Iran: Fake Intelligence to Justify a Pre-emptive Nuclear War

 The Mysterious "Laptop Documents",Using Fake Intelligence to Justify a Pre-emptive Nuclear War on Iran

By Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, November 24, 2010

The UN Security Council on June 9 2010 adopted the imposition of a fourth round of sweeping sanctions against The Islamic Republic of Iran. UNSC Resolution 1929 includes an expanded arms embargo as well as "tougher financial controls":

   “[Resolution 1929 (June 9, 2010)] Decides that all States shall prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer to Iran, from or through their territories or by their nationals or individuals subject to their jurisdiction, or using their flag vessels or aircraft, and whether or not originating in their territories, of any battle tanks, armoured combat vehicles, large calibre artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles or missile systems .... , decides further that all States shall prevent the provision to Iran by their nationals or from or through their territories of technical training, financial resources or services, advice, other services or assistance related to the supply, sale, transfer, provision, manufacture, maintenance or use of such arms and related materiel, and, in this context, calls upon all States to exercise vigilance and restraint over the supply, sale, transfer, provision, manufacture and use of all other arms and related materiel;" (Security Council Imposes Additional Sanctions on Iran, Voting 12 in Favour to 2 Against, with 1 Abstention, Includes complete text of UNSC Resolution 1929, UN News, June 9, 2010, emphasis added, )

Both the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China caved in to US pressures and voted in favor of UNSC Resolution 1929. In November, following a decree issed by president Dmitry Medvedev, Moscow announced the cancellation of its military cooperation agreement with Iran pertaining to the S300 air defense system.

Without Russian military aid, Iran is a "sitting duck". Its air defence system depends on continued Russian military cooperation.

These developments strike at the very heart of the structure of military alliances. They prevent Russia and China to sell both strategic and conventional weapons and military technology to their de facto ally: Iran. In fact, that was one of major objectives of Resolution 1929, which Washington is intent upon enforcing.

Fake Intelligence

UNSC Resolution 1929 is based on a fundamental falsehood. It upholds the notion that Iran is an upcoming nuclear power and a threat to global security. It also provides a green light to the US-NATO-Israel military alliance to threaten Iran with a pre-emptive punitive nuclear attack, using the UN Security Council as  rubber stamp.

The US stance in the UN Security Council, has in part based on alleged intelligence documents which provide  "evidence" of Iran's nuclear weapons program.

In November 2005, the New York Times published a report by William J. Broad and David E. Sanger entitled "Relying on Computer, U.S. Seeks to Prove Iran's Nuclear Aims". Washington's allegations, reported in the NYT  hinged upon documents "obtained from a stolen Iranian computer by an unknown source and given to US intelligence in 2004". (See Gareth Porter, Exclusive Report: Evidence of Iran Nuclear Weapons Program May Be Fraudulent, Global Research, November 18, 2010, emphasis added).

These documents included "a series of drawings of a missile re-entry vehicle" which allegedly could accommodate an Iranian produced nuclear weapon.

   "In mid-July, senior American intelligence officials called the leaders of the international atomic inspection agency to the top of a skyscraper overlooking the Danube in Vienna and unveiled the contents of what they said was a stolen Iranian laptop computer.

   The Americans flashed on a screen and spread over a conference table selections from more than a thousand pages of Iranian computer simulations and accounts of experiments, saying they showed a long effort to design a nuclear warhead, according to a half-dozen European and American participants in the meeting.

   The documents, the Americans acknowledged from the start, do not prove that Iran has an atomic bomb. They presented them as the strongest evidence yet that, despite Iran's insistence that its nuclear program is peaceful, the country is trying to develop a compact warhead to fit atop its Shahab missile, which can reach Israel and other countries in the Middle East."(William J. Broad and David E. Sanger Relying on Computer, U.S. Seeks to Prove Iran's Nuclear Aims - New York Times, November 13, 2005)

These "secret documents" were subsequently submitted by the US State Department to the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA, with a view to demonstrating that Iran was developing a nuclear weapons program.

While their authenticity has been questioned on several occasions,  a recent article by investigative reporter Gareth Porter confirms unequivocally that the mysterious laptop documents are fake. The drawings contained in the documents do not pertain to the Shahab missile but to an obsolete North Korean missile system which was decommissioned by Iran in the mid-1990s.

How stupid! The drawings presented by US State Department officials pertained to the "Wrong Missile Warhead":

   In July 2005, ... Robert Joseph, US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, made a formal presentation on the purported Iranian nuclear weapons program documents to the agency's leading officials in Vienna. Joseph flashed excerpts from the documents on the screen, giving special attention to the series of technical drawings or "schematics" showing 18 different ways of fitting an unidentified payload into the re-entry vehicle or "warhead" of Iran's medium-range ballistic missile, the Shahab-3.

   When IAEA analysts were allowed to study the documents, however, they discovered that those schematics were based on a re-entry vehicle that the analysts knew had already been abandoned by the Iranian military in favor of a new, improved design. The warhead shown in the schematics had the familiar "dunce cap" shape of the original North Korean No Dong missile, which Iran had acquired in the mid-1990s. ...

   The laptop documents had depicted the wrong re-entry vehicle being redesigned. ... (Gareth Porter, op cit )

Who was behind the production of fake intelligence? Gareth Porter's suggests that Israel's Mossad has been a source of  fake intelligence regarding Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program:

   The origin of the laptop documents may never be proven conclusively, but the accumulated evidence points to Israel as the source. As early as 1995, the head of the Israel Defense Forces' military intelligence research and assessment division, Yaakov Amidror, tried unsuccessfully to persuade his American counterparts that Iran was planning to "go nuclear." By 2003-2004, Mossad's reporting on the Iranian nuclear program was viewed by high-ranking CIA officials as an effort to pressure the Bush administration into considering military action against Iran's nuclear sites, according to Israeli sources cited by a pro-Israeli news service." (Ibid)

Lies and Fabrications to Justify a Military Agenda

The laptop documents were essential to sustaining America's position in the UN Security Council.

We are dealing with a clear case of fake intelligence comparable to that presented by Colin Powell in February 2003 on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. The fake intelligence presented to the UN Security Council was used as a justification for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

   "The evidence, or lack thereof, speaks for itself. In the months leading up to the war in Iraq, the Bush administration produced hundreds of pages of intelligence for members of Congress and for the United Nations that showed how Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein possessed tons of chemical and biological weapons and was actively pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

   The intelligence information, gathered by the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, a Department of Defense agency that gathers foreign military intelligence for the Pentagon, was used by the Bush administration to convince the public that Iraq posed a threat to the world." (See Jason Leopold, Powell Denies Intelligence Failure In Buildup To War, But Evidence Doesn’t Hold Up, Global Research, 10 June 2003)

Iran's Shahab Missile system

The US has once again used fake intelligence to build a justification to wage war.

The position of the US in the UN Security Council falls flat. The important question is whether Russia and China will revise their stance in the United Nations Security Council pertaining to the Iran's sanctions regime?

Will the US antiwar movement confront Washington's plans to wage a pre-emptive nuclear war against Iran based on fake intelligence?

___________________________________________________________________
The url address of this article is:http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22085

 © PalestineFreeVoice Copyright reserved 2003 - 2011 

Intellectual Rights Retained

FEDS PLANT INERT BOMB IN PORTLAND BEFORE ARRESTING MUSLIM MAN

Nov-28-2010 22:27

Political Perspective by Tim King Salem-News.com

Media Circus: police could have arrested the man sooner; they took part in his suspected terrorist act.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - An alleged plot to detonate a bomb at the Pioneer Square Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in Portland Friday was foiled by FBI agents and Portland Police officers. A close examination of the facts raises concerns that the story is simply conditioning to prepare Americans for more military conflict in the Middle east.

Vehicle based IED's (Improvised Explosive Device) are known in Iraq and Afghanistan as 'VBID's' and they are among the deadliest bombs. The VBID can be maneuvered into very busy areas before being blown up; they are a frightening thought.

Portland Police Bureau Chief Michael Reese stated, "This threat was very real but at no point was the public ever in danger. The cooperation of various law enforcement agencies was critical in making this case. I appreciate the partnership we have with the FBI and I'm very proud of the Portland Police Bureau's role in this investigation. The Portland Police Bureau works to maintain the highest level of safety for our community and this case stands as an example of our commitment to the people we serve."

That sure sounds reassuring, but I wouldn't take it to the bank. Like recent similar stories, the 'official' account is missing a few key ingredients. Yet it makes great reading for the average citizen who believes there are dangerous 'Muslims' lurking around the corners of their living room.

It has all of the catch phrases:

    * The suspect's name is "Mohamed".

    * He allegedly yelled "Allah Akbar" when arrested.

    * He supposedly has links to al Queda.

    * Evidence is sealed and the investigation will never reveal many details.

    * The FBI informant doesn't use their name.

    * Interestingly, the alleged crime never involved any danger to the public.

