Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Israel’s Pairing Prisoner Release and Settlements Angers Many

JERUSALEM — As Israel released a group of 26 long-serving Palestinian prisoners early Tuesday, with another announcement of new construction in West Bank settlements expected soon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced sharp criticism from all corners, including conservative members of his own coalition. Palestinian leaders threatened that any new settlement activity could lead them to seek membership and sue Israel in the International Criminal Court, a move they had promised not to take during peace talks that started this summer. European diplomats warned the Israelis in a series of high-level meetings over the past week against pairing the prisoner release with a construction announcement, as was done twice before. Even the Israeli right-wing forces that Mr. Netanyahu aimed to appease with the settlement initiative distanced themselves from the plan, denouncing any linkage between prisoners and construction as unfortunate or even immoral. “He is wrong because he tries to please all sides; the result is nobody is happy with his steps,” said Eitan Haber, a veteran Israeli commentator, invoking a Hebrew idiom about how a bridegroom cannot dance at two weddings. Mr. Haber, who was a close adviser to former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, added, “If you are a true leader, a real leader, you must choose your way, and go and try to implement your ideas.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/31/world/middleeast/israel-prisoner-release-settlements.html?_r=0

Deadline for removing Syria's chemical weapons will not be met

28 December 2013 – The deadline set for the removal of the most critical chemical weapons material from Syria for destruction will not be met owing to technical difficulties, the Joint Mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations said on Saturday. Preparations continue “in readiness” for the transport of these materials, the Joint Mission said in a statement issued in the Syrian port city of Latakia. “However, at this stage, transportation of the most critical chemical material before 31 December is unlikely.” At the end of October, the Syrian Government destroyed critical chemical weapons production equipment, rendering it inoperable.

By doing so, Damascus met the deadline set by the OPCW Executive Council to complete the destruction of such equipment by 1 November. According to the plan approved by the OPCW, Syria's chemical weapons will be transported outside its territory to ensure their destruction in the “safest and soonest manner,” and no later than 30 June 2014. The 31 December date for the removal of the most critical chemical weapons material from Syria for destruction was the first “intermediate milestone” set by the OPCW. “A number of external factors have impacted upon timelines, not least the continuing volatility in overall security conditions, which have constrained planned movements,” said the Joint Mission.

Read full story: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp/http%3Cspan%20class=%27pullme%27%3EIt%20has%20become%20increasingly%20clear%20that%20disasters%20are%20setting%20back%20efforts%20in%20development%20%E2%80%93%20they%20can%20cripple%20the%20economy,%20destroy%20infrastructure,%20and%20plunge%20more%20people%20into%20poverty%3C/span%3E:/www.unisdr.org/www.unicef.org/html/story.asp?NewsID=46843&Cr=Syria&Cr1=chemical#.UsLrutJDuE4

Syria blamed for missed deadline on chemical arsenal

The Obama administration Monday called on Syria to honor promises to surrender its chemical weapons stockpile, a day after international experts acknowledged delays in removing some of the most lethal toxins from the country.

U.S. officials conceded that a Tuesday deadline for ridding Syria of hundreds of tons of liquid poisons would not be met, citing stalled progress in transporting the chemicals across war-ravaged countryside to ships that will carry them out of the region. But the officials insisted that the overall effort to destroy President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical arsenal was on track.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/syria-blamed-for-missed-deadline-on-chemical-arsenal/2013/12/30/8356c350-719d-11e3-8b3f-b1666705ca3b_story.html

Bombings- security threat ahead of Winter Olympics

Moscow: Vladimir Putin's daring bid to host the Winter Olympics in the politically dicey Caucasus Mountains was his way of showing to the world that he had created a stylish, fun-loving country, a Russia that had defeated violent separatism once and for all. It was a gutsy gamble - and the remaining separatists vowed to do whatever they could to disrupt the pageant.

The potential costs of failure were driven home Monday when an apparent suicide bomber shredded a crowded trolley bus in the city of Volgograd. That came on the heels of a bomb attack on the city's railroad station the day before. The two explosions killed 31 people and injured dozens more. Security at the site of the Olympics is watertight, so Islamist extremists have vowed to bring violence to the Russian heartland. Volgograd, only about 400 miles from Sochi, and a city storied in Russian history, offers itself as a tempting target.

