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| | Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 | War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008.
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/7/2008 5:30 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Israeli PM corruption probe spreads to US.
Israeli police have sent two senior investigators to the United States to expand a corruption probe linked to embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a spokesman said Sunday.
"Two senior officials from the police's fraud department, Lior Rice and Tzahi Habekin, are in the United States for two and a half weeks to continue the corruption investigation involving Prime Minister Ehud Olmert," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.
He added that the two detectives would seek to obtain documents from several US banks and companies related to a corruption investigation into financial contributions given to Olmert before he became premier.
The corruption probe, the most serious of four pending investigations involving the increasingly unpopular premier, is focused on donations given to Olmert by the Jewish-American financier Morris Talansky.
Talansky testified in May that he had given Olmert at least 150,000 dollars in the 14 years before he became prime minister in 2006, some of which might have been used to fund Olmert's taste for luxury goods.
The expanding corruption probe brought widespread calls for Olmert to step down or hold a primary to select a new head of his centrist Kadima party.
On June 25 Olmert narrowly averted an opposition bid to bring down the government by cutting a deal with the Labour party, a crucial coalition partner, that requires Kadima to hold primary elections by September 25.
The party leadership is scheduled to meet by July 10 to fix a date for the primaries, which are expected to pit Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni against Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz and possibly Olmert as well.
[link to afp.google.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/7/2008 8:03 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Israel to receive report on long-missing airman:
An Israeli negotiator was in Europe on Monday to pick up a report compiled by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas on a long-missing Israeli airman, part of a prisoner-swap deal between the two sides, defense officials said.
[link to ap.google.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/7/2008 8:05 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Israel set to exhume bodies of Hezbollah fighters before swap:
The Israeli army was on Sunday set to exhume bodies of Hezbollah fighters ahead of a prisoner swap with the Shiite Lebanese movement in exchange for two captured Israeli soldiers, officials said.
The army declared a cemetery for enemy combatants near Amiad in northern Israel a closed military zone as representatives of the military rabbinate began preparing to exhume the remains of the Hezbollah men, a defence official said.
"The process of exhuming is expected to begin tomorrow (Monday) and will last several days... as part of the process to retrieve the abducted soldiers," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
[link to afp.google.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/7/2008 5:36 PM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
E.U. ponders response to Iran's 'nuclear letter'.
A top European diplomat said he hopes to reply soon to Iran's letter last week spelling out its reaction to an international proposal for the Shiite Muslim nation's controversial nuclear program.
[link to edition.cnn.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/7/2008 5:39 PM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Russia's Putin, Iran's Ahmadinejad discuss Bushehr nuclear plant:
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday discussed progress on a nuclear power plant Russia is building in Iran, a statement from Putin's office said.
'Both sides underlined the need for timely construction of the atomic power station at Bushehr,' the statement said.
[link to www.forbes.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/7/2008 5:46 PM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Solana: breakthrough on Iran nuclear issue "difficult":
European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana has said he is not optimistic about the prospects of a breakthrough with Iran over its nuclear program.
Solana, who is here to attend a conference on boosting EU-NATO ties, told reporters on Monday he hoped to hold talks with Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili before the end of the month.
On Friday, Iran delivered a letter of response to a package of incentives proposed by six countries, aimed at persuading Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities.
The response from Iran was a "complicated and difficult letter that must be thoroughly analyzed," said Solana.
"I hope that we will be able to continue the dialogue in the coming weeks.... We'll see, but I don't want to give the impression of being too optimistic... It's difficult."
Solana said he hoped the six major countries -- permanent UN Security Council members Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States, as well as Germany -- could respond to the letter soon.
Solana had handed over an updated package of incentives proposed by the six countries and a letter from their foreign ministers and himself to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki during a visit to the country in early June.
Iranian leaders have said that the country will not give up uranium enrichment as it has the right to develop a nuclear program for civilian use.
[link to english.people.com.cn] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/8/2008 6:52 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Hamas set for talks on Gaza truce in Egypt:
A Hamas delegation was due in Cairo on Tuesday for talks on a fragile three-week-old Gaza truce as Israel said it would reopen its borders with the territory at the Egyptian mediator's request.
The delegation was to discuss details of the truce and what Hamas says are Israeli violations, as well as proposals for the reopening of a border crossing with Egypt -- Gaza's only one that bypasses Israel.
