Huqul al-Nakhl

Which country is the rogue nation? Iraq? Iran? Or the United States? Syndicated columnist Charley Reese asks this question in a recently published article.

Reese notes that it is the US that routinely commits “acts of aggression around the globe.”

The US government has no qualms about dropping bombs on civilians whether they be in Serbia, the Middle East, or Africa. It is all in a good cause – our cause.

This slaughtering of foreigners doesn’t seem to bother the American public. Americans take it for granted that Americans are superior and that American purposes, whatever they be, take precedence over the rights of other people to life and to a political existence independent of American hegemony.

The Bush regime has come up with a preemption doctrine that justifies attacking a country in order to prevent the country from possibly becoming a future threat to the US. “Threat” is broadly defined. It appears to mean the ability to withstand the imposition of US hegemony. This insane doctrine justifies attacking China and Russia, a direction in which the Republican presidential candidate John McCain seems to lean.

The callousness of Americans toward the lives of other peoples is stunning. How many Christian churches ask God’s forgiveness for having been rushed into an error that has killed, maimed, and displaced a quarter of the Iraqi population?

Full article: www.insight-info.com

Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by the US Navy’s guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes on Sunday July 3, 1988, killing all 290 passengers, including 66 children, and crewmembers onboard.

The civilian airliner, carrying passengers from Iran, Italy, the UAE, India, Pakistan and the former Yugoslavia, was en route from Iran’s southern city of Bandar Abbas to Dubai when it was hit by two SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles launched from the warship commanded by Captain William C. Rogers III.

Following the tragic incident, ranked seventh among the deadliest airliner fatalities, unapologetic US officials said their naval officers had mistaken the Iranian Airbus A300 for an F-14 Tomcat fighter.

They went on to claim that the Vincennes crew had been under a simultaneous psychological condition called ’scenario fulfillment’, and had therefore confused their training scenario with reality and responded accordingly.

Iran declared the incident an international crime, saying that even if the warship crew had mistaken the Airbus for an F-14 the tragedy was the result of the US Navy’s negligence and reckless behavior.

Iran further argued that the aircraft was flying within the Iranian airspace and did not have an attack profile, and as the warship crew were fully trained to handle ’simultaneous attacks’ by enemy aircrafts they could have handled the situation in a manner that would not claim civilian lives.

When the matter was taken to the United Nations Security Council in July 1988, the then US Vice President George H.W. Bush defended the Vincennes crew’s action and said that given the situation the officers in question had acted appropriately.
 

Eventually, the UN Security Council Resolution 616 was passed, which expressed “deep distress” over the downing, “profound regret” for the loss of life, and stressed the need to end the Iraq-Iran war.

Full article: www.insight-info.com

Press TV:We hear that Michael Mukasey is going to become the latest of the President’s Attorney-Generals to be subpoenaed, this time over his conversations with Bush and Cheney - does this show that Congress is serious about calling the executive to account?

Gore Vidal: No, Congress has never been more cowardly, nor more corrupt. All Bush has do is to make sure certain amounts of money go in the direction of certain important congressmen and that’s end of any serious investigation. After all, one of the bravest members of Congress is Denis Kucinich who brought the article of impeachment in to the well of the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives must then try the president, and then after that it goes to the Senate for judgment. However, none of these things will happen because there’s nobody there except for Mr. Kucinich who has the courage to take on a sitting president who is kind of a Mafioso.

Press TV: How can it just be one person among so many hundreds of Congressmen who wants the impeachment of George W. Bush in these circumstances?

Gore Vidal: Well it’s because we no longer have a country. We don’t have a republic any more. During the last 7 or 8 years of the Bush regime, they’ve got rid of the Bill of Rights, they’ve got rid of habeas corpus. They have got rid of one of the nicest gifts that England ever left us when they went away and we ceased to be colonies - the Magna Carta - from the 12th century. All of our law and due process of law is based on that. And the Bush people got rid of it. The president and little Mr. Gonzales who for a few minutes was his Attorney General. They managed to get rid of all of the constitutional links that made us literally a republic.

Press TV: You have often written about the US’s superpower status in terms of the history of previous superpowers. Do you think we’re witnessing the end of US power as some suggest. Will the White House be seen like Persepolis?

