startling revelation, reported by South Korean newspapers, that a North Korean missile warhead had been found in Alaska.

Construction of the reactors was eventually suspended, but North Korea had an alternative source through which they could obtain the nuclear secrets vital to building an atom bomb arsenal – CIA asset and international arms smuggler AQ Khan.
In 2004, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atom bomb program, admitted sharing nuclear technology via a worldwide smuggling network that included facilities in Malaysia that manufactured key parts for centrifuges.

Khan’s collaborator B.S.A. Tahir ran a front company out of Dubai that shipped centrifuge components to North Korea.
Despite Dutch authorities being deeply suspicious of Khan’s activities as far back as 1975, the CIA prevented them from arresting him on two occasions.

“The man was followed for almost ten years and obviously he was a serious problem. But again I was told that the secret services could handle it more effectively,” former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers said. “The Hague did not have the final say in the matter. Washington did.”
Lubbers stated that Khan was allowed to slip in and out of the Netherlands with the blessing of the CIA, eventually allowing him to become the “primary salesman of an extensive international network for the proliferation of nuclear technology and know-how,” according to George W. Bush himself, and sell nuclear secrets that allowed North Korea to build nuclear bombs.

“Lubbers suspects that Washington allowed Khan’s activities because Pakistan was a key ally in the fight against the Soviets,” reports CFP. “At the time, the US government funded and armed mujahideen such as Osama bin Laden. They were trained by Pakistani intelligence to fight Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Anwar Iqbal, Washington correspondent for the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, told ISN Security Watch that Lubbers’ assertions may be correct. “This was part of a long-term foolish strategy. The US knew Pakistan was developing nuclear weapons but couldn’t care less because it was not going to be used against them. It was a deterrent against India and possibly the Soviets.”

In September 2005 it emerged that the Amsterdam court which sentenced Khan to four years imprisonment in 1983 had lost the legal files pertaining to the case. The court’s vice-president, Judge Anita Leeser, accused the CIA of stealing the files. “Something is not right, we just don’t lose things like that,” she told Dutch news show NOVA. “I find it bewildering that people lose files with a political goal, especially if it is on request of the CIA. It is unheard of.”

In 2005, Pakistani President Pervez Musharaf acknowledged that Khan had provided centrifuges and their designs to North Korea.
Through their policies in aiding North Korea to build light water reactors, and via the CIA asset AQ Khan who was protected at every step of the way while he helped provide North Korea with the means to build a nuclear arsenal, the U.S. government itself is directly complicit in providing North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il with the nuclear weapons he now threatens to use against U.S. ally South Korea.


S. Korea's military reviewing further measures against North

"Following the rhetoric of threats, we expect that North Korea could actually carry out a military, non-military provocation," Major Gen. Ryu Je-seung, a senior official at the South Korean defense ministry's policy and planning division, told retired generals and admirals.

Ryu confirmed that South Korea and the U.S. raised their alert system on North Korea, called watch condition, to the second-highest level on Wednesday.

On Saturday, Seoul's top military commanders will hold a meeting to discuss countermeasures against further aggression by North Korea, military officials said.

The meeting agenda is expected to include Seoul's response if South Korean civilians at the Kaesong complex are taken hostage, according to the officials.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Neither the people of North or South Korea need, or want, a war right now.

But one has to wonder which country on the planet believes that this war would be beneficial to them as a distraction from their own domestic woes, including the worst oil spill in their history, a growing, angry army of unemployed who have had their jobs offshored, and an economy which is sinking like a stone?!?


North Korea Severs All Ties With South Korea

North Korea declared Tuesday that it would sever all communication and relations with Seoul as punishment for blaming the North for the sinking of a South Korean warship two months ago.


U.S. troops in South Korea put on alert as tensions rise over sinking ship

Barack Obama yesterday ordered that the 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea be put on alert as tensions with North Korea escalated.


South Korea dials back tough talk over Cheonan sinking

One day after China refused to take a stand against North Korea over the March 26 sinking of South Korea's Cheonan naval ship, South Korea appears to be moderating its rhetoric against the North over the Cheonan sinking.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Translation: The frame-up has collapsed.


Rand: 400,000 troops needed to secure N. Korea and its 'loose nukes'

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2010/ea_nkorea0051_01_25.asp

If there's one sure way to infuriate the North Koreans, it's to talk of "regime collapse" and "contingency planning". As far as Pyongyang is concerned, such speculation is proof positive of United States-led plotting of a "pre-emptive strike".

Against this background, one should not be surprised if the North Koreans see a study conducted by Rand Corporation analyst Bruce Bennett and Dartmouth College scholar Jennifer Lind as the most conclusive evidence to date that the planning is in an advanced stage. Considering Rand's contracts with the U.S. defense establishment, one has to perceive the study as a scenario for an invasion of the North that would plunge the Korean Peninsula into a second Korean War.

Lind offers specific estimates of what it would take to seize North Korea's nuclear facilities and disarm the entire North Korean defense establishment as if the collapse of the North Korean regime were almost certain and the U.S. had to lead the charge to fill the vacuum. The study offers a raft of figures on the exact number of troops needed to subdue North Korea — 400,000 seems to be the operative figure with six brigades of troops dispatched right away to address the "paramount problem upon the North Korean collapse" — "the prevention of loose nukes".


South Korea South Korean navy starts military exercises

South Korea fired artillery and dropped bombs in military exercises off the west coast of the divided peninsula today, with tensions running high in the area.

The navy said 10 vessels, including a destroyer, fired guns and launched anti-submarine bombs south of the capital, Seoul, in a one-day exercise.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Note that this exercise is only one day in duration, not a week, not two weeks.

I would like to think that cooler heads in Pyongyang and Seoul are prevailing at this moment, allowing tensions to defuse.

Neither Korea wants a full-on war at this time.


S. Korea on alert as N. Korean subs disappear in East Sea

South Korea's military was tracking four North Korean submarines which disappeared from their east coast base after conducting naval training in the East Sea earlier this week, a military official in Seoul said Wednesday.

Webmaster's Commentary:

This, coupled with a US announcement two days ago that it will be participating in anti-submarine exercises off the coast of North Korea, are most probably the factors which prompted Russian officials to immediately order their naval exercise in the Sea of Japan (also known as "The East Sea").


North Korea 'is exporting nuclear technology'

Leaked UN report says Pyongyang is using front companies to export nuclear and missile technology to Iran, Syria and Burma.

International efforts to avert a full-blown crisis on the Korean peninsula were given greater urgency today after a leaked UN report claimed that North Korea is defying UN sanctions and using front companies to export nuclear and missile technology to Iran, Syria and Burma.

The 47-page report contains a long list of sanctions violations reported by UN member states, including four cases of arms exports.

Webmaster's Commentary:

One cannot possibly look at the timing of this alleged "leaked report" as coincidence, because"Yukio Hatoyama A spokesman for Lee said South Korea was "fully concentrating on diplomatic efforts to hold North Korea responsible".

While I have absolutely zero love for the North Korean government, there are several compelling questions which must be raised, and raised immediately, if there is any possible chance to ratchet down tensions in the region: just where is this 47-page report, to whom at the UN is it actually attributed, and - if this actually exists - why do the people controlling its contents not want this actual document to be seen by the world?!?

This claim that North Korea is exporting nuclear technology, based on a leaked report of dubious authenticity, is clearly intended to distract from the recent revelation that Israel attempted to sell nuclear weapons to apartheid South Africa.



L’arsenal nucléaire d’Israël et la prolifération:


The memos and minutes that confirm Israel's nuclear stockpile

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/23/israel-south-africa-nuclear-documents

Documents reveal how then-defence minister Shimon Perez tried to sell South Africa's apartheid government the bomb

This is the secret memo by South Africa's military chief of staff, General RF Armstrong, asking for nukes on the Jericho missiles. It has been revealed before, but its context was not understood. We now know the memo was the direct result of a meeting between PW Botha and Shimon Peres, and the basis of Botha's demand for nukes. This memo was uncovered by Peter Liberman and published in the Nonproliferation Review.

• Declassified memo from General RF Armstrong


This cover page of an ISSA (ISrael-South Africa agreement) meeting in Pretoria between Israeli and South African officials on 30 June 1975 establishes the presence of General Armstrong, who wrote the nuclear memo.

• Minutes of third ISSA meeting, 30/6/1975


This document details the another ISSA meeting during which Botha says he needs the 'right payload' and Peres offers it in 'three sizes' (paragraph 10).

• Minutes from further ISSA meeting


This is the cover page and two other pages from the secret military agreement between Israel and South Africa, signed by both Shimon Peres and Botha. Note on page two there is a clause that says the very existence of the agreement is secret. Both men have signed the agreement on page three.

• Israel-South Africa agreement


In this letter, dated 11 November 1974, Peres says Israel and the South African apartheid government share a "common hatred of injustice" and urges a "close identity of aspirations and interests".

• Letter from Shimon Peres, 11/11/1974

Webmaster's Commentary:

There is no longer any "ambiguity" about Israel's nuclear weapons. They have them, and indeed have so many they are looking to sell some of them off!

Israel is a nuclear power. They do not need a constant influx of American tax dollars and weapons to defend themselves, and indeed every single military adventure by Israel has been offensive in nature!

