Friday News Roundup - International
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-08-17/friday-news-roundup-international
A helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan killed seven American troops and four Afghans. The U.S. accused Iran of building and training a Syrian militia. The eurozone economy contracted in the second quarter despite German growth. And Ecuador granted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange political asylum. Yochi Dreazen of National Journal, Indira Lakshmanan of Bloomberg News and Thom Shanker of The New York Times join guest host Tom Gjelten of NPR for analysis of the week's top international news stories.
Guests
Yochi Dreazen
senior national security correspondent for National Journal magazine.
Indira Lakshmanan
senior correspondent covering foreign policy for Bloomberg News.
Thom Shanker
Pentagon correspondent for The New York Times and co-author of "Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda."
Comments
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I strongly disagree that this is the "nastiest the earliest" campaign ever.
I seem to remember Clinton being called a murderer and drug dealer rapist for eight years.
Millions of dollars were spent to convince voters that John Kerry was lying about his heroic service in the Vietnam War. In fact that campaign spawned a new word in the political lexicon for repeatedly lying about an opponents strengths. Swift-boating.
Finally the current president is constantly called "un american", "pals around with terrorists",
"muslim". You get the picture.
I think the only difference this campaign is Democrats aren't going to take it lying down any more!
I heard one of the enlisted men in Afghanistan describe the Taliban, at this point (about a year or two ago) as any pissed off Pashtun. At this point, between drone killings, collateral "damage" (civilian deaths) and outright war crimes there are a LOT of pissed off Pashtuns. Can someone tell me what is the specific goal to be gained by staying in Afghanistan and the specific exit strategy?
It's no accident that Peres and Netanyahu are publicly at loggerheads.
Shemon Peres was softened up by Obama for Obama's agenda: Obama gave Peres the Medal of Freedom in June 2012.
For the last three years, Obama has been seeking to undermine Netanyahu as much as he can. Now, too. See "How Obama Fights Israel over Iran: Four groups campaign to oust Netanyahu and stop Israel attacking Iran. " debka.com
So far, Obama's Middle Eastern policies have run the spectrum: from ineffective to disastrous (Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Cairo speech inflaming the Middle East, Libyan involvement, fruitless negotiations with Iran while Iran speedily moves forward on nuclear bomb development, etc.)
Therefore, Israel must take steps necessary to protect its survival.
Obama is not "present," no matter what he says to court American Jewish votes.
No in depth analysis of the Julian Assange Ecuador asylum story. Lots of coverage of the Pussy Riot trial. Analysis of Syria that could have been written by AIPAC.
Just another Friday on the DR Show...
Real reporters would know of a leak to the "private intelligence" firm Stratfor that sealed indictments against Assange have already been handed down.
Dreazen's contempt for Assange is palpable.
Still waiting for real experts to discuss how Israeli nuclear hegemony is propelling the current round of anti-Iran propaganda. Suggested real experts:
Philip Giraldi
Ray McGovern
Avner Cohen
The three artists (performance artists/musicians) persecuted by the Orthodox church and Russian state deserve so much better than to repeatedly be called 'girls'. They are brave adult women willing to put themselves at risk of grave harm to promote the basic human right of political speech. Your flippant, catty 'commentators' did Ms. Rehm's show a disservice by joking about the band's name and using the diminutive 'girl' to refer to political prisoners.
Does anyone really think that if this act of art and protest was done by three men in their 20s that they would be referred to as a 'boy' band???
Are the self-important, urbane-wannabe news 'analysts' so delicate that they had to engage in condescending euphemism rather than say 'Pussy' in fear that some listeners might choose to interpret a word with multiple definitions to refer to a female primary sexual characteristic? How 'urbane' is it exactly to explicitly reinforce the taboo status of both vulgar, but harmless, slang as well as the implicit cultural construct that some parts of the female anatomy are unspeakable?
What a serious fail of a discussion! A modern nation, & arguable 'super power', is now blatantly sentencing political prisoners to hard labor for engaging in political speech, and all one of the most serious news programs in this country can do with that info is titter & giggle like junior high mean girls over an issue as superficial as the name of the band and the color and style of their clothes???
'Girl band'. Pathetic.
"IRmep wrote:
Real reporters would know of a leak to the "private intelligence" firm Stratfor that sealed indictments against Assange have already been handed down.
Dreazen's contempt for Assange is palpable.
August 17, 2012 - 11:54 am"
I didn't notice that, but Dreazen was a bit more measured than the other two Kabal Hacks and Hair on Fire Gjelten.
The NYTimes (as usual) refused my reminder of the shameful Brit protection of Pinochet and my opinion that Assange had no obligation to protect American Classified Documents.
He is not a Citizen (No Treason), did not take the documents (No Espionage) and made no agreements with the US to observe any Security Rules.
Only our post Reagan/Bush Rogue status allows us to do anything to anybody anywhere for any reason without any resistance from our NATO Thugocracy.
If Shanker is allowed to publish,"Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda.", WITF didn't the Jew Rag he works for tell the untold story instead??
Monte Haun mchaun@hotmail.com
The compassion in the the propaganda artists voice is moooving to say the least... for this punk band that insults Orthodox Church. These propaganda artists (guest presstitutes) are deviant and have not a moral bone in their bodies!
The phoney shock at Iran being involved is laughable! The criminal regime of Bush in 2006 started training Syrian Sunni revolutionaries in Turkey for this criminal war! I believe what a Syrian Nun has to say what is going on in Syria over these propaganda artists! The FSA are fighting in residential neighborhoods and raping and steel from the civilians along with their ally Al-Qaeda! The Syrian Army is conducting itself mostly professional and people feel secure! You will not hear any positive stories on why Christians support Assad on Public Radio news shows, which the hosts parrots the establishments propaganda! Assad is no Saint and Christians know this but there is freedom to practice your religion! The Arab Spring has only produced Sharia Law!
Is it not funny when US military went into residential areas in Iraq and civilians were killed we never knew how many like we know in Syria! They were just called collateral damage no names or faces of the victims ops... collateral damaged units! When did the USA fall to the dark side???
Thousands of Christians have fled Syria after being accused of supporting the Assad regime or observing a “Western religion.” Church groups report that some believers have even been killed. Among those killed was Atallah Ibrahim Bitar, who was shot to death while taking food to people forced into hiding by a week-long bombardment, according to Christian aid workers. Most of the 10,000 Christian residents have left the area of Qusayr, near Homs, “after reportedly being given an ultimatum to leave, a threat which was also echoed by the mosques,” according to aid workers in the region. Workers with another ministry described the city as “an extremely dangerous place for those who remain and it is clear that Christians no longer feel safe in their homes.” According to a Dutch aid group, 90 percent of Christians living in Homs fled after “fanatics” forced them to leave their homes. An estimated 50,000 people have fled Homs since February. Source: BosNewsLife
The MSM has lost its credibility with the American people! I drive an 18 wheeler, I can't find anyone who has total faith in the MSM to do the right thing! Americans are very cynical when crimes by government officials, regulators, law enforcement , etc... the investor banksters, Wall Street crime syndicate, etc... get away with taking peoples lives and livlyhood with no outrage or demands for justice from these propaganda artists! All their passion goes to perversities and distractions like pussy riot... disgusting!