ha! ha! don’t worry, be happy!

Russia suspends Iskander missile exports to equip military
MOSCOW, November 12 (RIA Novosti)

Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Wednesday it was not planning to export Iskander tactical missile systems until Russia’s Armed Forces have been fully supplied with them. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said earlier this month the country would deploy Iskander-M systems with a range of 500 km in the Kaliningrad exclave, sandwiched between NATO members Lithuania and Poland, to “neutralize if necessary” a proposed US missile defense system in Central Europe. “There will be a break in Iskander supplies abroad until we have supplied the Russian Armed Forces with them,” Nikolai Dimidyuk, a senior Rosoboronexport official, said, adding the companies producing the systems are not facing financial problems despite the ongoing credit crisis. However, Dimidyuk said neighboring Belarus would be supplied with the Iskander-E system, which is a shorter-range export version of the Iskander-M. The decision was announced in 2007 and was prompted by the proposed missile shield elements in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Medvedev’s move sparked a wave of criticism in Europe, while some experts in Russia have expressed doubts over the reliability of Moscow’s response to Washington’s missile shield plans. The relatively new Iskander missiles have only been subject to test firing. Although the tests were reported to have been successful, some experts believe it will be impossible to set up the five proposed Iskander brigades in Kaliningrad over the next 4-5 years due to a lack of production facilities and a workforce shortage. Kommersant daily earlier reported the army has been hit by delays in Iskander deliveries since 2005. A training battalion in southern Russia’s testing ground Kapustin Yar is the only unit armed with four Iskander systems so far. The planned brigades in Kaliningrad require 60 systems as well as other equipment. Dimidyuk earlier said a number of countries, including Syria, the UAE, Malaysia and India, had shown an interest in the missile system. Earlier Russia was reported to be interested in exporting the Iskander-E to Algeria, Kuwait, Singapore, Vietnam, and South Korea. The Iskander-E is a tactical surface-to-surface missile complex designed to deliver high-precision strikes at a variety of ground targets at a range of up to 280 km. It carries a single warhead with a payload of 400kg to comply with the limits laid down by the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

wayne madsen’s subscribers only scoop

FBI file on Rahm Emanuel? Obama faced with
security problem at outset of transition process
Wayne Madsen Report, Nov 6 2008

WMR has learned from informed US intelligence sources that Rahm Emanuel has an active FBI counter-intelligence file maintained on him. Emanuel’s rise to the Chief of Staff position may pose a significant security problem for Obama, if the FBI insists on conducting the full background security investigation normally required for senior White House officials. Questions about Emanuel’s links to the Mossad were allegedly so great that Clinton was forced to dismiss Emanuel from the White House staff in 1998. One of the FBI agents who discovered Emanuel’s dealings with Israeli intelligence was, according to our sources, the late FBI counter-terrorism Assistant Director, John O’Neill. He, and another FBI agent who still works for the bureau, discovered that Emanuel was heavily involved in the decision to place Lewinsky close to Clinton. O’Neill retired after being set up in a smear operation involving a temporarily stolen briefcase in 2001, accepted the top security position for Kroll Associates at the WTC, and was killed in the 9/11 attack. Clinton reportedly had knowledge of Israeli intelligence penetration of White House communications systems, and Lewinsky, in sworn testimony before the Office of Independent Counsel, stated:

He suspected that a foreign embassy was tapping his telephones, and he proposed cover stories. If ever questioned, she should say that the two of them were just friends. If anyone ever asked about their phone sex, she should say that they knew their calls were being monitored all along, and the phone sex was just a put-on.

It is now known that the ‘foreign embassy’ was that of Israel. WMR has learned from US intelligence sources that Emanuel was discovered to be part of a political intelligence and blackmail operation directed against Clinton by Israel. We have also learned that the FBI investigation of Emanuel is part of a file code-named Mega, a reference to a top-level Mossad agent in the Reagan administration, who was said to have run a number of Israeli agents, including US Navy spy Jonathan Pollard.

spoof NYT says war is over

see http://www.nytimes-se.com/

November 12, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
writers@nytimes-se.com
917-202-5479
718-208-0684
415-533-3961

“SPECIAL” NEW YORK TIMES BLANKETS CITIES
WITH MESSAGE OF HOPE AND CHANGE
Thousands of volunteers behind elaborate operation

