COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Washington, D.C. 16 May (Asiantribune.com):
ReplyDeleteThere is a 'side story' going on in the American media - both the electronic and print about the Islamist jihadists lethal attack on the American 'post' in Benghazi, Libya last September 11 which killed American ambassador Christopher Steven and three others; The emphasis and the debate is on why the event was twisted by the Obama administration to conceal a terrorist attack on eve of the presidential election.
With the killing of Osama bin Larden on May 2 last year the administration, which was approaching the re-election of Mr. Obama in November, wants to convince the American people that the al Qaeda was now annihilated for good.
When the Islamist jihadist group affiliated to al Qaeda lethally attacked the American 'post' in Benghazi the Obama administration twisted the events to convince that a anti-Islamic video produced by someone in California was the cause of the attack.
These days the highlights and debate is about why the 'talking points' were changed twelve times to give that different picture.
As Obama rightfully said a couple of days ago about this debate, mostly spearheaded by the Republicans, was a 'side show.'
The 'real show' is in fact buried. And the 'real show' is that the United States, Ambassador Steven playing a major role, was in the process of shipping arms to Syrian rebels to topple Basher el-Assad's regime.
It was on October 25 last year that FoxNews.com broke the story that a mysterious Libyan ship was reportedly carrying weapons and bound for Syrian rebels would have had some link to the September 11 terror attack on the U.S. 'post' in Benghazi.
Why do we use the term 'post' in this report? Because when changes were made to the Benghazi attack story by the Obama administration it changed from 'American Consulate' to 'American Post'. The reason: Benghazi operation was entirely a CIA operation.
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ReplyDeleteThrough shipping records, Fox News has confirmed that the Libyan-flagged vessel Al Entisar, which means "The Victory," was received in the Turkish port of Iskenderun -- 35 miles from the Syrian border -- on Sept. 6, just five days before Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American officers were killed during an extended assault by more than 100 Islamist militants.
On the night of Sept. 11, in what would become his last known public meeting, Stevens met with the Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin, and escorted him out of the 'posts' front gate one hour before the assault began.
Although what was discussed at the meeting is not public, a source told Fox News that Stevens was in Benghazi to negotiate a weapons transfer, an effort to get SA-7 missiles out of the hands of Libya-based extremists. And although the negotiation said to have taken place may have had nothing to do with the attack on the consulate later that night or the Libyan mystery ship, it could explain why Stevens was travelling in such a volatile region on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
When asked to comment, a State Department spokeswoman dismissed the idea, saying Stevens was there for diplomatic meetings, and to attend the opening of a cultural center.
According to an initial Sept. 14 report by the Times of London, Al Entisar was carrying 400 tons of cargo. Some of it was humanitarian, but also reportedly weapons, described by the report as the largest consignment of weapons headed for Syria's rebels on the frontlines.
The cargo reportedly included surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles, RPG's and Russian-designed shoulder-launched missiles known as MANPADS.
In March 2011 Stevens became the official U.S. liaison to the al-Qaeda-linked Libyan opposition, working directly with Abdelhakim Belhadj of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group—a group that has now disbanded, with some fighters reportedly participating in the attack that took Stevens’ life.
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ReplyDeleteIn November 2011 The Telegraph reported that Belhadj, acting as head of the Tripoli Military Council, "met with Free Syrian Army [FSA] leaders in Istanbul and on the border with Turkey" in an effort by the new Libyan government to provide money and weapons to the growing insurgency in Syria.
The Internet Media reported at that time that Ambassador Stevens had only one person—Belhadj—between himself and the Benghazi man who brought heavy weapons to Syria.
The Asian Tribune has also found that the Internet Media further reported that if the new Libyan government was sending seasoned Islamic fighters and 400 tons of heavy weapons to Syria through a port in southern Turkey—a deal brokered by Stevens' primary Libyan contact during the Libyan revolution—then the governments of Turkey and the U.S. surely knew about it.
Furthermore there was a CIA post in Benghazi, located 1.2 miles from the U.S. consulate, used as "a base for, among other things, collecting information on the proliferation of weaponry looted from Libyan government arsenals, including surface-to-air missiles" ... and that its security features "were more advanced than those at rented villa where Stevens died."
As noted earlier, the Obama administration has since described the American facility in Benghazi not as a 'Consulate' but as a 'Post'.
The U.S. Republican Senator Rand Paul, who is expected to run for his party presidential nomination in the year 2016, was the only American lawmaker who disclosed about this 'arms deal' which he connects to Ambassador Steven's brutal muder in the hands of the Islamist Jihadists.
In an interview aired on CNN May 9 evening, Sen. Paul said he hasn’t ruled out the possibility that last year’s attack unfolded as a result of a secret arms trade. The confusion in the immediate aftermath of the event — including unfounded admissions from America’s United Nations envoy Susan Rice that contradicted what is known today about the attack — could actually be a cover-up, the senator said.
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ReplyDeleteThe Obama administration sent its ambassador to UN Susan Rice on the following Sunday talk shows to say that the offending Islamic video was the cause of the attack in Benghazi.
“I’ve actually always suspected that, although I have no evidence, that maybe we were facilitating arms leaving Libya going through Turkey into Syria,” he said.
“Were they trying to obscure that there was an arms operation going on at the CIA annex?” Paul asked. “I’m not sure exactly what was going on, but I think questions ought to be asked and answered, and I’m a little curious when employees of the State Department are told by government officials they shouldn’t testify - before the Senate or House committees - and then they are sort of sequestered and kept away from testimony, so I think there may be more to this.”
