Saturday, May 08, 2010
Is Iran Starting a Mideast Nuclear Arms Race?
Will Iran's uranium-enrichment work, which has provoked much alarm that Tehran could be seeking to build nuclear weapons, trigger a nuclear-arms race in the Middle East?
So far, the answer is no. Since 2005, more than a dozen countries in the region have announced new or renewed interest in building nuclear power plants for civilian use. But no serious voices in Cairo, Ankara, Riyadh, or other capitals have been urging the development of nuclear weapons as a way to counter the possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran.
Turkey, Egypt, and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (the GCC comprises Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf emirates) are among those considered desirous of civilian nuclear energy. Experts and politicians in these countries have argued that they need to diversify their sources of energy, in part to increase electricity production or run seawater desalination plants. Other countries lack either the technological and human infrastructure for such an undertaking or are too instable domestically to consider it.
But for many in the countries that are pushing toward nuclear technology, the quest has become a matter of national pride, a way of boosting the political prestige and influence of a country and its leadership. In the case of the GCC countries, their oil wealth bolsters the argument that what they are really after is political capital. In Egypt, the proposed nuclear project has become a major subject on the domestic political agenda of Gamal Mubarak, who reportedly seeks to succeed his father as president.
Continue reading here.Exposing Cotton, Dirtiest Crop on Earth
Despite cotton's image as being a natural and pure fiber, conventional cotton farming takes an enormous toll on the air, water, soil and people who live in cotton growing areas. In the United States, 1/3 Pound of agricultural chemicals are typically used in the production of a single cotton T-shirt.
The growth of Industrial agriculture and consolidation in the seed industry has replaced hundreds of cotton varieties with only a handful. The practice of planting thousands of acres all of the same variety is known as monoculture and has left the crop extremely vulnerable to pests and diseases and forced cotton farmers onto what is known as the "chemical treadmill."
Click here for more information.
And click here for a report on "The True Cost of Cotton."Friday, May 07, 2010
Times Square Suspect's Taliban Ties Confirmed
So much for his elite, Pakistani family. It introduced the Times Square suspect to Islamist terrorists. Click here for the story.Obama Counting on Luck to Combat Terrorism
The Washington Times:Responding to Republican charges that Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad's plot failed only because of luck, Rep. Ike Skelton, Missouri Democrat, said, "What's wrong with being lucky?"
Nothing at all - until the luck runs out.
Two potentially devastating terror attacks in five months failed only because of terrorist incompetence. Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was unable to ignite his suicide bomb, sparing the lives of passengers on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. Had Mr. Shahzad's car bomb been assembled with greater care, hundreds of people at Times Square might have been killed or wounded. They were lucky, indeed.
There was only bad luck for the victims of Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. Luck also ran out for the victims of Arkansas recruiting station shooter Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad. Each of these recent incidents reminds us that policies pursued by the Obama administration have made the United States measurably less safe from terrorist attacks.
Continue here.Hollywood Bows to Islam
Islam is now a taboo topic, as reported here, while other religions can be lampooned and mocked with no concern for so-called sensitivities.Countdown to Conflict with Iran
Big Respect for 'Gold Bugs'
IAEA SET TO FOCUS ON ISRAELI NUKES
Click here for the story.North Korea Plays Obama Like a Violin
Iran Launches Charm Offensive in NY
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Increasingly Isolated Israel, Abandoned and Betrayed by Obama, Ignoring International Pressure Over Presumed Atomic Arsenal
Israeli leaders are ignoring pressure to join the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, as reported here.
The United States is playing a key role in the campaign.
China Confidential has been reporting for over a year that the U.S., Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other countries had decided to focus attention on Israel's presumed nuclear deterrent. On April 9, 2009, for example, China Confidential said:
U.S. President Barack Obama's call for a nuclear-free world, which ironically coincided with North Korea's defiant and illegal ballistic missile test, was aimed neither at nuclear-armed North Korea nor at its nuclear-arming ally, Iran, but at a courageous, democratically governed, American ally--Israel--whose continued existence may well depend on having both nuclear arms and the political will to use them in order to prevent a second Holocaust.
Obama intends to focus attention on Israel's nuclear deterrent in an attempt to appease Iran while also currying favor with Saudi Arabia, which is competing with Iran for influence over Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that has become an Iranian proxy and is clearly committed to Israel's destruction. The Saudi King (before whom Obama bowed, deeply and submissively, when the two men met last week at the G20 summit in London) believes that Israel's military power--including its presumed arsenal of nuclear missiles--is the major source of instability in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia's English-language daily newspaper, Arab News, subsequently stated:The Obama administration may be about to rewrite a decades-old bipartisan American policy on Israel’s nuclear arsenal.
Democratic and Republican presidents previously have refused to pressure Israel to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but President Barack Obama is shaking things up.
The first hint of this change came in Prague on April 5, when Obama outlined his vision for addressing the threat presented by the proliferation of nuclear arms and how the United States could contribute to the ultimate goal of reducing the number of these weapons to zero. Then this week, Assistant US Secretary Rose Gottemoeller, the top US negotiator and head of the US delegation at the UN meeting on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), on Tuesday called for those who have refused to join the NPT to sign the nuclear pact.
Click here to continue reading the 2009 Saudi article. Bear in mind that the U.S. until Obama protected Israel's nuclear program for 40 years.
Saturday, 8 May 2010
By Abbas Djavadi
Terrorism works--against cowards.
Serious gold investors, once dismissed as loony "gold bugs," are being taken very seriously, as reported here.
The plot to put Israel under pressure over its presumed nuclear deterrent is working. Israel is coming under unprecedented scrutiny, as per the China Confidential prediction.
With China's help, the Stalinist/Kimist criminal regime is setting a new trap for the pro-appeasement Obama administration. Click here for the story.
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