“The biggest problem for the United States is not Iran getting a nuclear weapon and testing it, it’s Iran getting a nuclear weapon and not using it. Because the second that they have one and they don’t do anything bad, all of the naysayers are going to come back and say, “See, we told you Iran is a responsible power. We told you Iran wasn’t getting nuclear weapons in order to use them immediately.”
Tag Archives: Iran
Report: Dozens of U.S. spies captured in Lebanon and Iran
Current and former U.S. officials concede that CIA suffered difficult blow; sources say Lebanon informants were compromised by meeting CIA agents at a Beirut Pizza Hut.
Dozens of spies working for the CIA were captured recently in Lebanon and Iran, current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press and ABC News on Monday.
The CIA’s operations in Lebanon have been badly damaged after Hezbollah identified and captured a number of the U.S. spies, officials told The Associated Press.
Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, boasted on television in June that he had rooted out at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated the ranks of Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group closely allied with Iran. Though the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon officially denied the accusation, current and former officials concede that it happened and the damage has spread even further.
According to a report by ABC News, there were two distinct espionage rings targeting Iran and Hezbollah in which spies were recruited by the CIA.
Current and former U.S. officials said the two different spy rings were discovered separately but both caused a significant setback in U.S. efforts to track Iran’s nuclear activities and Hezbollah actions against Israel.
(Read more)
Rep. Ron Paul: I Would Not Aid Israel In Military Action Against Iran
Canada stands ready to join with other nations in preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon
In a blunt warning amid an escalating crisis, the Harper government declared Friday that Canada stands ready to join with other nations in preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Supporting a resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency that expresses “deep and increasing concern” over evidence that Iran is proceeding with plans to become a nuclear power, the Harper government vowed in its submission to “continue to work with like-minded nations on next steps. (Read more)
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Comment from reddit:
Given Iran’s history it’d be wise to seek a nuke. It’s a pity that it’s necessary but I’d do the same and nothing would stop me.
IRANS RECENT HISTORY
1953-CIA backed coup overthrows the popular democratic gov.
1953-1979 The US Supported a brutal dictatorship. 1000’s murdered by the Shahs secret police the SAVAK.
1979-81 US hostages taken and released.
1980-1988 Following popular revolution against the US backed dictator, Iran is invaded. The US supported the aggressor in the war that cost Iran 500,000 casualties.
The US escorts shipping up and down the gulf, except Iranian, which it allows Iraq to attack
When Iraq falters in its attack, the US provides chemical weapons satellite intelligence
1988- USS ship shoots down a commercial flight operated by Iran Air. refuse to apologize. Gives medals to the shooters. George H. W. Bush declared, “I will never apologize for the United States of America — I don’t care what the facts are” in reference to the incident
1998 Irans regional neighbours, India/Pakistan get nukes, no longterm sanctions are placed on them.
2002 USA places Iran in Axis of Evil
2003 Iran offers full transparency on WMD, aid on the war on terror including HAMAS hizbollah, and co-ordination on Iraq, normalisation of relations. Offer rejected by USA
2003 US invades countries on either side of Iran’s borders.
2003-9 Israel calls for Iran to be bombed, launches practice raids.
Third Iranian nuclear scientist shot dead
Western security agencies are most likely behind the killing of an Iranian scientist in an operation that underlines the complexities of the conflict over Iran’s nuclear programme, analysts say.
Gunmen shot university lecturer Darioush Rezaie, 35, dead in eastern Teheran on Saturday, the third murder of a scientist since 2009.
One was killed by a car bomb detonated remotely.
Iran’s responses to such incidents looked confused, but in Rezaie’s case it was more muddled as the authorities spoke in strikingly different voices from the start.
London-based analyst Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of Cornerstone Global Associates, said: “Assassinations will continue to be a tool used in this covert war. While it’s impossible to tell with certainty whether Rezaie was an active nuclear scientist, his death appears to be another episode in that war.
“The Iranian narrative has been confused about Rezaie’s work. This adds credence to the speculation that he has been involved in the nuclear programme.” (Read more)
Iranian mullah-narco terror plot to kill Saudi ambassador with cartel hitman and Mexico-laundered cash
The “very scary” Iranian Terror plot
The most difficult challenge in writing about the Iranian Terror Plot unveiled yesterday is to take it seriously enough to analyze it. Iranian Muslims in the Quds Force sending marauding bands of Mexican drug cartel assassins onto sacred American soil to commit Terrorism — against Saudi Arabia and possibly Israel — is what Bill Kristol and John Bolton would feverishly dream up while dropping acid and madly cackling at the possibility that they could get someone to believe it. But since the U.S. Government rolled out its Most Serious Officials with Very Serious Faces to make these accusations, many people (therefore) do believe it; after all, U.S. government accusations = Truth. All Serious people know that. And in the ensuing reaction one finds virtually every dynamic typically shaping discussions of Terrorism and U.S. foreign policy.