This is not the first time either that Senator Paul raised questions about possible arms supplies under the CIA umbrella. During her testimony in the Senate in January, Rand Paul asked then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton whether the spy agency was sending weapons from Benghazi into other countries. Clinton replied that he would have to ask CIA officials about it.
Sen. Rand Paul said on Aaron Klein Radio in mid April: “First of all with regard to Benghazi, I think it’s important [to determine more about the apparent gun-running program] because it may have something to do with why the compound was attacked. If we were involved with shipping guns to Turkey, there was a report that a ship left from Libya towards Turkey and that there were arms on it in the week preceding this [attack]; there were reports that our ambassador was meeting with the Turkish attaché, so I think with regards to figuring out what happened at Benghazi, it’s very important to know whether or not the CIA annex had anything to do with facilitating guns being sent to Turkey and ultimately to Syria. With regard to arming the rebels, just this week in the armed services committee, General Dempsey, the [Chairman of the] Joint Chiefs of Staff said that we were no longer able to distinguish who the good guys were from the bad guys and that sounds pretty worrisome if we are actually arming people who in the end may be enemies of America…enemies of Israel… enemies maybe of the Christians who live within Syria...sending arms to a rebel force to that may include Al-Nusra and other radical jihadists.”
In the eighties, the Iran-Contra Arms Affair shook the Regan administration the way the Benghazi affair is developing to shake the foundation of the Obama administration.
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ReplyDeleteIran-contra affair, in U.S. history, secret arrangement in the 1980s to provide funds to the Nicaraguan contra rebels from profits gained by selling arms to Iran. The Iran-contra affair was the product of two separate initiatives during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. The first was a commitment to aid the contras who were conducting a guerrilla war against the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua. The second was to placate "moderates" within the Iranian government in order to secure the release of American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon and to influence Iranian foreign policy in a pro-Western direction.
Despite the strong opposition of the Reagan administration, the Democratic-controlled Congress enacted legislation that prohibited the Defense Dept., the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or any other government agency from providing military aid to the contras from Dec., 1983, to Sept., 1985. The Reagan administration circumvented these limitations by using the National Security Council (NSC), which was not explicitly covered by the law, to supervise covert military aid to the contras. Under Robert McFarlane (1983–85) and John Poindexter (1985–86) the NSC raised private and foreign funds for the contras. This operation was directed by NSC staffer Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North. McFarlane and North were also the central figures in the plan to secretly ship arms to Iran despite a U.S. trade and arms embargo.
In early Nov., 1986, the scandal broke when reports in Lebanese newspapers forced the Reagan administration to disclose the arms deals. Poindexter resigned before the end of the month; North was fired. Select congressional committees held joint hearings, and in Dec., 1986, Lawrence E. Walsh was named as special prosecutor to investigate the affair. Higher administration officials, particularly Reagan, Vice President Bush, and William J. Casey (former director of the CIA, who died in May, 1987), were implicated in some testimony, but the extent of their involvement remained unclear. North said he believed Reagan was largely aware of the secret arrangement, and the independent prosecutor's report (1994) said that Reagan and Bush had some knowledge of the affair or its cover-up. Reagan and Bush both claimed to have been uninformed about the details of the affair, and no evidence was found to link them to any crime. A presidential commission was critical of the NSC, while congressional hearings uncovered a web of official deception, mismanagement, and illegality.
A number of criminal convictions resulted, including those of McFarlane, North, and Poindexter, but North's and Poindexter's were vacated on appeal because of immunity agreements with the Senate concerning their testimony. Former State Dept. and CIA officials pleaded guilty in 1991 to withholding information about the contra aid from Congress, and Caspar Weinberger, defense secretary under Reagan, was charged (1992) with the same offense. In 1992 then-president Bush pardoned Weinberger and other officials who had been indicted or convicted for withholding information on or obstructing investigation of the affair.
Will the Benghazi Affair leads that far?
- Asian Tribune
This is, most likely, the "Real Cover Up"
DeleteThe "Thing" that was to be kept under wraps.
Who will send the investigators?
Not the House, they're going to vote on ObamaCare, again.
The President told US he'd get to the bottom of it, he already has.
Does not mean he's goin' to tell you.
But General P got fired.
Why would we want to give these animals more weapons???
ReplyDeleteWhy did we give them any in the first place?
ReplyDeleteBarky loves sunnis.
DeleteI'm curious as to why al-Qaeda is said to be linked to the Benghazi attack. Are there not al-Qaeda types in the Syria opposition? Why then would they want to attack a compound running guns, when their folks in Syria would be among the beneficiaries?
ReplyDeleteI must be missing something here.
Help me out.
Rufus is a good person.
ReplyDeleteBut let's remember the Israelis are worse, they build homes for their people, spray the palestinians with stinky skunk spray and dare to build fences to keep jihadists suicide murderers out of their nation.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am a bully, Israel is a european colony and America is an nation founded on lands ti didnt take from anyone.
Well, General Bunker at least didn't take his rich bottom land and artesian well from anyone. Everyone else in America took land from someone else. I know, he told me I have done so.
DeleteBut not the Bunk, he did not. With his standards on such matters he would have certainly given it back now if he didn't have some real claim to it.
His Solutrean ancestors may have been there 25,000 years ago for all I know.