Russia has been engaged in an enduring and violent struggle with extremists ever since it defeated a separatist movement in Chechnya in the 1990s. After the war ended, a growing number of separatists turned radical, evolving into Islamist extremists who have launched sporadic terrorist attacks on the country, from Moscow to the hinterlands. They have also carried out a low-grade battle with authorities, now centered in the southern region of Dagestan, inflicting casualties among Russian interior forces that are more numerous than the U.S. military suffers in Afghanistan.

Putin has staked his prestige on hosting a successful winter Games in Sochi, and demonstrating in the process the safety of the resorts at the western end of the Caucasus mountain range.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/a-second-bombing-in-russia-shows-security-threat-ahead-of-winter-olympics-20131231-hv77j.html#ixzz2p4KstEtY

Monday, December 30, 2013

Terrorist bomb Russia-Olympic fears

Two terrorist bombings hit Volgograd, killing more than 30 people The attacks raised concerns about security at the Olympics in February
-- Another suspected suicide bombing struck the southern Russian city of Volgograd on Monday, killing at least 14 people and further highlighting Russia's security challenges as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics in less than six weeks. The explosion hit a trolleybus near a busy market during the morning rush hour, a day after a blast at Volgograd's main train station killed 17 people and wounded at least 35. Vladmir Markin, a spokesman for the country's federal investigation agency, told the state-run news agency RIA Novosti that both explosions were terrorist attacks.

"This strike, which was cynically planned for the period of preparations for New Year's celebrations, is one more attempt by terrorists to open a domestic front, sow panic and chaos, and trigger religious strife and conflicts in Russian society," said a statement Monday by Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry. "We will not back down and will continue our tough and consistent offensive" against terrorists, the ministry's statement said, adding that such an enemy "can only be stopped by joint efforts" involving the international community.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/30/world/europe/russia-volgograd-explosion/

Friday, December 27, 2013

Pat Buchanan and Putin?

“Is Putin One of Us?,”

Just in time for Christmas, Pat Buchanan has come along to alert us to the shifting alliances in the conflict between tradition and modernity. While Buchanan’s pugnacity in the culture wars has long since ceased to be news, his latest entry is jaw-dropping nonetheless. Writing last week on a right-wing Web site , he announced he’d found a new star in the paleoconservative firmament: Vladimir Putin.

In the article “Is Putin One of Us?,” Buchanan noted that while a “de-Christianized” United States has been embracing “homosexual marriage, pornography, promiscuity, and the whole panoply of Hollywood values,” Putin has stood up for the old-time virtues.

Indeed, Putin sounds increasingly like Buchanan himself. Tolerance for gay sex, Putin has said, is an “acknowledgement of the equality of good and evil.” This “so-called tolerance,” he continues, “is genderless and infertile.” And the United States, having committed itself to the “destruction of traditional values” and the promotion of “abstract ideas” (Equality? Democracy? The pursuit of happiness?), has set itself against the greater part of humankind and religious orthodoxy everywhere.
Buchanan wasn’t content just to acclaim Putin for his “moral clarity.”

In embracing Putin, he suggested that a new global conservative bloc may be, and certainly should be, forming. Though many Americans are “still caught up in a Cold War paradigm,” he wrote, “the 21st century struggle may be horizontal, with conservatives and traditionalists in every country arrayed against the militant secularism of a multicultural and transnational elite.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/harold-meyerson-pat-buchanan-vladimir-putin-and-strange-bedfellows/2013/12/24/f8159f22-68bf-11e3-a0b9-249bbb34602c_story.html

iran persists in nukes production

Iran's nuclear chief said the Islamic Republic was making plans to mass produce new centrifuges for uranium enrichment, Iran's media reported him as saying on Thursday. The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi said the "new generation" of centrifuges still had to undergo various tests before they could be produced. A new generation of centrifuges is being built, but they should undergo all tests before mass production," Iran's Tasnim news quoted him as saying. Salehi added that his country currently has 19,000 centrifuges. He also lauded Iran's capability of "conducting the full fuel cycle of the nuclear fuel production from discovery to mining and from there to turning uranium to nuclear fuel,” according to Iran's official IRNA news agency. As part of a deal reached in November with six world powers in Geneva, Iran agreed to limit its enrichment capabilities and reduce the number of operational centrifuges already installed at the Fordow and at Natanz enrichment facilities. Iran was also to refrain from installing new centrifuges, and will be required to freeze all enrichment beyond 20 percent, according to the agreement with the P5+1 world powers.
http://www.jpost.com/Iranian-Threat/News/Iranian-nuclear-chief-Islamic-Republic-designing-new-centrifuges-336351

