tirsdag den 18. september 2007

Reuters: Russia/China worried by Iran attack talk

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and China expressed alarm on Tuesday over comments by France's foreign minister that Paris should prepare for the prospect of war with Iran, which the West accuses of secretly developing nuclear weapons.

Minister Bernard Kouchner sought, however, to play down his weekend remarks, saying they were meant as a "message of peace".

"I do not want it to be said that I am a warmonger!" he told Le Monde newspaper, days before the five U.N. Security Council permanent members, including Russia and China, and Germany were due to meet to discuss possible new sanctions against Tehran.

"My message was a message of peace, of seriousness and of determination," the paper quoted Kouchner as saying on his plane as he headed to Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made it clear at a joint news briefing with Kouchner that his remarks had disturbed a Kremlin, like China, less inclined to sanctions than the West.

"We are worried by reports that there is serious consideration being given to military action in Iran," Lavrov said. "That is a threat to a region where there are already grave problems in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Western powers led by the United States accuse Iran of using a purported nuclear power programme as a screen for development of nuclear arms -- something they fear could add enormously to instability in the already volatile Middle East. They point to Iran's past secrecy over nuclear research as cause for concern.

IRAN UNMOVED

ranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an outspoken critic of the West, said Kouchner's comments were meant only for the media. "We do not consider these threats to be serious."

Iran says it seeks nuclear energy only for electricity and condemns U.N. sanctions promoted by the five permanent members -- China, Russia, the United States, France and Britain -- and Germany over its uranium enrichment programme.

Lavrov, signalling its policy at a powers' meeting scheduled for Friday to consider new steps, said Iran should be left to work with the International Atomic Energy Agency before the world considers further sanctions or military action.

"The United States and the European Union are taking tougher anti-Iranian sanctions ... if we agree to work collectively... then what purpose is served by unilateral actions?"

China also condemned Kouchner's weekend remarks.

"We believe the best option is to peacefully resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomatic negotiations, which is in the common interests of the international community," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a briefing.

"We do not approve of easily resorting to threatening use of force in international affairs," Jiang said.

Kouchner said France had asked French firms not to bid for work in Iran.

"We must prepare for the worst," he said in the weekend interview with RTL radio and LCI television. "The worst, sir, is war." He said, however, that war was not an imminent prospect.

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-29601820070918

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I forlængelse heraf:

Reuters: Iran says China on side against fresh sanctions

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-29535920070914?pageNumber=2



Israelis ‘blew apart Syrian nuclear cache’

IT was just after midnight when the 69th Squadron of Israeli F15Is crossed the Syrian coast-line. On the ground, Syria’s formidable air defences went dead. An audacious raid on a Syrian target 50 miles from the Iraqi border was under way.

At a rendezvous point on the ground, a Shaldag air force commando team was waiting to direct their laser beams at the target for the approaching jets. The team had arrived a day earlier, taking up position near a large underground depot. Soon the bunkers were in flames.

Ten days after the jets reached home, their mission was the focus of intense speculation this weekend amid claims that Israel believed it had destroyed a cache of nuclear materials from North Korea.

The Israeli government was not saying. “The security sources and IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] soldiers are demonstrating unusual courage,” said Ehud Olmert, the prime minister. “We naturally cannot always show the public our cards.”


The Syrians were also keeping mum. “I cannot reveal the details,” said Farouk al-Sharaa, the vice-president. “All I can say is the military and political echelon is looking into a series of responses as we speak. Results are forthcoming.” The official story that the target comprised weapons destined for Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi’ite group, appeared to be crumbling in the face of widespread scepticism.

Andrew Semmel, a senior US State Department official, said Syria might have obtained nuclear equipment from “secret suppliers”, and added that there were a “number of foreign technicians” in the country.

Asked if they could be North Korean, he replied: “There are North Korean people there. There’s no question about that.” He said a network run by AQ Khan, the disgraced creator of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, could be involved.

But why would nuclear material be in Syria? Known to have chemical weapons, was it seeking to bolster its arsenal with something even more deadly?

Alternatively, could it be hiding equipment for North Korea, enabling Kim Jong-il to pretend to be giving up his nuclear programme in exchange for economic aid? Or was the material bound for Iran, as some authorities in America suggest?