Ongoing video releases

The NYT responds

Hundreds of independent writers, artists, and activists are claiming credit for an elaborate project, 6 months in the making, in which 1.2m copies of a “special edition” of the New York Times were distributed in cities across the US by thousands of volunteers. The papers, dated July 4th of next year, were headlined with long-awaited news: IRAQ WAR ENDS. The edition, which bears the same look and feel as the real deal, includes stories describing what the future could hold: national health care, the abolition of corporate lobbying, a maximum wage for CEOs, etc. “Is this true?  I wish it were true!” said one reader. “It can be true, if we demand it.” Steve Lambert, one of the project’s organizers and an editor of the paper, said:

We wanted to experience what it would look like, and feel like, to read headlines we really want to read. It’s about what’s possible, if we think big and act collectively.

Beka Economopoulos, one of the project’s organizers, said:

This election was a massive referendum on change. There’s a lot of hope in the air, but there’s a lot of uncertainty too. It’s up to all of us now to make these headlines come true.

Andy Bichlbaum, another project organizer and editor of the paper, said:

It doesn’t stop here. We gave Obama a mandate, but he’ll need mandate after mandate after mandate to do what we elected him to do. He’ll need a lot of support, and yes, a lot of pressure.

The people behind the project are involved in a diverse range of groups, including The Yes Men, the Anti-Advertising Agency, CODEPINK, United for Peace and Justice, Not An Alternative, May First/People Link, Improv Everywhere, Evil Twin, and Cultures of Resistance.

the indispensible sarah posner

Looking Ahead at Abortion Issues in the Obama Administration.
Fundamentalist #56, American Prospect (extract)

Obama has signaled he will reverse Bush executive orders restricting stem-cell research and requiring an emphasis on abstinence rather than on condom use in the global AIDS relief program. Obama has also said he will reverse the global gag rule, which prohibits international family-planning organizations receiving U.S. aid from discussing the availability of abortion with their clients. All these Bush executive orders were considered great victories by the religious right, and while they are powerless to stop Obama from reversing them, Obama’s election has provided them fundraising fodder.

This week the Family Research Council began raising money for its new effort, “Our Finest Hour: The FRC Plan to Reverse the Threat to Our Values and Freedom.” The FRC promises to build a “Capitol Hill Firewall” by “supplying conservative and genuinely centrist members of Congress with the facts and answers they will use to stop the radical agenda of the Left”; a “Supreme Court Firewall” to encourage the Senate to reject “radical judicial activist nominees”; and a “National Firestorm of facts through a media strategy that will expose the extremism of leaders in the White House and Congress. FRC will prepare a conservative, pro-family comeback as Americans see the true liberal agenda.”

But the FRC, which is boasting that the religious right has risen from the ashes before, is facing a much different political and media environment and progressive infrastructure than it has in the past. In addition, the religious right faces competition from more centrist evangelical and Catholic activists who will be vying for Congress’ attention, particularly with proposals to reduce abortions. Even Obama himself — who was criticized by some centrist evangelicals for not talking about abortion reduction enough on the campaign trail — has developed a relationship with a prominent proponent of abortion reduction, the conservative mega-church pastor Joel Hunter, who prayed with Obama on election night.

Some observers, like Dan Gilgoff at Beliefnet, point to the abortion-reduction advocates as evidence of an emerging religious left. But the abortion reduction advocates, like Hunter and the signatories of last year’s Come Let Us Reason Together paper from the Third Way, tend to be center-right, with their rhetoric focusing more on the moral tragedy of abortion rather than on the personal autonomy of women. There is a real religious left building out there, too, as evidenced by the thoughtful essays compiled in the new book edited by Frederick Clarkson, a longtime chronicler of the religious right, Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America. The “new evangelicals” have gotten a lot of press, but the new organizing of the religious left should start getting some attention now, too.

whoa, wot a scorcher

Tzipi Livni met Wednesday night with Ban Ki-moon and expressed Israel’s protest over the ongoing arms smuggling from Syria to Hizbullah in Lebanon. Livni demanded that the Security Council respond to the violation of its resolution, stating that Hizbullah must be disarmed and that the weapon smuggling must be halted. Livni told Ban:

The ongoing arms smuggling constitutes a blatant violation of the Security Council resolutions. Syria, which wants to receive legitimization from the world, must be faced with a clear statement from the Council, making it responsible for the continued smuggling, which endangers the entire region and contradicts Syria’s commitments to the Security Council. Halting the weapon smuggling will not be doing a favor to Israel.

