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."

Sunday, November 24, 2013

...”an awful lot of other people in the world, including the West – will have wondered whether Israel, which long ago obtained the world’s most dangerous weapon, is now – in rejecting the Geneva deal - the world’s most dangerous government.”



Robert Fisk: He may huff and puff but Benjamin Netanyahu is on his own now as nuclear agreement isolates Israel


Sudden offer by Tehran to negotiate a high-speed end to this cancerous threat of further war was thus greeted with almost manic excitement

Sunday 24 November 2013

It marks a victory for the Shia in their growing conflict with the Sunni Muslim Middle East. It gives substantial hope to Bashar al-Assad that he will be left in power in Syria. It isolates Israel. And it infuriates Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Kuwait and other Sunni Gulf States which secretly hoped that a breakdown of the Geneva nuclear talks would humiliate Shia Iran and support their efforts to depose Assad, Iran’s only ally in the Arab world.
In the cruel politics of the Middle East, the partial nuclear agreement between Iran and the world’s six most important powers proves that the West will not go to war with Iran and has no intention - far into the future - of undertaking military action in the region. We already guessed that when – after branding Assad as yet another Middle Eastern Hitler - the US, Britain and France declined to assault Syria and bring down the regime. American and British people – those who had to pay the price for these monumental adventures, because political leaders no longer lead their men into battle - had no stomach for another Iraq or another Afghanistan.
Iran’s sudden offer to negotiate a high-speed end to this cancerous threat of further war was thus greeted with almost manic excitement by the US and the EU, along with theatrical enthusiasm by the man who realises that his own country has been further empowered in the Middle East: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Assad’s continued tenure in Damascus is assured. Peace in our time. Be sure we’ll be hearing that Chamberlonian boast uttered in irony by the Israelis in the weeks to come.
But there’s no doubt that Geneva has called Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s bluff. He may huff and puff, but if he wants to bash Iran now – on the basis that Israel must remain the only nuclear nation in the Middle East – he’s going to be on his own when his planes take off to bomb Iran’s nuclear plants. The Aipac attack dogs can be sent up to Congress again by that most infamous of Israeli-American lobby groups to harry Republicans in support of the Likudist cause, but to what purpose? Did Mr Netanyahu really think the Iranians were going to dismantle their whole nuclear boondoggle?
When he said yesterday that “the most dangerous regime in the world took a significant step towards obtaining the world’s most dangerous weapon”, many Arabs – and an awful lot of other people in the world, including the West – will have wondered whether Israel, which long ago obtained the world’s most dangerous weapon, is now – in rejecting the Geneva deal - the world’s most dangerous government. If Mr Netanyahu and his clique in the government decide to twit the world’s major powers amid their euphoria, he may bring about – as several Israeli writers have warned – the most profound change in Israel’s relations with the US since the foundation of the Israeli state. It would not be a change for Israel’s benefit.
But six months – the time it takes to solidify this most tangential of nuclear agreements – is a long time. In the coming days, Republicans in Washington and the right-wing enemies of President Rouhani will demand to know the real details of this febrile game at Geneva. The Americans insist that Iran does not have the “right to enrichment”. Iran insists that it does. The percentages of enrichment will have to be examined far more carefully than they were yesterday.

Mr Rouhani – or Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader whose dark wings hover over every elected Iranian leader – says that the fear of an Iranian nuclear weapon will be seen by future generations as a “historical joke”. Netanyahu says the whole shenanigans in Geneva will prove to be a “historic mistake”. The Sunni Saudis, always waiting to spot the winner before opening their mouths, have already sat down with their Sunni Qatari and Kuwaiti allies to commiserate with each other over Shia Iran’s new victory. In Damascus, I suspect, Bashar, himself an Alawite-Shia, will tuck the kids into bed and share a glass with wife Asma and sleep well in his bed tonight.

142 comments:

  1. God loves all his children

    TEHRAN – Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has praised the Iranian negotiating team for their achievement in reaching a deal with the six major powers.

    In response to a congratulatory letter sent by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday, Ayatollah Khamenei said this achievement can serve as a basis for additional prudent measures in the future.

    “Undoubtedly, God’s blessings and the Iranian nation’s prayers and support have created this success” and will continue to create achievements in the future as well, God willing, the Leader stated.

    He added that resistance against excessive demands should be the criteria for officials.

    In his letter to Ayatollah Khamenei, President Rouhani thanked the Leader for his support and guidelines and praised the Iranian nation for their unwavering backing, saying these factors led to a breakthrough deal with the 5+1 group (the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China, and Russia).

    “Undoubtedly, this breakthrough is the result of God’s blessings, the Leader’s guidelines, and the unwavering support of the Iranian nation,” Rouhani said in his letter to the Leader.

    After four days of intensive negotiations in Geneva, Iran and the 5+1 group clinched an interim deal on Iran’s nuclear program in the early hours of Sunday morning.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The NY Times approves

    WASHINGTON — For President Obama, whose popularity and second-term agenda have been ravaged by the chaotic rollout of the health care law, the preliminary nuclear deal reached with Iran on Sunday is more than a welcome change of subject.

    It is also a seminal moment — one that thrusts foreign policy to the forefront in a White House preoccupied by domestic woes, and one that presents Mr. Obama with the chance to chart a new American course in the Middle East for the first time in more than three decades.

    Much will depend, of course, on whether the United States and the other major powers ever reach a final agreement with Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions. Mr. Obama himself said Saturday night that it “won’t be easy, and huge challenges remain ahead.”

    But the mere fact that after 34 years of estrangement, the United States and Iran have signed a diplomatic accord — even if it is a tactical, transitory one — opens the door to a range of geopolitical possibilities available to no American leader since Jimmy Carter.

    “No matter what you think of it, this is a historic deal,” said Vali R. Nasr, the dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “It is a major seismic shift in the region. It rearranges the entire chess board.”

    Mr. Obama has wanted to bring in Iran from the cold since he was a presidential candidate, declaring in 2007 that he would pursue “aggressive personal diplomacy” with Iranian leaders, and ruling out the concept of leadership change, which was popular at the time.

    But the president has sought to avoid being consumed by the Middle East, in part so he could shift America’s gaze to Asia. He has tended to view Iran through two narrower prisms: his goal of curbing the spread of nuclear weapons and his desire to avoid entangling the United States in another war in the region.

    On Friday, Mr. Obama huddled in the Oval Office with Secretary of State John Kerry over the fine points of a proposal to the Iranians. He was intent on making sure that Iran halted all testing at a heavy-water reactor, a senior administration official said, and in tying any reference to Iran’s enrichment of uranium only to a final agreement

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  3. “One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror. ”

    ReplyDelete
  4. Posted on 11/24/2013 by Juan Cole

    The decade-long Neoconservative plot to take the United States to war against Iran appears to have been foiled.



    In response for a loosening of sanctions, worth some $7 billion to Iran, President Hasan Rouhani undertook to freeze enrichment activities at their present level. He also pledged to cast Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 19.75% for the production of medical isotopes in a form that makes it impossible to further enrich it. Nor will Iran produce more 19.5% low enriched uranium. (Uranium enriched to 95% is suitable for a bomb, and the Western diplomats figure that 19.75% is closer to 95% than is the stock of uranium enriched to 3.5% to serve as fuel for the three nuclear power plants at Bushehr. Iran also agreed to do no further work on its proposed heavy-water reactor at Arak. (Heavy-water reactors produce plutonium, with which bombs can easily be constructed).

    Iran’s nuclear facilities have been being inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the inspectors have repeatedly certified that no uranium has been diverted to weapons purposes. This agreement will increase the frequency of the inspections and widen their scope somewhat.

    The agreement did not recognize Iran’s right to enrich uranium, but Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the right was implicit in the agreement (which does not forbid enrichment to 3.5% for reactor fuel) and in the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

    In a press conference on Sunday morning, Iranian president Hasan Rouhani reaffirmed that he understands the agreement to recognize Iran’s right to enrich. But he strongly reaffirmed that Iran does not want and never will want to build an atomic bomb (nuclear weapons are forbidden in Shiite law according to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s fatwas, but it has been hard to get suspicious Westerners to take these theocratic pronouncements seriously).

    The agreement is actually an agreement to negotiate, and the hard bargaining is yet to come. The terms agreed upon are more confidence-building measures than anything else.

    {...}

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. {...}In 2003, the Neocon chickenhawks, most of whom had never worn a uniform or had a parent who did, joked that “everyone wants to go to Baghdad; real men want to go to Tehran.” When people have to talk about being “real men,” it is a pretty good sign that they are 98-pound weaklings.

      The “everyone” who wanted to go to Baghdad was actually just the Neocons and their fellow travelers. Most of the latter were hoodwinked by the Neocon/Cheney misinformation campaign blaming Saddam Hussein of Iraq for 9/11. A majority of Democratic representatives in the lower house of Congress voted against the idea of going to war. The Iraq War, trumped up on false pretenses and mainly to protect the militant right wing in Israel from having a credible military rival in the region and to put Iraqi petroleum on the market to weaken Saudi Arabia, cost the United States nearly 5000 troops, hundreds more Veterans working as contractors, and probably $3 or $4 trillion– money we do not have since our economy has collapsed and hasn’t recovered except for wealthy stockholders. Perhaps George W. Bush could paint for us some dollars so that we can remember what they used to look like when we had them in our pockets instead of his billionaire friends (many of them war profiteers) having them in theirs.

