US Secretary of State to take questions on Google Plus Hangout Today

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be having a Google Plus Hangout today at 2pm to discuss Syria and take questions from the public on Google Plus. I'll try to be in the office to observe and will post the video (if it is recorded) here after it is over. (If I can, I'll embed it here live).

**update 2:45 pm** The Hangout is over and here is the video:




The President will also be addressing the nation regarding Syria tonight at 9pm Eastern time. I'll have video of that tomorrow. You can read more about the speech on this Yahoo! News article.

Previous Coverage

Carrier Strike Group Eleven Update: September 7, 2013


White House Releases Statement on Syria's Use of Chemical Weapons

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 2012 Speech to the United Nations General Assembly

Bibi Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, spoke to the largest gathering of murderers and tyrants in the world at their headquarters in New York City today. Here is the video and transcript of that speech.

I wish that our President had the courage that this man has...


Transcript:

Ladies and gentlemen, Israel has extended its hand in peace from the moment it was established 63 years ago. On behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, I extend that hand again today. I extend it to the people of Egypt and Jordan, with renewed friendship for neighbors with whom we have made peace. I extend it to the people of Turkey, with respect and good will. I extend it to the people of Libya and Tunisia, with admiration for those trying to build a democratic future. I extend it to the other peoples of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, with whom we want to forge a new beginning. I extend it to the people of Syria, Lebanon and Iran, with awe at the courage of those fighting brutal repression.

But most especially, I extend my hand to the Palestinian people, with whom we seek a just and lasting peace.

Ladies and gentlemen, in Israel our hope for peace never wanes. Our scientists, doctors, innovators, apply their genius to improve the world of tomorrow. Our artists, our writers, enrich the heritage of humanity. Now, I know that this is not exactly the image of Israel that is often portrayed in this hall. After all, it was here in 1975 that the age-old yearning of my people to restore our national life in our ancient biblical homeland -- it was then that this was braided -- branded, rather -- shamefully, as racism. And it was here in 1980, right here, that the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt wasn't praised; it was denounced! And it's here year after year that Israel is unjustly singled out for condemnation. It's singled out for condemnation more often than all the nations of the world combined. Twenty-one out of the 27 General Assembly resolutions condemn Israel -- the one true democracy in the Middle East.

Well, this is an unfortunate part of the UN institution. It's the -- the theater of the absurd. It doesn't only cast Israel as the villain; it often casts real villains in leading roles: Gadhafi's Libya chaired the UN Commission on Human Rights; Saddam's Iraq headed the UN Committee on Disarmament.

You might say: That's the past. Well, here's what's happening now -- right now, today. Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon now presides over the UN Security Council. This means, in effect, that a terror organization presides over the body entrusted with guaranteeing the world's security.

You couldn't make this thing up.

So here in the UN, automatic majorities can decide anything. They can decide that the sun sets in the west or rises in the west. I think the first has already been pre-ordained. But they can also decide -- they have decided that the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism's holiest place, is occupied Palestinian territory.

And yet even here in the General Assembly, the truth can sometimes break through. In 1984 when I was appointed Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, I visited the great rabbi of Lubavich. He said to me -- and ladies and gentlemen, I don't want any of you to be offended because from personal experience of serving here, I know there are many honorable men and women, many capable and decent people serving their nations here. But here's what the rebbe said to me. He said to me, you'll be serving in a house of many lies. And then he said, remember that even in the darkest place, the light of a single candle can be seen far and wide.

Today I hope that the light of truth will shine, if only for a few minutes, in a hall that for too long has been a place of darkness for my country. So as Israel's prime minister, I didn't come here to win applause. I came here to speak the truth. (Cheers, applause.) The truth is -- the truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that in the Middle East at all times, but especially during these turbulent days, peace must be anchored in security. The truth is that we cannot achieve peace through UN resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. The truth is that so far the Palestinians have refused to negotiate. The truth is that Israel wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace. And the truth is you shouldn't let that happen.

Ladies and gentlemen, when I first came here 27 years ago, the world was divided between East and West. Since then the Cold War ended, great civilizations have risen from centuries of slumber, hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty, countless more are poised to follow, and the remarkable thing is that so far this monumental historic shift has largely occurred peacefully. Yet a malignancy is now growing between East and West that threatens the peace of all. It seeks not to liberate, but to enslave, not to build, but to destroy.