The US Government can no longer continue to pretend it does not know Israel has nuclear weapons. And that means that every single penny of American taxpayer money sent to Israel since 1976 is a theft from the American people because under both the 1976 Symington Amendment to the 1961 Foreign Appropriations act and the Glenn Act, the US Government may not send foreign aide to any nations that possess and traffic in nuclear weapons that have not signed the NNPT and submit to IAEA inspections.

At the very least, the US Congress must immediately halt all funding to Israel until Israel is in compliance with the NNPT and IAEA or answer just whose interests they serve sitting in those US Taxpayer funded offices!


Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons

Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons.


Israel's Bomb out of the Shadows

Israel’s equivocal stance on its atomic status was shattered by reports on Monday that it offered to sell nuclear-armed Jericho missiles to South Africa’s apartheid regime back in 1975.

The revelations are deeply embarrassing to Israel given its long-standing opposition to signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, arguing instead that it is a “responsible power” that would never misuse nuclear weapons technologies if it acquired them.

Webmaster's Commentary:

The mere fact that Israel was trying to sell nuclear weapons to an apartheid regime proves that Israel is not responsible when it comes to nuclear technology. On receiving stolen US nuclear secrets from Jonathan Pollard Israel did not hesitate to trade them to the USSR, the US' declared enemy, thereby undermining the multi-trillion dollar nuclear deterrent our parents' generation was forced to pay for.

So now the truth is out there and the US Government, if it continues to pretend Israel does not have nuclear weapons, will be seen as doing so by intention rather than ignorance. The US Government will be seen to intend to go on stealing from the American people to give to Israel in defiance of the 1976 Symington Amendment to the 1961 Foreign Appropriations Act, as well as the Glenn act.

What the US Government should be doing (besides a stop payment on all checks to Israel and demanding a refund back to 1976) is to find out just who else Israel approached with offers to sell nuclear weapons, and who might have bought them. Given the Pollard affair, there is no question that Israel would not hesitate to sell nuclear weapons to nations that do not like the United States.


Russia-China Warn US That Israeli Attack On Iran Means “World War”

A chilling report circulating in the Kremlin today states that President Medvedev and Chinese President Hu have issued an “urgent warning” to the United States that says if the Americans allow an Israeli nuclear attack upon Iran, “World War will be our response”.


'It has the smell of death': Experts warn BP could fall after shares tumble another 16%

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1282870/BP-shares-plunge-15-oil-giant-admits-oil-spill-August.html

Analysts today warned BP could collapse as its shares tumbled yet further after the latest bid to plug the oil well leak in the Gulf of Mexico failed.

More than £15billion was wiped off the British oil giant's market value, with its share price down by as much as 16 per cent on the FTSE-100 index.

The company has so far spent almost £690million trying to cap the well. It could also be hit with huge fines from the U.S. government as well as costly legal action.

Such is the damage to its reputation, experts fear it may not survive and with its share price in a downward spiral, it is increasingly likely it could be taken over.


BP: ‘We’re not blaming anyone yet’

General manager says relief well expected to be completed in August is 'end point' for efforts to stop spill

Oil giant BP has said it is responsible for the Gulf oil spill, but now the company seems to be reserving the right to blame someone else.

Webmaster's Commentary:

After the most complete remediations possible have done in the Gulf by BP (an acronym which, by now, should stand for "biohazard provocateurs"), this company should be forbidden from ever doing any offshore drilling anywhere near the US again, period, end of discussion.



Attaque de la flottille de la liberté:


UN aid group: Israel deliberately hampering West Bank, Gaza relief efforts

According to the group's report, Israel isn't permitting construction of buildings for needy Palestinians and is encumbering on the freedom of movement of aid groups and their staffs.


Israel: "We Control America"


Israeli Foreign Minister Peres warned Israeli Prime Minister Sharon that refusing to heed incessant American requests for a cease-fire with the Palestinians would endanger Israeli interests and "turn the US against us.
"Sharon reportedly yelled at Peres, saying "don't worry about American pressure, we the Jewish people control America."

*********************

"The Israelis control the policy in the congress and the senate."
-- Senator Fullbright, Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee: 10/07/1973 on CBS' "Face the Nation".

**********************

"I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a foreign policy [in the Middle East] not approved by the Jews..... terrific control the Jews have over the news media and the barrage the Jews have built up on congressmen .... I am very much concerned over the fact that the Jewish influence here is completely dominating the scene and making it almost impossible to get congress to do anything they don't approve of. The Israeli embassy is practically dictating to the congress through influential Jewish people in the country"
-----Sec. of State John Foster Dulles quoted on p.99 of Fallen Pillars by Donald Neff


The madness of arrogance: Israel's attack on the Gaza aid flotilla

Alan Sabrosky argues that Israel may have overreached itself by murdering international aid workers bound for beleaguered Gaza, and that this act of wanton savagery provides the civilized world with an opportunity to rein in the rogue Jewish state once and for all.

By Alan Sabrosky

2 June 2010

Alan Sabrosky argues that Israel may have overreached itself by murdering international aid workers bound for beleaguered Gaza, and that this act of wanton savagery provides the civilized world with an opportunity to rein in the rogue Jewish state once and for all.

Israel's attack on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla on America's Memorial Day was all too predictable, although the form it took surprised even me. And it confirms the old proverb that "Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad", for the attack was the kind of madness only unbridled arrogance can assume.

It wasn't just that foreigners as well as Palestinians, flying flags other than that of Palestine, were attacked. Israel has a long history of doing such things, especially to the UN. But except for the USS Liberty incident in 1967, it has generally done that on inland sites – Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon – where it can largely block news and visual evidence, and control the spin it puts on events, counting on its friends in the US and other mainstream media to say little or nothing to contradict them.

The attack reprised

Not this time. An attack on the open seas, in acknowledged international waters, against unarmed ships carrying humanitarian aid with passengers and crews from many countries – especially a direct attack against a Turkish ship – is a different matter, and potentially an explosive one. The number of shipboard casualties indicates that once fighting started, the Israeli commandoes simply sprayed automatic weapons fire into the people around them – another of their long-standing habits.


No weapons on stormed Turkish ship: Report

A Turkish customs official on Monday denied Israeli allegations that activists aboard a Turkish aid ship for Gaza stormed by Israeli forces possessed weapons, the Anatolia news agency reported.

"Allegations that there were weapons aboard the Turkish ship are baseless," Fevzi Gulcan, the head of customs at the Mediterranean port city of Antalya, told Anatolia.


LIST OF 12 AMERICANS DETAINED BY ISRAEL AFTER FLOTILLA RAID INCLUDE A FORMER DIPLOMAT AND AN AMBASSADOR


Pro-Palestinian aid flotilla sets sail for Gaza

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists on Sunday set sail for the Gaza Strip from international waters off the coast of Cyprus, edging closer to an expected naval showdown with Israeli gunships determined to stop them.

Huwaida Arraf, one of the organizers, said the six-ship flotilla began the journey toward Gaza on Sunday afternoon after two days of delays. She said they expected to reach Gaza, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) away, on Monday afternoon, and that two more ships expected to follow in "a second wave."


Israeli warships make contact with Gaza aid flotilla

Israeli warships have made contact with a six-ship aid flotilla headed toward Gaza carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid and supplies, Al Jazeera reported late Sunday. The Israeli navy is operating on the assumption that the activists manning the boats will not heed their calls to turn around, and in response, the troops are prepared to board the ships and steer them away from the Gaza shores and toward the Israeli port city of Ashdod.

Webmaster's Commentary:

ISRAEL HAS NO RIGHT TO STOP ANY SHIPS AT ALL IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS.

If Israel boards these ships as it did the previous humanitarian aid mission it will be an act of piracy by any reasonable definition of the word. The United States was ever-ready to send warships to go after the Somalian Pirates, but will again tremble in fear before the Israeli Navy!


Screenshots of Israel assault on Turkish ship

Webmaster's Commentary:

This incident happened in international waters. If the reports about fatalities are accurate, then Israel has committed an act of war against Turkey, whose sovereign territory includes that ship.


Israeli Navy Approaches Gaza Flotilla

The Israeli navy made its first contact with a flotilla carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists and thousands of tons of supplies for Gaza shortly before midnight on Sunday, surprising the boats in international waters, according to activists on one vessel.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Emphasis on "International waters."

Israel has just committed an act of piracy and indeed given the reported injuries and deaths, acts of war against the nations whose flags the aid ships fly.

By now Israel's PR whores are fanning out all over the net trying to spin their way out of this, but this is the greatest PR disaster since CAST LEAD!


Israeli ships attack aid flotilla

Two TV networks are reporting that Israeli warships have attacked the six ships carrying pro-Palestinian activists and aid for blockaded Gaza, killing at least two and wounding an unknown number of people on board.

The Israeli military refused to comment on the report.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Turkey has just summoned the Israeli ambassador to answer for this unprovoked and lethal attack on Turkish Sovereign territory (the ship flying the Turkish flag).

I'll bet Israel was not expecting injuries and deaths. This is a PR disaster for them, happening in international waters.


