Commentary: We Are All Palestinians!
FIGHT USRAELI GENOCIDE
PALESTINE IS THE ISSUE : VICTORY TO PALESTINE, DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM-ZIONISM
SUPPORT PALESTINE'S JUST STRUGGLE TO LIBERATE THEIR NATION & TO STRIKE A LETHAL BLOW AT USRAELI WORLD AGENDA
PALESTINE'S HEROIC NATIONAL RESISTANCE IS THE MAJOR OBSTACLE TO USRAELI GLOBAL DOMINATION & 'GREATER ISRAEL'.

FIRST & FOREMOST, THE FASCIST ENEMY MUST CRUSH ARMED RESISTANCE TO ISRAELI OCCUPATION, STARVE GAZA TO DEATH, AND FURTHER DIVIDE PALESTINE INTO WEST BANK & GAZA, AS THE CORNERSTONE FOR THE 'NEW WORLD ORDER' THAT KISSINGER SAID OBAMA IS 'PRIMED' TO ACHIEVE, BECAUSE ITS FASCIST HEGEMONY IS BASED UPON RESTRUCTURING A 'BETTER MIDDLE EAST', INCLUDING MAKING IRAN A PARTNER.

Below see the geostrategic agenda, starting with Palestine, to be implemented by the next round of imperialist-zionist gangsters

REMEMBER THE U.S. IS IN DEEP CRISIS, STRATEGICALLY WEAKENED AND USING THE ECONOMIC CRISIS TO FURTHER ITS GLOBAL DOMINATION AGENDA, GOING ON THE POLITICAL, FINANCIAL & MILITARY OFFENSE TO WEAKEN ITS REAL ENEMIES, THE INTERNATIONAL WORKING CLASS AND OPPRESSED PEOPLES AND NATIONS. IF ANTI-IMPERIALIST-ZIONISTS GRASP THE ENEMY'S VULNERABILITY AND DEVELOP A STRATEGIC AGENDA TO ADVANCE OUR INTERNATIONAL AGENDA, THIS CRITICAL CONJUNCTURE OFFERS UNPRECEDENTED REVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL.
Below the Qawem Coalition statement offers a strategic orientation for genuine Palestinian support that also provides broader guidance.

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UN definition of Genocide (partial)
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/p_genoci.htm
‘ In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part . . . ‘

"The financial crisis drives home to other nations that 'without an America that is successful financially, economically and therefore also politically, they're not going to be successful
Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, now to Obama team

British MP George Galloway: "Victory To The Palestinian Resistance"
Video
"The Palestinian People Will Never Surrender"
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21709.htm

Millions in Global protests condemn Gaza attack:
More than 50,000 Egyptian have protested in the city of Alexandria against Israel's assault on Gaza, one of many held across the world as the conflict enters its 14th consecutive day.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/200919123947912684....

ESSENTIAL USRAELI COLLABORATORS UNDER GROWING MASS PRESSURE
"The pressure is mounting on Egypt. How come you keep the Israeli ambassador here? How come you keep the Egyptian ambassador in Israel? How come you still export gas to Israel in spite of a court order to stop? The system is on the defensive."
- Abdel Raouf EL-Reedy, a former Egyptian ambassador to the United States...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/10/world/middleeast/10cairo.html?th&emc=t...

Bloomberg still in Israel?
10,000 at Pro-Israel Rally Attended by Big-Time NY Dems Descends into Calls for 'Wiping Out' Palestinians
By Max Blumenthal
January 13, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/119372/

beside Hamas there are numerous other Palestinian resistance groups engaged in the anti-USRAEL war
URGENT CALL FROM THE PFLP
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine calls upon the Greek
movement, the Greek people and all international progressive forces to
halt the planned shipment of U.S. arms to Israel from the Greek port of
Astakos. International media reports have revealed that the U.S. Navy is
attempting to ship 325 20-foot containers of ammunition, over 3000 tons,
in an emergency shipment of arms to aid the occupation in its ongoing
war crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

The PFLP is calling upon the people of the world, and particularly the
Greek movement to act to stop this shipment of arms. The U.S. has been
attempting to hire a merchant ship to transport the weaponry to the
Israelis at Asdud port in mid- to late January. This weaponry must not
be allowed to enter the hands of the Israelis, where it will be used
in its futile war of massacres against the Palestinian
people and the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
It must be stopped by all means!

The demand of the Palestinian people, the Arab people, and all
progressive forces - including the progressive forces in the U.S. - is
the international isolation and end of all U.S. aid to Israel. The
U.S. government, however is Israel's strategic partner, and is committed
to partnering with Israel in its massacres and crimes against our
people. If they will not stop the arms shipment, the people of Greece
and the people of the world must stop it for them!

