Saturday, September 12, 2009
CHINA CONFIDENTIAL
Venezuela Getting Russian Rockets
The Monroe Doctrine is dead.
Venezuela's anti-American, Iran-supporting strongman, Hugo Chavez, is getting all the arms he wants from Russia, including "little rockets." Click here for the story.
In other news, Spain's giant energy company, Repsol, says it has discovered one of the world's largest gas reserves off Venezuela's coast. Clickhere.Friday, September 11, 2009
Obama Caving on Two Foreign Policy Fronts
Click here and here. The symmetry is striking--and depressing. Suddenly, the United States is ready to accept (a) a six-nation forum for meaningless dialogue with nuclear-arming, Islamist Iran, and (b) abandonment of the six-party platform for nuclear disarmament talks with Stalinist/Kimist North Korea.
All that ... on the eighth anniversary of the worst-ever attacks on U.S. soil.Al Qaeda Terrorist Traveling With Saudi Passport
A would-be dirty bomber, one of the world's most wanted terrorists, has been traveling across the Middle East, courtesy a Saudi diplomatic passport. Click here for the story, andhere for his FBI profile.Ancient Synagogue Found in Northern Israel
Flight to Quality: Gold Ends Above $1,000
Click here.
China Confidential analysts say the next target is $1,400--up $200 from the most recent forecast.
A China Confidential commodities analyst reports: The U.S. dollar showed weakness against all currencies of major nations this week. Even the Chinese renminbi, which has been virtually frozen at 6.84 per dollar, crept up slightly to 6.83 per dollar.
Perhaps most notable among global currency changes is the surge being made by the New Zealand dollar, which is now at NZ$1.43 ($0.699), as opposed to last week's closing at NZ$1.46 ($0.684).
The Brazilian Real has also strengthened, moving from 1.85 per dollar at week's opening to 1.83 today.Taiwan's Chen Sentenced to Life in Prison
'Grand Jihad' Against America Exposed
49% of US Say Sept. 11 Impact Forgotten By Most
Forty-nine percent (49%) of Americans believe that most of their fellow countrymen have already forgotten the impact of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in which 3,000 died.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey in conjunction with the eighth anniversary of the attacks finds that 39% disagree and do not think most Americans have forgotten the impact of that day. Twelve percent (12%) are not sure.
Men are more likely than women to think most Americans have forgotten the impact of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. That view is held more strongly by adults 40 to 64 than those in other age groups.
Republicans are more than twice as likely as Democrats to say most Americans have forgotten the impact of the events of September 11, a view shared by 52% of adults not affiliated with either political party.
Sixty-six percent (66%) of Americans say it is at least somewhat likely that another 9/11 will take place in the United States in the next 10 years. Thirty-six percent (36%) say it is very likely. Twenty-two percent (22%) say such an attack is not very likely, but only two percent (2%) say it’s not at all likely.
Change for the Worse
Nearly three-out-of-five Americans (59%) say the country has changed for the worse since those attacks. Just 16% say America has changed for the better, while 14% believe there has been no change as a result of 9/11.
Interestingly, one year after the attacks, 57% said America had changed for the better while just 23% said worse. But by the second anniversary of 9/11, only 38% said the United States had changed for the better and 47% said it had changed for the worse.
One obvious change, however, is the increase in security precautions surrounding airline travel. But 31% of Americans say the increased security precautions stemming from the September 11 attacks are more hassle than they’re worth. Fifty-one percent (51%) disagree and say the precautions are worth any trouble they cause. Seventeen percent (17%) are undecided.
Although the United States took military action against Afghanistan and Iraq in response to the 9/11 attacks, 42% expect the amount of terrorism in the world to increase when U.S. forces leave those countries. Republicans believe this much more strongly than Democrats and unaffiliated adults.
Nineteen percent (19%) of adults say the amount of terrorism will decrease after the United States leaves Iraq and Afghanistan, while 21% think it will stay about the same and 17% are unsure.
Al Qaeda's Strength
Twenty-seven percent (27%) say Al Qaeda is stronger today than before 9/11, but 25% say the terrorist group is weaker. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say its strength is about the same.
Seventy-one percent (71%) believe al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of 9/11, is still alive, but most Americans (56%) don’t think his death or capture will make the United States safer.