Israel Navy takes control of Gaza aid flotilla; 2 activists killed

Israel Navy troops clashed with pro-Palestinian activists aboard a six-ship aid flotilla sailing for the Gaza Strip after the activists ignored Israeli orders to turn back, Turkey's NTV early Monday.

Webmaster's Commentary:

The aid ships were in international waters. Israel has no authority to issue orders to foreign flagged ships operating in international waters.


At least 10 killed as Israel storms aid convoy: Israeli TV

At least 10 passengers were killed as Israeli forces stormed a boat carrying pro-Palestinian activisists bound for Gaza, the private Israeli television station "10" reported Monday.


Israel attacks Gaza aid fleet

Up to 16 people were killed and more than 30 people injured when Israeli troops stormed the Freedom Flotilla early on Monday, the Israeli Army Radio said.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Maybe Israel intended to massacre the Turkish peace workers to force Erdogan into a war, which will bring the US into the war on Israel's side, which will bring Iran and Russia in on the other side, and Israel will laugh their heads off at how easily they can trick the Christians and Muslims into killing each other off.


SECRETARY-GENERAL 'SHOCKED' BY DEADLY RAID ON GAZA AID FLOTILLA

"I am shocked by reports of killings and injuries of people on the boats carrying supplies for Gaza, apparently in international waters, in the early hours of this morning. I condemn this violence. We do not yet know the full facts yet."

Webmaster's Commentary:

Actually, we do know the facts, Mr. Moon.

Israel attacked without provocation a flotilla of unarmed ships carrying humanitarian supplies to Gaza. These ships were flying the flags of nations such as Turkey and the United States, which means they are not under the authority of Israel as long as they are in international waters. Israel has no legal right to issue orders to that flotilla, nor to board and seize the ships.

When one nation seizes the ships of another nation and kills the passengers and crew of said ship in international waters this is an act of war. And inasmuch as Turkey is a member of NATO, and NATO considers an attack on any member nation an attack on NATO as a whole, Israel has committed an act of war against NATO itself. Certainly Turkey cannot let this act of war pass without response.

Frankly, the credibility of the United Nations as a global governance body is on the line here. If they do not show the world they can stand up to Israel and hold Israel to international law, then the UN must be disbanded forthwith as a total waste of time and money.


ISRAEL JAILS AID FLOTILLA MEMBERS WHO DARED DEFEND THEMSELVES FROM IDF ATTACK.


Protests erupt across the world after Israeli raid

Tens of thousands of people joined angry protests across the world Monday after a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, demanding retaliation and showing support for the Palestinians.


Middle East Fury: Angry Protests as Israel Attacks Gaza Freedom Flotilla

Webmaster's Commentary:

Israel attacked ships flying the flag of the United States of America.

Israel attacked ships flying the flag of the United States of America.

Israel attacked ships flying the flag of the United States of America.

And all those who screamed for war on nations that had NOT attacked us, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, remain silent!


Israel should lead investigation into attack on Gaza flotilla, says US

The United States has blocked demands at the UN security council for an international inquiry into Israel's assault on the Turkish ship carrying aid to Gaza that left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead.

A compromise statement instead calls for an impartial investigation which Washington indicated could be carried out by Israel.

Webmaster's Commentary:

A US-flagged vessel has been attacked in international waters and nine kidnapped Americans are in Israeli jails and the official US policy is to let the criminals do their own investigation???

This means there will be no honest investigation, and that is actually okay because the world will not be free to form their own opinion about what happened, because nobody will believe any official claims made by Israel and the United Nations just died, murdered by the US for the benefit of Israel.


Netanyahu: I regret Gaza flotilla deaths, but Israeli troops had right to self-defense

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he regretted the loss of life sustained by international activists after Israel Navy commandos stormed a flotilla bringing aid to the Gaza Strip, but said the Israeli troops who opened fire were justified for defending themselves.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"Self-defense", my astrolabe!

So, Prime Minister Netanyahu, let me get this straight: the people on those boats, with desperately needed supplies bound for Gaza, had utterly no right to attempt to defend themselves or their comrades, after being attacked in international waters by Israeli commando/thugs?

Sir, you have managed to make a colossally bad political decision magnitudes worse by pathetically attempting to blame the victims.

Thinking people in the world that this is a standard Israeli ploy, but this time, the world won't fall for it.

This is simply desperation on the cusp of madness in an attempt to defend the indefensible.

The Israeli government, yet again, has managed to allow its paranoid hubris to control its political/military decision making, and the unintended consequences of these actions are going to have the absolute opposite outcome to whatever Israel hoped to accomplish with this horrendous act.


Erdogan: Aid ship raid is Israeli state terrorism

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Monday accused Israel of state terrorism after Israeli marines stormed a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza.

"This action, totally contrary to the principles of international law, is inhumane state terrorism. Nobody should think we will keep quiet in the face of this," Erdogan told reporters from Chile, where he was cutting short an official visit to Latin America to deal with the crisis.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Israel indulges in this kind of activities against Palestinians with cavalier impunity consistently; however, this time, they have been caught red-handed in their slaughter and maiming of humanitarian aid workers.

The world cannot just close a collective blind eye this time, and pretend it never happened.

And just how badly was this aid needed?

As reported on 15 November, 2008 at:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/chronic-malnutrition-in-gaza-blamed-on-israel-1019521.html

"The Israeli blockade of Gaza has led to a steady rise in chronic malnutrition among the 1.5 million people living in the strip, according to a leaked report from the Red Cross.

It chronicles the "devastating" effect of the siege that Israel imposed after Hamas seized control in June 2007 and notes that the dramatic fall in living standards has triggered a shift in diet that will damage the long-term health of those living in Gaza and has led to alarming deficiencies in iron, vitamin A and vitamin D.

The 46-page report from the International Committee of the Red Cross – seen by The Independent – is the most authoritative yet on the impact that Israel's closure of crossings to commercial goods has had on Gazan families and their diets."

As reported earlier this year at:

http://www.welfareassociation.org.uk/news.html

"The number of children under five years of age suffering from acute malnutrition in Gaza almost doubled between 2006 and 2008 from 1.4 to 2.4% (UNICEF). The World Health Organisation (WHO) also noted rising indicators for stunting, wasting, low body weight and anaemia among children and pregnant women. The ongoing blockade of Gaza has limited the availability of healthy foods and fresh fruit and vegetables on the local market and children’s health has further suffered."

Malnutrition destroys future generations; the Israelis are quite well aware of this, and this preventing of the foods coming into Gaza that would forestall malnutrition for this kids is official Israeli Government policy.


Israel Prime Minister Gives 'Full Support' to Military in Gaza Flotilla Raid

Webmaster's Commentary:

The American media is trying to spin this as hard as they can in favor of Israel, but here are the facts in defiance of FOX News latest broadcast..

HAMAS did not "seize control" of the Gaza strip; they won the election.

The blockade of basic supplies to Gaza represents collective punishment by Israel against the people of Gaza, a crime under international law and a violation of several UN resolutions.

The attack on the aid convoy took place in international waters. Israel has no legal authority over the ships of other nations in international waters. Israel may not issue orders to foreign flagged ships in international waters. Ships are considered sovereign territory of the nations whose flags they fly. Setting foot on one without the permission of the captain is technically an act of war.

The aid convoy did not "attack" the IDF. The aid convoy, being in international waters, attempted to defend themselves from an act of piracy by a nation with no legal authority over those ships.

The Israelis attacked with helicopters, machine guns, and tear gas. The ships' defenders had axes and a few knives AND EVERY LEGAL RIGHT TO DEFEND THEMSELVES FROM AN ACT OF PIRACY.


Reacting to Gaza [Updated]

Obama's choice now will be to react as he did to the last incredibly ill-timed news — the settlement construction during the Biden visit — and criticize the Israeli action, a move which might upend his recent charm offensive with Jewish groups; or he can, even by remaining silent, tacitly endorse it, and disappoint Arab allies who see the friction with Israel as a sign of progress.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Obama is a pussy!

Obama should have been the one to cancel tomorrow's meeting.

If Obama were a real man of principles, like Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, or John Kennedy, he would stop being such a pussy with Israel and sever all diplomatic relations with Israel for so misusing the military equipment the US gave them.

Setting aside the recent revelation that Israel attempted to sell a nuclear weapon to South Africa, which means ALL US aid to Israel is illegal, the military aid granted to Israel is specifically to be used for defense. Attacking a humanitarian aid convoy in international waters is not defense; it is piracy. Netenyahu has made the US an accessory to this crime because the US supplied the weapons and equipment used to kill the peace activists.

The longer limp-dick Obama wimps out and "studies the situation" the more obvious it becomes that Israel is indeed blackmailing the United States government with 9-11 to enslave our nation.

Obama is a pussy!


Arab world condemns Gaza aid attack

The Arab world has united to condemn the Israeli forces' attack on a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip.

Arab League (AL) Secretary General Amr Moussa slammed the Monday's deadly raid against the humanitarian mission as a "crime."

"We condemn this crime, taken against a humanitarian mission and people. They were trying to help people. They were not on a military mission. Everyone should condemn this," Moussa told AFP. The AL chief said that the 22-member organization was now contemplating its "next step" against Israel.

Webmaster's Commentary:

One has to wonder just what the "next step" the Arab League might be contemplating.


