Merkel's green light for $157m gas deal with Iran torpedoes sanctions.
German chancellor Angela Merkel blunted - in advance - the big-power drive for sanctions to punish Iran for its nuclear defiance. When Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili faced the US, European Union, the UK, France, Russia, Geneva and China in Geneva on July 19, he knew that their two-week ultimatum for Tehran’s answer to their incentives offer could be sidestepped with impunity.
The deal was approved a month before the German chancellor’s March stood up in the Knesset, promised to push for further sanctions against Iran and declared that Israel’s security was “nonnegotiable.” More...
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Tehran hosts Assad to celebrate winning nuclear dispute with West and cooling of US-Israel ties
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis
August 3, 2008, 5:30 PM (GMT+02:00)
Assad and Ahmadinejad congratulate each other
The Syrian president Bashar Assad was due to visit Tehran in a week’s time. The trip was brought forward to Saturday, Aug. 2 to coincide with the deadline the six powers gave Iran for an answer to its offer of benefits in return for its consent to suspend uranium enrichment – or face a fourth round of sanctions.
DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report: Iranian and Syrian rulers are so pleased with their unforeseen success in outmaneuvering the West that they called an urgent summit for follow-up planning. More...
Kuwaiti Columnist Denounces Anti-West Discourse in Middle East
In an article in the Kuwaiti English-language daily Arab Times, columnist Dr. Khaled Al-Janfawi denounced the anti-West discourse prevailing in the Middle East. He argued that this discourse, which promotes a distorted and biased image of the West, leads to hostility and extremism and is one of the roots of the culture of violence in the Middle East. He added that in order to promote tolerance and democracy in the Arab world, there was a need for school curricula that do not demonize the other but instead stress the importance of diversity and pluralism.
While Western science is desired even coveted in the Middle East, the Western culture is Demonized.
The demonization is an attempt to hold their cultural wall against change.
There are several natural forces working against their cultural wall.
You will note the small Green "arabic flag" at the top of all my posts. It allows translation to Arabic of my posts, just click on it.
Google is an Engine of social change, their translation services offer communication breaking the language barrier, of course its a Googalization of the message, but I think the concepts get thru.
Person to person communication.
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New research out this week from Gartner tells us that the amount of PCs being used around the world has now passed the 1 billion mark, and that number is set to double in the next 6 years.
( World population is around 7 billion )
http://www.lavasoft.com/company/blog/?p=406
http://snipurl.com/2o73z
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USA has over 100,000 troops in Theater, TRAIN THEM TO BLOG: Potential 25,000 troop blogs, huge untrained asset, NOT DEPLOYED. Military needs to view the WWW not as something to fear, but as a Information weapon in the GWOT. Terroist have 6,000+ blogs, forums, Military could overwhelm them with trained Bloggers, ( Rule sets, guidelines, oversight ) and stop fearing the Internet. The risk in not using a Troop Bloggers, is far exceeded by allowing as-Sahab al qaeda's media arm to win the information WAR, recruiting, propaganda, suicide bombers, funding, sourcing independent cells.
"It is just plain embarrassing that al-Qaeda is better at communicating its message on the Internet than America," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in a speech in November."As one foreign diplomat asked a couple of years ago, 'How has one man in a cave managed to out-communicate the world's greatest communication society?' "
The air Force has the key Paradigm for WWW offensive capabilities, and seem to be uncertain if they are up to the MISSION, ( Air Force takes 2 steps BACK ) while the Army has the force, capability to DOMINATE THE WWW INFORMATION WAR, and have rejected the mission, instituting repressive rules and regs. effectively blocking troops from blogging. currently Army bloggers need approval and article review of 3 or 4 line officers to publish each post.
Paradigm problem: Military has problems recognizing new domains, and fears engaging the enemy on these new fields of battle, while al Qaeda only continues to exist; because they embrace and exploit the new domain. While the Western military fears the new domains. And civilization is at risk, while al Qaeda dominates these domains, WWW and Info war. ( 6 months to a NUKE ) ( We never fought there before, not our job, too risky, don't know how, nobody told us to fight there, ETC. )
.................................................. Back to the Point Middle Eastern demonization of USA.