      Binyamin Netanyahu was a cheerleader for the Iraq War. He is now deeply wounded that the US is making peace with Iran. He seems to see the US as his personal doberman pinscher, which he is used to siccing on his rivals in the region whenever they complain about his aggressive land thefts.

      The irony is that in early 2003, the reformist Iranian government of then-President Mohammad Khatami had sent over to the US a wide-ranging proposal for peace. After all, Baathist Iraq was Iran’s deadliest enemy. It had invaded Iran in 1980 and fought an 8-year aggressive war in hopes of taking Iranian territory and stealing its oil resources. Now the US was about to overthrow Iran’s nemesis. Wouldn’t it make sense for Washington and Tehran to ally? Khatami put everything on the table, even an end to hostilities with Israel.

      The Neoconservatives threw the Iranian proposal in the trash heap and mobilized to make sure there was no rapprochement with Iran. David Frum, Bush’s speech-writer, consulted with eminence grise Richard Perle (then on a Pentagon oversight board) and Irv Lewis “Scooter” Libby (vice presidential felon Richard Bruce Cheney’s chief of staff), and they had already inserted into Bush’s 2002 State of the Union speech the phrase the “axis of evil,” grouping Iran with Iraq and North Korea. Iran had had sympathy demonstrations for the US after 9/11, and, being a Shiite power, feared and hated al-Qaeda (Sunni extremists) as much as Washington did. But the Neoconservatives did not want a US-Iran alliance against al-Qaeda or against Saddam Hussein. Being diplomatic serial killers, they saw Iran rather as their next victim.

      All through the Cheney-Bush administration, repeated leaks from the Pentagon to Sy Hersh and other investigative journalists warned that machinations were afoot to draw the US into a war against Iran, as an outgrowth of the illegal and aggressive attack on and occupation of Iraq. The Neocons plotted against the lives of our children until their last day in office, in January of 2009.

      After seeing what Bush did to Iraq, Tehran ramped up its nuclear enrichment program, in hopes of making the point that if the US looked like it might try to invade (which it often looked like), Iran might go for broke and come up with a small nuclear device. In 2003 when Khatami made the peace proposal, Iran had just declared a small set of nuclear experiments. As of 2006, it began serious nuclear enrichment activities, though UN inspectors have never found evidence of a nuclear weapons program.

      {...}

      Delete
    2. {...}

      As Secretary of State John Kerry pointed out Saturday night, if the Bush administration had accepted iran’s 2003 proposal, the rancor, saber-rattling, sanctions and the rapid advances in Iran’s nuclear program could have been avoided.

      President Barack Obama came into office wanting a diplomatic deal with Iran. He addressed “the Islamic Republic of Iran” on the occasion of the Persian New Year (the vernal equinox in mid-March). Those plans were derailed, first by the outbreak of domestic unrest in Iran in summer of 2009, and then by hard liners around Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who backed out of commitments made at negotiations in fall of 2009.

      After that, US-Iranian relations got worse and worse. The US Congress, goaded on by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other Israel lobbies, imposed increasingly crippling sanctions on Iran. Ultimately, the US attempted to use its favored position in financial markets to stop Iran from selling its petroleum on the international market. It is a financial blockade, and blockades are acts of war. I have been worried for the past year and a half that this financial and oil blockade would lead to hostilities. All it would take would be for a general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to lose a cousin who could not afford medicine any more and to go off the deep end and order an attack on US facilities in Iraq or the Gulf. The very severe sanctions the US put on Iraq in the 1990s in many ways lead to the Iraq War.

      Now, the tides of war are ebbing. Assuming that the negotiations over the next six months are successful, a compromise will be reached whereby Iran’s “break-out capacity” or ability to construct a nuclear weapon will be constrained, and whereby the international blockade on Iranian commerce will be lifted. President Rouhani, elected as a mild reformist this summer, is eager to nail down a deal before his own hard liners have time to derail the negotiations. President Obama, eager for some sort of achievement for his second term, has every reason to accept a deal on Iran that involves a heavy inspection regime and gives reasonable assurance that Iran is not weaponizing its nuclear enrichment program.

      Republican critics of the deal in the US Congress, who say no to everything, said no to this negotiation as well. They accused Iran of being the world’s primary backer of terrorism.

      Really? The GOP backed the Mujahidin and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the Contras in Nicaragua, the MEK in Iraq and Iran, and are backing the extremist Sunni rebels in Syria. They aren’t even skittish about allying with al-Qaeda affiliates, even today!

      Hamas has largely broken with Iran. The only “terrorist” group Iran is backing is Hizbullah, which isn’t a terrorist group but a party-militia recognized by the Lebanese government as its national guard for its southern border, a border repeatedly breached by Israeli attacks (including an attempt to annex 10% of Lebanon, with a 20-year military occupation).

      Even Israeli military intelligence sees some potential benefits to the agreement.

      Besides, the US has negotiated and reached agreements with lots of authoritarian governments that support the use of terror, as long as it is right-wing death squads. It had even made up with Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, a serial terrorism-supporter, and put him on the CIA payroll.

      The only question here is whether the agreement is in American interests. It is. Ever more severe sanctions increasingly risked war with a country three times as big geographically and 2.5 times as populous as Iraq (the American occupation of which did not go well). That danger is now receding, which can only be a good thing. And if negotiations and UN inspections can indeed succeed in allowing Iran a civilian enrichment program while forestalling a weapons program, it is a breakthrough for the whole world and an important chapter in the ongoing attempts to limit proliferation.

      Delete
  5. ...Binyamin Netanyahu was a cheerleader for the Iraq War. He is now deeply wounded that the US is making peace with Iran. He seems to see the US as his personal doberman pinscher, which he is used to siccing on his rivals in the region whenever they complain about his aggressive land thefts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WiO: Obama's skin color hold no water as an issue, his standing with jihadists is the reason for my hatred.

      Except when whitey Netanyahu stands with jihadists against the West, then it's okay.

      Delete
    2. Ms T, please stop lying.

      really, it makes you look so small and petty.

      Delete
    3. bibi actually counseled America back then that Iraq was not the issue, Iran was.

      You may be entitled to your opinions but facts are facts.

      Distortions and lies do not become you deuce.

      Delete
    4. True peace with Iran would be a good thing. The Mullahs in Iran seek the destruction of the west. f you doubt me? (and you do) read what is written in the Persian (Farsi) government press about America.

      But you won't, since it doesn't fit into your "peace in our time" & "blame the jews" agenda.

      Delete

  6. steerpike 11/24/2013 at 7:09 am
    A triumph for American even handed diplomacy.

    A nation which last launched an aggressive war over 200 years ago, a signatory to the NPT, a nation which allows nuclear inspections and which has never been shown to have breached NPT protocols narrowly avoids the disaster of an Iraq style invasion. Of course a dirty war of murdering scientists, launching cyber attacks and a financial blockade continues.

    Meanwhile Obama’s ally last launched an aggressive attack on a neighbor last month and refuses to either sign the NPT or to have its suspected arsenal of 200 nuclear warheads inspected.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am advising everyone I know to write to Aipac’s handmaidens in Congress and let them know what the vast majority of Americans agree with: No more Middle Eastern Wars.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Would that it were so simple.

      Delete
    2. Might I suggest you write your "aipac" handmaiden and thank them for standing strand against Jihadist crazies that create wars in the middle east and all over the world.

      Delete
  8. From the always sensible Haaretz:

    A good deal: Geneva pact distances Iran from nuclear bomb

    Despite Netanyahu's harsh criticism, Geneva deal places serious restrictions on Iran and provides the West with valuable information on its nuclear program.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gosh, that makes the editors at Haaretz "anti-Semites" like us.

      Delete
    2. They are called "self hating Jews" and we all know about them...

      Your anti-semtic positions and posts are far more hateful and systemic than anything Haaretz ever posts.

      Delete
    3. When you have a room of five Jews, and four of them vote for Democrats, it's hard for the one to call the four "self-hating Jews".

      Delete
    4. So now you shift from a column in a left leaning newspaper to the voting history of American Jews?

      Can you not stay on point ever?

      Nice trick... but no play play...

      Delete
    5. Might I suggest you stick to what you do best...

      and we have NO CLUE what that is....

      But your commentary on anything Jewish, Israel, Torah or Zionism smells really bad...

      Delete
  9. Waking up to a (possible) nasty surprise -

    The Neuroscientist Who Discovered He Was A Psychopath

    http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/11/the-neuroscientist-who-discovered-he-was-a-psychopath/

    Spooky

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. An Alfalfa Farmer from the State That Hosts Aryan Nations In and Around Sandpoint Discovers an Online Database of Racial Slurs, to His Everlasting Delight, on the next Geraldo.

      Delete
    2. Fake Lesbian Catholic that hoodwinked the blog she got admin privileges comes out as actual straight married woman.

      Next on CNN.