Leader Says Iran Wants to Repair Relations With U.S.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says he wants to rebuild diplomatic relations with Western powers, even as he insists the country will “never never give up our right to nuclear energy.” Rouhani’s comments, in an op-ed in a German newspaper on Monday and accompanying Twitter messages on an account associated with him, came during a Christmas break in talks over Iran’s nuclear program. “We want to rebuild and improve our relations to European and North American countries on a basis of mutual respect,” Rouhani wrote in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Reuters reports. “We are striving to avoid new burdens on relations between Iran and the United States and also to remove the tensions that we have inherited.” “We must now concentrate on the present and orientate ourselves towards the future,” read the messages on a closely followed Twitter account that has never been verified as belonging to Rouhani but has broken news of his policy positions and actions before. “We’ll never give up our right to #nuclear energy. But we’re working towards removing all doubts and answer all reasonable questions.”
http://world.time.com/2013/12/23/leader-says-iran-wants-to-repair-relations-with-u-s/

Lawmakers resign amid Turkey fraud scandal

Three Turkish legislators, including a former minister, from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have resigned and accused the Turkish government of putting pressure on the country's judiciary, as a widening corruption scandal continues to grip the country. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party is being directed by "arrogance," former Culture Minister Ertugrul Gunay said in a news conference on Friday announcing his resignation, adding that he was parting ways with the AKP. The resignations came after the Council of State, an Ankara court that rules on administrative issues, rejected an attempt by the government to force police officers to disclose the results of investigations to their superiors. The government's efforts to control police investigations amounted to "a clear breach of the principle of the separation of powers, and of the constitution," said the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors on Thursday, a day before the ruling. Twenty-four people, including the sons of two ministers and a state-owned bank's chief were arrested last week as part of an investigation into corruption in Turkey. The months-long probe was kept secret from top commanders, who might have informed the government.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/12/lawmakers-resign-amid-turkey-fraud-scandal-201312271460679884.html

Bomb in Beirut Kills Politician, a Critic of Syria and Hezbollah

A powerful bomb shook central Beirut Friday morning, killing at least six people, officials said, and injuring dozens more. Among the dead was Mohamad B. Chatah, a former Lebanese finance minister and ambassador to the United States who was a vocal critic of the government in neighboring Syria and its ally, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Chatah was the intended target of the bomb. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which was reminiscent of a string of unsolved bombings that have targeted anti-Syrian politicians over the past decade. Mr. Chatah was a prominent member of the Future bloc, the mainly Sunni party headed by Saad Hariri, son of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, whose death in a 2005 bombing in Beirut sparked the March 14 protest movement that helped end Syria’s 29-year military presence in Lebanon. Nohad al-Mashnouq, a member of Parliament in the Future bloc and a friend of Mr. Chatah’s, confirmed in an interview that he had been killed. The attack deepened the sense of instability in Lebanon, which is sharply divided over the war in neighboring Syria, with the Future bloc and its allies backing the opponents of President Bashar al-Assad and Hezbollah supporting him. The country has been without a functioning government for months because of a related political stalemate. Several car bombs have exploded in the southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has many supporters, with Syrian insurgents or allied Lebanese militants being widely blamed for the attacks.

But Friday’s bombing was the first to tear through Beirut’s shiny renovated downtown since Mr. Hariri’s death, dealing a psychological blow to Beirut’s perennially resilient residents. The attack brought the violence to the heart of Beirut’s business district, bustling and decked in Christmas decorations, leaving the streets deserted. “This is a time when this plaza would be crowded, full of hope and colors, and now it’s black with this criminal act,” said Elie Ward, the manager of the nearby Sultan Ibrahim restaurant, watching as investigators in white jumpsuits examined a charred car chassis lying by a reflecting pool outside an office complex. “But Beirut is sending a message to all the world, that she will stay alive.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/28/world/middleeast/beirut-explosion.html?hpw&rref=world&_r=0