News Agencies Call On Israel To Lift Media Blackout On Gaza Flotilla Attack

The Israeli Navy has jammed all communications aboard the ships of the Freedom Flotilla, blocking cell phone signals and internet connections aboard humanitarian aid ships. Scrambling the signals preceding the Israeli raid on the Flotilla, which involved special forces troops and the mobilization of one third of the Israeli Navy.


Israel storms Gaza-bound aid ships

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/05/31/israel-gaza-aid-death.html#ixzz0pVU5qp8O

At least 10 people are dead and dozens are wounded after Israeli commandos stormed a flotilla of six ships trying to deliver aid to Gaza.

The pre-dawn raid happened more than 60 kilometres out to sea in international waters and the two sides are offering conflicting accounts of what happened on the ships.

Israel said their forces encountered unexpected resistance as they boarded the vessels. Dozens of passengers and at least five Israeli soldiers were wounded in the confrontation in international waters.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I think this is the vital clue to what happened. Israel wasn't expecting the people on the ships to try to defend themselves.

Israel seems to have this arrogant attitude that because they are Israel, they can issue orders to foreign-flagged ships in international waters, and if those orders are not obeyed Israel has a "right" to board and seize those foreign-flagged ships in international waters , and that the people on board those foreign-flagged ships in international waters will not resist such an act of piracy because after all, the attackers are Israelis and therefore not confined by the laws of nations and men.

We saw the same attitude when Israel invaded Lebanon and ran into a brick wall, leaving the Israelis looking at each in puzzlement as if to say, "They are fighting back; are they allowed to do that?!?"


Mavi Marmara VIDEO: Footage From Israeli Raid On Gaza Flotilla

UPDATE: The Israeli Defense Force has released more video from the flotilla allegedly showing IDF naval personnel being attacked after they had boarded the flotilla.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Any ship at sea in international waters, when confronted with an act of piracy or an act of war, has a right to try to defend themselves.

Israel is playing "blame the victim" here; trying to excuse the deaths and injuries with plaintive cries of, "They defended themselves against us, Israelis! They are not allowed to do that! We're Israelis!! They are supposed to surrender and lie down before us, because, after all, we're Israelis!!!!!"


In raw video, reporters claim Israelis fired on activists before boarding ship

In what could be a serious blow to Israel's cover story on the murder of at least nine humanitarian activists making their way to Gaza through international waters, raw video by an Al Jazeera producer, who was filming during the raid, appears to provide evidence that the IDF opened fire on the flotilla even before boarding it.


Official: As many as 9 Americans on Gaza relief flotilla

As many as nine Americans may have been aboard the Gaza relief flotilla attacked by the Israeli military, and are now being held by Israeli authorities, a State Department official said Monday.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Nine American citizens have been kidnapped from international waters by Israel. Will President Pussy start acting like an American President (Teddy Roosevelt as one example) or will he bow and scrape and say, "Yes Massa" to Tel Aviv like the good little slave he is?


World Watches Raid on Relief Flotilla as Israel’s PR Machine Flails

Of course, Israel is quite happy to spread around the latest IDF videos which claim to show the events on the ships as Israeli commandos attacked. Left out of those video accounts is the essential, core fact that the ships were in international waters at the time – and had in fact specifically decided to alter their course to avoid just such a confrontation during the night.


Turkish Sources - Israeli Advance Target Assassination List Found on Flotilla

Picture of the assassination list lost in the fray by an Israeli soldier

"Turkish sources and media revealed a document which shows that a death list had been prepared in advance by the Israelis, showing names and pictures of people on board of the ships to be murdered, who, according to Israel, were “involved in the International humanitarian aid for Gaza”. According to the Turkish sources, hundreds of Israeli soldiers stormed the blue Turkish ship “Marmara” flotilla and they had copies of the death list. The list included the names of civilians on the fleet who should be killed”. The document was apparently recovered after one of the Israeli soldiers lost it during the piracy act."


I just wanted to point out the fact that HAD YOU DIPSHITS NOT JUMPED ON THEIR BOAT, YOU NEVER WOULD HAVE BEEN WITHIN STRIKING DISTACE OF THEIR CLUBS AND BATS AND MAKESHIFT WEAPONS!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYjkLUcbJWo&feature=player_embedded


Israelis are holding nine Americans kidnapped in international waters. Why hasn't Obama called for their return?

(CNN) -- As many as nine Americans may have been aboard the Gaza relief flotilla attacked by the Israeli military, and are now being held by Israeli authorities, a State Department official said Monday.

The official, who had no details about their identities, conditions or whereabouts, said U.S. consular officials were expecting to interview the Americans on Tuesday.

Separately, Jonathan Slevin, a spokesman for the activist group Free Palestine Movement, said a group of five Americans participated in the flotilla, including former U.S. Ambassador Edward Peck.


One Australian shot in Israeli boat raid

One Australian has been wounded during a deadly commando raid on ships taking humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip.


his video image released by the Turkish Aid group IHH Monday May 31, 2010 purports to show Israeli soldiers aiming a gun on the deck of a Turkish ship

This video image released by the Turkish Aid group IHH Monday May 31, 2010 purports to show Israeli soldiers aiming a gun on the deck of a Turkish ship, part of an aid convoy heading to the Gaza Strip, after Israeli soldiers boarded the vessel in international waters off the Gaza coast. Israeli commandos on Monday stormed six ships carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists on an aid mission to the blockaded Gaza Strip, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens after encountering unexpected resistance as the forces boarded the vessels.


The Legal Position on the Israeli Attack

I think that anybody with any fairness is bound to admit that the statement William Hague came out with is much better than anything on Israel which New Labour ever came out with, especially this bit:

"This news underlines the need to lift the restrictions on access to Gaza, in line with UNSCR 1860. The closure is unacceptable and counter-productive. There can be no better response from the international community to this tragedy than to achieve urgently a durable resolution to the Gaza crisis.

I call on the Government of Israel to open the crossings to allow unfettered access for aid to Gaza, and address the serious concerns about the deterioration in the humanitarian and economic situation and about the effect on a generation of young Palestinians

."
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=22300485

But as I told this afternoon's tremendous spontaneous demonstration on Whitehall, fine words are not enough and we must now see the kind of sanctions regime we saw against apartheid South Africa.

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.

Because the incident took place on the high seas does not mean however that international law is the only applicable law. The Law of the Sea is quite plain that, when an incident takes place
on a ship on the high seas (outside anybody's territorial waters) the applicable law is that of the flag state of the ship on which the incident occurred. In legal terms, the Turkish ship was Turkish territory.

There are therefore two clear legal possibilities.

Possibility one is that the Israeli commandos were acting on behalf of the government of Israel in killing the activists on the ships. In that case Israel is in a position of war with Turkey, and the act falls under international jurisdiction as a war crime.

Possibility two is that, if the killings were not authorised Israeli military action, they were acts of murder under Turkish jurisdiction. If Israel does not consider itself in a position of war with Turkey, then it must hand over the commandos involved for trial in Turkey under Turkish law.

In brief, if Israel and Turkey are not at war, then it is Turkish law which is applicable to what happened on the ship. It is for Turkey, not Israel, to carry out any inquiry or investigation into events and to initiate any prosecutions. Israel is obliged to hand over indicted personnel for prosecution.


MK Zoabi: Israel carried out provocative military operation

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3897360,00.html

Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi (Balad) who participated in the international flotilla to the Gaza Strip said, "It was clear from the size of the force that boarded the ship that the purpose was not only to stop this sail, but to cause the largest possible number of fatalities in order to stop such initiatives in the future."

At a press conference in Nazareth, Zoabi said, 'Our goal was to break the siege. We had no plans for a confrontation. Israel carried out a provocative military operation. Israel is used to doing as it pleases with the Palestinians. The main problem is not the ship, but the siege." (Roee Nahmias)


UN Security Council condemns Israeli raid, urges investigation

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=un-council-condemns-israeli-raid-violence-urges-investigation-2010-06-01

The U.S. objected to the explicit condemnation of Israel.

Webmaster's Commentary:

The US Government just delegitimized itself. 9 Americans have been kidnapped in international waters by Israel and the US position at the UN is that Israel should not be explicitly condemned for it.

I have never been so disgusted with this government in my entire life.


Did Activists Attack Israeli Soldiers In Self-Defense?

The Al Jazeera journalist describes the scenes as they unfold live, clearly stating that an activist has been shot and killed before Israeli troops board the vessel. He also says that a white flag has been raised in surrender to the Israeli army. On separate videos, messages broadcast to the passengers by loudspeaker can clearly be heard stating, “stop your resistance,” referring to the fact that the soldiers had guns.

Before the troops board the ship, the journalists report that the passengers are being pelted with tear gas and stun grenades. Booms and cracks echo in the background as the reporter states that one person has been killed.


Turkey: Future Gaza Aid Ships Will Have Military Escorts

Once Israel’s closest ally in the region, the Turkish government has reacted with fury at last night’s Gaza aid ship massacre, condemning it as ‘inhuman state terror.’
Turkey's Navy will reportedly protect future aid ships

The attacked ship was Turkish in origin and at least two of the slain aid workers were Turkish citizens. Turkey says future aid ships will be dispatched with a military escort so as to prevent future Israeli attacks.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Israel will not back down. We are headed to open warfare between Israel and Turkey.