      Delete
    3. I didn't get admin, I got the ability to post new topics, and orders from Deuce to yank posts that reveal personal information, but no ability to carry those orders out, so I quit, until such time as I get a commission only to post new topics without babysitting, or babysitting with the power to do it.

      Delete
    4. bitch bitch bitch bitch, hissy fit, hissy fit, hissy fit, threaten to leave and stomp off, threaten to leave and stomp off, threaten to leave and stomp off

      Fucking drama queen

      Delete
  10. DeuceSun Nov 24, 11:58:00 PM EST
    God loves all his children


    Question:

    If God Loves All His Children, why does his AllahSelf command the muzzies to kill so many of them?

    bob

    ReplyDelete
  11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAvnOWc5uD0

    Do not allow oneself to get into this position.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or this -

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzvr8z4JJx8

      Delete
  12. >>>When you dig into the details of this arrangement, as folks like Quirk have not done, there’s a lot of frosting and not much cake. First of all, this is not a permanent agreement in any way shape or form. It’s a six month “arrangement” which Iran could simply walk away from at the end (or at any point, really) after receiving a massive fiscal injection in the form of sanction relief. It is also simply a “suspension” of certain enrichment activities, with no dismantling of any of Iran’s facilities. The entire show can be started back up at any time. There’s additional transparency, with more inspectors allowed into additional facilities, which is good, but much like the suspension of enrichment this can be terminated any moment Iran decides not to honor the deal. (As they have done numerous times in the past.) The deal also allegedly limits the level of uranium enrichment the Iranians can reach, but that’s the same bone we’ve been chewing on for years. And finally, we have the Iranians on every cable channel doing an end zone dance saying this is “formal recognition” of their right to enrich uranium, while Kerry and his team are saying the opposite. It’s hard to imagine how solid any “deal” can be when the two sides are announcing essentially 180 degree opposite conclusions on basic terminology.<<<

    White House celebrates disaster of a “deal” with Iran
    POSTED AT 9:31 AM ON NOVEMBER 24, 2013 BY JAZZ SHAW

    Giving away the store -

    http://hotair.com/archives/2013/11/24/white-house-celebrate-disaster-of-a-deal-with-iran/

    g'nite

    bob

    ReplyDelete
  13. .

    California is No. 1. (Well, the No. 1 Worst State in the Union)

    Every year, 24/7 Wall St. tries to answer this question by conducting an extensive survey of every state. To determine how well states are managed, they examined their financial data, as well as the services they provide and their residents’ standard of living.

    To determine how well the states are run, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed hundreds of data sets from dozens of sources. They looked at each state’s debt, revenue, expenditure, and deficit to determine how well it was managed fiscally. They reviewed taxes, exports, and GDP growth, including a breakdown by sector, to identify how each state was managing its resources. They looked at poverty, income, unemployment, high school graduation, violent crime and foreclosure rates to assess the well-being of the state’s residents.

    While each state is different, the best-run states share certain characteristics, as do the worst run. For example, the populations of the worse-off states tended to have lower standards of living. Violent crime rates in these states were usually higher and residents were much less likely to have a high school diploma.

    The worst-run states also tended to have better fiscal management reflected in higher budget shortfalls and lower credit ratings by Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poors.

    The better-run states tended to display stable fiscal management. Pensions were more likely to be fully funded, debt was lower, and budget deficits smaller. Credit ratings agencies also were much more likely to rate the well-run states favorably.


    http://xfinity.comcast.net/slideshow/news-worstrunstates/11/

    .

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hudna (هدنة) is an Arabic term meaning a temporary "truce" or "armistice" as well as "calm" or "quiet", coming from a verbal root meaning "calm". It is sometimes mis-translated as "cease-fire". In the Lisan al-Arab (Ibn al-Manzur's definitive dictionary of classical Arabic, dating to the 14th century) it is defined as follows:[citation needed]
    "hadana: he grew quiet. hadina: he quieted (transitive or intransitive). haadana: he made peace with. The noun from each of these is hudna."
    A particularly famous early hudna was the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah between Muhammad and the Quraysh tribe

    November 25, 2013
    War, Peace, and a Nuclear Iran
    By Edward Bernard Glick

    >>>Despite these changes, pacifists cling to the notion that war is always immoral and is never justified. They forget that soldiers, not sermons, stopped Islam from advancing into Christian Europe at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. It was not sermons, but soldiers, who freed the American colonists from Great Britain's rule in 1781. It was soldiers, not sermons, who emancipated America's slaves in 1865 and who liberated the survivors of the Nazi death camps in 1945.

    Counterterrorism is the predominant form of contemporary war.

    After the attack on New York's World Trade Center, on 11 September 2001, Americans divided themselves into the September 10th people, the September 12th people, and the September 13th people. The September 13th people blame the United States for September 11th and think that the proper U.S. response is to abandon American "arrogance" and American support of Israel. The September 10th people reject these notions, but think that terrorist acts are crimes that should be countered only by our law-enforcement and intelligence communities. The September 12th people believe that Islamic terrorists want to destroy Western civilization and that their acts of terrorism are acts of war that we must counter with mainly military responses<<<

    http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/11/war_peace_and_a_nuclear_iran.html

    While not agreeing with Lorenz and Ardrey, I do agree with Joseph Campbell - we better keep those swords really sharp and our minds really clear.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fudd Busters InternationalMon Nov 25, 05:33:00 AM EST

      The thread pertains to Iran, but Farmer Fudd regales us with story about Saudi Arabia and Arabs.
      How the Arabs cannot be trusted.

      What the purpose of this, other to remind us that the Saudi Arabians and their allies in the region cannot be trusted, which we all knew. is hard to say.

      Is this an announcement that he now approves of the G5+1 and their 'Deal' with the Iranians?
      If so, it is not a well written endorsement.

      If he is still objecting to the 'Deal', why bring up the perfidy of those that oppose it?


      Delete
  15. So many have been quoting o so much here of late (we all know it's mostly Whackapath) but here is one that has the feel and meaning of a great quote, a great thought:

    “Colors are the deeds/ and sufferings of light.”
    ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


    Colors are the agony of light.

    Now that is a quote worth quoting.

    bob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. “And so long as you haven't experienced
      this: to die and so to grow,
      you are only a troubled guest
      on the dark earth.”
      ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

      :)

      bob

      Delete
    2. Goethe, after his reading of Quirk's "Theory and Folly and the Art of Scams":

      “A clever man commits no minor blunders.”
      ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

      Delete
    3. “Classicism is health, romanticisim is sickness.”
      ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

      Johann Wolfgang von Nitwit von Goether

      Delete
    4. I call architecture frozen music.”
      ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

      Delete
    5. “The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honour or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.”
      ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

      Delete
    6. And this, truly frightening, for Whackopath -

      “What's done is yet to come.”
      ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

      Delete

    7. “I've seen more intelligence in the crotch lice of harem whores.”

      Delete
    8. Whatscha doin' with your face in the crotch of a bunch of harem whores, Chris? Studyin' Hegelectics?



      Delete
    9. Looking for love in all the wrong places

      I did find your 'niece', there, though.

      He is a cute little bugger, Hadji, I'll give you that.

      Delete
  16. The United States is now the worst nation in the world to have as an ally. Perhaps the Chinese should take the opportunity to walk into Taiwan.

    >>We cannot consider the abandonment of U.S. allies only in the light of what happened the last few weeks. This agreement in Geneva is the culmination of five years of uninterrupted retreat of U.S. power in the Middle East under Obama. For five years the president has been betraying Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE while accommodating enemies and tyrants like Syria's Assad, Iran's Khamenei, and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. Five years of eager searching for any perceived moderate leader in Iran, ending with Obama's naïve conviction that he has found one in the smiling new Iranian president Hassan Rouhani despite the fact that past evidence proves that Rouhani has been a liar and a cheat in previous negotiations with the West about suspending uranium enrichment.<<

    November 25, 2013
    Obama Chose Dishonor
    By Shoula Romano Horing

    http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/11/obama_chose_dishonor.html

    It is time to get a therapy dog, or have some beers with Jesus.

    >>Knowing that Obama will never attack Iran militarily and will do his best to delay Israel from attacking Iran in time will have disastrous consequences in the Middle East. Many countries in the Middle East like Qatar and Iraq will make the best terms they can with the triumphant Iran in the hope of protection from annihilation. Many others like Egypt and Turkey will gravitate to the Russians and the Chinese for military cooperation and nuclear reactors. Others like Saudi Arabia and the UAE will turn to the Pakistanis for a nuclear bomb. A new nuclear arms race has just begun. Rather than "peace in our time" Obama and his allies have given us a potential nuclear war in our time. The Middle East is not Europe and Iran is not the ex-Soviet Union. It is a suicidal Shiite state alongside suicidal Sunni states in the powder keg called the Middle East which is not susceptible to the cold war discipline of deterrence.
    Meanwhile, Iranian influence and stature will grow while U.S. influence and stature as a reliable ally will diminish. Eventually under this president, the U.S. will retreat, leaving a mess behind. And even after Obama, the U.S. will not be trusted again.<<

    Or a therapy dog AND some beers with Jesus.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. If you want a friend, get a dog.
      Cat will piss on your slippers

      bob

      Delete

  17. Angola Bans Islam Destroys Mosques.


    This is extraordinarily strange news, given that the world is racing in the other direction, to accommodate and appease Islam. It will be interesting to see, if these reports turn out to be accurate, how the mainstream media and Islamic supremacist groups will find a way to accuse the Angolans of "racism." In any case, clearly this is a national security issue, with Islamic supremacists and jihadists wreaking havoc in Nigeria and spreading elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa. There is no way in Angola any more than there is anywhere else to distinguish jihadis in Angola from the peaceful Muslims among whom they move, organize and recruit, and clearly this measure is designed to stop that activity. However, censure from the UN and the world "human rights" community will probably soon compel Angola to change its stance, and allow the jihadis free rein.