The UN chief expressed his concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Livni, however, said the Palestinian side was fully responsible for the situation:

If we’re asking who is responsible for the situation in Gaza, there is only one address – Hamas. Hamas is responsible for what is happening in Gaza, terror from Gaza continues, and we must not take any action which will even seemingly legitimize Hamas’ regime or activity.

Livni also informed Ban that Israel would be boycotting the Durban conference, urging the UN chief to make a clear and moral statement on this issue as soon as possible:

Israel will boycott any conference serving as a stage for anti-Semitic and anti-Israel activity. The UN must not host such activities again.

behind all the nuclear nonsense

‘Spy’ admits to surveying Mugniyah assassination site
Roee Nahmias, YNet, Nov 13 2008

Lebanese officials believe that the “Israeli espionage network” uncovered recently was involved in the assassination of senior Hizbullah commander Imad Mugniyah. Security sources told the As-Safir newspaper on Wednesday that the network’s leader, Ali al-Jarah, had confessed to his investigators that he was ordered to survey the Kafr Sousa neighborhood in Damascus, where Mugniyah was killed by a car bomb in February. According to the report, al-Jarah also admitted that he was later asked to reconnoiter the Syrian port city of Tartus, where senior officer Mohammed Suleiman was assassinated several months ago. The Lebanese security sources estimated that al-Jarah and his brother Yusuf were recruited by the Israeli intelligence in 1982, and have since carried out many missions. According to the report, Ali al-Jarah also operated in additional Arab capitals apart from Damascus and Beirut and used a “military vehicle” provided to him to ease his movements. The investigators are now checking whether additional al-Jarah brothers are involved in the network and have also worked for Israel. As-Safir was the paper which revealed that the two espionage suspects were arrested about two weeks ago (see below – RB). The Lebanese army confirmed some of the details the same day.

Report: Lebanon uncovers espionage ring working for Israel
Roee Nahmias, YNet, Nov 1 2008

The Lebanese army has uncovered an espionage ring operated by Israel for many years, the country’s as-Safir daily news reported. The report said it was the second such ring discovered in two years. The other alleged spy network was exposed in 2006. The daily reported that Lebanese intelligence began gathering information on the suspected spies after the Second Lebanon War, in an attempt to expose agents collaborating with Israeli intelligence in different areas of the country. The information led to the arrest of the main suspect in the case, A.G. The alleged spy is a resident of one of the country’s western Beqaa Valley villages. Since the ’80s he has been known for his political relations with various Palestinian organizations, which allowed him diplomatic freedom of movement within Lebanon. According to the allegations, he has been collaborating with Israel since that time. A.G’s home was searched, and witnesses reported that security officials broke into his apartment and confiscated his vehicle. Security forces reported after searching the car that a highly advanced camera able to photograph minute details was found within. Witnesses said the man had been in contact with a number of agents, and that his missions included driving through roadways connecting Lebanon with Syria, occasionally stopping to photograph sensitive areas. Sources familiar with the case told the paper that one of the man’s family members has also been detained, and admitted to collaborating with Israeli intelligence agents. He said he had been charged with a number of reconnaissance tasks including roadways, convoys, and military bases. During the interrogation the main suspect admitted to have enlisted a number of agents, and documents confiscated from his home testify to his involvement in the ring, as well as his use of high-tech means to keep in touch with Israeli operators, the report added. Sources said the network has been operating for over 20 years, and was responsible for mapping out the Beqaa Valley, including Syrian military bases and Palestinian sites. Recently, as-Safir reported, the spies have been pursuing Hizbullah operatives and outposts. The ring was said to have operated in Syria as well, where it is suspected to have mapped out areas in Damascus such as Kfar Sousa, the secure neighborhood in which Hizbullah leader Imad Mugniyah was killed in February by a car bomb. Investigators are currently attempting to link the espionage ring to Mugniyah’s murder, as well as to divine its function in the transfer of information to Israel, the report said.

rahm’s real loyalty: wall street or israel?