To begin with, this episode continues the FBI’s record-setting undefeated streak of heroically saving us from the plots they enable.
. . . .
Hillary Clinton thundered that this “crosses a line that Iran needs to be held to account for.” The CIA’s spokesman at The Washington Post, David Ignatius, quoted an anonymous White House official as saying the plot “appeared to have been authorized by senior levels of the Quds Force.” Meanwhile, the State Department has issued a Travel Alert which warns American citizens that this plot “may indicate a more aggressive focus by the Iranian Government on terrorist activity against diplomats from certain countries, to include possible attacks in the United States.”
In case that’s not enough to frighten you — and, really, how could it not be? — some Very Serious Experts are very, very afraid and want you to know how Serious this all is. Within moments of Holder’s news conference, National Security Expert Robert Chesney – without a molecule of critical thought in his brain — announced that this “remarkable development” was “very scary.” Very, very scary. Chesney then printed large blocks of the DOJ’s Press Release to prove it. Self-proclaimed “counter-terrorism expert” Daveed Gartenstein-Ross tapped into his vast expertise to explain: ”Holder weighing in on the plot’s connection to Iran means the administration is deadly serious about it.” Progressive think-tank expert and Atlantic writer Steve Clemons decreed that if the DOJ’s accusations are true, then ”the US has reached a point where it must take action” and “this is time for a significant strategic response to the Iran challenge in the Middle East and globally,” which “could involve military.”
The ironies here are so self-evident it’s hard to work up the energy to point them out. Outside of Pentagon reporters, Washington Post Editorial Page Editors, and Brookings “scholars,” is there a person on the planet anywhere who can listen with a straight face as drone-addicted U.S. Government officials righteously condemn the evil, illegal act of entering another country to commit an assassination? Does anyone, for instance, have any interest in finding out who is responsible for the spate of serial murders aimed at Iran’s nuclear scientists? Wouldn’t people professing to be so outraged by the idea of entering another country to engage in assassination be eager to get to the bottom of that? (Read more)
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US aimes to punish Iran for Saudi envoy plot
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U.S. alerts citizens overseas about possible Iranian acts
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Iranian Terror Plot: Fake, Fake, Fake
Fake, fake, fake – I’m talking about the latest anti-Iranian propaganda coming out of Washington, which claims the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were involved in a “plot” to take out the Saudi ambassador to the US and blow up both the Saudi and Israeli embassies. The narrative reads like a formulaic melodrama: two Iranians, one a naturalized US citizen, purportedly approached someone they thought was a member of a Mexican drug cartel – according to the indictment [.pdf], it was a “sophisticated” drug cartel, not the plebeian sort – and proposed paying him $1.5 million to murder Adel al Jubeir, the Kingdom’s ambassador in Washington – oh, and by the way, the Iranians supposedly said, “Are you guys any good with explosives?”
The key to understanding just how fake this story is can be found in the New York Times report, which informs us:
“For the entire operation, the government’s confidential sources were monitored and guided by federal law enforcement agents, Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District, said in the news conference. ‘So no explosives were actually ever placed anywhere,’ he said, ‘and no one was actually in ever in any danger.’”
Translation: the whole thing is phony from beginning to end.
This is another one of US law enforcement’s manufactured “anti-terrorist” triumphs, where the feds set somebody up, fabricate a “crime” out of thin air, and then proceed to “solve” a case that never really existed to begin with. (Read more)
Tom Woods destroys establishment foreign policy!
Gates: Israel an ‘Ungrateful Ally’
In comments at the National Security Council Principals Committee, former Secretary Gates termed the Israeli government an “ungrateful ally,” insisting they had offered “nothing in return” for massive amounts of US aid and high level intel sharing.
The context of the comments is equally telling, coming amid reports of an FBI whistleblower’s attempts to reveal the details of spying on the Israeli embassy. Though the attempted leak failed to go public, it is now revealed that it detailed “Israeli officials trying unlawfully to influence US policy and edging toward military action against Iran.” (Read more from news.antiwar.com)
Reports: US drone shot down over Iran nuke site
A U.S. drone was shot down while flying over a nuclear facility in Iran, according to reports in the Iranian media.