Fresh protests in Egypt turn deadly

Three people have been killed and at least 265 others arrested during protests in Egypt, the Interior Ministry said. The ministry said the three were killed in clashes between Muslim Brotherhood protesters and opponents on Friday. "Brotherhood actions caused the deaths of three citizens when they clashed with residents," it said in a statement on the clashes, which took place in several cities. The violence came amid an intensified crackdown on supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, which was declared a terrorist organisation earlier this week. A 20-year-old protester was shot and killed in Damietta province, while another protester was killed in Menia when a tear gas canister struck him in the face. A third protester was killed in Cairo, according to the Health Ministry. Police also fired tear gas and birdshots at protesters at al-Azhar university in Cairo's northern district of Nasr City.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/12/protests-egypt-20131227113323459183.html

NSA phone surveillance legals says judge

A federal judge ruled on Friday that the National Security Agency's bulk collection of millions of Americans' telephone and Internet records is lawful and a critical component of the country's effort to combat the threat of terrorism. In his 54-page opinion, U.S. District Judge William Pauley said the sweeping program "represents the government's counter-punch" to eliminate al-Qaeda's terror network by connecting fragmented and fleeting communications. "There is no evidence that the Government has used any of the bulk telephony metadata it collected for any purpose other than investigating and disrupting terrorist attacks," he wrote. The judge further maintained that the program, which sucks up vast amounts of data, is subject to executive and congressional oversight as well as monitoring by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. In issuing the ruling, Pauley dismissed a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU did not immediately respond to a message for comment. "We are pleased with the decision," Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/27/new-york-nsa-phone-surveillance/4219055/

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Putin Lures Ukraine

MOSCOW --Russian President Vladimir Putin upped the stakes Tuesday in the battle over Ukraine's future, saying Moscow will buy $15 billion worth of Ukrainian government bonds and sharply cut the price of natural gas heading to its economically struggling neighbor.The announcements came after Putin held talks in Moscow with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who is facing massive protests at home for his decision to shelve a pact with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Moscow. Ukrainian demonstrators continue their protests against President Viktor Yanukovich, laying a pumpkin outside the Russian Embassy to symbolize the traditional Ukrainian method of rejecting a marriage, reports Reuters. "We brought a pumpkin as a symbol of refusal. A refusal to a proposed marriage with Russia. We are refusing that. We, as representatives of the Ukrainian women, have chosen the one we love. But we are being forced to marry somebody we don't love. And we brought a pumpkin to let it be understood that we refuse this marriage proposal," Alina, a protester, told Reuters.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-ukraine-agree-to-boost-ties/

Kim Jong-un: North Korea's 'Dear Leader' is different

In the two years since he came to power, Kim Jong-un has wrought significant changes on his nation. Few of those changes have benefited his 24.76 million subjects

Who is the worst of the Kims? There is stiff competition for this title, but during the first two years of his stranglehold on North Korea, Kim Jong-un has made a good fist of preparing a claim. The young scion of the family which has dominated North Korea for 65 years inherited the leadership of the “Democratic People’s Republic” on 17 December 2011. Since then, Kim has caused a perilous international crisis by testing a nuclear weapon and threatening to use it against America and South Korea. He distributed that strange photograph of himself supposedly in the act of ordering “merciless” nuclear strikes against the US mainland. At home, he has significantly expanded at least one of the country’s vast complexes of prison camps, according to Amnesty International. And last week, Kim announced the execution of his “thrice-cursed” Uncle Jang.

Even by the standards of the world’s tyrants, this is pretty egregious behaviour. Given that Kim is only 30 and has spent a mere two years in office, he is shaping up well in the dictator stakes. But how does he compare with his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, who was in charge for 46 years, and his father, Kim Jong-il, who ran North Korea for 17?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10522668/Is-Kim-Jong-un-shaping-up-to-be-the-worst-of-the-Kims.html

10 ways North Korea's 'Dear Leader' is different

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10522136/Kim-Jong-un-10-ways-North-Koreas-Dear-Leader-is-different.html

ANOTHER INTERESTING ARTICLE:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/claudiarosett/2013/12/17/the-perils-of-north-koreas-kim-jong-un/

Ark of the Covenant Found?

This video blew me away...if it is true the implications are mindblowing.

view this 15 minute video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ay1vFfkji8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Monday, December 16, 2013

Putin is trying to deepen the division in Europe

The world needs Nelson Mandelas. Instead, it gets Vladimir Putins. As the South African hero was being sung to his grave last week, the Russian president was bullying neighboring Ukraine into a new customs union that is starting to look a bit like Soviet Union Lite, and consolidating his control of state-run media by creating a new Kremlin news agency under a nationalistic and homophobic hard-liner. Putin's moves were not isolated events. They fit into a pattern of behavior over the past couple of years that deliberately distances Russia from the socially and culturally liberal West: laws giving official sanction to the terrorizing of gays and lesbians, the jailing of members of a punk protest group for offenses against the Russian Orthodox Church, the demonizing of Western-backed pro-democracy organizations as "foreign agents," expansive new laws on treason, limits on foreign adoptions.

