U.S Cuts Aid to Egypt...Maybe...

Sometimes it's like watching parents who can't decide how to deal with unruly children. To many, this is a no brainer: cut aid to them NOW, and don't even CONSIDER restoring it until they have a government that is friendly and receptive to us.

Or do things the way that I think we should and stop giving aid to other countries at all until we have rendered aid to OUR OWN COUNTRYMEN first...

At stake: a sizable portion of the $1.5 billion the U.S. provides Egypt each year. Much of the aid is in military equipment, and at least a quarter-billion in cash assistance to the Egyptian government and $300 million in a loan guarantee are also now in limbo.
The State Department made clear Wednesday that the decision to freeze the aid wasn't permanent and it could be restored if "credible progress" is made toward setting up an inclusive government in the wake of the military coup that overthrew the elected if unpopular government of President Mohammed Morsi.

It should be remembered that Morsi was Obama's choice for leadership in Egypt during the "Arab Spring." Now, as the "spring" seems to show only more signs of shifting and evolving (as any fire eventually does to survive. The world wonders what form it will take next.

Sic vis pacem parabellum.

MT

Sixty Years...

Israel celebrates 60 years as a nation this month.

Sixty years of a reestablished Jewish homeland.

Sixty years of struggling to survive as a nation, in the wake of international conflict over the very right of the Jewish people to have an established homeland.

Sixty years of Arab nations creating turmoil for Israel through their refusal to reintegrate Arabs into other Arab communities for the sole purpose of keeping a thorn in the side of Israel.

Sixty years of Arab nations, and Russia, working through the Palestinians to make a wretched political nightmare for Israel.

Sixty years of war for the nation of Israel, be it through all out combat or the continual skirmishes with terrorist groups and homicide bombers blowing themselves up in public places.

Sixty years of a homeland for a people scattered to the four corners of the earth during the time of Roman rule.

Sixty years of a homeland for a people persecuted mercilessly through the years of the holocaust.

Sixty years of a place for a people to look to as their established nation AS a people, no longer having to consider themselves as a homeless race upon the face of the earth.

Sixty years of the various sects of Judaism to come together on one soil, in one place, as one people.

Sixty years of Israel, reunited, proud, unrepentant for demanding a right to exist.



God bless Israel.

Shalom Israel.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man


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Slapping a Bully in the Face

Remember the school yard bully? The kid that would take your lunch money? Smack you around because he didn't think you'd do anything about it? The kid that would call you names and laugh at you? The kid that backed down when the right person came along and socked him a good one in the eye?

Who were their victims? Pretty much anyone was fair game. I can remember being on the receiving end of it when I was younger. There were two very simple reasons for it. I was the new kid to the town (my parents had left the home town for a few years and I had started school somewhere else, then we moved back to my hometown and I was enrolled in it's school system), and I was scared. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't afraid of them. I was generally bigger than most of the people I was in school with, and in most cases stronger. I can remember tears of frustration at times from when I was a kid because I wouldn't hit back in my pre-high school days. I was afraid of me. Something down deep inside of me said not to let loose because I knew I wouldn't be able to control myself if I did. I knew it was going to take some severe restraint to hold me back if I ever did lay into someone, and I was right. The very last time one of the school bullies pushed (sometime around eight grade) I blacked out in the middle of throwing punches. My next memory was of being held back by some of my friends. It was the last time anyone messed with me. The next year, in high school, I discovered both weight lifting and Zen meditations, giving me two outlets for controlling a very, very hot and ugly temper.

New kids are often the target of school bullies, too. Or kids that have moved away and been gone for several years, then move back to a community. They have to come in and prove themselves to the instigators and agitators or suffer constant ridicule and harassment. That's no way to live. Just because the new kid is "different" from the locals doesn't give them any less right to be where they are, and be who and what they are.

When looking at the Middle East, this school yard scenario comes back to mind. Israel can be seen as the "new kid" in the neighborhood, having been forced from their ancestral homeland for so many centuries and having returned to it in the last century. Since their return to their ancient homeland, they've endured ongoing war and embattlement from their neighbors, many of whom have sworn to see Israel wiped off the face of the earth. Just weeks ago, Israel once again slapped the face of one of the bullies in the neighborhood, and the bully is still trying to figure out how to handle it.

From The Sunday Times
December 2, 2007
Israelis hit Syrian ‘nuclear bomb plant’
Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv and Michael Sheridan in Seoul

ISRAEL’S top-secret air raid on Syria in September destroyed a bomb factory assembling warheads fuelled by North Korean plutonium, a leading Israeli nuclear expert has told The Sunday Times.

Professor Uzi Even of Tel Aviv University was one of the founders of the Israeli nuclear reactor at Dimona, the source of the Jewish state’s undeclared nuclear arsenal.

“I suspect that it was a plant for processing plutonium, namely, a factory for assembling the bomb,” he said. “I think the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] transferred to Syria weapons-grade plutonium in raw form, that is nuggets of easily transported metal in protective cans. I think the shaping and casting of the plutonium was supposed to be in Syria.”

All governments concerned - even the regime in Damascus - have tried to maintain complete secrecy about the raid.

They apparently fear that forcing a confrontation on the issue could spark a war between Israel and Syria, end the Middle East peace talks and wreck America’s extremely complex negotiations to disarm North Korea of its nuclear weapons.

The political stakes could hardly be higher. Plutonium is the element which fuelled the American atomic bomb that destroyed the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

Critics in the United States say proof that North Korea supplied such nuclear weapons material to Syria, a state technically at war with Israel, would shatter congressional confidence in the Bush administration’s diplomatic policy.

From beneath the veil of military censorship, western commentators have formed a consensus that the target was a nuclear reactor under construction.

There are, of course, those who say that there is no sufficient evidence to support that the target was a nuclear facility. Whatever the case may be, Syria has been slapped hard and is scrambling to cover up the contents of the bombed site. Israel had information that showed that there was a threat to their sovereignty and security, and they struck.

I personally don't blame Israel for striking. Dealing with the torment of a bully is never fun, but sometimes, it has to be done.

Shalom, Israel.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man


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Let's offer them the bullets to kill us, while we're at it...

It's time we consider giving some of our territory back over to the countries it used to belong to. Let's give England about a quarter of Washington, DC. New Orleans, let's see, we need to cede the French Quarter back to France. Seattle can go to Canada, Southern California we can give back to Mexico. Oh, and Anchorage, that definitely has to go back to Russia.

Think I've lost my mind and that I'm completely off my rocker? Think that I've worked too much this week and that I've been overcome by fatigue (ok, that one may be true, but still...). The United States wouldn't DREAM of turning any of these areas over to anyone else. These areas that I've mentioned are part of our nation, a part of US, part of our country, part of the whole of our people.

So...

Why would our state department even DREAM of having any PART of Jerusalem on the bargaining table for the Middle East peace conferences? Jerusalem is the traditional capital of Israel from time historic. It has no significance to Islam in any way, shape, manner, form or fashion other than to be a thorn in the side of the Jews. Yes, the Mosque of Omar is found in Jerusalem. Muslims argue until they're blue in the face about it being one of their religious places, but what's it built on? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller? THAT'S RIGHT, by golly, it's built on the location of the site that was the Temple of Solomon. Giving Palestinians access to Jerusalem and allowing them to make it "theirs" makes about as much sense to me as would living south of Lamar Avenue in Memphis and not locking your doors at night. Or during the day for that matter.

Hamas demands UN rescind '47 partition
By JPOST.COM STAFF

Hamas on Thursday called on the UN to rescind the 1947 decision to partition Palestine into two states, one for Jews and one for Arabs.

The group said in a statement, released on the 60th anniversary of the UN vote, that "Palestine is Arab Islamic land, from the river to the sea, including Jerusalem... there is no room in it for the Jews."

Regarding the partition decision, Hamas said that "correcting mistakes is nothing to be ashamed of, but prolonging it is exploitation..."

And Syria, good old Syria, they want the Golan Heights. There's a very simple reason they want this piece of real estate, folks. It's very easy, VERY easy to set up small artillery and absolutely bombard pretty much any location in Israel that they want to target.

Saudi Arabia, those wonderful allies of ours? Their delegation refused to even shake hands with the Israeli delegation.

Anyone see a trend to all of this? Other than me? Yes, thank God, others see it as well, and are speaking out about it. Click this link to go to the American Center for Law and Justice petition demanding that our government do it's part to keep Jerusalem Israeli.