Iran’s Fars news agency reported that lawmaker Ali Aqazadeh Dafsari, a member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, had confirmed the unmanned spy plane was flying near the Fordo nuclear enrichment plant in Qom province when it was brought down by Revolutionary Guard soldiers.
It did not say when the alleged incident happened.
Dafsari told Fars that the drone was trying to gather information about the nuclear facility for the CIA. (Read more from msnbc.msn.com)
Israel-Iran War in September?
Zerohedge is reporting on some very interesting positioning of U.S. naval ships:
As the most recently updated naval map from Stratfor demonstrates, the CVN 77 G.H.W. Bush has just entered the Persian Gulf, the first time a US aircraft carrier has passed through the Straits of Hormuz in months. What is also notable is that the LHD 5 Bataan amphibious warfare ship has just weighed anchor right next to Libya: this is odd since the coast of Tripoli had been left unattended for many weeks by US attack ships. And topping it all off is that a third aircraft carrier, the CVN 73, is sailing west from the South China seas, potentially with a target next to CVN 76 Ronald Reagan which is the second carrier in the Straits of Hormuz area. Three carriers in proximity to Iran would be extremely troubling.
Zerohedge goes on to report:
CIA veteran Robert Baer, the man played by George Clooney in Syriana, who as Al Jazeera reports, appeared on KPFK Los Angeles, warning that Israeli PM Netanyahu is “likely to ignite a war with Iran in the very near future.” It gets worse: “Masters asked Baer why the US military is not mobilising to stop this war from happening. Baer responded that the military is opposed, as is former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who used his influence to thwart an Israeli attack during the Bush and Obama administrations. But he’s gone now and “there is a warning order inside the Pentagon” to prepare for war.” The punchline: “There is almost “near certainty” that Netanyahu is “planning an attack [on Iran] … and it will probably be in September before the vote on a Palestinian state. And he’s also hoping to draw the United States into the conflict”, Baer explained.” For the betting public out there, an September CL call may not be the dumbest trade possible…
All this is real interesting, but here’s the real kicker: Economist Nouriel Roubini has tweeted the link to the ZeroHedge story. As long-term EPJ readers know, I consider Roubini the most connected man in finance. He has a small house warming party and George Soros shows up. To ring in the New Year, he shows up at billionaire Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich’s New Year’s eve party. He gave Larry Summers stock in his company. Within hours of DSK being arrested, he tweeted that Christine Lagarde would take his place–as she has done. He is a consultant to most of the central banks in the world.
I have never seen Roubini tweeting on foreign affairs before, he is unlikely to be tweeting because he finds the story interesting. The story likely falls in line with what he is hearing from his very in the know network.
(Read more from economicpolicyjournal.com)
Haaretz WikiLeaks exclusive / Netanyahu agreed to join Olmert’s government if Israel attacked Iran
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed willingness to join Ehud Olmert’s government in 2007 if Israel initiated an attack on Iran, a document from the Israeli WikiLeaks collection has revealed. (Read more from haaretz.com)
Scores killed in IranAir passenger plane crash
An Iranian passenger plane with more than 100 people on board has crashed in north-western Iran, killing at least 77, state media report. (Read more from bbc.co.uk)
High on the list of things for which the U.S. government will ruin your life, is selling spare plane parts to Iran. They’ve been having regular airline crashed because they lack the technological skill to make adequate replacement parts, and you or I or any other American or European would get tortured Bradley Manning style should we attempt to provide them.
This is the human face of our embargo, but hey, to the Democrats I say, Obama is the opposite of Bush, right? So this must be good. I’m not sure what to say to the Republicans and their dominant, Bible-thumping social conservative wing. They’re probably standing on their chairs applauding the awesomeness of the slaughter.
Israel on Iran: So wrong for so long
Officials at the U.S. Department of State, we learned from the secret cables released by WikiLeaks last week, have serious questions about the accuracy — and sincerity — of Israeli predictions about when Iran will obtain a nuclear weapon. As one State official wrote in response to an Israeli general’s November 2009 claim that Iran would have a bomb in one year: “It is unclear if the Israelis firmly believe this or are using worst-case estimates to raise greater urgency from the United States.”
So we thought this was as good a time as any to look at the remarkable history of incorrect Israeli predictions about Iran — especially given that the WikiLeaks trove is being used to argue that an attack on Iran is becoming more likely.