Full article: www.insight-info.com

Israel, without the United States, would probably not exist. The country came perilously close to extinction during the October 1973 war when Egypt, trained and backed by the Soviet Union, crossed the Suez Canal and the Syrians poured in over the Golan Heights. Huge American military transport planes came to the rescue. They began landing every half-hour to refit the battered Israeli army, which had lost most of its heavy armor. By the time the war as over, the United States had given Israel $2.2 billion in emergency military aid.

The intervention, which enraged the Arab world, triggered the OPEC oil embargo that for a time wreaked havoc on Western economies. This was perhaps the most dramatic example of the sustained life-support system the United States has provided to the Jewish state. Israel was born at midnight May 14, 1948. The U.S. Recognized the new state 11 minutes later. The two countries have been locked in a deadly embrace ever since.

Washington, at the beginning of the relationship, was able to be a moderating influence. An incensed President Eisenhower demanded and got Israel’s withdrawal after the Israelis occupied Gaza in 1956. During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israeli warplanes bombed the USS Liberty. The ship, flying the U.S. Flag and stationed 15 miles off the Israeli coast, was intercepting tactical and strategic communications from both sides. The Israeli strikes killed 34 U.S. Sailors and wounded 171. The deliberate attack froze, for a while, Washington’s enthusiasm for Israel. But ruptures like this one proved to be only bumps, soon smoothed out by an increasingly sophisticated and well-financed Israel lobby that set out to merge Israel and American foreign policy in the Middle East.

Israel has reaped tremendous rewards from this alliance. It has been given more than $140 billion in U.S. Direct economic and military assistance. It receives about $3 billion in direct assistance annually, roughly one-fifth of the U.S. Foreign aid budget. Although most American foreign aid packages stipulate that related military purchases have to be made in the United States, Israel is allowed to use about 25 percent of the money to subsidize its own growing and profitable defense industry. It is exempt, unlike other nations, from accounting for how it spends the aid money. And funds are routinely siphoned off to build new Jewish settlements, bolster the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories and construct the security barrier, which costs an estimated $1 million a mile.

The barrier weaves its way through the West Bank, creating isolated pockets of impoverished Palestinians in ringed ghettos. By the time the barrier is finished it will probably in effect seize up to 40 percent of Palestinian land. This is the largest land grab by Israel since the 1967 war. And although the United States officially opposes settlement expansion and the barrier, it also funds them.

Full article: www.insight-info.com

The neocons are not going to get their war with Iran if it’s to be left to their traditional power centers in the Bush Administration to make the call: They’ve lost the Pentagon, and it’s abundantly clear that neither the uniformed brass nor Defense Secretary Gates have any interest in starting another catastrophic war. And the fact that they still have a solid ally in Vice President Cheney doesn’t mean much, because Cheney is far less influential five years into the Iraq debacle than he had been on its eve. Nor is there any significant support (outside of Israel) among U.S. allies for a confrontational path. Still, all is not lost for that merry little band of neocon bomb throwers who’ve spent the Bush tenure quite literally “setting the East ablaze.” There’s always the Treasury.

Well, its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), dedicated to fighting the “war on terror” etc. via the international banking system. John McGlynn offers fascinating insights into a critical aspect of Bush Administration policy that has scarcely appeared on the radar of most mainstream media. In particular, he warns, FinCEN’s March 20 advisory warning the international banking community that
doing business with any Iranian bank, or bank that does business with an Iranian bank, runs the risk of falling afoul of the U.S. Treasury’s expansive interpretation and enforcement of UN sanctions and of anti-terror money laundering regulations adopted under the post-9/11 USA Patriot Act.

The beauty of this approach, from a neocon point of view, is that it completely skirts all those troublesome international diplomatic forums where the U.S. and its closest allies have failed to convince others to apply meaningful sanctions against Iran — most of the international community is skeptical over the claims being made by the U.S. of an imminent Iranian threat (as, of course, is the U.S. intel community, as last year’s NIE showed) and even more skeptical of the value of sanctions in resolving the issue, rather than in preparing the way for confrontation.

There is a petition to sign in favor of Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi who is one of Southern California’s Islamic leaders. He was arrested and convicted of crimes that he did not commit and this petition is directed to the judge for the purpose of leincy in sentencing. Here is a link to the petition:

http://seyedmousavi.com/index.php

Here is a little bit about his life:

Seyed Mahmood Mousavi is a U.S. citizen originally from the country of Iran.  Mr. Mousavi is a family man, and a tireless servant of the Muslim community in Southern California, where he has dedicated himself to the well-being and advancement of all.