That malignancy is militant Islam. It cloaks itself in the mantle of a great faith, yet it murders Jews, Christians and Muslims alike with unforgiving impartiality. On September 11th it killed thousands of Americans, and it left the twin towers in smoldering ruins. Last night I laid a wreath on the 9/11 memorial. It was deeply moving. But as I was going there, one thing echoed in my mind: the outrageous words of the president of Iran on this podium yesterday. He implied that 9/11 was an American conspiracy. Some of you left this hall. All of you should have. (Applause.)

Since 9/11, militant Islamists slaughtered countless other innocents -- in London and Madrid, in Baghdad and Mumbai, in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in every part of Israel. I believe that the greatest danger facing our world is that this fanaticism will arm itself with nuclear weapons. And this is precisely what Iran is trying to do.

Can you imagine that man who ranted here yesterday -- can you imagine him armed with nuclear weapons? The international community must stop Iran before it's too late. If Iran is not stopped, we will all face the specter of nuclear terrorism, and the Arab Spring could soon become an Iranian winter. That would be a tragedy. Millions of Arabs have taken to the streets to replace tyranny with liberty, and no one would benefit more than Israel if those committed to freedom and peace would prevail.

This is my fervent hope. But as the prime minister of Israel, I cannot risk the future of the Jewish state on wishful thinking. Leaders must see reality as it is, not as it ought to be. We must do our best to shape the future, but we cannot wish away the dangers of the present.

And the world around Israel is definitely becoming more dangerous. Militant Islam has already taken over Lebanon and Gaza. It's determined to tear apart the peace treaties between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Jordan. It's poisoned many Arab minds against Jews and Israel, against America and the West. It opposes not the policies of Israel but the existence of Israel.

Now, some argue that the spread of militant Islam, especially in these turbulent times -- if you want to slow it down, they argue, Israel must hurry to make concessions, to make territorial compromises. And this theory sounds simple. Basically it goes like this: Leave the territory, and peace will be advanced. The moderates will be strengthened, the radicals will be kept at bay. And don't worry about the pesky details of how Israel will actually defend itself; international troops will do the job.

These people say to me constantly: Just make a sweeping offer, and everything will work out. You know, there's only one problem with that theory. We've tried it and it hasn't worked. In 2000 Israel made a sweeping peace offer that met virtually all of the Palestinian demands. Arafat rejected it. The Palestinians then launched a terror attack that claimed a thousand Israeli lives.

Prime Minister Olmert afterwards made an even more sweeping offer, in 2008. President Abbas didn't even respond to it.

But Israel did more than just make sweeping offers. We actually left territory. We withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 and from every square inch of Gaza in 2005. That didn't calm the Islamic storm, the militant Islamic storm that threatens us. It only brought the storm closer and make it stronger.

Hezbollah and Hamas fired thousands of rockets against our cities from the very territories we vacated. See, when Israel left Lebanon and Gaza, the moderates didn't defeat the radicals, the moderates were devoured by the radicals. And I regret to say that international troops like UNIFIL in Lebanon and UBAM (ph) in Gaza didn't stop the radicals from attacking Israel.

We left Gaza hoping for peace.

We didn't freeze the settlements in Gaza, we uprooted them. We did exactly what the theory says: Get out, go back to the 1967 borders, dismantle the settlements.

And I don't think people remember how far we went to achieve this. We uprooted thousands of people from their homes. We pulled children out of -- out of their schools and their kindergartens. We bulldozed synagogues. We even -- we even moved loved ones from their graves. And then, having done all that, we gave the keys of Gaza to President Abbas.

Now the theory says it should all work out, and President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority now could build a peaceful state in Gaza. You can remember that the entire world applauded. They applauded our withdrawal as an act of great statesmanship. It was a bold act of peace.

But ladies and gentlemen, we didn't get peace. We got war. We got Iran, which through its proxy Hamas promptly kicked out the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority collapsed in a day -- in one day.

