U.S. Seeks Criminal Charges Against David Petraeus: Official
Posted: Updated:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is weighing bringing criminal charges against former CIA Director David Petraeus over the handling of classified information, a U.S. official said Friday night.
The official said investigators have presented senior-level Justice Department officials such as Attorney General Eric Holder with information on the case to help inform a decision on charging the former four-star general.
The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Robert Barnett, a lawyer for Petraeus, declined to comment Friday night, as did Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for the Justice Department.
Federal investigators have been looking into whether Petraeus improperly shared classified materials with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, with whom he admitted having an affair when he resigned from his position in November 2012. Agents found a substantial number of classified documents on Broadwell's computer and at her home, a law enforcement official has previously said.
Both have publicly apologized for the relationship. They have said their romantic relationship began only after he retired from the military and started at the CIA.
The scandal marked an abrupt fall for Petraeus, a man who led U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and was thought to be a potential candidate for president. Since leaving the agency, he still makes occasional public appearances, including at a Sept. 11 commemoration event in Denver.
It was not immediately clear when any decision would be made on whether to charge Petraeus.
The New York Times reported Friday evening that prosecutors had recommended to Holder that Petraeus be charged and that the attorney general, who plans to leave his position as soon as his successor is confirmed, had been expected to make a decision by the end of last year.
Holder and FBI Director James Comey are frequently quizzed during Capitol Hill appearances about the status of the Petraeus investigation, with some members of Congress critical over the amount of time the investigation has taken.
During a meeting with reporters at FBI headquarters last month, Comey was asked if he could say why the investigation had taken so long. Comey said he could, but would not.
The Dems don't really need another Eisenhower.
ReplyDeleteI really got no opinion.
ReplyDeleteBut if their were classified documents on her computer it seems there is a case to be made if they want to do so. They shouldn't have been there on her computer, if they were classified and they were on her computer.
there not their
DeleteThe Days of Marina Le Pen and Brigitte Bardot are arriving -
ReplyDeleteJanuary 9, 2015
As France wakes up to Islamic threat, 'far right' Le Pen surges
By Thomas Lifson
“Time’s up for denial and hypocrisy,” says Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s Front National political party. “The absolute rejection of Islamic fundamentalism must be proclaimed loudly and clearly.”
Le Pen and her party are routinely denounced by the establishment media and politicians throughout the EU as “far right” and “racist.” The demonization may have lost all traction, however, as two hostage situations play out, having a profound effect on French national consciousness. A report in Bloomberg Business Week by Angeline Benoit, Sandrine Rastello, and Caroline Alexander well sums up the fear gripping the establishment.
While President Francois Hollande called for national unity in an attempt to deter the public from demonizing the country’s 5-million strong Muslim community, Le Pen said France has to confront the beliefs of the gunmen who stormed the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
France faces national elections in 2017, and Le Pen is surging. Even before the current troubles:
Le Pen led Hollande by as much as 15 percentage points in a September survey of voting intentions by Ifop for Le Figaro newspaper. The Front National topped Hollande’s Socialists and their predecessors, the UMP, in last year’s European elections.
Meanwhile, President Obama still refuses to mention the word “Islam” when referring to the terror threat the world awakens to. The leaders of Germany, the U.K., Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Norway, and all the other countries in Europe hosting large Muslim comunities must be taking note.
Photo Credit: Bloomberg Business Week
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/01/as_france_wakes_up_to_islamic_threat_far_right_le_pen_surges.html#ixzz3ONwyZ0OH
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
January 9, 2015
ReplyDeleteBoko Haram massacres 2,000 in Nigeria
By Rick Moran
Patrick Poole, writing in PJ Media, calls it "Nigeria's 9/11." Given what we know, it's hard to argue with him.
The terrorist group Boko Haram has massacred at least 2,000 people in the Nigerian state of Borno, according to a Nigerian government official. The town of Baga was destroyed, and 16 other villages and towns were also razed to the ground in two days of horrific violence...............
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/01/boko_haram_massacres_2000_in_nigeria.html#ixzz3ONyS4x2H
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ReplyDeletePAGE SIX: Hillary 'furious' over Bill's involvement in pedophile sex scandal................Drudge
Hehehe hardeharhar bwabwabwahahahahha !!!!
Hillary is shitting a brick.
hahaha
She doesn't give a damn about the young girls of course, but it's bad for the The Campaign.
Delete
ReplyDeleteUnemployment drops to 5.6%...
BUT Wages fall...
AND Record 92,898,000 Americans Out of Workforce...
WITH Record Number Of Women.............Drudge
I guess I'll point out that we also have a record number of people employed - 147,442,000
ReplyDeleteEmployment Situation - BLS
Also, a record number of people turning 65, and Retiring, and a
DeleteRecord number of people staying in High School, and getting their Diploma, and
Probably a record number of people eating hamburgers, and washing them down with cucumber shakes.
Let's face it, when your population is growing 3 Million / yr., a lot of records are going to get set.
DeleteWASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup's Standard of Living Index reached a new high of +50 in December, the best score found in seven years of tracking the index. Americans' improved perspective on their personal standard of living comes as they spend more money and begin to view the national economy positively.
DeleteInteresting Chart
Economic Confidence
Delete.
DeleteThe only metric that matters is the percentage of working age individuals who are working, a percentage that again dropped.
.
What if it dropped because they retired, or stayed in school for a higher degree?