Norman Podhoretz Urges Israel to Bomb Iran

He declared that “the only hope rests with Israel. If, then, Israel fails to strike now, Iran will get the bomb.”

Conservative commentator Norman Podhoretz wrote in The Wall Street Journal late last week that Israel should attack Iran now to prevent it from gaining access to a nuclear weapon. Israel can “put at least a temporary halt, and conceivably even a permanent one, to the relentless Iranian quest for the bomb” he wrote. “The Obama administration tells us that the interim agreement puts Iran on a track that will lead to the abandonment of its quest for a nuclear arsenal. But the Iranians are jubilant because they know that the only abandonment going on is of our own effort to keep them from getting the bomb,” Podhoretz added. Read more at:
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/norman-podhoretz-urges-israel-to-bomb-iran/2013/12/15/

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Iranian paper fears ‘trap’ for Rouhani at Mandela tribute

Burial service could bring president face to face with Obama, the ‘head of the Great Satan government,’ editorial warns

An Iranian newspaper has warned the country’s President Hassan Rouhani not to attend the memorial service for South African hero Nelson Mandela, because it may be a trap to bring him in contact with US President Barack Obama. An editorial titled “Satan lays a trap, this time in Johannesburg” in the Kayhan daily laid down the dangers to Rouhani of a chance meeting with the “head of the Great Satan government,” AFP reported on Sunday. “Some domestic and foreign media outlets are using the memorial ceremony as a pretext to push Rouhani toward a meeting with the head of the Great Satan government,” according to the editorial board of the hardline paper.

Mandela, a former president of South Africa, died on Thursday at the age of 95. He is due to be buried in a state funeral next Sunday in his home country, with a massive memorial service on Tuesday. Rouhani and Obama have not met face to face, although the two leaders spoke by telephone for 15 minutes in September when the Iranian leader attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Iran has not yet announced who will represent it at the service, which will be attended by heads of state and dignitaries from around the world.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Putin dissolves state news agency, tightens grip on Russia media

President Vladimir Putin tightened his control over Russia's media on Monday by dissolving the main state news agency and replacing it with an organization that is to promote Moscow's image abroad. The move to abolish RIA Novosti and create a news agency to be known as Rossiya Segodnya is the second in two weeks strengthening Putin's hold on the media as he tries to reassert his authority after protests against his rule. Most Russian media outlets are already loyal to Putin, and opponents get little air time, but the shake-up underlined their importance to Putin keeping power and the Kremlin's concern about the president's ratings and image.

The head of the new agency, to be built from the ashes of RIA Novosti, is a conservative news anchor, Dmitry Kiselyov, who once caused outrage by saying the organs of homosexuals should not be used in transplants. RIA said in an English-language article about Putin's step: "The move is the latest in a series of shifts in Russia's news landscape which appear to point towards a tightening of state control in the already heavily regulated media sector." Rossiya Segodnya's focus on building up Russia abroad could solidify Putin's grip on information by further limiting sources of news for Russians whose TV screens are dominated by state-controlled channels.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/09/us-russia-media-idUSBRE9B80I120131209

Ukrainians Rise in 'Revolution of Dignity'

Hundreds of thousands of protesters poured into the streets of Ukraine's capital on Sunday, toppling a statue of former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and blockading key government buildings in an escalating standoff with the president over the future of the country. The biggest demonstration in the former Soviet republic since Ukraine's pro-democracy Orange Revolution in 2004 led the government to fire back. It announced an investigation of opposition leaders for an alleged attempt to seize power and warned the demonstrators they could face criminal charges.

The West pressed for a peaceful settlement. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians flooded the center of Kiev, the capital, to demand President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster after he ditched ties with the European Union in favor of Russia and sent police to break up an earlier protest in the nearly three-week standoff. "Ukraine is tired of Yanukovych. We need new rules. We need to completely change those in power," said protester Kostyantyn Meselyuk, 42. "Europe can help us."