Obama picks pro-Israel hardliner for top post
Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada, 5 Nov 2008

As White House political director in the first Clinton administration, Emanuel orchestrated the famous 1993 signing ceremony of the “Declaration of Principles” between Arafat and Rabin. Emanuel was elected to Congress representing a north Chicago district in 2002 and he is credited with a key role in delivering a Democratic majority in the 2006 mid-term elections. He has been a prominent supporter of neoliberal economic policies on free trade and welfare reform. One of the most influential politicians and fundraisers in his party, Emanuel accompanied Obama to a meeting of AIPAC’s executive board just after the Illinois senator had addressed the pro-Israel lobby’s conference last June.

In Congress, Emanuel has been a consistent and vocal pro-Israel hardliner, sometimes more so than Bush. In Jun 2003, for example, he signed a letter criticizing Bush for being insufficiently supportive of Israel. “We were deeply dismayed to hear your criticism of Israel for fighting acts of terror,” Emanuel, along with 33 other Democrats wrote to Bush. The letter said that Israel’s policy of assassinating Palestinian political leaders “was clearly justified as an application of Israel’s right to self-defense” (“Pelosi supports Israel’s attacks on Hamas group,” San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Jun 2003). In Jul 2006, Emanuel was one of several members who called for the cancellation of a speech to Congress by visiting Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki because al-Maliki had criticized Israel’s bombing of Lebanon. Emanuel called the Lebanese and Palestinian governments “totalitarian entities with militias and terrorists acting as democracies,” in a 19 Jul 2006 speech supporting a House resolution backing Israel’s bombing of both countries that caused thousands of civilian victims.

Emanuel has sometimes posed as a defender of Palestinian lives, though never from the constant Israeli violence that is responsible for the vast majority of deaths and injuries. On 14 Jun 2007 he wrote to Rice “on behalf of students in the Gaza Strip whose future is threatened by the ongoing fighting there” which he blamed on “the violence and militancy of their elders.” In fact, the fighting between members of Hamas and Fatah, which claimed dozens of lives, was the result of a failed scheme by US-backed militias to violently overthrow the elected Hamas-led national unity government. Emanuel’s letter urged Rice “to work with allies in the region, such as Egypt and Jordan, to either find a secure location in Gaza for these students, or to transport them to a neighboring country where they can study and take their exams in peace.” Palestinians often view such proposals as a pretext to permanently “transfer” them from their country, as many Israeli leaders have threatened. Emanuel has never said anything in support of millions of Palestinian children whose education has been disrupted by Israeli occupation, closures and blockades.

Emanuel has also used his position to explicitly push Israel’s interests in normalizing relations with Arab states and isolating Hamas. In 2006 he initiated a letter to Bush opposing UAE-based Dubai Ports World’s attempt to buy the management business of six US seaports. The letter, signed by dozens of other lawmakers, stated that “The UAE has pledged to provide financial support to the Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority and openly participates in the Arab League boycott against Israel.” It argued that allowing the deal to go through “not only could place the safety and security of US ports at risk, but enhance the ability of the UAE to bolster the Hamas regime and its efforts to promote terrorism and violence against Israel” (“Dems Tie Israel, Ports,” Forward, 10 Mar 2006).

Obama’s Pick for Chief of Staff Tops
Recipients of Wall Street Money
Lindsay Renick Mayer, Open Secrets, Nov 5 2008

A day after being elected president and acknowledging “the worst financial crisis in a century,” Barack Obama asked one of the biggest recipients of Wall Street campaign contributions to be his chief of staff. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois congressman who was an aide in the Clinton White House, was the top House recipient in the 2008 election cycle of contributions from hedge funds, private equity firms and the larger securities/investment industry — not the most popular of industries in the current economy. Since being elected to Congress in 2002, after working as an investment banker, Emanuel has received more money from individuals and PACs in the securities and investment business than any other industry.

Emanuel knows how to raise money for political campaigns, and there aren’t many better places to find it than Wall Street. Fundraising was Emanuel’s job for Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, and in 2006 he helped Democrats collect enough cash to retake the House of Representatives when he was head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. For his 2008 re-election, Emanuel raised more than $2.7m yet faced no serious opposition in his Chicago district. Since being elected to the House six years ago, he has collected $1.5m from the investment industry, with lawyers and law firms and the entertainment industry coming in at a distant second and third place ($682.9k and $376.1k). As a member of the powerful House Ways & Means Committee — which has jurisdiction over tax legislation, Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs — Emanuel is a popular industry target. Private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners has given Emanuel more than any other contributor over his career at $93.6k. Emanuel and Obama have more than just Chicago in common; investment bank UBS, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are among both men’s lists of top donors. Emanuel, who is currently the No. 4 Democrat in the House, has also collected $136.64k from the lobbying industry during his career, making K Street his 13th most generous industry. Obama, on the other hand, eschewed contributions from registered lobbyists for the presidential race.

