Category: Current events

example #2 of how to not treat an allie

The US secretly agreed to give the Russians sensitive information on Britain’s nuclear deterrent to persuade them to sign a key treaty, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal signed by President Barack Obama next week.

Defence analysts claim the agreement risks undermining Britain’s policy of refusing to confirm the exact size of its nuclear arsenal.

The fact that the Americans used British nuclear secrets as a bargaining chip also sheds new light on the so-called “special relationship”, which is shown often to be a one-sided affair by US diplomatic communications obtained by the WikiLeaks website.

Full story here

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in a nutshell

Mr. Levy, the former Israeli peace negotiator, said: “The problem for America is, you can balance being the carrier for the Israeli agenda with Arab autocrats, but with Arab democracies, you can’t do that.”

the full story here

2 cents:
This circles Reagan’s words and rebuke about Carter’s administration and the Iran mess it created. With the Shah of Iran you had stability in the nation, someone doing his best to keep extremism at bay while trying to allow the culture flourish. True he was a autocracy but he was an allie of the USA and in many ways the region because of his allegiances to the West and a separation of religion and government. Our government’s meddling (OIL) and instigation led to his overthrow and the power that took the place of the vacuum was the Ayatollah and you know the rest.

Now this may tick someone off but it needs to be “said” – because of the attributes and philosophy of the Islam religion the risk to a nation and the world is exceptionally great when democracy is attempted. For example – central to its belief structure is the necessity of the religion being the government so with this ideology the different views/positions of Islam run the country literally. When you have a religion that encourages violence for the sake of their version of Islam, well then the liberal arm of Islam will always be killed by the extremists which means extremism will run the government.

If what some of the earlier reports are stating is true and this mess in Egypt had been encouraged & nurtured by USA meddling then our government has committed another atrocious act of disservice to the world.

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Unite around religion

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader has called the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia an “Islamic liberation movement”.

In his address, during Friday prayers at Tehran University in Iran’s capital, he said that people are witnessing the reverberations of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

“The awakening of the Islamic Egyptian people is an Islamic liberation movement and I, in the name of the Iranian government, salute the Egyptian people and the Tunisian people,”he said.

Khamenei has urged Egypt’s protesters to follow in the footsteps of the Iranian revolution which toppled a pro-US leader and installed an Islamic Republic, calling on Egyptians to unite around religion.

Khamenei added that the Egypt’s embattled president, Hosni Mubarak, is a “servant” of Israel and the United States.

The spiritual leader’s remarks were received by cheering crowds of worshippers who, raising their hands, chanted “Death to America! Death to Israel!”

full story here

2 cents: I believe this confirms my “in a nutshell” post

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Time for plain talk

From today’s Washington Post:
“I don’t think America appeals to the younger generation,” she said. “I’m cautious not to present them with the American example because there’s a negative attitude to America, a disappointment.”
No one yet knows what kind of Middle East will emerge from Cairo’s embattled streets: a newly democratic one, an increasingly radicalized one, or perhaps one in which authoritarian regimes tighten their grip. Events in Cairo are unfolding too rapidly to predict, but one possible outcome could be a more visibly anti-American drift.
Still, it is notable that even the most rabid protests against President Hosni Mubarak have focused on his reign, rather than on the American role in enabling it.
Reform of a particular sort could actually bolster U.S. interests if it allows more open commerce and development of a strong middle class in societies often split today between a connected rich and a dispossessed poor.

My 2 cents:
Plain talk is what our government needs to convey to Egypt and Muslims across the world.
Plainly and honestly explain that we are pro-democracy and have as a hope a world that embraces democratic principles. That our hesitation and lack of clarity for what is going in Egypt is because of the fear of extremists of any kind seizing this opportunity to plunder Egypt and any other nation that opens the door to a democratic process.
Be honest. Be respectful. Egyptians, Muslims, citizens of the world would appreciate honest dialogue. The region could strengthen and bloom under such words.

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unfortunately no improvement

Nov. 30th

Late last week the University of MI consumer sentiment report and analysis was released. It is “present” looking study and has over 30 years of historical data to compare the present with. It is a nice, short and sweet snapshot of the national consumer “feeling” about spending and earning. The November report highlights:

Unfortunately, there has been no improvement in consumers’ financial prospect in the past two years. While consumers clearly believe that the recovery has gained some traction, most still think that the economic gains will be too small to improve their own job and income position anytime soon.”

 

The personal finances of consumers remained quite bleak in November. Nearly twice as many consumers re-ported that their finances had worsened rather than improved during the past year, with one-in-three reporting declines in household income.

 

The majority of households expected no income increase during the year ahead in November, for the 23rd consecutive

 

The Expectations Index, a component of the Index of Leading Economic Indicators, worsened during the past year (-2.6%).

 

The monthly report is available here: https://customers.reuters.com/community/university/default.aspx#

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Plugging a leak

Mr. Krauthammer’s recent article dealt with the Wikileaks subject and Assange in particular; here a few snip-its:

At a Monday news conference, Attorney General Eric Holder assured the nation that his people are diligently looking into possible legal action against WikiLeaks. Where has Holder been? The WikiLeaks exposure of Afghan war documents occurred five months ago. Holder is looking now at possible indictments? This is a country where a good prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich. Months after the first leak, Justice’s thousands of lawyers have yet to prepare charges against Julian Assange and his confederates?

 

Throw the Espionage Act of 1917 at them. And if that is not adequate, if that law has been too constrained and watered down by subsequent Supreme Court rulings, then why hasn’t the administration prepared new legislation adapted to these kinds of Internet-age violations of U.S. security? It’s not as if we didn’t know more leaks were coming. And that more leaks are coming still.

 

Think creatively. The WikiLeaks document dump is sabotage, however quaint that term may seem. We are at war – a hot war in Afghanistan where six Americans were killed just this past Monday, and a shadowy world war where enemies from Yemen to Portland, Ore., are planning holy terror. Franklin Roosevelt had German saboteurs tried by military tribunal and executed. Assange has done more damage to the United States than all six of those Germans combined. Putting U.S. secrets on the Internet, a medium of universal dissemination new in human history, requires a reconceptualization of sabotage and espionage – and the laws to punish and prevent them. Where is the Justice Department?

 

And where are the intelligence agencies on which we lavish $80 billion a year? Assange has gone missing. Well, he’s no cave-dwelling jihadi ascetic. Find him. Start with every five-star hotel in England and work your way down.

Want to prevent this from happening again? Let the world see a man who can’t sleep in the same bed on consecutive nights, who fears the long arm of American justice.

2 cents: It is pretty well known that he is in the UK. In fact it has also been established that week that the UK MI5 and 6 know exactly where he is. I am leaning more and more to having him picked up and detained. I agree about the charges being brought against him for spying and if the law is not up to date it needs to be updated you bunch of dopes. Then grandfather past cases in and lock him away. Again – this was not a whistle blowing case and he should not be protected because of it.

full article here

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