According to various Israeli government predictions over the years, Iran was going to have a bomb by the mid-90s — or 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2005, and finally 2010. More recent Israeli predictions have put that date at 2011 or 2014.
. . . .
Here we go:
October 1992: “Warning the international community that Iran would be armed with a nuclear bomb by 1999, Peres told France 3 television in October 1992 that ‘Iran is the greatest threat [to peace] and greatest problem in the Middle East … because it seeks the nuclear option while holding a highly dangerous stance of extreme religious militantism.'”
Source: Then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in an interview with French TV, as described in the book ” Treacherous Alliance .”
November 1992: “But the Israelis caution that a bigger threat to Middle East serenity — not to mention their own country’s security — lies in Teheran, whose regime they say is sure to become a nuclear power in a few years unless stopped.”
Source: New York Times, “Israel Focuses on the Threat Beyond the Arabs — in Iran”
January 1995: “Iran is much closer to producing nuclear weapons than previously thought, and could be less than five years away from having an atomic bomb, several senior American and Israeli officials say.”
Source: New York Times, “Iran May Be Able to Build an Atomic Bomb in 5 Years, U.S. and Israeli Officials Fear”
1995: “The best estimates at this time place Iran between three and five years away from possessing the prerequisites required for the independent production of nuclear weapons.”
Source: Benjamin Netanyahu, in his book “Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat the International Terrorist Network”
February 1996: “On February 15, 1996, Israeli Foreign Minister Ehud Barak told members of the UN Security Council that Iran would be able to produce nuclear weapons within eight years.”
Source: Barak comments reported in ” Treacherous Alliance ”
April 1996: “I believe that in four years they [Iran] may reach nuclear weapons,” [Israeli Prime Minister Shimon] Peres told ABC television during an interview.
Source: Agence France Presse, “Iran could have nuclear weapons in four years: Peres” (via Nexis)
November 1999: “Unless the United States pressures Russia to end its military assistance to Iran, the Islamic republic will possess a nuclear capability within five years, a senior Israeli military official said Sunday.”
Source: Associated Press, “Israeli official: U.S. must pressure Russia to end military cooperation with Iran” (via Nexis)
July 2001: “‘I mentioned to our friends, the Turkish leadership, that we are more than worried about the very rapid development taking place regarding nuclear weapons,’ [Minister of Defense] Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told reporters. ‘As far as we know by the year 2005 they [Iran] will, they might, be ready.'”
Source: Associated Press, “Israeli defense minister: Iran could have nuclear weapons by 2005” (via Nexis)
August 2003: “Iran will have the materials needed to make a nuclear bomb by 2004 and will have an operative nuclear weapons program by 2005, a high-ranking military officer told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.”
Source: Jerusalem Post, “Iran can produce nuclear bomb by 2005 – IDF”
February 2009: “Netanyahu said he did not know for certain how close Iran was to developing a nuclear weapons capability, but that ‘our experts’ say Iran was probably only one or two years away and that was why they wanted open ended negotiations.”
Source: Then-candidate for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in conversation with an American congressional delegation, as described in a cable released by WikiLeaks
June 2009: Barak estimated a window between 6 and 18 months from now in which stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons might still be viable.
Source: Defense Minister Ehud Barak in conversation with members of Congress, as described in a cable released by WikiLeaks
June 2009: “Unless their programme experiences technical problems, the Iranians will have by 2014 a bomb ready to be used, which would represent a concrete threat for Israel,” said [Mossad chief] Meir Dagan.
Source: Agence France Press, “Iran will have nuclear bomb by 2014: Mossad”
November 2009: “General Baidatz argued that it would take Iran one year to obtain a nuclear weapon and two and a half years to build an arsenal of three weapons.”
Source: Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, an Israeli military intelligence official, in conversation with an American defense official, as described in a WikiLeaks cable.
September 2010: “The reasoning offered by Israeli decision makers was uncomplicated: Iran is, at most, one to three years away from having a breakout nuclear capability (often understood to be the capacity to assemble more than one missile-ready nuclear device within about three months of deciding to do so).”
Source: Jeffrey Goldberg, reporting the Israeli point of view in a cover story on Iran in the Atlantic (Read more from salon.com)
STEPHEN WALT: MAINSTREAMING WAR WITH IRAN
Important article from a few months ago:
If you are worried that the United States might be foolish enough to attack Iran, then you might take comfort from Jeffrey Goldberg’s lengthy and alarmist Atlantic article on the subject. Based on a flock of mostly anonymous interviews, Goldberg has concluded that odds are better than 50-50 that Israel will attack Iran sometime next spring. Given his track record as a Middle East analyst — particularly when it comes to the wisdom of using force — you might be justified in viewing that prediction as a sign that war was in fact quite unlikely.
