Friday News Roundup - International
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-02-10/friday-news-roundup-international
Violence erupted in Greece over new austerity measures being considered by the Greek Parliament. Lawmakers must pass a new reform package this weekend before the eurozone will sign off on a new bailout deal. Two explosions hit Aleppo, a city that up to now has largely supported Syrian president Assad. Egypt’s ruling generals cracked down on western nonprofit groups that promote democracy, threatening the country’s relationship with the U. S. And the former president of the Maldives demanded new elections.
Guests
Moises Naim
chief international columnist, El Pais.
Nadia Bilbassy
senior U.S. correspondent, MBC TV -- Middle East Broadcast Centre.
Jonathan Landay
senior national security and intelligence correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers.
Comments
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I don't like Eye Doctor Assad but isn't it to the advantage of Iran invasion advocates to prolong a civil war in Syria. (Now we're back to proxy war with Russia. Can we call that progress?) We're meddling like a dumb scout toying with a bonfire, about to unleash things we can't handle. It would be better if we restored human rights here and started being a good example. Smart people don't care if the Oligarchy augments its income stream.
The situation in Syria is such a tragedy. But can any of your guest explain why our MSM is more than willing to put images of the killing and dead in Syria and repeat how many have been killed. Yet for years were unwilling to show Americans the brutal pictures and dead in Iraq as a direct consequence of the US invasion. Why those same MSM outlets seldom discuss the numbers of dead, injured and displaced in Iraq.
Why do Americans know how many are dead in Syria but not in Iraq?
Yochi Dreazen was on Cspans Washington Journal the other morning to discuss the situation with Iran. He stated that negotiations have been exhausted. I am fascinated by who controls programming on MSM outlets especially when it comes to US foreign policy. More recently Iran Over the last six weeks Washington Journal has had Barbara Slavin, Anne Marie Slaughter who are more moderate but still repeat unsubstantiated claims about Iran and push the idea that Israel’s national security are one and the same and that negotiations with Iran have been exhausted They have also had Micheal Singh, Anas Jan both from the WINEP and Yochi Dreazen who were definitely pushing a military confrontation with Iran. This is so terribly lop sided.
Wondering who your guest would define as experts on the Iranian situation. I keep wondering why the Diane Rehm show does not have Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett on as guest to discuss this critical issue?
Diane has had Flynt on in the past. What is the problem. They are experts on Iran
Jonathon your accurate reporting before the invasion of Iraq was outstanding. You stand a part from the pack of MSM journalist that rolled over to the Bush administration and repeated the false intelligence relentlessly without question.
Heard Jonathon Landay on NPR's Talk of the Nation yesterday. His reporting and work in Afghanistan is so enlightening. I am one of the people who did not support the invasion of Afghanistan. But am now one of the folks who questions leaving. I have many reasons for my stance.
Jonathon if you had the power to make the decision leave or stay what would your decision be and why?
The US has no room at all to lecture anyone let alone Russia or China about the deaths and killing of innnocent people. No room at all. That was an absurd and counter productive statement out of Rice
Last Sunday every Catholic attending Mass was read a letter from the Bishop critical of the Admistration's stand that was issues by the Health and Human Department. One priest commented that we are "at War with the Obama Administration". The press has been interpiting this as strictly an issue of birth control. But little has been said about issues such as the morning after pill, stililizations such as vasectomies, and that this would lead to other compromises in ones religious rights.
The Russian Amabassador to the US Vitaly Churkin was on Charlie Rose's program the other night. He said that Russia has been negotiating with Syria trying to stop the killing. There was also talk about US and Israeli meddling in Syria. What can any of your guest say about this?
On Israel...Richard Engel just came out with a report about Israel's Mossad killing the IRanian scientist. The article "Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran's nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News" Could your guest discuss this story
Why is it that we never hear any MSM stories about how many innocent people have been killed by Obama's drones? Accumulative numbers?