ISRAEL’S LATEST MURDER SPREE SHOULD BE SEEN IN CONTEXT OF THE BIGGER REGIONAL PICTURE.

It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the attack on the Gaza flotilla and the killing of activists on the high seas in international waters by Israeli commandos was an extremely well planned act of aggression designed specifically to murder pre-selected people that were on board the vessel. Turkish sources and the media have revealed that a list prepared by the Israelis and lost by one of the Israeli commandos in the melee that followed their boarding of the vessel shows various activists who were on board and marked down to be killed in a series of targeted assassinations.

Webmaster's Commentary:

If that is true, then Obama has conspired with a foreign power against the citizens of the nation he rules, as Americans were among the victims of Israel's act of war.


Aid ship Rachel Corrie, with 6 M’sians, presses on to Gaza

The humanitarian aid ship Rachel Corrie, which has six Malaysians on board, is pressing ahead in rough seas to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Two other ships are also going ahead to deliver aid despite fresh news reports on Tuesday that the Israeli Navy was standing ready to intercept the ships.


7 troops killed in terrorist attack

Seven Turkish soldiers were killed and six others were injured early Monday morning when terrorists launched a rocket at a naval reinforcement command in ?skenderun, in the southern province of Hatay.

Webmaster's Commentary:

It is only assumed that terrorists attacked this Turkish naval facility, but interestingly enough, this attack took place just before Israel's attack on the Gaza Aid Fleet, against the one Turkish Naval Facility most able to intervene when the distress calls went out.


Nearly 300 Congress members declare commitment to 'unbreakable' U.S.-Israel bond

Webmaster's Commentary:

Apparently these members of Congress think it is perfectly okay for Israel to hijack foreign aide ships in international waters and kidnap US Citizens. But let the United Nations move to criti8cie Israel's blatant violations of international law and the US Government will move quickly to intervene.

America needs leaders who will put America first, second, and third.

America needs leaders who will put America first, second, and third.

America needs leaders who will put America first, second, and third.

No government can serve two masters, and a government that serves Israel clearly does not serve the American people, and one needs only look at the current state of the nation to see how true that is!

When a candidate gets up and starts screaming about what a good friend they are of Israel, VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE!You owe it to the 34 Americans murdered by Israel on the USS Liberty. You owe it to the 9 Americans kidnapped by Israel in international waters.


Obama gives Israel all-out support

After the United Nations ratified a resolution calling for a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, the US president gives Israel "concrete guarantees" to prevent the decision from harming Israeli interests.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I don't care if he does have a birth certificate; this man is NOT an American and by this betrayal of those 9 Americans kidnapped by Israel in international waters he is not fit to continue in office one more day.


U.S. blocks Security Council criticism of Israeli raid

Israel faced heavy criticism in an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council on Monday in response to its deadly attack on an aid flotilla trying to breach the Gaza blockade, but attempts to issue a formal statement stalled after the United States rejected the strong condemnation sought by Turkey.

Webmaster's Commentary:

People of the United States; gaze upon the betrayal by the government which stands silent while Israel kidnaps US Citizens from international waters (or murders 34 young Americans on the USS Liberty), yet will not hesitate to act to save Israel from embarrassment.

Are these the actions of a government whose top priority is to protect and serve the people of this nation?

If you are not enraged by this outright treason, there is something wrong with you.


Witness: No one armed on Gaza flotilla

Three visibly shaken Germans, who experienced a deadly raid by the Israeli military on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza, denied on Tuesday that anyone on board was armed.

"The Israeli government justifies the raid because they were attacked. This is absolutely not the case," former member of parliament Norman Paech, 72, wrapped in a blue blanket, told reporters in Berlin.

"This was not an act of self-defence"


Israel planning massive attack on Gaza: Ahmadinejad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljH6wbErZl8&feature=player_embedded

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Iran has precise information that Israel plans to launch a "massive attack" on Gaza in the wake of its deadly raid on an aid flotilla.

"We have precise information it has planned a massive attack against Gaza to make up for its past defeats," Ahmadinejad said in a public speech in the western Iranian city of Ilam that was broadcast live on state television.


The "Death List" dropped by one of the attacking Israelis.


Death toll from Gaza aid attack hits 20

The death toll from the Israeli navy's takeover of a Gaza aid convoy has risen to 20 while Israel carefully censors reports on the casualties from the attack.

Gaza Freedom Flotilla came under fire early on Monday by Israeli navy forces in international waters more than 150km (90 miles) off the coast of Gaza.

The six-ship aid fleet was soon stormed by commandos descending from helicopters.

At least 20 people were killed in the takeover of the Gaza aid convoy, al-Aqsa TV channel reported, saying that more than 50 people, including leader of the Palestinian Islamic Movement Sheikh Raed Salah, were wounded in the attack.


Two ships still heading towards Gaza

Organizers of flotilla say Irish 'Rachel Corrie', American ship await news on those killed in raid.


One journalist beats Israeli censorship on the Gaza flotilla attack

It was difficult, if not impossible, for journalists to report freely on the attack by Israeli forces on the aid ships attempting to break the Gaza blockade. But Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal did manage to make this broadcast before communications were cut.

Webmaster's Commentary:

That live feed probably saved a lot of lives. Had Israel decided that they had total control over the flow of information from the aid flotilla, probably everybody on that death list would indeed be dead.


Gaza aid flotilla attack: several Britons detained

Several British nationals have been detained by Israeli authorities following the assault on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, the Foreign Office said.


Attack Timeline: How Gaza Freedom Flotilla was raided by Israeli commandos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3RM2ckcXRQ&feature=player_embedded

Strong condemnation is growing around the world after the Israeli military attacked a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. Reports say up to 20 peace activists were killed and dozens injured as commandos stormed the flotilla in international waters. Some of the ships have now arrived in the Israeli port city of Ashdod

Source: Russia Today

Video at link.


Photo Gallery: Attack at Dawn

Many dead, many injured: Israel stopped an aid flotilla headed for the Gaza Strip with bloody military action on Monday morning. Israeli soldiers took over one of six of the ships in the fleet. Here a photo shows the Israeli troops storming the "Mavi Marmara." The organization Free Gaza said the ship was clearly in international waters.


Israel reveals its true face

This will count. A flotilla of relief boats attacked in international waters. Armed commandos boarding a vessel carrying supplies for a besieged civilian population. More than 10 peace activists reported killed. This has to be made to count.


Israeli Navy: 'Next time we'll use more force"

srael will use more aggressive force in the future to prevent ships from breaking the sea blockade on the Gaza Strip, a top Navy commander told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

"We boarded the ship and were attacked as if it was a war," the officer said. "That will mean that we will have to come preparedin the future as if it was a war."

Webmaster's Commentary:

Every foreign national volunteering on these aid ships can expect now that there will be a "shoot to kill" order for every man and woman on every aid ship.

The question is, what will the governments of the countries from which those people are traveling on these aid ships do if their citizens are killed or wounded.


What does Israel fear from media coverage?

Reuters reported that Israel was holding hundreds of activists incommunicado in and around the port city of Ashdod, refusing to permit journalists access to witnesses who might contradict Israel's version of events.

Webmaster's Commentary:

What is Israel afraid of? In two words, the truth.


Egypt Lifts Its Side Of Gaza Blockade

The governor of northern Sinai, Murad Muwafi, says President Hosni Mubarak ordered the opening of the border crossing to Gaza in the town of Rafah for several days.

Muwafi says the opening of the crossing – which Egypt sealed after Gaza was taken over by Hamas militants in 2007 – is an effort to "alleviate the suffering of our Palestinian brothers after the Israeli attack" on the flotilla.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Good on Mubarak; but let's make open border to Gaza last not "...a couple of days", but a permanent lifting of the siege on Egypt's part!


Turkish PM: Israeli Raid A 'Bloody Massacre'

The Turkish prime minister furiously blamed Israel on Tuesday for a "bloody massacre" that killed nine people on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship, and proclaimed that the two countries had reached a turning point in their long-standing alliance.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told lawmakers in Parliament that the boarding of the Mediterranean flotilla and killing of at least four Turkish activists was an attack "on international law, the conscience of humanity and world peace."


'The ship turned into a lake of blood,' says activist on Gaza flotilla

Pro-Palestinian activists returning to Europe said Israeli commandos used stun guns on passengers and beat them during the deadly raid on an aid flotilla that was trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. One woman said her aid ship turned into a lake of blood."

Five Germans, six Greeks and several others - among them a Turkish woman and her 1-year-old baby - were released Tuesday, but Israel barred access to hundreds of other activists seized during the raid Monday that killed at least nine people and wounded dozens.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Please note that Turkey, Greece, and Germany have obviously advocated in no uncertain terms for their citizens to be released and returned, which the President of the United States has refused to do, to date.


Turkish fleet will sail to the eastern Mediterranean

Moira tourkikou the Navy, consisting of four frigates previously participated in an exercise to the west and south of Crete and had been subsequently for the port of Alexandria, arrived yesterday morning at the port of Cartagena in Spain and is expected to leave for the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey came to be threatened by new ships with humanitarian aid will be sent to the Gaza Strip, have naval escorts Turkish Navy Ships!

