CIA nominee Brennan urged AGAINST bin Laden attack before 9/11

creeping
via CIA Nominee Urged against Bin Laden Attack in 1998.

The White House’s nominee for CIA chief says he does not regret advising against a 1998 strike targeting Osama bin Laden a few months before the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

“The blasts killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. Some 5,000 people were injured.”

John Brennan said Thursday that the attack could have killed other people as well as bin Laden, and that the chances for success were minimal.

He also told the Senate Intelligence Committee the information supporting the attack was “not well grounded.”

Letter From the West Bank

Cliff May  

Ramallah, West Bank — It’s difficult not to like Salam Fayyad. The prime minister of the Palestinian Authority has an avuncular demeanor and old-fashioned professorial charm. He boasts a doctorate in economics from the University of Texas at Austin and remains loyal to the Longhorns. He speaks in charmingly accented, rapid-fire English. In a spacious conference room in the palatial government complex where he maintains his offices, he is generous with his time, answering questions from me and other members of a delegation of American national-security professionals on a wide range of issues.
One need not agree with everything Fayyad says to appreciate that he is the kind of Palestinian leader with whom Israeli leaders could make peace — if Israeli leaders could negotiate with him, and if he could deliver a majority of Palestinians willing to accept a compromise solution to the conflict. Fundamentally, here’s what that would mean: Palestinians would have to unambiguously recognize Israel’s right to exist within secure borders. In exchange, Israel would do everything possible to facilitate the development of a free and viable Palestinian state.

Obama CIA Nominee John Brennan Wrong for the Job

STEVE EMERSON, JOHN ROSSOMANDO February 8, 2013

America's top spy needs to be a steely-eyed realist, sensitive to emerging threats and keen about our foes' intent to deceive us.
Unfortunately, President Obama's nominee to head the CIA, Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan, has shown a tendency to fall for the bait from radical Islamists. Globally, he repeatedly expressed a hope that "moderates" within Iran and its terror proxy Hizballah would steer their respective constituencies away from terrorism.
Domestically, he claims that radical Islam does not pose its own, unique threat to American security. He has helped strip language about "radical Islam," "jihad" and similar terms from government vernacular, choosing instead to refer to "violent extremism" in an attempt to deny terrorists religious credibility. When it comes to jihad, he stubbornly maintains the word does not belong in conversations about terror, no matter what terrorists themselves say.

"As Situations Stand"

Returning to little Zakkai for a moment.  The family has asked me to express gratitude to all those who wrote to me to say they were praying, wished him well, etc.  It matters to them a great deal.

 

Then I was asked to post these mitzvah opportunities in merit of good surgery and healing for Zakkai, for those who would like to participate:

 

challah baking: http://www.tziporahsnest.com/campaign.asp?id=164

25-hour tehillim rally: http://tinyurl.com/aepl2x3

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

Turning to our world...

 

Barry Rubin has written a particularly important article.  Its title makes clear what he's talking about: "Not a Mistake, Misunderstanding, or Well-Intended Criticism But a Deliberate Campaign to Bash Israel."   (Emphasis is added)

EU Unlikely to Brand Hizbullah a Terrorist Organization

Elad Benari

The European Union is unlikely to bow to U.S. pressure to brand Hizbullah a terrorist organization in the wake of EU member Bulgaria blaming the terror group for an attack that killed five Israeli tourists, diplomats said Wednesday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday urged the EU to follow Washington's lead by designating Hizbullah as terrorists in a move that will notably lead to a crackdown on its fund-raising activities.

AFP reported that Britain is among EU member states in favor, but with key countries like France and Italy reluctant to countenance such a move, there is little prospect of achieving the consensus required for a change of policy in the 27-member EU.