Unreal.

Israel is our ally, and they are struggling to maintain their national sovereignty. It's up to you, the American people, to speak loudly and demand our government help our ally to survive.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man


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Behind Enemy Lines...

In the old days they were called "sappers." From the earliest conflicts of man against man, there have been special groups, elite units, who were tasked and trained with doing the exceptional and the extraordinary.

Special Operations took on a new life during World War II with the use of Army Rangers and Airborne troops so heavily during the Normandy invasion, and the reliance of Navy "frogmen" for disarming sea mines.

Out of necessity for changing warfare came the Navy Seals, the Green Berets, and their forerunners from the British Commonwealth, the Special Air Service, or SAS.

We see today how important a role SpecOps plays in conducting modern warfare, and in preventing it, with this report from the Times Online:

SAS raiders enter Iran to kill gunrunners

Michael Smith

BRITISH special forces have crossed into Iran several times in recent months as part of a secret border war against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Al-Quds special forces, defence sources have disclosed.

There have been at least half a dozen intense firefights between the SAS and arms smugglers, a mixture of Iranians and Shi’ite militiamen.

The unreported fighting straddles the border between Iran and Iraq and has also involved the Iranian military firing mortars into Iraq. UK commanders are concerned that Iran is using a militia ceasefire to step up arms supplies in preparation for an offensive against their base at Basra airport.

An SAS squadron is carrying out operations along the Iranian border in Maysan and Basra provinces with other special forces, the Australian SAS and American special-operations troops...

This is where it's very important to know exactly what your enemy is up to. Joint operations between allies, in this case the UK, Australia, and the US, means that information can be shared more quickly and efficiently between the three nations to conduct other operations.

UK special forces operating in Iran
By JPOST.COM STAFF

Talkbacks for this article: 2

British special forces have carried out several operations inside Iran in recent months in an attempt to prevent the Revolutionary Guard's Al-Quds force from shipping weapons to Iraq, the Sunday Times reported.

The British and Australian SAS forces are reportedly working with American special forces to patrol the border to prevent weapons - including surface-to-air missiles and parts for IEDs (improvised explosive devices) - from reaching the hands of Iraqi insurgents.

According to the article, the SAS have engaged in at least six "intense firefights" with both Iranian and Iraqi Shi'ite arms smugglers. The fighting has reportedly taken place on both sides of the Iran-Iraq border, and Iran has fired mortar shells across the border.

The Times said that officials have stated that while the British troops are working to prevent arms smuggling, they do not cross the border into Iran...

Analysis of the information that comes back from these operations is vital for regular forces in knowing exactly what sorts of measures they need to take in their own operations. It also allows for more direct analysis of doing things to prevent the smuggling of weapons from Iran INTO Iraq. It also gives insights on how to secure our own southernmost border here at home; the border we share with Mexico:

U.S. to build watchtower at Iran-Iraq border
Structure to target smuggling of shipments that authorities allege are illegal arms for war

By Sam Enriquez
October 21, 2007

ZURBATIYA, Iraq - About 300 trucks cross the border here every day, ferrying fruit, rugs and building supplies from Iran - and, if U.S. authorities are to be believed, illegal weapons.

Intercepting the smuggled arms should be simple enough, because shipments have to be unloaded from Iranian trucks and transferred to Iraqi trucks at the border. The trouble is, the reloading is done on the Iranian side, behind a wall.

So the U.S. is planning to build a 100-foot watchtower for Iraqi border agents. This solution is one of many to seal a 900-mile desert and mountain border that U.S. authorities allege is used by smugglers to ferry Iranian-made explosives and rockets used in attacks against Iraqi civilians, police and U.S. forces.

Critics say the U.S. hasn't proved that the weapons come from Iran or that the Iranian government is complicit with trafficking. But the allegations have heightened tensions between Washington and Iran, raising the prospect of U.S. military action.

The crossing station here in eastern Wasit province, a moonscape desert with summer highs pushing 120 degrees and the dangerous litter of Iraq's eight-year war with Iran, illustrates the challenge of setting modern controls on an ancient frontier.

Although the United States' latest border problem is half a world away from Mexico and its illegal drug and immigrant traffic, the U.S. military hopes to incorporate some of the techniques used on the U.S.-Mexican border. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is lending border patrol and customs officers to help, and some former officers are working here under private contracts.

"This is a lot tougher than the Mexican border," said Army Col. Mark Mueller, who is in charge of U.S. forces advising Iraq's Department of Border Enforcement and the Iraqi army in this region. "There are leftover mines and munitions everywhere."

Don't expect, however, after reading this, to be able to pull up Special Operations mission reports at random and read them. The vast majority of them are classified information that is not available to the general public. There are a great many reasons for this, none the least of which is the safety of the soldiers and sailors and marines involved in these missions, and the safety of their families.

Keep these specialists in your thoughts and prayers. They put themselves very heavily in harms way to keep you safe.

Once and Always an American Fighting Man
(That last one is my regimental crest. Notice the tie in with the one at the top of the page?)


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Kicking Ass in Afghanistan

Usually others handle the news from the Middle East concerning our troops and their victories there.

I wanted this one.

My first reaction was "HELL YEAH!"

My second was "WHOOO WAHHHH!"

I think that when you read this, you'll understand why.

Hat tip to Sweetness & Light for this one:

Taliban launch frontal attack on base

By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 7, 2:43 PM ET

GHAZNI, Afghanistan - A group of 75 Taliban militants tried to overrun a U.S.-led coalition base in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, a rare frontal attack that left more than 20 militants dead, the coalition said in a statement.

The insurgents attacked Firebase Anaconda from three sides, using gunfire, grenades and 107 mm rockets, the coalition said. A joint Afghan-U.S. force repelled the attack with mortars, machine guns and air support.

"Almost two dozen insurgents were confirmed killed in the attack," the statement said. Two girls and two Afghan soldiers were wounded during the fight in Uruzgan province, it said.

A firebase like Anaconda is usually a remote outpost staffed by as few as several dozen soldiers.

"The inability of the insurgent forces to inflict any severe damage on Firebase Anaconda, while being simultaneously decimated in the process, should be a clear indication of the ineffectiveness of their fighters," said Army Capt. Vanessa R. Bowman, a coalition spokeswoman.

A direct attack on a U.S. or NATO base by insurgents on foot is relatively rare. More often insurgents fire rockets at bases and flee. Military officials say that Taliban fighters know they can't match Western militaries in a heads-up battle, which leads the insurgents to more often rely on roadside and suicide bombs.

OUTSTANDING job.

Don't you know the AP was going into meltdown for having to report this?

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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New Iran Hostage Crisis

Enough!

Let me start by saying that I’m so furious I don’t know what to say TO start.

Are we a nation of cowards? Are we a nation that would rather sit on our collective ass and “talk about it” while we’re being picked off one at a time on foreign shores? Are we so naive that we think we can trust a foreign government whose leadership has called for our destruction? Can we trust this government to release our people without harm unless we threaten to roll INTO Tehran?

I was going to do a piece today on how that we are at war against an enemy that is multinational, an enemy that belongs to a mindset that extends across national borders and boundaries. I was going to do a piece on how the media and certain members of Congress and the Senate (and yes, I mean the Democratic party and a few turncoat Republicans) are trying desperately to convince you, the American public, that our war in Iraq was unjust and “illegal.” If you can walk away from reading this without fully grasping that WE ARE AT WAR WITH A SECT OF RELIGIOUS EXTREMISTS who pay NO REGARD TO INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES that were imposed upon them during the occupation of the Middle East by Europeans during the last two centuries then you are beyond any hope of redemption in regards to allowing your eyes to be opened to the truth.

Our enemy is not any particular nation.

Our enemy is Radical Extremist Fascist Islam.

Iraq is, has been, but ONE FRONT in this war. Afghanistan is another one. Make NO mistake in thinking that there will not be others as time progresses and our enemies regroup themselves. WE CAN NOT ALLOW THEM TO HAVE ONE MOMENT TO CATCH THEIR BREATH AND ATTACK US ON OUR OWN SHORES AGAIN. By their own admissions, by their own words, THAT IS THEIR INTENTION.

And until we secure our borders and stop this nonsensical debate over illegal immigration, BUILD the fence on our southern border to inhibit the free flowing of illegals crossing into our country from Mexico, and start rounding up, as Eisenhower did, those who are here illegally, we are leaving ourselves WIDE OPEN to more attacks within the United States. EVEN FRANCE has come to realize this danger to their own country and has started sending THEIR illegals back home.