Packing Independence Square as far as the eye could see, Ukrainians waving EU flags sang the national anthem and shouted "Resignation!" and "Down with the gang!" in a reference to Yanukovych's regime. "I am convinced that after these events, dictatorship will never survive in our country," world boxing champion and top opposition leader Vitali Klitschko told reporters. "People will not tolerate when they are beaten, when their mouths are shut, when their principles and values are ignored."

As darkness fell, the conflict escalated further with protesters blockading key government buildings in Kiev with cars, barricades and tents. The protests have had an anti-Russian component because Russia had worked aggressively to derail the EU deal with threats of trade retaliation against Ukraine. About half a mile (1 kilometer) from the main square, one group of anti-government protesters toppled the city's landmark statue of Lenin and decapitated it Sunday evening.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ukraine-capital-braces-massive-protest-21139073

Poll: Obama, Iran face selling job on nuclear pact

The White House and Iran face an uphill selling job to convince Americans to embrace the interim nuclear pact negotiated with Tehran last month, a USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll finds. In the survey, taken Tuesday through Sunday, 32% approve of the agreement and 43% disapprove. One in four either refuse to answer or say they don't know enough to have an opinion. By more than 2-1, 62%-29%, those who have heard something about the accord say Iranian leaders aren't serious about addressing international concerns about their country's nuclear program. That overwhelming skepticism presumably reflects decades of conflict between the two nations since the Iranian hostage crisis from 1979 to 1981 severed relations and helped defeat President Jimmy Carter's bid for a second term. In November, Tehran agreed to freeze parts of its nuclear program for six months in exchange for some relief from international economic sanctions. Negotiations for a more permanent pact continue.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/12/09/usa-today-poll-white-house-iran-face-uphill-selling-job-on-nuclear-pact/3908613/

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Republicans blame Obama for "giving Iran too much."

The six-month interim deal made by the United States, five other world powers and Iran in Geneva last month gives International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors greater access to Iran's nuclear facilities and requires the Islamic Republic to halt its enrichment of higher grade uranium. But it allows Iran to continue enriching uranium up to 5 percent purity for generating nuclear power.

That level is well below 20 percent pure uranium which can be converted relatively easily into weapons-grade material. But many lawmakers worry any enrichment in Iran is too much. "It would have been better if Iran during the course of the negotiations would stop enriching. I don't think that would have been too much to ask Iran," said Representative Eliot Engel, a Democrat and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "It makes me question the sincerity of the Iranians," Engel told reporters after a classified House briefing with Wendy Sherman, the State Department's lead negotiator on Iran's nuclear program.

Representative Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican, said after the briefing that she suspects Iran would be able to continue to enrich even after a final deal. "Unfortunately I believe the Obama administration, from what we have heard today, may very well allow Iran to maintain the right to enrich," she said. "The only way we will ensure that Iran does not ultimately obtain a nuclear weapon will be if they dismantle the centrifuges and also relinquish the enriched uranium that they have now."

U.S. assures Israel that core Iran sanctions still in place

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that core sanctions against Iran would remain in place despite its interim nuclear deal with world powers. The November 24 accord in Geneva was denounced as a "historic mistake" by Netanyahu, increasing strains in an alliance already marked by his past disputes with U.S. President Barack Obama over strategy on Iran and the Palestinians.

Visiting Israel as the talks with Tehran gathered pace, Kerry met an irate Netanyahu. But they worked to affirm their friendship on Thursday: Their offices issued pictures of them smiling in private conversation, and while briefing reporters afterwards Kerry referred to Netanyahu by his nickname "Bibi". srael argues an easing of some sanctions on Iran before it abandons nuclear projects with bomb-making potential risks snowballing as foreign business partners rush into the breach. "Steps must be taken to prevent a further erosion of sanctions," said Netanyahu, who has described a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic as a mortal menace to the Jewish state. Iran says it enriching uranium only for peaceful nuclear energy.