According to Israeli sources, preparations for the attack had been going on since late spring, when Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, presented Olmert with evidence that Syria was seeking to buy a nuclear device from North Korea.

The Israeli spy chief apparently feared such a device could eventually be installed on North-Korean-made Scud-C missiles.

“This was supposed to be a devastating Syrian surprise for Israel,” said an Israeli source. “We’ve known for a long time that Syria has deadly chemical warheads on its Scuds, but Israel can’t live with a nuclear warhead.”

An expert on the Middle East, who has spoken to Israeli participants in the raid, told yesterday’s Washington Post that the timing of the raid on September 6 appeared to be linked to the arrival three days earlier of a ship carrying North Korean material labelled as cement but suspected of concealing nuclear equipment.

The target was identified as a northern Syrian facility that purported to be an agricultural research centre on the Euphrates river. Israel had been monitoring it for some time, concerned that it was being used to extract uranium from phosphates.

According to an Israeli air force source, the Israeli satellite Ofek 7, launched in June, was diverted from Iran to Syria. It sent out high-quality images of a northeastern area every 90 minutes, making it easy for air force specialists to spot the facility.

Early in the summer Ehud Barak, the defence minister, had given the order to double Israeli forces on its Golan Heights border with Syria in anticipation of possible retaliation by Damascus in the event of air strikes.

Sergei Kirpichenko, the Russian ambassador to Syria, warned President Bashar al-Assad last month that Israel was planning an attack, but suggested the target was the Golan Heights.

Israeli military intelligence sources claim Syrian special forces moved towards the Israeli outpost of Mount Hermon on the Golan Heights. Tension rose, but nobody knew why.

At this point, Barak feared events could spiral out of control. The decision was taken to reduce the number of Israeli troops on the Golan Heights and tell Damascus the tension was over. Syria relaxed its guard shortly before the Israeli Defence Forces struck.

Only three Israeli cabinet ministers are said to have been in the know � Olmert, Barak and Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister. America was also consulted. According to Israeli sources, American air force codes were given to the Israeli air force attaché in Washington to ensure Israel’s F15Is would not mistakenly attack their US counterparts.

Once the mission was under way, Israel imposed draconian military censorship and no news of the operation emerged until Syria complained that Israeli aircraft had violated its airspace. Syria claimed its air defences had engaged the planes, forcing them to drop fuel tanks to lighten their loads as they fled.

But intelligence sources suggested it was a highly successful Israeli raid on nuclear material supplied by North Korea.

Washington was rife with speculation last week about the precise nature of the operation. One source said the air strikes were a diversion for a daring Israeli commando raid, in which nuclear materials were intercepted en route to Iran and hauled to Israel. Others claimed they were destroyed in the attack.

There is no doubt, however, that North Korea is accused of nuclear cooperation with Syria, helped by AQ Khan’s network. John Bolton, who was undersecretary for arms control at the State Department, told the United Nations in 2004 the Pakistani nuclear scientist had “several other” customers besides Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Some of his evidence came from the CIA, which had reported to Congress that it viewed “Syrian nuclear intentions with growing concern”.

“I’ve been worried for some time about North Korea and Iran outsourcing their nuclear programmes,” Bolton said last week. Syria, he added, was a member of a “junior axis of evil”, with a well-established ambition to develop weapons of mass destruction.

The links between Syria and North Korea date back to the rule of Kim Il-sung and President Hafez al-Assad in the last century. In recent months, their sons have quietly ordered an increase in military and technical cooperation.

Foreign diplomats who follow North Korean affairs are taking note. There were reports of Syrian passengers on flights from Beijing to Pyongyang and sightings of Middle Eastern businessmen from sources who watch the trains from North Korea to China.

On August 14, Rim Kyong Man, the North Korean foreign trade minister, was in Syria to sign a protocol on “cooperation in trade and science and technology”. No details were released, but it caught Israel’s attention.

Syria possesses between 60 and 120 Scud-C missiles, which it has bought from North Korea over the past 15 years. Diplomats believe North Korean engineers have been working on extending their 300-mile range. It means they can be used in the deserts of northeastern Syria � the area of the Israeli strike.