Forty-nine percent (49%) of Americans believe it is at least somewhat likely that there will be a significant terrorist attack in the United States in the next year. Still, that figure is down from 70% in the summer of 2007 and 58% in December 2008.
American confidence in how the United States is doing in the War on Terror has fallen, and voters are now evenly divided on the question of whether America is safer today than it was before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks: 41% say yes, 41% say no, and 18% are unsure. These are the lowest findings on this question in months.
Americans still tend to see more enemies than friends in the Middle East, and despite President Obama’s outreach efforts, they show no increase in confidence that the U.S. relationship with the Muslim world is improving.
Seventy-five percent (75%) of U.S. voters are at least somewhat concerned that dangerous terrorists will be set free if the Guantanamo prison camp is closed as Obama plans and some prisoners are transferred to other countries.Nuclear-Arming Iran Increasingly Defiant
Regarding its nuclear program, Iran is increasingly, openly defiant. Click here for the story.
Backed up by resurgent Russia and rising China--which refuse to support truly tough sanctions against Iran--the turbaned tyranny clearly believes it is about to achieve its atomic aims. Iran knows that the United States is unwilling to use force to stop Iran from developing nuclear bombs and warheads. Iran also knows--simply from monitoring U.S. media--that its adversary lacks the political will to organize and lead a crippling blockade of Iranian crude oil exports and refined oil imports that could quickly escalate into a shooting war.
That leaves Israel on its own. It must act--alone--to end the Iranian nuclear threat before it ends the Jewish State. Trouble is, Iran has a formidable arsenal of ballistic missiles; and its Lebanese Islamist proxy, Hitlerian Hezbollah, is also bristling with missiles. As such, Iranian/Hezbollah threats to "burn Tel Aviv" and bomb Israel's own nuclear installations must be taken seriously. It must be assumed that Iran means what it says and says what it means in this regard. Not for nothing have Iran's leaders mused publicly about a "world without America and Israel." Not for nothing has Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps test-fired ballistic missiles from cargo ships--with North Korean help.
The Case for Preemptive Strikes
Conclusion: the case for preemptive nuclear strikes on Iranian nuclear and missile sites--and IRGC bases--grows stronger by the day. Israel is a "one bomb country," as its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said. It cannot afford the risk of being hit by a nuclear sneak attack. Neither can Israel afford the risk of experiencing missile bombardments that would result in the rubbling of its main population centers.
Tragically, U.S. appeasement of Islamist Iran--and Islamism in general--has made war inevitable. It is up to Israel to defend its citizens and make sure that the coming conflict is not fought on Iran's terms. For Israel, a nation reborn in the aftermath of the Holocaust--after 2,000 years of Jewish persecution and wandering--nothing else matters.
An energy-hungry world has cynically stood by and watched while Israel has been painted into a corner by a wannabe Hitler--because the country he heads is rich in oil. Now, that same oil-dependent world will have to live with the nightmarish situation it has wrought.A Fatal Error?
Eight years after the 9/11 attacks on the United States by Al Qaeda, which were launched from Afghanistan, the country's former rulers are rapidly regaining ground and poised for a complete comeback.
That the Taliban still exist is bad enough. That they are winning the war in Afghanistan is inexcusable--but not surprising. Instead of utterly destroying and defeating its Islamist foes, the U.S. dislodged them. Taliban leader Mullah Omar and his most senior commanders--along with Al Qaeda leader Osama Binladen and his most senior henchmen--were inexplicably allowed to escape into neighboring Pakistan instead of being wiped off the face of the earth by any and all necessary means.
In other words, the U.S. made the mistake of wounding but not killing the venomous Islamist snake--the deadliest enemy the world has faced since the rise of Nazi Germany. Americans have paid dearly for this error. One can only hope it will not prove to be catastrophic in the months and years ahead as Islamists advance toward acquiring atomic arms.
POSTSCRIPT: George W. Bush declared war on terror instead of on radical Islam to avoid offending Muslims--meaning nuclear-armed Pakistan and oil-producing Saudi Arabia, many say. Barack Obama says he avoids using the "War on Terror" term to avoid offending Muslims, as reported here. Is there any light at the end of this tunnel of denial and deception?
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Archeologists have found one of the world's oldest synagogues, as reported here.
A Muslim American physician--who is also a U.S. Navy veteran--exposes the true, fascistic agenda of radical Islam....
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