Special report: The secret plan to take Tripoli.
The Illegal Iraq War. ElBaradei's U.N. presentation Part 1. Iran denies quick release of American hikers -- GlobalPost. Please support our site by enabling javascript to view ads. Iran's Justice Ministry denied Wednesday that two American hikers accused of spying will be released within days. A government official told Iran's English language Press TV that no decision has yet been made on the hikers' release, BBC reports.
"The two Americans are going to stay in prison for a bit longer. Reports of their imminent release are wrong,'' a judiciary official reportedly said. More from GlobalPost: American hikers jailed in Iran file appeal Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had announced Tuesday that Iran would free the hikers on humanitarian grounds in "a couple of days. " Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were arrested in 2009 after being found in Iran near the border with Iraq. Sarah Shourd, also American, was arrested with the men but was released in September 2010 on $500,000 bail. "Any information in this regard will be issued by the judiciary and any release of information from other sources is not valid. " U.S. America and Oil: Declining Together?
America and Oil. It’s like bacon and eggs, Batman and Robin. As the old song lyric went, you can’t have one without the other. Once upon a time, it was also a surefire formula for national greatness and global preeminence. Now, it’s a guarantee of a trip to hell in a hand basket. The Chinese know it. America’s rise to economic and military supremacy was fueled in no small measure by its control over the world’s supply of oil. If you want proof of that economic decline, just check out the way America's share of the world's gross domestic product has been steadily dropping, while its once-powerhouse economy now appears incapable of generating forward momentum.
Militarily, the picture appears remarkably similar. If American power is in decline, so is the relative status of oil in the global energy equation. What a difference a decade makes. From Standard Oil to the Carter Doctrine With World War II and the Cold War, oil and U.S. national security became thoroughly intertwined. World leaders gather in Paris for Libya summit. US, Bahrain in talks on $53mn arms deal. The United States and Bahrain are currently discussing a deal, which, if it goes through, would see the US sell the Persian Gulf kingdom $53 million of military equipment, according to a recent report.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), which is part of the US Department of Defense, has notified the Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to the government of Bahrain, the German defense news website defpro.com reported on Thursday. DSCA provides financial and technical assistance, transfer of defense materials, training, and services to US allies, and promotes military-to-military contracts. Bahrain is seeking to purchase armored high mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicles, TOW missiles and associated equipment, and training and logistical support from the US military. Reports estimate the total cost of the deal, which still needs to get congressional approval, to be over $53 million.
Study concludes Gulf War syndrome involves real brain damage. By Muriel KaneFriday, September 16, 2011 21:00 EDT For the last twenty years, veterans of the Persian Gulf War of 1991 have been complaining of a range of ailments, including pain, fatigue, and problems with memory and concentration. And for just as long, the causes have remained uncertain and there has been a tendency by the military to attribute the complaints to post-traumatic stress disorder. Now a long-term study at the University of Texas in Dallas has used a new technique to measure blood flow in the brains of sufferers and has detected “marked abnormalities” in brain function that can probably be attributed to low levels of exposure to sarin nerve gas. This abnormal blood flow has persisted or even worsened over the eleven years of the study. “Dr. Heley’s team has not yet pinpointed the nature of the brain damage, which is estimated to affect 25% of the 700,000 Gulf War veterans, or worked out an effective treatment.
Photo by PHC D. Muriel Kane. Joint Chiefs chairman praises 10 years of war as America’s ‘vengeance’ By Agence France-PresseSunday, September 11, 2011 16:48 EDT By Dan De Luce WASHINGTON — US military and political leaders on Sunday paid solemn tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and to troops who have waged a war of “vengeance” in the decade since. “Lives ended in this place. Dreams were shattered. Futures were instantly altered. Hopes were tragically dashed,” Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a ceremony marking the day a hijacked airliner slammed into the Pentagon ten years ago. Mullen, joined by Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, said the attack inspired a new generation to join the armed forces as the country sought retribution against Al-Qaeda militants. “From this place of wrath and tears, America’s military ventured forth as the long arm and clenched fist of an angry nation at war.
“I know what it? “No memorial, no ceremony, no words will ever fill the void left in your hearts by their loss.” American Task Force On Palestine Shames Itself. The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) is an example of an interest group that is suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome, i.e. the malady where a kidnap victim comes, in time, to identify with those who are holding him captive. Originally established to lobby for Palestinian rights (and specifically the two-state solution), ATFP successfully sought respectability in a city where the "pro-Israel" lobby has reigned supreme for decades. But, eventually, as happens with other groups, the quest for respectability became the organization's primary goal. Instead of challenging the lobby, ATFP started courting it, as if its goal of acceptance by policymakers required ingratiating itself with its adversaries. ATFP initially only engaged in dialogue with Jewish groups that support the two-state solution and are sympathetic to Palestinian rights.
ATFP has become another Washington organization, playing a power game that, in Kuttab's words, forced the group to go "against its own raison d'être. " Fight of the Living Dead. Japan's "lost decade" of the 1990s gave the world "zombie banks. " A zombie bank is, in effect, bankrupt. It's made loans to companies that aren't going to be able to pay them back, and the total value of those bad loans exceeds its equity. Normally, a bank in that position has gone bust.
Sometimes, when the government doesn't want to let the bank fail but also doesn't want to pay to bail it out, it simply agrees to pretend that the bank is still sound. It's a cute idea with broad applicability. The logic here is classic underwater thinking: Given that we've already wasted so much money in Iraq, why not waste even more? Advertisement Imagine what would have happened if American troops, after pouring into Iraq and defeating Saddam Hussein's conventional forces, had discovered a stockpile of missiles and an advanced nuclear-weapons program. Instead, of course, the alleged weapons of mass destruction program was proved not to have existed.
You might like: The Anti-Scalia Uprising. Syrians must contemplate foreign help - if not the west's | Abdur Rahman al Shami. On 22 August an interview with Bashar Al-Assad was aired on Syrian TV. He assumed the people were following his every word. But they were not in the least concerned with his interview; instead, many stayed up the whole night watching the battle to liberate Tripoli. It had huge symbolism, especially for the people of Damascus. With the fall of Tripoli and the departure of Gaddafi and his family, it became clear to the people that despite the severity of losses, the fight in Libya was worth the price.
The decision by the Syrian people to march in protest was taken on the night of 17 March, the day the UN passed resolution 1973, imposing a no-fly zone over Libya. But our peaceful revolution received no official support from the Islamic and Arab countries. But our revolution gathered momentum. The revolutionaries on the ground now find themselves confronting a new reality. There is a consensus against any western intervention in Syria.