Webmaster's Commentary:

Although the translation from the Greek is more than a little less than perfect, the gist of this is that Turkish warships are reported on the move toward Israel.


Israel says Free Gaza Movement poses threat to Jewish state

Once viewed only as a political nuisance by Israel's government, the group behind the Gaza aid flotilla has grown since its inception four years ago into a broad international movement that now includes Islamist organizations that Israeli intelligence agencies say pose a security threat to the Jewish state.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Desperately needed aid for Gaza is not a "security threat to the Jewish State"; this aid is a humanitarian necessity, and the collective punishment of Gaza by the Israeli siege is a crime against humanity, period, end of discussion.


Israel Murders Human Rights Workers Delivering Humanitarian Aid

On Sunday, Israel murdered human rights workers who were attempting to deliver 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, because Gaza has been virtually cut off from the outside world by Israel. At least 19 people were reportedly killed and dozens injured when Israeli troops boarded the 6-ship Freedom Flotilla convoy in international waters and immediately fired live ammunition at the people on board the ships. The convoy was comprised of 700 people from 50 nationalities and included a Nobel laureate, members of parliament from Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Turkey and Malaysia, as well as Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset and a Holocaust survivor.

Webmaster's Commentary:

One has to wonder; by whom and how will Israel be stopped from its acts of barbarity against the Palestinian people?


US should condemn Israeli raid, push for immediate talks

THE ISRAELI raid that killed at least nine activists who sought to break the blockade of Gaza is a turning point in the Middle East. The likeliest reaction is a new wave of terrorism and conflict. The less likely — but absolutely critical — reaction should be a renewed commitment to the peace process. No event could demonstrate more clearly to all parties that the current situation on the West Bank and in Gaza is not sustainable, and that a two-state agreement is essential for world peace.


Ships and their flags

1. Mavi Marmara passenger Flagged in Turkey

2. Sofia cargo ship Flagged in Greece

3. Gazza 1 cargo ship Flagged in Turkey

4. Gazza 2 cargo ship Flagged in Turkey

5. Spendoni passenger Flagged in Greece

6. Challenger 1 Flagged in U.S.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Okay, this is a confirm. Israel has committed an act of war against a US flagged vessel, and Obama's reaction is "We are studying the situation." Ever ready to spill American blood in nations that have not actually attacked us such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran President Barack Obama stands obediently mute and impotent before Israel like the good little Tel Aviv slave he is. Other world leaders have blasted Israel and demanded their citizens back, or else and Israel has started sending back those citizens, while nine Americans as of this writing remain inside Israel's prison.

We are all Palestinians now.


Detained flotilla activists denied lawyer

Rights groups have expressed concern over the continued detention of 480 passengers from the six Freedom Flotilla ships, reportedly moved to the Ela Prison in Israel's south.

Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz said Tuesday that so far 50 of the Flotilla passengers had been voluntarily repatriated to their home countries, while some 629 had refused to be deported and would remain in Israeli prison until the nation decided what, if any, legal action would be taken.


Witnesses cast doubt on Israel's convoy raid account

Eyewitness accounts from ships raided by Israeli commandos have cast doubt on Israel's version of events that led to the deaths of at least 10 people.

German pro-Palestinian activist Norman Paech said he had only seen wooden sticks being brandished as troops abseiled on to the deck of the ship.

Israel says its soldiers were attacked with "knives, clubs and other weapons" and opened fire in self defence.


Gaza flotilla raid draws furious response from Turkey's prime minister

Webmaster's Commentary:

"We are studying the situation." -- Obama


Flotilla raid passengers tell of violent attacks

Most of those killed were aboard the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, and there have been conflicting accounts of what happened during the assault.

Webmaster's Commentary:

This means there was killing by the IDF on other ships.


Cowen: Israel faces 'serious consequences' if Irish are harmed

Webmaster's Commentary:

"We are studying the situation." -- Obama


Eyewitnesses recount Israel flotilla raid

Hanin Zoabi, a member of the Israeli parliament, was on board the Miva Marmara, the ship that was the scene of a confrontation between activists and Israeli soldiers. That clash left at least nine people dead.

The Israeli Navy fired on the ships five minutes before commandos descended from ropes that dangled from helicopters, Zoabi said during a press conference in Nazareth, Israel. She said passengers on board the ship were unarmed.



Pakistan:


U.S. considering strike on Pakistan for NYC bomb attempt


Pentagon Gets Around Troop Ban in Pakistan by Outsourcing Weapons Transport

Unable to deploy troops in Pakistan, but still in need of ways to transport weapons across it and into Afghanistan, the U.S. government is looking for defense contractors who can take on the task of logistical support through Pakistani territory. The Department of Defense has put out requests for companies to bid on the risky job of moving equipment and weaponry through sensitive areas of Pakistan—and to collect intelligence related to threat assessments.

The Nation has reported that U.S. personnel will be involved in the supply operation carried out by the contractor, which could mean the effort is being used to bypass the stated policy of no troops in Pakistan.

“Perhaps most striking about this US military contract solicitation is the admission by the military that contractors are being used for shipping and guarding military hardware as a run-around to the current official policy of the US and Pakistan governments that the US military does not conduct operations in Pakistan,” writes Jeremy Scahill in The Nation.

Among those interested in the job are an Afghan firm connected to the CIA and run by the son of Afghanistan’s defense minister, General Abdul Rahim Wardak, as well as a Pakistani company linked to the controversial security firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater.



Liban:


Lebanon boosts defense near S border

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=127951&sectionid=351020203

The Lebanese army has beefed up defenses along the country's southern border, launching a military exercise against a backdrop of Israel's ongoing war games.

Lebanon deployed its 11th infantry brigade along the western sector in the south, media reports quoted the country's al-Manar TV network as saying on Wednesday.

Security officials in Beirut said forces were deployed across the border with Israel "in order to thwart any possible offensive from the enemy, and close any loopholes that it might use during an attack scenario."

The officials also said the army was ready to counter any possible Israeli incursion.

The deployment came two days after Israeli forces, backed by military vehicles, took up combat positions near Fatmeh Gate and in the groves adjacent to Kfar Kila, prompting Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers in the area to go on alert.

The Lebanese army said earlier on Wednesday its anti-aircraft artillery opened fire at two intruding Israeli warplanes flying at medium altitude over the Lebanese territory.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, had earlier warned about Israel's violation of Lebanese airspace, saying they were in breach of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 33-day Israeli offensive on southern Lebanon in 2006.

The development comes amid ongoing Israeli military drills codenamed "Turning Point 4" in 68 different towns and cities - which is widely viewed as an indication of another Israeli war in the region.

Hezbollah's Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Tuesday that the Lebanese resistance movement would respond to any renewed Israeli offensive against the country.


ISRAELI AIRCRAFTS SHOT AT OVER LEBANON!

The National News Agency (NNA) reported on Wednesday that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) fired anti-aircraft artillery from the town of Shebaa in South Lebanon at Israeli warplanes flying over Lebanese territory around 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday.



Iran:


Nuclear Fuel Swap Deal: US Sabotages ‘Unique Opportunity’ for Peaceful Resolution with Iran

This US stonewalling of any avenue for dialogue with Iran has disturbing echoes of Washington’s deliberate sabotaging of diplomatic overtures for a peaceful resolution prior to its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. It also exposes Obama’s vow of a new beginning in US foreign policy to be cynical lie, trotted out in front of his nation and the world with hand on heart.

Webmaster's Commentary:

One has to wonder precisely what the US is doing right now to get the IAEA to reject this deal.

Because if the IAEA accepts this, there is nothing, for all intents and purposes, that the US can do to stop it.

If the US and/or Israel attack Iran for doing precisely what the UN and the IAEA wanted it to do, it will absolutely underline the utter hypocrisy and illegitimacy of US and Israeli foreign policy.


Iran won`t ratify nuclear exchange deal unless approved by UN Security Council

Iran won`t ratify a nuclear exchange deal unless the paper is approved by all members of the UN Security Council, and the latter abandon their plans to impose new sanctions against Tehran, a spokesman for the Iranian parliament, Ali Larijani, said. On Monday Iran is expected to notify the IAEA of its nuclear swap agreement with Brazil and Turkey. The deal the three countries signed on 17 May entails the transfer of 1,200 kg of Iran’s low-enriched uranium to Turkey, when it will be exchanged for nuclear fuel.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Of course the US will oppose this, because the real goal is to derail any possibility of a deal and press on to the war.


Iran sanctions face opposition at UN

THE United States and its Western allies won crucial support from Russia and China for new sanctions against Iran over its suspect nuclear program, but they now face a tough campaign to get backing from the rest of the UN Security Council.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I told you Hillary was jumping the gun!


Obama tells Erdogan he will pursue sanctions against Iran

In telephone conversation with Turkish prime minister, US president makes it clear that international community is still worried about Iran's nuclear program. He emphasizes that Tehran's recent actions 'don't build confidence'

Webmaster's Commentary:

Obama just told Turkey to go screw itself; which may explain why today Turkey resumed bombing of Kurdish targets inside Iraq.