The suspect is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Somalia. 19-year old Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a resident of Corvallis, Oregon, was arrested Friday in connection with the alleged plan to detonate a vehicle bomb at the Christmas tree lighting event.

Police say Mohamud attempted to remotely detonate what were "believed to be" explosives in a van that was parked near the Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The device was in fact inert and the public was never at risk, police say.

I have been reading other accounts of this event and it is clear that the anti-Muslim lobby in the US scored big with this story.

FOX News doesn't hold back at all, stating:

    "Attorney General Eric Holder said the indictments reflect a disturbing trend of recruitment efforts targeting U.S. residents to become terrorists."

    FOX follows that with...

    "Officials have been working with Muslim community leaders across the United States, particularly in Somali diasporas in Minnesota, trying to combat the radicalization." [1]

Stranger than fiction Order Now

Wow, millions believe it is sort of "radical" for Americans to support Israel's continual brutal occupation and genocide in Palestine. Yes, downright radical to support an apartheid government that grinds people up and spits them out without ever stepping out of the victim role that truly belongs to a past generation.

My question is, how do we know he couldn't have been working with a second group that law enforcement didn't know about?

It amounts to a slew of attention on Islam and enforcing the same paranoia that has swept this nation since 2001 when Saudi Arabian terrorists allegedly boarded airplanes, flew them into buildings in New York, and then had their passports miraculously land on the sidewalks below, legible enough to indict the men almost immediately.

I know the Saudi Arabians have sponsored many terrorists, that is where the crazy Wahhabi religious zealots with the money come from. They are close allies with the U.S. government and Saudi oil families are closely affiliated with Texas oil families; roger, got that. But Somalia, really?

Salem-News.com readers know we cover Somalia's piracy problem regularly, frequently offering in-depth accounts of the situation with the help of our friends at ECOTERRA Intl. in Nairobi, Kenya who monitor the situation from Africa, not a New York or Los Angeles news office.

This is the single most violent and impoverished country in the world. Somalia is controlled by a group known as al Shabab and they are dangerous, known for elevated levels of piracy that plague African waters. Yet Somalia's piracy began as a response to the environmental pillaging of Somalia's coast and the overfishing of its waters. They used to and still frequently avoid killing their captives. The media almost never mentions that part.

What if there was a simultaneous bomb set to go off at the same time?

Terrorizing America would logically be the last of their concerns.

Why? Because nations like Iraq don't have to lift a finger toward the U.S. in order to watch over a million people blasted into oblivion by American bombs and munitions. Afghan people by and large didn't even know where the U.S. is on a map, yet they have watched collateral damage claim lives in the tens of thousands, probably much higher.

To suggest that any small nation would come and pick a fight with a warmongering nation like the United States of America is pretty silly really.

It is the same thing in Palestine.

People there know that if they fire a slingshot at an Israeli soldier, they could see a reprisal leaving dozens or more dead. People learn over time who not to mess with. I fear that this story may be rigged with propaganda, regardless of whether this 19-year old kid had evil intent or some level of involvement. It sounds like he was led down a road to notorious stardom.

Killing people en masse is terrorism and there is never an excuse for it. It is the work of cowards any time civilians are in the mix.

On that note, there are British soldiers who are active, free and clear; men who were caught by the Iraqi police immediately after a shootout that left Iraqi officials dead. The men were transporting weapons and explosives and picked out of a group as they looked suspicious. The men were busted out of jail by British troops.

According to The Insider:

    British soldiers have been caught posing as Arabs and shooting Iraqis in the occupied city of Basra in southern Iraq. A group of them was caught yesterday by Iraqi police. They were driving an Iraqi car, wearing Arab clothing, and carrying weapons and explosives.

    The Iraqi police were patrolling the area looking for suspected "terrorists" or "insurgents", and they noticed that the men were acting suspiciously. Suddenly, without warning, the suspicious men started shooting at people, but the new Iraqi security forces managed to capture some of them before they could escape. Obviously, if these men had not been caught, the mass media would now be reporting the incident as just another attempt by evil "terrorists" to create civil war in Iraq.[2]

Then there is the massive list of Israeli war criminals who the U.S. blocks from being brought to justice. We just published an extensive piece on that recently[3][4].

There is no honor in any of this. Bring them all to a world war crimes court in handcuffs; law enforcement has no business being selective.

Police Endanger Portland

Fox News confirms that Friday:

    "an agent and Mohamud drove to downtown Portland in a white van that carried six 55-gallon drums with detonation cords and plastic caps, but all of them were inert, the complaint states."

Do Portland residents appreciate that the feds actually placed their supposedly "inert" bomb laden van in Portland's downtown district with the suspect?

I wouldn't think so.

The feds sound like they took this guy by the hand and somehow became the "terrorists" he was working with. In fact from the various media accounts, there doesn't seem to be proof that this man ever talked to any actual "terrorists" except the FBI.

FOX also reports that "As a trial run, Mohamud and agents detonated a bomb in Lincoln City, Ore., earlier this month."

A trial run? A real bomb? Feds and a supposed terrorist? And that wasn't enough to arrest him?

I have dear friends in Lincoln City, I used to live there, in fact I was in Lincoln City last night. This is a populated coastal city, not the middle of the desert, I am truly shocked to learn of this.

Arresting this guy before he tried to do a "media worthy" act would have eliminated the FBI's chance to scare the living bejesus out of people with this "Allah Akbar" story. The police let the supposed terrorist detonate the "fake bomb" and then, "swooped down on him" according to FOX and other sources.

My question is, how do we know he couldn't have been working with a second group that law enforcement didn't know about?

What if there was a simultaneous bomb set to go off at the same time?

Of course you would probably need real terrorists for that.

But what would have happened then?

I guess they had to run the full course in order to get this story out. I cry foul at this point and I believe absolutely nothing the feds are reporting. I'm not saying they are dishonest, it just fits a pattern of conditioning that is part of a ramp up for more military action in the Middle east, namely against Iran. No bombs blow up, but "Muslims" are constantly in the news for these supposed bomb plots. It all might be a big crockpot of sh*t, it pays to look closely. And when these supposed terrorists turn out to have ties with Israel, it is amazing how quickly the mainstream media forgets the events ever existed.

But here is the coup de grace; Portland Mayor Sam Adams now says Portland will begin "cooperating" with the federal government at a higher level, just what we need. According to the New York Times:

    In response to the thwarted plot, Mayor Sam Adams has floated the idea of cooperating more fully with federal law enforcement agencies. In 2005, the Portland City Council passed an ordinance that put conditions on the city’s continued participation in the F.B.I. Joint Terrorism Task Force out of concern for the civil liberties of residents.

    Now Mr. Adams said he was prepared to reconsider his opposition. “It’s been five years since our last policy review,” he said.

    City officials said they were also concerned about the safety of Portland’s Muslim population. The police authorized additional patrols around Muslim community centers, said Sgt. Peter Simpson, a police spokesman[5].

Extra police patrols? That's funny, I haven't heard of any incidents that would require that, and some people would not consider increased police patrols in their area a courtesy, more like harassment by policy. But what I really find interesting is how that story suggests Portland is "hands off" with the feds; like they have been keeping them out of Oregon.

It was just three years ago that Portland devoted enormous time and resources to a huge federal emergency planning event that was not just federal, it was actually sponsored by Homeland Security.

We covered the story in October 2007:

    Using resources that Congress made available to prepare for acts of terrorism, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sponsors the TOPOFF exercises as part of a thorough assessment of America’s ability to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from an attack that involves a weapon of mass destruction.

    Each TOPOFF exercise involves a two-year cycle of seminars, planning events, and exercises. The exercises enable federal, state and local agencies to identify ways to improve their ability to save lives and protect property when any major public emergency occurs, regardless of whether that emergency is natural or manmade[6].

I am going to continue studying this story and this Muslim-indicting pattern that the feds and western media are peddling like Lance Armstrong on race day.

It is amazing how many alleged Muslim "terrorists" are constantly arrested and caught "just in time" when in fact no bombs are detonating and no people are dying from these supposed actions. If there are terrorists operating here then of course they must be stopped, but why the big show?

I said it early in the story and I will say it again; Americans are being conditioned to hate Muslim people as the U.S. prepares for war on Iran, the ancient land of Persia that has zero history of attacking other nations off its own soil, with very few exceptions, yet is continually pushed to the brink by Israel because it is one of the few countries that openly condemns Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine.

Remember, that is always what it is about.

Law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation include the FBI, with assistance from the Oregon State Police, the Corvallis Police Department, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office, and the Portland Police Bureau.