The truce was meant to lead to a gradual easing of a year-old blockade of Gaza imposed after Hamas seized power in June 2007, but Israel on Tuesday temporarily re-sealed the territory for the fourth time since the ceasefire went into effect on June 19.
[link to afp.google.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/8/2008 7:00 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Israel to reopen Gaza crossings at Egypt's request:
Israel said it would reopen its border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in response to an Egyptian request, reversing an earlier decision to close them after a Palestinian mortar attack.
"In response to a special request by the Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, Defence Minister Ehud Barak agreed to open the crossings at noon (10 a.m. British time)," a Defence Ministry statement said.
Under a truce brokered by Egypt on June 19, militants in the Gaza Strip are required to halt rocket and mortar fire in return for Israel gradually lifting a blockade of the coastal territory.
[link to africa.reuters.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/8/2008 7:05 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Syria sees no Israel peace before Bush quits:
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has told a newspaper his country is unlikely to make peace with Israel while U.S. President George W. Bush remains in office.
However, in an interview published on the website of Le Figaro daily on Monday, Assad said he was betting that the next U.S. leader would get more involved in the peace process.
[link to www.iht.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/8/2008 7:09 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Israel, Hezbollah Sign Prisoner Swap Deal:
Israel on Monday signed an agreement to swap prisoners with the Lebanese Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office says the deal was signed in the presence of a United Nations official.
[link to www.voanews.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/8/2008 7:15 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Putin hopes for successful Iran nuclear talks:
Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation on Monday.
Putin who telephoned Ahmadinejad in Kuala Lumpur expressed hope that the planned nuclear talks between Iran and the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana would yield successful results.
“I also hope that negotiations about nuclear issue will continue and will yield clear results which would guarantee the full rights of the Islamic republic of Iran.”
Putin also called for the implementation of the agreements signed between Tehran and Moscow.
For his part, Ahmadinjead said Iranian and Russian officials are determined to expand relations and “I see a promising future for the two countries’ relations.”
[link to www.tehrantimes.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/8/2008 7:28 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
US exports to Iran rose in Bush years:
U.S. exports to Iran grew more than tenfold during President Bush's years in office even as he accused Iran of nuclear ambitions and helping terrorists. America sent more cigarettes to Iran — at least $158 million worth under Bush — than any other products.
[link to www.newsweek.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/10/2008 5:00 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Israeli troops kill Gaza man in first truce fatality:
Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian along the border in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, the first fatality since a fragile truce went into effect three weeks ago.
[link to afp.google.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/10/2008 5:03 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
US responds to Iranian missile tests with commitment to diplomacy:
While keeping the military option on the table, the Bush administration is counting heavily on diplomacy including direct talks with Tehran as the best way to wean Iran away from building nuclear weapons.
[link to www.jpost.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/10/2008 5:04 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Nuclear 'scare' against Iran exposed:
A 15-page paper on the process requirements for casting and machining of uranium metal into hemispherical forms - said to useful only for making the core of a nuclear weapon - has been raised by the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in recent months as evidence of an alleged Iranian intention to build nuclear weapons.
[link to www.atimes.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/10/2008 5:06 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Syria set to come in from diplomatic cold:
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is to join a Paris summit of European and Mediterranean leaders this weekend as his country rejoins the diplomatic fold after years of US-led cold-shouldering.
[link to www.abc.net.au] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/10/2008 5:08 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Police: We'll get tougher with Olmert on corruption probe:
This Friday's questioning of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is going to be dramatic, police officers said: They'll be "taking off the kid gloves."
[link to www.haaretz.com] |
| Divinity
User ID: 465208
7/10/2008 5:14 AM
 | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
 for Peace. Extraordinary posting, Non-material, thanks. |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/10/2008 5:20 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
A last throw of the dice ...?
"Iran has more than once formally offered to enrich uranium on its soil at a facility jointly owned and operated by an international consortium. In such a context the diversion of nuclear materials for non-peaceful purposes would be rendered impossible by a process of shared inspection and verification. When this promising proposal was initially accepted by the European Union about three years ago, the US applied so much pressure that it was dumped."
