when that 'little petty crime"...

turns into "the largest data breach in Federal government history". Too funny.

BBC: Iran to ignore nuclear resolution

Iran has vowed to pursue its nuclear programme, in its first official response to last week's UN resolution urging it to curb nuclear activities. Chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Tehran would continue to develop nuclear energy within the framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). [more]

Nasrallah goes ballistic

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT As the UN Security Council edges agonisingly slowly towards approving a resolution to stop the war in Lebanon and Israel, the leader of Hizbullah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, has issued a threat to take the conflict into new and more dangerous territory through launching missiles at Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial capital. Mr Nasrallah emphasised that he would only resort to such a measure--likely to involve unleashing as yet unused Zelzal missiles--were Israel to bomb central Beirut, as opposed to the southern suburbs where most of Hizbullah's offices are located. He also offered to cease firing missiles altogether if Israel stopped its air strikes against Lebanon. However, the mere mention of Tel Aviv as a possible target has highlighted the very real risk of the conflict spreading: Israel may be sorely tempted to respond to such a move by carrying the fight to Hizbullah's backers in Syria and Iran. Bravado? Mr Nasrallah's statement was consistent with earlier references to his organisation's capability to strike "beyond Haifa and beyond beyond Haifa" and of the existence of further "surprises" in store for Israel. It is unclear whether his warning regarding any Israeli strike in central Beirut was meant to establish a red line, denoting that Hizbullah is in a position to dictate terms in the conflict, or whether he had some indication that Israel may be planning to attack specific targets in or near the city centre. With most of Hizbullah's facilities in the southern suburbs already flattened, the organisation may have shifted some of its key operations into Beirut proper, including perhaps the Iranian embassy, according to some accounts. If Mr Nasrallah's threat is aimed primarily for political effect, rather than being a statement of military intent, it is likely to have been framed with the imminent UN call for a ceasefire in mind. Hizbullah has made clear that it has no intention of stopping military operations until all Israeli forces are out of Lebanese territory, but a halt to its rocket attacks in response to or in advance of a UN resolution would establish the party's credentials as an essential party to any negotiations, while the declaration that it could hit Tel Aviv if provoked by Israel would enable it to maintain that it is approaching such negotiations from a position of strength. Alternatively, a Hizbullah strike on Tel Aviv could serve the purpose of derailing the current efforts to impose a ceasefire and drawing Israel further into a war in which solid military gains have been hard to come by. Punishment Israel response to the prospect of a ceasefire has been to seek to complete the job of inhibiting any resupply of Hizbullah by land, sea or air. This has entailed maintaining a blockade on Lebanese ports, rendering the country's airports unusable and destroying all road connections between Lebanon to Syria. On August 4th, this operation included the destruction of a bridge on the main highway leading north out of Beirut in an area almost exclusively inhabited by Christians. Some 30 farm workers were also killed in an Israeli raid on a packing plant in northern Lebanon, near the border with Syria. The message from Israel appears to be that it aims to stop the movement of any goods within Lebanon, and particularly near its borders, to guard against the possibility that these may include supplies for Hizbullah. The net effect has been to cripple efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to the estimated 1m displaced people in the country. Diplomatic wheels The August 3rd agreement between the US and France on a two-stage approach to tackling the crisis at the UN Security Council offers the prospect of a ceasefire in due course, but there evidently remain some disagreements over the wording of the text of the proposed first resolution, calling for a ceasefire and laying the basis for a political agreement--the second resolution would have the purpose of setting up an international peacekeeping force. One of the critical elements of a ceasefire resolution will be whether it will require Israel to relinquish positions that it has occupied in South Lebanon and to cease all flights over Lebanon, even for reconnaissance. The French draft that have been circulated call for full respect of the "Blue Line" (the border established after the 1949 armistice between the two countries), which clearly implies that Israel should withdraw, something that the US is likely to resist. The resolution is also expected to reiterate calls for Hizbullah to disarm. The organisation has implicitly approved this demand by lending its backing to the seven-point plan drawn up by the prime minister, Fouad Siniora. However, it remains doubtful whether it has any intention of living up to this pledge. As the discussions go on at the Security Council, Israel is continuing its quest for a knockout blow against Hizbullah, despite the accumulating evidence that this will be hard, if not impossible, to achieve. Hizbullah in the meantime has secured considerable political advantages, at a huge cost to Lebanon's economic and social fabric, but has yet to spell out what it intends to do with them.