Inappropriate Use of the Fourth Geneva Convention

Geneva, 12 August 1949

Eli E. Hertz | February 4, 2013

Background

The language of Article 49 was crafted in the wake of World War II and the Nazi occupation – an occupation that led to a war of aggression in which Nazi Germany attacked its neighbors with impunity, committing a host of atrocities against civilian populations, including deportation and displacement of local populations in occupied Europe. Millions were sent to forced labor camps and those of particular ethnic origin, most notably the Jews, were sent to their deaths in the gas chambers. The drafters of Article 49 were concerned with preventing future genocide against humanity.

Critics and enemies of Israel, including members of the UN and organs such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have come to use the Geneva Convention as a weapon against Israel, even when statements by authoritative analysts, scholars and drafters of the document contradict everything said by those who distort history for politically motivated reasons.

"Doing What We Can"

Several times now I've run information on Zakkai, a two-year old boy in the States who had to undergo three surgeries for a fast-growing (albeit benign) tumor against his spine and lungs.  The hope and prayer after the last surgery was that this would be the end.

 

But it was not to be, as tiny nodules that remained on his spine began to grow dangerously again.  This coming week, on February 11, Zakkai will again go under the knife. This time the tumors will not just be removed, some tissue around them will be excised as well, right against his spine.  His parents, who have several other children, including a nursing baby, are drained and beside themselves.

 

Please, start praying for Zakkai now, and let's hope that there will be good news in the days after the surgery:

 

Rephael Zakkai Avraham ben Yakira Avigael

About Chuck Hagel and US Foreign Policy

DIANA WEST February 6, 2013

About Chuck Hagel.
Watching yesterday's morning session of his Senate confirmation hearings on C-SPAN made me nothing if not uneasy. There are, I have to confess, aspects of Hagel's foreign policy that intersect with my own beliefs: those that stem from his apparently sincere drive not to see US troops wasted in foreign interventions that have nothing to do with American interests. I am alarmed, however, by his apparently visceral and unveiled attitudes toward Jews and Israel, which dovetail with the Arabist worldview.

This story should be passed on

This story is horrendous but maybe it is the only way to make the peaceniks understand our the enemy who wants us to accept his way of life.  There seems to be such complacency re what these men are permitted to do to the females in their orbit. 

 

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/02/saudi-preacher-spared-after-raping-killing-daughter

 

Saudi preacher spared after raping, killing daughter

A Saudi preacher who raped his five-year-old daughter and tortured her to death has been sentenced to pay “blood money” to the mother after having served a short jail term, activists said on Saturday.
Lamia al-Ghamdi was admitted to hospital on December 25, 2011 with multiple injuries, including a crushed skull, broken ribs and left arm, extensive bruising and burns, the activists said. She died last October 22.

Minority German children bullied by Muslims in their own schools

Minority German Children Bullied by Muslims in Their Own Schools

by Enza Ferreri

Just published on YouTube is a shocking video http://youtu.be/oX_h3gbARK0 of discrimination against German and Christian children in German schools. They are severely bullied by Muslim kids in a school where immigrant children are an astonishing 96 percent. Hardly anybody speaks to them, they become introvert. They are outcasts, not integrated into the schools of their own land.

Israeli strike on Syrian truck convoy also hit WMD research site

Rick Moran

You can tell how very worried Israel is getting about the conflict in Syria. To them, it doesn't matter who wins - both outcomes will be bad.

The IAF strike on a convoy of trucks presumably carrying sophisticated missiles to Hezb'allah also hit a facility nearby that was engaged in research for chemical and biological weapons.

New York Times:

While the main target of the attack on Wednesday seems to have been SA-17 missiles and their launchers - which the Israelis feared were about to be moved to Hezbollah forces in Lebanon - video shown on Syrian television backs up assertions that the research center north of Damascus also suffered moderate damage.

Air Strike in Syria - The Opening Move?

Yaakov Lappin

Proliferation of strategic weapons will not be tolerated, no matter what the price.