While the Middle East fear change, American Culture is a force of its own, greater then the forces of the Military in many ways. American culture has very little "selling pressure", and a lot of "buying Pressure". NO one likes to be sold but everyone likes to buy. "Buying pressure" is internally generated by the buyer. Cultures have minimal impact on this type of buying pressure. Their cultural wall is doomed to crumble. And the West will be un-demonized in time.
American style, movies, music transend most cultural barriers, and threaten change. Look at Cokc cola.
The West is NOT Satan. ( Read the Troop Blogs, ooppps they haven't been deployed )
In the long term American culture will un-demonize the West, but that takes time. And in this time of non-state actors in the GWOT we may not have that time.
State actors with a religious bent towards state suicide are problematic. WHY Iran will push the button
I just realized there is not a force anywhere in the world that the US Military is afraid of, EXCEPT THE INTERNET, that knocks their little knees together.
Mohamed ElBaradei assumes there are no secret production programs in Iran he doesn't know about. ( 6 months is VERY CLOSE, ) I think this is a risky assumption. G
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If It Wants To Produce Nuclear Weapons, Iran Would Have To "Leave The NPT, Expel The IAEA Inspectors, And... It Would Need At Least Six Months to One Year"
Mohamed ElBaradei: "If Iran wants to turn to the production of nuclear weapons, it must leave the NPT, expel the IAEA inspectors, and then it would need at least... Considering the number of centrifuges and the quantity of uranium Iran has..."
Interviewer: "How much time would it need?"
ElBaradei: "It would need at least six months to one year. Therefore, Iran will not be able to reach the point where we would wake up one morning to an Iran with a nuclear weapon."
Interviewer: "Excuse me, I would like to clarify this for our viewers. If Iran decides today to expel the IAEA from the country, it will need six months..."
ElBaradei: "Or one year, at least..."
Interviewer: "... to produce [nuclear] weapons?"
ElBaradei: "It would need this period to produce a weapon, and to obtain highly-enriched uranium in sufficient quantities for a single nuclear weapon." [...]
"A Military Strike [Against Iran] Would Be the Worst Thing Possible"
"In my view, a military strike would be the worst thing possible. It would turn the Middle East into a ball of fire."
Interviewer: "It would be worse than sanctions?"
ElBaradei: "Much worse, because a military strike would mean, first and foremost, that even if Iran does not produce nuclear weapons today, it would implement a so-called 'crash course,' or an accelerated plan to produce a nuclear weapon, with the agreement and blessing of all the Iranians – even the Iranians living in the West."
[...]
Interviewer: "Dr. ElBaradei, what do the Iranian officials tell you when you confront them about the need for more transparency?"
ElBaradei: "They say there will be more transparency, but at the end of the day, I'd rather wait to see this transparency.
[...]
"I always think of resigning in the event of a military strike."
Interviewer: "You will resign in the event that..."
ElBaradei: "If military force is used, I would conclude that there is no mechanism left for me to defend."
Interviewer: "This is a threat directed at the Americans – if you strike, I will resign."
ElBaradei: "I am not doing this for material profit. If I was working in the private sector, I would... I am doing this out of the conviction that I am defending shared values. If we deviate from these shared values..."
Interviewer: "So there is no justification for an attack..."
"There Will Be No Point in My Continuing My Work If Military Force Is Used"
ElBaradei: "The day I believe that the international system has begun to collapse is the day I will resign."
[...]
Interviewer: "If the world reaches a consensus that there is no solution but to attack Iran, would you still resign? What if Europe, America, and the entire West agree that the only resolution is a military one?"
ElBaradei: "I don't think that what we are seeing today in Iran poses a clear, imminent, and immediate danger."
Interviewer: "But in a year or two, it could become..."
ElBaradei: "If this happens, it will be a different story, but if a military strike is launched against Iran now, in my opinion, I will have no choice but to..."
Interviewer: "So there is no justification for a strike against Iran today."