DeleteThe "Labor Force" is all people over the age of 16, you know.
So, let's look at the 25 - 64 demographic
DeleteThe 25 to 54 participation rate was unchanged in December at 80.8%, and the 25 to 54 employment population ratio increased to 77.0%.
Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/#k2g93XXWiMB292JL.99
Charts
.
DeleteI've read the Millennial Generation is as big or bigger than the Boomers. I've heard the Boomers are retiring later. I would imagine that there are as many people reaching 16 as are retiring.
I assume if people are staying in college longer one of the reasons could be lack of jobs in their field.
I would check out those numbers but my wife wants to check out here e-mail before bed.
.
.
DeleteYou just said the civilian labor force numbers start at 16. I read a Gallup poll that said about half of Baby Boomers Plan on retiring later than 65. What does a section of the civilian labor force (25-64) tell us?
The civilian labor force is the civilian labor force.
.
Do you really consider a high school Sophomore to be part of the "labor force?"
DeleteA ninety year old woman - is she an integral component?
Go argue with someone who gives a shit, Quirk; you're being deliberately obtuse.
.
DeleteObtuse?
You dumb shit. How many ninety year old women do you think are working in the labor force.
As to the age disparity. Take a look at where the jobs are being made, health care, restaurants, drinking establishment. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to flip a burger or empty a bed pan.
.
When the economy is not doing well people go back to school to skill up.
DeleteAnd, these days, to live off the student loan money.
Delete"Take a look at where the jobs are being made, health care, restaurants, drinking establishment. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to flip a burger or empty a bed pan."
DeleteOr mix a drink.
Rufus is proof of this.
The jobs aren't going to made made doing something sensible like building the Keystone pipeline from Canada that 70% of the American people want built because O'bozo has said he is going to veto the bill.
DeleteIt seems both al-Qaeda and ISIS are claiming the attacks in Paris.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fighting matter.
I hope.
January 10, 2015
ReplyDeleteNo Penalty for Blasphemy in the Koran
By Richard Butrick
So sayeth Dr. Fareed Zakaria commenting on “the twelve people murdered in Paris this week.” His conclusion is that that they were misguided souls and that Islamic regimes and organizations are going against their own religion in proscribing blasphemy and imposing harsh penalties.
But in fact, the Quran prescribes no punishment for blasphemy.
He goes on to quote Islamic scholar Maulana Wahiduddin Khan:
…nowhere does the Quran prescribe the punishment of lashes, or death, or any other physical punishment.
True.
There is no word for ‘blasphemy’ in Arabic:
Blasphemy is not an Arabic term. But decapitation and hellfire await those who insult (sabb) or abuse or vilify (shatm) or curse (la`n or la'ana) Allah or his Messenger: Blasphemy? Unthinkable.
Those who annoy Allah and His Messenger -- Allah has cursed them in this World and in the Hereafter, and has prepared for them a humiliating Punishment. [33:57]
Truly, if the Hypocrites, and those in whose hearts is a disease, and those who stir up sedition in the City, desist not, We shall certainly stir thee up against them: Then will they not be able to stay in it as thy neighbours for any length of time. [33:60]
They shall have a curse on them: whenever they are found, they shall be seized and slain (without mercy). [33:61]
Mere annoyance is more than enough.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/01/no_penalty_for_blasphemy_in_the_koran.html#ixzz3OP0cm6yJ
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
If mere annoyance is more than enough, everyone here would have killed everyone else here long ago, and the world would be done with us all.
Delete:)
Cheers !!
Well, let's see, there would have to be a last man standing........probably Sam who thus shows his superior unannoying good sense....:)
Delete
ReplyDeleteCheckpoint
What U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria have hit, in one graphic
By Dan Lamothe January 8
The United States has been carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq since Aug. 8, and in Syria since Sept. 23, killing hundreds of militants and destroying a broad range of the group’s equipment, facilities and weapons.
On Wednesday, the Pentagon released a tally of what has been hit. Some 3,222 targets have been struck, including 184 Humvees, 303 tactical vehicles, 673 fighting positions, 259 oil infrastructure components and 58 tanks. Most of the military equipment has been captured from the Iraqi army, which collapsed in embarrassing fashion last year as the militants took control of much of western and northern Iraq.
The tally released by the Pentagon — and consequently, this graphic — does not include civilian casualties. But U.S. military officials said for the first time Tuesday that they were investigating credible reports that civilians had been killed in airstrikes. Officials had previously acknowledged looking into reports, but the military had not acknowledged them to be credible.
Dan Lamothe covers national security for The Washington Post and anchors its military blog, Checkpoint.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/01/08/what-u-s-led-airstrikes-in-iraq-and-syria-have-hit-in-one-graphic/
For the super-irritating and uber-annoying Ash -
ReplyDeleteCanada’s Harper: “The international jihadist movement has declared war….we are going to have to confront it.”
January 8, 2015 6:50 pm By Robert Spencer 88 Comments
Harper“The international jihadist movement has declared war. They have declared war on anybody who does not think and act exactly as they wish they’d think and act. We may not like this and wish it would go away, but it’s not going to go away, and the reality is we are going to have to confront it.”
If only we had a President of the United States who spoke with this much clarity and realism.
“Jihadists have declared war, world must respond: Canada’s Harper,” by Julie Gordon, Reuters, January 8, 2015: .........
