Category: Non Fiction

Putin speaks with Netanyahu

The high point of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s noteworthy 90-minute talk with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem Monday, June 25, was Putin’s firm assertion that Iran will not get a nuclear bomb. This is disclosed exclusively by debkafile’s Jerusalem and Moscow sources.
He also dismissed reports that the third round in Moscow of six-power talks with Iran (June 18-19) led nowhere, stressing they were serious and substantial. The next round taking place in Istanbul on July for technical discussions is, according to the Russian president, of prime importance. For the first time, he explained, the nuclear negotiations with Iran will get down to the core issues and would therefore of greater significance  than the “Ashton-Jalili” sessions.
(He was referring to European foreign executive Catherine Ashton who chairs the negotiations and Saeed Jalili, senior Iranian negotiator.)
Putin corrected the general impression that Russia has confined itself to the role of passive bystander in the bargaining with Iran: Quite the reverse, he said: Moscow has been proactively working for accord behind the scenes and its “input” to the process “is considerable.”
Although the word “intelligence” was not mentioned, it was clearly intimated by the Russian visitor when he said, “We [Russians] know more about what is going on with regard to Iran’s (nuclear) capabilities than the Americans.”
It was Putin’s way to scoff at Israel for investing so much time and strategic assets in endless wrangling over how to handle the Iranian threat with American security, military and intelligence chiefs, when the Netanyahu government would be better served by sparing a fraction of that time for talking to Moscow.

In conclusion, he stressed to Netanyahu that it was unnecessary for Israel to use military force against Iran’s nuclear program. Israel knows exactly how much Russia has done to prevent Iran building a nuclear weapon,” he said. “A nuclear weapon in Iranian hands would be contrary to Russian interests, and so it will not get one,”  he stressed.

article link

icubudLeave a comment

Muslim Brotherhood has achieved the goal

2 cents: Egyptians thought they had it bad under Mubarak, wait till they experience the future. CES got what he wanted.

from Debka:

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has achieved the goal set at its foundation 84 years ago. Its candidate Mohammed Morsi was declared Sunday afternoon, June 24, victor of last week’s presidential election runoff with 51.73 percent, beating his rival, Ahmed Shafiq, former prime minister under the ousted Hosni Mubarak. Brotherhood supporters massed in tens of thousands at Tahrir Square set up a great cheer. Before the results were announced, they called for the Supreme Military Council ruling Egypt in the interim to step down and are now preparing to fight the generals to win for their president the sweeping powers assumed by the generals ahead of the election.
Although elected more or less democratically, Morsi and his party are expected to turn the Egyptian revolution into the cornerstone of an Islamic state more closely akin to the Islamic Republic of Iran than the democratic, secular state envisioned by the revolutionaries when they fought for Mubarak’s overthrow.
In time, Israeli will discover its three-decade old peace pact with Egypt is also destined to go by the board as the Islamist majority in parliament gives Egypt a new constitution broadly based on the Sharia.
The military council, though widely charged with usurping power, proved helpless against the Islamic tide which polarized rather than sweeping the country. The close election results showed Egypt to be deeply split into at least two large camps and this bodes ill for its future stability.
The generals will have no choice but to come to terms with the Muslim Brotherhood. But any deal they reach will be short-lived because the Islamists have the legislative power to enact laws for stripping the military elite of its privileges. Some of the generals may choose to retire rather than support the Brotherhood.

The first to read the writing on the wall was Mubarak’s former intelligence chief, Gen. Omar Suleiman, who dropped out of the presidential race at an early stage. The last DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources disclosed that Suleiman had boarded a flight to Munich, Germany last Wednesday, June 20. He was quick to foresee that the Muslim Brotherhood, backed by the Obama administration, was heading for rule over Egypt.

icubudLeave a comment

From the current issue of The Week

2 cents: note comments in blue – this is what I am referring to in prior posts. Muslim Brotherhood is not actually about democracy. BTW – The Week magazine IMO is the best weekly magazine on the market. It is fair, balanced and contains great stories and news.

A military power grab in Egypt

Tens of thousands of Egyptians poured into Cairo’s Tahrir Square to chant the name of the Islamist who they say won the presidential election.
posted on June 21, 2012, at 8:46 AM
Current issue of magazine > Main Stories

What happened
An audacious power grab by the ruling military junta left Egypt in turmoil this week, as tens of thousands of Egyptians poured into Cairo’s Tahrir Square to chant the name of the Islamist who they say won the presidential election. Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi claimed to have won 52 percent of the vote in the first presidential race since the toppling 17 months ago of former dictator Hosni Mubarak. Mursi, a U.S.-educated engineer, promised to build a “modern, democratic state” for all Egyptians, whether Muslims or not. But his rival Ahmed Shafiq—Mubarak’s last prime minister and a close ally of the generals—accused the Brotherhood of “organized and persistent election fraud,” and declared that he had won the runoff.