Mr. Mousavi was one of the founders of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, established in 1995.  This organization’s goals are to promote communication, understanding, cooperation, and coordination among the Muslim communities in Southern California.  The organization works toward the unity of all Muslims. 

In the year 2000, Mr. Mousavi founded the Hejrat Foundation – a religious, educational, and charitable organization - in Southern California.  The mission of this organization is to educate and aid people: to educate Muslims and non-Muslims about Islam and issues that affect their lives and the world in which they live; to encourage positive social progress; to build unity between all people; and to fill the needs of Muslims and non-Muslims in Southern California.  

Under the Hejrat Foundation, Mr. Mousavi currently administrates several organizations.  One of these is the Al-Nabi Mosque, which is in West Covina, California.  There, regular programs are held to educate the community in religious, cultural, humanitarian, legal, national, and international issues. There, a wide range of speakers from many different backgrounds are invited to speak on the various topics of interest and need.  Mr. Mousavi also administrates the Islamic cemetery and burial facilities in Adelanto, California.

His family is academically oriented.  Both he and his wife attained higher degrees, and instilled the love of learning in their children.  The oldest child is married and living overseas with his new family.  There, he is pursuing further studies.  The second child has attended top universities on scholarships that she was awarded for her scholastic excellence.  She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering.  The third child is graduating this year with her Bachelor’s degree.  She is an active volunteer in such worthy causes as hospitals and a camp for young cancer patients.  She hopes to attend Medical School.  The youngest child is graduating from High School this year, and will be attending a well-respected university.  He has been active in debate clubs and founded a robotics club at this school.  Last year, during summer vacation, he conducted research with a professor of a high-ranking university.  He spends his spare time tutoring other students. 

And here is what happened in his case:

http://seyedmousavi.com/page.php?id=20

Yet Muslims around the world are the ‘uncivilized’ for getting offended over drawings that were intended to offend them? Apparently fashion (aka. A piece of cloth) is symbolic, but the medium of artistic communication isn’t.

The US chain Dunkin’ Donuts has pulled an advert following complaints that the scarf worn by a celebrity chef offered symbolic support for Islamic extremism.

The online advert for iced coffee featured the well-known US television chef Rachael Ray.

She was wearing a black-and-white checked scarf around her neck that resembled a traditional Arab keffiyeh.

This fashion choice incensed at least one prominent conservative blogger, who said it evoked extremist videos.

The blogger, Michelle Malkin, called the garment “a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos”.

Stylist’s choice

Other criticism followed and the coffee and doughnuts chain has now decided to drop the advert.

Fashion statements may seem insignificant, but when they lead to the mainstreaming of violence - unintentionally or not - they matter

Michelle Malkin

In a statement, Dunkin’ Donuts said the silk scarf had been “selected by Rachael Ray’s stylist and that no symbolism was intended.

“But given the possibility of misperception the commercial was no longer being used.”

This has caused a fair amount of consternation in some quarters but the conservative blogger at the centre of the row has praised the decision.

By Basil Adas

05/06/08 “Gulf News” — 03/06/08 — Baghdad: A proposed Iraqi-American security agreement will include permanent American bases in the country, and the right for the United States to strike, from within Iraqi territory, any country it considers a threat to its national security, Gulf News has learned.

Senior Iraqi military sources have told Gulf News that the long-term controversial agreement is likely to include three major items.

Under the agreement, Iraqi security institutions such as Defence, Interior and National Security ministries, as well as armament contracts, will be under American supervision for ten years.

The agreement is also likely to give American forces permanent military bases in the country, as well as the right to move against any country considered to be a threat against world stability or acting against Iraqi or American interests.

The military source added, “According to this agreement, the American forces will keep permanent military bases on Iraqi territory, and these will include Al Asad Military base in the Baghdadi area close to the Syrian border, Balad military base in northern Baghdad close to Iran, Habbaniyah base close to the town of Fallujah and the Ali Bin Abi Talib military base in the southern province of Nasiriyah close to the Iranian border.”

The sources confirmed that the American army is in the process of completing the building of the military facilities and runways for the permanent bases.