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/01/canadas-harper-the-international-jihadist-movement-has-declared-war-we-are-going-to-have-to-confront-it
Islamic adherents declare war for the umpteenth time.....and the infidels sleep.
DeleteHey, it's not a war if only one side shows up.
Atheists think they can bow out from the start.
The pope thinks Christians can coexist.
Israelis are divided.
Islam will win by default, if the politicians have their way.
Dougman,
DeleteThe Israelis are not divided.
The last 10 years have taught the Israelis clearly.
There is no peace with savages.
They just are not as good at killing as the americans.
The last 10 years have taught the Israelis clearly.
DeleteThere is no peace with savages.
I do hope you are correct.
Dougman, me too....
Delete.
Delete"WE ARE CHARLIE"
What bullshit. And the politicians aren't the only ones responsible. There may be a few exceptions out there but for the most part all these media organizations that are out there proclaiming "We are Charlie" are in no way near Charlie.
After Charlie Hebdo was firebombed in 2011, they reopened and continued printing cartoons. CNN has had coverage of the shootings on air 24/7 for the last three days (I know it hasn't been 7 yet but it will be) and have refused to show the cartoons in question because of 'concerns about the safety of their employees'. The NYT evidently seeking to avoid being called poltroons says they are not showing the cartoons because they were 'offensive'. Of course, this never stopped them from publishing things that Christians likely find 'offensive'.
As for the politicians, France talks about free press and freedom of speech; yet, they are one of the countries in Europe that have Holocaust Denial laws. The US talks about radical Islamists; yet, one of their key allies in the ME is Saudi Arabia the philosophical center and main supporter of today's radical jihadis.
Rat pointed out how many people die in Mexico daily with little coverage here. Yesterday Boko Harem killed dozens in a bloody attack in Nigeria. In CAR, thousands are dying in a war between Christians and the minority Muslims. Both sides indulge in atrocities. In the Congo, five million have died in the last decade. Detroit thought it was progress that only 300 were murdered last year. Yet, the world has been transfixed for three days now and counting over the death of twelve people in France at the hand of three thugs.
Blaming Islam for these incidents is simplistic. Islam isn't the cause of these incidents, it is the excuse. They are power plays by the leaders of these organizations. They are recruitment tools. They are appeals for financing. In the end, they are attempts to gain influence and power among those easily swayed, the poor, the jobless, the discriminated against. They are unsuccessful attempts to cow populations.
Some here give these guys more press than they deserve.
.
Hollande just ain't up to the task.
ReplyDeleteThis socialist moron just made a speech in which he said the recent events have nothing to do with Islam.
Sisi of Egypt knows better.
DeleteFrance is now warning that they expect more attacks.
ReplyDeleteTherefore they let the brother - in - law, the 18 year old, out of jail, as he wasn't the driver.
Since he'd hung around these people all his life you might think they'd have kept him for awhile and see what they could find out.
Well on the other hand maybe they want to trail him and see it that leads to something....?
DeleteLooks like that Boomadienne lady knows how to shoot a mean crossbow, from the photo -
ReplyDeleteScary
Deletehttps://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrTcd2tPrFUbU0AYNgPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTBsOXB2YTRjBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkAw--?_adv_prop=image&fr=yhs-mozilla-001&sz=all&va=boumedienne+with+crossbow&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001
I'm tired of all this talk about 'radical' Islam.
ReplyDeleteWhat we are seeing IS Islam.
If it's not why are not the folks in the no-go zones not out there marching about for their religion of 'peace' chanting 'stop killing'?
When is the million man/woman Muslim march for peace on Washington D.C. going to occur?
.
DeleteAs Abdul Jabbar asked, why weren't Christians asked to apologize when the KKK burned crosses in the yards of blacks?
.
Because the highest Churches in the land did not fund, train and encourage the KKK.
DeleteIslam, both sunni and shia, do proclaim that killing of the infidel is permitted.
Fatwa's against Jews, Christians (the Dhimmi) and of course infidels are long known and established.
When christianity held that it was permitted to discriminate against Jews, for example, like the times of the Lutheran Council and it's laws, it would be that christianity should apologize for it's crimes....
Today?
Islam, from islamic nation to islamic nation proclaims the superiority of the faith and it's protection form insult.
Just like the Israelis support the radical Jewish sects!
ReplyDeleteIsrael, killing more than 2,000 Palestinians last summer, hundreds of them children, was a mass slaughter. We’ve watched this grotesquerie so many times now – in Gaza, for the most part – that even our statistics have become spattered with blood.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteWho now recalls the fatalities of the 2008-9 Gaza war? One thousand four hundred and seventeen Palestinians dead, 313 of them children, more than 5,500 wounded. That was the conflict upon which President-elect Obama had no comment to make.
ReplyDeleteAnd who knows what other gory Pandora’s box ICC membership would open? That bomber pilot who in 2002 killed 15 civilians, 11 of them children, in a Gaza apartment block to assassinate a Hamas official, for example? Wouldn’t that constitute a war crime? Don’t these outrages “damage the atmosphere” and “undermine trust”. Were these bloodbaths not “entirely counterproductive”? And the Jewish colonisation of the occupied West Bank? Robert Fisk
Jewish colonisation of the occupied West Bank? Robert Fisk
DeleteSorry Deuce.,
Jewish cities in their historic lands is not colonialism.
Arab cities in jewish historic lands is....
btw, how is your home in the colony of Pennsylvania?
DeleteIN OCCUPIED PHILADELPHIA...