The PFLP salutes the Greek people - your unconditional solidarity and
your mass demonstrations in support of the Palestinian people have sent
a strong and powerful message of support, combined with aid, volunteers,
and action on the ground. Your own courageous struggles for justice have
inspired us and people around the world.

The PFLP is calling for your continuing unconditional solidarity and
support to prevent the U.S. and Israel from using the land and ports of
the Greek people a supply base for occupation, massacres, and crimes.

The Greek people have a proud history and present of struggle. The
relationship between the Arab people and the Greek people is strong and
powerful and we call upon you today to march with us once again toward
victory and justice for the Palestinian people and block this arms shipment!
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
January 10, 2009

BUILDING GENUINE SUPPORT & RESISTANCE
*****Please forward the following Qawem Coalition statement widely*****
from Lana Habash
Pro-Resistance Qawem Coalition in Support of Palestine
People of good-will have been horrified by the most recent genocidal imperialist zionist assault on Gaza. Many have felt powerless to have any significant impact on it, but have still used the means at their disposal to express their outrage. Since neither the anti-war movement nor the Palestine solidarity movement have developed more serious forms of organized oppositional power, these expressions of grief and anger have followed a well-worn pattern: emergency demonstrations in front of the "Israeli" consulate candle-light vigils for the people of Gaza marches and rallies.

With hundreds murdered within the first days of the bombing, and almost a thousand massacred by the third week, the sheer magnitude of atrocities committed in Palestine has brought groups together around the narrow call for an "end to the massacre in Gaza.”"

Given the power organized in the US on the side of maintaining the zionist project, it is understandable that people who are
earnestly searching for some way to intervene strategically on the Palestinian side would want to see the broadest possible coalition of forces around key goals. Regardless of political differences, and however conflicting the long-term goals of these forces may be, the crisis is felt to call for the broadest possible immediate action to stop an unfolding mass-murder.

As the zionists outdo themselves in the brutality of their military actions, this crisis-driven unity rears its head every few years. One thinks most immediately of the mass mobilizations that took place in 2002 after the bombing of Jenin and 2006 during the sustained air-assault on Lebanon.

But this unity not only fails to lead to more serious sustained action, it presents fundamental obstacles to the struggle for Palestinian liberation. These obstacles include:
1) a failure to denounce and reject zionism
2) a narrow reliance on marches, rallies, vigils and protests that have no impact
3) a co-opted and dangerous call for ‘unity’ between colonizing zionistand colonized Palestinians
4) a diffusion of resistance by channeling opposition into forms of protest that do not threaten the status-quo of occupation and war ...

1. Failing to Denounce Zionism
By ignoring the implicit white-supremacist foundations of zionism, people are able to protest massacres while silently accepting the larger pattern of colonization. The message at the root of these actions seems to be one that denounces how Israel oppresses Palestinians (with ‘disproportionate’ violence) while silently accepting the racism, colonialism and violence
implicit in "Israel's" very existence.

As the violence of "massacres" becomes the exclusive object of protest, the violence of colonial settlement can be portrayed as "peace." This also serves as one more weapon in the zionist propaganda arsenal: Palestinian resistance against the ordinary, daily violence of colonial oppression presented as "provocation," and zionist violence as "retaliation."

The failure to denounce zionism itself also means that zionists who object only to the most extreme policies of aggression are tolerated within a movement that should be guided exclusively by those who are fighting zionist oppression.

2. Rallies, Marches, Protests
Protests, marches, and rallies can be effective when they are part of a larger strategy of building and exerting power. This can take place whe movements have a strong base and clearly articulated visions. If a union is considering a strike to enforce its demands, a mass demonstration of unity by workers is a direct threat to management. A million people mobilizing on the streets of Lebanon to demonstrate their opposition to foreign intervention aimed at disarming Hizballah was enough to scuttle a number of NATO plans. In both of these cases, the tactical meaning of demonstrations is an implicit threat: there is a next step after demonstrations, a threat that the powerful cannot ignore.

In both the anti-war and in the Palestine solidarity movements, there ino next step after marches and rallies, except more marches and rallies.Usually these marches and rallies will get big, then will taper off into smaller marches and rallies, and then will get big again in the face of the next crisis.

The marches and rallies alone fail to:
1) send a clear message in support of the Palestinian struggle for
liberation through active resistance
2) have an immediate tactical impact on the machinery of genocide and war
here where we live
3) become the launching point for more serious, sustained initiatives.
This is at least partly a consequence of the political forces involved in the current broad coalitions.

