He hits another one out of the park today with his blistering dissection of Fred Hiatt's September 5th WaPo editorial, Rogue Regulator, and the other neocon chicken hawk cheerleaders and conspirators like John Bolten who have been smearing Elbaradi for years so they can get their war on.
How far does the rot go? To very core of our policy and media establishment-
...
Somehow, it was decided in our political establishment that being completely wrong about the worst strategic disaster in our country's history -- the invasion of Iraq -- is not a cause for any diminished credibility at all (and having been right is no cause for enhanced credibility). Even after the invasion of Iraq, our Hiatt-modeled political establishment even proceeded to smear and target those such as Mohamed ElBardei who were clearly proven right, as though being right was a crime.
Less than two weeks after the well-publicized capture by Pakistani security forces of the Taliban's 2nd in command, Pakistan scored an even bigger coup by assisting in the capture of the leader and founder of the notorious terrorist group Jundallah, Abdolmalek Rigi.
Unlike the capture of the Taliban leader, Rigi's capture has received very little press attention in America. There is an obvious reason for it.
Moslehi said Rigi had been in a US military base 24 hours before his arrest and was carrying an Afghan passport supplied by the US.
Since then Rigi has confessed to one of the most open secrets in southern Asia.
In the tape, Mr Rigi alleged that the US had promised to provide his group with military equipment and a base in Afghanistan, near the Iranian border.
He says he was on his way to a meeting with a "high-ranking person" at the Manas US military base in Kyrgyzstan when he was captured.
The war-mongering NY Times continues its 57-year long smear campaign against Iran. NYT reports the patently misleading headline, Inspectors say Iran worked on warhead, which might be true, if you were referring to 2003, but the Times' weasel reporters, David Sanger and William Broad, like Judith Miller and Michael Gordon before them, continue twisting and tormenting the actual facts in order to stove-pipe false intelligence to the American people, because apparently, American needs another monstrous war crime on its bloody hands:
"The United Nations' nuclear inspectors declared for the first time on Thursday that they had extensive evidence of 'past or current undisclosed activities' by Iran's military to develop a nuclear warhead, an unusually strongly worded conclusion that seems certain to accelerate Iran's confrontation with the United States and other Western countries."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Feb. 11 would mark the demise of "the liberal capitalist system," adding that its champion, America, was on the decline and that Iran and its Islamic Revolution were on the rise.
According to a Jan. 28 translation from BBC Monitoring Middle East, Ahmadinejad spoke on official Iranian television, saying that this year's "Ten Days of Dawn" celebration, marking the anniversary of the country's Islamic Revolution, would see the "demise" of the American system.
"I believe that 22 Bahman [ February 11 in the Persian calendar] this year marks the demise of the liberal capitalist system." Ahmadinejad said.
Iran's supreme leader said the country will deliver a 'punch' that will stun the West to mark tomorrow's 31st anniversary of its Islamic Revolution.
In an address to air force leaders, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: 'The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance [Western powers] on the 22nd of Bahman [February 11] in a way that will leave them stunned.'
(Obama) needs a dramatic gesture to change the public perception of him as a light-weight, bumbling ideologue, preferably in an arena where the stakes are high, where he can take charge, and where he can trump expectations.
Such an opportunity does exist: Obama can give orders for the U.S. military to destroy Iran's nuclear-weapon capacity.
Circumstances are propitious.
McLaughlin & Associates, May 2009: When asked whether they would support "using the [U.S.] military to attack and destroy the facilities in Iran which are necessary to produce a nuclear weapon," 58 percent of 600 likely voters supported the use of force and 30 percent opposed it.
Fox News, September 2009: When asked "Do you support or oppose the United States taking military action to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons?" 61 percent of 900 registered voters supported military action and 28 opposed it.
Iran announced Wednesday it has successfully launched a 10-foot-long research rocket carrying a mouse, two turtles and worms into space - a feat President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said showed Iran could defeat the West in the battle of technology.