Kerry said Washington would confer closely with its Israeli ally about crafting a permanent Iran agreement after the six-month confidence-building period laid out by the Geneva deal under which Iran will curb sensitive aspects of its nuclear program in exchange for limited relief from sanctions. "I can't emphasize enough that Israel's security in this negotiation is at the top of our agenda and the United States will do everything in its power to make certain that Iran's nuclear program, the program's weaponisation possibilities, is terminated," Kerry said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/05/us-iran-nuclear-israel-usa-idUSBRE9B40FB20131205

Jihadists From Syria Pose New Terror Threat

Series of Arrests Heighten Fears, Problem Expected to Grow as Conflict Drags On

Scores of jihadist fighters from Europe who streamed to Syria to join Islamic extremist rebels have begun returning home, where some are suspected of plotting terror attacks, according to U.S. and European intelligence and security officials. Authorities in the U.K. and France recently made several terror-related arrests of individuals suspected of links to Syria. "They're real committed jihadists," a senior U.S. intelligence official said. "The concern is that we're at the very early stages of this." For the U.S. and Western countries, the returning jihadists pose the biggest long-term concern of the Syrian civil war, the official said. Governments are rushing to counter the new terror threat.

"We monitor very closely people seeking to travel [to Syria]—and also people traveling back—because of the potential risk they may pose upon their return to the U.K.," said Britain's security minister James Brokenshire. The total number of fighters from Europe is difficult to track, but officials and academics estimate it at about 1,000 or more, including from Germany, France and the Netherlands. Dozens have traveled to Syria from the U.S. Once there, many are believed to fight alongside al Qaeda-affiliated groups such as Jabhat al Nusra, or the Nusra Front, and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, known as ISIS. The European Union doesn't ban membership in Syrian groups affiliated with al Qaeda, which makes it difficult to crack down on the flow of jihadists to the war.

The U.S. has designated ISIS and the Nusra Front as terrorist groups and countries such as the U.K. are pressing to do the same. The flow of fighters to causes in the Middle East started with Afghanistan in the 1980s and continued during the Iraq war. But the number going to Syria has mounted more rapidly, U.S. and European officials said.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303722104579238542737904868

Putin Battles Europe for Ex-Soviet States

Vladimir Putin’s dream of recreating the Soviet empire is being tested on the streets of Kiev. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators facing off against riot police in the Ukrainian capital are protesting civil rights infringements and a government decision to back off signing free-trade accord with the European Union. The battle is really about whether Russian President Putin can extend his economic influence over its ex-Soviet neighbor, said Tim Ash, chief economist for emerging markets at Standard Bank (SBK) Group.

“For Putin, Ukraine is the Great Game with the EU -- and the big prize,” Ash said in a telephone interview. “Bringing it into the fold would recreate a big part of the Soviet Union inside his trade zone.” Putin, who described the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century, is using his country’s energy wealth to anchor Ukraine, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Belarus in a Russian-led bloc after two decades of advances by the West. Ukraine, the route for half of OAO Gazprom (GAZP)’s gas shipments to Europe, faces a choice: cheaper gas and continued access to its traditional customers, or stronger ties with the EU’s $18 trillion market.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-04/putin-battles-europe-for-former-soviet-states-amid-kiev-protests.html

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Iran's Nuclear enrichment...a Timeline

Any diplomatic negotiation involves compromises. The 10-year effort to restrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions has progressed in fits and starts, with Western nations seeking to halt Iran’s nuclear activities and Iran seeking to preserve its right to nuclear enrichment. Iran has always denied it has an interest in acquiring nuclear weapons. The Fact Checker covered much of the negotiations as a Washington Post diplomatic correspondent from 2002 to 2010.

The six-month interim accord announced on Sunday straddles the two negotiating positions, with world powers notably no longer insisting that Iran halt all enrichment activities at the start of the process. Following is a history of the key negotiating positions, though as always the devil is in the details. During this process, the United Nations Security Council has passed six resolutions, often with overwhelming support, that calls on Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.

Click for the timeline: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/11/24/history-lesson-10-years-of-negotiating-positions-between-iran-and-world-powers/

Putin Says Russia Needs to Beef up Arctic Presence

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said the U.S. navy's capability in the Arctic is a key reason for Russia to beef up its presence in the region. Putin said he doesn't envision a conflict between Russia and the United States, but his blunt remarks reflect a wariness of U.S. intentions.

Putin made the comments at a meeting with students after being asked to comment on suggestions that Russia and other countries relinquish Arctic territory to help protect the environment — a proposal Putin angrily rejected. "Experts know quite well that it takes U.S. missiles 15 to 16 minutes to reach Moscow from the Barents Sea," Putin said, referring to the part of the Arctic Ocean near Russia's shore.