If, as international media reports say, Israel was indeed behind last week's air strikes in Syria, it can be assumed that the attack was the opening move in a longer-term strategy to contain quickly-developing threats emerging from Syria, as well as the broader Iran-Hezbollah axis.
The ball is now in the court of Syrian president Bashar Assad and his allies in Beirut and Tehran. If they attempt further weapons transfers to Hezbollah, more air strikes can be expected - a development that will result in a wider conflict.
Iran is also releasing threats of serious retaliation against Israel, a threat which, if realized, could easily lead to a regional escalation. Days before the airstrikes, Iran warned that it would view any attack on Syria as an attack on itself.

Haniyeh: Hamas will never give up right of return

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) – Hamas will never give up the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland, Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Monday.

"Those who abandon the right of return are not part of us. I say that I am from Asqalan, and I will return to my hometown," Haniyeh said at an event to welcome solidarity activists to Gaza.

"We will fight for the return of refugees."

US behind civil wars and atrocities in Arab countries

http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=8520

By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

The official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper has accused the United States of ordering radical Islamists to commit atrocities in order to justify America's war on terror and its actions against Arabs.

A recent opinion piece in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida claims that after the fall of the Soviet Union, the US needed "a new straw man, whose existence would justify all its wars, all its conspiracies and its policies of supporting oppression."

The writer, Fuad Abu Hajla, who is a regular columnist at the paper, alleges that the US subsequently "urged Islamist movements to commit atrocities that tarnished the image of Islam and Muslims in the world," thereby allowing it to use its war on terror as an excuse to overthrow Arab regimes.

ANTI-SEMITIC MAYOR OF MALMÖ SWEDEN ILMAR REEPALU STEPS DOWN, SAYS HE’S TIRED OF BEING LABELED AN ANTI-SEMITE…….

KGS

Bitter and unapologetic to the end.
Maybe he shouldn’t have tried so hard at being an anti-Semite. So long anti-Semitic chef, you spoiled one too many pots in your day, blaming others for your deep seated views is pathetic.

NOTE: Unfortunately, there are however, many more SDP politicians who are just as bad ready and willing to take up where Reepalu left off. From the comments:

The mayor turned his city into a globally recognised icon of anti-semitism; boycotted by Jewish tourists and boy scouts. The sort of place tourists to Sweden might pass right through for fear of being blown up by a bomb, attacked by a robber, shot by a gangster, or mistaken for a Jew and spat on by a Malmö citizen. The sort of place President Obama has to send his special anti-semitism representative to explain to the mayor how to behave. Let’s hope his long-overdue resignation will help detoxify this sad city’s rotten reputation.

Syria counterattack will send Israel into coma: Iran commander

Deputy Chairman of Iran's Armed Forces Chief of Staff Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri

Sun Feb 3, 2013 5:40AM GMT

39

671

 

193

 

Syria’s response to the recent aggression of the Zionist regime (Israel) against this country will send this regime into a coma.”
Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri

A senior Iranian commander has condemned Israel’s recent airstrike on a military research center in Syria, saying Syria’s response to the attack will render the Zionist regime comatose.

“Syria’s response to the recent aggression of the Zionist regime (Israel) against this country will send this regime into a coma,” Deputy Chairman of Iranian Armed Forces’ Chief of Staff Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri said on Saturday.

The Role of Hate Education in Promoting Violent Conflict

Gerald Steinberg <steinberg@ngo-monitor.org> wrote:

---------- Forwarded message ----------

I would like to share my thoughts and concerns about the Text Book Study in the light of the recent exchanges between Arnon and the Research Team, and my own notes to you in the last few months, including last night. I apologize for the delay but I needed some time to sort out the substance in the exchanges from the confusion in the last few days.  First I was personally appalled by the unfortunate Ministry of Education statement attacking Daniel and stand by him. But there are major unresolved problems with the Project, as Arnon has made clear, so I cannot endorse the Report as written What I say below repeats the points I have made over the past several months in personal letters to Bruce. Many –in rougher form--were in my very first comments to the group on the eve of our meeting in the Meridian.