    "Angola Bans Islam, Destroys Mosques," from OnIslam, November 24 (thanks to all who sent this in):

    LUANDA – According to several Angolan newspapers, Angola has become the first country in the world to ban Islam and Muslims, taking first measures by destroying mosques in the country.

    “The process of legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, their mosques would be closed until further notice,” Rosa Cruz e Silva, the Angolan Minister of Culture, was quoted by Agence Ecofin on Friday, November 22.

    Silva comments were given during her visit last Tuesday to the 6th Commission of the National Assembly.

    She asserted that the decision was the latest is a series of efforts to ban ‘illegal’ religious sects.

    According to the minister, the action was necessary to fight relentlessly against the emergence of congregations whose worshipping is contradicting with the customs of the Angolan culture.

    Same as Islam, other faiths which were not legalized will face closure of their houses of worship.

    “All sects on the list published by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in the Angolan newspaper ‘Jornal de Angola’ are prohibited to conduct worship, so they should keep their doors closed," she was quoted by Cameroon Voice‏.

    "In addition, we also have a long list of more than a thousand legalization applications,” she added....

    JihadWatch

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Franklin D. RooseveltMon Nov 25, 08:02:00 AM EST


      Whoever seeks to set one religion against another seeks to destroy all religion.

      Delete
    2. Franklin D. RooseveltMon Nov 25, 08:02:00 AM EST

      Whoever seeks to set one religion against another seeks to destroy all religion.


      tell that to the aztecs

      Delete
    3. The Synagogue LadyMon Nov 25, 12:03:00 PM EST


      Ask the Jew about the Inquisition - dumb ass

      What happened in Europe mirrors the fate of the Aztecs.

      Christianity was destroyed, by avarice and greed.
      The Churches of Europe are empty
      The Synagogues are gone

      Look in the mirror, fool.
      Where is your religion?

      Delete
    4. What has replaced Christianity - goes by the same name
      But forgoes the teachings of Christ from its repertoire.

      bob

      Delete
    5. “What an ironic tragedy that an affluent,
      “Christian” minority in the world continues to hoard its wealth while hundreds of millions of people hover on the edge of starvation!”

      Delete
    6. Yes, it is ...

      The Revenge of the Aztecs

      Proving FDR to be have been correct


      bob

      Delete
  18. Netanyahu is suffering from some sort of delusional insanity and crowds are dancing in the streets around the Israeli Embassy in London. People are so sick of his miserable sour ugly face.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Jenny and me was like peas and carrots again." -- Forrest Gump

      Delete
    2. Jenny, thanks for being the hate filled anti-semite you are. It's easy to point to bitter assholes like you to prove my point.

      Delete

    3. I am not bitter, I am not hateful, and I am not unforgiving.

      I just don't like you.

      Delete
    4. I have NOTHING to do with it....

      JennyMon Nov 25, 07:01:00 AM EST
      Netanyahu is suffering from some sort of delusional insanity and crowds are dancing in the streets around the Israeli Embassy in London. People are so sick of his miserable sour ugly face.

      Didn't see me mention here in your comments.

      You bitter, hate filled anti-semite.

      Delete

    5. The Ashkenazi are not a Semitic people.
      .Misdirection, lies and deceit are the hallmarks of those that claim they are.

      Delete
    6. and yet you never mention the 3 million Jews that lived in the area for thousands of years...

      what say you????

      Delete

    7. Good chess strategy suggests you make better developing moves.

      Delete
    8. The Sephardic Jews are not the invaders, they are not the colonialists, they are not the cause of the problem.
      They are not the Secularists that make up the state of Israel, the Ashkenazi are.

      It is the Ashkenazi that are the interlopers, the people without ANY claim to the land.

      Delete
    9. But the Sephardic Jews were driven from their homes INTO Israel by the Arabs, they are Israel now...

      Like it or not.

      Israel is, and the Sephardic accept the Ashkenazi as full brothers...

      So according to them?

      They are Jews.

      Your opinion? Worthless as usual.

      Enjoy your stolen bottom lands while you can.. The Spanish are coming for you,

      Delete
    10. On average, all Ashkenazi Jews are genetically as closely related to each other as fourth or fifth cousins,
      said Dr. Harry Ostrer, a pathology, pediatrics and genetics professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York
      and the author of "Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People" (Oxford University Press, 2012).

      Maternal DNA
      Richards and his colleagues analyzed mitochondrial DNA,
      which is contained in the cytoplasm of the egg and passed down only from the mother,
      from more than 3,500 people throughout the Near East, the Caucusus and Europe, including Ashkenazi Jews.

      The team found that four founders were responsible for 40 percent of Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA, and that all of these founders originated in Europe.

      The majority of the remaining people could be traced to other European lineages.
      All told, more than 80 percent of the maternal lineages of Ashkenazi Jews could be traced to Europe, with only a few lineages originating in the Near East.

      Delete

    11. “Envy is for people who don’t have the self-esteem to be jealous.”

      Delete
    12. Whackopath should give his stolen land back to the injuns.

      Delete
    13. It's so wonderful that people are interested in Jewish history.

      It's a shame however that the pseudo science that folks waste their time on ignores reality.

      Jews?

      Exist.

      Like it or not,

      Israel IS.

      Like it or not.

      Jews will not simple cease because you waste time pasting nonsense on a blog.

      Israel and Jews will grow, build, innovate and invention.

      You will mentally masturbate.

      Delete
    14. The Invention of the Jewish People is a book written by Shlomo Sand,
      an Israeli professor of history at the University of Tel Aviv.

      The author wasn’t probing a belief system but Zionist fabrications of a spurious common lineage for people of the Jewish faith.

      The notion of Judaism as a “race”, rather than a religion of various races, is without foundation.


      The recent study by John Hopkins geneticist Dr Elhaik confirms that the common genome structure of the European Jew gravitated towards an origin in old Khazaria.

      “The majority of Jews do not have Middle Eastern genetic component,”
      he told Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

      Founded on a mélange of myths and manufactured historical tales,
      Israel has failed the archaeological test of time and is now exposed by DNA science.

      Today’s genetics prove unequivocally that in 1948 “the children of the original Jews” were replaced by converts with no roots in the Middle East.

      Delete
    15. What is a Semite? Mon Nov 25, 08:15:00 AM EST
      The Sephardic Jews are not the invaders, they are not the colonialists, they are not the cause of the problem.

      Please, provide the meaning and etymology of the word sepharadh.(plural סְפָרַדִּים)

      Delete
  19. Well, there's always the website.

    Maybe, it'll stay broken.

    ReplyDelete


  20. Assad's aide Bouthaina Shaaban urges India to be pro-active at Geneva II

    NEW DELHI: President Bashar-al-Assad's aide Bouthaina Shaaban is in Delhi to consult the Indian leadership ahead of next month's Geneva II conference meant to chart out a roadmap to bring stability in Syria.

    Shaaban, political advisor to the Syrian presidency, met External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid in New Delhi on Thursday night to seek India's bigger involvement in Geneva II and address the political crisis and violence that has plagued Syria since 2011.


    Those Indians, getting relief from the Iran deal and now being urged to come to the aid of their ally, Assad.
    Why those little sons of bitches, they backing the Shiites against the Wahhabi!

    bob - proud member of the Anonymous Collective

    ReplyDelete
  21. Ah the deal is already breaking down...

    iran says it has the right to enrich and obama says they can't...

    LOL

    ReplyDelete
  22. There is only one path with Iran, short of war.

    Sanctions.

    Without waivers.

    Stop all enrichment, dismantle all centrifuges, stop all work on nuclear triggers, export all triggers (like Libya did) or sanctions will not be lifted.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You and the Israeli can impose all the sanctions deemed necessary.

      Good luck in getting China and India to sign-on.

      Even Farmer Fudd refuses to sign-on


      bob

      Delete
  23. Some shit hole is posting using my name again.

    Probably Whackopath.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous has no name, he is ...

      Anonymous.

      By the very definition of the word.
      adjective
      adjective: anonymous

      1.
      (of a person) not identified by name; of unknown name.


      bob

      Delete

    2. A character is a caricature.

      Delete
    3. We are Anonymous - We are the Collective - We are Legion

      Delete
  24. Interesting thing about the Geneva agreement?

    israel was not at the table.

    israel was not consulted

    israel is not a signor

    israel is the major target of Iran's wrath, hate and war...

    and yet?

    israel was not even given a seat at the table...

    hmmmmm

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yep, should be a warning to the current leadership of Israel that they are making themselves non-players in their own region.