President Abbas just said on this podium that the Palestinians are armed only with their hopes and dreams. Yeah, hopes, dreams and 10,000 missiles and Grad rockets supplied by Iran, not to mention the river of lethal weapons now flowing into Gaza from the Sinai, from Libya, and from elsewhere.

Thousands of missiles have already rained down on our cities. So you might understand that, given all this, Israelis rightly ask: What's to prevent this from happening again in the West Bank? See, most of our major cities in the south of the country are within a few dozen kilometers from Gaza. But in the center of the country, opposite the West Bank, our cities are a few hundred meters or at most a few kilometers away from the edge of the West Bank.

So I want to ask you. Would any of you -- would any of you bring danger so close to your cities, to your families? Would you act so recklessly with the lives of your citizens? Israel is prepared to have a Palestinian state in the West Bank, but we're not prepared to have another Gaza there. And that's why we need to have real security arrangements, which the Palestinians simply refuse to negotiate with us.

Israelis remember the bitter lessons of Gaza. Many of Israel's critics ignore them. They irresponsibly advise Israel to go down this same perilous path again. Your read what these people say and it's as if nothing happened -- just repeating the same advice, the same formulas as though none of this happened.

And these critics continue to press Israel to make far-reaching concessions without first assuring Israel's security. They praise those who unwittingly feed the insatiable crocodile of militant Islam as bold statesmen. They cast as enemies of peace those of us who insist that we must first erect a sturdy barrier to keep the crocodile out, or at the very least jam an iron bar between its gaping jaws.

So in the face of the labels and the libels, Israel must heed better advice. Better a bad press than a good eulogy, and better still would be a fair press whose sense of history extends beyond breakfast, and which recognizes Israel's legitimate security concerns.

I believe that in serious peace negotiations, these needs and concerns can be properly addressed, but they will not be addressed without negotiations. And the needs are many, because Israel is such a tiny country. Without Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, Israel is all of 9 miles wide.

I want to put it for you in perspective, because you're all in the city. That's about two-thirds the length of Manhattan. It's the distance between Battery Park and Columbia University. And don't forget that the people who live in Brooklyn and New Jersey are considerably nicer than some of Israel's neighbors.

So how do you -- how do you protect such a tiny country, surrounded by people sworn to its destruction and armed to the teeth by Iran? Obviously you can't defend it from within that narrow space alone. Israel needs greater strategic depth, and that's exactly why Security Council Resolution 242 didn't require Israel to leave all the territories it captured in the Six-Day War. It talked about withdrawal from territories, to secure and defensible boundaries. And to defend itself, Israel must therefore maintain a long-term Israeli military presence in critical strategic areas in the West Bank.

I explained this to President Abbas. He answered that if a Palestinian state was to be a sovereign country, it could never accept such arrangements. Why not? America has had troops in Japan, Germany and South Korea for more than a half a century. Britain has had an airspace in Cyprus or rather an air base in Cyprus. France has forces in three independent African nations. None of these states claim that they're not sovereign countries.

And there are many other vital security issues that also must be addressed. Take the issue of airspace. Again, Israel's small dimensions create huge security problems. America can be crossed by jet airplane in six hours. To fly across Israel, it takes three minutes. So is Israel's tiny airspace to be chopped in half and given to a Palestinian state not at peace with Israel?

Our major international airport is a few kilometers away from the West Bank. Without peace, will our planes become targets for antiaircraft missiles placed in the adjacent Palestinian state? And how will we stop the smuggling into the West Bank? It's not merely the West Bank, it's the West Bank mountains. It just dominates the coastal plain where most of Israel's population sits below. How could we prevent the smuggling into these mountains of those missiles that could be fired on our cities?

I bring up these problems because they're not theoretical problems. They're very real. And for Israelis, they're life-and- death matters. All these potential cracks in Israel's security have to be sealed in a peace agreement before a Palestinian state is declared, not afterwards, because if you leave it afterwards, they won't be sealed. And these problems will explode in our face and explode the peace.

The Palestinians should first make peace with Israel and then get their state. But I also want to tell you this. After such a peace agreement is signed, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations. We will be the first. (Applause.)

And there's one more thing. Hamas has been violating international law by holding our soldier Gilad Shalit captive for five years.