He added that the American air bases in Kirkuk and Mosul will be kept for no longer than three years. However, he said there were efforts by the Americans to include the Kirkuk base in the list of permanent bases.

The sources also said that a British brigade was expected to remain at the international airport in Basra for ten years as long as the American troops stayed in the permanent bases in Iraq.

Iraqi analysts said that the second item of the controversial agreement which permits American forces on Iraqi territories to launch military attacks against any country it considers a threat is addressed primarily to Iran and Syria.

Iran has raised serious concerns in the past few days over the Iraqi-American security agreement and followed it with issuing religious fatwas and called for demonstrations, mainly by the powerful Shiite leader Moqtada Al Sadr movement, who is close to Iran, against the agreement.

I will be available in January 2009, am willing to relocate.

RESUME

GEORGE W. BUSH
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20520

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

Law Enforcement:
I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976 for driving under  the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver’s license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been ‘lost’ and is not available.

Military:
I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam while campaigning for a fellow Louisiana
Republican.

College:
I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a cheerleader. My good grades got me into Harvard Business School , where I learned much of what you will find below under Work Experience.

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE:

I ran for U.S. Congress and lost.

I began my career in the oil business in Midland , Texas , in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn’t find any oil in Texas . The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.

I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money.

With the help of my father and our friends in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected governor of Texas .

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS :

I changed Texas pollution laws to favor utility and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union . During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America .

I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.

I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.

With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida , and my father’s appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President of the United States , after losing by over 500,000 votes.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT:

I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.

I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week.

I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury, driving the US dollar down to toilet paper status.

I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.

I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market. In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and after a short respite, that trend continues today.

I’m proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My ‘poorest millionaire, ‘ Condoleezza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.

I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President.

I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.

My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. history, Enron.

My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.

I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history. I
presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.

I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.

I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.

I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States Government.

I’ve broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.

I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.

I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.

I refused to allow inspector’s access to U.S. ‘prisoners of war’ detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.

I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US election)

I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television.

I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August of 2001, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history

I garnered the most sympathy ever for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.

I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind

I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. Citizens and the world community.

I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families in wartime.

In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.

I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.

I am supporting development of a nuclear ‘Tactical Bunker Buster,’ a WMD.

I have so far failed to fulfil my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES:

All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father’s library, sealed and unavailable for public view.

All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review. I specified that my sealed documents will not be available for 50 years.

A law allowing women to wear the headscarf at university was overturned by Turkey’s constitutional court yesterday, a decision that threatens the ruling party with closure for allegedly promoting Islam.

The powerful 11-member court, the stronghold of secularists, voted 9-2 to reverse changes made this year relaxing restrictions on the wearing of the headscarf.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister – whose headscarf-wearing daughters study in the US, where no such restriction exists – had maintained that prohibiting the scarf in higher education was an infringement of women’s rights. But the court said that the changes required to allow the scarf to be worn infringed the secularist principles of the constitution.

In February Turkish MPs voted to amend the constitution to lift curbs on the headscarf in universities by 411 votes to 103. President Abdullah Gül, who helped to found the ruling AK party, approved this two weeks later. Yesterday’s decision has been heralded as a precursor to another case being heard in the same court regarding Mr Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AK). The headscarf vote in parliament is a mainstay of the case against AK, which a top prosecutor wants banned for pursuing an alleged Islamist agenda since it came to office in 2002. He also wants to exclude 71 party members, including Mr Erdogan, from politics for five years. A ruling is expected soon.

The Constitutional Court verdict issued Thursday says amendments that were passed by Parliament in February ran counter to constitutional provisions which say Turkey is a secular republic and that this principle is unalterable, a court statement said.

Secularists claim the move would undermine the secular state.

The headscarf reform plays a central role in a separate court case that seeks to shut down the AK Party for anti-secular activities, and ban 71 members, including the prime minister and the president, from belonging to a political party for five years.

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek was reported by broadcaster CNN Turk as saying he would comment on the matter once he had read the court’s ruling.

“We must see the justification for the decision,” Cicek, who is also government spokesman, was reported as saying.

Lifting the headscarf ban was one of the most significant moves on religious issues in predominantly Muslim but secular Turkey since a military coup in 1980 that led to a crackdown on individual rights.

Press TV