head in the sand: the Bush administration's disastrously-bad habit

of depicting the World's ugly realities as merely "hypothetical".

indeed

"frightening prospect" - Eric Martin on Billmon's latest:

It is a stunning testament to the political devolution of this country that the most effective anti-war movement in America is inside the walls of the Pentagon or buried deep in the bowels of the CIA!

your President is a moron

“I thought the Iraqis were Muslims!”

Ambassador Galbraith: “From the president and the vice president down through the neoconservatives at the Pentagon, there was a belief that Iraq was a blank slate on which the United States could impose its vision of a pluralistic democratic society. The arrogance came in the form of a belief that this could be accomplished with minimal effort and planning by the United States and that it was not important to know something about Iraq.”

"This is a civil war"

"senior adviser to the commander of the Iraqi Army's 6th Division, which oversees much of Baghdad. "

today's Lebanese fun fact

DID YOU KNOW? According to Colbert C. Held's book Middle East Patterns, which contains the only substantive (recent) estimate of religious affiliation in Lebanon, there are nearly twice as many Christians (1.3 Million) as there are Sunni Muslims (701k).

"INFORMATION OPERATIONS IN OPERATIONS ENDURING FREEDOM AND IRAQI FREEDOM

WHAT WENT WRONG?" by Major Joseph L. Cox, US Army, 124 pp. [download from FAS (.pdf)]

excellent name

Five Soldiers and eight NCOs showed they deserved to be in the National Capital Region competition July 26 and 27, but the rules were only two could take the top honors. One was MDW's Soldier of the Year, Spc. Xeriqua Garfinkel of the 241st MP Detachment at Fort Meade.

a grave mistake

Iran is playing with fire, and shows no signs of stopping.

Imperial torturer

I really wish Congress had the nuts to impeach this POS. Chicago Tribune: "When Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) proposed a bill banning the "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of detainees in U.S. custody abroad, President Bush opposed it and Vice President Dick Cheney lobbied unsuccessfully to exempt the CIA. In the face of opposition in Congress and the rest of the world, the president eventually signed the measure, to show that "this government does not torture." But there was a catch: Bush attached a statement saying he could ignore the ban if he thought it necessary." The Boston Globe: "THE BUSH administration is trying to get Congress to endorse trials for prisoners in the war on terrorism that would allow coerced testimony, hearsay evidence, and the exclusion of the defendants and their civilian lawyers from parts of the proceedings in which classified evidence is presented. The proposal makes a mockery of the nation's proud history of due process under law, and Congress should reject it outright."

Bill Arkin: thank you!

With hurricane season upon us, with the fifth anniversary of 9/11 approaching, with the “war” against going whole hog, the Department of Homeland Security, the most useless and hopeless entity of the United States government, is involved in a marketing campaign to celebrate National Preparedness Month. [more]

feeding the cycle of death

and profiting from both sides of future conflict. Ahh... the world we've created.