Mohamud was booked into the Multnomah County Jail and is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in Portland on Monday. He faces a maximum statutory sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of the charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

[1] Nov-27-2010: Somali-Born Teen Who Plotted Car Bombing Contacted Suspected Terrorist - FOX News

[2] Nov-29-2010 British special forces caught dressed as Arab 'terrorists' - The Insider

[3]Nov-17-2010: Israeli Military War Crime Suspects Revealed - Salem-News.com

[4]Nov-24-2010: 200 Israeli War Criminals Better Hope for Palestinian Amnesty - Opinion by Gilad Atzmon Salem-News.com

[5] Nov-28-2010: After Thwarted Attack, Question Is ‘Why Portland?’ - Beth Slovic

[6] Oct-15-2007: TOPOFF 4 Exercise Begins in Portland - Salem-News.com
___________________________________________________________

Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines.

Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Tim has several years of experience in network affiliate news TV stations, having worked as a reporter and photographer at NBC, ABC and FOX stations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. As News Editor, Tim among other things, is responsible for publishing the original content of 65 Salem-News.com writers. He reminds viewers that emails are easily missed and urges those trying to reach him, to please send a second email if the first goes unanswered. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com 

© PalestineFreeVoice Copyright reserved 2003 - 2011

Intellectual Rights Retained

Wikileaks – The Tel Aviv Connection

Jeff Gates November 2010

What is Tel Aviv to do now that it’s known Israelis and pro-Israelis ‘fixed’ the intelligence that induced the U.S. to war in Iraq?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Con me consistently for six decades and the relationship is over, as is Israel’s credibility as a legitimate nation state.

Tel Aviv knows this. But what can the Zionist state do about it? Answer: Wikileaks.

Why now? Misdirection. Shine the spotlight on Washington to take it off Tel Aviv. That’s good old-fashioned psy-ops.  And challenge the credibility of the U.S. That’s Wikileaks.

Any credible forensics would start by asking: to whose benefit? Then look to means, motive and opportunity plus the presence of stable nation-state intelligence inside the U.S.

Other than Israel, who else is a credible candidate? Notice how quickly Israel’s role in the peace process vanished from the news. Now it’s Iran, Iran and more Iran. To whose benefit?

Tel Aviv knows that the phony intelligence on Iraq leads to those skilled at waging war “by way of deception”—the motto of the Israeli Mossad. Wikileaks are noteworthy for what’s missing: the absence of any material damaging to Israeli goals.

But still Tel Aviv faces an unprecedented peril: transparency. Americans know they were duped. And Israel rightly fears that Americans will soon realize by whom.

Tepid Support will not Suffice

Obama has behaved as anticipated by those who produced his presidency. Anyone surprised at the lack of change in U.S. policy in the Middle East fails to grasp the power of the Israel lobby.

Did he hesitate to support their latest Israeli strategy for scuttling peace negotiations? Absent peace, the U.S. will continue to be the target of those outraged at America’s unflinching support for Israel’s thuggish behavior in pursuit of its expansionist goals.

Confirming the lobby’s influence, Netanyahu announced he would not agree to halt settlements on Palestinian land until Obama reduced to writing a $3 billion bribe.

In return for a proposed 90-day freeze, what form of bribe will America provide? Twenty F-35 jets at $150 million each plus parts, maintenance, training and armaments.

That’s $231 million per week or $1,373,626 per hour. What will the U.S. receive in return? A temporary partial freeze on settlements. How many more times can this ruse work?

Israel has evaded a peace agreement since it drove Palestinians from their land in 1948 and seized more land in 1967 to shape today’s geopolitics.

Should Israel reach an agreement with the Palestinians, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposes a "comprehensive security agreement." At what cost no one knows. The U.S. Congress has already budgeted $30 billion for Israel over 10 years. This latest $3 billion is on top of that.

That doesn't include the cost to American credibility posed by an offer to veto U.N. recognition of Palestine as a state. And a pledge Never Again to pressure Israel on settlements. Plus the freeze omits East Jerusalem where Tel Aviv insists on moving ahead with new housing starts.

Timing Is Everything

By scheduling its latest incursion into Gaza between Christmas 2008 and the January 2009 Obama inaugural, Tel Aviv ensured only muted opposition during political down time in the U.S. Thus it came as no surprise to see an agent provocateur operation on Thanksgiving Day 2010 as Israel demolished a West Bank Mosque and a Palestinian village. 

After seven hours of nonstop talks, Hillary Clinton praised Netanyahu as a "peacemaker." In return, he agreed only to "continue the process." Meanwhile, U.S. elections marked a major victory for Israel when incoming Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Jewish Zionist, announced that the new majority would "serve as a check on the Obama administration."

The Israel lobby has good reason to gloat. Confirming ongoing duplicity, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman proclaimed: "a permanent agreement is impossible."

Wikileaks’ release of confidential diplomatic cables provides Israel an opportunity to undermine U.S. relations worldwide while also inflicting lasting damage on U.S. interests in the Middle East. After this, what nation would trust the U.S. to maintain a confidence?

In October, Turkey asked that the U.S. not share intelligence with Israel. Now who dares share intelligence with the U.S.?

This may signal the beginning of the end for the Obama presidency his domestic policy failures are eclipsed by his failures in foreign policy.

This may also signal pre-staging for the 2012 presidential primary with a weakened Obama forced to name Clinton as his running mate or stepping aside so she can lead the ballot.

Her 2008 presidential campaign promised recognition of Israel as a “Jewish state” and promised an “undivided Jerusalem as the capital.” Tel Aviv was elated. A second Clinton presidency would ensure another victory for Israel—and no peace.

Israeli psy-ops typically serve multiple purposes. Wikileaks is no exception.
_______________________________

Jeff Gates is author of Guilt By Association—How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War. See www.criminalstate.com

© PalestineFreeVoice Copyright reserved 2003 - 2011 

Intellectual Rights Retained

Mossad Criminals Murder Iranian Scientist and Wound Another In Bomb Attacks

© AP Photo
An Iranian nuclear scientist was killed and another injured in Tehran today.

The physicists were targeted by cowardly Mossad agents riding motorcycles

The Daily Mail, UK 

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 22:56

An Iranian nuclear scientist has been killed and another injured in separate attacks in Tehran today.

The scientists were targeted in two different locations by men riding motorcycles who attached bombs to their car windows as they drove to work.

One device killed Dr Majid Shahriari, a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at the Tehran University, and wounded his wife.

The second blast seriously wounded nuclear physicist Dr Fereidoun Abbasi. His wife was also injured.

Iran's nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, said Dr Shahriari was involved in a major project at the country's chief nuclear agency, though he did not give specifics.

State television swiftly blamed Israel for the attacks.

At least two other Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in recent years in what Iran has alleged is part of a covert attempt by the West to damage its controversial nuclear program.

One of those two, Massoud Ali Mohammadi, was killed in an attack similar to today's, in January.

Mr Mohammadi, a 50-year-old professor from Tehran University, had just left his house on his way to work when a remote-controlled bomb rigged to a motorbike exploded.

'Don't play with fire. The patience of the Iranian nation has limits. If it runs out of patience, bad consequences will await enemies,' the official news agency IRNA quoted Mr Salehi as saying as he met Dr Abbasi at his hospital bedside.

Mr Salehi, one of Iran's vice presidents, was apparently referring to Israel and the U.S., which Iran alleges are trying to damage its nuclear program.

Tehran's uranium enrichment programme is at the center of a bitter row between Iran on one side and the U.S. and its allies on the other. Uranium enrichment is a process that can be used to produce both nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.

A number of world powers suspect Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons, an allegation the government denies.

Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment has brought on multiple rounds of U.N. sanctions against the country.

Washington has strongly denied allegations of links to previous attacks. There are several active armed groups that oppose Iran's ruling clerics, but it's unclear whether they could have carried out the apparently coordinated bombings in the capital.

Most anti-government violence in recent years has been isolated to Iran's provinces such as the border with Pakistan where Sunni rebels are active and the western mountains near Iraq where Kurdish separatists operate.

The assailants, who escaped, drove by their targets on motorcycles and attached the bombs as the cars were moving. They exploded shortly thereafter, state television reported.

Dr Shahriari, the scientist who was killed, was a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. His wife, who was in the car with him, was wounded.

Dr Salehi, the nuclear chief who also heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said Shahriari was one of his students and his death was a big loss.

He said: 'Shahriari had good cooperation with the AEOI. He was involved in one of the big AEOI projects which is a source of pride for the Iranian nation.'

He didn't provide any details on the project. But the AEOI is involved in Iran's uranium enrichment program.

Dr Salehi added: 'The enemy took our dearest flower, but must know that this nation, through resistance and all its might, will make efforts to remove problems and achieve its desires.'

A second, separate attack in the capital Tehran wounded nuclear physicist Dr Abbasi. His wife was also in the car with him, and she was also wounded.

A pro-government website, mashreghnews.ir, said Abbasi held a PhD in nuclear physics and was a laser expert at Iran's Defence Ministry and one of few top Iranian specialists in nuclear isotope separation.