3. Unity between whom?
“Unity” in this case is not just the unity of more and less radical forces or of different social forces with limited shared goals. Because unity is formed around the call to “end the massacre,” it tends to include groups whose fundamental interest is in maintaining the state of “Israel”. They tend to be groups who think that massacres are a bad idea tactically (a real PR nightmare). For these groups, it is important to maintain support for “Israel” while at the same time objecting to the “cycle of violence” and calling for more “dialogue.”

In our current situation, these groups include people here who are tied to the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority exists to administer the occupation and is now preparing to reap the benefits of the recent assault on Gaza. They are complicit in this US backed, zionist attempt to destroy the resistance. They have imprisoned and tortured members of the
resistance. They have received guns and training from the “US” while promising not to use them against zionist invaders—that is to say, exclusively against Palestinians. Abbas has prepared an emergency cabinet to take control of Gaza when the zionist assault is over. While those tiedto the Palestinian Authority need some kind of a stage from which to
publicly proclaim their opposition to the attack, their condemnation of ‘Israeli’ attacks in Gaza keep them legitimate, but do not make them implicitly pro-resistance or pro-Palestinian liberation.

It has become clear that “unity” in this context includes forces who are against the resistance in Gaza and who oppose any real liberation for Palestinians. In any given coalition, these groups are more likely to have resources and sustained organizational infrastructures that put them in a much better position to project the message of collective action.

The main focus of political activity has been symbolic demonstrations that send a political message. That message fails to articulate unambiguous support for the Palestinian resistance, in this case military resistance in Gaza. These dangerous omissions negate the significance that such action might have. This is a crucial failure: political support for the legitimacy of the resistance is the single most important request that the Gaza resistance has asked of the broader international community.

4. Impact: Diffusing Resistance
Mass mobilizations in the streets carry with them the potential to disrupt the machinery of war and business.
One could better sympathize with limited calls for protest aimed at maximizing numbers if those numbers were being mobilized to do something to impede the infrastructure of mass murder. In six years of organizing against the war in Iraq, this goal has not crystallized. Any attempts at disruption of the imperialist war in Iraq have been limited to smaller
groups in a few locations.

Here, once again, it is possible to see how the organizations involved in broad coalition work have functioned to keep anti-war actions on terrain that is safe and unthreatening to the war. These include groups who have functioned as appendages of the Democratic party who have used demonstrations as another stage for electioneering and self-promotion. At
the root of their protests is not support for the Arab resistance and struggle for freedom, but alternately, progression of their own political and economic fortunes. Included in the types of coalitions who participate in co-opting sustainable, effective activism are left-wing party organizations that have used demonstrations primarily as a means of recruitment.

These types of coalitions diffuse resistance by providing avenues throug which people can protest massacres while ensuring that these protests do
not disrupt imperialist wars. These coalitions and their demonstrations allow peopl who feel ‘uncomfortable’ with massacres the ability to express this discomfort. Not organizing or supporting resistance beyond that, centralizes these demos within the consciousness of the demonstrating protestors... more about protestors’ feelings and anxieties than
it does about stopping violent institutions and the states that perpetrate the bloodshed being protested.

Marches and rallies, if they did nothing else, could potentially be a way of getting new people involved in a movement with strategic goals. This is something different from mere recruitment to existing organizations and parties: it requires the building of credible initiatives by groups and individuals with shared goals that would allow us to exert power.

What We Can Do
Such strategic initiatives will not arise from coalition work with any of the forces already mentioned above. Zionists have a long history of involving themselves in "pro-Palestine" work in order to prevent Palestine solidarity from having any real consequences. Liberal democrats have worked hard to ensure that the anti-war movement does not organize demonstrations that might potentially harm the interests of Democratic Party war-mongers (Kerry in 2004; Obama in 2008).

Despite these ideological and structural obstacles, we need to build coalitions. In those coalitions, we need to hold serious strategy discussions, and from those strategy discussions, to build initiatives with both short-term and long-term goals. These initiatives cannot be the initiatives of any one group, but must be owned by a larger movement.

1) We need a coalition that is both anti-zionist and pro-resistance.
Whatever immediate strategic action or initiative we may form, it must be
guided by those who share the consensus that Palestinians have a right to
reclaim all of their historic land by any means necessary.

2) We need a coalition that supports not only radical principles but
radical actions. Such a coalition must be willing to look for ways to
intervene tactically and to move beyond the script of rallies and
demonstrations.

