Friday News Roundup - International
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-01-27/friday-news-roundup-international
Syrian troops stormed a Damascus suburb in an ongoing government effort to crackdown on protesters; the European Union approved an oil embargo on new contracts from Iran; and Navy SEALS parachuted into Somalia on Wednesday to rescue two kidnapped aid workers. Yochi Dreazen of National Journal, Indira Lakshmanan of Bloomberg News and Mark Mardell of BBC News join Diane for analysis of the week's top international news stories.
Guests
Yochi Dreazen
senior national security correspondent, National Journal magazine.
Indira Lakshmanan
senior reporter, Bloomberg News.
Mark Mardell
BBC North America editor.
Comments
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I'm becoming intensely curious about how Barack Obama and his handlers (revolving door guys from Wall Street) decide who Seal Team Six will rescue or snuff out next, and also the timing of when they decide to do it. Here is a "guy" with the power to arrest, disappear, torture, interrogate, butcher or execute any person on the face of the planet; with the means to track and locate anyone-anywhere; with highly practiced and heartless armed thugs jumping to his every command, remote controlled flying bombs that can pulverize any dwelling. A situation like that would drive me insane.
But there he stands like a teenager at the mike singing Al Green:
"I'm so in love with you,
Whatever you want me to do is allright with me.
'Cause you make me feel so brand new,
And I want to spend my life with you"
(five similar verses follow)
If you read the complete lyrics of "Let's Stay Together" it makes an excellent campaign speech by modern emotional standards. But who is Barack wooing, the voters or the Oligarchy? He's like a philandering boyfriend promising to be good but succumbing to his habitual nasty ways. Because he can! He believes a majority of the wealthy are in his spell. People drunk on power will say anything. (I hope my duplex don't explode with frogmen tonight. American Empire provides a precarious existence for most.)
Professor Norman Finkelstein, Zbigniew Brzezinski have mentioned the possiility of Israel using their own nuclear weapons on Iran. What do your guest think
Dr. Brzezinski just recently said that an attack by Israel on Iran could take place between now and the Presidential election. That if the US is drug into Israels war with Iran that there would be extremely negative effects not only on the US's crumbling standing in the world but on the US economically.
Also how would such an Israeli attack on Iran effect the election.
Insane...out of Iraq into Iran....everything that former Weapons inspector Scott Ritter and the New Yorkers Seymour Hersh have warned about for years
I lost your stream. Trying to listen from Maine.
I put in hundreds...hundreds of hours in for OBama (even though I had watched him closely in the Senate for two years and had questions about his fence sitting). If the Obama administration supports an attack on Israel or participates in any way shape or form. I will not only not work, vote for Obama. I will actively work hard against his re election. Might be just what the Israeli lobby and Israel are after. His complete failure
Pancake Rankin wrote:
." People drunk on power will say anything. (I hope my duplex don't explode with frogmen tonight. American Empire provides a precarious existence for most.)"
A lot I agree with in that post, can Ron Paul count on your support?
I put in hundreds...hundreds of hours for OBama (even though I had watched him closely in the Senate for two years and had questions about his fence sitting). Knew part of his package was just that a great PR campaign...
But If the Obama administration supports an attack on Iran by Israel or participates in any way shape or form. I will not only not work, or vote for Obama. I will actively work hard against his re election.
Might be just what the Israeli lobby and Israel are after. His complete failure
Regarding the rescue of Jessica Buchanan and Paul Thisted, the international announcement of this rescue seem to be not only chest thumping and politically motivated for Obama's re-election. We now hear reports of the pirates warning that other attempts at such rescues would result in the death of hostages. It might have been better to keep silent on this success as hard as that might be for all involved.