DeleteIt was the artesian well Bunk's Solutrean ancestors were really interested in - back in those times 'land cheap, artesian wells dear' as their old saying went.
DeleteThen the 'asiatics' came in down from the Alaskan Land Bridge and stole it from Bunk's ancestors, wiping them all out in the process.
DeleteA descendent of the rightful owners has now returned.
Thanks to 'Manifest Destiny'.
DeleteThat land had Bunker written on it from before the Almighty laid the destiny of the world.
DeleteBut, I am rambling.
I love it when you ramble, Bob. OOO, please ramble more.
DeleteI don't ramble with people I don't know.
DeleteShit, fellas, I've never belittled the importance of the Mexican American Wars, or the Texicans fight for Independence. But then I've never sugar coated it, either. The "Southerners" wanted slaves in east Texas, and slavery was illegal in Mexico. Texican independence was the ticket to the expansion of slavery in the Americas.
DeleteUS Grant described the Mexican American Wars ...
U.S. Grant,
"Causes of the Mexican War"
. . . Generally the officers of the army were indifferent whether the annexation [of Texas] was consummated or not; but not so all of them. For myself, I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war [with Mexico] which resulted as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory.
Texas was originally a state belonging to the republic of Mexico. It extended from the Sabine River on the east to the Rio Grande on the west, and from the Gulf of Mexico on the south and east to the territory of the United States and New Mexico -- another Mexican state at that time -- on the north and west. An empire in territory, it had but a very sparse population, until settled by Americans who had received authority from Mexico to colonize.
These colonists paid very little attention to the supreme government, and introduced slavery into the state almost from the start, though the constitution of Mexico did not, nor does it now, sanction that institution.
But to conflate the United States with the Israeli portion of Palestine, comical to say the least.
Delusions of grandeur, on the part of quot.
US Grant goes on, about slavery being KEY to Texican Independence ...
DeleteSoon they set up an independent government of their own, and war existed, between Texas and Mexico, in name from that time until 1836, when active hostilities very nearly ceased upon the capture of Santa Anna, the Mexican President. Before long, however, the same people -- who with permission of Mexico had colonized Texas, and afterwards set up slavery there, and then seceded as soon as they felt strong enough to do so -- offered themselves and the State to the United States, and in 1845 their offer was accepted.
The occupation, separation and annexation were, from the inception of the movement to its final consummation, a conspiracy to acquire territory out of which slave states might be formed for the American Union.
In taking military possession of Texas after annexation, the army of occupation, under General [Zachary] Taylor, was directed to occupy the disputed territory. The army did not stop at the Nueces and offer to negotiate for a settlement of the boundary question, but went beyond, apparently in order to force Mexico to initiate war. It is to the credit of the American nation, however, that after conquering Mexico, and while practically holding the country in our possession, so that we could have retained the whole of it, or made any terms we chose, we paid a round sum for the additional territory taken; more than it was worth, or was likely to be, to Mexico.
To us it was an empire and of incalculable value; but it might have been obtained by other means. The Southern rebellion was largely the outgrowth of the Mexican war.
The President of the United States, boobie, saying what I have said, all along ...
The United States is an empire and of incalculable value.
http://www.sewanee.edu/faculty/willis/Civil_War/documents/Grant.html
Delete.
DeleteIMO, which may not mean much on this subject, Texas was merely and excuse. The U.S. wanted California, that's where the money was. They were preparded to pay somewhere around $25 million for it but Mexico wouldn't even receive our envoy. Texas on the other hand at that time was barren and scarcely populated. Someome mentioned the Republic was near bankruptcy and continually fighting with Mexico when they were annexed by the U.S. However, the ongoing border dispute provided an excuse for Polk to provoke Mexico into war. When it was over, instead of $25 million for California we ended up giving Mexico $15 million for Texas, New Mexico, and California, increasing the existing U.S. by a third.
Not a bad deal on the reparations although the war itself cost a heck of a lot more.
Before Texas war for independance, Mexico was inviting, actaully encouraging anglos to settle in Texas. They learned what can happen when you have an open-door policy on immigration and they have been making the U.S. pay ever since.
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http://www.eeweems.com/goya/3rd_of_may.html
ReplyDeleteThe Third of May
El Tres de Mayo
1814 Oil on canvas
104 1/2 inches by 135 3/4 inches
266cm x 345cm
Prado Museum, Madrid
I've had the privilege of viewing this painting.
These execution are all pretty much the same.
Map: Highest paid public employees by state -
ReplyDeletehttp://seekerblog.com/2013/05/14/us-map-highest-paid-public-employee-in-every-state-is-part-of-the-higher-education-bubble/
Check out Nevada.
:)
North and South Dakota are sane.
DeleteThe question of import, with regards to Benghazi, ongoing operations there on 11SEP12, the attack US compound (no longer a Consulate) and the follow up action ...
ReplyDeleteWhat did General P know and when did he know it?
Smiles, all around, aye.
;-)
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DeleteYou insinuate a lot, rat, but you say little.
What did he know about what? There have been half a dozen articles written indicating he was against putting the talking points out in the form that was presented by Susan Rice.
If you are talking about what was going on in Benghazi, be a little more specific. The wink and nod don't get it.
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Talking points?
DeleteDimwit.
General P knew what was up on 10SEP12.
Mr Stevens was coming to the General's bailiwick.
You are so far behind the curve, quot, you have fallen off.
Talking points.
Beyond comical, to speak of talking points when men are dead.