The triangular relationship between North Korea, Syria and Iran continues to perplex intelligence analysts. Syria served as a conduit for the transport to Iran of an estimated £50m of missile components and technology sent by sea from North Korea. The same route may be in use for nuclear equipment.

But North Korea is at a sensitive stage of negotiations to end its nuclear programme in exchange for security guarantees and aid, leading some diplomats to cast doubt on the likelihood that Kim would cross America’s “red line” forbidding the proliferation of nuclear materials.

Christopher Hill, the State Department official representing America in the talks, said on Friday he could not confirm “intelligence-type things”, but the reports underscored the need “to make sure the North Koreans get out of the nuclear business”.

By its actions, Israel showed it is not interested in waiting for diplomacy to work where nuclear weapons are at stake.

As a bonus, the Israelis proved they could penetrate the Syrian air defence system, which is stronger than the one protecting Iranian nuclear sites.

This weekend President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran sent Ali Akbar Mehrabian, his nephew, to Syria to assess the damage. The new “axis of evil” may have lost one of its spokes.



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2461421.ece

US Iran report branded dishonest

The UN nuclear watchdog has protested to the US government over a report on Iran's nuclear programme, calling it "erroneous" and "misleading".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5346524.stm

IAEA chief: Talk about war against Iran contra-constructive

















VIENNA, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), called on the international community Monday to settle Iran's nuclear issues through negotiation, stressing that talk about possible war against Iran was "contra-constructive".

He expressed his worries to the media about the increased discussions about the possible military action against Iran at the 51st annual regular session of the IAEA General Conference held in Vienna this week.

The chief of the IAEA urged all parties involved to learn lessons from the Iraq war before talking about military action against Iran.

He stressed the importance of settling Iran's nuclear issues through negotiation, and meanwhile called on Iran to continuously cooperate with the IAEA and clarify its open questions in the nuclear program.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-09/18/content_6743203.htm

Woodward: Greenspan Ouster Of Hussein Crucial For Oil Security

"Greenspan, who was the country's top voice on monetary policy at the time Bush decided to go to war in Iraq, has refrained from extensive public comment on it until now, but he made the striking comment in a new memoir out today that "the Iraq War is largely about oil." In the interview, he clarified that sentence in his 531-page book, saying that while securing global oil supplies was "not the administration's motive," he had presented the White House with the case for why removing Hussein was important for the global economy."

"I was not saying that that's the administration's motive," Greenspan said in an interview Saturday, "I'm just saying that if somebody asked me, 'Are we fortunate in taking out Saddam?' I would say it was essential."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/16/AR2007091601287.html

Dubiøse definitioner på terrorisme.

Efter den bipolære verdensordens ophør foranlediget af Sovjetunionens fald, stod verden tilbage med den amerikanske supermagt som den altdominerende, og da denne nu var blevet et fjendebillede fattigere, begyndte man at rette opmærksomheden mod et nyt fjendebillede, nemlig terrorismen.

Man har især siden den 11. september brugt truslen fra den usynlige terroristiske fjende som undskyldning for at drive en frygtbaseret politik gennem hvilken det er lykkedes, at legitimere omfattende skærpelser af overvågning, samt en lang række juridiske indhug i de borgerlige frihedsrettigheder, hvoraf det amerikanske The Patriot Act må siges at være et kroneksempel.


Et af problemerne med de terror-definitioner der opereres med er, at definitionerne ikke er videre præcise, hvorfor kritikeren uden de store vanskeligheder kan fremhæve træk ved nogle af USAs diktatoriske samarbejdspartnere, som qua den officielle terrordefinition, i lige så høj grad, som mange af de blacklistede organisationer man hævder at være i krig med, kan siges at være skyldige i udøvelsen af terrorisme.

Som eksempel herpå kan det nævnes at man i den såkaldte National Security Strategy - som blev udgivet af Bush-administration i 2002 – udtrykker at “The enemy is terrorism – premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against innocents […] The United States will make no concessions to terrorist demands and strikes no deal with them. We make no distinction between terrorists and those who knowingly harbor or provide aid to them.”