      Delete
    2. When Lester Crown abandons the government of Israel, then that government should do some soul searching ...

      Wait .... Do Secularists even have souls?

      If you do not believe in G-d, can you claim to have a soul?

      bob on this knob

      Delete
  25. Whole thing is a tragic farce.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. USA didn't even get the pastor released from Iran who is being held there as part of the deal.

      Delete

    2. “Even amidst tragedy there is laughter, sometimes farce. The degree of farce depends on who is running the tragedy.”

      Delete
  26. now that the distraction has been done...

    back to obamacare.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Obamacare story has legs. By month’s end, the website is supposed to work; it won’t. By year’s end, millions are supposed to be signed up; they won’t be. The end of March 2014 is the deadline for enrollment; how soon until Mr. Obama moves that back?

      “Here we are, we’re supposed to be selling this to people, and it’s all screwed up,” one lawmaker’s chief of staff told The Hill last week. “This either gets fixed or this could be the demise of the Democratic Party.”

      Delete
    2. .

      Relatively unimportant at this point. October, 2014 will be when it counts.

      .

      Delete
  27. Angola Becomes 'First Country to Ban Islam'
    Southern African nation reportedly bans Islam and orders the demolition of mosques in the country.

    The African nation of Angola has reportedly become the first country to ban Islam and Muslims, reports On Islam. Concerning the ban, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said Sunday "this is the final end of Islamic influence in our country."

    Angola's ban was first announced last Friday, when Angolan Minister of Culture, Rosa Cruz e Silva said "the process of legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human rights, their mosques would be closed until further notice."

    India Today reports Silva's statement was made at the 6th Commission of the Angolan National Assembly, and that the ban includes orders to demolish mosques in the country.

    Silva reportedly said the ban was necessary since Islam is "contradictory to the customs of Angola culture."

    Angola's population of 16 million is predominantly Christian, with only 80,000-90,000 Muslims, the majority of whom are migrants from West Africa and families of Lebanese origin, according to the US State Department.

    The crackdown on Islam comes as Christians in the Middle East are being forced from Muslim countries.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. End the OccupationMon Nov 25, 11:12:00 AM EST

      Israel, a secular and socialist state that was built upon ...
      ... the Three Pillars of Apartheid

      The first pillar “derives from Israeli laws and policies that establish Jewish identity for purposes of law and afford a preferential legal status and material benefits to Jews over non-Jews.”

      The second pillar is reflected in
      “Israel’s ‘grand’ policy to fragment the OPT [and] ...
      ... ensure that Palestinians remain confined to the reserves designated for them ...
      ... while Israeli Jews are prohibited from entering those reserves but enjoy freedom of movement...
      ... throughout the rest of the Palestinian territory.

      This policy is evidenced by Israel’s extensive appropriation of Palestinian land,
      which continues to shrink the territorial space available to Palestinians;
      the hermetic closure and isolation of the Gaza Strip from the rest of the OPT;
      the deliberate severing of East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank;

      and the appropriation and construction policies serving to carve up the West Bank ...
      ... into an intricate and well-serviced network of connected settlements for Jewish-Israelis ...
      ... and an archipelago of besieged and non-contiguous enclaves for Palestinians.”


      The third pillar is
      “Israel’s invocation of ‘security’ to validate sweeping restrictions on Palestinian freedom of ...
      ... opinion, expression, assembly, association and movement [to] mask a true underlying intent ...

      ... to suppress dissent to its system of domination and thereby maintain control over Palestinians as a group.”

      Delete
    2. This is a thread that pertains to Israel, the most dangerous government on the planet.

      Not the doings of poor African savages.
      Those brutish children that know not what they do.

      Delete
    3. .

      As if you ever gave a shit what a particular thread or even post stream pertained to, rat.

      .

      Delete

    4. These are the times that try men's souls:
      The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country;
      but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

      Delete
    5. That may be why desert rat is on hiatus, Q.
      Maybe not


      Delete
    6. .

      The only hiatus the rat goes on are those frequent times when he seems to be 'drifting'.

      Memory losses? Blackouts? Synaptic decay? Chemical disruption of the synaptic cleft with resulting short circuit of action potential? Neuron lockup as he involuntarily attempts to shift from one persona to another?

      Hmmm.

      Maybe. Maybe not.

      .

      Delete
  28. The Russian government is now trying to recover $4.9 billion that Rosneft’s state-owned holding company received from BP as part of the Russian company’s acquisition of TNK-BP. Essentially, the government wants the proceeds of this sale to cover budget shortfalls, instead of letting the company invest its own money.

    An even more ambitious Putin program concerns the government’s plan to demand that state companies pay upwards of 35 percent of profits in dividends. Such fixed payments will no doubt be welcomed by those lucky private investors who own shares in Russian state companies. The Russian state is the majority owner or controlling shareholder in all these companies, however, and thus the primary beneficiary of this new policy. So these mandatory dividends simply represent a tax by another name.


    Not quite Venezuela yet, but getting there. Faster, please.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Big Three:

      Venezuela,
      Russia under Pootie,
      And the USA under Fuhrer Obama

      Delete
  29. The Flight From Dallas

    Ken O'Donnell rises to his feet. "You know what I'm going to have, Jackie? I'm going to have a hell of a stiff drink. I think you should, too."

    "What will I have?" Jackie asks.
    "I'll make it for you. I'll make you a Scotch."
    She has never had a Scotch in her life.

    "Now is as good a time as any to start," she says.

    The Irish wake continues in the aft compartment. Kilduff gulps back gin. Whole bottles of Scotch are emptied. The men remember the Celtic folk songs loved by the man in the box, and through their tearful smiles they talk about what should happen now, how the president, their president, should be sent off and how he should be remembered.

    They talk about Lincoln, about parades and horses pulling black carriages. And they talk about grave sites and eternal flames. The men believe it should be lit in Boston, next to the grave of baby Patrick, father and son and city forever united. O'Donnell tells Jackie not to let anyone change her mind about that. But her mind is already making its own journey, to a hillside in Arlington, Virginia, tracing the steps her husband will travel from here to there.

    In that 1969 interview with Bob Hardesty, Johnson talks of the people clustered in the tail of his plane: "It was a peculiar situation that they sat back in the back and never would come and join us," he says. "I thought they were just wine heads."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lady Bird looks more thrilled than Sorrowful, LBJ, being the consummate politician, strikes a better, but less than convincing pose.

      Delete
  30. WiO: Interesting thing about the Geneva agreement?

    israel was not at the table.


    Maybe if Israel stopped flagrantly ignoring the World Concensus, they wouldn't have to eat at the kiddie table anymore.

    UN Resolutions Against Israel, 1955-2013

    1.Resolution 106: "...‘condemns’ Israel for Gaza raid"
    2.Resolution 111: "...‘condemns’ Israel for raid on Syria that killed fifty-six people"
    3.Resolution 127: "...‘recommends’ Israel suspend its ‘no-man’s zone’ in Jerusalem"

    ... (deleted to come in under 4,096 bytes) ...

    72.Resolution 1435: "...‘demands’ that Israel immediately cease measures in and around Ramallah including the destruction of Palestinian civilian and security infrastructure"
    73.Resolution 1544: "...‘calls on’ Israel to respect its obligations under international humanitarian law, and insists, in particular, on its obligation not to undertake demolition of homes contrary to that law"
    74.Resolution 1860: "...‘calls for’ an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza; ‘calls for‘ the unimpeded provision and distribution throughout Gaza of humanitarian assistance, including of food, fuel and medical treatment"
    75.Resolution 1937: "...‘urges’ the Government of Israel to expedite the withdrawal of its army from northern Ghajar without further delay"
    76.Resolution 2004: "...‘urges’ the Government of Israel to expedite the withdrawal of its army from northern Ghajar without further delay"
    77.Resolution 2064: "...‘urges’ the Government of Israel to expedite the withdrawal of its army from northern Ghajar without further delay"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If the bombs go off the sun will still be shining,
      because I've heard it said that every mushroom cloud has a silver lining.

      bob

      Delete


    2. I've maintained here, only partly in jest, that the whole wind blown riffle was a literary event, a contest between two opposed readings of the story of Abraham

      bob

      Delete

    3. Whackopath rat is so cathected and obsessed it is becoming scary,, ooooo.

      From just following me around everywhere he is beginning to try to morph into me.

      A new development.

      Since not much is going on, and he is ruining another thread,I am now

      out

      Delete
    4. “Never act upon wishful thinking.
      Act without checking the facts, and chances are that you will be swept away along with the mob.”

      Delete
    5. login bobbo and problem solved.

      Delete
    6. You are a nitwit Ash and just fuck right off. I can't login because my daughter won't let me in case I do anything silly and it gets traced back to me.

      Delete
    7. WiO: Interesting thing about the Geneva agreement?

      israel was not at the table.

      Maybe if Israel stopped flagrantly ignoring the World Concensus, they wouldn't have to eat at the kiddie table anymore.

      UN Resolutions Against Israel, 1955-2013


      Interesting

      Maybe if the world didn't ignore the original UN UNSC (not meaningless General Assembly) resolutions GIVING Israel the right to be a state then there would be no issues.