They haven't given even one Red Cross visit. He's held in a dungeon, in darkness, against all international norms. Gilad Shalit is the son of Aviva and Noam Shalit. He is the grandson of Zvi Shalit, who escaped the Holocaust by coming to the -- in the 1930s as a boy to the land of Israel. Gilad Shalit is the son of every Israeli family. Every nation represented here should demand his immediate release. (Applause.) If you want to -- if you want to pass a resolution about the Middle East today, that's the resolution you should pass. (Applause.)

Ladies and gentlemen, last year in Israel in Bar-Ilan University, this year in the Knesset and in the U.S. Congress, I laid out my vision for peace in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state. Yes, the Jewish state. After all, this is the body that recognized the Jewish state 64 years ago. Now, don't you think it's about time that Palestinians did the same?

The Jewish state of Israel will always protect the rights of all its minorities, including the more than 1 million Arab citizens of Israel. I wish I could say the same thing about a future Palestinian state, for as Palestinian officials made clear the other day -- in fact, I think they made it right here in New York -- they said the Palestinian state won't allow any Jews in it. They'll be Jew-free -- Judenrein. That's ethnic cleansing. There are laws today in Ramallah that make the selling of land to Jews punishable by death. That's racism. And you know which laws this evokes.

Israel has no intention whatsoever to change the democratic character of our state. We just don't want the Palestinians to try to change the Jewish character of our state. (Applause.) We want to give up -- we want them to give up the fantasy of flooding Israel with millions of Palestinians.

President Abbas just stood here, and he said that the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the settlements. Well, that's odd. Our conflict has been raging for -- was raging for nearly half a century before there was a single Israeli settlement in the West Bank. So if what President Abbas is saying was true, then the -- I guess that the settlements he's talking about are Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa, Be'er Sheva. Maybe that's what he meant the other day when he said that Israel has been occupying Palestinian land for 63 years. He didn't say from 1967; he said from 1948. I hope somebody will bother to ask him this question because it illustrates a simple truth: The core of the conflict is not the settlements. The settlements are a result of the conflict. (Applause.)

The settlements have to be -- it's an issue that has to be addressed and resolved in the course of negotiations. But the core of the conflict has always been and unfortunately remains the refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border.

I think it's time that the Palestinian leadership recognizes what every serious international leader has recognized, from Lord Balfour and Lloyd George in 1917, to President Truman in 1948, to President Obama just two days ago right here: Israel is the Jewish state. (Applause.)

President Abbas, stop walking around this issue. Recognize the Jewish state, and make peace with us. In such a genuine peace, Israel is prepared to make painful compromises. We believe that the Palestinians should be neither the citizens of Israel nor its subjects. They should live in a free state of their own. But they should be ready, like us, for compromise. And we will know that they're ready for compromise and for peace when they start taking Israel's security requirements seriously and when they stop denying our historical connection to our ancient homeland.

I often hear them accuse Israel of Judaizing Jerusalem. That's like accusing America of Americanizing Washington, or the British of Anglicizing London. You know why we're called "Jews"? Because we come from Judea.

In my office in Jerusalem, there's a -- there's an ancient seal. It's a signet ring of a Jewish official from the time of the Bible. The seal was found right next to the Western Wall, and it dates back 2,700 years, to the time of King Hezekiah. Now, there's a name of the Jewish official inscribed on the ring in Hebrew. His name was Netanyahu. That's my last name. My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin -- Binyamin -- the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Sumeria 4,000 years ago, and there's been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since.

And for those Jews who were exiled from our land, they never stopped dreaming of coming back: Jews in Spain, on the eve of their expulsion; Jews in the Ukraine, fleeing the pogroms; Jews fighting the Warsaw Ghetto, as the Nazis were circling around it. They never stopped praying, they never stopped yearning. They whispered: Next year in Jerusalem. Next year in the promised land.

As the prime minister of Israel, I speak for a hundred generations of Jews who were dispersed throughout the lands, who suffered every evil under the Sun, but who never gave up hope of restoring their national life in the one and only Jewish state.