Come on Mossad has basically all ready admitted that they have knocked off Iranian scientist, conducted cyber war fare, blown up sites in Iran. Israel's war against Iran all ready started years ago. On the Diane Rehm show they did not even whisper about the Mossad posing as the CIA to hire engage Jundallah to kill that Iranian scientist. Not a whisper
When will any of your guest talk about the fact that Iran has the right to enrich uranium under the NPT agreement that they signed and Israel continues to refuse to sign
The use of nuclear weapons on the part of a nation state strikes me as highly unlikely. Think of the enormous tensions that existed - both transient and chronic - during the cold war. A conventional attack from Israel, reminiscent of the attack upon the Osirak reactor, is possible, but presents enormous logistic, diplomatic, and security challenges.
Are we really expected to accept the mythically nonsensical assertion that the Obama Administration has made sincere overtures to the Iranian government when the "letters" we allegedly sent were directed to their Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei; with the arrogant assumption that "real power" does not rest with Iran's designated and official Head of State, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?
What if the Iranians decided that "real" American political power resides not in Washington but in Tel Aviv or did in fact rest in Washington, but at AIPAC? What if the Iranians then decided to go over the heads of the officially-designated political leader (s) of this country and direct their communications to either Benjamin Netanyahu or Lee Rosenberg (President of AIPAC)? The news media would be sure to immediately and concertedly offer this as further "evidence" of Iran's wayward "irrationality".
The truth is that the Iranians have reached out to the American government on several occasions and done so in a respectful manner by going through our designated and officially-accepted channels. Why do we refuse to extend the same respect to Iran? Why do we continually threaten and physically attack them (based on groundless and unproven allegations), imperiously insulted that they dare do what they deem necessary to protect themselves?
Whether we like their government or not, Iran is after all, no less sovereign than us, and on balance has committed no where near the number or magnitude of offenses against us as we have them. The short answer is that we are hell-bent on destroying this stridently independent government because it threatens our unchallenged hegemony; our ability to act with virtually unlimited impunity to continue imposing our "order" on their region. Enabling the perpetration of these plans is the convenient and hypocritical amnesia about our direct causal role in Iran's current posture.
It's time for honesty from our government and the western news media about the reasons for our irrational and obsessive preoccupation with Iran. We of course claim a grave concern over their supposedly sinister intention to build a nuclear bomb, as if repeating this lie enough times will somehow make it true. Well, the purveyors of this pablum are coming alarmingly close to getting their wish, at least so far as public perception is concerned.
The truth is that we (Israel and therefore, the U.S.) are nowhere near as concerned about Iran's purported nuclear weapons ambitions as we are the conventional military challenge they pose. The prospect that neither the U.S. nor Israel can continue their unimpeded military dominance of the Middle East is at the core of the fear and war-mongering we see being perpetrated by Israel, the U.S. and their minions in Western Europe.
Sadly, even long-respected news media outlets such as NPR are complicit in the propagation of many of the lies and distortions being generated regarding Iran. These lies and distortions are intended to justify this senseless march to war with a country whose main "crime" has been to survive and even thrive despite our many attempts to destroy it. It truly is time for NPR to take the lead in questioning this senseless march to war with a nation based on the same specious assumptions as those leading to our criminal invasion of Iraq.
Finally, there are many areas of possible cooperation with Iran to which we have turned a deaf ear. Any improvement in our relations with Iran will have to begin with a radical adjustment of our attitude toward them, preceded by a necessarily thorough and honest examination (led by balanced and courageous media coverage, which is currently non-existent) of the policies we've mistakenly pursued to put ourselves in this horribly dangerous position.
I feel you, Pancake! But I don't mind him wooing the "Oligarchy" so long as he does not do their bidding.
Could it be that the worldwide awakening of democracy is scarier to American Empire than nuclear weapons developed in Iran? Well, we seem to tolerate Pakistan very well, since they enjoy perpetual warfare keeping their population in check and also have a nuclear arsenal. Thursday Zbigniew Brzezinski told Diane that he suspected the purpose of US/Israeli aggression against Iran might be to solidify nationalism there. In the game of fading superpower hegemony the Oligarchy must delay the awakening in order to maintain its exorbitant income stream. I wonder if any political candidate understands this as well as Brzezinski.
5ththirdbank of gold reserves- Dr. Paul in office could be even harder on Occupy than the current administration, maybe even harder than a Gingrich or Romney presidency.