U.S. Has 'Very Serious' Disagreement With Brazil Over Iran, Clinton Says

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States has a "very serious" disagreement with Brazil over its approach to curbing Iran's nuclear program.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"You're ... you're ... you're ... just ruining ... everything!!!!" -- Hillarity


Israel impatient with international effort to thwart Iran's nuclear ambition

- Israel, which initially tolerated President Obama's effort to thwart Iranian nuclear ambitions through sanctions, has grown increasingly impatient in recent weeks with the approach and concerned that whatever is agreed to now at the U.N. Security Council will only allow Iran more time to advance its program.

A fourth round of potential sanctions unveiled by the Obama administration on Tuesday did little to allay Israel's fears that the world doesn't seem able to stop Iran from continuing to enrich uranium or develop what Israel believes is a covert nuclear weapons program.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Memo to Israel: as reported this morning at:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100522/pl_nm/us_iran_nuclear_swap

"Iran intends to go ahead with a deal reached with Turkey and Brazil for a nuclear fuel swap despite a new sanctions resolution against Tehran pending at the United Nations, an Iranian parliamentarian said Saturday."

"Iran is committed to the vows that it made and wants to make them operational and will submit its letter to International Atomic Energy Agency," Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of parliament's Foreign Affairs and National Security Committee, was quoted as saying by semi-official news agency ISNA."

If the IAEA accepts this proposal, there is nothing you can do to stop it. Iran is proving that it is working very diligently to be a responsible member of the nuclear club, in terms of abiding by the book in terms of its nuclear power program.

Israel, on the the other hand, has nuclear weapons, but refuses to become a signatory to the NNPT, and allow inspections of its nuclear facilities.

The rogue nation here is not Iran; it is Israel.


US House approves Iran sanction

The US House of Representatives on Friday voted to bar companies that do business with Iran's energy sector or provide Tehran with sensitive weapons technology from getting US military contracts.

"It's time to present a simple choice: Companies can prop up the dangerous rouge regime in Iran, or they can do business with the US government and Department of Defense -- not both," said Democratic Representative Ron Klein, the author of the measure.

Lawmakers voted 416-1 to attach the measure to an annual military spending bill, which passed later by a 229-186 margin.

Webmaster's Commentary:

These sanctions are yet one more step on the road to a military confrontation with Iran.


"Signs of Practical Preparations for a Possible US Military Operation against Iran"

Excerpt from The Jerusalem Post, which suggest that the US and Israel are preparing to attack Iran.

Reports that the Pentagon has okayed reconnaissance missions over Iran were seen in Jerusalem on Tuesday as the first public signs of practical preparations for a possible US military operation against Iran.

Although it is obvious that the Pentagon has contingency plans for all possible scenarios, one Israeli official said this was “the first time that the public is getting word of practical preparations of military activity.”

Webmaster's Commentary:

This is hardly "... “the first time that the public is getting word of practical preparations of military activity.”

The US public has been getting "groomed" for such an operation for years, by various bits and pieces of propaganda, coupled with disinformation.

This drive for war, orchestrated by Tel Aviv, in which American kids will fight, get killed, or maimed for life, has absolutely nothing to do with Iran's peaceful nuclear energy program.

Just as happened in Iraq, the US will be called to neutralize yet another non-existent "existential threat" to the Jewish state.

The bottom line here is, no country in the Middle East is safe until Israel is stopped from indulging in its consistent territorial aggressions.

Unfortunately, Israel's near-pathological national paranoia, fueled by hubristic delusions of religious supremacy and coupled with demands that it should always get everything it wants, may well create the conditions of its own demise.

Neither Russia, nor China (Iran's number one trading partner) will sit idly by and allow such an attack to happen against Iran without consequences.

It is simply a question of what form those consequences will take.


Petraeus orders US spies to prepare for anti-nuclear strike on Iran

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7136614.ece

Teams of American special forces have been authorised to conduct spying missions intended to pave the way for a military strike on Iran in case President Obama orders one, US government sources have confirmed.

The military units would penetrate Iranian territory to reconnoitre potential nuclear targets and make contact with friendly dissident groups, according to a secret directive written by General David Petraeus. The document’s existence was disclosed for the first time yesterday.

It authorises an expansion in the use of US special forces throughout the Middle East, US officials said. However, it is the possibility of American troops operating covertly inside Iran that has the greatest potential to destabilise regional security.

General Petraeus, the most senior American commander in the Middle East and Central Asia, relied on special forces to ensure the success of the US troop surge in Iraq in 2007. His order to increase the use of Delta Force, Navy Seal and Army Ranger units for intelligence gathering and combat missions could jeopardise US relations with allies in the region while intensifying a long-running turf war between US military intelligence and the CIA.

The seven-page document, seen by The New York Times, remained classified yesterday, though it was written in September. Since then US military specialists working with Yemeni armed forces have killed 6 out of 15 leaders of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The raids followed reports linking the group to the murder of 13 Americans at Fort Hood, Texas, and the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines jet.

The number of US special operations teams in Afghanistan has also doubled since the Petraeus directive, senior officials have said. Such teams are now believed to account for more than half of all combat operations in the Afghan war zone.

Sending special forces into Iran would be controversial but one of the missions of US Special Operations Command, headed by Admiral Eric Olson, is to conduct reconnaissance in any country deemed to pose a threat. A Pentagon spokesman acknowledged to The Times that individual commanders have authority to conduct intelligence operations as they see fit.


Israel stations nuclear missile subs off Iran

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7140282.ece

Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles are to be deployed in the Gulf near the Iranian coastline.

The first has been sent in response to Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, a political and military organisation in Lebanon, could hit sites in Israel, including air bases and missile launchers.

The submarines of Flotilla 7 — Dolphin, Tekuma and Leviathan — have visited the Gulf before. But the decision has now been taken to ensure a permanent presence of at least one of the vessels.

Each of the submarines has a crew of 35 to 50, commanded by a colonel capable of launching a nuclear cruise missile.

The vessels can remain at sea for about 50 days and stay submerged up to 1,150ft below the surface for at least a week. Some of the cruise missiles are equipped with the most advanced nuclear warheads in the Israeli arsenal.

The deployment is designed to act as a deterrent, gather intelligence and potentially to land Mossad agents. “We’re a solid base for collecting sensitive information, as we can stay for a long time in one place,” said a flotilla officer.

The submarines could be used if Iran continues its programme to produce a nuclear bomb. “The 1,500km range of the submarines’ cruise missiles can reach any target in Iran,” said a navy officer.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles ..."

"Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles ..."

"Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles ..."


ISRAELI SUBMARINES OFF IRAN WILL PROVIDE U.S. WITH ‘PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY’ AGAINST ACCUSATIONS OF INVOLVEMENT OF STARTING WAR AGAINST IRAN.

The news that Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles are to be deployed in the Persian Gulf near the Iranian coast should come as no surprise to Middle Eastern affairs watchers.

This has left Israel with no other alternative but to unilaterally strike Iran themselves. The problem, however, is that they the Israelis could not possibly launch a ‘unilateral’ strike against Iran by air assault from Israel without considerable collusion and assistance, covertly or otherwise, from the US; the logistics of fuel acquisition, ordnance, intelligence, etc., simply do not allow it.

The only chance the Israelis have of beginning their final confrontation with Iran without it looking as though the US is part of the attack is to attack Iran unilaterally from the sea.

Hence the submarines.


But let’s not be fooled by this ruse. If Israel did attack Iran using its cruise missiles, nuclear or otherwise, they would still need to have the US backing them. Whilst ostensibly it may look as though the Israelis have attacked unilaterally, the Israelis will require immediate assistance from the US in helping prevent Iranian retaliation which means massive preparation and, therefore, prior knowledge on Obama’s part. The Israelis and the US may be able to fool some of the world into thinking that an attack against Iran had nothing to do with the US but the reality is that the US will be as much involved with any attack against Iran as Israel would be.


US NAVY BASE IN BAHRAIN TO DOUBLE IN SIZE


Mina Salman Port, Bahrain - Construction began Wednesday on doubling the size of the US Navy base in Bahrain, with digging beginning on a 70-acre site leased from the Bahraini government.

The four-phase, 580 million dollar project will massively increase the military capabilities of the US 5th Fleet based there, according to US officials.

Webmaster's Commentary:

More power projection in the Middle East...while homeless Veterans sleep in our streets.


Russia Warns US, EU Against Unilateral Sanctions On Iran

Russia has warned the U.S. and European Union against imposing unilateral sanctions on Iran which go beyond those planned by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), reports said on Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who spoke to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on phone was quoted as saying in the Russian media that the U.S. and EU were seeking individual sanctions against Tehran.

"There is information that the US and the European Union are not limiting themselves to a common position on Iran in the UN Security Council and want to introduce additional, one-sided sanctions," Lavrov said.


Russia: We'll sell advanced missile system to Iran

Harsher sanctions on Iran will not prevent Russia from fulfilling its obligation and selling the S-300 missile system to Tehran, a senior Russian parliamentarian said Friday.

Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mikhail Margelov said the latest sanctions proposal does not pertain to agreements signed with Iran in the past.