DeleteReagan and fundamentalist Christians from Texas orchestrated the CIA financed and training of the mujahideen, “Holy Warriors," in order to fight a proxy war with the atheistic Soviet army which had invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
ReplyDeleteReagan, with the Saudis , trained, funded and supplied arms to the mujahideen. One of the so-called “Afghan Arabs” who was trained by the US was a young man called Osama bin Laden. Look at the picture at the top os this blog. Who were these “Holy Warriors before they were enlisted by the CIA? Psychotics, criminals, mentally disturbed and religious crazed fanatics. They morphed into the Taliban and al Qaeda . We destroyed secular society in Iraq under another fundamentalist Christian, Georg Bush. How many hundreds of thousand were killed and injured there?
Iraq was in retaliation for 911 and to please the Neocons . Who birthed the Taliban? Who’ financed Wahabiiism?
If some foreign power did that to people in Texas, would any Texans retaliate any time they could and whichever way they could?
We hear all the time on this blog that Netanyahu killed over two thousand Palestinians because some Muslim killed three Israeli teens?
Retaliation goes with human turf. If you dish it out, expect to get paid back with interest.
Retaliation goes with human turf. If you dish it out, expect to get paid back with interest.
DeleteI would expect to be paid back in kind.
But what I wouldn't do is use children as shields. I wouldn't celebrate and pass out candy when civilians are slaughtered in the name of allah.
What I would do is put a damn military uniform on to identify myself as a combatant to keep civilian losses down.
Of course you would. Do you know how many US servicemen participated in My Lai? They were mostly ordinary men. Don’t kid yourself. You don’t know what yu would do unless you were there.
DeleteYou are correct.
DeleteI would only hope that I would live up to a standard when the bullets and bombs start to fly.
When ordinary men are called on to do extraordinary deeds, Ideals fall by the wayside.
My Lai?
DeleteThat wasn't the policy of the US army...
how disingenuous of you..
Truman nuked two Japanese cities. Those killed and wounded, hundreds of thousands, were 99% civilians. That was in retaliation for the military attack on Pearl Harbor. Revenge again. Kill and wound hundreds of thousands for a religious war. Set up and support a religious state on someone else’s land and you can expect revenge. You can never out-revenge anyone.
ReplyDeleteThat was in retaliation for the military attack on Pearl Harbor.
DeleteSource please?
I was taught that the use of the bombs was to keep American, Allies and even more Japanese deaths down as a long, drawn out invasion would have caused millions of deaths.
In a cable to Japanese Ambassador to the U.S.S.R., Naotake Satō, dated July 12, 1945, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Empire of Japan, Shigenori Tōgō ordered Satō to take this message to the Soviet Foreign Minister.
DeleteWe consider the maintenance of peace in East Asia to be one aspect of the maintenance of world peace. Accordingly, Japan—as a proposal for ending the war and because of her concern for the establishment and maintenance of lasting peace—has absolutely no idea of annexing or holding the territories which she occupied during the war.
This message was intercepted by the U.S. government under a program called “Magic.” In other words, the U.S. government knew that the Japanese wanted peace, that they were willing to give up the territory that they had conquered during the course of the war, and that the only condition they were truly adamant on was the maintenance of the Emperor.
You were taught wrong.
DeleteHere is the cable:
Deletehttp://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/29.pdf
This message was intercepted by the U.S. government under a program called “Magic.” In other words, the U.S. government knew that the Japanese wanted peace, that they were willing to give up the territory that they had conquered during the course of the war, and that the only condition they were truly adamant on was the maintenance of the Emperor.
DeleteThey WANTED peace.. LOL
Just like Hamas wants PEACE...
Just kill the Jews, and we can have peace...
Revisionist history...
That’s your learned response?
DeleteMy response?
DeleteWhy wasting time when you delete my words...
Please spare us the sanctimony about how awful the Muslims are.
ReplyDeleteIf you can't see the difference between people that profess to love death the way that another loves life, Than I don't know what else to say.
DeleteOpen your eyes. Use your brain. Are all those people fleeing ISIS loving Death? There are over two million refugees from Syria and Iraq. They fled death. They are Muslims. There are seven million Muslims in the US how many have participated in acts of terror?
DeleteBelieve what you like.
DeleteI can only passionately believe what I know to be true.
DeleteThrough personal experience.
The rest is up for others in more powerful positions than mine to try and shape my attitude and beliefs.
That is what I try to guard against, being used.
actually it's 11 million....
Deletemakes the fake palestinian refugee issue pale in comparison...
That's why the 1.2 MILLION moslems of israel won't leave!!!
DeleteThey don't want to die, they don't want to live under arab or moslem rule, they, overwhelmingly are sane...
Israel and the U.S. CREATED Hamas, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda
ReplyDeletePosted on November 18, 2012 by WashingtonsBlog
Creating the Enemies We Now Fight Against
We’ve extensively documented that the U.S. and Israel created Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups in an attempt to fight other enemies.
Larry Johnson – a counterterrorism official at the U.S. State Department – says:
The Israelis are their own worst enemies when it comes to fighting terrorism. They are like a guy who sets fire to his hair and then tries to put it out by hitting it with a hammer. They do more to incite and sustain terrorism than curb it.
As one example, Israel helped create Hamas.
United Press International reported in 2002:
According to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years.Israel “aided Hamas directly — the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization),” said Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies.