The U.S. still wants to declare war on Iran, or short of that, exact barbaric and debilitating sanctions on its people in the hopes of causing unrest and ultimately regime change, but China has no interests in that game:
Clinton had warned China it would come under a "lot of pressure" to recognize the threat from Iran's nuclear program and to join international calls for further sanctions. She said pressure would come as Washington and other powers "move away from the engagement track, which has not produced the results that some had hoped for, and move towards the pressure and sanctions track" to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions, which Tehran insists are for peaceful purposes.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said of the US's US$6.4 billion arms package for Taiwan that Washington should "truly respect China's core interests and major concerns, and immediately rescind the mistaken decision to sell arms to Taiwan, and stop selling arms to Taiwan to avoid damaging broader China-US relations".
According to the official China Daily:
"From now on, the US shall not expect cooperation from China on a wide range of major regional and international issues. If you don't care about our interests, why should we care about yours?"
In the mockumentary, the original cover, according to recording company representative Bobbi Fleckmann, featured "a greased, naked woman on all fours with a dog collar around her neck and a leash, and a man's arm extended out...holding on to the leash and pushing a black glove in her face to sniff it." The production company, Polymer Records, ultimately refused to release the cover because of pressure from retailers such as Sears and Kmart and gave the album a solid black cover instead. Upon learning of the concerns of Polymer, David St. Hubbins said, "You know, if we were serious and we said, 'Yes, she should be forced to smell the glove,' then you'd have a point, but it's all a joke." Bandmate Nigel Tufnel replied, "It is and it isn't. She should be made to smell it, but..." which David clarified with the statement, "But not, you know, over and over."
In a surprisingly swift move on Thursday night that could have wide-ranging implications, the U.S. Senate passed a bill containing broad unilateral sanctions to punish foreign companies that export gasoline to Iran or help expand its domestic refinery capabilities.
"This means that no president can lift the embargo without certifying to Congress that Iran has met a laundry list of demands that no president in his right mind will certify," (Patrick Disney, the assistant policy director of the National Iranian American Council) told IPS.
Furthermore, "crippling sanctions," as broad-based gas sanctions are often called, is a potential checklist item on a path to military confrontation with Iran. But some think imposing and enforcing the sanctions themselves could be tantamount to war.
"Even half of the people that proposed (gas sanctions) say the only way to really impose that is a naval blockade," said (Richard Sawaya, the president of USA*Engage, a group that opposes unilateral sanctions).
"Well, that's an act of war!"
When this article appeared Friday, January 29, I thought it was premature to start talking about a naval blockade, but within 24 hours the other shoe dropped.
LONDON - A BBC investigation has cast doubt on key evidence in the case against the Libyan convicted of blowing up a US jet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988, the broadcaster said Wednesday.
A tiny fragment of the timer allegedly used to blow up Pan Am flight 103 -- crucial in linking Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi to the bomb -- was not properly tested and was also unlikely to have survived the explosion, it said.
Megrahi was jailed in 2001 for the attack which left 270 people dead, but was controversially released from his Scottish prison in August 2009 because he was suffering from terminal cancer and only had months to live.
Investigators believe the plane bomb was contained in a Toshiba radio cassette player inside a brown suitcase with various items of clothing, and was triggered by a digital timer that was later linked to Libya.
But according to the BBC's Newsnight programme, the fragment of the timer -- found embedded in a charred piece of clothing three weeks after the bombing -- was never tested to confirm if it had actually been in a blast.
Even now, they pull back, far back, from the truth of this story. It's not just that this was "never tested".
A fragment of circuit board alleged to have been part of the bomb's timing mechanism is the sole item of physical evidence linking the two Libyans to the December 1988 bombing. But Tam Dalyell, Labour MP for Linlithgow, declared: "I have come to suspect that the timing device in question was not that of Pan Am 103 but a different timing device that the CIA had picked up from the Libyans ... I have been driven to the conclusion that the device was a CIA plant."
Mr Dalyell, a long-standing critic of US and British government insistence that Libya was behind the attack, said an analysis of the fragment had shown it had been exposed to a temperature of 4,000deg C. But a Swiss police specialist had cast doubt on this, saying the explosion would have lasted only a fraction of a second in outside air temperatures of about minus 40C.