      Law is based on prescient, picking your dateline speaks volumes about your bias.

      In modern times the Land of Israel was legally decided by the League of Nations in 1922, when those LEGAL decisions were ignored by the world the UN laws were created declaring a SMALLER Jewish National homeland.

      You can't just pick the later laws while ignoring the EARLIER one unless you are a hate filled lying sack of shit… (which you are)

      Delete
    8. .

      In modern times the Land of Israel was legally decided by the League of Nations in 1922, when those LEGAL decisions were ignored by the world the UN laws were created declaring a SMALLER Jewish National homeland.

      The Official Journal of the League of Nations, dated June 1922, contained an interview with Lord Balfour in which he opined that the League's authority was strictly limited. According to Balfour –

      [the] Mandates were not the creation of the League, and they could not in substance be altered by the League. The League's duties were confined to seeing that the specific and detailed terms of the mandates were in accordance with the decisions taken by the Allied and Associated Powers, and that in carrying out these mandates the Mandatory Powers should be under the supervision—not under the control—of the League. A mandate was a self-imposed limitation by the conquerors on the sovereignty which they exercised over the conquered territory.[85]

      Wiki

      The US didn't recognize the League of Nations primarily because of the mandates.

      In the end, it was the British that de jure and de facto ruled in Palestine until 1948.

      .

      Delete
  31. .

    What UNSC resolution (I assume you mean vote) was that.?

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. The reality, Q, which you may well know.

      The General Assembly passed on 29NOV1947 - Reslution 181, which RECOMMENDED that the ...

      Recommends to the United Kingdom, as the mandatory Power for Palestine, and to all other Members of the United Nations the adoption and implementation, with regard to the future Government of Palestine, of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union set out below;

      Requests that

      The Security Council take the necessary measures as provided for in the plan for its implementation;


      The Security Council consider, if circumstances during the transitional period require such consideration, whether the situation in Palestine constitutes a threat to the peace. If it decides that such a threat exists, and in order to maintain international peace and security, the Security Council should supplement the authorization of the General Assembly by taking measures, under Articles 39 and 41 of the Charter, to empower the United Nations Commission, as provided in this resolution, to exercise in Palestine the functions which are assigned to it by this resolution;

      The Security Council determine as a threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression, in accordance with Article 39 of the Charter, any attempt to alter by force the settlement envisaged by this resolution;

      The Trusteeship Council be informed of the responsibilities envisaged for it in this plan;

      Calls upon the inhabitants of Palestine to take such steps as may be necessary on their part to put this plan into effect;

      Appeals to all Governments and all peoples to refrain from taking any action which might hamper or delay the carrying out of these recommendations, and

      Authorizes the Secretary-General to reimburse travel and subsistence expenses of the members of the Commission referred to in Part 1, Section B, Paragraph I below, on such basis and in such form as he may determine most appropriate in the circumstances, and to provide the Commission with the necessary staff to assist in carrying out the functions assigned to the Commission by the General Assembly.


      The "Plan" was never voted upon, by the Security Council, and the inhabitants of the area did not sign on, either.
      The Resolution was ignored by all the parties. The Israeli UNILATERALLY declared an independent state on 15MAY1948
      Seems that no one accepted Resolution 181, concurrent to its passage, the Plan was never implemented..

      On 11MAY1949 the UN accepted the state of Israel as a member.


      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_UN_resolutions_concerning_Israel_and_Palestine

      http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/un/res181.htm

      Delete
    3. .

      My only quibble with WiO's post was that the UNSC never 'Gave' Israel the right to a to be a country, they never 'Created' a state of Israel. What they did was recognize Israel as a state and accept them into the UN a year after Israel had declared itself a state and took the land by force in May, 1948.

      I say it's a quibble because it doesn't change the facts on the ground but I get a little anal about definitions and descriptions.

      .

      Delete

  32. China's Central Bank Announces Job Creation Program for the United States
    Print

    Monday, 25 November 2013 08:07



    AddThis
    That may be a bit of an overstatement, but the comments from Yi Gang, a deputy governor at China's central bank, deserved much more attention than they received. According to Bloomberg, YI announced that the bank would no longer accumulate reserves since it does not believe it to be in China's interest. The implication is that China's currency will rise in value against the dollar and other major currencies.

    This could have very important implications for the United States since it would likely mean a lower trade deficit. Since other developing countries have allowed their currencies to follow China's, a higher valued yuan is likely to lead to a fall in the dollar against many developing country currencies. A reduction in the trade deficit would mean more growth and jobs. If the deficit would fall by 1 percentage point of GDP (@$165 billion) this would translate into roughly 1.4 million jobs directly and another 700,000 through respending effects for a total gain of 2.1 million jobs.

    Since there is no politically plausible proposal that could have anywhere near as much impact on employment, this announcement from China's central bank is likely the best job creation program that the United States is going to see. It deserves more attention than it has received.

    CEPR

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      The amount of job gains? I'll take with a grain of salt until we see the evidence but this is kind of an interesting turn of events.

      .

      Delete
    2. Yeah, it was just a throw away article. A little truth in the core. A bit exaggerated in results, probably.

      Delete
  33. Just for rufus:

    "ENERGY

    Oil’s biggest problem? A new ‘peak’ worry Add to ...


    ERIC REGULY

    ROME — The Globe and Mail


    Published Friday, Nov. 22 2013, 6:42 PM EST

    A fashionable, if annoying, business term is “peak.” Name the commodity or resource, slap “peak” in front of it, and all of a sudden you have a crisis that can generate a few thousand disaster headlines. In recent years, we have been treated to peak oil, coal, gold, water, wheat – even peak soil. The only thing that wasn’t peaking was stupidity.

    Today, we can add a fresh new one: peak demand, as in oil demand.

    Five or six years ago, peak oil was the peak worry as prices galloped ever higher. Surely, the world was running out of oil as China and the rest of the growth-mad developing world discovered the joys of sitting in traffic as their SUVs slurped gasoline like Oktoberfest beer; the price said as much. As it rose to almost $150 (U.S.) a barrel, Goldman Sachs boldly predicted that $200 oil was possible.

    Then, suddenly, it wasn’t possible. The financial crisis and deep recessions everywhere sent the price plummeting. You don’t hear much about peak oil anymore, even though both the Texas and Brent prices are treading on either side of $100, well more than double the low reached in 2008 and 2009. For that, credit – or blame – slowing global growth, rising exports from Iraq and Libya, technology that can suck oil out of inconvenient places and surging U.S. shale-oil production.

    If you’re an oil company or investor, it’s probably dawning on you that peak oil – the point at which geology and technology dictate the maximum rate of production, after which decline sets in – will not determine future oil prices and, therefore, the value of your energy portfolio. So what will? Peak demand could, and it’s a credible theory that is gaining a following. In a recent interview, John Browne, the former chief executive of BP, said, “Oil prices will be limited by peak demand, not peak supply.”

    By that, he means the point will come when the world simply doesn’t need ever-rising amounts of oil. At about $100, oil prices are still high enough to encourage conservation. Cars are becoming far more fuel-efficient and are being driven shorter distances. Natural gas, in apparently infinite supply, is increasingly being used as transportation and heating fuels (when’s the last time you heard of someone installing an oil furnace?). Electric cars are entering the auto mix and alternative fuels, from Brazilian sugar-cane ethanol to biodiesel (made from vegetable oils or animal fats) are entering the fuel mix. At the same time, governments in China and elsewhere are encouraging the transition to less-carbon-intensive cities, if only to keep their citizens from dying of lung cancer.

    The world consumes about 89 million barrels of oil a day. Analysts at Citi think demand will level off at about 92 million barrels as long as the fuel efficiency for cars and trucks keeps improving by 2.5 per cent a year. “The tipping point for oil may come much sooner than the markets are expecting,” Citi’s commodities team, led by Ed Morse, said in a report.

    BP is more bullish on demand: It expects it to go to 104 million barrels a day by 2030.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The peak demand theory, while plausible, is a little too pat. That’s because the oil markets face a bigger known unknown (to borrow an expression used by former U.S. defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld) in the form of unburnable carbon. What is known is that burning carbon is raising carbon-dioxide levels to potentially catastrophic levels as the planet warms. In May, an atmospheric station in Hawaii recorded an atmospheric reading of 400 parts per million of CO2 equivalent, a 25-per-cent increase over 55 years and a rate of increase three times faster than it was in the early 1960s. Climate scientists say the CO2 must be stabilized at 450 ppm to limit global warming to two degrees above the temperature that prevailed before the Industrial Revolution.

      What is not known is how much oil and coal will have to be left in the ground to prevent runaway carbon-dioxide buildup in the atmosphere. Earlier this year, the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics and a not-for-profit research group called Carbon Tracker issued a paper titled “Unburnable carbon 2013: Wasted capital and stranded assets.” It concluded that about two-thirds of the Earth’s estimated oil, gas and coal reserves would have to stay in the ground if the two-degree goal is to have any chance of being achieved. The International Energy Agency agrees.