Israel’s support for Hamas “was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative,” said a former senior CIA official.
According to documents United Press International obtained from the Israel-based Institute for Counter Terrorism, Hamas evolved from cells of the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928. Islamic movements in Israel and Palestine were “weak and dormant” until after the 1967 Six Day War in which Israel scored a stunning victory over its Arab enemies.
ReplyDeleteAfter 1967, a great part of the success of the Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood was due to their activities among the refugees of the Gaza Strip. The cornerstone of the Islamic movements success was an impressive social, religious, educational and cultural infrastructure, called Da’wah, that worked to ease the hardship of large numbers of Palestinian refugees, confined to camps, and many who were living on the edge.
“Social influence grew into political influence,” first in the Gaza Strip, then on the West Bank, said an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
According to ICT papers, Hamas was legally registered in Israel in 1978 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the movement’s spiritual leader, as an Islamic Association by the name Al-Mujamma al Islami, which widened its base of supporters and sympathizers by religious propaganda and social work.
According to U.S. administration officials, funds for the movement came from the oil-producing states and directly and indirectly from Israel. The PLO was secular and leftist and promoted Palestinian nationalism. Hamas wanted to set up a transnational state under the rule of Islam, much like Khomeini’s Iran.
Israel was certainly funding the group at that time. One U.S. intelligence source who asked not to be named said that not only was Hamas being funded as a “counterweight” to the PLO, Israeli aid had another purpose: “To help identify and channel towards Israeli agents Hamas members who were dangerous terrorists.”
ReplyDeleteIn addition, by infiltrating Hamas, Israeli informers could only listen to debates on policy and identify Hamas members who “were dangerous hard-liners,” the official said.
In the end, as Hamas set up a very comprehensive counterintelligence system, many collaborators with Israel were weeded out and shot. Violent acts of terrorism became the central tenet, and Hamas, unlike the PLO, was unwilling to compromise in any way with Israel, refusing to acquiesce in its very existence.
But even then, some in Israel saw some benefits to be had in trying to continue to give Hamas support: “The thinking on the part of some of the right-wing Israeli establishment was that Hamas and the others, if they gained control, would refuse to have any part of the peace process and would torpedo any agreements put in place,” said a U.S. government official who asked not to be named.
“Israel would still be the only democracy in the region for the United States to deal with,” he said.
All of which disgusts some former U.S. intelligence officials.
“The thing wrong with so many Israeli operations is that they try to be too sexy,” said former CIA official Vincent Cannestraro.
Aid to Hamas may have looked clever, “but it was hardly designed to help smooth the waters,” he said. “An operation like that gives weight to President George Bush’s remark about there being a crisis in education.”
ReplyDeleteCordesman said that a similar attempt by Egyptian intelligence to fund Egypt’s fundamentalists had also come to grief because of “misreading of the complexities.”
An Israeli defense official was asked if Israel had given aid to Hamas said, “I am not able to answer that question. I was in Lebanon commanding a unit at the time, besides it is not my field of interest.”
Asked to confirm a report by U.S. officials that Brig. Gen. Yithaq Segev, the military governor of Gaza, had told U.S. officials he had helped fund “Islamic movements as a counterweight to the PLO and communists,” the official said he could confirm only that he believed Segev had served back in 1986.
The Israeli Embassy press office referred UPI to its Web site when asked to comment.
Veteran journalist Robert Dreyfuss writes:
In the decades before 9/11, hard-core activists and organizations among Muslim fundamentalists on the far right were often viewed as allies for two reasons, because they were seen a fierce anti-communists and because the opposed secular nationalists such as Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, Iran’s Mohammed Mossadegh.
***
In Syria, the United States, Israel, and Jordan supported the Muslim Brotherhood in a civil war against Syria. And … Israel quietly backed Ahmed Yassin and the Muslim Brotherhood in the West Bank and Gaza, leading to the establishment of Hamas.
Israel started Hamas. It was a project of Shin Bet, which had a feeling that they could use it to hem in the PLO.
ReplyDeleteAnti War reported in 2006:
Amid all the howls of pain and gnashing of teeth over the triumph of Hamas in the Palestinian elections, one fact remains relatively obscure, albeit highly relevant: Israel did much to launch Hamas as an effective force in the occupied territories. If ever there was a clear case of “blowback,” then this is it. As Richard Sale pointed out in a piece for UPI:
“Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in deadly combat, but, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years. Israel ‘aided Hamas directly – the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization),’ said Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic [and International] Studies. Israel’s support for Hamas ‘was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative,’ said a former senior CIA official.”
Middle East analyst Ray Hanania concurs:
“In addition to hoping to turn the Palestinian masses away from Arafat and the PLO, the Likud leadership believed they could achieve a workable alliance with Islamic, anti-Arafat forces that would also extend Israel’s control over the occupied territories.”
In a conscious effort to undermine the Palestine Liberation Organization and the leadership of Yasser Arafat, in 1978 the government of then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin approved the application of Sheik Ahmad Yassin to start a “humanitarian” organization known as the Islamic Association, or Mujama. The roots of this Islamist group were in the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, and this was the seed that eventually grew into Hamas – but not before it was amply fertilized and nurtured with Israeli funding and political support.