Nogle vil nok undre sig lidt over denne terror-definition, for flere af USA's allierede - nuværende såvel som forhenværende - må siges at være skyldige i terrorisme iflg. den definition. Hvorfor skulle eksempelvis Israels handlinger overfor Palæstinenserne i de besatte områder, hvor børn i mange tilfælde enten lemlæstes eller slås ihjel i gengældelsesangreb, ikke falde ind under definitionen på en terroristisk handling, når nu det er tilfældet når en palæstinensisk selvmordsbomber dræber eller lemlæster israelske børn? Hvorfor er der ikke tale om en “overlagt, politisk motiveret voldshandling begået mod uskyldige,” når en helikopter letter fra israelsk jord, for kollektivt at afstraffe palæstinensere, uskyldige såvel som skyldige? Endvidere melder spørgsmålet sig: Hvorledes USA selv er undtaget fra selv at være skyldig i terrorhandlinger når nu det hævdes at man ikke skelner mellem terrorister og dem som medvidende forsyner disse med støtte, idet man fortsat forsyner Israel med våben til trods for det faktum at staten Israel opretholder en illegitim besættelse af Gaza og Vestbredden. Hvorfor er de mange særdeles ubehagelige konsekvenser af denne langvarige besættelse ikke at anskue, som politisk motiverede voldshandlinger begået mod uskyldige?

Spørgsmålene hober sig hurtigt op, og jeg har stadig til gode at få et tilfredstillende svar.


lørdag den 15. september 2007

P1s Orientering: Handler Irak-rapport i virkeligheden om Iran?

http://www.dr.dk/P1/orientering/indslag/2007/09/14/134501.htm

Hvis Du Missede Den: The Road to Guantanamo

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-599098805530677622&q=The+Road+to+Guantanamo&total=107&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Hvis Du Missede Den: Operation Saddam - doku om US krigspropaganda

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=323510345319430178&q=Operation+Saddam&total=279&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

WHO: 7000 smittet af kolera i Irak

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/cholera-breaks-out-in-northern-iraq/2007/09/12/1189276808765.html

Channel 4 interview med Mahmoud Ahmedinejad

http://www.channel4.com/player/v2/player.jsp?showId=9076

Røde Kors: Afghanistan sliding further into war

"AFGHANISTAN is sliding ever further into conflict with more than half of the country affected and several regions out of reach of humanitarian aid, a senior international Red Cross official warned today."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22416535-401,00.html

Iran Gets China's Support on Nuclear Issue

http://www.crosswalk.com/news/11554117/

Iraks Interne Oliekrig

DemocracyNow har et læseværdigt interview med Michael Klare, Professor i Peace and World Security Studies ved Hampshire College.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/14/1422209

Video: Petraeus tale i kongressen

Se det selv:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=918874716004574431&q=iraq&total=100006&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=6

FOX News: USAs Propaganda Kanal nummer et.

Jeg kan stærkt anbefale at tage et kig på Gleen Greenwalds artikel "Brit Hume and the Bush administration take propaganda to a new level"

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/09/11/petraeus_interview/index.html

Og en dokumentar i forlængelse heraf, der belyser hvorfor FOX News formidler propaganda fremfor journalistik.

OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdochs War on Journalism

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6737097743434902428&q=outfoxed&total=224&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Skræk og Rædsel

Følgende er uddrag fra en artikel af Charlie Reese fra antiwar.com

Highlights:

"There might be some parts of this old world where you can push people around and hurt them and they won't fight back, but the Middle East is not one of them."

"It's both unfair and misleading to refer to "Islamic terrorists" or "Muslim terrorists." You will recall that nobody ever referred to the Irish Republican Army as "Catholic terrorists" or their opponents as "Protestant terrorists."

"It's important to understand that the cause of terrorism is political, and therefore there is no military solution. If killing terrorists were the solution, the Israelis wouldn't be enclosing themselves inside a wall and carrying guns all the time. Unless you solve the political problems that cause terrorism, you will never eliminate it."

"Al-Qaeda hates us because we are occupying Muslim lands and killing Muslims. That's true. Al-Qaeda hates us because we support the Israeli brutalization of the Palestinians 100 percent. That is true. Al-Qaeda hates us because the Muslim governments we support are dictatorships. That is true. Al-Qaeda hates us because we are in the Middle East not to spread democracy, but to support Israel and to control Islamic resources, namely oil. That is true."

torsdag den 13. september 2007