ElBaradei: "None whatsoever. There will be no point in my continuing my work if military force is used at present."
Mohamed ElBaradei assumes there are no secret production programs in Iran he doesn't know about. ( 6 months is VERY CLOSE, ) I think this is a risky assumption. G
Bin Laden Calls on Muslims to Confront Arab Regimes, Wage Jihad to Liberate Palestine
Arab Leaders Who Collaborate with the West Are "Wolves [Preying on] Sheep"
Following a general message to all Muslims, bin Laden addresses the Egyptian people, saying: "Our heroic brothers in Egypt must strive to lift the siege [on Gaza], because only they live next to [Gaza's] borders. They [must also] depose this cruel... and arrogant hard-hearted [ruler, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak]... who is like Pharaoh and Haman."
In the message, bin Laden urges young Muslims "to study the reasons for the [Arab countries'] failure to liberate Palestine until now and to learn their lessons." According to him, this failure is rooted in the treacherous nature of the Arab regimes. "The Ottoman Empire," he says, "protected the umma from the Western Crusader wolf. But Great Britain collaborated with Arab leaders - first and foremost Sharif Hussein and his children, and King 'Abd Al-'Aziz Al-Sa'ud - to fight and destroy the Ottoman Empire.
"Great Britain then appointed [Arab] agents to carry out its policy and protect its interests at our expense. It is stupidity to think that the agents of the Crusader-Zionist alliance will cease attacking our religion and [plundering] our wealth. They are like wolves which will never stop [preying on] sheep."
Saladin Battled Those Arab Emirs Who Fought With the Crusaders Against the Muslims
To highlight what he considers to be the Arab regimes' moral corruption and disloyalty to Islam, bin Laden cites Saladin as an example, saying that unlike Arab leaders, Saladin "understood that the way to stop the damage inflicted by the infidels is to fight [them] for the sake of Allah...
"Saladin associated with the divinely guided ulema, pursued religious knowledge even in the arenas of jihad... and supported their spurring people to wage jihad against the Crusaders... He battled those [Arab] emirs and their helpers who fought side by side with the Crusaders against Muslims, even if those [emirs] proclaimed [the first shahada:] 'There is no god but Allah...'
"[Hizbullah Leader] Nasrallah Refused to Accept [Assistance from Sunni] Mujahideen"
"In Egypt, [in contrast], the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood makes sending 10,000 mujahideen to fight the Jews conditional... upon the consent of the American agent [i.e. Mubarak]..." In Lebanon, "[Hizbullah Secretary-General] Hassan Nasrallah claims that he does not need [more] money [to assist him in fighting Israel]... and that he is not in need of [more] people [i.e. soldiers]... If he does indeed possess what he needs, why does he not persist in the fight to liberate Palestine and rescue our people from the hands of the Jews?
"On the contrary: He welcomed the Crusader forces which came to protect the Jews. By doing do, he confirmed the claim by Sabih Tufayli, former Hizbullah secretary-general, that Kofi Annan came to Lebanon [to facilitate] an agreement between Hizbullah and the Zionists, and this is why [Nasrallah] refused to accept [the assistance of Sunni] mujahideen."
"The Only Way to Reach Palestine Is to Fight the [Arab] Regimes and Parties That [Share a] Border with the Jews"
Bin Laden makes the following prognosis for the current predicament of the Islamic nation: "Today the umma... must do everything in its power to confront the Crusaders' agents [in order] to eliminate the danger they pose. [In fact,] upon realizing that the [Arab] regimes follow America, many righteous sons of the umma... joined Islamic groups that call [to restore] the rule of Islam, to revive the Caliphate, and [to liberate] Palestine...
"The only way to reach Palestine is by fighting the [Arab] regimes and parties [i.e., Hizbullah and the Muslim Brotherhood in countries] that [share a] border with the Jews and stand between us and them..."
First it was the American in Iraq, then Afghan, then Paki, now Palestine. As he sends Muslms to satan by suckering them to do suicide bombings for his News sound bytes. see video ....
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