U.S. Plans $4.6Billion in Mideast Arms Sales

report: Shimon Peres' lecture at CFR

NEW YORK—Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Monday the conflict pitting Israel against Hamas and Hezbollah is an “unprecedented war” with no clear end. Peres told the Council on Foreign Relations that Israel is not fighting a defined conflict against the established military of a state, but a struggle against an amorphous group of terrorists that could drag on for years. “Clearly, it won’t be the sort of victory we’re used to having with armies,” Peres said. “You can’t beat terrorism with military strength or maneuvers.” Peres dismissed international criticism of Israeli actions like the July 30 bombing of the Lebanese village of Qana, which killed nearly sixty civilians, more than half of them children. He said Hezbollah was using civilians as human shields by hiding its missile caches under their homes or schools. “The Lebanese people know they are not suffering because of Israel, but because of Hezbollah,” he said. He also denied that Israel’s actions are driving previously moderate Muslims into the Hezbollah camp. “How do you radicalize radical people?” he asked. “In wars, there are mistakes, unfortunately,” Peres said. “The biggest mistake is the war itself.” Defining victory A tactical victory fromIsrael’s perspective, Peres said, would mean that Hezbollah cannot endanger Israeli lives from southern Lebanon; the two Israeli soldiers kidnapped July 12 are returned; control is established over Hezbollah’s arsenal of some 12,000 rockets; and a serious attempt is made to disarm the group. Peres said it would be catastrophic for the region if Iran succeeded in using Syria, Hamas, and Hezbollah to extend its influence and establish Shiite hegemony. “It would be going back to the Dark Ages. The [countries in the region] would lose modernity, freedom, and change.” The regional perspective Peres said the international community’s longer-term goals in the region must include stabilizing Lebanon and drawing it away from Iran’s influence. “Hezbollah wants a Lebanon with an Iranian orientation,” Peres said. “The Lebanese must decide if they will control their own destiny, or will be swallowed up by a larger threat.” If that happened, he said, “Lebanon would be a tragedy of Iranian ambition.” Peres spoke at length about the threat posed by a rising Iran, saying the country’s influence derives not from economic or military strength, but its plans for a nuclear weapon, which it pursues because the global community allows it. “As long as the world remains divided, Iran will run wild,” he said. He said Iran is using Hezbollah and the fight in Lebanon to “divert attention from their nuclear bomb, which is still their first priority.” Despite Iran’s growing threat, Israel will not preemptively attack Tehran, he said; it will only respond if attacked. Peres said Iran, taking advantage of a weakened Syria, is working with Hamas—which he called a “state-in-the-making”—and Hezbollah—a “state-within-a-state”—to assert Iranian influence in the region. Sunni countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and the Gulf states—which have reason to fear the advent of a “Shiite crescent”—initially criticized the July 12 Hezbollah raid and kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers that started the latest conflict. However, Israel’s attacks onLebanonhave caused Arab states to line up against Israel. Syria is running a “double-standard policy,” Peres said, by harboring Hamas leader Khalid Meshal in Damascus and shuttling Iranian arms and funds to Hezbollah in Lebanon. “Assad Sr. [former Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad, who died in 2000] never allowed Hezbollah to run the affairs of Lebanon,” Peres said, “but Assad Jr. [current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] is a friend of [Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan] Nasrallah.” Peres called Bashar al-Assad “the son of a wise man” who had not learned enough from his father. Peres said Israel, and what he called the “responsible countries of the world,” would eventually prevail in the current crisis, because groups like Hamas and Hezbollah are “shooting without reason or purpose, but [only] to destroyIsraeland bring down our spirit.” He said the militant Islamic groups have no message for their people and cannot meet their needs for employment, education, or a stable, responsible, transparent government. The current violence could even create an opportunity for change in the region. “I think this is a chance to reinvent the Middle East,” he said. Israelis united Peres said that, even as much of the Arab world throws its support behind Hamas and Hezbollah, Israelis are uniting behind their government. “I went through all the wars and all the peace,” Peres said, “and Israelis have never been as united as they are now.” He said Israelis feel that they were clearly attacked and that they did not choose the war, but are fighting to protect themselves from persistent, deadly rocket fire from Hamas and Hezbollah fighters. Peres denied that Israel has territorial ambitions in Lebanon. “What we want to be is a nation that lives in peace with our neighbors,” he said.