Friday News Roundup - International
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-04-06/friday-news-roundup-international
Activists say Syrian troops battled rebels today – less than a week before a pullback agreed upon by President Bashar al-Assad. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is running a candidate for president despite an earlier pledge not to. Myanmar's government starts talks toward political agreement with one of world's oldest rebel armies. Spain struggles to repair its damaged banking sector, fueling worries it might be forced to follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal in seeking a bailout. And President Obama and Mexican President Calderon trade warnings on gun violence. A panel of journalists joins guest host Tom Gjelten of NPR for analysis of the week's top national news stories. A panel of journalists joins Tom Gjelten for analysis of the week's top international news stories.
Guests
Moises Naim
chief international columnist, El Pais.
Susan Glasser
editor-in-chief, Foreign Policy.
David Ignatius
columnist, The Washington Post; contributor to “Post Partisan” blog on washingtonpost.com. His latest book is titled "Bloodmoney: A Novel of Espionage."
Comments
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Over a month ago the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Dempsey said that arming the Syrian rebels was dangerous because they do not know who they are. Has this leaning changed? I know Anne Marie Slaughter was pushing for arming these people in Syria. What has changed on this front
You have called the Turkish Government "the Muslim Brotherhood". The ruling AKP party in Turkey is far more moderate then the Brotherhood; it is much more like a European Christian Democratic party. Why are "Christian" parties OK in Christian countries while Muslim parties are not OK in Muslim countries?
Robert from Norway
What is happening with the investigation of former Governor Rendell, Howard Dean and others for taking pay lobbying for the MEK being taken off the US terrorist list.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/us/us-supporters-of-iranian-group-mek-...
Can you also address that Israel was found to be funding, arming, training the MEK (who again is on the US terrorist list) and those MEK members are alleged to have killed Iranian scientist etc. Mark Parry at Foreign policy first wrote about this and then MSNBC Richard Engel. Has the US slapped Israel's hand even a little for funding, arming and training a group on the US terrorist list?
Mark Parry's article
False Flag
A series of CIA memos describes how Israeli Mossad agents posed as American spies to recruit members of the terrorist organization Jundallah to fight their covert war against Iran.
BY MARK PERRY | JANUARY 13, 2012
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/13/false_flag
Quote "A closed military zone has been put in place around a three story building in Hebron taken over and illegally occupied by 100 settlers in an overnight raid last Thursday. Initially the military ordered them to evacuate by 3 pm today, but Netanyahu stepped in and requested a delay. The situation is now on hold. The settlers are still occupying the property, only now they are being protected by the very same military who previously ordered them to evacuate."
Can your guest discuss how Israeli illegal settlements continue to expand. When will your show do a whole hour on this topic?
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/showdown-in-hebron-netanyahu-steps-in-to-p...
Former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit Micheal Scheuer has stated that Israel has every right to protect its national security At Micheal Scheuer's website...
http://non-intervention.com/
quote "Too often, I believe, Americans think about Washington’s interventionism only as the actual physical intervention of U.S. military forces abroad in places where no U.S. interest is at risk. That activity certainly is intervention, but President Obama’s despicable decision last week to have his administration leak intelligence claiming that Israel has concluded an agreement with the government of Azerbaijan to allow its use of Azeri airfields for an air strike on Iran is just as much an unwarranted intervention by the United States government.
Readers of this blog will know that I carry no brief for Israel, that I believe it is a state that is irrelevant to U.S. national interests, and one whose U.S.-citizen supporters are disloyal to America and involved in activities that compromise U.S. security and corrupt the U.S. political system. That said, Israel — like the United States and all other nations — has an absolute right to defend itself when it deems it necessary to do so. The right of self-defense is the first and most important right of both individuals and nations. While Israel has no right to exist — and neither does America or any other nation, for that matter — it has an absolute right to defend its national interests according to its own best lights."
Can your guest address this disclosure about Israel allegedly getting permission to use these airfields. Is this just another strong indicator that Israel will pre-emptively strike Iran?
I don't know if you were going to discuss the recent events in Mali, a key country in West Africa with a long history of democratic rule and an open society, but I would very much like to hear the panelists' analysis. The coup d'etat and the sudden expansion of Tuareg and Islamist military activity there, leading to yesterday's declaration of a new state (Azawad) in the country's north, should be of concern to Americans and people all over the world. This is an astounding and tragic turn of events!
--Victoria, Gainesville, FL
This madness on the global stage is a result of the war between the shia mafia run by the mullahs in Iran and the sunni mafia run by Saudi Arabia, which owns Pakistan and runs the system of "education" in Pakistan. It will get even worse.
Tom Gjelten seemed genuinely surprised at the notion that the violence in Mexico might be deserving of more coverage relative to that routinely being alloted to the conflict in Syria. I'm not going to try to rate their relative importance to the average NPR listener. But I would like to suggest that there has been a tremendous excess of NPR coverage devoted to the portion of the earth that stretches from Libya to Pakistan in the past year. I wish somebody involved with scheduling at the DR Show would peruse transcripts of the many shows devoted to Syria or, say, Egyptian elections or prospects for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, or the notion that Israel might attack Iranian nuclear facilities and endeavor to document the incredible repetition (or even absolute identity) in the content of sentences uttered on these programs. Not only is Mexico being underreported, but there is an entire continent to the south of us that the DR Show and other NPR programs virtually never address. Maybe if there is an earthquake in Chile, a capture of some Columbian rebel, or an operation on Chavez we might hear about South America. But I've heard absolutely nothing on the DR Show, or on the allegedly ALL Things Considered, about Brazil's plans for a ridiculous number of Amazonian dams or of the hazards to life for indigenous and other people who try to oppose illegal deforestation. How about a little more balance?
Diane just asked "what happenned" The Bush admininstrations Condi "mushroom cloud" Rice and Stephen Hadley ignored counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke's warnings about Al Queda. He has said this in his books, in front of congress etc. Richard Clarke said he did not get a face to face appointment with Rice until a few days before 9/11.