Isotope separation is the process of concentrating specific isotopes of a chemical element by removing other isotopes, for example separating natural uranium from enriched uranium. This is a crucial process in the manufacture of uranium fuel for nuclear power stations, and is also required for the creation of uranium-based nuclear weapons.

The site said Abbasi has long been a member of the Revolutionary Guard, the country's most powerful military force. It said he was also a lecturer at Imam Hossein University, affiliated to the Guard.

The attacks bore close similarities to another in January that killed Tehran University professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a senior physics professor. He was killed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded near his car as he was about to leave for work.

In 2007, state television reported that nuclear scientist Ardeshir Hosseinpour died from gas poisoning. A one-week delay in the reporting of his death prompted speculation about the cause, including that Israel's Mossad spy agency was to blame.

Iran has continued to state clearly that its nuclear program is under constant attack from the West and its allies. These include alleged abductions of nuclear officials and, more recently, a computer worm known as Stuxnet that experts say was calibrated to destroy uranium-enrichment centrifuges by sending them spinning out of control. Iran says its experts stopped Stuxnet from affecting systems at its nuclear facilities.


Source: Sott.net Signs of the time

Comment: Big brave Mossad agents murdering innocent men and injuring women. If the Mossad can gain entry to Iran and carry out such murderous attacks, imagine the freedom they have to move around a friendly country like the USA.

© PalestineFreeVoice Copyright reserved 2003 - 2011 

Intellectual Rights Retained

Strike the Illegal separation wall in Abu Dis

جدار الفصل الاسرائيل  The  Israeli separation wall

ILLEGAL ANNEXATION

في المناطق الفلسطي of Palestinian territories

اضربوا الجدارStrike the Wall
المؤلف : هيامby Hiyam Noir

اهدموا الجدار

strike the wall
ادعموا الشجعان

support the bravest

اضربوا الجدار بقسوه

strike the wall hard
وسوف تتفتح البوابات

and the gates will open
اضربوا الجدار و سووه بالارض

strike the wall earthward
سوف يترنح و يسقط

and it will sway and fall

ادعموا المكافحون الشجعان

support our courageous fighters
اضربوا جدار الفصل العنصري

strike the apartheid wall
اطردوا الصهاينه

expel the Zionists
يا رجال الكرامه و الشجاعه

the men of dignity the men of brave
ستنتصرون على المحتل

will over reach the occupant

الصهيوني المتعبد

the worshipping Zionist
ينتزع العيون و القلوب

extract eyes and hearts
من شعبنا

from our people
يمزقون الاحشاء

tear the intestines
من شعبنا

from our children to
نتحول من رصاص الى ذهب

change lead to gold

أغضب الصهاينه السماء و الارض

the Zionists have enraged heaven and earth
خطوط المقاومه الفلسطينيه

strong lines of Palestine resistance
لن تسقط و تترابط الطرق السريه

will not fall apart will connect in thin ways
و تمد الاجيال بالحياة

lives and lives become generations made

فورا ملايين المناضلين الفلسطينيين الشجعان

soon millions of bravest Palestine fighters
تسلحوا بالغضب والمعنويات المقدسه

armed and fueled with wrath and holy spirit
سينطلقوا من بين السماء القتمه و ينظفون

will storm out of dark skies and sweep
وطنهم من بنذكرى الاحتلال المسمومه

their homeland clean of the poison plaque
البنادق والسيوف الحادهالبنادق والسيوف الحاده سوف تنق

rifles and sharpened swords will break up on the backs
على ظهور جنودنا الشجعان والقبضات الحقه

of our brave soldiers and righteous fists
عن الوطن فلسطين مدافعه

defender of glorious Palestine homeland
نار الرصاص والصواريخ سوف لا تقتل الاجساد الطاهره

bullets rocket fire will not perpetrate sacred bodies

اخلاق جماهير العالم الخونه تنسى

the world audience of traitors low moral and neglect
ستصرخ و تفكر عاليا كذلك سيموتون

will cry out aloud thinking they will also die
و عيون تنظر فجاة , سيقفون بلا مساعده

eyes will pop out they will stand unaided
سوف لا يحركون اي عضله

not one will they move

تركض باتجاههم امرأة مرتدية درعها

a women dressed in armor run towards them
بكلمات شديده و سيف حاد

with strong words and sharpen sword
تطعن جلودهم بالحال و سريعه ضربتها

their skin pierced at ones her strikes are swift
لكنها ليست مؤذيه اكثر من نسمه

yet not more harmful than a gentle breeze

لم تهدر قطرة دم

not one drop of blood is shed
بالنهايه استخدمت البندقيه المخفيه

finally she use the shotgun hidden
قرب جسمها الغض ادارت الاسطوا نه

near her soft skin she spin the cylinder
و اطلقت النار على جدار الكراهيه

and fired upon the wall of hate

ستطلق النار مره ثانيه و ثانيه

she will fire again and again
وصل قربها طفل بحجر بقبضته الصغيره

a boy holding a stone reach towards her
وبلطف وضعت البندقيه بيديه

with much tenderness she placed the shot gun in his hands
والآن افرغ الرصاص تحت اقدامهم

as now he fires the bullets roll under their feet's

فجأة , ساد الصمت لا صوت ولا صرخه

suddenly a silence no sound no cry
نور السماء المفتوحه العظيمه نزل الارض

open heaven glorious light came down to earth
سقط المحتل و اجسادهم

the occupant was toppled and their bodies
كما تسقط الاشجار للخلف

as fallen trees were backwards stapled

ستعود فلسطين و سيولد اطفالها

Palestine will be returned sons will be born again
ستنمو الجذور سيأتي الربيع سيبقون

roots will root again  when spring comes they will remain
سيولدون ثانية سوف لا يوقفنا الجدارولن يمزقنا

reborn again no wall can stop us tear us apart
سف نضرب الجدار ثانية و بقسوه

we will strike the wall again so hard

ادعموا المقاتلين الفلسطينيين الشجعان

support our courageous Palestinian fighters
اضربوا جدار الفصل العنصري,اطردوا الصهاينه

strike the apartheid wall expel the Zionists
رجال الكرامه و رجال الشجاعهt

the men of honor  the men of brave
سينتصرون على المحتل

will over reach the occupant

سيأتي مطر السماء

Heavenly showers will ones more
ستنمو بذور وطن فلسطين

seed sacred Palestinian homeland
ستنتشر الاخبار السارهt

the good news will be spread
بعيدا في كل العالم

worldwide and far away

©Hiyamcopyright2003

Translation Ma Jenin

Photo capture the Illegal Separation Wall in Abu Dis

Contact the author hiyamnoir@gmail.com

© PalestineFreeVoice Copyright reserved 2003 - 2011 

Intellectual Rights Retained

The Native Americans Heritage Day

Map - Cherokee Land North Carolina

 

PalestineFreeVoice - A new national holiday was created November  year 2007 in United States of America.Very late United States of America understood the need and responsibility to officially recognize and honor the first Americans.

Each year,on the Friday after Thanksgiving,to be honored and celebrated, is the Native American Heritage Day. A beautiful opportunity to learn about the Native Americans culture heritage and their many contributions which have greatly enriched the United States of America.

The Native American Heritage Day Bill was supported by the National Indian Gaming Association(NIGA)and 184 federally recognized tribes,and designated as a day to pay tribute to Native Americans, their history, achievements, and contributions.

  

Read more

 United Native America.com

Native American Heritage Day Act of 2009 

 

© PalestineFreeVoice Copyright reserved 2003 - 2011

Intellectual Rights

Tayyip Erdogan in Lebanon: " If the Zionist entity attack Lebanon or Gaza again, we will support justice by all means available".

By Hiyam Noir 

PalestineFreeVoice Thursday November 25 2010

On Wednesday,during his two-day visit in Lebanon, including participating in a conference organized by the Union of Arab Banks, the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said ; that his country will continue to support the cause of the occupied city of Jerusalem and the besieged Gaza. He said that - " If the Zionist entity attack Lebanon or Gaza again,  the loser will not only be the people of this region, but also the citizens of Israel.
 

Turkey will not remain silent if Israel attacks Lebanon or Gaza. Do the Israelis think they can enter Lebanon or Gaza to kill women and children, destroy schools and hospitals, and then expect us to remain silent? Do they think they can use high-tech weapons, phosphorus munition and cluster bombs against children and women, no, we will not be silent we will support justice by all means available to us."

On May 31,2010 Israeli naval commandos stormed the Turkish-registered aid ship Mavi Marmara  sailing towards Gaza on international water.Nine Turkish peace activists were killed, some  were shot at close ranch in the head and in their back by Israeli commandos. Thursday was the final day of the Turkish premier's two-day visit to Lebanon. During  the visit to the southern Lebanon, Erdogan  inaugurated a burn-injury-center where survivors, the victims  of  the Israelis deadly savage attacks on Lebanon year 2006, will receive treatment to restore their injured and burnt body parts. 