ENOUGH!

Hat tips to Power Line and Blue Crab Boulevard for their commentaries on columnist Mark Steyn’s article Look who's holding hostages again.

Mark Steyn: Look who's holding hostages again

How do you feel about the American hostages in Iran?

No, not the guys back in the Seventies, the ones being held right now.

What? You haven't heard about them?

Odd that, isn't it? But they're there. For example, for two months now, Haleh Esfandiari has been detained in Evin prison in Tehran. Esfandiari is a U.S. citizen and had traveled to Iran to visit her sick mother. She is the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, which is the kind of gig that would impress your fellow guests at a Washington dinner party. Unfortunately, the mullahs say it's an obvious cover for a Bush spy.

Among the other Zionist-neocon agents currently held in Iranian jails are an American journalist, an American sociologist for a George Soros-funded leftie group, and an American peace activist from Irvine, Ali Shakeri, whose capture became known shortly after the United States and Iran held their first direct talks since the original hostage crisis.

Two months in an Iranian jail is no fun. Four years ago, a Montreal photo-journalist, Zahra Kazemi, was arrested by police in Tehran, taken to Evin prison, and wound up getting questioned to death. Upon her capture, the Canadian government had done as the State Department is apparently doing – kept things discreet, low-key, cards close to the chest, quiet word in the right ears. By the time Zahra Kazemi's son, frustrated by his government's ineffable equanimity, got the story out, it was too late for his mother.

Still, upon hearing of her death, then-Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham expressed his "sadness" and "regret," which are pretty strong words. But then, as Reuters put it, this sad regrettable incident had "marred previously harmonious relations between Iran and Canada." In his public pronouncements, Graham tended to give the impression that what he chiefly regretted and was sad about was that one of his compatriots had had the poor taste to get tortured and murdered onto the front pages of the newspapers.

With an apparently straight face, Graham passed on to reporters the official Iranian line that her death in jail was merely an "accident." The following year, Shahram Azam, a physician who'd examined Kazemi's body, fled Iran and said that she had broken fingers, a broken nose, a crushed toe, a skull fracture, severe abdominal bruising, and internal damage consistent with various forms of rape. Quite an accident.

The longer American prisoners are held in Evin, the more likely it is they'll meet with a similar accident. It would be nice to think the press has ignored these hostages out of concerns that they might inflame the situation. (To date, only National Review, Bill Bennett on his radio show and various doughty Internet wallahs have made any fuss.) Or maybe the media figure that showing American prisoners on TV will only drive Bush's ratings back up from the grave to the rude health of intensive care. Or maybe they just don't care about U.S. hostages, not compared to real news like Senate sleepovers to block unblocking a motion to vote for voting against a cloture motion on the best way to surrender in Iraq.

But I'll bet the mullahs wouldn't really care if everyone put Haleh Esfandiari on the front pages 24/7. It's only a few months since they seized a bunch of Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines in international waters (an illegal act) and paraded them all over Iranian TV (in breach of the Geneva Conventions) and dressed up the female sailor in Islamic garb (another breach).

And the U.N. and the EU and all the other transnational arbiters of global order sent a strong message: "Whoa, you guys really need to tamp things down, de-escalate, defuse the confrontation." But, for some reason, they sent the strong message to the British government, not the Iranians. And, with the sailors' humiliation all over the media, the British public was inclined to agree. Almost to a man, they rose up and told Tony Blair: "This is all your fault for getting us into Iraq."

But outrage at Iran? There was none.

The ayatollahs figure that's how it usually goes with a plump, complacent Western world that just wants to be left alone and wishes these crazies would stop trying to catch its eye. Officially, Iran is "negotiating" with the European Union over its nuclear program. If this were a real negotiation, instead of a transnational pseudo-negotiation, the Iranians would be concerned to stop any complicating factors coming into play. Instead, every week they gaily toss new provocations into their EU chums' laps: In recent days, they've stoned to death various fellows for adultery and homosexuality, two activities to which Europeans are generally very partial.

But why let a few stonings throw your negotiations off track? And, if the Americans are so eager to get a seat at the negotiating table, why not remind them of the rules of the game? Last week, the Iranians paraded their U.S. hostages all over TV as they confessed to engaging in espionage, along the way fingering the Woodrow Wilson Center and George Soros as key elements in the plot to overthrow the ayatollahs. If only.

The week before, Iran captured 14 spies near the Iraqi border who it claimed were agents of American and British intelligence equipped with surveillance devices. The "spies" in question were squirrels – as in small furry animals very protective of their nuts (much like the Democratic Party regarding Mr. Soros). I'm prepared to believe that a crack team of rodents from NUTS (the Ninja Undercover Team of Squirrels) abseiled into key installations in Iran and garroted the Revolutionary Guards, but not that the U.S. and British governments had anything to do with it. If they have any CIA or MI6 training at all, they must be rogue squirrels from the Cold War days who've been laid off and gone feral.

In America, public opinion is in no mood for war with Iran. In Washington, Congress is focused on finding the most politically advantageous way to lose in Iraq. In Europe, they've already psychologically accepted the Iranian nuclear umbrella. In the Western world, where talks are not the means to the end but an end in themselves, we find it hard despite the evidence of 30 years to accept that Iran talks the talk and walks the walk. Once it goes nuclear, do you think there will be fewer fatwas on writers, stonings of homosexuals, kidnappings in international waters, forced confessions of American hostages and bankrolling of terror groups worldwide? These latest hostages are part of a decades-old pattern of behavior. The longer it goes without being stopped, the worse it will be.

That’s not enough? How about that they’ve put these new hostages on IRANIAN TELEVISION?

Detained American-Iranian speaks on Iranian TV

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian-American detained in Iran said on state television on Thursday she had concluded that a network of research centers and universities she had helped create had aims which would weaken the Iranian government.

Haleh Esfandiari, 67-year-old director of the Middle East program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, was arrested in May when visiting Iran from the United States.

She told a documentary TV program on Thursday "Now, after nearly five months ... I have reached the conclusion that we had created a chain of research centers, foundations and universities ... the aim of such networks was to create very fundamental changes inside the Iranian regime ... which means really weakening the system."

Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned of a U.S.-backed "velvet revolution" using intellectuals and others to bring about "regime change."

Kian Tajbakhsh, another Iranian-American, was also arrested while visiting Iran in May.

A consultant with the Open Society Institute, founded by billionaire investor George Soros, he told the same program: "The Soros centre's job in eastern Europe is nearly finished. Its main focus now is the Islamic world, Arab countries, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc."

State television's promotional clips of the program on Monday outraged Washington, which warned that any confessions which were broadcast would have no legitimacy. The first episode of the program was aired on Wednesday.

The Woodrow Wilson Centre's president, Lee Hamilton, said on Tuesday Esfandiari has been held in solitary confinement, adding that "any statements she may make without having had access to her lawyer would be coerced and have no legitimacy or standing."

Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday the statements made by Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh on television carried no legal weight.

BUSH SPEECHES

Their comments were broadcast in a documentary "In the Name of Democracy," which used parts of speeches by U.S. President George W. Bush about spreading democracy and images of popular uprisings in Georgia and Ukraine apparently to imply that Washington had similar plans for Iran.

The documentary also showed Ramin Jahanbeglou, an Iranian-Canadian writer detained for four months last year for endangering state security. "I am sorry for what I have done and I regret it," he said.

State television has in the past broadcast what it said were confessions by dissidents serving jail sentences for alleged attempts to undermine the Islamic Republic. Some have remained in jail even after the "confessions" were aired.

Many Iranian intellectuals say such measures are aimed at deterring any academic debate about the clerical establishment.

Rights groups and Western diplomats say Iranian authorities have increased pressure on dissidents, intellectuals and critical journalists, possibly in response to mounting international pressure over its atomic program.

The documentary made no mention of two other American-Iranians arrested this year on security-related charges, one of whom has been freed on bail.

Long-time foe Washington is leading efforts to isolate Iran over what it says are its plans to build nuclear arms. U.S. forces have detained five Iranians in Iraq on charges of backing militants there. Iran denies the charges.

The two countries will hold fresh talks in Iraq soon, following a landmark meeting in Baghdad in May.

Need more?

Iran TV shows detained American-Iranian academics

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's state television aired on Wednesday a program featuring two detained American-Iranian academics accused of endangering national security in the Islamic state.