General P's men, mostly, and the Ambassador in their joint use compound.
Who leaked that the Ambassador was there?
What was the Ambassador there for?
Why was the Ambassador meeting the Turks in Benghazi?
As reported earlier, the "Palace Guard" around the compound, the one that faded away, had been vetted by the CIA.
What did General P know and when did he know it?
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DeleteYou are still not making sense. What specifically are you accusing Petreaus and/or the CIA of? Treason? Leaking the Ambassador's presence to the terrorist? Get specific. You have brought his name up a dozen times, yet you have accused him of nothing. Quit the innuendo and come out and say what you think he did.
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DeleteIssa has said there will be more hearings. He has indicated many of the people that were called before will be recalled from all the government branches. I would imagine Petreaus will be called as will reps from DOD, FBI, and the White House.
We have seen some of the things State did and did not do. We have the evidence and we have the testimony. I'm sure there is plenty to question the CIA about and if anyone is proven guilty of something they should fry them too but I haven't seen it yet.
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DeleteThe CIA should be questioned regarding the process used for vetting the local security force but that's a little different than accusing them of treason.
Leaking the ambassador's presence? The trip had been planned since August. There was nothing secret about it. Why would anyone have to leak the info?
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DeleteAs for your faux umbrage about talking points, take a look at your first post, mentioning that General P might have something important to say, and then a wink and a smile.
Take a look at my intitial response. I hadn't a clue as to what you were talking about. And you'll note that besides mentioning his position on the talking points, I ask that if what you were actually speaking of was the situation in benghazi, that you be specific.
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It would be much more appropo to conflate ...
ReplyDelete... Maricopa County, Arizona, with the Israeli portion of Palestine.
About the same land mass, similar water challenges.
Scottsdale, about the physical size of Gaza. Not nearly the people.
Maricopa County, tad over four million residents, Israel packs 'em in a little tighter.
But Maricopa County would be more accurately conflated with the Israeli portion of Palestine.
It would be inaccurate to compare or conflate even all of Palestine to the United States. That would be like Maricopa and Pima counties of Arizona, combined.
bullshit as usual
DeleteNot at all, anoni.
DeleteAll verifiable facts.
That some folk entertain delusions of grandeur, understandable.
That others live in a reality based world, all to true.
Facts, figures, that's what makes the whirled go round
And a belief that all men are endowed equally, that their place origin or their blood purity level does not matter, here in America. No need to have your Mitochondrial DNA checked to be an American, in full legal standing.
How Israel beat the drought This country was on the brink of water catastrophe, reduced to running relentless ad campaigns urging Israelis to conserve water even as it raised prices and cut supplies to agriculture. Now, remarkably, the crisis is over.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timesofisrael.com/how-israel-beat-the-drought/
From the Economist;
ReplyDeleteA senior Israeli officer recently testified in court that in the past 45 years of Israeli occupation the army has redistributed around 70% of the West Bank land designated as state-owned either to Jewish settlers or to the World Zionist Organisation, whereas less than 1% of supposedly state-owned land was granted to Palestinians. While Israel’s government expands Jewish settlements and ties them to Israel proper with a network of roads, it bars and sometimes reverses Palestinian development. It habitually denies housing permits to Palestinians, thus stunting the community’s natural growth, yet provides uninterrupted water to Jewish settlements. Water for the Palestinians generally comes once a week, by lorry. Israeli soldiers have destroyed scores of small EU-funded projects, ranging from wells to solar panelling, and threatened to demolish scores more.
Aren’t they just wonderful?
Can we spell
DeletePersecution
Well, it is only natural because the are the "chosen people"!
DeleteWest Bank Water Usage
ReplyDeleteOf the water available from West Bank aquifers, Israel uses 73%, West Bank Palestinians use 17%, and illegal Jewish settlers use 10%.
While 10-14% of Palestine’s GDP is agricultural, 90% of them must rely on rain-fed farming methods. Israel’s agriculture is only 3% of their GDP, but Israel irrigates more than 50% of its land.
Three million West Bank Palestinians use only 250 million cubic meters per year (83 cubic meters per Palestinian per year) while six million Israelis enjoy the use of 1,954 million cubic meters (333 cubic meters per Israeli per year), which means that each Israeli consumes as much water as four Palestinians. Israeli settlers are allocated 1,450 cubic meters of water per person per year.
Israel consumes the vast majority of the water from the Jordan River despite only 3% of the river falling within its pre-1967 borders. Israel now diverts one quarter of its total water consumption through its National Water Carrier from the Jordan River, whereas Palestinians have no access to it whatsoever due to Israeli closures.
Well, it is only natural because the are the "chosen people"!
DeleteAs Amnesty International has said:
ReplyDeleteSwimming pools, well-watered lawns and large irrigated farms in Israeli settlements stand in stark contrast to Palestinian villages whose inhabitants struggle even to meet their essential domestic water needs. In parts of the West Bank Israeli settlers use up to 20 times more water than neighbouring Palestinians who survive on barely 20 litres of water per capita a day, the minimum amount recommended by the WHO for emergency situations response.
Arafat and his successor Mahmoud Abbas have been criticised by their own people for the structural shortcomings of Oslo as well as the role played by the PA over settlements and other issues. Both men were aware of the PA's approval of settlement water infrastructure.