Accusing the Crown Office, the Scottish prosecuting authority, of failing to follow up the right leads, Mr Dalyell said - to strident denials from Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, the Scottish Office minister - that it had allowed itself for six years "to be suborned by political pressure into failing to carry out its duty".
He said this was a "wicked" dereliction of duty that brought shame on Britain.
That's from 1995. Thanks, BBC, for being on the ball here!
Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter in the tragedy, describes the ruling of Megrahi as the most disgraceful miscarriages of justice in history, blaming both the Scottish legal system and US intelligence.
"The Americans played their role in the investigation and influenced the prosecution," Swire told the Scotsman Newspaper.
Top level UK diplomats tend to agree with him, such Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Libya.
"No court is likely get to the truth, now that various intelligence agencies have had the opportunity to corrupt the evidence," Miles told the BBC.
The spectacular decision of the SCCRC is certain to give a second life to the dozen of alternative theories of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Nearly two decades later, the case is back to square one.
Back to square one
Let us give Lord Sutherland, Lord Coulsfield and Lord Maclean some credit. After hearing 230 witnesses and studying 621 exhibits during 84 days of evidence, spread over eight months, the three judges of the Lockerbie trial almost got correctly the date of the worst act of terror in the UK.
In the first line of the first paragraph of the most expensive verdict in history they wrote: "At 1903 hours on 22 December 1988 Pan Am flight 103 fell out of the sky." As a matter of fact, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded on December 21st 1988.
Michael Scharf is an international law expert at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Scharf joined the State Department's Office of the Legal Adviser for Law Enforcement and Intelligence in April 1989. He was also responsible for drawing up the UN Security Council resolutions that imposed sanctions on Libya in 1992.
"It was a trial where everybody agreed ahead of time that they were just going to focus on these two guys, and they were the fall guys," Sharf wrote.
"The CIA and the FBI kept the State Department in the dark. It worked for them for us to be fully committed to the theory that Libya was responsible. I helped the counter-terrorism bureau draft documents that described why we thought Libya was responsible, but these were not based on seeing a lot of evidence, but rather on representations from the CIA and FBI and the Department of Justice about what the case would prove and did prove."
An amateur video apparently taken with a cell phone has surfaced on YouTube that appears to contradict the Iranian government's claim that its security forces didn't shoot at protesters last Sunday during demonstrations that left at least eight people dead, including the nephew of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
As first reported by The Los Angeles Times on Saturday, the video not only shows a gunman opening fire on demonstrators - it also gives an eye-opening look at a growing air of defiance by Iranian opposition.
A man in plain clothes is seen and heard opening fire on the crowd as another man can be heard shouting out "Dishonorable Basiji!" blaming a member of Iran's Basij militia for firing the shots.
With shots fired, you would expect the demonstrators to flee and seek cover, but instead, they decide to fight back.
"Attack!" someone in the crowd calls out, and the crowd runs off in pursuit of the gunman as the video, less than a minute in length comes to an end.
As Ahmadinejad was coming from a visit to the Brazilian parliament in Brasilia on Monday, Lula was waiting for him, virtually alone. The embrace by Lula was sudden, spontaneous, extremely warm; it's fair to assume Ahmadinejad was not expecting it. Those who saw it interpreted it as a graphic message.
Ahmadinejad did mean business: he traveled with 200 Iranian businessmen. In the long run, Brazil wants to export to Iran not only meat, grains and sugar, but also trucks and buses. And Iran wants to invest heavily in the oil industry, petrochemicals, agriculture, minerals and real estate. Lula will visit Iran in March or April 2010, also with a business caravan.
Lula and Ahmadinejad signed agreements on energy, trade and agricultural research in the latest round of what is becoming an increasingly warm embrace between Latin America and the Middle East.
The meat of the matter was, of course, nuclear energy. US President Barack Obama admitted at the Group of 20 gathering in London this year that Lula "is the man" - and opinion polls back him up, with the Brazilian leader at present the world's most popular political leader, with an approval rating of 79%; Obama has just slipped below 50%. So what is "the man" saying? He's saying that Brazil supports Iran's access to "peaceful nuclear energy".