Iranian officials have suggested Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh may have been involved in a U.S.-backed plot to stage a "velvet revolution" in Iran. Rights groups and U.S. officials had deplored Iran's plans to put the pair on television.

But in the first part of a documentary entitled "In the Name of Democracy" the two dual nationals, arrested separately in May while visiting Iran, did not make explicit confessions of conspiring to topple Tehran's clerical establishment.

"My job was to identify lecturers through contacting Iranians in America or contacting Iranian intellectuals when visiting Iran," said Esfandiari, an academic at the U.S.-based Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars.

"A network of these contacted speech-makers was created ... The main aim was to identify key figures ... and to connect them to the network," said Esfandiari, who wore a black headscarf.

Tajbakhsh, a consultant with the Open Society Institute, founded by billionaire investor George Soros, said: "My job was to give social, political and cultural advice to the centre about Iran."

"The fact that America's Congress financed (the) Soros (centre), shows the American government and the centre share the same views on Iran," he added, referring to a sheaf of notes.

Their comments were interspersed with images from popular uprisings in Georgia and Ukraine to imply that the United States had similar plans for Iran. The second part of the documentary will be shown on Thursday night.

Although they are being held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, the interviews with them were conducted in comfortably furnished rooms and both appeared relaxed and healthy.

State television's promotional clips of the program on Monday outraged Washington which warned that any confessions which were broadcast would have no legitimacy.

Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday the statements made by Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh on television carried no legal weight.

PRESSURE MOUNTS

Rights groups and Western diplomats say Iranian authorities have increased pressure on dissidents, intellectuals and critical journalists, adding this may in part be a response to mounting international pressure over its atomic program.

The documentary made no mention of two other American-Iranians arrested this year on security-related charges, one of whom has been freed on bail.

The Woodrow Wilson Centre's president, Lee Hamilton, said on Tuesday Esfandiari has been held in solitary confinement, adding that "any statements she may make without having had access to her lawyer would be coerced and have no legitimacy or standing."

Iran and the United States are at odds over a range of issues, including Tehran's refusal to give up sensitive nuclear enrichment work, which it says will be used solely for power generation and not, as Washington believes, to make bombs.

Washington also accuses Tehran of backing militants in Iraq, a charge it denies, and U.S. forces have been holding five Iranians in Iraq since January.

Nevertheless, the two countries have said they expect to sit down for fresh talks about Iraq soon, following a landmark meeting in Baghdad in May.

When is our government, when are the American people, going to learn that you CAN NOT TRUST the Iranian government to keep their word about anything? How much more is it going to take before we realize, each and every one of us, that we are at war with a coalition of people from several “countries” in the Middle East, not with any particular individual nation there?

Just when I think that I can’t get any MORE disgusted, something like this finds it’s way to the light of day.

ENOUGH!

Mr. President, SECURE OUR DAMNED BORDERS! And to ALL of our governmental officials, STOP PUSSY FOOTING AROUND WITH TERRORISTS! To the main stream media, STOP LYING TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND STOP HIDING THE TRUTH FROM THEM.

WE don't NEED this bullshit.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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A lesson for the leftinistras with BDS

I have stated on this blog and in face to face conversations I don't know how many times that I DO NOT blindly and completely support President Bush in everything he does. I know spree doesn't either; she is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT behind our troops and our war on terrorism, as I am, but that in NO WAY SHAPE MANNER OR FORM is a blanket support for the President.

Wanted to make that clear for all of you out there who mistakenly try to label the writers for this site as being "brainwashed" or incapable of thinking for ourselves.

That being said.

I don't know how many of you out there read Eli E. Hertz and his site at www.mythsandfacts.org but he has a GREAT open letter to President Bush that he sent out in an email alert today.

Well stated, and very much something to think about...

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

To President Bush

Eli E. Hertz | July 17, 2007

I read with interest your remarks on the Middle East given on July 16, 2007 at the White House.

I appreciate your sincere commitment and devotion in promoting and advancing the creation of functional democracies and peace around the world - particularly your effort in the Middle East.

As one who devotes his time studying the Arab-Israeli conflict, and as a person of the Jewish race and religion, it became incumbent upon me to direct your attention to statements you made of which I found offending. Statements perceived as fact, but in reality are, in my humble opinion, misguided.

I would start with the notion that your administration will not 'do business' with terror organizations and those who call for the destruction of Israel, or at best, suggest to toss the "Jews to the sea."

This brings me to Fateh, the main faction of the PLO for whom Mahmoud Abbas is the driving force and was one of its founding members. This is the organization and leadership that the administration relies upon to bring functional democracy, freedom and peace to the region.

Mr. President, it takes little effort to learn what Fateh is all about. Its constitution calls under Article 12 for the "Complete liberation of Palestine, and obliteration of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence."

As for how it will achieve its goal to wipe Israel off the map, Fateh's constitution, Article 19, minces no words:

"Armed struggle is a strategy and not a tactic, and the Palestinian Arab People's armed revolution is a decisive factor in the liberation fight and in uprooting the Zionist existence, and this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated" [italic by author]

If this does not suffice, please review Abbas' words in a recent rally on January 11, 2007, to a crowd estimated at nearly 250,000 supporters. Abbas calls on Palestinians to refrain from internal fighting and to direct their guns only against Israeli "occupation."

He promises to "not give up one inch of land in Jerusalem" and he "considers the settlements illegal."

In his book, "the issue of the refugees is non-negotiable"

So as much for the partner.

And now to the "Occupation"

I notice with relief that you did not spell out who is the occupier and who is the occupant - just to make sure I will discuss the legal occupation under international law of Jewish settlers in the area known forever as Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.

In 1897 it was Benjamin Herzl, founder of modern Zionism who said: "Palestine is our ever-memorable historic home. The very name of Palestine would attract our people with a force of marvelous potency."

In 1917 it was Arthur James Balfour of Great Britain who declared:

"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object ..."

In 1922 it was Winston Churchill (your hero), British Secretary of State for the Colonies that declared:

Jews are in Palestine "as of right and not on sufferance ... When it is asked what is meant by the development of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, it may be answered that it is not the imposition of a Jewish nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole, but the further development of the existing Jewish community, with the assistance of Jews in other parts of the world, in order that it may become a centre in which the Jewish people as a whole may take on grounds of religion and race, an interest and a pride."

On July 24, 1922 it was fifty-one member countries - the entire League of Nations - that published the legally binding document "Mandate for Palestine" and unanimously declared:

"Recognition Has Been Given to the Historical Connection of the Jewish People with Palestine and to the Grounds for Reconstituting their National Home in that Country."

The "Mandate for Palestine," a historical League of Nations document laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in western Palestine, a 10,000-square-mile area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, an entitlement unaltered in international law and valid to this day.

On June 30, 1922 it was the joint resolution of both Houses of Congress of the United States that unanimously endorsed the "Mandate for Palestine," confirming the irrevocable right of Jews to settle in the area of Palestine - anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

"Favoring the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.

"resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United State of America in congress assembled, That the United States of America favors the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of Christian and all other non-Jewish communities in Palestine, and that the holy places and religious buildings and sites in Palestine shall be adequately protected." [The resolution was incorporated in the 1937 Palestine Royal commission Report, Chapter II, page 31]

On September 21, 1922 it was Warren G. Harding, President of the United Sates of America who signed the joint resolution of approval to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Mr. President, Palestine is a geographical area, not a nationality!

As a matter of fact there has never been a sovereign Arab state in Palestine. The artificiality of a Palestinian identity is reflected in the attitudes and actions of neighboring Arab nations who never established a Palestinian state themselves. Nor did the Arabs recognize or establish a Palestinian state during the two decades prior to the Six-Day War when the West Bank was under Jordanian control and the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian control; nor did the Palestinian Arabs clamor for autonomy or independence during those years under Jordanian and Egyptian rule.

Mr. President - Jewish "continuing occupation" that you speak about, is legal and endorsed by international law.

The "Mandate for Palestine" document defined where Jews are and are not permitted to settle. Article 6 of the Mandate clearly states:

"The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes."

The "Mandate for Palestine" document is the last legally binding document regarding the status of what is commonly called "the West Bank and Gaza." The September 16, 1922 memorandum (of the Mandate) is also the last modification of the official terms of the "Mandate" on record by the League of Nations or by its legal successor - the United Nations - in accordance with Article 27 of the "Mandate" that states unequivocally: "The consent of the Council of the League of Nations is required for any modification of the terms of this mandate."