The Turkish president, explained  that his country will continue to fight for the rights, as long as there are people working in piracy on International waters, referring to the Zionist entity, which attacked the Gaza Freedom flotilla on its voyage to the shores of Gaza.

© PalestineFreeVoice Copyright reserved 2003 - 2011 

Intellectual Rights Retained

Franco Frattini is either a fool or ignorant, or possibly both

Khalid Amayreh

Thursday, 25 November 2010 14:30

By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem

During his recent visit to Israel and the Gaza Strip, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini revealed rather brazenly his low intellectual capacity, a scandalous lack of honesty as well as stunning ignorance of the situation in this part of the world. He made many strident statements which can be described as, inter alia, hasty, inaccurate, mendacious and ignorant.

While in the small Israeli town of Sderot, a conspicuously complacent Frattini told a group of Israeli jingoists and right-wingers, "You are victims of this extreme entity that is taking hostages its own people and attacking you."

This, of course, is far from the truth; the people of Gaza are victims of the clear genocidal policies of Israel and Israelis. The Zionist state claims that it withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. In reality, Israel has maintained absolute control of the coastal enclave's skies, territorial waters and border crossings. Furthermore, Israel imposed a draconian blockade on that territory, inflicting one of the harshest human tragedies in modern history with its collective punishment of the people of Gaza.

Israel claims that the siege was imposed in response to projectiles fired from Gaza on nearby Israeli colonies. However, the truth is that the siege was an established Israeli policy and the Zionist state has violated ceasefire agreements with Hamas consistently.

In brief, Israel wants to retain the "right" to murder and maim as many innocent Palestinians as possible with absolute impunity and without any response from the victims. Various statements from Israeli rabbis – never disowned by Israel's political elite – demonstrate that racism is rife in Israel and non-Jews are regarded as inferior beings.

It is tempting to ask how the Italian Foreign Minister could refer to the people of Sderot as victims and the people of Gaza as aggressors when Israel has killed and maimed thousands of Palestinian civilians; 1,400 alone (one-third of them children) were killed during Operation Cast Lead last year; 13 Israelis were killed. It is safe to assume that Frattini wasn't told by his Israeli hosts that Sderot was built on the ruins of the Palestinian town of Najd from which the Arab population was driven out by Jewish militias on 13th May 1948.

Are Palestinian lives that worthless? Or is Frattini indoctrinated in classical Italian fascism, albeit laminated with a thin veneer of pseudo-liberalism? Frattini told the settlers that Hamas "is taking hostage its own people and attacking you." Even Israel acknowledges that Hamas has been preventing attacks by some splinter groups.

Does the Italian politician know – or care - that Hamas won the parliamentary election in the occupied territories in 2006, an election that was monitored closely by the international community, including the European Union (EU) and US, Israel's guardian-ally? And that the election was declared to be "free and fair"?

It is true that the EU and US rejected the election outcome once it became clear that Hamas, not the western-backed secular puppets, was the winner. The blame for this does not lie with Hamas; it is and remains an expression of western hypocrisy, moral duplicity and false commitment to true democracy.

One of the most incredible statements uttered by Franco Frattini was that "the Israeli government wanted peace". Is the man blind? Does he read the newspapers? Wasn't he briefed by his diplomats before the visit? If he was, and was in possession of the facts of the situation, his statement would be even more scandalous than those made by someone steeped in ignorance.

How can a government that keeps building illegal settlements on occupied territories really want peace? How can a government that makes withdrawal from occupied territories contingent on the outcome of a referendum, in utter contempt of international law, be a true seeker of peace? How can a government be truly interested in peace when it gives heavily-armed, ultra-right wing Jewish settlers carte blanche to attack unarmed Palestinian farmers and vandalise their property? How can a government that includes in its coalition far-right parties whose spiritual leaders claim openly that non-Jews, presumably including Frattini, are merely donkeys and animals, view peace with its non-Jewish neighbours as a prime objective?

To cap it all, Frattini referred to the "danger" facing the whole world from Iran. What was the man talking about? Has Iran ever said that it seeks world domination if it acquires nuclear weapons? There is one aggressor and aggressive state in the Middle East which already possesses a nuclear arsenal; why didn't Franco Frattini ask the Israelis about that?

Perhaps the Italian minister and his neo-colonial mindset still thinks that Muslims have to be pacified and kept under control, at the mercy of a nefarious Zionist state. When people like Frattini represent the West on visits to the Middle East, it is a clear demonstration that it is futile for anyone, least of all the Palestinians, to expect Western politicians to do anything to achieve peace with justice for the people in historic Palestine. In any case, as long as their Foreign Minister thinks that the Israelis want peace and Palestinians don't, Italians can have no constructive role in the region.

Also published in the  Middle East Monitor

 

© PalestineFreeVoice Copyright reserved 2003 - 2011

Intellectual Rights Retained

Zionist hostile activities alongside the borders of northern Gaza

PalestineFreeVoice - GAZA, Thursday Nov 25 2010 8:52 AM

-  Eye witnesses report a series of Zionist activities alongside the borders of northern Gaza early on Thursday morning, including launching of artillery missiles which is said to have " landed in open fields ".

At about 6:30 AM, armored bulldozers, helicopters and fighter jets were operating across the former settlement,Nisanit located in the northern sector of Gaza.In the early morning bulldozers were digging up lands,helicopters were hovering above in the skies and fighter jets were letting off sonic blasts which sound like air strikes.

- On Wednesday afternoon in support of Apache helicopters  Zionist occupation forces holding up by the eastern border of central Gaza, targeted and opened fire at a man on a motorcycle in the Zaytoun neighborhood, which led to an explosion at the site. No reports are yet available about casualties, or the identity of the motor cycle driver.

-  At noon, also on Wednesday, Zionist occupation forces shot and injured a Palestinian man who was collecting scrap materials near the border of the northern Gaza, Palestinian medical official report.The worker, who is not yet identified, is moderately injured in the leg. He is transferred to the Kamal Udwan Hospital.

The shootings along the border of Gaza targeting Palestinian citizens are counting more than ten incidents during the month of November.

© PalestineFreeVoice Copyright reserved 2003 - 2011 

Intellectual Rights Retained

The Road of Hope aidship on its way to Gaza

After some serious problems which has delayed the  aid ship, Road of Hope to reach its destination,the aid ship which is carrying a heavy cargo of over 90 ton of aid including more than a dozen of vehicles and passengers on board, is finally sailing en route to Gaza.

The ship is expected to reach the Gaza marine harbor in the late evening tonight,(on Tuesday). Among the European and Arab nationals on board, are eight activists which sailed to Gaza onboard the Freedom Flotilla at the end of May this year. 

 

© PalestineFreeVoice Copyright reserved 2003 - 2011 

Intellectual Rights Retained

FBI Wiretapping of Internet Users. "All Your Data Belongs to Us" A Seamless Global Surveillance Web

By Tom Burghardt

November 21, 2010

Antifascist Calling...

In a further sign that Barack Obama's faux "progressive" regime will soon seek broad new Executive Branch power, The New York Times disclosed last week that FBI chief and cover-up specialist extraordinaire, Robert S. Mueller III, "traveled to Silicon Valley on Tuesday to meet with top executives of several technology firms about a proposal to make it easier to wiretap Internet users."

Times' journalist Charlie Savage reported that Mueller and the Bureau's chief counsel, Valerie Caproni, "were scheduled to meet with senior managers of several major companies, including Google and Face book, according to several people familiar with the discussions."

Face book's public policy manager Andrew Noyes confirmed that Mueller "is visiting Face book during his trip to Silicon Valley;" Google, on the other hand, "declined to comment."

Last month, Antifascist Calling reported that the U.S. secret state, in a reprise of the cryptic wars of the 1990s, is seeking new legislation from Congress that would "fix" the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) and further curtail our civil- and privacy rights.

When the administration floated the proposal in September, The New York Times revealed that among the "fixes" sought by the FBI and other intrusive spy satraps, were demands that communications' providers build back doors into their applications and networks that will give spooks trolling "encrypted e-mail transmitters like Blackberry, social networking Web sites like Face book and software that allows direct 'peer to peer' messaging like Skype" the means "to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages."

And with a new "security-minded" Congress set to convene in January, chock-a-block with Tea Partying "conservatives" and ultra-nationalist know-nothings, the chances that the administration will get everything they want, and then some, is a sure bet.

"All Your Data Belongs to Us"

Caproni and her cohorts, always up to the challenge when it comes to grabbing our personal data, much like pigs snuffling about a dank forest in search of truffles or those rarer, more elusive delicacies christened "actionable intelligence" by our minders, avowed that said legislative tweaks are "reasonable" and "necessary" requirements that will "prevent the erosion" of the Bureau's "investigative powers."

Never mind that the FBI, as Wired Magazine revealed three years ago, "has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device."