The Palestine Papers published by the Guardian and al-Jazeera in 2011 revealed the extent of concessions offered by the Palestinians in the last meaningful talks held with Israel in 2008. PLO negotiators were exposed to the charge of betraying their people's cause – not so much because of the substance of their offers as the friendly tone and pragmatic approach they used in private. The PA looked embarrassingly encircled and dependent.
"None of the parties emerge very well from these findings," Selby commented. "Israel has been exploiting Palestinian desperation for improved water supplies. The Palestinian Authority has been pressured into consenting to its own colonization, and has not contested Israel's cynical tactics as forcefully as it might have done. And international donors have variously stood by or been complicit in activity which is contrary to international law, and contrary to their own policies on the peace process, and which has helped to undermine the possibility of a two state solution.”
GUARDIAN
It goes on from Haaretz
ReplyDeleteDrying out the Palestinians
Haaretz (Editorial)
December 10, 2012 - 1:00am
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/drying-out-the-palestinians-1.483747
Since the beginning of the year, Israel has destroyed 35 rainwater cisterns used by Palestinian communities, 20 of them in the area of Hebron and the southern Hebron Hills. In 2011, Israel destroyed 15 cisterns, and in the preceding 18 months, 29. In many of these cases ancient cisterns were destroyed that had served the forefathers of the inhabitants of these communities. Recently, they have been restored with European assistance. The cisterns show the continuity of Palestinian habitation long before 1948. Usually, the communities whose cisterns were destroyed are a short distance from settlements and unauthorized outposts that enjoy a regular water supply. At the same opportunity the Civil Administration almost always destroys Palestinian tents, animal pens and food storage facilities.
This information is based on data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Rabbis for Human Rights and the Association of Civil Rights in Israel. The spokesman for the military Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories did not respond to Haaretz's queries about the number of cisterns destroyed over the past two years, or why the restoration of an ancient cistern is considered an offense. The spokesman did explain (Haaretz, December 7 ) that "the digging of cisterns - which constitutes infrastructural change - requires the receipt of a permit from the authorized planning institutions." But from the outset, Israel did not include in its master plans the Palestinian communities that now depend on cisterns, and therefore they cannot expect to receive a legal permit.
Leaving Palestinian communities disconnected from infrastructure, declaring large areas as firing zones and destroying cisterns are part of an intentional policy since the early 1970s. Its goal is to leave as few Palestinians as possible in the majority of the West Bank (today's Area C, under Israeli civil and military control), to expedite Jewish settlement and thus make it easier to annex these areas to Israel.
The European Union opposes Israel's policies in Area C, which the EU believes sabotages the two-state solution. It also bases its position on international law, which prohibits the demolition of structures that would leave a protected population without food and water and result in their forced dislocation. Basic moral principles, as well as avoiding another head-on collision with our friends, requires that Israel cease and desist from destroying cisterns that are essential for the existence of dozens of Palestinian communities.
it is called Apartheid, ethnic cleansing, or in plain English, evil. It would not be possible in the United States, Canada or most if not all of Latin America.
ReplyDeleteIt could not happen in Europe. It is something that could happen in North Korea, China or some of the other undesirable countries in Africa and the Middle East.
It is ignored in the US Media.
Yes the Jews of the Middle East were ethnically cleansed from their historic homes in 899/900th of the middle east.
DeleteAnd in Israel? 20% of the population IS arab. in fact more arabs LIVE TODAY AS CITIZENS of the State of Israel than EXISTED in all of the disputed lands.
In the Arab controlled world?
Ethnically cleansed of all Jews.
In the new state of Palestine? Juden Free...
Ethnically cleansed.
Jewish historic sites? RAZED, DESTROYED and erased.
Now In ISRAEL? Thousands of Islamic and Christians sites.
It sucks being a terrorist culture such as the Palestinians.
DeleteIf only they could build proper communities rather than focus on murder of Jews.
That's why they have water problems.
What is "Occupation"Thu May 16, 05:16:00 PM EDT
ReplyDeleteHow Israel beat the drought This country was on the brink of water catastrophe, reduced to running relentless ad campaigns urging Israelis to conserve water even as it raised prices and cut supplies to agriculture. Now, remarkably, the crisis is over.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/how-israel-beat-the-drought/
ReplyDelete
_________________________
Just one of the many ways to beat a drought.
Carr Center Speakers Express Disapproval of Israeli-Palestinian Water Distribution
ReplyDeleteBy BHARATH VENKATESH, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.
May 03, 2013
Calling for comprehensive solutions to the water crisis in the West Bank, Tufts professor Annette Huber-Lee and Palestinian refugee Nidal al-Azraq presented work on improving Palestinian access to adequate safe water at an event hosted Thursday evening by the Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.
Though the Israeli-Palestinian Joint-Water Committee is responsible for water allocation in the West Bank, Huber-Lee said that in practice, Israel controls most of the water and severely restricts Palestinian access.
She said that 80 percent of water in the Mountain Aquifer, one of the most important sources of water for both Israelis and Palestinians, goes to Israel, while only 20 percent goes to Palestine.
“This illustrates how problematic the current allocation is,” she said. “Technically, the JWC operates by consensus...the reality is [that] Israel pretty much has veto power.”
For their part, Israelis argue that they provide more water to Palestinians than the Oslo Accords agreement requires them to give, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Huber-Lee’s research project in the West Bank, which seeks to answer the question of how water allocation in the area could be modified, takes an economic approach to the water crisis.
“The project was thinking about water value, rather than strict water quality,” she said. “I dispute the idea that water should be regulated by the free market.”