Mr. President, political rights to self-determination as a polity for Arabs were guaranteed in three other mandates - in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. A forth Arab state east of the Jordan River - Trance-Jordan, came to fruition via the "Mandate for Palestine."

Mr. President:

300,000,000 Arabs in 21 'exclusive' Arab countries now occupy an area of 5,207,000 Square Miles, including all the principal Arab and Moslem centers.

6,000,000 Jews in 1 country now occupy an area of nearly 10,000 square miles [will fit into Lake Michigan with plenty of room left] in Palestine, and you Mr. President propose to reduce it even further.

This is an injustice and a grievous handicap to the continuous development and security of the Jewish State.

Thank you.

Eli E. Hertz
PO Box 941

Forest Hills, NY
718-544-8030

Sources:

The President speech: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070716-7.html

Commentary: This Land is My Land (Includes the "Mandate for Palestine" text at:
http://www.mythsandfacts.com/Conflict/mandate_for_palestine/Mandate_for_Palestine.pdf

A short presentation at:
http://www.mythsandfacts.com/Conflict/mandate_for_palestine/ThisLandIsMyLand.ppt

Mandate for Palestine, the legal aspects of Jewish Rights at:
http://www.mythsandfacts.com/Conflict/mandate_for_palestine/Mandate_for_Palestine.pdf

Mandate Document - British Archive.

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Taking a Stand against the United Nations

For several years now I've been a proponent of removing the United States from involvement with the United Nations. I see the organization as being a body that tries not to solve international problems through diplomacy and negotiation but as one that tries to become a governing body for the entire planet. I've also pointed out on numerous occasions how that the UN uses Israel as their "whipping boy" every time that the Israeli's do anything to defend themselves, blaming Israel for starting conflicts that have been brought to them by others.

Our world is by no means in a place for global governance. I doubt that it ever will be, given our cultural and social differences from country to country. Look at our own nation, if you need convincing. How many southerners are more than happy to "help a Yankee go home?" How many northerners look at southerners as being JUST like the Beverly Hillbilly's? California is referred to as "the left coast" because of their political views, not just because of their location on the map.

We DO NOT need to be as heavily involved in the United Nations as we are.

Mayhap our government is starting to realize this as well.

US House bars funding for UN rights council

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US House of Representatives moved to prohibit US funding of the UN Human Rights Council, derided by one member as a "poisonous talk shop," as part of a mammoth funding bill passed early Friday.

The United States has repeatedly expressed frustration with the council over its rules, targets for monitoring -- including US ally Israel -- and the way it conducts business.

The amendment, to a measure funding the State Department and US diplomacy, passed by unanimous voice vote, and prevents US funding for the overall United Nations budget from being used for the council's 15 million dollar annual operations.

"We were right to refuse to dignify that poisonous talk-shop with our membership, and we must refuse to support it with our tax dollars," said Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"By pulling its membership from the broader UN General Assembly without any membership criteria, the council has gone further than its predecessor in giving gross human rights violators the power to shape the international human rights agenda," Ros-Lehtinen said.

The council, of which the United States is only an observer, was formed last year to replace the discredited UN Human Rights Commission.

The United States earlier this week said it was disappointed by new rules adopted by the Human Rights Council and accused the fledgling institution of denying its own members voting rights

The 47 members of the Geneva-based council agreed to continue scrutiny of Israel and sought the abolition of independent rights experts monitoring Cuba and Belarus.

The United States said it was also concerned about what it called "procedural irregularities" employed to deny council members the opportunity to vote on the agenda.

In a statement, Ros-Lehtinen's office faulted the council for failing to condemn genocide in Darfur, the "sprawling gulag of North Korea" and political and rights abuses in Cuba, Belarus, Myanmar and Zimbabwe.

I believe in giving proper credit where it's due. A big "Well Done" to the House of Representatives for this one. Thank you for doing the right thing.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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The grass is always greener...

The late Erma Bombeck once wrote a book entitled The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side of the Septic Tank. Humorous, witty, I wonder if the Palestinians are feeling any sort of humor and wit at their current situation as they lament not being under the protection and jurisdiction of Israel.

We told you about this situation in recent weeks with spree's posting this week "First They Came for the Jews", my posting on the 3rd entitled "The enemy of my enemy...?", and we revisit it today with hat tips to little green footballs and News Busters.

To refresh everyone's memory, there has yet to be a nation named "Palestine." The Dinosaur media has created in the public mindset the concept of a misplaced people living in refugee status since the middle of the last century; people misplaced by the creation of the nation of Israel. What the media fails to report is that in truth it was the Israeli people who had been displaced for CENTURIES and that they had returned to their homeland.

The "Palestinians" were squatters.

And now, after decades of the media making Israel to be so unfair to the Palestinians and being so harsh to them, where are Palestinians heading to escape violence in the Gaza Strip?

Israel.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Earlier, dozens of Palestinians arrived at the Erez Crossing in an attempt to escape the Gaza Strip and enter Israel. IDF soldiers shot into the air to try to prevent the approaching crowds from infiltrating through the security fence.

Many of the Palestinians arrived at the crossing carrying large suitcases and were planning to run away from the Strip following Hamas's takeover.

One young man shouted "bye, bye, Gaza," and waved as he walked through the covered walkway that leads to the Israeli side.

My my my my my what oh WHAT will the leftist anti-semitic dinosaur media DO now that Israel has been SHOWN not to be the bad guy here?

Katie Couric might just explode on camera.

One can only hope...

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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The enemy of my enemy...?

Middle East politics is an amazing thing to follow. Just when you think you have it all figured out, something happens that absolutely changes the shape of everything that analysts and political scientists have speculated on and predicted.

Hat Tip to Moderate Voice for this amazing story that you won't likely find on the front pages or in the opening segments of the nightly news:

'We Are Facing a Second Nakba'-Reactions in the Palestinian Press to the Hamas-Fatah Clashes

By: C. Jacob

"The situation in the Gaza Strip, and especially in the city of Gaza, is scary. Murders are committed by the dozen, using every [conceivable] weapon... The murder machine, fueled by every conceivable type of hatred, is hurtling in every direction, all the time, everywhere... in the mosques... in the schools... [There are] executions... Leaders are attacked, and their families humiliated... Children and innocent civilians are being murdered..." Talal Okal, columnist for the Palestinian Authority daily Al-Ayyam, May 17, 2007.

Introduction

The current wave of violent Hamas-Fatah clashes is one of the most brutal the PA has known, especially considering that it broke out only a short while after the signing of the Mecca Agreement, which was supposed to put an end to the mutual fighting. The large number of casualties, and the fear that has taken hold of the Gaza streets, have sparked intense protest among Palestinians and Arabs, with harsh criticism directed towards both the PA and Hamas.

Some consequences of the clashes are public statements by residents calling on Israel to reenter the Gaza Strip, and concerns regarding the effect of the fighting on the international community's faith in the Palestinians' ability to establish a state, to honor agreements, and to maintain peace.

Among the solutions proposed in the Palestinian media were to launch a third intifada, this time against those responsible for the internal chaos, and to bring in Arab or international forces to keep the peace between the Fatah and Hamas.

Does that sound like the peace that Palestinians had expected from not being under Israeli rule?
What would one expect the reactions to be from this situation? Not, probably, what you would think...