3) Out of that coalition, we need to set both short and long term goals
and build movement infrastructure for achieving them.

The Qawem Coalition has come together to advance these goals:
* Supporting the resistance in its struggle to liberate all of historic Palestine

*• Providing aid to Palestine that is not tied to political parties and
organizations whose primary goal is to undercut support for the resistance

*• Ending all “US” aid to “Israel”: military, economic and political

*• Fighting colonialism and “US” imperialism here where we live

For the purpose of building support for the resistance that is concrete, we are encouraging all supporters to get their respective organizations to sign on to the statement. This encourages groups to discuss and come to some organizational consensus on support for the resistance. We think that ithis way the statement can be used as an organizing tool and starting point for further action rather than an end in itself. We'd like to start by posting any organizations that you are affiliated with who support th resistance statement and are willing to co-sign it (rather than individual names at this time, though we very much appreciate your individual support and may post individual names later).
Are there any organizations that you work with who would like to post as co-signers?
Salamaat,
The Qawem Coalition
If you are interested in joining the Qawem coalition (qawemcoalition.org), please write us at qawem@riseup.net.
FREE PALESTINE!!!

Context: U.S. Global Agenda
'NEW WORLD ORDER' THAT KISSINGER DECLARED OBAMA IS 'PRIMED' TO ACHIEVE MEANS WESTERN IMPERIALIST FINANCE CAPITAL CONSOLIDATED & STRENGTHENED FOR GLOBAL DOMINATION [http://www.burbankdigest.com/node/166]

Kissinger: global upheaval presents 'great opportunity' -- Obama primed to create 'New World Order'
"The president-elect is coming into office at a moment when there is upheaval in many parts of the world simultaneously," Kissinger responded. "You have India, Pakistan; you have the jihadist movement. So he can't really say there is one problem, that it's the most important one. But he can give new impetus to American foreign policy partly because the reception of him is so extraordinary around the world. His task will be to develop an overall strategy for America in this period when, really, a new world order can be created. It's a great opportunity, it isn't just a crisis."
Kissinger added that Obama's cabinet is an "extraordinarily able group of people."...
Kissinger previously spoke at some length about this "new world order" during an interview with Charlie Rose. "I think that when the new administration assess the position in which it finds itself it will see a huge crisis and terrible problems, but I can see that it could see a glimmer in which it could construct an international system out of it," Kissinger told Rose in a Dec. 2008 conversation. ..."The jihadist crisis is bringing home to everybody, that international affairs cannot be conducted entirely by drawing borders and defining international politics by who crosses what borders with organized military force," he said. "This has now been reinforced by the financial crisis, which... has spread around the world. It limits the resources each country has for a foreign policy geared to an assertion of its own interests." [more at http://www.burbankdigest.com/node/158
The following video was aired on CNBC on Jan. 5, 2009. http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Henry_Kissinger_Obama_should_act_to_0106.h...
Kissinger reply to question re: international crises facing Obama administration,. interview with CNBC "Squawk on the Street" hosts Mark Haines and Erin Burnett at the New York Stock Exchange,

Regional agenda: Obama Administration Middle East team:
Dennis Ross, Clinton admin. ME envoy whose brief may now to Iran; James Steinberg, deputy secretary of state; Dan Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Israel; Dan Shapiro, longtime Obama 'aide'; Martin Indyk, another former ambassador to Israel close to soon-to-be secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

OBAMA ADMIN'S STRATEGIC BATTLE PLAN ORDERS
Obama Must Take Regional Approach on Gaza Violence
http://www.cfr.org/publication/18204/obama_must_take_regional_approach_o...
excerpted from Martin S. Indyk, Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel in Interview by Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor, Council on Foreign Relations
If Hamas gets the trophy of American recognition before anything is changed, especially in the context of the provocation of this crisis and the launching of these rockets onto Israeli civilians, then Obama will be starting off on the very wrong foot..... To achieve a resolution of the conflict, he has to have credibility with both sides. If he distances himself from Israel from the get-go, then the Israelis are going to feel like they are embattled, isolated. But if he doesn't criticize Israel, he'll find that the goodwill that a lot of people in the Arab and Muslim world had toward him because of his personal narrative, because he's the first African-American president, because of his middle name Hussein, could be quickly dispelled, or in fact is already discredited because of his silence and his principle of one president speaking at a time. So he is going to be in very odd position. The only way I think he could get out of this is by actively engaging in bringing about a cease-fire. Rather than criticizing one side or the other, he should be seen to be working to stop the deaths of innocent civilians on both sides
and then use that as a springboard.... It's very important to the Middle East, toward the Arab and Muslim world, that he has to now counter the effort that Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda want to try to succeed in, which is to paint him as no different from George W. Bush. And in order to do that, he has to brand himself. The way to brand himself is to use his extraordinary communication capabilities to speak to Arabs, Israelis, and Muslims alike about a different future...