Huber-Lee stated that an unregulated market allowed Israel to exercise excessive control over water in the West Bank. She added that a few concessions on Israel’s part would greatly improve the lives of Palestinians at little to no economic cost to Israel.
“I’ve never seen a more intense system of water control anywhere,” she said. “Palestinians pay 10 times more for water than Israelis.”
Nidal al-Azraq, a researcher and Palestinian refugee who assisted Huber-Lee, described the Aida Refugee Camp—where he grew up—as an area that exemplifies the dearth of Palestinian access to water.
“The whole camp is a sad joke,” al-Azraq said.
He stated that water comes by sporadically and that there are sometimes months of drought during the summers, when people store water in tanks on their rooftops.
al-Azraq called Israeli control of water in the West Bank a human rights issue, calling the current state of water allocation a “crime against humanity.”
Israelis, however, argue that the Palestinian water shortage is a product of Palestinians’ poor management, maintenance, and pricing of their existing resources, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Steal the best land
DeleteThen steal the water
What the worse that could happen?
1965: In January, Palestinian terrorists attempt to bomb Israel's National Water Carrier, which brings water from the Sea of Galilee to the rest of Israel. This was the first attack carried out by PLO's Fatah. In November, Syria fires on an Israeli patrol, and Israel responds by blocking Arab attempts to divert its water with a strategic air strike. However, attacks on t Israel's water projects persist.
Delete1966: Syrian forces and Palestinian terror groups continue attacks on Israeli water facilities.
1967: In the spring of 1967, Palestinian groups blow several water pumps and destroy irrigation equipment in the north of Israel.
IDF concerned Lebanon planning water diversion By YAAKOV KATZ 7/09/2012
DeleteIsrael is deliberating responses to the possibility that Lebanon will divert water from the Hatzbani River.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/IDF-concerned-Lebanon-planning-water-diversion
Sewage
DeleteDuring the first quarter of 2010, the UN coordinated with Israel the transfer of equipment for UNWRA to upgrade the sewage pumping station. In 2009, 127 trucks containing more than 3,000 tons of hypochlorite entered the Gaza Strip for water purification purposes. Moreover, 48 trucks of equipment for improving the sanitation infrastructure led to a substantial reduction in the Beit Lahya facility's waste levels.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/issues/pages/israeli_humanitarian_lifeline_gaza_25-may-2010.aspx
Water: Israel agreed to give Jordan 50,000,000 cubic metres (1.8×109 cu ft) of water each year and for Jordan to own 75% of the water from the Yarmouk River. Both countries could develop other water resources and reservoirs and agreed to help each other survive droughts. Israel also agreed to help Jordan use desalination technology in order to find additional water.[4]
Deletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–Jordan_Treaty_of_Peace
In 1994, the Gaza-Jericho agreement placed water resources in the Gaza Strip under the control of the newly formed Palestinian Authority (PA) and, in 1995, the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) was formed. It was given the mandate for managing water in the Palestinian Territories. At this time, it was widely recognized that there was a serious environmental problem with the Gaza Aquifer, with experts predicting that if nothing was done, the entire aquifer would become unusable by the year 2000. [6] In addition, the water infrastructure was in a very poor state, with 50% of water being lost through leaking pipes.
Deleteleaking pipes
AnonymousThu May 16, 06:07:00 PM EDT
DeleteSteal the best land
Then steal the water
What the worse that could happen?
Yep the Arabs in 21 nations STOLE the Jews lands, the drove them out stealing their businesses...
For almost 1300 years the arabs of the middle east tortured, unfairly taxed, raped, stole and looted the Jews property and people. Just like the islamists of egypt now do to the Coptics...
But that's not an issue...
Let us not forget the arabs have OIL!!! And could have solved any and all issues with the TRILLIONS in wealth collected from the world at any time
TRILLIONS and TRILLIONS of dollars.
could have purchased a water tanker for every palestinian for every month to help with peace.
The Afrikaner settlers always argued that the indigenous people were never capable of proper management, maintenance and pricing of their existing resources. Such is the plight of the European and American settlers in the ME.
ReplyDeleteThey're only children.
DeleteHow are things going in South Africa today?
DeleteThe whites are fleeing and the place, though not Zimbabwe yet, is falling apart at the seams, and making progress towards the Zimbabwean Ideal.
But Deuce has no problems with his management over the indigenous peoples of America.
Deletehttp://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Poverty+in+South+Africa&qpvt=Poverty+in+South+Africa&FORM=IGRE
DeleteThe Jews are just as indigenous as the arabs.
DeleteTo somehow forget that 850 thousand jews were driven from their homes in the arab OCCUPIED middle east and those Jews escaped to Israel makes it sound like the Jews were teleported in.
Arabs and Jews were displaced after war. No different than Germans and Poles after ww2.
I don't think there are any indigs left in Pennsylvania at all, WiO, no one left to manage.
DeleteThis is one solution to the problem of the indigenous.
Has the advantage too of leaving one free to criticize everyone else's treatment of their indigs.
DeleteArabs get the Land, Jews the Sea.
DeleteNo apartheid here of the resources.
Everybody gets something.
Besides there's natural gas under the Sea.
Actually favorable to the Jews in that sense, if you think about it.
sarc intended
DeleteThe arabs are getting what they deserve.
DeleteAnarchy.
Just wait and see, millions more will kill each other soon.
the islamic world is catching on fire by it's self
Looks like the Chinese Liberation Army wants to get into the ancient claim game.