I’ve said plenty already about the reasons why Iran is not a grave threat that justifies preemptive war, and why neither the United States nor Israel should be thinking about a military strike, so I don’t feel compelled to dismantle Goldberg’s restating of the hawks’ case yet again. And I don’t have to, because others have already done so quite ably.
Instead, I’d just like to highlight what’s really going on here. (Read more from veteranstoday.com)
Headlines about our only Allie in the Middle East
U.N. Report finds Israel “summarily executed” U.S. citizen on flotilla
Last week, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights released a comprehensive report detailing its findings regarding the May, 2010, Israeli attack on the six-ship flotilla attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Israel-blockaded Gaza. The report has been largely ignored in the American media despite the fact (or, more accurately: because) it found that much of the Israeli force used “was unnecessary, disproportionate, excessive and inappropriate and resulted in the wholly avoidable killing and maiming of a large number of civilian passengers”; that “at least six of the killings can be characterized as extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions” (Read more from salon.com)
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Auschwitz survivor: ‘Israel acts like Nazis’
One of the last remaining Auschwitz survivors has launched a blistering attack on Israel over its occupation of Palestine as he began a lecture tour of Scotland.
Dr Hajo Meyer, 86, who survived 10 months in the Nazi death camp, spoke out as his 10-day tour of the UK and Ireland – taking in three Scottish venues – got under way. His comments sparked a furious reaction from hardline Jewish lobby groups, with Dr Meyer branded an “anti-Semite” and accused of abusing his position as a Holocaust survivor. (Read more from heraldscotland.com)
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A tale of two ghettoes
Why is Shoppers Drug Mart pulling 3,500 copies of Adbusters, my magazine, off its shelves?
A week ago, in the National Post, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) accused Adbusters of anti-Semitism for publishing side-by-side photographs of the Gaza and Warsaw ghettos ( “Anti-Semitism on your magazine rack — courtesy of Adbusters,” Oct. 23). The CJC has since successfully lobbied senior management at Shoppers Drug Mart into pulling our magazine off the Canadian newsstands. (Read more from nationalpost.com)
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Israeli Artists Boycott New Theater in Settlement
An artists’ boycott of a $11 million performing arts center opening Monday in the Jewish settlement of Ariel is giving a new twist to a pressing question — where should Israel’s permanent borders run?
Leading Israeli playwrights, actors and artists say they will not cross the “Green Line” — Israel’s frontier before it captured the West Bank in 1967 — to perform in the new theater in Ariel, an Israeli enclave of 19,000 people.
The artists wrote in a letter explaining the boycott that Ariel was built in the heart of a war-won land to prevent creation of a Palestinian state. (Read more from artdaily.com)
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Tutu begs singers to call off Israel tour
Desmond Tutu has urged the Cape Town Opera to call off its tour of Israel “until both Israeli and Palestinian opera lovers have equal opportunity and unfettered access to performances”. (Read more from timeslive.co.za)
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US government offers Israel $3 billion weapons deal in exchange for 3-month settlement freeze
After US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the Israeli Prime Minister on Friday, the US set out an offer of additional military assistance to Israel in exchange for a 90-day moratorium on new settlement construction in the West Bank. Construction already in progress on hundreds of units of housing would be allowed to continue during the ‘moratorium’, which also does not include East Jerusalem.
Some Palestinian analysts say the US offer is weak, as it does not pressure Israel in any way to adhere to past signed agreements or international law, but merely forestalls the inevitable failure of ‘peace talks’ between two vastly unequal players. Some have even suggested that this is an attempt by the US to bribe Israel to do what it is required to do under international law.
Since the ‘moratorium’ would not include East Jerusalem, where the majority of current construction of Israeli-only homes and displacement of indigenous Palestinian residents is taking place, some Palestinians feel that it is only a token gesture that does not in any way address their concerns.
In exchange for the temporary, partial moratorium on construction, the Israeli military would receive a gift of 20 F35 fighter jets, worth $3 billion, from the US. (Read more from alethonews.wordpress.com)
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Israel plans 1,300 homes in Arab East Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel is pushing ahead with plans to build 1,300 new apartments for Jewish families in Arab East Jerusalem, the Interior Ministry said on Monday, despite fierce opposition from Palestinians.