if you put these pieces together an effort to engage Iran so as to divert it from its nuclear program, an effort to relaunch Israeli-Syrian direct negotiations and the effort to build a sustainable cease-fire--and then resume the final-status negotiations between Israel and Palestinians, those three initiatives taken together and coordinated can generate some positive synergies among the three that would help with the overall objective--which has to be a comprehensive end to the Arab-Israeli conflict and a construction of a new regional security order in which Iran can be a constructive member if it chooses to be. That's a very tall order, and we haven't got to what to do about his commitment to draw down the troops in Iraq, the fact that he's got to change strategies on Afghanistan and deal with a losing war there, and, of course, the much broader challenge of the global economic crisis and the recession at home. So he has a huge number of problems, but he's going to need a comprehensive strategy for the Middle East. He needs to harness the international community behind that vision...

Middle East Strategy for the Obama Administration
In Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President, experts from the Council on Foreign Relations and the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution propose a new, nonpartisan Middle East strategy drawing on the lessons of past failures to address both the short-term and long-term challenges to U.S. interests.

South Asia: Robert Kaplan of the Center for a New American Security [CNAS] writes that as a result of the Mumbai attacks we will no longer be able to regard South Asia as a region distinct from the Middle East. Now, he says, there is only one long continuum stretching from the Mediterranean to the jungles of Burma.
Op-Ed Contributor
Trouble in the Other Middle East
By Robert D. Kaplan
Robert D. Kaplan is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
THE divisions we split the world into during the cold war have at long last crumbled thanks to the Mumbai terrorist attacks. No longer will we view South Asia as a region distinct from the Middle East. Now there is only one long continuum stretching from the Mediterranean to the jungles of Burma, with every crisis from the Israeli-Palestinian dispute in the west to the Hindu-Muslim dispute in the east interlocked with the one next door.... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/opinion/08kaplan.html?th&emc=th

higher power winds blow: see Indyk interview for U.S. battle plan below
Barack Obama Open for Hamas Talks
The Guardian UK, 1/8/9
The United States brands Hamas "terrorist"
Obama has been tight-lipped about Israel's two-week blitz in Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which killed almost 800 people, including 220 children and 89 women, and injured 3,125 others.
Richard Haass, a veteran diplomat and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said engaging Hamas would bear fruit on building peace in the Middle East."If the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continues to hold and a Hamas-PA reconciliation emerges, the Obama administration should deal with the joint Palestinian leadership and authorize low-level contact between US officials and Hamas in Gaza," he says in an article written with former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk and an adviser to incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton...
The Obama camp has been discussing opening talks with the Palestinian group, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. The president-elect was urged by advisers to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches with Hamas, they said. A test course would be to start contacts through Hamas and the US intelligence. "It is highly unlikely that they will be public about it," said one Middle East expert close to Obama's transition team.
"We will be perceived to be weak and feckless if we are perceived to be on the margins, unable to persuade the Israelis, unable to work with the international community to end this," said Aaron David Miller, a former state department adviser on the Middle East. "Unless he is prepared to adopt a policy that is tougher, fairer and smarter than both of his predecessors you might as well hang a closed-for-the-season sign on any chance of America playing an effective role in defusing the current crisis or the broader crisis." ...
"I think it is going to happen," said Steve Clemons, the director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. "Secret envoys, multilateral six-party talk-like approaches.... "You could do something through the Europeans. You could invent a structure that is multilateral. It is going to be hard for the neocons to swallow."
The Bush Administration has spearheaded an international campaign to isolate Hamas since it came to power in the 2006 parliamentary polls.Washington also backed a months-long Israeli siege on Gaza, home to 1.6 Palestinians, since Hamas routed Fatah from the strip last year....