ReplyDeleteA hawkish Chinese general has possibly opened a Pandora’s box on territorial disputes in East Asia by saying that the Ryukyu Islands including Okinawa do not belong to Japan.
Luo Yuan, a People's Liberation Army two-star general, has said that Japan could not rightfully claim sovereignty over the islands, because they had started paying tribute to China half a millenium before they had done so to Japan.
The islands had started paying tribute to China in 1372, the general said in an interview with China News Service on Tuesday. Only in 1872, 500 years later, did Japan exploit China’s weakness to force the Ryukuyu Islands into submission, he said.
.
DeleteHistorical homeland.
:)
Right, and Poland is now claiming most of Europe as its homeland because after a heady night of drinking at a wedding in the dawn of antiquity they spend 113 years wandering around Europe looking first for their ox cart and then for Krakow, an ancient city older than dirt.
.
Hama and the PA have it as a goal, and have said so, to push the Israelis into the sea.
ReplyDeleteOne might consider this plan a type of apartheid. Palis get the land, Jews the water.
There is of course no apartheid in Gaza, as there are no Jews there.
Nor in most of the other areas of the middle east. No apartheid in Saudi Arabia, none in Iran, Iraq, a little in Egypt but it is fast vanishing now with the Christian being target, but no apartheid of the Jews there, being there are no Jews there, right on down the line.
Meanwhile arabs in Israel itself at least, whatever the case may be in the west bank, seem to be getting along all right, some even sitting in the Knesset.
One should be careful when talking apartheid in the middle east.
How many Jews live in Bethlehem?
One should be careful when you are subsidizing it, not when others are doing it without your financial assistance.
DeleteIt is the US funding, boobie, that is the issue, not Israeli transgressions and how they compare to the Saudis or Pakistani or South Africans.
I do not care what South Africans do, in South Africa.
The US should reject ...
... "The White Man's Burden"
We should, instead, follow George Washngton's farewell advise.
a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification”….
Delete“And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country,”
“such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils.”
“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government….. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.”
“Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?”
“It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world”
“nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded;” …
“The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave”…
“It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest”….
“The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations, has been the victim.”
“The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible”…..
George, Father of The United States of America, Washington
DeleteAre you paying attention, boobie?
DeleteGeorge Washington wrote a letter to Americans, touching on subjects you should be mindful of.
Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.”
I was going to send an e-mail to my Congressman Raul Labrador, but thought better of it, as all our e-mails are tracked now.
ReplyDeleteSo, then I thought I might call him up on the phone, but thought better of that, as all the phones in the House of Representative may be tapped now, I have recent reason to believe.
So, I though about writing him a snail mail, but thought better of that, as all correspondence to Congress goes through the safe room at the Post there, and I thought it might be opened, not for explosives or biological weapons, but to check the ideological content.
I will try and get Raul's ear one of these days when he is back here attending a barbecue with constituents in some open park.
.......
WOMAN IN CHARGE DURING 'TEA PARTY' TARGETING NOW RUNS IRS OBAMACARE OFFICE....drudge
The new reality of cost-effective solar energy power plants caught many in the Northwest’s energy policy community by surprise. The influential Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s 2010 regional power plan regarded utility-scale PV as not cost effective by a wide margin; by the end of 2012, their 2010 forecast of PV capital cost was too high by a factor of five.
ReplyDeleteThe conventional wisdom is changing in response to new market research. As this new awareness of PV economics grows, the region’s electric power institutions will need to adapt their planning models and management strategy to accommodate a growing solar resource. The new solar economics means that the power system will be challenged to integrate a growing solar resource into the grid.
Read more at http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/16/utility-scale-pv-power-plants-are-now-cost-effective-in-oregon/#KfHrJDjhBDTut3IQ.99
Solar now cost competitive in "OREGON?"
DRUDGE: The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.
ReplyDeleteSarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.
_______________________________________
The Republicans control the House. Why would they allow the IRS to continue to be even more intrusive in the lives of ordinary Americans? Defund that part of the legislation that puts healthcare under the IRS. Get the IRS out of our health care. How nuts is this?
Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.
DeleteAs the House voted to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act Thursday evening, House Speaker John Boehner expressed “serious concerns” that the IRS is empowered as the law’s chief enforcer.
“Fully repealing ObamaCare will help us build a stronger, healthier economy, and will clear the way for patient-centered reforms that lower health care costs and protect jobs,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said.
“Obamacare empowers the agency that just violated the public’s trust by secretly targeting conservative groups,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., added. “Even by Washington’s standards, that’s unacceptable.”
Sen. John Cornyn even introduced a bill, the “Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013,” which would prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury, or any delegate, including the IRS, from enforcing the Affordable Care Act.
“Now more than ever, we need to prevent the IRS from having any role in Americans’ health care,” Cornyn, R-Texas, stated. “I do not support Obamacare, and after the events of last week, I cannot support giving the IRS any more responsibility or taxpayer dollars to implement a broken law.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also reacted to the revelation late Thursday, stating the news was “stunning, just stunning.”
ABC News’ Abby D. Phillip contributed to this report.
Don't forget that this Administration skewered some unknown filmmaker as part of their 'cover story' for the attacks on Benghazi.
ReplyDeleteIs he still in jail?
ReplyDeleteHe was taken into custody on Sep 15 and given a year in prison the day after the Presidential inauguration.
DeleteYou could call this political persecution.
The Administration has no credibility.