When Lula talks, world leaders do listen; nor is he shy about running through a roll call of those he "advises" on how to behave with Iran.
"I told Obama, I told [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy, I told [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel that we will not get good things out of Iran if we corner them. You need to create space to talk." This is not only Lula talking - it's BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) talk. Carefully balancing his act, Lula at the same time defended the rights of "a safe and secure state of Israel". read more...
Today marks the 30th year since the 444 day Iran Hostage Crisis began in 1979. On this day the media traditionally offers us images of Iranians burning American flags and effigies of Uncle Sam. We are reminded of the great chasm of mistrust and misunderstanding that has marked the last three decades of US-Iranian relations.
But, in the past year both Americans and Iranians have asked for something new. Americans have elected a president that promises to pursue diplomacy and Iranians have given birth to a popular democratic movement. So, we should not use this 30th anniversary of the hostage crisis to simply re-live tragedy and tension. Rather, today Americans have an opportunity to honestly reflect on our relationship with Iran and think about how to move forward.
For the past 30 years our government has dealt with Iran through policies of isolation and sanctions.
As we all witnessed amidst post-election unrest, Iranians have created a new dialogue within their country about respect for human rights and the democratic process. Now, those of us concerned with human rights must drastically alter our own dialogue towards Iran. If we herald the bravery of the "Green Movement," we should ask what effect crippling sanctions would have for Iran's human rights prospects?
Days before the United Nations General Assembly opened in September 2009, Human Rights Watch, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi and thousands of Iranians standing in solidarity with the Green Movement, called on the United Nations to prioritize human rights in discussions about Iran. The Preamble of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights avows that all Member States have pledged themselves "to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms."
Yet, in recent discussions regarding Iran, the United Nations Security Council plus Germany focused on the nuclear issue in every instance. In doing, so they have consistently neglected all critical and serious conversations about Iran's human rights violations.
Furthermore, the negotiating states chose to threaten the very fabric of the domestic resistance with "crippling sanctions." Economic sanctions that directly affect and isolate a civilian population weaken the ability of people committed to creating a better, more just governance.
Consider, for example, the effects of comprehensive sanctions imposed on Iraq for a period of 13 years. Those who bore the brunt of brutal and lethal punishment caused by economic sanctions were the elderly, the sick, the poor and the children. The economic sanctions directly contributed toward the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children. We should also remember that imposition of comprehensive, multilateral sanctions against Iraq proved to be a rallying cry for support of Saddam Hussein in countries where there was high antagonism against the United States. Saddam Hussein could claim to provide for the Iraqi people while the Americans insisted on starving them.
What effects would greater sanctions have on Iran? The Iranian regime has had years of practice in avoiding sanctions by relying on economic relations with China and Russia. The rising revenue and power of the underground economy has bolstered Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's allies who control it.
Meanwhile, sanctions leveled against Iran are creating hardships among the poorest communities in Iran. In 2007, the Iranian government announced fuel rations for private drivers. Due to Iran's limited refining capabilities, Iran is not energy independent, despite its vast oil resources. The decision to create rations has led to massive uproar and protest for a people who have already suffered extreme rates of unemployment. Inflation has soared to twenty-five percent.
Also, in the last year, Iran has faced a serious drought. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated Iran's loss of wheat production at thirty-three percent. The USDA also noted that, due to the drought and reduced reservoir levels, Iran's hydroelectric generation capacity and supply have been severely cut. These conditions will lead to severe agricultural problems and possibly to food shortages.
Furthering morally bankrupt policies that focus on the nuclear issue and greater sanctions against Iran will harm the Green Movement's capacity to struggle for democracy and human rights.
Iran has become the world's poster child for the deficit of democracy that plagues many nations. Citizens of all nations understand justice and agree upon its terms with remarkable consistency across borders. "The arc of history is long," Dr. Martin Luther King wrote, "but it bends towards justice." For 30 years our policies have failed to stand up for truth or justice.
A flyer from Tehran University marking this anniversary declares "Marg bar hich kas", "Death to no one". The Green Movement is turning a page in Iran's history, creating an opportunity for us to stand up for new policy based on human rights and the will of the people.