And we certainly do not hear any MSM reports about American soldiers who have been killed by US drones.
"One-Third of Americans Known to Have Been Killed in Drone Strikes Were US Servicemen
Posted on February 8, 2012 by emptywheel
The Democratic Party has, under Obama, significantly abandoned a commitment to civil liberties and rule of law, so I’m unsurprised by these results.
But I wonder how Americans would vote if they learned that one-third of Americans known to have died in US drone strikes were servicemen? Here’s the list:
Kamal Derwish, killed November 5, 2002, purportedly as collateral damage on a strike against Abu Ali al-Harithi; Derwish is alleged to have recruited the Lackawanna Six
Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith, killed in friendly fire incident on April 6, 2011
Navy Medic Benjamin Rast, killed in same friendly fire incident on April 6, 2011
Anwar al-Awlaki, killed September 30, 2011; Awlaki had ties to AQAP, though the Administration has never released evidence to support their claim he was “operational”
Samir Khan, killed in same September 30 drone strike, purportedly as collateral damage; Khan was a propagandist for AQAP
Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, aged 16, killed in drone strike on October 14, 2011, purportedly collateral damage in a strike aimed at Fahd al-Quso, who was indicted in the Cole bombing
Civil libertarians have long noted that the government’s lack of transparency undermines their (possibly entirely legitimate) claims that Awlaki was an imminent threat and the others really were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
One-Third of Americans Known to Have Been Killed in Drone Strikes ...www.emptywheel.net/.../one-third-of-americans-known-to-have-bee...
Did Nadia just say that Israel should do it now. Or that Israel is saying they should do it now? When will the Rehm show have the Leveretts on.
Oh Jesus Mary and Joseph Israel started the arms race in the middle east. Go read letters at the IAEA's website from leaders in that region begging the IAEA to pressure Israel to sign the NPT. How Israel's undeclared and un inspected weapons have been a threat to peace in the middle east for decades....decades
http://www.theonion.com/articles/ir...
Jonathon just wrote an article about Afghanistan. He has been there a great deal. If he had the power to decide would the US stay or go?
Why is it that we never hear any MSM stories about how many innocent people have been killed by Obama's drones? Accumulative numbers?
And we certainly do not hear any MSM reports about American soldiers who have been killed by US drones.
"One-Third of Americans Known to Have Been Killed in Drone Strikes Were US Servicemen
Posted on February 8, 2012 by emptywheel
The Democratic Party has, under Obama, significantly abandoned a commitment to civil liberties and rule of law, so I’m unsurprised by these results.
But I wonder how Americans would vote if they learned that one-third of Americans known to have died in US drone strikes were servicemen? Here’s the list:
Kamal Derwish, killed November 5, 2002, purportedly as collateral damage on a strike against Abu Ali al-Harithi; Derwish is alleged to have recruited the Lackawanna Six
Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith, killed in friendly fire incident on April 6, 2011
Navy Medic Benjamin Rast, killed in same friendly fire incident on April 6, 2011
Anwar al-Awlaki, killed September 30, 2011; Awlaki had ties to AQAP, though the Administration has never released evidence to support their claim he was “operational”
Samir Khan, killed in same September 30 drone strike, purportedly as collateral damage; Khan was a propagandist for AQAP
Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, aged 16, killed in drone strike on October 14, 2011, purportedly collateral damage in a strike aimed at Fahd al-Quso, who was indicted in the Cole bombing
Civil libertarians have long noted that the government’s lack of transparency undermines their (possibly entirely legitimate) claims that Awlaki was an imminent threat and the others really were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
One-Third of Americans Known to Have Been Killed in Drone Strikes ...www.emptywheel.net/.../one-third-of-americans-known-to-have-bee...
two things you have discussed today:
greek debt--how on earth do greeks keep going? the cuts will make worse what is their donward slide........thus is this not de facto, a goodbye to greece?