Obama aide denies report he will launch low-level talks with Hamas:
"The President-elect has repeatedly stated that he believes that Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to Israel's destruction, and that we should not deal with them until they recognize Israel, renounce violence, and abide by past agreements," said Brooke Anderson, chief national security spokesperson for the Obama transition team.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054008.html

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rules out talks with Hamas ... it must "recognize Israel"
"On Israel, you cannot negotiate with Hamas until it renounces violence, recognises Israel and agrees to abide by past agreements. That is just for me an absolute," Mrs Clinton told a Senate confirmation hearing. "That is the United States government's position. That is the president-elect's position," she said after a senator suggested it is "naive and illogical" to pursue diplomacy with governments opposed to Israel... She echoed the stance... of President George W. Bush supporting Egyptian efforts to mediate a ceasefire following an 18-day Israeli war ...
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24911052-954,00.html

No Shortage of [ZIONIST] Advice on Mideast for Clinton
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/world/middleeast/13diplo.html?_r=1&8au...
WASHINGTON — As Hillary Rodham Clinton prepares to take over as secretary of state, a coterie of emissaries who have made the Arab-Israeli conflict their specialty for decades is pushing for a more assertive and balanced American approach to a region once again torn by war. ... People who know Mrs. Clinton say she is eager to recruit a fresh face to handle the Arab-Israeli issue, perhaps reaching beyond the circle of Middle East stalwarts. Still, in the debates playing out on cable talk shows and opinion columns, the discussion keeps coming back to members of this group, all of whom are Jewish and have collectively worked for 5 presidents and 10 secretaries of state.

Massive sucker-punch propaganda campaign to 'stimulate' capitalism and sever U.S. 'domestic' agenda from international as U.S./'new' admin. accelerates global war plans...will blame campaign lies on bush / imperialist partner repubs.
In His Emphasis on Economy, Obama Is Looking to History
Barack Obama is drawing on techniques from his campaign and lessons from predecessors as he seeks to shape public attitudes about the economic downturn.... There is little doubt on either side of the aisle that Mr. Obama can get Congress to pass a stimulus bill. The question is whether he can create one that can draw enough Republican votes to give the parties shared ownership of a plan, providing a basis for cooperation on other big issues, like health care and global warming — and reducing the partisan recriminations should the plan fail to live up to its promise.
But Mr. Obama’s team will still be able to call on Washington’s partisan political machinery ...Brad Woodhouse, a senior Democratic Party strategist in the campaign, assembled a group of 25 organizations — including unions like the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and grass-roots groups like MoveOn.org and Acorn — to build public and Congressional support for Mr. Obama’s economic package...said the group was in the process of raising money for television advertisements that would pressure local lawmakers to support the plan. He said he had consulted with several of Mr. Obama’s senior strategists..."with the notion...to make this any easier on Obama, it will preserve some of his political capital.”http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/us/politics/12obama.html?th&emc=th

The United States Promotes Genocide Against the Palestinians
By Professor Francis A. Boyle
The paradigmatic example of “crimes against humanity” is what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jewish people. This is where the concept of “crimes against humanity” came from. And this is what the U.N. Human Rights Commission determined that Israel is currently doing to the Palestinian people: crimes against humanity.
What the world witnesses here is (yet another) case of “dishumanitarian intervention” or “humanitarian extermination” by the United States and Israel against the Palestinians and Palestine. In today’s world genocide pays so long as it is done at the behest of the United States and its de jure or de facto allies such as Israel.... I anticipate no fundamental change in America’s support for the Israeli campaign of genocide against the Palestinians during the tenure of the Obama/Clinton administration.
(from “Tackling America’s Toughest Questions,” now at Amazon.com) http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21722.htm

a victory: US forced politically to cancel weapons shipment to its proxy
"I can confirm that the U.S. munition shipment has been delayed and that EUCOM (U.S. European Command) is developing an appropriate course of action to deliver the items to the U.S. stockpile in Israel," he said.... The United States Navy's Military Sealift Command issued a tender on December 31st for a ship to deliver 325 standard 20-foot containers of ammunition on two separate journeys from the Greek port of Astakos to the Israeli port of Ashdod in mid-to-late January. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055098.html

PFLP: "Urgent call to Block the shipment of US arms to Israel through Greek port!"
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine calls upon the Greek movement, the Greek people and all international progressive forces to halt the planned shipment of U.S. arms to Israel from the Greek port of Astakos. International media reports have revealed that the U.S. Navy is attempting to ship 325 20-foot containers of ammunition, over 3000 tons, in an emergency shipment of arms to aid the occupation in its ongoing war crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The PFLP is calling upon the people of the world, and particularly the Greek movement to act to stop this shipment of arms. The U.S. has been attempting to hire a merchant ship to transport the weaponry to the Israelis at Asdud port in mid- to late January. This weaponry must not be allowed to enter the hands of the Israelis, where it will be used to massacre our people in Gaza! It must be stopped by all means!... http://www.uruknet.de/?p=50644