Security journalist Ryan Singel reported that the Bureau's Digital Collection System Network or DCS-3000, a newer iteration of the Carnivore system of the 1990s, "connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, Internet-telephony providers and cellular companies."

Documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit revealed that the system was created to "intercept personal communications services delivered via emerging digital technologies used by wireless carriers." A second system, Red Hook, collects "voice and data calls and then process and display the intercepted information."

And never mind, as Wired also informed us, that the Bureau's "computer and Internet protocol address verifier," or CIPAV, once called Magic Lantern, is a malicious piece of software, a virtual keystroke reader, that "gathers a wide range of information, including the computer's IP address; MAC address; open ports; the operating system type, version and serial number; preferred Internet browser and version; the computer's registered owner and registered company name; the current logged-in user name and the last-visited URL."

Insidiously, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled at the time, since the Bureau's malware doesn't capture the content of communications, it can be conducted without a wiretap warrant, because, as our judicial guardians opined, users have "no reasonable expectation of privacy" when using the internet.

And with the secret state clamoring for the broadest possible access to our data, its become a lucrative business for greedy, I mean patriotic, ISPs who charge premium prices for services rendered in the endless "War on Terror."

Security Is Patriotic, and Profitable Too!

Last week, The Register informed us that privacy and security researcher Christopher Soghoian revealed that although "Microsoft does not charge for government surveillance of its users," Google, on the other hand "charges $25 per user."

This information was revealed in a document obtained by the intrepid activist under the Freedom of Information Act.

Soghoian, whose Slight Paranoia web site has broken any number of stories on the collusive, and patently illegal, collaboration amongst grifting telecoms, niche spy firms and the secret state, revealed in March that the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) system has already been compromised by U.S. and other intelligence agencies. (SSL is the tiny lock that appears in your browser when you log-on to an allegedly "secure" web site for banking or other online transactions.)

In a paper co-authored with researcher Sid Stamm, Certified Lies: Detecting and Defeating Government Interception Attacks Against SSL, Soghoian revealed that a "new attack" against online privacy, "the compelled certificate creation attack, in which government agencies compel a certificate authority to issue false SSL certificates that are then used by intelligence agencies to covertly intercept and hijack individuals' secure Web-based communications ... is in active use."

The latest disclosure by Soghoian uncovered evidence that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), shelled out some $6.7 million for pen registers and $6.5 million for wiretaps. While a wiretap provides law enforcers with "actual telephone or Internet conversations," a pen register "merely grabs numbers and addresses that show who's doing the communicating," The Register averred.

While Microsoft doesn't charge the government for spying on their users, conveniently doing away with a messy paper trail in the process, Google receives $25 and Yahoo $29 from taxpayers for the privilege of being surveyed. Soghoian points out that "Google and Yahoo! may make more money from surveillance than they get directly from their email users. Basic Google and Yahoo! email accounts are free. Department of Justice documents show that telecoms may charge as much as $2,000 for a pen register."

That 2006 report from the DoJ's Office of the Inspector General reported that to facilitate CALEA compliance, "Congress appropriated $500 million to reimburse carriers for the direct costs of modifying systems installed or deployed on or before January 1, 1995."

Ten years on, and $450 million later, the Bureau estimates that "only 10 to 20 percent of the wire line switches, and approximately 50 percent of the pre-1995 and 90 percent of the post-1995 wireless switches, respectively, have CALEA software activated and thus are considered CALEA-compliant."

Sounds like a serious crisis, right? Well, not exactly. OIG auditors averred that "we could not provide assurance on the accuracy of these estimates;" a subtle way of saying that the FBI could be ginning-up the numbers--and alleged "threats" to the heimat posed by an open Internet and wireless networks.

As it turns out, this too is a proverbial red herring.

Whether or not the switches themselves are "CALEA-compliant" is a moot point since the vast majority of ISPs retain search data "in the cloud" indefinitely, just as wireless carriers cache cell phone geolocation and dialed-number data in huge data warehouses seemingly until the end of time, all readily accessible to law enforcement agencies--for a price.

Bringing the Hammer Down

The weakest link in the battle to preserve privacy rights, as Washington Technology revealed, are the corporate grifters feeding at the federal trough. What with the "cybersecurity" market the newest growth center for enterprising capitalist pirates, why bite the hand that feeds.

Couple this with the brisk private market in grabbing online users' data and selling it to the highest bidder, as The Wall Street Journal uncovered in their excellent "What They Know" series on web- and cell phone tracking, it becomes clear that profit always trumps democratic control and privacy rights.

In light of these disturbing trends, CNET News reported that "Democratic politicians are proposing a novel approach to cybersecurity: fine technology companies $100,000 a day unless they comply with directives imposed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security."

Investigative journalist Declan McCullagh informs us that legislation introduced last week by the lame duck Congress "would allow DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to levy those and other civil penalties on non compliant companies that the government deems 'critical,' a broad term that could sweep in Web firms, broadband providers, and even software companies and search engines."

Congressional grafter Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the outgoing chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, claimed that the bill "will make our nation more secure and better positions DHS--the 'focal point for the security of cyberspace'--to fulfill its critical homeland security mission," right alongside the National Security Agency as Antifascist Calling reported last month.

Jim Harper, a policy analyst with the right-wing Cato Institute told CNET that "Congress is stepping forward to regulate something it has no idea how to regulate. It's a level of bureaucracy that actually adds nothing at all."

While Harper's assertion is accurate up to a point, he's missing the boat insofar as demands for expanded--and unregulated--authority by our political minders to access anything and everything even remotely connected to "national security," from email to web searches and from financial transactions to travel plans, is precisely the point of an electronic police state.

The bill, the Homeland Security Cyber and Physical Infrastructure Protection Act (HSCPIPA), has "other high-profile backers," including Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) and Yvette Clarke (D-NY), the outgoing chair of the Cybersecurity Subcommittee.

Last week, Antifascist Calling reported that Clarke proclaimed that "the likelihood of a cyberattack that could bring down our [electrical] grid is ... 100%. Our networks are already being penetrated as we stand here. We are already under attack."

Clarke, who raised some $267,938 in campaign contributions during the current election cycle, according to OpenSecrets.org, including tens of thousands of dollars from defense and security grafters such as Honeywell International, Dell, AT&T, Raytheon, Verizon, Boeing and General Dynamics, not to mention that sterling citizen and beacon of financial transparency, Goldman Sachs.

With a straight face, she asserted: "We must stop asking ourselves 'could this happen to us' and move to a default posture that acknowledges this fact and instead asks 'what can we do to protect ourselves'?"

With the introduction of HSCPIPA, we now have our answer!

Hardly slouches themselves when it comes to feeding at the corporate security trough, Harman raked in $654,787 from firms such as Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), while Thompson grabbed $584,938 from firms like SAIC, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, all of whom do yeoman's work, as readers are well aware, to "keep us safe."

While no Republicans have signed onto the bill, the incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, ultra-rightist crazy, Rep. Peter King (R-NY), pulled down some $664,657 from his loyal constituents: General Dynamics, Goldman Sachs, AT&T, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, OpenSecrets told us.

King, an apologist for Bush-Obama "War on Terror" policies, told Politico earlier this month that the practice of torturing terrorism suspects "saved many, many lives." And, like his Democratic Party colleague Clarke, King avers that "cyber-spies from foreign countries have already penetrated our electrical system, mapped it and left behind software that caused disruptions and disabled our electrical system."

While neither representative has provided a shred of evidence to back their wild claims, both scrupulously avoid addressing the question of who the most egregious planetary perpetrators of "cyber espionage" actually are.

A Seamless Global Surveillance Web

In a sign that the collapsing American Empire will make new wiretap rules a cost of doing business with the greatest country that ever was, foreign governments and firms that do business in the U.S. were warned that overseas Internet service providers "would have to route communications through a server on United States soil where they could be wiretapped," the Times reported.

That would certainly give our corporate grafters a leg up on the competition!

Considering that the National Security Agency's ECHELON surveillance platform, accused by the European Parliament in their 2001 report of filching communications from EU businesses and passing them on to corporate "friends," I'm sure they'll just smile and suck it up.

According to the report, the NSA routinely used the program for corporate and industrial espionage and that information was turned over to American firms for their financial advantage.

For example, EU investigators discovered that ECHELON spies had "lifted...all the faxes and phone calls" between the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus and Saudi Arabian Airlines. The information gleaned was then used by two American companies, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, to outflank their Airbus rivals and win a $6 billion contract. Investigators also found that the French company Thomson-CSF lost a $1.3 billion satellite deal to Raytheon the same way.

Similarly, the new communications spying regime proposed by the FBI also has a long and sordid history. In January, investigative journalist Nicky Hager reported that under terms of New Zealand's 2004 Telecommunications (Interception Capability) Act, "a basic interception warrant ... allows them access to all your emails, internet browsing, online shopping or dating, calls, texts and location for mobile phones, and much more--all delivered almost instantaneously to the surveillance agencies."