Ladies and gentlemen, I continue to hope that President Abbas will be my partner in peace. I've worked hard to advance that peace. The day I came into office, I called for direct negotiations without preconditions. President Abbas didn't respond. I outlined a vision of peace of two states for two peoples. He still didn't respond. I removed hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints, to ease freedom of movement in the Palestinian areas; this facilitated a fantastic growth in the Palestinian economy. But again -- no response. I took the unprecedented step of freezing new buildings in the settlements for 10 months. No prime minister did that before, ever. (Scattered applause.) Once again -- you applaud, but there was no response. No response.

In the last few weeks, American officials have put forward ideas to restart peace talks. There were things in those ideas about borders that I didn't like. There were things there about the Jewish state that I'm sure the Palestinians didn't like.

But with all my reservations, I was willing to move forward on these American ideas.

President Abbas, why don't you join me? We have to stop negotiating about the negotiations. Let's just get on with it. Let's negotiate peace.

I spent years defending Israel on the battlefield. I spent decades defending Israel in the court of public opinion. President Abbas, you've dedicated your life to advancing the Palestinian cause. Must this conflict continue for generations, or will we enable our children and our grandchildren to speak in years ahead of how we found a way to end it? That's what we should aim for, and that's what I believe we can achieve.

In two and a half years, we met in Jerusalem only once, even though my door has always been open to you. If you wish, I'll come to Ramallah. Actually, I have a better suggestion. We've both just flown thousands of miles to New York. Now we're in the same city. We're in the same building. So let's meet here today in the United Nations. Who's there to stop us? What is there to stop us? If we genuinely want peace, what is there to stop us from meeting today and beginning peace negotiations?

And I suggest we talk openly and honestly. Let's listen to one another. Let's do as we say in the Middle East: Let's talk "doogri". That means straightforward. I'll tell you my needs and concerns. You'll tell me yours. And with God's help, we'll find the common ground of peace.

There's an old Arab saying that you cannot applaud with one hand. Well, the same is true of peace. I cannot make peace alone. I cannot make peace without you. President Abbas, I extend my hand -- the hand of Israel -- in peace. I hope that you will grasp that hand. We are both the sons of Abraham. My people call him Avraham. Your people call him Ibrahim. We share the same patriarch. We dwell in the same land. Our destinies are intertwined. Let us realize the vision of Isaiah -- (speaks in Hebrew) -- "The people who walk in darkness will see a great light." Let that light be the light of peace.

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Netanyahu: Iran now in the Red Zone

Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on NBC's "Meet The Press" and basically said that Iran was in the "Red Zone" regarding it's nuclear weapons program and very close to requiring a military response from Israel before it becomes to late. The full interview with David Gregory is below.


As an aside, I would note that there is a new moon on October 15th, and that conditions will be favorable for an attack for two or three nights on either side of that date.

The US, UK and allied Navies have been increasing their forces in the region and we have two carriers in the region (possibly a third if the Enterprise tarries and a fourth if the Truman (which is currently at Norfolk and listed as 'surge-ready' should it be needed.

In my estimation, if the Israeli government sees an Obama victory as likely in November, they will act. If they think Romney is likely to win, they may hold off, knowing that his administration would be favorable toward increasing pressure on Iran to halt it's nuclear weapons program.

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Ahmadinejad: "Iran is now a 'nuclear state' "

Iran is now a 'nuclear state', President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced this morning.

He spoke as tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Tehran to mark the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

There are fears of violence as opposition and pro-government supporters are expected to meet at rallies in a show of popular strength unmatched since the revolution itself.

Today Ahmadinejad told scores of cheering Iranians that the Islamic Republic is capable of producing weapons-grade uranium.

Source: Daily Mail








---and the march continues...

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The Defenders of Israel

One of my You Tube friends sent this to me, and I thought to share it with you...

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalam" (Zechariah 12:9)

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Israel Agrees to French Ceasefire Proposal; Hamas Rejects Proposal Update Palestinian Authority Accepts Proposal Updated Again

(IsraelNN.com) French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced that Israel has agreed to a ceasefire with Hamas. Israel has not confirmed.

According to the plan, Egypt agrees, for the first time, with Israel's demand to deploy international observers on the Egypt-Gaza border to help stop the wholesale arms-smuggling into Gaza. It insists, however, that Israel must cease its fire immediately and then discuss the details of a full-scale truce.