and where else?
Report: US military re-supplying Israel with ammunition through Greece
http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=50560&s2=09 Jan 8, 2009
Saed Bannoura, IMEM
In addition to $3 billion in direct aid a year, the US government supplies around $3 billion in weapons transfers to Israel, and $6 billion in loan guarantees, none repaid by Israel....
As the Israeli military continues to pound the crowded, impoverished and imprisoned population of the Gaza Strip with the full force of its military might, Israel's strongest ally...announced plans to ship large amounts of ammunition to the Israeli forces – as it did during Israel's 2006 invasion of Lebanon, when the Israelis ran out of (internationally-banned) cluster bombs, and the US shipped them tens of thousands more.
The US Military Sealift Command on Dec. 31st published a solicitation for bids from shipping companies to ship two boats, each containing 168 TEU's (twenty-foot equivalent container units) of ammunition, from Greece to Israel. The description of the vessels required was brief: "Required: Request US or foreign flag container vessel (coaster) to move approximately 168 TEU's [standard twenty-foot containers] in each of two consecutive voyages both containing ammunition."Bids were requested by January 5th, but it is unclear whether bids were submitted or a contract awarded as of January 8th. According to the US Military's solicitation, "Funds are not currently available for this procurement. In the event funds remain unavailable, this procurement will be cancelled without an award being made."...

Hamas: U.S. giving Israel more time in Gaza
http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFL937956320090109?feedType=RS...
Thursday the U.N. Security Council voted on a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but the United States abstained in the vote, saying talks on a truce were still under way through Egyptian mediation. An exiled Hamas deputy political leader Moussa Abu Marzouk told Hezbollah's Al Manar television from Damascus "By not voting for the resolution and by not vetoing it, the United States is sending a clear signal that it supports the resolution but after a while ... they want... to give the enemy more time. But I assure you that they will not achieve any of their goals and they will withdraw in disappointment and they will be defeated."...
Abu Marzouk echoed other Hamas officials' statements that... "This resolution was discussed in the hallways of the United Nations. The movement (Hamas) was not consulted on this resolution, our vision and the interests of our people were not taken into consideration,". "Therefore this resolution does not concern us unless someone comes to enforce it on the ground. When it is enforced on the ground, whatever party which tries to enforce it will have to deal with...(Hamas)."

Hasbara spam alert! With Israel's foreign ministry organising volunteers to flood news websites with pro-Israeli comments, Propaganda 2.0 is here
Richard Silverstein
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/09/israel-foreign-minis...
The hasbara brigade strikes again! You always hear about Israeli attempts at media manipulation. Everyone knows it's going on but usually the process happens through cyber insurgents like those involved with Giyus (and its media monitoring software, Megaphone). Now, we know that the Israeli foreign ministry itself is orchestrating propaganda efforts designed to flood news websites with pro-Israel arguments and information. A reader of my blog has received the following email which documents both the efforts and the agency that originated them. The solicitation to become a pro-Israel "media volunteer" also includes a list of media links which the ministry would like addressed by pro-Israel comments: ....

Genocide: Horrid massacre of Palestinian children by Israel
LA VOZ DE AZTLAN
Los Angeles, Alta California
January 7, 2009
Many of you will not be receiving this message because, again, our domain aztlan.net is being blocked by certain e-mail servers owned by AOL, MSN, ATT and others. Our regular e-mailed News Bulletins have been bouncing back because sinister censors have set up software blocks by defining our e-mails as "spam." This occurred a little before Israel started bombing the Palestinians and
we suspect it is related to the ongoing holocaust in Palestine because Zionists in the USA and in Israel do not want their war crimes exposed to the world.

Journalists have also been banned by Israel in Gaza....We did receive, however, the horrific photographs of massacred Palestinian children below.

We are presently investigating why our Internet connection through Verizon is constantly being disrupted and why our dedicated server which we depend on for our website, uploading and e-mailng is not operating normally.
[PHOTO 1] (Warning graphic content)
[PHOTO 2] (Warning graphic content)
http://www.aztlan.net/israel_kills gzahran@wanadoo.fr To subscribe/unsubscribe send a blank message with the appropriate request in the subject window. Feel free to
forward for information and educational purposes with Signature intact, please!