Sound familiar? It should, since the template for global driftnet spying originated deep in the bowels of the UKUSA Security Agreement and the National Security Agency, the dark Pentagon entity that created ECHELON.

Hager, the author of Secret Power, first blew the lid off ECHELON in a 1996 piece for Covert Action Quarterly. He revealed that the origins of New Zealand's new system "can be traced back 10 years to when British researchers uncovered European Union police documents planning exactly the same sort of surveillance system in Europe."

That secret plan Hager reports, "known as Enfopol 98 ... aimed to create 'a seamless web of telecommunications surveillance' across Europe, and involved EU nations adopting 'International User Requirements for Interception', to standardise surveillance capabilities."

Who, pray tell, was in the thick of this nasty business? According to Hager, European researchers discovered "that the moves followed 'a five-year lobbying exercise by American agencies such as the FBI'."

Hager tells us, that similar to moves inside the United States, the island nation's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) forced through legislation that empowered spooks "to catch ... communications, including people using overseas-based email or other services, all the local communications networks are wired up as well, to monitor messages en route overseas."

The origin of these intrusive measures, Hager reports, are the series of conferences, first hosted by the FBI-run International Law Enforcement Telecommunications Seminar (ILETS) beginning in the mid-1990s.

According to the document posted by the secrecy-shredding web site Cryptome, international snoops averred that "Law enforcement agencies require access to all interception subjects operating temporarily or permanently within a telecommunications system," and that "Law enforcement agencies require a real-time, full-time monitoring capability for the interception of telecommunications. Call associated data should also be provided in real-time."

Fast forward a decade and we learn, Hager writes, that alongside the United States "New Zealand is integrated into the 'seamless web of telecommunications surveillance' around the globe--a system which from the start had primarily been about US agencies wanting surveillance capabilities beyond their borders."

Thus the secret state's desire, as The New York Times reported, for legislative authority demanding that foreign citizens and firms route their overseas communications through U.S. servers "where they could be wiretapped."

And with the latest push for "total information awareness"--data retention--looming ever-larger on the horizon, ISPs and wireless carriers "are forced by government to store all their customers' emails, texts, Internet use and phone data...making them available to police and spy agencies to trawl for people's past correspondence and activities."

"These developments" Hager writes, "have been introduced quietly. Neither the government nor the phone and Internet companies are keen to advertise their Big Brotherish activities."

Now the repressive American domestic intelligence agency that brought us COINTELPRO, targets the antiwar movement for "special handling" and gives "aid and comfort" to international terrorists like al-Qaeda triple agent, the false-flag specialist Ali Mohamed, is lobbying Internet firms Face book and Google in a bid to expand their onerous surveillance powers.

As the American Civil Liberties Union pointed out last week in their denunciation of the FBI's sought-after legislation, "this proposal isn't simply applying the same sort of wiretap system we have for phones to the Internet; it would require reconfiguring and changing the nature of the Internet."

Laura W. Murphy, the Director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office said they "remain very concerned that this proposal is a clear recipe for abuse and will make it that much easier for the government to gain access to our most personal information."

"Americans," Murphy averred, "should not simply surrender their privacy and other fundamental values in the name of national security."

And with a growing revolt over egregious sexual assaults and virtual strip searches by Transportation Security Agency goons threatening to break out amongst air travelers, including calls to resist being bombarded with ionizing radiation and humiliating TSA "pat-downs," are we on the cusp of a more generalized rebellion against the capitalist surveillance state?

Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to publishing in Covert Action Quarterly and Global Research, his articles can be read on Dissident Voice, The Intelligence Daily, Pacific Free Press, Uncommon Thought Journal, and the whistle blowing website WikiLeaks. He is the editor of Police State America: U.S. Military "Civil Disturbance" Planning, distributed by AK Press and has contributed to the new book from Global Research, The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century.
_________________________________________________________
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22025
 

© PalestineFreeVoice Copyright reserved 2003 - 2011 

Intellectual Rights Retained

Strategic Assessment #26: Prospects for Resistance in the West Bank Between Security Co-ordination and Peace Settlement Deadlock

Summary

   
     Palestinian resistance in the West Bank is currently experiencing great difficulties, and there can be no expectation of an increase in armed resistance against Israeli occupation in the territory. The Palestinian Authority and the government in Ramallah have repeatedly rejected armed resistance, committed themselves to pursuing members of the resistance, and have activated security co-ordination with Israel as an obligation of the Quartet Road map.

     While Fatah provides support and political cover for the Authority, the latter has begun dismantling or neutralising Fatah resistance cells. The members of other PLO factions suffer persecution by the Authority, and their limited resources and political conditions diminish their military capacity. Although Hamas and Islamic Jihad retain free political and military decision-making, the security measures applied by the Authority’s security apparatuses through security coordination with the occupation have made it difficult for these two movements to carry out effective resistance activity from within the West Bank.

     Given the status Que in the West Bank, and the stalemate in negotiations, the Palestinian scene could witness a new commencement of resistance efforts if President Mahmoud Abbas resigns, frustration increases in the West Bank, the Authority collapses, or a Palestinian reconciliation programme which adopts resistance as an alternative to political settlement is realised.An analysis of the quest for a political resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue is a prerequisite for discussing the prospects for resistance in the West Bank. Such an analysis should consider a number of levels.

First: The president of the Authority
   
      President Mahmoud Abbas has declared a strategic position which rejects resistance, and regards the Intifada as having caused intense and significant damage to the Palestinian people and their cause. He is, thus, bent on the option of negotiations, and only negotiations.

Second: The Ramallah government

     Prime Minister Salam Fayyad repeatedly stresses his commitment to the Quartet’s Road map and its political and security requirements, including a crackdown on Palestinian armed resistance, and security co-operation with the Israelis. He also stresses his plan to declare a Palestinian state within a period of two years, one year of which has already elapsed. Fayyad’s plan is contingent upon two factors: 1) the rehabilitation of Palestinian ministries and agencies, and 2) the implementation of a development programme focusing on infrastructural projects, paving the way for the declaration of a state.

     This rehabilitation plan is being carried out under Israeli occupation, and its imposition of facts on the ground, most notably the more than six hundred security checkpoints, the West Bank settlements, the bypass roads for Israelis, the Separation Wall, the intensive programmes to Judaise Jerusalem, and Israeli administrative and security control of most of the West Bank (what is known as Area C in terms of the Oslo Accords).

     For that reason, the preparation for such a Palestinian state is being carried out on the basis of strategic co-operation with Israel. This situation may lead to the acceptance of the risky Economic Peace Plan proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. It goes without saying that this Economic Peace Plan is a political solution which runs counter to the principle of resistance to occupation.

Third: The Fatah movement

     It must be clear that the Fatah referred to here is the Fatah of the West Bank. Fatah currently suffers inertia and fragmentation, and adopts, in theory, the slogan that the Palestinian people have the right to exercise all forms of struggle, including armed struggle. In practice, however, Fatah supports only peaceful struggle (demonstrations and protests), but plays no active or leading role even in this form of struggle. Hence, it can be said that Fatah in the West Bank is not part of the movement of armed resistance to occupation, and is unable in its current form to contribute to resistance of this kind.

Fourth: The militant factions

     Militant factions based in the West Bank are experiencing a strange situation because they are extensions to Palestinian factions based abroad, specifically in Damascus, either as offshoots or as breakaways. The past several years have witnessed the phenomenon of differing positions within these factions between the branches based in Damascus and the ones based in the West Bank.

     Those in Damascus may criticise the Palestinian Authority (PA) and emphasise the idea of resistance, whereas those in the West Bank do not go beyond the general framework imposed by the Authority, and sometimes even provide it with political cover, particularly with regards to the Authority’s position on negotiations.

     This discrepancy has its roots in the issue of funding, since the financing of these factions comes from Mahmoud Abbas in his capacity as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) which, since the Arab Summit of 1979 – after the signing of the Camp David Accords, has been responsible for the financing of militant factions, using money which, at the time of the Summit, Arab states had pledged for ten years (an amount of 50 million US dollars annually).

     When the Arab pledge expired, the PLO leadership (in the form of PLO President Yasir ‘Arafat) got these countries to maintain their funding commitments. As a result, the branches of these militant organisations based in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip find themselves obliged to follow Abbas’ policies for fear of losing funding, whereas external branches are sometimes inclined to different positions.

     This funding was initially Arab, but is now largely dependent on other donor countries. Even President Abbas does not have in his possession money earmarked for the PLO or Fatah, and, when he is in need of money, he requests it from PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad

     It is difficult for Palestinian factions, under these circumstances, to break with the political administration of Abbas and with the Fayyad government, especially for fear of a security crackdown against them.