Whoever is eventually declared the winner will have little authority. The Supreme Constitutional Court, still mainly Mubarak appointees, last week dissolved both houses of parliament, which the Brotherhood and other Islamists control. The junta then announced a new interim constitution that gives the generals the right to pass laws, control the budget, declare war, and steer the drafting of a permanent constitution. “This is a military coup against the people,” said Galal Osman, a protester in Tahrir Square. “We want the president that we elected to have all the powers of his office.”

What the editorials said
Egypt’s revolution “looks increasingly like a mirage,” said the Chicago Tribune. Fearful that the Muslim Brotherhood would control both the presidency and the parliament, the generals gutted both institutions. Many ordinary Egyptians dislike the Islamists’ religious dogma, but they fear a return to the dark days of Mubarak-style military rule even more. If the military won’t ease its iron-fisted grip on power, there will be more mass protests and violence. “Egypt was a big part of the Arab Spring. But it may be facing a long, hot summer.”

President Obama better get tough with the generals, said The Washington Post. So far, the State Department has issued only gentle warnings about possible damage to Egyptian-American relations. “We hope this message is being stated more bluntly in private.” If the generals “suffocate Egyptian democracy in the cradle,” they should lose the $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid they receive every year.

What the columnists said
This is a political masterstroke by the military, said Paul McGeough in The Sydney Morning Herald. The generals knew they could lose their top-dog status, wealth, and privileges if their man Shafiq lost and the Brotherhood controlled parliament, too. Now, the new president will be a figurehead; at the same time, the junta has “cleverly debased” the judiciary by ordering it to dissolve parliament—“so if anyone has a debate or grievance, where do they take it?” Egyptians are starting to lose faith in democracy, said Tim Lister in CNN.com. Many have soured on the Brotherhood, which used its parliamentary majority to bolster its own power rather than help ordinary people struggling in a broken economy. With the revolution flailing and leaderless, the military saw the perfect opportunity to regain control.

We should thank the generals for preventing a greater disaster, said Bret Stephens in The Wall Street Journal. The Muslim Brotherhood’s allies in parliament already sought to tighten Egypt’s strict divorce laws and roll back a ban on female genital mutilation—thus erasing gains by women and secularists. If the Brotherhood were allowed to control the entire government, it would have been free to pursue the ultimate goal expressed by the group’s de facto leader, Khairat al-Shater: “the Islamization of life.”

But what if this coup leads to civil war? said Jonathan Tobin in CommentaryMagazine.com. When the Algerian military overturned an election victory by Islamists in 1992, the result was a horrific, decade-long conflict in which some 200,000 people died. “If the Nile Valley becomes a war zone,” the violence could spill over into neighboring Israel and Gaza, further inflaming an already volatile region. That grim scenario makes a Muslim Brotherhood government—in an uneasy alliance with the generals—“look like an attractive alternative.”

http://theweek.com/article/index/229602/a-military-power-grab-in-egypt

icubudLeave a comment

Two cents

2 cents on a couple news stories:

Egypt – NYT Headline: Egypt Military Softens Tone as Vote Count Favors Islamist – what is going to happen is this individual and his cronies are going to speak eloquently and fervently for democracy in Egypt. He and they (Muslim Brotherhood) will beat their chests and flail their arms about saying the people of Egypt have spoken….democracy in our time….military ties to Mubarrak and past…. military dictatorship….we the people…. and you will hear and see talking heads in MSM and our government and EU etc. speak about democracy…. Arab spring…. blah, blah, blah. What is actually happening is the Muslim brotherhood positioning itself so as to look innocent, blah…blah… but its goal is to strip the military of being a check and balance in and of the government. Once the military is stripped and without a doubt key posts created and placed in the military by the new Egyptian president the real face and heart of the Muslim brotherhood will creep out and quickly and violently smash democracy and freedom in the country and replace it with something kin to Iran and the Taliban. Islamist extremism of the hateful kind. And it may take 5 to 10 years to get there. Maybe even 20. But they know they have history over 6000 years and time is on their side.