The plan is backed by Sarkozy and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Army Radio reports that Israeli officials rejected the idea out of hand. "We didn't start this offensive in order to buy a cat in a sack [an unknown quantity]," is the Israeli position.

Officially, Israel welcomes the Egyptian and French "efforts." A statement released Wednesday afternoon states, "Israel thanks the presidents of Egypt and France for their efforts to advance a solution for the cessation of terrorism from Gaza and an end to arms/weapons smuggling from Egypt into Gaza. Israel views positively dialogue between Egyptian and Israeli elements for the purpose of advancing the matter of a ceasefire."

Source: Arutz Sheva News

Don't get excited yet, Ynet News is reporting that Hamas has rejected the proposal.

Ever notice how Israel must always stop first, before any further negotiations can continue?

Why is there no demand for Hamas to stop firing rockets into civilian areas?

The utter hypocrisy of it is astounding.

I guess that the IDF will get to continue killing terrorists for a little while longer.

**9.47am** This article in JTA reports that the P.A. has accepted the terms of the ceasefire.

I missed that wording in the original article in my haste to post.

**12.16pm** Apparently Sarkozy was a little disingenuous with his announcement, from Israel Matzav:

when the cabinet stated it viewed French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's offer "favorably" earlier in the day, it did not mean Israel wholeheartedly accepted it.

Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said that Israel was ready to accept parts of the offer which were in line with its own interests - a complete cessation in terror activity and a halt to weapons smuggling through the Gaza-Egypt border.

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Red Dawn For Georgia Who Is Next?

The Georgians got a taste of a Resurgent Russia in early August. They still haven't left, and they have declared the South Ossetian and Abkhazian provinces to be independent states.

We must stop Russia, or face further invasions.


Can You Hear Me?

For a limited time, watch the entire movie embedded below:

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Russia Preparing To Invade Georgia? (Updated)

Read more about it from the Blogs of War.

Here is a handy widget you can download to your desktop or embed on your blog to keep track of the developments:


Or you can bookmark this post and return for updates on the situation.

**update** 12.05 PM Armored elements of the 58th Russian Army have crossed the border, Su-24's are bombing targets in Georgia, and an intense artillery barrage have been reported. Visit NEIN Blog for more details and links.


photo credit: Reuters

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Report Says Bush Backs Israeli Plan To Strike Iran, Part LXIV

I think I have heard this report at least 100 times since the summer of 2003:

President George W Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down, according to a senior Pentagon official.Despite the opposition of his own generals and widespread scepticism that America is ready to risk the military, political and economic consequences of an airborne strike on Iran, the president has given an “amber light” to an Israeli plan to attack Iran’s main nuclear sites with long-range bombing sorties, the official told The Sunday Times.“Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us when you’re ready,” the official said. But the Israelis have also been told that they can expect no help from American forces and will not be able to use US military bases in Iraq for logistical support.Nor is it certain that Bush’s amber light would ever turn to green without irrefutable evidence of lethal Iranian hostility. Tehran’s test launches of medium-range ballistic missiles last week were seen in Washington as provocative and poorly judged, but both the Pentagon and the CIA concluded that they did not represent an immediate threat of attack against Israeli or US targets.

Source: Times Online

Commentary

I should hope he backs a plan to strike Iran!!!

I support a strike on Iran, and am confident that we and/or Israel will strike when the time is right, and in a way which will minimize our casualties and civilian casualties in Iran. Iran, however, will not. They will seek to kill as many innocent people as possible in a reverse human shield scenario ala the Scud Attacks on Israel in Desert Storm.

Having worked in the field in the past, I believe that part of what is taking us so long in striking Iran is the rolling up of Iranian supported terror cells in the USA like we did in 1990-91 prior to striking Iraq. Someday, these stories will be told. The Democrats, Progressives, and other anti-war types will be exposed for being completely clueless about the threat posed by these groups. My only regret is that it will be decades before they will be declassified.

What will be hard is locating the "leaderless resistance" type of cells formed by Muslim volunteers that operate completely offline from the internet and do not use telephones or mail, only person to person contact.