Who is Responsible for the Clashes? - Mutual Accusations by Fatah and Hamas
Fatah and PLO spokesmen accused Hamas of staging a coup against the Palestinian Authority and of trying to renege on the Mecca Agreement. The PLO Executive Committee issued a statement saying: "What is happening in Gaza is an attempted coup against the legitimate security apparatuses, aimed at imposing by force the legitimacy of the armed militias, and especially the legitimacy of the Hamas militia [known as the] Executive Force." It should be noted that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pronounced the Executive Force illegal immediately after its establishment." [1]

A statement issued by the Fatah Central Committee said: "Behind the mutual killing of Palestinian by Palestinian stand local leaders and field [commanders] from Hamas who are working to overthrow the national unity government and the Mecca Agreement." [2] In a similar vein, Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa accused Hamas of losing control over its armed militias. [3]

Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Azzam Al-Ahmad demanded that all armed gunmen from both sides be removed from the streets, saying: "PA President [Mahmoud Abbas] issued a presidential decree proclaiming the Executive Force illegitimate only two days after its establishment was announced." On another occasion, Azzam Al-Ahmad called to dismantle the Executive Force, accusing its men of carrying out executions that were pushing the Palestinians to the brink of civil war. [4]

Yousef Al-Qazzaz, a senior Palestinian Broadcasting Authority official and columnist for the PA daily Al-Ayyam, wrote: "A strong smell of Al-Qaeda is rising from what is being done in Gaza by the [forces] of chaos, which are murdering Palestinian security personnel and killing innocent women and children [right] in front of Prime Minister [Ismail Haniyya] from Hamas, who is unable to restrain them." [5]

Hamas spokesmen, on the other hand, accused Fatah of collaborating with the U.S. and with Israel, and claimed that the revolutionary faction within Fatah was rebelling against the Palestinian government. In response to Azzam Al-Ahmad's call to dismantle the Executive Force, Hamas demanded that his immunity be revoked and he stand trial. Hamas Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: "Al-Ahmad represents the Legislative Council and the Fatah party. How can he demand the dismantling of a legitimate police force?" [6] Hamas representative Ayman Tah asked: "Why doesn't Azzam Al-Ahmad speak of the Fatah's [own] executive force, about its illegitimacy and its massacre of residents? Why doesn't he speak of the presidential club, which has become an execution chamber for residents and which has made it licit to kill the [Palestinian] people?" [7] Another Hamas statement said: "Israel's jets did not hesitate to respond to Azzam Al-Ahmad's call to [come] and wipe out the interior ministry's Executive Force." [8]

Hamas also characterized the events in Gaza as a rebellion by commanders from the revolutionary faction within Fatah against the Palestinian government and against the agreements signed by Abbas and Haniyya. [9] Haniyya's political advisor Ahmad Yousef accused factions within Fatah and the security apparatuses of "following orders from the U.S. and Israel to escalate the violence. Both movements," he added," need a second Mecca Agreement in order to resolve the problems that still remain, such as the hierarchy within the security apparatuses and the appointment of an interior minister." Ahmad Yousef also accused the U.S. of strengthening Fatah at the expense of Hamas." [10]

Arab on Arab violence in the Gaza Strip? Is this what was expected with Israeli withdrawal?

The Clashes "Are Murdering the Palestinian Cause"

Al-Ayyam columnist Abdallah Awwad attacked both Fatah and Hamas: "Between one murder and another, between one kidnapping and the next... our leaders continue to sit in their [meaningless] seats and to speak of 'resistance,' 'liberation,' 'unity,' and 'return'... They are all liars. The weapons they wish to retain, [ostensibly] as the weapons of resistance, are actually weapons of internecine terrorism and murder... You are murdering the [Palestinian] cause, [our] people and [our] future... Oh murderers, you have ruined our world, castrated our nationalism, prostituted our resistance... You have turned our lives into hell. [In fact,] hell is preferable... Take your government, your militias, and your gangs and go to hell." [16]

Palestinian columnist Abd Al-Nasser Al-Najjar wrote in a similar vein: "Oh murderers in the streets of Gaza, we renounce you. You cannot have emerged from the womb of the Holy Land. You are despicable. You are chasing after [what is left] of our shattered government, [pursuing your own] interests... You are neither Muslims nor believers... Today, we are ashamed to speak out loud of our Palestinian [identity], when in the past we took pride in our Palestinian self-sacrifice, revolution and martyrdom. Oh you mercenaries, you have betrayed our dreams and murdered our promised state. [Our] enemies have used you as a Trojan horse. Oh murderers, you are the Satan of Palestine... Know that a bullet you fire in the Gaza street, no matter what your affiliation, will turn into a curse that will pursue you to your own graves. Oh murderers of Gaza... you have no place [among us] now that you have killed everything that is beautiful within us." [17]


Palestinian Officials: The World Perceives Us as a People Incapable of Establishing a State

Columnists also expressed concern that the fighting would affect the Palestinians' image in the eyes of the international community. Bassam Abu Sharif, who was an advisor to Arafat, wrote: "The situation in Gaza has reached the explosion point, and the Israeli message to the West and to Washington is 'do you really want these people to establish an independent state? If they are shooting each other [now], what will they do when they have a state? If they violate the agreements they have signed with each other and with the Arabs, what will they do with the agreements [they sign] with Israel?" [18]

Columnist and Palestinian official Yousef Qazzaz wrote: "To this very day, I do not understand why most of our senior [officials] are afraid to declare in all honesty that we - [our] government, [our] security apparatuses and the [Palestinian] people - have [all] failed in implementing the law and in maintaining security. We are immersed in the worship of chaos, in the destruction of our national institutions and our home. Why are we angry with those who say that the Palestinians are incapable of managing their country's affairs?" [19]

So what do the Palestinians see as a solution to their problems? Here's the surprise to this story:

Columnists: People in Gaza Long for the Return of the Israeli Occupation

Papers reported that some people in Gaza even want the Israelis to return to the Strip. Faiz Abbas and Muhammad Awwad, journalists for the Israeli-Arab weekly Al-Sinara, wrote: "People in Gaza are hoping that Israel will reenter the Gaza Strip, wipe out both Hamas and Fatah, and then withdraw again... They also say that, since the [start of the] massacres, they [have begun to] miss the Israelis, since Israel is more merciful than [the Palestinian gunmen] who do not even know why they are fighting and killing one another. It's like organized crime, [they said]. Once, we resisted Israel together, but now we call for the return of the Israeli army to Gaza." [20]

Al-Hayat Al-Jadida columnist Yahya Rabah wrote: "When the national unity government was formed, I thought, 'This will be a government of national salvation.' If a government that includes Fatah, Hamas, other factions and independents associated with [various] factions has not been able to save the day, it means that no one can, unless Israel decides that its army should intervene. Then it will invade [the Gaza Strip], kill and arrest [people] - but this time not as an occupying [force] but as an international peace-keeping force. Look what we have come to, how far we have deteriorated, and what we have done to ourselves." [21]

Palestinian journalist Majed Azzam wrote: "We should have the courage to acknowledge the truth... The [only] thing that prevents the chaos and turmoil in Gaza from spreading to the West Bank is the presence of the Israeli occupation [in the West Bank]... [as opposed to] its absence from the Gaza Strip." [22]

Bassem Al-Nabris, a Palestinian poet from Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, wrote: "If a there was a referendum in the Gaza Strip [on the question of] 'would you like the Israeli occupation to return?' half the population would vote 'yes'... But in practice, I believe that the number of those in favor is at least 70%, if not more - [a figure] much higher than is assumed by the political analysts and those who follow [events]. For the million and a half people living in this small region, things have [simply] gone too far - in practice, not just as a metaphor. [It did not begin] with the internal conflicts, but even earlier, in the days of the previous Palestinian administration, which was corrupt and did not give the people even the tiniest [ray of] hope. The fundamentalist forces which came into power [after it] also promised change and reform, but [instead, people] got a siege, with no security and no [chance of] making a living... If the occupation returns, at least there will be no civil war, and the occupier will have a moral and legal obligation to provide the occupied people with employment and food, which they now lack." [23]

Isn't it an amazing thing how that Israel has been so villainized for their treatment of the Palestinians? How long has the world blamed Israel for the plight of Palestine? Let me fill you in on a little clue that so many seem to forget or overlook. Ready? Hold on, this is HUGE. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A NATION CALLED PALESTINE. But how much terrorist activity has taken place in it's name? TOO much. Israel IS the Jewish homeland, historically as well as Biblically. And now the Palestinians recognize exactly what they had under Israeli rule, having suffered greatly since Israel withdrew from Gaza.

Amazing, that.

Read the whole story here. It boggles the mind. And it goes to show that Israel is not the horrible overlord that the dinosaur media and the U.N. paints it to be...

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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Israel Under More Attacks...Will the Media Blame Them Again?

Israel is a nation constantly under the gun. Not only from their active, shooting enemies, but from the media and indeed the United Nations. The UN has repeatedly shown their bias against this small nation in the Middle East, blaming Israel for problems when the Israeli's have returned fire or counter attacked against forces moving against them. The dinosaur media eats it up, each and every time, and according to them it's ALWAYS Israel in the wrong for fighting back.

Keep a watch over the next few days and see if it doesn't happen again when Israel responds to these latest attacks:

Israel threatens Hamas political leaders

By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM - Israel's deputy defense minister threatened Tuesday to target Hamas political leaders, calling them "terrorists in suits" after a rocket attack by the Islamic militant group killed an Israeli woman.