[link to www.atimes.com] |
| Divinity
User ID: 465208
7/10/2008 5:25 AM
| | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
A startlingly accurate portrayal of the World According to the Neocons - great reporting by New Zealander Bob Rigg:
[link to www.atimes.com]
When President George W Bush was sworn in as US president in the first year of a new millennium and a new century, the United States appeared to be at the height of its powers - astride the world stage like a colossus. Some time elapsed before it was realized that Bush had entrusted his foreign policy to a group of mostly unelected conservative ideologues whose world views had been shaped during the Cold War. Playing on the imperial associations of the Roman and British empires, they aimed to lay the foundations for a century of unbroken American political, military, and economic pre-eminence to be known as "Pax Americana".
The US had played a key role in the Middle East since the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)overthrew an elected Iranian government in 1953, replacing it with a monarch whose universally unpopular reign was terminated in 1979, when Iran's warring factions united to exorcise him. Iran's oil resources were the touchstone for the CIA intervention, even then. US domination of Iran and its oil, together with its strategic partnership with Israel, enabled it to call the shots throughout the Middle East until the Iranian revolution left it without either a regional powerbase or direct control over Middle Eastern energy resources.
The vacuum created by the Iranian revolution had to be filled by a new outpost guaranteeing US influence over the region and its vital energy resources. Iraq and Iran were in the sights of US strategic and military planners. Foremost amongst them were the neo-conservative architects of the Project for a New American Century, including luminaries such as John Bolton, Dick Cheney, Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz.
The neo-conservative scenario was clear: a devastating military strike would knock out Iraq's powerful armed forces, and its population would welcome US liberators with open arms. The US would then immediately strike at Iran, considered to be as weakened by the Western-backed Iraqi war as it was by the draconian and unilateral US trade embargo. Before the world could collect its wits, both Iraq and Iran would have been under direct US control. But the best laid plans of mice and men ...
The rationale for the US attack on Iraq has in the meantime been unmasked as a patchwork of deceit. The phrase "shock and awe", coined to describe the US blitzkrieg, came to describe the faltering responses of the US military to the chaos and confusion of occupied Iraq. Incompetence, maladministration and corruption were the hallmarks of the heavy-handed and inept US response to Iraqi assertions of sovereignty.
The Iraqi parliament has so far resisted immense US pressure to hand over the exploitation of Iraqi oil to US and other foreign companies, and to guarantee more than 80 long-term US military bases on its soil. The US government has been seen to repeatedly trample on internationally accepted legal, human rights and ethical standards, sacrificing truth and honesty on the altar of expediency and self-interest.
While the US is bogged down in Iraq, it is losing more and more ground to a revitalized Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, with more US troops now stationed in Afghanistan than in Iraq. Pakistan is increasingly being sucked into the vortex of this expanding regional conflict, prompting even president-in-waiting Obama to threaten it with possible military intervention.
Iraq and Afghanistan are now barely under the control of an awesome US military panoply including ground forces, navy, air force, nuclear-armed submarines, and covert operations.
Long before the US occupied Iraq, France and Britain covertly helped Israel to develop a nuclear capability of about 200 warheads, backed up by sophisticated missiles. Germany is about to provide Israel with nuclear capable submarines. In a worst case scenario, Israel's underwater missiles could wipe much of the Middle East from the map.
Although the United States and Israel are the main destabilizing factors in a region whose militarization and arms races are the product of their own failed policies, they relentlessly demonize Iran as a malignant cancer threatening regional and world peace - even though the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has consistently opposed military intervention in Iran, recently said that the US could crush Iran like an ant. And the recent US National Intelligence Estimate found that, with a high degree of probability, Iran has no plans to go nuclear at present.
Iran has more than once formally offered to enrich uranium on its soil at a facility jointly owned and operated by an international consortium. In such a context the diversion of nuclear materials for non-peaceful purposes would be rendered impossible by a process of shared inspection and verification. When this promising proposal was initially accepted by the European Union about three years ago, the US applied so much pressure that it was dumped.
The new American century has so far lasted less than one decade. Although the US is still by far the most powerful international player, its pre-eminence has been eroded by misguided neo-conservative adventures in the Middle East, and by the emergence of a new international constellation of powerful and assertive states, including in the region. Their assertiveness has increased in proportion to the decline in the political and moral standing of the US, which is now less in control of the world and the Middle East than at any time since the turn of the new century.