      Some pension funds are already worried that the enormous stored wealth of the hydrocarbon players – their reserves – is a mirage. Last month, the managers of 70 pension funds with assets of more than $3-trillion wrote a letter to the top 45 oil, gas, coal and utility companies asking them to explain how climate change would affect their business. “As long-term investors, we see the world moving toward a low-carbon future in which fossil-fuel reserves that companies continue to develop may actually become a liability,” Jack Ehnes, head of California’s State Teachers’ Retirement System, said in a Washington Post article.

      Put the peak demand and a yet another “peak” – peak carbon – together and you have a scenario that should send waves of anxiety through oil and coal companies and their investors. The share prices do not reflect either of the two risks, suggesting that investors rightly do not believe oil use will fall, or that they’re deluded. Energy was always a volatile investment, prone to cycle swings. The next swing could be down forever.

      http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/oils-biggest-problem-a-new-peak-worry/article15573772/#dashboard/follows/

      Delete
    2. Another point, Ash, in moving to ethanol from swichgrass, in the US is its low carbon footprint.

      By using living plants the carbon is being recycled through the environment, not added to the environment as is done with petroleum products, which draw on prehistoric carbon deposits, from plants long dead...

      The "Greenest, easy solution to carbon emissions from transportation is ethanol.
      The quickest, easiest solution to U energy dependency upon the Persian Gulf region, is ethanol.

      It just is the "All Around" solution.
      If society and government were looking for solution which does not appear to be the case.

      Delete
    3. .

      With regard to the price of oil, I don't believe it will come down due to a peak (supply, demand, or carbon) but rather to an inflection point, that point where the OPEC cartel's monopoly is broken. Renewables. electric, technology, natural gas will all contribute to that but it will also require more exploration and development of oil resources outside of OPEC.

      Forty years ago, OPEC supplied over 50% of global oil. Today they supply the same amount but it is only 33% of global consumption. Yet, in that time, the price went from $13 per barrel to $100. OPEC, and primarily Saudi Arabia, controls the price of oil because they continue to be an indispensable source for oil and since oil is fungible, they can set the world price. If the price of oil goes down so does Saudi (and OPEC's production) which provides a floor for the oil price.

      Right now, Saudi Arabia (like most of the ME countries) needs the price high to pay the large portion of its population that are unemployed so as avoid their own Arab Spring. They also need it to pay for $46 billion they spend on arms and to fund Islamic groups in Syria and around the world as well as for foreign aid as in the case of Egypt.

      The only way the price of oil will come down significantly is if the world (not just the US) reaches a point where the Saudis (OPEC) no longer have the ability to set the world price.

      .

      Delete
    4. "Peak Demand" is the silliest bunch of nonsense to ever come down the pike.

      Demand is contingent on need/price. Price on supply/demand. Supply on demand/price/cost

      To try to isolate "demand" is inanity.

      Just think "One Billion Chinamen, and only about 1 in 10 own (if that many) own cars - but 20 million of them buy cars every year.

      Delete
    5. As for the price of oil. It's never coming down much. The marginal barrel costs right around $100.00 to produce, and those costs are going up.

      The glass is basically half-empty, dude. The amount of milkshake was finite.

      Delete
    6. .

      A good point; although, in my opinion, it's still OPEC that sets the world price of oil at this time.

      .

      Delete
    7. OPEC is not a homogenous group.

      The Saudi, with the help of the US, have taken millions of barrels of oil out of the supply chain.

      In Libya, the US military action has taken 1 million barrels a day off of the Global marketplace
      With regards Iran, the sanctions had taken almost 2 million barrels a day out of the global supply chain ...

      The accord should unlock 800,000 barrels a day (b/d) of global supply by next year in a market of 89 million, rising over time as foreign firms return and the country’s ruined oil industry comes back to life. Export curbs will stay in place for another six months but a planned escalation of curbs will not occur.

      ...
      The US energy department said North America will add 1.5m b/d of oil supply this year, mostly from shale, and 1.1m b/d next year.

      This new supply is coming just as Iraqi Kurdistan opens a new pipeline to Turkey.
      Iraq’s output crashed to 2m b/d over the summer as al-Qaeda attacks reached a crescendo
      ... (Saudi sponsored)



      Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/iran-sanctions-deal-to-unleash-oil-supply-20131125-2y4t1.html#ixzz2lhh7r184


      Delete
    8. Goldman Sachs and Bank of America have both warned over recent days that crude prices will slide in 2014, much to the alarm of states that depend on oil to make ends meet. The “fiscal break-even point” needed to balance budgets is near $US120 for Bahrain, Nigeria and Algeria, and $US110 for Venezuela, and Iraq.

      Oil duties furnish half the budget in Russia where the break-even price reached $US117 last year. Moscow is tightening its belt but Fitch warns that it may downgrade the country if there is a prolonged fall in crude prices.

      Even Saudi Arabia is feeling the pinch. It boosted spending by $130bn in 2011 to avert social protest, and its break-even cost has jumped to $US98, though it still has $US700 billion of foreign reserves to be used in extremis. The implicit threat to dump US dollars is unusable at a time when monetary tightening by Washington is likely to drive up the greenback.

      Mr Skrebowski said Riyadh may try to “rap America’s knuckles” by flooding markets with enough oil to puncture the US shale oil revolution. Production costs at the US Bakken shale field are around $US80.


      Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/iran-sanctions-deal-to-unleash-oil-supply-20131125-2y4t1.html#ixzz2lhimo0ZC

      Delete
    9. It is unclear whether the Saudis still have the spare capacity to pull off such a feat, or whether other Gulf OPEC producers would join forces in a replay of the Arab oil embargo of 1973. The Saudis have played a responsible role over recent decades as the swing force in global markets ensuring stability.

      An open rift with Washington might be suicidal at a time when OPEC control over global oil supply is in any case greatly reduced, and the cartel is itself deeply divided.

      Even the Emirates have cautiously welcomed the Geneva deal, distancing themselves from the Saudis.



      http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/iran-sanctions-deal-to-unleash-oil-supply-20131125-2y4t1.html#ixzz2lhiy625e

      Delete
  34. AshMon Nov 25, 12:53:00 PM EST
    login bobbo and problem solved.


    AnonymousMon Nov 25, 01:00:00 PM EST
    You are a nitwit Ash and just fuck right off. I can't login because my daughter won't let me in case I do anything silly and it gets traced back to me.
    ******

    That wasn't me Ash. Wouldn't solve the problem totally but it would help. Daughter is supposed to be getting me a new email last I heard. Will write and ask.

    It won't solve the problem though. Whackopath will still harass and screw the blog up someway.

    But I will write her again.

    bobbo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just wrote her, Ash, pleading.

      If this doesn't work I will cancel Christmas.

      I'm sick of it too.

      bobbo

      Delete
    2. out for rest of day

      bobbo

      Delete
    3. But I wanted to put up this - the definition of disheartening -


      November 25, 2013
      Afghanistan to bring back stoning for adultery
      Rick Moran


      The government we are fighting for.
      The Telegraph:
      Twelve years after the Taliban was ousted from power Afghanistan is planning to reintroduce public stoning as punishment for adultery, according to a new draft penal code.

      The move has shocked human rights campaigners and will dismay donors who have poured billions of pounds into the country for reconstruction.

      It will be viewed as another backwards step at the end of a year that has seen women's rights undermined, with a slew of legislation and murders of prominent women.

      Human Rights Watch called for international donors to withhold funding if the government went ahead with the plan.
      Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: "It is absolutely shocking that 12 years after the fall of the Taliban government, the (President Hamid) Karzai administration might bring back stoning as a punishment.

      "President Karzai needs to demonstrate at least a basic commitment to human rights and reject this proposal out of hand."
      The draft - devised by a working group led by the Justice Ministry and parts of which have been obtained by The Telegraph - states that unmarried adulterers should be subject to 100 lashes. If they are married, the punishment is stoning in a public place.

      Stoning was used as punishment for adultery during Taliban rule, a brutal period which included bans on radio, television and music.

      Since then, human rights - and women's rights in particular - have frequently been cited as a barometer of progress under the government on President Karzai.

      His government signed up to international human rights conventions and the current penal code does not allow stoning as a punishment.

      Critics have warned that progress is fragile and is being undermined in an attempt to placate conservative powerbrokers and maybe even pave the way for a deal with the Taliban as Nato forces leave the country in the next year.

      The recent attempt to reach an agreement with the Karzai government about American troops remaining in Afghanistan after our combat forces leave next year should be dropped. Can you imagine American troops protecting a government with elements of the Taliban included?
      If they want to live in the 7th century, let them. Just don't expect American troops to join them.

      ******

      It's a mistake to try and introduce democracy into his type of country.

      We should stick with a military dictatorship of some kind, that at least provided, or tries to provide, a basic decency for women.

      out for day

      bobbo

      Delete
    4. The skirt forbids it!

      She don't trust him with a Google account!

      Little wonder Farmer Fudd treats anonymous women so harshly, he's pussy whipped
      So much so he will not do it himself.

      Ten minutes of "do - it - yourself" and he'd be free!

      E-mail at Yahoo or Netzero and sign-on at Google with that e-mail account, not a ten, fifteen minute process.

      Nothing for the fella that could have built the ObamaCare website, in three years, with his 'tech support' girl, ...
      That would have been no problem!