Obama also refused contributions from PACs, an easy task when only about 1% of presidential contributions come from these committees. PACs have given Emanuel about 29% of his total since he was first elected to Congress in 2002. During his time in Congress, Obama has collected $2k from Emanuel’s leadership PAC, Our Common Values PAC, but hasn’t received any money from his possible future chief of staff since 2004. Through his PAC, Emanuel has given other lawmakers and candidates 78% of the total $2.3m he’s raised since the 2004 election cycle. Emanuel was an investment banker between the Clinton administration and his election to Congress and reported a net worth in 2007 of between $5m and $13.2m (lawmakers report their assets and liabilities in ranges). That would make him the 34th wealthiest member of the House.

j’lem: national-religious vs. haredim

Subdued Mea She’arim bemoans disunity
Abe Selig, JPost

A sense of gloom hung over Mea She’arim on Wednesday afternoon, as the sting of haredi Jerusalem mayoral hopeful Meir Porush’s loss to the secular Nir Barkat was still being digested. The hustling buzz of haredim on their way to the polling stations on Tuesday was gone, and the quiet, subdued manner that often characterizes this modest enclave returned. Whereas Tuesday’s excitement gave way to an abundance of locals willing to talk to the press — an anomaly here — Wednesday saw a rescinding of that relationship and a withdrawn, disenchanted community with very little to say. “I’m not involved in politics,” was a common answer from shopkeepers and yeshiva students, even though the majority of the neighborhood — the same one that had worked diligently to promote its candidate across the city — had been not only involved in the election, but engrossed in it. “I don’t pay attention to those things,” others said, as the now obsolete posters of a cartoon Porush blew in the wind from apartment balconies above. Near the entrance to the Geula neighborhood, a fruit vendor who gave his name as Ilan tried to break it down. “It’s quiet here today,” he said. “It’s the quiet after the boom. Porush’s loss is a big blow, and everyone here is still traumatized.”

Ilan added that word on the street was focusing on the Ger Hassidim, who came out against Porush due to internal strife and, in some cases, purportedly campaigned on behalf of Barkat. “I think most of the blame is going toward the Ger,” Ilan said. “Porush made a deal with the Satmar, so the Ger went against Porush. What happened in the end? Porush lost, and we have a mayor of Jerusalem who doesn’t keep Shabbat.” He grimaced a bit at the thought. “Still, it doesn’t matter. What we need to realize, all of the Orthodox Jews in this city, is that we have to be unified. We split up into our groups, with our fights, and look what we got. He gave us a bill to pay,” Ilan said, pointing at the sky. Outside a nearby bookstore, a haredi man named Eli also aired his grievances. “We suffered from two problems,” he said. “The national-religious and our own people who didn’t go out and vote. We as a group have to realize that if we’re not together, then we’re weak. But am I worried about Barkat?” he smiled. “Nir Barkat has to realize that now he needs us more than we need him.” Still, Eli said he put most of the blame on the national-religious, many of whom supported Barkat. “I don’t understand how they could vote for him,” Eli said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

Across town in Kiryat Moshe, however, the national-religious crowd made itself clear. “We don’t approve of the haredim, and they don’t approve of us,” said Yehoshua, who learns at an area yeshiva. “I voted Barkat, not because of what I think he’ll do for the city, but because I was afraid of what Porush would do. We don’t dress like them for a reason, and I’m afraid [Porush] would have dealt with us badly.” Still, others said they had supported Porush, and now they were awaiting the consequences of a Barkat victory. “The kippa sruga (knitted skullcaps, national-religious – RB) who voted for Barkat are the biggest suckers,” said Dudu, as he served food at a sandwich shop nearby. “They go to the army, they work and pay taxes, and look what the government does to them — just look at Gush Katif.” Dudu explained that by voting in Barkat, the national-religious were, he felt, overlooking their own religious obligations. “He’s going to allow the Gay Pride Parade to come here, to Jerusalem, the holiest city to Jews,” Dudu said of Barkat. But Ya’acov, Dudu’s co-worker, chimed in, “I think everyone is out for their own pocket. It doesn’t matter whom you vote for — this one, that one, in the end they’re all the same.”