Iran's bomb------if we bomb the results will be better thaan if we stop harassing them? what is our justification to allow Pakistan, et al, bombs but not Iran???
and why would Iran trust us? we were the ones who put in the shaw- Eisenhower and the CIA people in the embassy [illegally]
I thought the Monroe Doctrine was supposed to prevent European intervention in N. or S. America.
Oh my Diane having another individual who brought this nation the disaster in Iraq....Robert Kagan. Aye yi yi. Get ready to count how many times he will say go get Iran
although the military reports cause of death, and they have been caught lying...
I doubt the figure is that high, if that were the case some military person would wiki leak it
i am skeptical not cynical
all this is covered in the nytimes,
the morning after pill was excluded from the coverage
the question is : can u make a religious organization pay for what is against their belief?
e.g. the Catholic church should not pay for abortion, birth control, etc
but should christian schientist be forced to have health ins..? do we force their children to have cancer treatment,,,,,yes we do
etc.
HI again,
the reports were published in the nytimes [and Economist] at a pace of every four months or so
300,000 seems to be ballpark figure
civilians
Sorry, I just do not think bad guys seek out good examples
so do we let the cities in rebellion get trampled?
[we let 900,000 hutu's be slaughtered in Rwanda]
two months of increasing bombing of rebels is near , sanctions are too slow
we are not meddling there yet, just talking..........the Saudi's , etc, are thinking of doing so.........mideast will explode
Hillary Mann Leverett and her husband are paid lobbyists and work for the mullah mafia of Iran. Their function is to give legitimacy to a bloody and corrupt islamic/mullah mafia, which does not represent the people of Iran. The mullahs have said in the past that they are willing to sacrifice half of the population of Iran (40,000,000 Iranians) in order to destroy Israel. The mullah mafia will not be allowed to do so.
Humanist you are delusional.
Flynt's biography
Flynt Leverett – Biography
Flynt Leverett is a professor at Pennsylvania State University’s School of International Affairs and directs the Iran Project at the New America Foundation, where he is a Senior Research Fellow. He is also a Visiting Scholar at Peking University’s School of International Studies.
Dr. Leverett is a leading authority on the Middle East and Persian Gulf, U.S. foreign policy, and global energy affairs. From 1992 to 2003, he had a distinguished career in the U.S. government, serving as Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, and as a CIA Senior Analyst. He left the George W. Bush Administration and government service in 2003 because of disagreements about Middle East policy and the conduct of the war on terror.
Dr. Leverett has written extensively on the politics, international relations, and political economy of the Middle East and Persian Gulf. In a series of monographs, articles, and opinion pieces (many co-authored with Hillary Mann Leverett), he has challenged Western conventional wisdom on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s foreign policy and internal politics, documented the historical record of previous Iranian cooperation with the United States, and presented the seminal argument in American foreign policy circles for a U.S.-Iranian “grand bargain”. His new book, Going to Tehran: Why the United States Must Come to Terms with the Islamic Republic (also co-authored with Hillary Mann Leverett), will be published in 2012.
Cont Flynt's biography
Dr. Leverett has published opinion pieces in many high-profile venues, including The New York Times, POLITICO, and CNN, and contributes frequently to Foreign Policy. He has been interviewed about Iran and its geopolitics on leading public affairs programs around the world, including Charlie Rose, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Empire and Riz Khan (Al Jazeera English), Viewpoint (Abu Dhabi Television), Spotlight (Russia Today) and Washington Journal (C-Span), as well as in leading publications such as Der Spiegel and Le Monde. Along with Hillary Mann Leverett, he was featured in the PBS Frontline documentary, “Showdown With Iran”, and profiled in Esquire magazine.
Dr. Leverett has spoken about U.S.-Iranian relations at foreign ministries and strategic research centers in Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. He has been a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University.