I expect that the first 24 hours after the strike, the anti-American war protesters will go nuts...and there will be a very short-lived hiccup in the supply chain in America.

I would advise everyone to keep your larder stocked and keep your fuel tanks topped off, and only if you can store fuel safely...a week's worth of fuel for your automobiles and other needs if you have power generators. Although I only expect a 24 to 72 Hour disruption (if at all), I live by the credo of preparation overkill as taught to me by my mother and father.

If you are interested in being prepared, I can suggest the following Websites:

Survival Blog (also on my right-hand sidebar)

Survival Topics

Backwoods Home Magazine

Urban Survival Tools

Ready.gov

It never hurts to be prepared. And with Hurricane season upon us, being prepared may help you coast through the supply chain hiccup and brief uptick in fuel prices.

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Chavez Mobilizes Military, Closes Embassy With Colombia

Speaking on his weekly television show, President Chavez also said Venezuela's embassy in Colombia would close.

MHugo Chavez ordered tank battalions to the Colombian border and mobilized warplanes on Sunday after Colombian troops struck inside Ecuador in an attack on the FARC terrorists that for years have been launching attacks against government troops and then hide inside the Venezuelan and Ecuadorian borders.

He also ordered the shutting of Venezuela's embassy in Colombia and the withdrawal of all diplomatic staff in the dispute, warning Colombia's actions could spark a war in South America. "Mr. Defense Minister, move me 10 battalions to the frontier with Colombia immediately, tank battalions," Chavez said on his weekly TV show. "The air force should mobilize. We do not want war."

Chavez also said he would send Russian-made fighter jets into U.S. ally Colombia if its troops struck in Venezuela.

Colombia's military said on Saturday troops had killed Raul Reyes, a leader of Marxist FARC rebels, during an attack on a jungle camp in Ecuador in a severe blow to Latin America's oldest guerrilla insurgency. The operation included air strikes and fighting with rebels across the frontier.

Reyes had been accused of drug trafficking and of being involved in at least 57 murders. The United States had offered 5 million dollars for his capture.

On Sunday, Chavez began his TV program wit a minute of silence in honor of the dead narco-terrorist who he considered a "great revolutionary."

Source: Yahoo! News


Upset at the death of FARC terrorist Raul Reyes at the hands of the Colombian army, Hugo Chávez accused the Colombian president of being a "criminal" and promised to "liberate" the neighboring country.

"The Colombian government has become the Israel of Latin America," an agitated Chavez said, mentioning another country that he has criticized for its military strikes. "We aren't going to permit Colombia to become the Israel of these lands."
Chavez accused Colombian president Alvaro Uribe of being a puppet of Washington and acting on behalf of the U.S. government, saying "Dracula's fangs are covered in blood." "Some day Colombia will be freed from the hand of the (U.S.) empire," Chavez said. "We have to liberate Colombia," he added.

Source: USA Today



After Saturday's operation 1.8km (one mile) into Ecuadorean territory, Colombia's defence minister described the death of Reyes as the "biggest blow so far" to Farc.

But Mr Chavez described the strike as "a cowardly murder, all of it coldly calculated".

He said Colombia "invaded Ecuador, flagrantly violated Ecuador's sovereignty".

Mr Chavez addressed his defence minister, asking him to "move 10 battalions to the border with Colombia for me, immediately" - a deployment likely to involve several thousand soldiers.

Source: BBC News
Hat Tip: Babalu Blog
Related: Paul Reyes on Wikipedia
Related: Gateway Pundit
Also: The Legend of Pine Ridge
Also: Wii 60 Forums

**update** 5.46pm Silo Breaker

**update** 6.14pm New York Slimes is reporting Ecuador want some of the action, and are sending troops to their border as well.

Is this merely posturing by Chavez because a fellow thug has been sent to his maker to answer for his crimes, or an attempt to raise the price of oil a little more? Would that Chavez could meet a similar fate.

Web Resources if there is a conflict:

Military Guides


Venezuela

Colombia

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Democrats Conduct War Against The President

It has always been my understanding that politics is warfare, mostly conducted without major loss of life. I have also understood that lefties have the objective to win, no matter the cost to our nation. This separates them from most on the right...the unwillingness to put political ideology before patriotism, when (and if) they are willing to fight.