Fifth: The Palestine Liberation Organisation

     In reality, the PLO no longer exists as an institution. Historically, it represented the political leadership of the Palestinian people, but it is now an institution devoid of content. Its official legislative body, the Palestinian National Council (PNC), has not met in almost twenty years. Nothing is left of the PLO but an executive committee which has been unable to form a quorum, and thus, in August 2009, had new committees members selected – contrary to its rules of procedure which stipulate that members be selected in a formal session of the PNC. Instead, an emergency rule was adopted which called for meetings and the appointment of members. Since the Oslo conference, the PLO’s executive committee has played only a marginal role, meeting only when the president of the Authority wishes to issue a new decision endorsed by the PLO.

     An exception to this trend was a recent position adopted by some PLO factions when they differed with Abbas on the issue of direct negotiations with Israel. The executive committee, nevertheless, did convene and made the decision to participate in the negotiations, with the agreement of five out of nine members who attended the meeting. This, despite the fact that there are eighteen members on the committee. This was further evidence of the weakness of the organisation’s image, prestige and power in relation to that of the Authority and its presidency.

Not only this, but other institutions of the PLO have been dismantled, linking some of them (such as the PNC) to the Palestinian Authority and the Ministry of Finance in particular. Additionally, the PLO’s Political Department plays the role of appointing ambassadors for the Authority, implying that the PLO is not independent from the Authority. As a result, the PLO is no longer an institution that is competent to make Palestinian political decisions, and is, consequently, unable to play a role in developing a new policy of resistance against occupation, even after the negotiations have proven to have been futile, as admitted by the negotiating parties themselves.

Sixth: The Authority’s security apparatuses

     The United States of America, which adopted the Road map during the presidency of George W. Bush, appointed an official representative, General Keith Dayton, to design the strategic relationship between Israel and the Palestinians. Dayton, with the consent of both Israel and the PA, developed a plan to build a new Palestinian security apparatus made up of young men – from eighteen to twenty-five years of age – who have not lived the experience of armed resistance to the occupation, and he pledged to train them in line with a new political project in terms of which they would form a pliant security tool that could eliminate Palestinian military activities on the pretext of maintaining security and protecting the Authority. In order to shape a new personality for these security operatives, they were provided with a national motto to relieve their conscience.

     They were taught that the Palestinian Intifada had sown chaos and insecurity, and had thwarted the opportunity to build a Palestinian state. Hence, they were told, their mission was to impose order and security, and to eliminate “troublemakers” so as to build the envisaged Palestinian state. Such a mandate explains the aggressiveness of this security apparatus in operations of arrest, interrogation and torture.

     This policy was accompanied by a broad process designed to eliminate or marginalise the resistance generation, or anyone who lived through the resistance era. This was to be accomplished either by working with the factions, or, in the field, by getting activists to renounce resistance in exchange for an Israeli guarantee of non-prosecution, and, for those over sixty years of age, by organising for them a transition to retirement by their redeployment in old ministries, departments and security apparatuses without appointing replacements for them except in frameworks restructured according to the Dayton plan. In addition, a retirement plan is applied within broader and more comprehensive regulations which become applicable at age forty-five, when a person might be enticed with offers of a higher rank and a higher salary if they agree to early retirement.

     The relegation of the resistance generation to the margins of the struggle, of political and even professional life, and the building of new security and administrative bodies in line with General Dayton’s project have, in effect, imposed a new Palestinian policy concerning the functions of the presidency, the ministries and the Authority in general, and then created a permanent and ordered repression regime challenging all those who reject this new policy.

     In terms of this new policy, security co-operation between the Palestinian Authority and Israeli security forces was established. Its main elements included the exchange of information, the joint carrying out of repression, and mutual early notification of anti-occupation activity. The Authority notifies Israel of such activity and requests it to make arrests, and Israel notifies the Authority in the same manner.

     Among the first victims of the Dayton security apparatus was the resistance faction within Fatah, which was completely liquidated. Thereafter, work began to exercise control over the Gaza Strip, but this attempt failed. The focus then shifted to the resistance forces operating in the West Bank.

Seven: Hamas

     Contrary to the condition of other militant factions, especially those under the PLO umbrella, the Hamas movement has its own financial resources, which renders its political and military decisions more independent from the Authority’s commitments and policies. Hence, and despite the fact that the Fayyad government had arrested thousands of Hamas leaders and cadres, the assassination of resistance fighters belonging to Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, thousands of search operations, and the dismantling of the Hamas military wing’s infrastructure in the West Bank, several of the movement’s leaders and spokespersons still reiterate their rejection of the Authority’s policies and their denunciation of the practices of its security apparatuses, and threaten the occupation army with retaliation.

     The Al-Qassam Brigades carried out only a few military operations over the past five years (since the cessation of the Al-Aqsa intifada), indicating the difficulty of carrying out resistance in the current circumstances.

      It is difficult to predict the Authority’s ability to continue to prevent armed resistance, particularly after negotiations have been suspended, there is a stalemate in the process of reaching a settlement, there is rising popular anger towards violations by the Authority’s security forces, and the enemy’s aggression on sacred sites, land and property intensifies. The demise of the notion of protecting the occupation’s security is a prelude to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

     What Hamas suffers of occupation, hardship and security harassment applies to the Islamic Jihad movement as well.

Conclusion

     In summary, it might be said that it is inconceivable that resistance against the occupation will emanate from within the security apparatuses or power centres currently existing in the West Bank.

     We now face a strange and unique situation which is unprecedented in the history of revolutions: namely, that the current extension of the Palestinian revolution has resulted in the adoption of security policies intended to prevent resistance, on the pretext of a commitment to a peaceful settlement. Furthermore, these policies are largely dependent, financially and politically, on the support of the US and other donor countries which publicly seek to destroy the Palestinian revolution and change its structure and objectives. It is inconceivable that these donor countries will agree to finance bodies and organisations that work against the Israeli occupation.

     One of the challenges facing the Palestinian internal situation in the West Bank is the fact that it is infiltrated by a number of influential forces which are located within the Ramallah government, the PLO’s Executive Committee, the Fatah movement, and the security apparatuses, and all of which are prepared to remove Abbas or any other persons if they seek to follow the example of President Arafat, who resorted to supporting the armed intifada after he was frustrated by the negotiating process. These influential forces desire to see negotiations through to the end, and will, most likely, ultimately accept whatever Israel offers.

Probable scenarios for the future

1. President Mahmoud Abbas will reject Israeli and American proposals for a peace settlement, and will express his rejection by tendering his resignation and returning home (as he repeatedly threatens). We must pause and consider the possibility of who might replace him.

2. Abu Mazen will succumb to pressure and sign an American-Israeli formulated agreement, which could be a framework agreement to be implemented over ten years.

3. Abu Mazen will dismantle the Palestinian Authority, which will entail the consideration of several points and taking appropriate action regarding them. These issues include: the Oslo agreement, the Israel-PLO letters of recognition, and the amendment of the Palestinian National Charter.

4. The emergence of a new Arab position which breaks from the so-called peace strategy to begin a new stage of political and economic pressure on the US and the west in the hope of obtaining a new approach from them towards the Israeli occupation. It is worth noting, however, that such an approach could open the door, in the long run, for a possible new Arab-Israeli military confrontation.

5. Increased efforts towards reordering the Palestinian house and creating a new referential political leadership for the Palestinian people. For many years the PLO, in its charter and strategy, represented this leadership. However, this leadership was dissolved as a result of a scheme to marginalise and dismantle it, leading – more recently – to the emergence of a call for the reformation and reconstruction of the PLO. This request could be realised in one of two ways: 1) a consensus understanding on and acceptance for the reconstruction of the PLO, or, if that is not possible, 2) the rebuilding of the PLO with the consent of a few parties only.

6. The evolution of Palestinian resistance from within the West Bank, given the sense of frustration and the stalemate in the negotiations project. The seeds for such a new resistance are being witnessed now, despite the gravity of the scheme whose elements are highlighted above.

Recommendations

1. The rehabilitation of the resistance option on the national level, and a cessation of the Authority’s labelling of the fighters as “terrorists” and the resistance as “violence.”

2. The Ramallah government should repeal measures to ban and pursue the resistance, should refrain from damaging the infrastructure of resistance, and should abandon the security co-ordination programme which harms both the resistance and national unity.

3. The various PLO factions should refuse to comply with the Authority’s political and security conditions, compliance which it demands in exchange for designated financial support, and should strive to reorder the internal Palestinian situation. Among the practical steps which should be taken are:

a. These factions announcing a withdrawal from the PLO’s Executive Committee, or, at least, freezing their membership in it so as to imperil the legitimacy of its leadership and its decisions; and
b. Their engagement in a process to reform the PLO and activate it on the basis of the Cairo Declaration of 2005.

Al-Zaytouna Centre thanks Bilal al-Hassan for authoring the original text on which this Strategic Assessment was based.

Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations, Beirut 23/11/2010
____________________________________________
Sent to hiyamnoir@gmail.com.

© PalestineFreeVoice Copyright reserved 2003 - 2011

Intellectual Rights Retained