Dr. Leverett holds a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Hillary's biography
Hillary Mann Leverett – Biography
Hillary Mann Leverett is CEO of Strategic Energy and Global Analysis (STRATEGA), a political risk consultancy. In September 2010, she will also take up an appointment as Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.
Ms. Leverett has more than 20 years of academic, legal, business, diplomatic, and policy experience working on Middle Eastern issues. In the George W. Bush Administration, she worked as Director for Iran, Afghanistan and Persian Gulf Affairs at the National Security Council, Middle East expert on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, and Political Advisor for Middle East, Central Asian and African issues at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. From 2001-2003, she was one of a small number of U.S. diplomats authorized to negotiate with the Iranians over Afghanistan, al-Qa’ida and Iraq. In the Clinton Administration, Leverett also served as Political Advisor for Middle East, Central Asian and African issues for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Associate Director for Near Eastern Affairs at the National Security Council, and Special Assistant to the Ambassador at the U.S. embassy in Cairo. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and a Watson Fellowship, and in 1990-1991 worked in the U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt and Israel, and was part of the team that reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait after the first Gulf War.
Cont
Ms. Leverett has published extensively on Iran as well as on other Middle Eastern, Central and South Asian, and Russian issues. She has spoken about U.S.-Iranian relations at Harvard, MIT, the National Defense University, NYU, the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs, and major research centers in China. She has appeared on news and public affairs programs on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera (Arabic and English), and was featured in the highly acclaimed BBC documentary, Iran and the West. Along with Flynt Leverett, she appeared in the PBS Frontline documentary, “Showdown With Iran”, and was profiled in Esquire magazine. She has provided expert testimony to the U.S. House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.
Ms. Leverett is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Brandeis University. She also studied at the American University in Cairo and Tel Aviv University.
Thank you for proving me right. Both Hillary Mann Leverett and her husband have been trying to give legitimacy to an anti-Iranian, anti-humanistic, anti-women, anti-democratic bloody and corrupt islamic/mullah mafia. Ask them about their connections with Trita Parsi, a paid lobbyist for the mullah mafia, ask them about their meeting with Ahmadinejad the president of the mullah mafia...etc. No matter how "educated" they are, they are nothing more than "intellectuals for hire". Feel free to respond.
provide some proof for your outlandish claims. You can't
Here you go humanist. This might keep you busy and give you some facts to draw from
IAEA Reports « The Race for Iranwww.raceforiran.com/key-documents/iaea-reportsCached - Similar
Please do not believe what I say. Do your own research by going to the source and ask them about Trita Parsi a paid lobbyist for the mullah mafia and their meeting with Ahmadinejad. Pictures of their meetings are here:
http://www.raceforiran.com/meeting-ahmadinejad-in-new-york#comment-20999
It is not ethical to try to give legitimacy to a bloody and corrupt islamic/mullah mafia which is responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iranians. Feel free to respond.
In regards to the Falkland Islands (Las Islas Malvinas) discussion: The comments expressed by Mr. Landay and Mr. Naim were totally biased in favor of the English. The argument “The Falklanders want to remain British” is baseless because the original inhabitants of the Falkland Islands were Argentinians that no longer live there because they were killed or forced to leave by English forces. Therefore, it’s obvious that the current inhabitants (transplanted by the English) of the Falklands will always support British rule over Argentinian. That’s why “Falklanders” have no valid position or vote in the Right to Self Determination. The “Falklanders” are nothing more than agents (bought and paid for) of the British Crown. Again, this same nefarious colonization strategy (exterminate and transplant) and argument (“Let the local people decide”) has been used by the English with Gibraltar and Northern Ireland. Moreover, Mr. Naim’s comment “The Falkland Islands are several miles away from Argentina” is ridiculous. Is he not aware of how far the Falkland Islands are from England?? Moreover, before the Falkland Islands were Argentinian, they were Spanish. The English have no historical, cultural, or regional claim to the Falkland Islands; they are there because of their 500 years of global piracy, marauding, and exploitation.