Greece – NYT Headline: After Greek Vote, Europe Still Has a Host of Problems – I GUARANTEE O breathed a deep sigh of relief when the election results were announced. And it is true that there is a host of problem ahead for the EU. But the “good news” is that all of those problems more than likely will not fully rear their ugly heads until the winter or next spring. Systemic change NEEDS to occur in the EU but – just like the US – noone really wants the crud and wading through it on their watch. “Push it fwd!” “I/We inherited these problems!” And so on. I am not a doomsayer BUT I do have common sense and that leads me to believe things can not continue on as they have been and the EU, US, world economies get miraculously healthy.

 

icubudLeave a comment

2 cents

2 cents on various recent headlines/stories:

1. CES & the illegal residents move: was completely about getting Hispanic votes in the next Nov. election and was done in an unconstitutional way (just like CESCare). Don’t be surprised if this ends up at the Supreme Court as well. Of course the other motive is to hopefully position those people who expect our government to follow the constitution and demand an appeal as anti-Hispanic, bigots etc. Just like we don’t care about those who don’t have health care which is also a farce.

These two issues are good examples of why some people point out that the CES is anti-America, socialist, ashamed of America — etc. In these two instances (it can be argued there are other examples but for the time being I limit to these two) he has ignored the constitution and did what HE thinks is right because HE KNOWS BETTER than the group of white men a couple hundred years ago whom allowed slavery to continue. Obviously HE is more enlightened than they are. CES – is a cancer in our government, economy and society. He is destroying the very system (the constitution) that holds our nation together. What other word would you call him but cancer? Well actually their are many other words but in this illustration cancer is the one I am thinking of.

2. Greece/Egypt presidential votes today:
Egypt: What is going on now is the constant deck reshuffling until a hand is given that can be played successfully that will no longer be an ally to Israel. While the decks shuffle over and over more and more Bedouin and terrorist missile attacks are fired into southern Israel from Egypt. What these people are wanting is an escalation in activity and harsh retaliation from Israel – and yes – Arab loss of lives so that the people of Egypt will foam at the mouth with hate against Israel and expect their government to side with Arabs and not with Jews.Catalysts to this strategy is far right Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood — these two groups are one in the same. It is going to get much worse on the south border of Israel.

Greece: is a wildcard in my opinion. The so called right parties which are promising to drop the Euro and austerity measures if they get elected can and should expect some serious arm twisting from the members and leadership of the EU and USA if they are indeed elected. IF they are elected the eyes will immediately refocus and look to Spain, Italy & Portugal to see if there is an increase in bank activities – people withdrawing their savings etc. If that happens TPTB here in America and the stock market may start selling stock figuring a downturn is coming which of course will create a downturn in and of itself. Like I explained to my wife last night – it is again about perception. TPTB and the stock market see what they determine as a negative reaction in these other countries (not to mention in Greece itself) the thinking goes that these people — consumers — will go into pocketbook pinch mode which translates into no or much less purchasing of products which impacts to some significant degree the US mfg exports (less demand) so US mfg react (correctly) with decreases in production which leads to more off-time for employees and if it is not a very short term event, then  it will result in layoffs etc. ALL occurring in a US economy that is not in good place such that even the most miniscule decrease of production and exports will create large ripples across the economy. The economy is moving so slow that you can apply the brakes to it via the Fred Flintstone method. The possible silver lining in all this is that it is believe if the economy slows further or even dips again – even in the slightest of ways – that CES will then lose the next presidential election. The truth of the matter is that he should lose the next election anyway, the freaking socialist.

3. It is not just the US that had embraced depitalism as the behavior in the majority of households. It is something that has permeated the EU and Japan. China at the moment is repeating the mistakes of the US during the industrial age but making those mistakes in a communist government that greatly reduces the liberty of the citizens. The Frankenstein creature they are creating over there will be interesting and scary if we ever learn and understand all the details about it. Mexico, South America, India and Africa are so poor and overtly corrupt that they are pinned in.  There are of course other countries like Australia and Russia but I understand little if anything about what is really going in there. So that makes my focus on the US, EU, the Middle East and Japan. For the US, EU and Japan depitalism is the average households’ method of livelihood and finally people/consumers are realizing how debilitating debt is. Much change still will occur as households and companies find their new norm. In the US we will continue to see very slow and poor economic results each month until some systemic changes/improvements occurs in our economic infrastructure and it is in my opinion that those improvements will not occur if CES continues into a second term. In fact we will see things get much worse here.

icubudLeave a comment