The United States seldom comments on the presence of its nuclear-armed submarines, but it is thought that they patrol international waters. Putin described the Arctic region as essential for Russia's economic and security interests. "There is a huge amount of mineral resources there, including oil and gas," he said. "It's also very important for our defense capability."

While emphasizing the need for Russia to cooperate with the United States and other countries, Putin added that Moscow has to take into account the U.S. navy presence. "I proceed from the assumption that we will never engage in a global conflict, particularly with a country like the United States," he said. "Just opposite, we must develop cooperation and partnership, and we have every opportunity for that despite arguments. But the submarines are there, and they do carry missiles."

The Russian military has been restoring a Soviet-era military base on the New Siberian Islands that was shut down after the Soviet collapse. Russian officials said the facility is key for protecting shipping routes that link Europe with the Pacific region across the Arctic Ocean. In September, a Russian navy squadron led by a nuclear-powered cruiser, visited the archipelago, which occupies a strategic position on the Arctic shipping route. Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway have all been trying to assert jurisdiction over parts of the Arctic, which is believed to hold up to a quarter of the planet's undiscovered oil and gas.

In 2007, Russia staked a symbolic claim to the Arctic seabed by dropping a canister containing the Russian flag on the ocean floor from a small submarine at the North Pole. It also recently arrested the 30-member crew of a Greenpeace ship following a protest at a Russian oil platform in the Arctic. They were released on bail after spending two months in a Russian jail, but their case is still pending.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/putin-russia-beef-arctic-presence-21079945

Monday, December 2, 2013

Israel on Nukes "End Game"

The interim nuclear agreement with Iran, touted by its proponents as a "historic deal", has been described as a "historic mistake" by Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. How will Israel react in the months ahead? The answer is to be found in the struggle to shape the endgame deal. The six-month deal is a mixed bag.

On the positive side it stems the tide of Iranian nuclearisation by setting its clock slightly back, temporarily capping Iran's nuclear facilities, array of centrifuges and stockpile of low-enriched uranium, and improving the monitoring regime. On the other hand, Iranian enrichment has been accepted as part of the endgame; the clock in the uranium and plutonium tracks continues to tick, albeit at a slower pace; Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium (enough for at least five bombs) remains intact; Iranian concessions are all reversible; and International Atomic Energy Agency concerns about military dimensions have not been addressed.

It remains to be seen whether the sanctions relief will entice Iran to make further concessions in the final deal or will erode the sanctions regime as a whole. While putting the brakes on Iran's nuclear programme is better than allowing it to accelerate or triggering a confrontation, Tehran is far too close to a critical breakout capacity for this to be an acceptable situation in the long term. Israel's sight is therefore fixed on the endgame. There is widespread scepticism in Israel – shared by many of its Arab neighbours – that the US and its European allies possess sufficient resolve in the face of Iran's determination to establish itself as a threshold nuclear-armed state.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/01/israel-new-focus-iran-nuclear-endgame

United Nations to Fly Drones

A new fleet of drones will make their maiden voyage this week in Congo's troubled east, where one rebel group was recently disarmed, but many more continue to occupy the area's thick jungles. United Nations peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said the five drones will be "an essential tool" in the peacekeeping mission's military plan. Now that the M23 rebel group has been defeated, he said the U.N. needs to turn its attention to other militias operating in eastern Congo.

Among them are the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, started by extremist Hutus from Rwanda who took part in that country's 1994 genocide, then fled across the border into Congo. "We need to take care of the FDLR, the ADF, the Mai Mai," said Ladsous in French after arriving in Congo's capital on Sunday. He is travelling to Goma for the launch of the drone program on Tuesday. "We are going to use these machines and they will have an important deterring effect." The U.N. Security Council gave approval in January for the trial use of unarmed drones for intelligence gathering in eastern Congo. United Nations spokesman Martin Nesirky said last week that the world body's peacekeeping division had chosen a model produced by Italian firm Selex ES, known as the Falco. It's capable of carrying several types of high-resolution sensors, and will be used to monitor the movement of armed groups.

After years of criticism for alleged inaction, the U.N. has recently taken a more aggressive role in Congo's conflict, and a special U.N. intervention brigade created in March was instrumental in helping defeat the M23 rebel group last month. The rebels, widely believed to be financed and backed by neighboring Rwanda, fled across the border in the face of a joint Congolese and United Nations campaign, including air raids with combat helicopters.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/united-nations-fly-drones-eastern-congo-21067158

Translate