Iran sanctions won't stop missiles: Russian senator

The head of a parliamentary foreign affairs committee was quoted on Friday as saying that sanctions on Iran being discussed by world powers would not stop Russia from delivering S-300 surface to air missiles to Tehran.


Russia frustrated with Iran but unlikely to fully support sanctions

Webmaster's Commentary:

Hillary spoke way too soon!


Brazil wants Iran sanctions dropped

After Iran issued a declaration seeking to end the country’s nuclear dispute, Brazil says slapping a new round of UN Security Council sanctions against Tehran would jeopardize a peaceful solution to case.

Webmaster's Commentary:

That is precisely why Hillary is doing it!


President Ahmadinejad: Rest assured that Osama Bin Laden is in Washington D.C.

(small) excerpt from: Transcript: George Stephanopoulos Interviews Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=10558442

ABC News website, 5 May 2010

"Good Morning America" anchor George Stephanopoulos interviewed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a day after Ahmadinejad spoke before the U.N.'s conference on the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty Monday, claiming his country's nuclear program was not a threat to global security, but the United States' is.

The following is an excerpt from the transcript of the interview, which took place on Tuesday, May 4, 2010.

__________________

STEPHANOPOULOS: One final question. There's a new documentary out that says that Osama Bin Laden is living in Tehran. And the subject of the documentary, a man named Alan Parrot, one of the world's foremost falconers living in Iran, says he's spoken to Osama bin Laden several times since 2003. Is Osama bin Laden in Tehran?

AHMADINEJAD: Your question is laughable.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Why?

AHMADINEJAD: The U.S. government has invaded Afghanistan in order to arrest Bin Laden. They probably know where Bin Laden is. If they don't know he is, why did they invade? Could we know the intelligence?

STEPHANOPOULOS: I think if they knew, they would find him. They would get him.

AHMADINEJAD: First they should have tried to find his location, then invade, those who did not know about his location first they invaded and then they tried to find out where he is, is that logical? Do you think this is logical?

STEPHANOPOULOS: What I think is that you didn't answer my question. Is he in Tehran or not?

AHMADINEJAD: Our position is quite clear. Some journalists have said Bin Laden is in Iran. These words don't have legal value. Our position towards Afghanistan and against terrorism is quite clear.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Is it true or not?

AHMADINEJAD: Maybe you know, but I don't know.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I'm asking you. You're the President of Iran.

AHMADINEJAD: I don't know such a thing, you are giving news which is very strange.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, let me ask it a different way. If you did know that Osama bin Laden was in Tehran, would you show him hospitality? Would you expel him? Would you arrest him?

AHMADINEJAD: I heard that Osama bin Laden is in the Washington, D.C.

STEPHANOPOULOS: No, you didn't.

AHMADINEJAD: Yes, I did. He's there. Because he was a previous partner of Mr. Bush. They were colleagues in fact in the old days. You know that. They were in the oil business together. They worked together. Mr. Bin Laden never cooperated with Iran but he cooperated with Mr. Bush--

STEPHANOPOULOS: I'll ask one more time and then I'll let you go. If you knew that Osama bin Laden was in Tehran, which you say you don't. If you knew, would you expel him? Would you arrest him? Would you show him hospitality?

AHMADINEJAD: Our borders, our borders are closed to the illegal entry of anyone. Anyone who that may be. Whether it's the three American mountaineers, Mr. Bin Laden or anyone else. The borders are closed. Our position is clear.

I'm quite surprised, to see that you adjust your daily lives based on the news that is being broadcast. I'm concerned that the government of the United States takes positions based on such news. If it is so, it is too bad. The news must be accurate and accountable, otherwise it will disrupt the relations between the nations. Just like this, did the government of the United States knew about the location of Mr. Bin Laden? And you said, "No, they went to find out." Well, first you locate--

STEPHANOPOULOS: They lost the trail.

AHMADINEJAD: --to find out they have invaded Afghanistan. First they have to find out his location and then invade. It's like for a judge to arrest someone and then go after the evidence.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you deny categorically that he's in Tehran today? He is not-- Osama bin Laden is not in Tehran today?

AHMADINEJAD: Rest assured that he's in Washington. I think there's a high chance he's there.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I don't agree.

Thank you for your time, Mr. President.


Zimbabwe denies uranium deal with Iran

A report by the UK-based Daily Telegraph claimed on Saturday that a deal had been reached between the two countries under which Iran would be allowed to mine potential uranium deposits in Zimbabwe to provide fuel for its nuclear reactors and in exchange Zimbabwe would get oil from Iran. The report said that the agreement was sealed secretly last month during a visit to Tehran by a close aide to Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe.

Webmaster's Commentary:

This is a replay of the infamous and equally mythical deal claimed between Iraq and Niger over "Yellow cake" processed uranium. That claim, which resulted in President Bush's notorious "16 words" in the 2003 State of the Union speech in which he claimed Iraq was acquiring processed uranium from Niger, was based on documents which the IAEA declared to be obvious forgeries.

Clearly the Daily Telegraph hopes you are either too stupid or too forgetful to realize this trick has been played on you before.


U.S., Israeli attack on Iran would be 'unacceptable' - Russia military

Any airstrike against Iran by the United States or Israel would be "unacceptable," the chief of the Russian General Staff Nikolai Makarov said on Monday.


UK vows to back US against Iran

Days after the establishment of a new British government, Foreign Secretary William Hague vows to work with the US against Iran, going so far as to consider military action against Tehran.

In his first official visit to the US, Hague pledged support for a new round of UN Security Council resolutions against Iran over its nuclear work.

“The United Kingdom will work solidly alongside the United States to secure the Security Council resolution,” the British minister said at a Friday joint press conference with his US counterpart Hillary Clinton.

Webmaster's Commentary:

We are hearing the drumbeats for war pound harder and faster as it becomes more apparent that there will most probably be no sanctions against Iran at the UN level.


Gen McChrystal: No Proof Iran Sending Fighters or Weapons to Afghanistan

Despite several claims made to the contrary over the past several months, US commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal today conceded that there was no proof that the Iranian government has been sending fighters or weapons to Afghanistan.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I'm glad that McChrystal had that (albeit brief) moment of candor.

The accusations of this nature made by SecDef Gates are getting no traction with the American people at all, nor should they.

Why would Iran give the US (and/or Israel) more justification toward a military confrontation? The short answer is, the Iranian leadership is smart enough not to.


US official: Iran military strike 'off the table'

The U.S. has ruled out a military strike against Iran's nuclear program any time soon, hoping instead negotiations and United Nations sanctions will prevent the Middle East nation from developing nuclear weapons, a top U.S. defense department official said Wednesday.

"Military force is an option of last resort," Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy said during a press briefing in Singapore. "It's off the table in the near term."

Webmaster's Commentary:

One has to wonder if Israel has "gotten the memo" about this, and what it will do when it realizes it may well be on its own if it decides to go ahead and attack Iran, solo.


US Vows New Sanctions Against Iran in ‘Weeks’

Much as they did several times last week, and several times the week before that, and indeed innumerable times this year, last year, and the year before that, the US today vowed that there would be new sanctions against Iran in a matter of weeks.

This time the pledge came in the form of comments by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D – MD) who promised that the United States would act “sooner, rather than later” in more harsh sanctions against Iran for its civilian nuclear program.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Memo to Steny Hoyer: you know full well that the US is not going to get the sanctions at the UN level against Iran, so what is next?

Blockading the Gulf, which will be (rightly) interpreted as an act of war, a war which may well have Russia and China enter on the part of Iran?


Iran's military begins large-scale war games

Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, has described Iran's nuclear programme as a threat to its existence. Although it says it wants a diplomatic solution, Washington also has not ruled out military action.


Iranian plane buzzes carrier in Middle East

Webmaster's Commentary:

Yeah, well, when you park a carrier off the coast of Iran, you can expect Iran will want to take a look and who can blame them. Last time the US had a bunch of warship parked off of the coast of Iran the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian passenger jet.


Freedom Flotilla: Separating Truth from Zionist Bullshit

“It was clear from the size of the force that boarded the ship that the purpose was not only to stop this sail, but to cause the largest possible number of fatalities in order to stop such initiatives in the future.”


Eyewitness accounts demolish Israeli lies

Eyewitness accounts demolish Israeli lies: Commandos opened fire before boarding Gaza flotilla, then shot and tortured people at will
Dorian Jones & Helena Smith
The Guardian

If Iran had attacked the Gaza aid ships instead of Israel, can you imagine US corporate media spin?

*hyperlinks and video live at source*

In violation of international law, Israel boarded and fired upon civilians in international waters attempting to deliver medical supplies and life-necessary materials to Gaza.

Ironically, Gaza is the world's largest concentration camp; collectively, unlawfully, and lethally punished by Israel.

Kourosh Ziabari wrote a brilliant factual article and analysis asking this question: What if Iran Had Carried Out the Gaza Carnage? I’ll reprint his article below.

For my comprehensive resources that includes US/Israel lies to foment war with Iran, click here.


The madness of arrogance: Israel's attack on the Gaza aid flotilla

Alan Sabrosky argues that Israel may have overreached itself by murdering international aid workers bound for beleaguered Gaza, and that this act of wanton savagery provides the civilized world with an opportunity to rein in the rogue Jewish state once and for all.


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