The harsh words were backed up by action. Israel airstrikes targeted two suspected arms caches and two Hamas bases. Later, an Israeli helicopter strafed a rocket launch site with machine-gun fire near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. Palestinian officials said a total of 10 people were wounded.

The 31-year-old woman who died Monday night was the first Israeli killed by a Palestinian rocket since November, inviting a harsh response. Militants fired nine more rockets at Israel on Tuesday, slightly wounding two people, the army said.

Israeli leaders suggested that even Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas could be targeted in reprisals, with Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh calling Hamas' leaders "terrorists in suits" in a radio interview.

"We don't care if he's a ringleader, a perpetrator of rocket launching or if he is one of the political leaders," Sneh later told The Associated Press. "No one has immunity."

Wary of Israeli strikes, leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza have lowered their profiles, turning off cell phones and staying off the streets.

In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri threatened harsh retaliation if the group's leaders were attacked.

"Harming ... any of Hamas' leadership will cost the occupation dearly," he said. "This will mean responses." He did not elaborate.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, of the moderate Fatah, traveled from his West Bank headquarters to Gaza for talks with Hamas leadership in a last-ditch attempt to salvage a truce with Israel and rein in factional bloodletting between the two factions.

Abbas himself is seen as a potential target of Hamas. Witnesses said he entered the strip Tuesday evening in a motorcade of dozens of vehicles bristling with armed guards, while presidential security forces locked down central Gaza thoroughfares and marksmen staked out rooftop vantage points along the route to his seafront official residence.

Fatah officials said Abbas would meet Haniyeh but would not divulge the timing or location, citing security concerns.

After a six-month lull, Israel resumed airstrikes on militant targets in Gaza last Wednesday in response to heavy rocket fire. More than 40 Palestinians, most of them militants, have been killed.

Despite Israeli vows of harsh retaliation in response to Monday night's Sderot attack, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert acknowledged there is no quick solution for the rocket barrages.

Israel's high-tech military has not been able to find a solution for countering the crude homemade rockets. In the past week, more than 150 rockets have landed in and around Sderot, a town of 24,000 people about a mile from the Gaza border.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz told visiting European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana that Israel was holding off on launching a major ground offensive into Gaza in order to give diplomacy a chance to defuse the crisis, Peretz's office said.

The government evacuated hundreds of Sderot residents to hotels in other parts of the country for the Shavuot Jewish holiday, which began at sundown. The evacuation was orderly, and Israeli soldiers helped people board the buses.

Mechi Friederwitzer-Fendell, who immigrated to Israel from New York city in 2000 and has raised seven children in Sderot, said she is staying put. But she urged the government to get tougher still with the Palestinians.

"Maybe we should knock down some houses," she said. "They fire a missile and we destroy a few houses, let them realize that we can't stand for this."

Hamas' rocket attacks apparently have been aimed at triggering an Israel response that could unite Palestinians and end the infighting. Some 50 people were killed in the factional violence last week.

Ahmed Youssef, a senior Hamas official, said the group would consider talks on a cease-fire, if Israel first stopped its "mad attacks."

"The aggression must stop so we can talk about a comprehensive cease-fire," said Youssef, a top aide to Haniyeh. "The government is working on expanding the truce. This is a national interest."

Israel dismissed talk of a new cease-fire, saying Hamas never sticks to truces.

"Hamas ... is leading the violence," Peretz said. "We don't intend on stopping. We will stop at the point that the rockets stop."

To the dinosaur media, you are being watched. You are being scrutinized. You are under the microscope. Will you do the right thing this time and report this situation accurately? Will you stand up to the Islamic extremist's to whom you have been bowing down to the past several decades? Or will you continue to show your bias, your lies, your corruption and once again blame the Israelis as they retaliate for the strikes against their national sovereignty? We are WATCHING you, and you will be held accountable for your actions, as will the forces of evil driving the assaults against the nation of Israel.

Americans are starting to wake up to the truth, shaking off the shackles of complacency and apathy that you have enslaved them in for so long with your lies and biased reporting. The truth always comes out. The truth is coming out now, even as I write this...

The Sleeping Giant is reawakening.

And he's PISSED.

Shalom, Israel.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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"With friends like these..."

Some things stick out in your mind as being significant. A first kiss. A first date. An event that takes the lives of thousands...

I was thinking the other day, looking up at the sky for a moment while working, how that I remembered looking up after 9/11 and seeing something missing; aircraft. I'll also never forget the PR campaign put on by the Saudi's, all the little commercials saying how they as a nation were expressing their sympathy, and to remember that Saudi Arabia was a friend to the United States.

I often thought, in those days following the horrors of 9/11, how hollow it seemed to me for them to do that. I personally lost friends that day, as many others did. September 11th, for me, is a day that will forever be set aside to remember members of Fire Department New York that I knew from meeting different ones at different times in different places through the years. Perhaps not close friends, but brothers and sisters, nonetheless, because of the common bond of the fire service community.

That being said.

The Saudi's have finally shown their true colors, in my mind, and have laid aside the veil of hypocracy that I, personally, have always felt that they hid behind. I've never felt we had any friends in the Middle East OTHER than Israel, and in my opinion, King Abdullah has shown today exactly what kind of friends the Saudi's are to the U.S.A.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, March 28 — King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told Arab leaders on Wednesday that the American occupation of Iraq was illegal and warned that unless Arab governments settled their differences, foreign powers like the United States would continue to dictate the region’s politics.

The king’s speech, at the opening of the Arab League meeting here, underscored growing differences between Saudi Arabia and the Bush administration as the Saudis take on a greater leadership role in the Middle East, partly at American urging.

The Saudis seem to be emphasizing that they will not be beholden to the policies of their longtime ally.

They brokered a deal between the two main Palestinian factions last month, but one that Israel and the United States found deeply problematic because it added to the power of the radical group Hamas rather than the more moderate Fatah. On Wednesday King Abdullah called for an end to the international boycott of the new Palestinian government. The United States and Israel want the boycott continued.

In addition, Abdullah invited President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran to Riyadh earlier this month, while the Americans want him shunned. And in trying to settle the tensions in Lebanon, the Saudis have been willing to negotiate with Iran and Hezbollah.

Last week the Saudi king canceled his appearance next month at a White House dinner in his honor, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. The official reason given was a scheduling conflict, the paper said.

Mustapha Hamarneh, director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan, said the Saudis were sending Washington a message. “They are telling the U.S. they need to listen to their allies rather than imposing decisions on them and always taking Israel’s side,” Mr. Hamarneh said.

In his speech, the king said, “In the beloved Iraq, the bloodshed is continuing under an illegal foreign occupation and detestable sectarianism.”

He added: “The blame should fall on us, the leaders of the Arab nation, with our ongoing differences, our refusal to walk the path of unity. All that has made the nation lose its confidence in us.”

King Abdullah has not publicly spoken so harshly about the American-led military intervention in Iraq before, and his remarks suggest that his alliance with Washington may be less harmonious than administration officials have been hoping.

Since last summer the administration has asserted that a realignment is occurring in the Middle East, one that groups Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon along with Israel against Iran, Syria and the militant groups that they back: Hezbollah and Hamas.

Washington has urged Saudi Arabia to take a leading role in such a realignment but is finding itself disappointed by the results.

Some here said the king’s speech was a response to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s call on Monday for Arab governments to “begin reaching out to Israel.”

Many read Ms. Rice’s comments as suggesting that Washington was backing away from its support for an Arab initiative aimed at solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel wants the Arabs to make changes in the terms, most notably the call for a right of return for Palestinian refugees to what is today Israel. The Arab League is endorsing the initiative, first introduced by Saudi Arabia in 2002, without changes.

The plan calls on Israel to withdraw from all land it won in the 1967 war in exchange for full diplomatic relations with the Arab world. It also calls for a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Regarding the Palestinians, the king said Wednesday, “It has become necessary to end the unjust blockade imposed on the Palestinian people as soon as possible so that the peace process can move in an atmosphere far from oppression and force.”

With regard to Iraq, the Saudis seem to be paying some attention to internal American politics. The Senate on Tuesday signaled support for legislation calling for a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq in exchange for further funding for the war.

Last November, officials here realized that a Democratic upset could spell major changes for the Middle East: a possible pullout from Iraq, fueling further instability and, more important, allowing Iran to extend its influence in the region.