      Delete
    5. "It won't solve the problem though. Whackopath will still harass and screw the blog up someway."

      Delete
    6. After you gte the sign-on, I do believe he'll want an admission of mistaken statements made in the past.

      Statements to the effect that both desert rat and Deuce had committed criminal activities, in regards statements made on the blog and their subsequent actions during an ongoing criminal investigation by the FBI.

      That is a non-negotiable part of the 'Deal' with regards to the Sanction Regime and its continued implementation.
      To step back from or to lessen the demand of the admission of a mistake, that would be tantamount to crossing a 'Red Line'.

      The Sanctions Regime will only be terminated upon that public admission of a mistake, after his Google account is viable.

      Anything less than minimal compliance would be a tragic farce.

      Delete

    7. You can't blame anyone else, ... , no one but yourself.
      You have to make your own choices and live every agonizing day with the consequences of those choices.”

      Delete
  35. Together again: How Republicans and Democrats joined forces over Obama's Iran deal
    http://news.yahoo.com/together-again-republicans-democrats-joined-forces-over-obamas-132200410.html

    ReplyDelete
  36. Liberal Professor Tells White Male Students To Commit Suicide To Benefit Society
    http://m.newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2013/11/25/liberal-professor-tells-white-male-students-commit-suicide-benefit-so

    The professor is white and he hasn't.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Replies

    1. Ohio HS football rape grand jury charges 4 more

      STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — An Ohio school superintendent and two coaches were charged Monday with lying or failing to report possible child abuse after an investigation prompted by the rape of a nearly passed-out 16-year-old girl by two high school football players.

      A grand jury investigation undertaken after the conviction of two members of the celebrated Steubenville High School football team charged four more people Monday, including a school principal. The indictments don’t detail the allegations and the attorney general’s office wouldn’t elaborate, though it did say the panel’s investigation included both crimes committed in connection with the football players’ case and an alleged rape in April 2012 that was reported to police in September 2012.

      The players’ case caused a broad uproar after cellphone video of the attack was posted online, drawing intense criticism of prosecutors that more players should have been charged. One video made within hours of the August 2012 attack showed a former Steubenville student joking about the victim and the assault.

      Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine convened the grand jury to look into the behavior of school administrators and other adults in the community after the two players were convicted last March. Under the law, educators are required to report allegations of child abuse.

      Those charged Monday were Steubenville Superintendent Mike McVey, strength coach Seth Fluharty, volunteer football coach Matthew Belardine and elementary school principal Lynnett Gorman.

      McVey’s charges include felony counts of obstructing justice and tampering with evidence and a misdemeanor charge alleging he made a false statement in April 2012. McVey wasn’t immediately available for comment, and a message was left for his attorney.

      Belardine, whose house was the scene of the underage drinking party that preceded the rape last summer, faces several misdemeanor charges, including making a false statement and contributing to underage alcohol consumption. Belardine’s father, Tim, said his son wasn’t commenting immediately while he worked out legal representation.

      Fluharty was charged with failing to report possible child abuse in August 2012. Columbus attorney Tom Tyack said he had been contacted to represent Fluharty but could not comment.

      Gorman is charged with failing to report possible child abuse in April 2012. Her attorney, Stephen LaMatrice, said she will plead not guilty and the charge isn’t connected to the football players’ case, but declined to elaborate.

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ohio-ag-plans-announcement-about-rape-case-inquiry/2013/11/25/bbfe4c20-55da-11e3-bdbf-097ab2a3dc2b_story.html

      Delete
  38. A New York Police Department program targeting neighborhood turf wars resulted in a more than 50% drop in homicides on people between the ages of 13 and 21, Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Monday.

    ...

    Perhaps the worst incident was the August 2012 murder 13-year-old Ronald Wallace, who was killed by 17-year-old Akbar Johns, another member of the Addicted to Cash group, Mr. Kelly said. Mr. Wallace was killed while hanging out with girls because he was a member of a rival group, Mr. Kelly said.

    ...

    He added that that crews in the 73rd precinct have been connected to 18 prior robberies, 18 incidents of gun possession, three shootings and the Ronald’s homicide, Mr. Kelly said.

    ReplyDelete
  39. On this day in 1963, President John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Representatives from over 90 countries attended the state funeral.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Iran nuclear deal: To preserve the euphoria, much needs to happen

    Optimistic reactions to the Iran nuclear deal, such as higher prices for certain stocks and lower for oil, could sour quickly if Iran fails to follow through on the requirements it signed on to Sunday.


    By Howard LaFranchi,


    When shares in French automaker Peugeot jumped in European trading Monday, it was a direct result of the interim deal reached Sunday to curb Iran’s advancing nuclear program in exchange for some modest relief for Iran from international economic sanctions.

    The economic measures in the deal include an easing of restrictions on automobiles, and Iranians have traditionally been big buyers of Peugeot cars.
    Such business indicators – the price of crude oil also dropped Monday on news of the deal that will permit a limited rise in Iranian oil exports – are among the first signs of the impact of an agreement that is to last six months while world powers and Iran try to negotiate a comprehensive long-term nuclear accord.


    But such optimistic reactions to the deal could sour quickly if Iran fails to follow through on the requirements it signed on to Sunday for curbing its nuclear program and for opening it to intrusive international inspection.
    The interim accord is basically designed as a pause in Iran’s nuclear progress, to give negotiators for Iran and world powers the breathing space to pursue the far more difficult task of cementing a long-term deal that dismantles parts of a program that at this point has the key components for building a nuclear weapon.

    As Secretary of State John Kerry said in announcing the interim deal that opens the door to negotiations on a “comprehensive” solution to Iran’s nuclear challenge, “The next phase will be even more difficult.” That is because negotiators will be looking to move beyond a suspension of Iran’s nuclear activities to a roll-back, and to dismantling of some facilities.


    US officials like to say the interim accord puts time back on the clock that is counting down to Iranian nuclear weapons capability. But that extension of time on the nuclear clock requires a series of concrete steps – any one of which, if not accomplished by Iran, could doom prospects for a comprehensive agreement.

    Both sides in the negotiations that culminated Sunday in the interim deal – Iran on one side, and six world powers including the United States on the other – signed on to a four-page “joint plan of action” that outlines the next steps each side will take while a “comprehensive solution” is negotiated.

    http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/2013/1125/Iran-nuclear-deal-To-preserve-the-euphoria-much-needs-to-happen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And some critics blast the interim deal for allowing Iran to continue some enrichment activities, albeit at newly restricted levels, and for leaving Iran with all the “bones” of a nuclear weapons program.
      But other international security experts praise the deal for relieving international tensions and say the steps required of Iran are more onerous than critics suggest.

      Saying the initial accord includes steps placing “significant limits on Iran’s nuclear program,” Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington also notes that the deal calls for “increased transparency and intrusive monitoring of [Iran’s] nuclear program.” 

      Critics have also condemned the sanctions relief outlined in the interim plan as “too much for too little.” But Mr. Cordesman, writing on the CSIS website, calls the measures that the US and other world powers will take “limited, temporary, targeted, and reversible,” and emphasizes that “the overwhelming majority of the sanctions regime, including the key oil, banking, and financial sanctions architecture,” will remain in place.

      Under the “first-step” plan agreed to Sunday, Iran commits to either converting or diluting its stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium – a level of purity just a few short steps away from weapons-grade – so that it has “zero” left at the end of the six months.

      Iran is allowed to keep its approximately 19,000 centrifuges, but it is forbidden from installing new centrifuges or from putting into operation the thousands of centrifuges it possesses but has not yet started up. While Iran is allowed to continue enriching uranium at the roughly 5 percent level required for nuclear energy purposes, it is not to have accumulated more such low-level enriched uranium at the end of the six-month period than it has now.

      According to the plan of action, Iran will not “make any further advances” at its nuclear facilities. That includes the controversial heavy-water reactor at Arak, which upon completion would produce plutonium, another fuel for nuclear weapons.

      And Iran also agreed to “daily IAEA inspector access” at key nuclear facilities – meaning doors are to be opened to the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

      The action plan states that “in return,” the US and the other world power including the European Union, agree to sanctions relief ranging from a “pause” in efforts to “further reduce Iran’s crude oil sales, to suspension of US an EU sanctions on Iran’s petrochemical exports as well as on transactions of gold and other precious metals.

      Iran will also be allowed to repatriate some of its oil revenues held abroad. Restrictions on automobiles and sales of spare parts for Iranian civil aviation are to be lifted.


      But these are all temporary or limited steps. The six months of negotiations those limited steps are supposed to facilitate will aim at finding the much more difficult long-term outcomes both sides seek: a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program to peaceful energy production on one side, and an end to all international sanctions on Iran’s economy on the other.

      The glaring central issue the six months of talks will seek to resolve is what kind of enrichment program Iran will be left with under a comprehensive deal.
      The “plan of action” makes it clear that the parties, including the US, foresee Iran retaining some level of enrichment capability. “This comprehensive solution would involve a mutually defined enrichment program with practical limits and transparency measures to ensure the peaceful nature of the program,” the text states.


      http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/2013/1125/Iran-nuclear-deal-To-preserve-the-euphoria-much-needs-to-happen

      Delete