A con man that violated his probation, by making the film, any film.
DeleteWhen you bemoan the jailing of convicted criminals, well ...
What were you wanting to conserve?
Yes, he is still in jail.
Deletehttp://pjmedia.com/instapundit/168256/
DeleteWhich is why, bob, the US shouldstand aside, let the people in Palestine figure it out for themselves.
ReplyDeleteCut the funding to both sides.
Cut military aid, to both
Withdraw loan guarenteees from both.
Take a hand off approach, being involved for the past forty years has not proved successful.
We should try a new approach, withdrawal.
That way then the US would not be subsidizing any injustices, in Palestine.
DeleteAmerica spends billions on the arabs in the lands of Palestine. As well as trillions over the years for helping their brothers. The arabs.
DeleteAs long as we give trillions to the arabs of the world?
Then we set our selves up to have a moral reason to support the Jews of Israel.
The territories that you call Palestine should include Jordan, after all Jordan is Palestine.
Israel should continue to cut aid from America.
DeleteThat way they cannot be pressured by those that dont care if they live or die
All of Jordon, all of Israel, is a land called Palestine, which you have told us never existed, populated by a people you claim are not.
DeleteSo, we are in agreement, it is all Palestine.
You are also correct, we should disengage from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Emirates.
No aid or loan guarantees to any of 'em.
We should encourage ethanol distilling, to make US ever less reliant on energy from the Middle East.
The US should focus its' political energies in the Americas, not the Middle East or Southwest Asia.
You're coming along, quot.
DeleteI know it takes a while, but you'll come to realize that ...
... Hitler really was wrong, I don't know about your father.
More stupid drivel by General Bunk.
DeleteMakes you look small and foolish.
Petty.
Dumb.
Irrational.
desert ratThu May 16, 08:43:00 PM EDT
DeleteYou're coming along, quot.
I know it takes a while, but you'll come to realize that ...
... Hitler really was wrong, I don't know about your father.
Being that your father most likely served in some SS unit for the north africans population you come from you would know about Hitler 1st hand.
rat: You are also correct, we should disengage from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Emirates.
DeleteNo aid or loan guarantees to any of 'em.
We should encourage ethanol distilling, to make US ever less reliant on energy from the Middle East.
becareful for what you wish for, you might have to pay a fair market price for advanced technology, Made in Israel that is...
>>>desert ratThu May 16, 08:06:00 PM EDT
DeleteWhich is why, bob, the US shouldstand aside, let the people in Palestine figure it out for themselves.<<<
OK then. But don't then bitch about what actions the Israelis may undertake in 'Palestine'.
>>>You are also correct, we should disengage from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Emirates.
No aid or loan guarantees to any of 'em.<<<
Have you thought this one through to the end, General Bunk, Military Expert?
Might not your newly created vacuum be soon filled by someone not to our liking, General?
DeleteAs long as the US funds Israeli aggression, I will bitch...
DeleteLet the US cut the funding, all the economic ties and I will speak of Israel like I do of Rhodesia.
Doubt it will happen.
>>>I will speak of Israel like I do of Rhodesia.
DeleteDoubt it will happen.<<<
I, too, doubt that will ever happen.
.
Deletebecareful for what you wish for, you might have to pay a fair market price for advanced technology, Made in Israel that is...
:)
As if we didn't have to now.
What did the Jewish pedophile say to the little kid?
"Hey, kid. Do you want to buy a piece of candy?"
Easy. Just kidding. Just kidding. I was just watching National Lampoon's Dirty Movie" and the joke seemed appropriate given your comment.
.
>>>WOMAN IN CHARGE DURING 'TEA PARTY' TARGETING NOW RUNS IRS OBAMACARE OFFICE....drudge<<<
ReplyDeleteMan, that Ms. Ingram, picture up now on Drudge, looks like she'd off any older Republican without a second thought. Libertarians, too, wouldn't stand a chance.
desert ratThu May 16, 08:41:00 PM EDT
ReplyDeleteAll of Jordon, all of Israel, is a land called Palestine, which you have told us never existed, populated by a people you claim are not.
Actually Rodent It's called "Jordan" not Jordon.
And there were lands called the palestinian territories, a land of the Jews.
Not the arabs. they come from Arabia.
they are invaders.
Just like you are an invader in AZ.
As for the self named frauds that call themselves "palestinians" today? they are a people as much as the crips or the bloods are a people.
Wonderful comment by Quirk, here -
ReplyDeleteQuirkThu May 16, 07:15:00 PM EDT
Well done Quirk!!! This comment carries your normal load of intellectual content, and the reader is not bothered to pay any attention to it.
hahhardeharhar
:):):):)
Well done!!!!
Hey, bob, agree, great comment. Read it with perfect equanimity.
DeleteCan't argue with that comment.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete'Twas a perfect Buddha like comment by our master of understatement, Anon.
DeleteAnd allows the reader to read into it what one will.
Also, very polite comment.
Caption This Contest:
ReplyDelete>>Caption this: Umbrella cover
posted at 2:07 pm on May 16, 2013 by Ed Morrissey
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2013/05/16/caption-this-umbrella-cover/comment-page-1/#comments<<
Greg Pollowitz @GPollowitz 3m
#FACT There are more Marines holding umbrellas for POTUS than were guarding Amb. Stevens in #Benghazi
I like this one:
“I’d rather be guarding him at the Tomb of the Unknown President.”
NoPain on May 16, 2013 at 3:38 PM