Begin and his successor, Yitzhak Shamir, launched an effort to undercut the PLO, creating the so-called Village Leagues, composed of local councils of handpicked Palestinians who were willing to collaborate with Israel – and, in return, were put on the Israeli payroll. Sheik Yassin and his followers soon became a force within the Village Leagues. This tactical alliance between Yassin and the Israelis was based on a shared antipathy to the militantly secular and leftist PLO: the Israelis allowed Yassin’s group to publish a newspaper and set up an extensive network of charitable organizations, which collected funds not only from the Israelis but also from Arab states opposed to Arafat.
Ami Isseroff, writing on MideastWeb, shows how the Israelis deliberately promoted the Islamists of the future Hamas by helping them turn the Islamic University of Gaza into a base from which the group recruited activists – and the suicide bombers of tomorrow. As the only higher-education facility in the Gaza strip, and the only such institution open to Palestinians since Anwar Sadat closed Egyptian colleges to them, IUG contained within its grounds the seeds of the future Palestinian state. When a conflict arose over religious issues, however, the Israeli authorities sided with the Islamists against the secularists of the Fatah-PLO mainstream. As Isseroff relates, the Islamists
Keep fucking with people and you expect no response?
ReplyDeleteIsrael’s relentless offensive against its perceived enemies – first Fatah, now Hamas and Islamic Jihad – has created a backlashand solidified support for fundamentalist extremist factions in the Palestinian community.
***
There is a lesson in there, somewhere, though it isn’t one the Israelis or their American sponsors seem capable of learning just yet.
Care to guess why Hezbollah was formed?
DeleteHezbollah was created as a reaction to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and Israel’s subsequent occupation. That Invasion of Lebanon, 18,000 dead, mostly civilian. They killed 1200 civilians in 2006. The IDF killed civilians fleeing the fighting.
DeleteThen there were the thousands of land mines planted by the Israelis on farmland.
What could possibly drive some deranged minds to hate them enough to want revenge?
Then Israel should kill Hezbollah.
Deletethanks.
Kill them dead.
Oh wait, Iran really created Hezbollah...
The fact is?
DeleteThe arabs FUCKED with the Jews since mohameed 1st slaughtered his 1st tribe of Jews in the year 640 ce.
But you can't look back that far can you?
Can you look back that the hundreds of years of repression by the arabs towards the jews? The mass murders? the rapes the looting?
Naw, history for you is clean and simple..
Hezbollah, Hamas GOOD guys..
Jews bad...
Israel created Hezbollah and Hamas.
DeleteThe Wall Street Journal noted in 2009:
ReplyDelete“Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation,” says [Israeli official Avner Cohen], a Tunisian-born Jew who worked in Gaza for more than two decades. Responsible for religious affairs in the region until 1994, Mr. Cohen watched the Islamist movement take shape, muscle aside secular Palestinian rivals and then morph into what is today Hamas, a militant group that is sworn to Israel’s destruction.
Instead of trying to curb Gaza’s Islamists from the outset, says Mr. Cohen, Israel for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged them as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah. Israel cooperated with a crippled, half-blind cleric named Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, even as he was laying the foundations for what would become Hamas. Sheikh Yassin continues to inspire militants today; during the recent war in Gaza, Hamas fighters confronted Israeli troops with “Yassins,” primitive rocket-propelled grenades named in honor of the cleric.
***
When Israel first encountered Islamists in Gaza in the 1970s and ’80s, they seemed focused on studying the Quran, not on confrontation with Israel. The Israeli government officially recognized a precursor to Hamas called Mujama Al-Islamiya, registering the group as a charity. It allowed Mujama members to set up an Islamic university and build mosques, clubs and schools. Crucially, Israel often stood aside when the Islamists and their secular left-wing Palestinian rivals battled, sometimes violently, for influence in both Gaza and the West Bank.
***
Then Israel should destroy it,. Kill it.
DeleteKill it's members
Dead. Once and for all..
:)
Good news?
Those palestinian loving terrorists in Paris? 3 out of 4 dead...
Something that has been overlooked in the latest Jobs Report is that, for "Production and Non-supervisory Workers," Hrs. worked actually increased from 33.8 to 33.9 - resulting in a slight increase in "Payrolls," overall.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there was a substantial drop (241,000) in the number of people working "Part-time for Non-economic Reasons" (voluntarily.)
I'm thinking some old farts took their Obamacare, and went ahead and retired, and were replaced by some younger workers, working full-time, but at a lower (starting) wage.
Thanks for your replies Deuce.
ReplyDeleteI have to attend to the chores of the day.
Deuce ☂Sat Jan 10, 01:13:00 PM EST
ReplyDeleteKeep fucking with people and you expect no response?
Arabs's occupy 899/900th of the middle east.
they have ethnically cleansed 850,000 Jews from their homes, and counting their 3 million decedents?
almost 4 million people FUCKED with.
Arab moslems have been raping, looting and murdering the Jews since mohammed...
Keep fucking with someone and you get what you deserve...
899/900th of the middle east LOST 6 wars against 1/900th.
The tide is turning.
Now the 899/900th is murdering it's self and launching wars on the rest of humanity...
Time for those who the arabs and moslems have FUCKED with to fight back...
Bye Bye arab and moslem world...
it hasn't been nice knowing you....