Bitta Mostofi is co-founder of Where is My Vote, New York. She is an immigrant and civil rights attorney who can be reached at bittamostofi@gmail.com. Kathy Kelly, a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, contributed to this article. Posted at Kelly's request.
Yesterday, South Carolina Congressman Joe "YOU LIE" Wilson gave a speech condemning Health Care Reform as a "Greater Control" on American lives. The video can be seen here, but the main event is below the fold.
Fear mongering over health care reform is nothing new for Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC02), but the speech he gave on the House floor a few days ago that was mocked by Jon Stewart should stand in the Wingnut Hall of Fame of insane, disconnected rants that have nothing at all to do with the reality of the issues being discussed.
Welcome to the 24th installment of "Considered Forthwith."
This weekly series looks at the various committees in the House and the Senate. Committees are the workshops of our democracy. This is where bills are considered, revised, and occasionally advance for consideration by the House and Senate. Most committees also have the authority to exercise oversight of related executive branch agencies.
Reality got in the way the past two weeks, but I am finally back. This week, Considered Forthwith will examine the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. This committee has considerably less official authority than its Senate counterpart. Notably, the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee has jurisdiction over treaties and appointments -- including ambassadorships -- as as required by the Constitution. I plan to examine that committee next week.
This week, however, I will be looking at the committee that dates back to the early days of the Revolution.
Five commanders of elite Revolutionary Guard are killed in suicide attack TEHRAN, Iran - At least five senior commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guard have died in a suicide bombing that killed 20 people in southeastern Iran, Iran's official news agency reported Sunday.
There's a reason I'm posting these backwards, how any view is up to them.
No matter what is thought about the leadership of Iran, by the World, especially as to it's treatment of it's citizens, the fact remains, as pointed out in part three, they are surrounded by Nuclear Powers and Weapons. So if really seeking their own they do so as to defense of their threatened country and it's citizens, and talks had ceased to disarm or rid the world of. New cold war mentality, yep!!
All about the Middle East and Iran. Yes, I'll be all of that tonight, again. But, I'm going to do it at Daily Kos. Yes, I'm not happy about it, but, I think it is time to toss some sanity into progressives yelling "bomb bomb".
So... give me time to write it up... and... I'll post the link shortly.
In the lead up to the 2003 Iraq invasion any good journalist on the day Powell told the world that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction would have been able to debunk Powell's claims the same day.
Former chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq Scott Ritter spoke in Tokyo the same day Powell made his presentation at the UN and told the Foreign Press Association of Japan that everything Powell had said that day in the UN was a lie, and it later turned out that Ritter was right. Ritter's speech that day was covered by Associated Press (AP) on video and wire services.
Every news organization in the world got Ritter's speech via AP, and virtually none of them published it. Rather the world press simply let Powell get away with his lies that helped lead to an illegal invasion that by some counts resulted in over a million Iraqi deaths, along with the more than 4000 US Troop deaths and tens of thousands of US Troop maimings.
Ritter is now making similar warnings about the drumbeats for war with Iran and debunking the false claims that Iran is well on the way to producing a nuclear bomb, which by the way if Iran did produce and use against Israel would likely immediately result in Iran's total destruction by Israel with their stockpile of by some counts 200 or more nuclear weapons.
We are being asked by a US Administration, Military Industrial Complex, and world press propaganda campaign, to believe that Iran is suicidal as a justification for attacking them.
This weekly diary takes a look at the past week's important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with analysis and commentary added in by me.
When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:
1. Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge base and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?
2. Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?
3. Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?
The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist's message.
Sen. Lindsey Graham isn't the only GOP politician still wanting to "bomb, bomb Iran":
If sanctions fail, and Iran's going down the road to get a nuclear weapon, every Sunni Arab state that could would want a nuclear weapon. Israel would be more imperiled. The world would change dramatically for the worse. And if we use military action against Iran, we should not only go after their nuclear facilities, we should destroy their ability to make conventional war. They should have no planes that can fly and no ships that can float.
Reform Immigration -
March on Washington
Less than two weeks after the 
What to do when the government shoots at you?