While one key neo-conservative survivor is entrenched in the White House, and as long as it is possible for a US president to go to war without the assent of Congress, war against Iran is always conceivable as a final apocalyptic manifestation of Pax Americana, before its time runs out. Such a war would, in addition to transforming the Middle East into a "fireball", in the words of Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, merely hasten the already striking decline of the US in terms of power, influence, and moral authority. |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/10/2008 6:36 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
U.S. meddling in formation of Lebanese cabinet:
At the last moment, when Lebanese groups were about to reach an agreement on the makeup of a unity cabinet, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut protested openly at the way ministerial posts were being divided between the March 14 and the March 8 groups and thus delayed the formation of the new government.
This intervention has stoked up the tension between the two centers of power in Lebanon and encouraged the March 14 group to ask for more ministerial posts.
The U.S. move showed its utter disregard for the Doha agreement and proved that the United States and certain Arab countries do not want to see the Lebanon crisis resolved based on the blueprint mapped out at the Doha meeting.
[link to www.tehrantimes.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/10/2008 10:12 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Israel allows iron into Gaza for first time in a year:
Israel allowed construction iron bars into the Gaza Strip for the first time in more than a year as part of easing economic sanctions in line with a shaky ceasefire, the dismantled Hamas government said on Thursday.
[link to english.people.com.cn] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/10/2008 8:34 PM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Hamas leader urges Israel to abide by Gaza truce commitments
A senior leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Thursday called on Israel to abide by its commitments to a truce with the Palestinian groups to deliver basic goods to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian official MENA news agency reported.
[link to news.xinhuanet.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/10/2008 8:36 PM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
U.S. Tries to Help 3 Scholars Barred From Leaving Gaza:
American consular officials drove from Jerusalem to the Gazan border on Thursday in an unusual effort to interview three Gazan Fulbright scholars who Israel says are too dangerous to allow into the country.
[link to www.nytimes.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/10/2008 8:37 PM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Ehud Olmert will not contest leadership, officials say:
Ehud Olmert's tenuous grip on power weakened further yesterday when officials of his ruling Kadima party suggested that he would not contest the leadership primaries in September.
[link to www.timesonline.co.uk] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/10/2008 8:40 PM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Prisoner exchange with Hezbollah set for Wednesday:
The prisoner exchange with Hezbollah is set to take place Wednesday or Thursday, at the Rosh Hanikra Israel-Lebanon border crossing, barring any last-minute changes.
[link to www.haaretz.com] |
| Doesn't Matter
User ID: 466097
7/10/2008 9:11 PM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
It won't matter who attacks who first. YHWH is and will always be for Israel. Jerusalem is His beloved city. Either way Israel will win. Didn't the Arabs learn anything in the six day war? Six against one....and they still lost....they will lose again....and any nation that comes against Israel. Which is why Amerika will be destroyed......we encouraged His Chosen people to give up the land YHWH gave to them....so we will pay the price. YHWH spoke of Israel(Isaac)...I will bless those that bless them and curse those that curse them. So I put my trust in HIM and know that HE will fight for Israel....but first they must look upon Him whom they pierced and mourn as for an only Son.....once the blinders are removed.
Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem. |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/11/2008 5:07 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Iran to hold nuclear talks with EU's Solana next week:
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator will meet European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Geneva on July 19 for talks on Iran's disputed nuclear programme, an Iranian national security official said on Friday.
[link to in.reuters.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/11/2008 5:12 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Turmoil grips Lebanon two years after Israeli war:
Two years after the war between Israel and Lebanese Shiite guerrillas, Beirut is still grappling with political instability, sectarian unrest, economic stagnation, and an increasingly powerful Hezbollah.
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, who was premier when Israel unleashed its military might on Lebanon in July 2006, is battling to form a unity government despite an accord hammered out with the Hezbollah-led opposition in May.
Regionally, there are peace moves afoot between Israel and Syria - which backs the Lebanese opposition - although Beirut has still ruled out any negotiations with the Jewish state.
At home, the Lebanese government faces persistent unrest, the latest violence in the northern port city of Tripoli where four people were killed in sectarian gunbattles this week.
In Israel, the government is also in turmoil with the governing Kadima party expected to set a September date for a leadership election to quell a crisis over a corruption scandal embroiling Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
[link to www.canada.com] |
| nonmaterial structure
User ID: 376724
7/11/2008 7:07 AM | | Re: War Thread - The Official Israel v. Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas War Thread 2008. | Quote |
Hamas arrests Gaza militants for rocket fire: group:
Hamas has arrested four members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades for firing rockets at Israel or trying to do so, a member of the militant group ruling the Gaza Strip said on Friday.
[link to afp.google.com] |
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