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI have had and continue to have a great life.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Delete'Every single French Jew I know has left Paris': Editor of Britain's Jewish Chronicle claims people are fleeing terror-hit French capital
ReplyDeleteStephen Pollard says terror attack on Kosher store in Paris is no 'fluke'
'Every single French Jew I know has either left or is actively working out how to leave', he said
Experts believe that more than 100,000 French Jews have left since 2013
France's Chief Rabbi has said after a number of attacks on Jews in the past year: 'Jews murdered were targeted specifically because they were Jewish'
Policing stepped up across British Jewish areas, community body says
Mayor's office has announced closure of shops in famous Jewish area
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2903600/Every-single-French-Jew-know-left-Paris-Editor-Britain-s-Jewish-Chronicle-claims-people-fleeing-terror-hit-French-capital.html#ixzz3ORl6tEL5
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
On to Israel!
Oh yeah, the moslems caused this...
LOL
.
ReplyDeleteFor those who don't believe the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki was more political than military,
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/10/the-real-reason-america-used-nuclear-weapons-against-japan-to-contain-russian-ambitions.html
.
then should we have japanese death squads murdering our civilians?
Delete.
DeleteI have no idea what the heck you are talking about.
Again.
.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteYour a liar or you have a reading comprehension problem. Put up your lies and ill take them down. I make my position clear enough.
DeleteAh, my lies?
DeleteThat's rich...
Yep the arabs and moslems are DRIVING the Jews of Europe, those not exterminated by WW2, to Israel.
ReplyDeleteCause and effect.
Europe will be happy with 5 calls to prayer, no go areas and of course the ever increasing lawlessness of hoards of raping moslems...
LOL:
Now in the arab conquered middle east? nary a Jew can be found, Jews that lived there for over 3000 years are gone..
thanks to the ethnic cleansing of the arabs.
most ended up in Israel.
So we thank you moslems and arabs for strengthening the Jewish State of Israel....
Meanwhile, Iran, Syria and Hezbollah continue to butcher Syria men women and babies on a daily basis....
ReplyDeleteNot to be outdone? Sunni Arab Moslems of Syria are killing their fair share of Hezbollah, Iranian and even civilians
Yemen bomb blast kills 37 at same time as Charlie Hebdo Paris shooting
ReplyDeleteAh more arabs murdering arabs....
Let's ask the question. What arab or islamic nation creates stability in the world?
And you answer that by excluding the use of mass murder?
.
ReplyDeleteYou are right WiO.
The entire ME is a basket case. There is no reason for us to be there. None.
.
Quirk, to sooner the USA stops subsidizing the arabs and the shipping lanes the better.
DeleteAs for aid to Israel? It could be brought to zero as soon as the USA stops selling advanced weapons to the arabs and giving them aid.
Of course, any nation that has a population of more than 5% moslem (with the exception of Israel) is becoming more and more unstable. This includes Europe, Russia and the Asian nations...
the world is a basket case.
Wind energy saved customers $1 billion in two just days last year. Frigid Arctic temperatures spread over the 13 Mid Atlantic and Great Lakes states on January 6 and 7, 2014. There was not enough conventional energy to meet demand. According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), spot princes would have skyrocketed if had there not been an abundance of . . . . .
ReplyDelete$ A Cool Billion
The UK smashed wind energy records in 2014, according to figures provided earlier this week, but it wasn’t the only one — Denmark and Germany also released wind energy production figures, with both countries setting impressive new records of their own.
ReplyDeleteDenmark Renewables Account for 40 PercentAccording to the IWR renewable-energy research institute (by way of Bloomberg, who translated the available information from Germany better than I can convince myself I can), Germany produced 8.9 TWh of wind energy in December. That’s a record for Germany, but in an email, IWR predicted that those numbers will tumble in 2015, as a number of offshore wind projects are set to be brought online.
Denmark, on the other hand, had an astonishing year overall, with wind generating 39.1% of all its electricity needs for 2014, a figure which has more than doubled since 2004, when wind accounted for 18.8%.
“We will definitely hit our 2020 goals, said Climate Minister Rasmus Helveg Petersen, speaking to broadcaster DR (by way of The Local dk). “We have set a one-of-a-kind world record. And it shows that we can reach our . . . . . .
Smashing
WWF Scotland provided the information, by way of WeatherEnergy, and found that for December, wind energy provided 164% of Scottish household electrical needs — a massive record, well up on what had already seemed to be a mammoth record, set in October, when wind energy provided 126% (though, as it turns out, before Scotland’s performance was brought to my attention, they hit 163% in February). Specifically, wind energy delivered 1,279,150MWh of electricity to the National Grid, enough for 3.96 million homes.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, wind energy generated enough energy to supply over 100% of Scottish household needs on 25 out of the 31 days of December.
“December turned out to a record-breaking month for wind power, with enough green energy generated to supply a record 164% of Scottish households with the electricity they need,” said WWF Scotland’s director Lang Banks. “Even on calmer days, wind still supplied the equivalent of over a third of electricity needs of every home.”
For 2014 as a whole, wind energy delivered an estimated 8,958,130MWh of electricity to the National Grid, or an average of 746,510MWh each month. That’s enough to supply the electrical needs of 98% of all Scottish households.
“Without doubt, 2014 was a massive year for . . . .
Those Wild-spending Scots
Despite what he thinks, I really haven't been picking on Quirk; Michigan does have the lowest priced E85 in the country. Here's why:
ReplyDeleteA Michigan ethanol plant has had success with its Yellow Hose program, blending E85 and supplying area retailers, as well as sales at an on-site fuel pump.