In a previous post, I was so mad at the Democrat Leadership, I held back from declaring them to be enemies of America, although their actions spoke louder than my words ever could.

This morning I found a curious post at Dreaming 5GW:

Over eight decades after the Ottoman slaughter of some one and one half million Armenians the US Congress has seen fit to introduce a bill that will define said Ottoman endeavor in a most accurate fashion applying the label genocide. Why the sudden interest in a near century old atrocity? According to Nancy Pelosi:

"because many of the survivors are very old."

One could toss that explanation into the category of political subterfuge. What's most interesting here is not the very obvious recognition of Armenian genocide but the timing of this sudden
geo-political epiphany. Turkey has long struggled with the Kurdish/Marxist separatist group, the PKK and in recent months began amassing military power along the Turkish/Iraqi border in
preparation for possible crossborder operations designed to repress or destroy the PKK network that exists (in much the same fashion of the Taliban in western Pakistan) within Kurdish Iraq. The interesting bit is this piece of legislation comes about (in a very publicized fashion) at the same time that the Turkish parliament is hashing out whether or not such military operations will take place.

The Democrats seem to be running what might well be defined as a very nascent 5GW operation against what will be the political 800 pound gorilla should they ascend to Executive power: The inheritance of the Iraq war.

Read the rest at Dreaming 5GW, including the thoughtful commentary, to which I can only add that when the concept of Revolutionary Defeatism is taken into account; the picture becomes much clearer of the intent of the modern Democrat Party, especially the Progressives.

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Russia Claims New Bomb Rivals Nukes and Environmentally Friendly, Too!

Well, isn't that just nice, a green bomb:

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has tested the world's most powerful vacuum bomb, which unleashes a destructive shockwave with the power of a nuclear blast, the military said on Tuesday, dubbing it the "father of all bombs".

--snip--

Such devices generally detonate in two stages. First a small blast disperses a main load of explosive material into a cloud, which then either spontaneously ignites in air or is set off by a second charge.

This explosion generates a pressure wave that reaches much further than that from a conventional explosive. The consumption of gases in the blast also generates a partial vacuum that can compound damage and injuries caused by the explosion itself.

"The main destruction is inflicted by an ultrasonic shockwave and an incredibly high temperature," the reports said. "All that is alive merely evaporates."

--snip--



Sounds like a Type of Fuel-Air Explosive to me.

Rukshin said: "At the same time, I want to stress that the action of this weapon does not contaminate the environment, in contrast to a nuclear one."

--snip--

This ought to tell you that our enemies still view the Left as udeful idiots who will aid them in their goals.


Tu-160

The Tu-160 supersonic bomber that dropped the bomb, widely known under its NATO nickname of "Blackjack", is the heaviest combat aircraft ever built.

Putin, who has overseen the roll-out of new tactical and anti-aircraft missiles and combat aircraft, has ordered "Blackjacks" and the Tu-95 "Bear" bombers to patrol around the world.

The report said the new bomb was much stronger than the U.S.-built Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb -- MOAB, also known under its name "Mother of All Bombs". "So, Russian designers called the new weapon 'Father of All Bombs'," it said.

Showing the orange-painted U.S. prototype, the report said the Russian bomb was four times more powerful -- 44 metric tons of TNT equivalent -- and the temperature at the epicenter of its blast was two times higher.

Source: Reuters

44 metric tonnes translates into 48.4 tons, or 96,800 lbs for us Americans, and those Brits who haven't yet cowed tot he rising EU Empire.

The claim to rival a nuke is just hyperbolic beating on their chest, as the smallest of Atomic Demolition Munitions had a TNT equivalent of several hundred tons to a few kiltons.

I still think that Neutron Bombs are a better alternative, unless you're smoking out people and things buried deep underground.

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Video: Remembering D-Day

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Flash Traffic: The Invasion of Europe Has Begun

Part One



Part Two


A 7am News Report from June 6, 1944 ripped from XM Radio Channel 4 which is running an all-day Special Report, in real time of the reports from Fortress Europe, as they become available.

I thank God we had such men, and still do.

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