The timing of the announcement could prove an embarrassment for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in the United States looking for ways to revive Middle East peace talks that have stalled over the issue of Jewish settlement building. (Read more from af.reuters.com)
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How the state helped right-wing groups settle East Jerusalem
The state has transferred hundreds of assets to both groups without the requisite tender process. Each year, the state also allocates millions of shekels for security at these sites, including security cameras and fences that separate the settlers from the neighborhoods’ Palestinian residents.
Information revealed here for the first time provides a glimpse of the relationship between the state and these Jewish organizations. The information was made available to leftist activist Dror Etkes by court order following a three-year legal battle.
Elad, arguing that disclosure would lead to bloodshed, fought to prevent publication of the information. The state supported this claim by furnishing cautionary opinions by security experts. But in the end, Etkes obtained a list of 11 assets relayed by the state to Elad and Ateret Cohanim, mainly from 2003-2008, without full transparency and at eyebrow-raising prices. (Read more from haaretz.com)
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Galilee politician works to prevent sale of homes to Palestinians
Residents of Karmiel are invited to report Arabs who intend to buy flats in the town, said Karmiel’s deputy Mayor, Oren Milstein, in an interview on the Internet site “Besheva”. In the same interview he mentioned a weekly ad in the local press which calls on residents to report such information to a special “purple email address”. Milstein went on to say, using the first person: “Residents are welcome to turn to us the moment they become aware of a flat which is about to be sold to someone from one of the [surrounding Arab] villages. Once a flat in Karmiel is sold to an Arab family – it is a solid fact for generations to come”.
Milstein intimates that the selling of 30 flats has already been prevented in this way. (Read more from mondoweiss.net)
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US activist’s family sue Israel
A civil lawsuit brought by the parents of a US peace activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli forces bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in March 2003 has begun being heard in the Israeli city of Haifa.
The driver of the bulldozer that crushed Rachel Corrie to death will testify in court on Thursday, while the military commander in charge of the unit on the day will give evidence at a future date. (Read more from english.aljazeera.net)
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Bulldozer driver [contradicts affidavit]
The lawyer also pointed to discrepancies in the driver’s testimony regarding how far he continued driving after crushing Corrie. The driver told the court he drove another 20 meters (66 feet) before stopping, but in his affidavit he said he stopped after three meters (10 feet). In addition, the driver claimed Corrie’s body was found between the bulldozer and a mound of dirt, while another soldier said the body was behind the mound. During the hearing, Attorney Hussein displayed a photo in which no mound of dirt can be seen at all. (Read more from ynetnews.com)
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IDF prosecutors chided for using testimony of mentally disabled Palestinian witness
(Read more from haaretz.com)
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Jewish Extremists Try to Kill Chilean Tourist, Mistaken for Palestinian
Jerusalem – PNN – Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronoth published a report on Monday about the attempted murder of a Chilean tourist in Jerusalem by eight Jewish extremists who mistook him for an Arab.
Jose Dominus Nolido, 43, came to Israel to celebrate the wedding of his son’s Jewish friend and visit holy sites. As he returned to his hotel, Nolido said he was accosted by youths.
“I decided to return to my room and I went through Independence Park,” Nolido explained. “Suddenly a youth attacked me. I thought he was a soldier, since he had on Israeli army pants. I tried to flee, but I ran into seven others. I fell on the ground and couldn’t get away from the blows. Then I lost consciousness. I was convinced they wanted to kill me because I looked like an Arab.”
Nolido was taken to a Jerusalem hospital, bleeding from the head and eyes. Doctors said they feared loss of vision in his right eye. (Read more from pnn.ps — or in Spanish)
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US snubs Israel over threat to Iran
US rejects Israeli request for military threat against Iran over its nuclear programme, favouring continued sanctions. (Read more from aljazeera.net)
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Video: Settlers commit arson on Palestinian vehicles in Qusra: Oct 14th, 2010
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Israeli settlers burn yet another mosque in occupied Palestine
Israel is worried that Jewish militants torched a West Bank mosque overnight Monday in a bid to undermine peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
A mosque in the Palestinian village of Beit Fajar, just south of Bethlehem, became the fourth in the last two years to be the target of an arson attempt, according to human rights workers. The attack is believed to be part of a campaign by vigilante settlers to ignite violence by attacking Muslim holy sites. (Read more from csmonitor.com)