“I don’t think that the Saudi government has decided to distance itself from Bush just yet,” said Adel alToraifi, a columnist here with close ties to the Saudi government. “But I also think that the Saudis have seen that the ball is moving into the court of the Democrats, and they want to extend their hand to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.”

Turki al-Rasheed, who runs an organization promoting democracy in Saudi Arabia, said the king was “saying we may be moving on the same track, but our ends are different.”

“Bush wants to make it look like he is solving the problem,” Mr. Rasheed said. “The king wants to actually solve the problems.”

King Abdullah said the loss of confidence in Arab leaders had allowed American and other forces to hold significant sway in the region. “If confidence is restored it will be accompanied by credibility,” he said, “and if credibility is restored then the winds of hope will blow, and then we will never allow outside forces to define our future nor allow banners to be raised in Arab lands other than those of Arabism, brothers.”

The Saudis sought to enforce discipline on the two-day meeting, reminding Arab leaders and dignitaries to stay on message and leave here with some solution in hand.

“The weight of the Saudis has ensured that this will be a problem-free summit,” said Ayman Safadi, editor in chief of the Jordanian daily Al Ghad. “Nobody is going to veer from the message and go against the Saudis. But that doesn’t mean the problems themselves will be solved.”

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations gave a stark assessment in an address to the meeting, saying the region was “more complex, more fragile and more dangerous than it has been for a very long time.”

There is a shocking daily loss of life in Iraq, he said, and Somalia is in the grip of “banditry, violence and clan rivalries.”

Iran, which on Saturday had new sanctions imposed against it by the Security Council, is “forging ahead with its nuclear program heedless of regional and international concerns,” Mr. Ban added.

Having spent Monday and Tuesday in Jerusalem and the West Bank, Mr. Ban urged the new Palestinian government to demonstrate a “true commitment to peace.”

In return, he said, Israel must cease its settlement activity and stop building a separation barrier.

He concluded, “Instability in the Arab League states is of profound significance to international peace and security.”

Well now, isn't that special?

I know I'm probably not going to be on the state department's list of favorite people when I say this, but I'm sure many American citizens will be behind me as I say "Fuck you, King Abdullah..."

Once and always, an American Fighting Man

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Missing the Point Entirely

After reading through more blogs, more news reports, more information sources and outlets, it still amazes me how so few people understand that this situation in the middle east crosses borders because so many of the people FROM that region never KNEW borders until the end of the European colonial period after World War II.

We, Americans and western Europeans alike, are trying to view this entire conflict in terms of taking on this country or that country, Iraq or Afghanistan. The cry "Bush has FORGETTEN Afghanistan" is such a rampant thing that it's disgusting. Bush hasn't forgotten Afghanistan, Africa, or any place else in the world, the dinosaur media has. Bush has even stepped UP funding to Africa. The dinosaur media deliberately have chosen to ignore Afghanistan in their reporting, and then try to paint the President as having turned his back on the area and the rest of the world to focus ONLY of Iraq. A great trick, worthy of a Copperfield or a Henning, but, unfortunately, so many American's have fallen for it that they actually BELIEVE the President has forgotten Afghanistan. A helping hand from the leftist Clintonista's in the Congress doesn't hurt anything in that regard; the dem's are right there at the forefront of the propoganda scandal in trying to blame Bush for forgetting about Afghanistan to focus only on Iraq. This coming week, others will be citing examples of how we are still involved in Afghanistan, just as much as we are in Iraq. We haven't abandoned nor have we forgotten Afghanistan. The media has. And I charge that they did so deliberately, setting the stage to blame the President for having lost focus.

My proof? My proof is the LACK of evidence seen in the news media in regards to our activities in Afghanistan. We are there, boots on the ground as the saying goes, although I have to say, this old combat engineer never HEARD that phrase until this go around. We are running missions, operations, encountering the al Quida on a weekly basis. Yet it goes ignored by the dinosaur media.

Case in point, from CENTCOM:

KABUL, Afghanistan – U.S. and Afghan noncommissioned officers toured the Pakistan Army’s Junior Leader Academy in Shinkiari, Pakistan, Dec. 28 during the second day of an exchange program tour.

Pakistan officers and NCOs briefed the team on training procedures and processes in an effort to strengthen the ties between the Afghan National Army and the Pakistan military.

“We came to learn,” said Sgt. Maj. Mahmodi Shamsudine, the command sergeant major of the ANA’s 201st Corps, after asking several questions about the training curriculum and format.

He was one of three Afghan Senior NCOs who traveled to Pakistan hoping to take back information that will help them develop their 4-year-old army.

“This was very good for (the Afghans) because they discussed training strategies, schools, doctrines, techniques and procedures that can be shared between the two armies,” said Sgt. Maj. Daniel Wood, command sergeant major for Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan.

Staff members from the JLA took the team to a field training area and watched students conduct mission planning. They were also shown classrooms and sat in on a class discussing tactics.

“This visit was very good for our countries,” said Sgt. Usman, JLA instructor. “Our door is open and we want to help the Afghan army because we want peace in Afghanistan.”

Wood called the meeting a ”very successful engagement with the military of Pakistan.” He contributed the success to the ”non-threatening and non-political environment” between the NCOs.

“The (Afghans) are very excited about the information they heard,” Wood added. “They are excited to hear about the focus on counter-terrorism and the amount of effort and attention that they are putting on training. They want to go back and try to put more of a counter-terrorism focus in their own training.”

The visit also gave the U.S. and Afghan NCOs an opportunity to share information about the progress and accomplishments of the ANA.

“People from the Pakistan military and Frontier Corps did not realize how far ahead the ANA were – they were very surprised and it made them feel more secure,” Wood said.

During a meeting with Col. Rehman, the JLA deputy commandant, he explained that Pakistani Soldiers were “giving (their) life to help Afghanistan.

“The world is a global village, and the sooner we have peace, the better it is for the world,” he said.

Sgt. Major Ahmad Fazel, the command sergeant major for the ANA’s 203rd Corps, agreed, saying, “If we work together we will be successful because we have the same goal and the same enemy.”

Plans are underway for the next program to take place at Fort Benning, Ga., in the U.S.

For more information, contact the press center at Kabul-Presscenter@cfc-a.centcom.mil.

Back to the point here. The only reason there are established and recognized borders in the Middle East is for one reason: European Colonization. The same is the case for most of central Africa. Once the Europeans pulled out and went back home, old tribal and regional differences flared back up again, hence the period of civil wars (the mercenary war era) in Africa and the reintroduction of a Jewish state into the Middle East. The Jews were merely allowed, after a couple of thousand years, to return home, folks. If anyone has any dispute with that concept, pick up a Bible, a Torah, the Talmud, and various and other sundry histories of the ancient world that DON'T have to do with religious influence and belief. But as I have been trying to say, the concept of a border is a foreign notion to the Arabic mind. Regionalism? That concept they understand. Borders created by European cartogrophers? They could care less. Hence the ease at which the terrorist networks pass from one country to another in the Middle East, welcomed with open arms by supporters across various old caravan trade routes from one city to the other. The concept of the city-state is still very much alive and well in the Muslim world. In case you haven't really grasped this notion yet, ask yourself this: how many Baptists have ever set foot in Mecca? How many Methodists? Has the Pope ever held Mass there?

As the TITLE of this site says, WAKE UP, AMERICA. This war, this military action, is NOT about one country versus another. It's about our nation fighting an enemy that transcends borders, a concept of hatred that would see both us and Israel cleared from the map in the name of the Jihad. This is a war to stop radical Muslim Imperialism, a notion that, if it comes to pass, will strike away the freedom of the individual. All of the work done by many liberal organizations will be gone. That in itself should bring the left on board with this. NOW would be outlawed. ACTUP would be outlawed. The NAACP would be changed radically. Dissidents and "free thinkers" would be labeled as outlaws and infidels. Women in the US think that they're still under male subjegation today? Imagine how it will be if the terrorists WIN.

The bikini would become a thing of the past, A horrible concept, in my opinion. The world is a MUCH better place since the introduction of the bikini, especially the thong bikini. Welcome to the age of the burkah...

Think outside our borders, learn how the rest of the world sees us, and how they know that we see them. We have GOT to stop bickering, fighting amongst ourselves over penny anty issues that don't amount to a hill of beans. We have GOT to maintain our focus on the ENTIRE Middle East to hunt these terrorist groups down, keeping a watchful eye on Korea.

We also HAVE to do something about the number of illegal immigrants coming into this country across the Mexican border, but that is another story...

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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