Carbon Green Bioenergy LLC blends E85 at the Lake Odessa, Michigan, ethanol plant using automated inline blending with direct injection of natural gasoline. It then sells the fuel at its own on-site credit card only flex-fuel pump as well as to 33 area retailers that are part of its Yellow Hose program.
Since Oct. 1, 2013, the ethanol plant has had an agreement with those retailers, keeping E85 priced $1 less per gallon than E10. “So we will have 15 months of holding a $1 spread and in January, the Yellow Hose network is going to 70 cents under . . . .
Yellow Hose
Eh, as soon as I write that, Minnesota steps in and beats them - in a big way. :)
Delete$0.93 / Gallon
This has got to chap a few asses - $1.24 / Gal. in Texas?
DeleteTell me it ain't so, Joe
.
DeleteLord, you are funny. Why in the world would I think you are picking on me?
Last week after watching you put up cherry picked E85 prices for about a month, I merely posted a little sanity. If you go to the E85 Prices website you linked to and hit the ‘E85 Prices’ at the top you get a map of the United States that shows E85 pricing for those states that actually report them. It also tells you the ‘average’ prices for both E10 and E85, as well as, the spread between them. Clicking on the individual states gives the same information plus individual prices in the state.
Currently, for those states reporting, the ‘average’ E10 gas price is $2.04. The ‘average’ E85 price is $1.80. And the ‘average’ spread is 12.1%. Those states shown in yellow on the map have spreads higher than the US average (a relatively good thing). This week there were four states in yellow, Texas, California, Minnesota, and North Dakota.
Last week when I put up the numbers, the average spread was around 15.9% as I recall. There were also four states in yellow then, Florida, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Michigan. In fact, at that time, Michigan had the highest spread of the four. I merely assumed that since you were cherry picking, you simply picked the state with the largest spread and then picked the lowest price in it. Easy peasy.
Of course my point is all we have are averages. The EPA, for instance, for a long time carried a statement on their website indicating that to get the equivalent fuel economy for E85 compared to E10 you would need a price spread of around 24%.
The latest federal statement on the subject here
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ethanol.shtml
gives a range of 15%-30% for FFV’s. Not surprisingly, the ‘average’ of that range comes in around 22.5%. So back to our map. What does it tell us?
Well, the latest map that you put up tells us that, for those states that report, the average price for ethanol today does not provide a price spread necessary to make E85 equivalent to E10 on a fuel efficiency basis.
And what do the prices for individual cities that you continue to post tell us? Well, they tell us that in those particular cities, if someone happens to have an FFV, they can get a good deal on E85. Other than that, not much. No more significant than if I posted the price of E85 in Milwaukie, Oregon where the price is $3.19 per gallon.
.
"Lord, you are funny. Why in the world would I think you are picking on me?"
DeleteOh, I don't know; because you brought it up, once, when I first started posting the low prices from Michigan?
.
DeleteDespite what he thinks, I really haven't been picking on Quirk...
:o)
.
.
DeleteMore important to the ethanol industry than all this trivia is the blend wall and the fact that the EPA has not yet decided what to do with the mandate having put all decisions off until this year. Some of the proposals being considered as well as the continued shortages of cellulosic could gut the industry.
In the absence of the mandate, the same drop in oil prices that are hurting marginal oil producers would also hurt ethanol producers.
.
First off, I don't care what the "High" price is in my area. I don't even care what the "Average" price is. I buy at the LOW Price.
Delete.
DeleteOh, I don't know; because you brought it up, once, when I first started posting the low prices from Michigan?
I suspect that Bud is starting to get to you Bud.
In the only 'conversation' we ever had regarding Michigan ethanol prices I merely pointed out that to get to that small town you mentioned where the ethanol was, I would have to travel about 50 miles each way.
To think I would think you were 'picking on me' you would have to assume I gave credence to the point you were trying to make. Obviously, I didn't and don't since I don't really know what your point is. Low ball E85 pricing may be significant to those people that have an FFV and live close enough to that location to take advantage of it but it has minimal effect on the overall ethanol discussion.
.
.
DeleteFirst off, I don't care what the "High" price is in my area. I don't even care what the "Average" price is. I buy at the LOW Price.
No. What you do is "...buy at the LOW Price" all things be even. Unless you are some kind of nitwit, you are not going to travel half way across the state to get a LOW Price.
.
No, no, no. You'd better check your own "bud" consumption. It was probably my first comment on a low price Michigan, and your first objection, right out of the box, was that it was probably "aimed at you." Think real hard.
Delete.
DeleteThinking real hard is real hard.
I'm drawing a blank. Don't remember that at all.
I pointed out why I assumed you picked the Michigan prices in my comment above.
.
Deuce ☂Sat Jan 10, 01:42:00 PM EST
ReplyDeleteHezbollah was created as a reaction to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and Israel’s subsequent occupation. That Invasion of Lebanon, 18,000 dead, mostly civilian. They killed 1200 civilians in 2006. The IDF killed civilians fleeing the fighting.
Then there were the thousands of land mines planted by the Israelis on farmland.
What could possibly drive some deranged minds to hate them enough to want revenge?
So look at America did to the japanese...
Does this justify the Japs murdering innocent american civilians?
Deuce says I lie...
I call bullshit
After centuries of ARAB / Moslem rape, looting and finally ethnic cleansing of the Jews of the 899/900th of the middle east.
DeleteSurely this should cause Jews to hate the arabs to want revenge....
Oh but wait.
It's moslems in jerusalem, new york, spain, london murdering Jews and others....