Israeli military abducting as many Gaza youth as possible for information:
Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset and head of the parliamentary assembly, Dr. Jamal Zahalka, said the detainees were moved to a military camp northwest of the Israeli city of Beerseba.
http://tinyurl.com/9sl4ll

"... Israel is the subcontractor for American arms to the 'Third World.' There is no terrible regime-Colombia, Guatemala, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile during the time of the colonels, Burma, Taiwan, Zaire, Liberia, Congo, Sierra Leone-there is not one that does not have a major military connection to Israel.... So this is the missing piece... Israel is a key member of the empire."
Jeff Halper

USRAELI GENOCIDE: American-made WP munition clearly marked with the designation M825A1
Gaza victims' burns increase concern over phosphorus
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5470047.e...
Michael Evans, Defence Editor and Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem
Photographic evidence has emerged that proves that Israel has been using controversial white phosphorus shells during its offensive in Gaza, despite official denials by the Israel Defence Forces....that the rounds have injured Palestinian civilians, causing severe burns. The use of white phosphorus against civilians is prohibited under international law.
The Times has identified stockpiles of white phosphorus (WP) shells from high-resolution images taken of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) artillery units on the Israeli-Gaza border this week. The pale blue 155mm rounds are clearly marked with the designation M825A1, an American-made WP munition.

Dems & OBAMA TEAM equally repsonsible and 'new' admin. has no plan to stop CIA, et al.
'no benefit because public is not clamoring for an investigation'...AKA cover-up...
Obama Reluctant to Look Into Bush Programs
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/us/politics/12inquire.html?th=&emc=th&...
Barack Obama indicates he's unlikely to authorize a inquiry into Bush administration programs like domestic eavesdropping...
Mr. Obama said on the ABC News program “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” that there should be prosecutions if “somebody has blatantly broken the law” but that his legal team was still evaluating interrogation and detention issues and would examine “past practices.”... “... part of my job is to make sure that, for example, at the C.I.A., you’ve got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don’t want them to suddenly feel like they’ve got spend their all their time looking over their shoulders.” Mr. Obama added... “a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”...
Mr. Obama in the past condemned waterboarding, and was explicit in the interview that he regarded the use of the technique... as torture, prohibited by statute. And the president-elect said he disagreed with Vice President Dick Cheney, who defended the practice.“Vice President Cheney, I think, continues to defend what he calls extraordinary measures or procedures when it comes to interrogations,” Mr. Obama said, “and from my view, waterboarding is torture.”
Mr. Obama’s choice for attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., is widely expected to be asked about his views on these issues at his confirmation hearing this week. Associates say Mr. Holder is open to prosecutions based on specific accusations but is less eager to use the criminal law to commence wide-ranging inquiries. Before being chosen for the Obama cabinet, he said there should be “a reckoning” over Bush administration policies. Lawyers who represented Bush administration officials over the years expressed little surprise that Mr. Obama’s legal and national security team had lost whatever appetite it might have had for delving into alleged misdeeds of the Bush years....
Mark Lowenthal, who was the assistant director for analysis and production at the C.I.A. from 2002 to 2005, said if agents were criminally investigated for doing something that top Bush administration officials asked them to do and that they were assured was legal, intelligence officers would be less willing to take risks to protect the country. “There are just huge costs to the day-to-day operation of intelligence,” Mr. Lowenthal, now the president of the Intelligence and Security Academy, said of a potential investigation.... he saw no benefit to such an effort because, he said, the public was not clamoring for it.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/us/politics/12inquire.html?th&emc=th

BE AWARE, BE PREPARED & TAKE ACTION - PROTEST AT THE OBSCENE CORONATION AFFAIR
CNAS, dem. thinktank, with Kaplan's strategic orientation, offers important insight into Obama regime plans to achieve the impossible, a secure USRAELI 'new world order' The agenda demands even more severely making working class pay for the oppressors global juggernaut (called 'economic bailout') thus demands Obama's ability to pacify majority of the sheeple and severely tightening fascist infrastructure ("terrorists" worldwide coming soon to hurt Obama's amerika ya know) to deal with 'domestic extremists', 'terrorists' etc)

"The financial crisis drives home to other nations that 'without an America that is successful financially, economically and therefore also politically, they're not going to be successful
Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, now to Obama team

how many 'continuity' punches do obama suckers need!
Continuity We Can Believe In
By WILLIAM KRISTOL
It seems we can expect more continuity than change from President-elect Barack Obama's foreign policy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/opinion/12kristol.html?th&emc=th

The Necessity of Israel
by Charles Krauthammer
Hamas' rejection of an extension of its often-violated six-month cease-fire (during which the rockets never stopped, just were less frequent) gave Israel a rare opportunity to establish the norm it should have insisted upon three years ago: no rockets, no mortar fire, no kidnapping, no acts of war. As the U.S. government has officially stated: a sustainable and enduring cease-fire. If this fighting ends with anything less than that, Israel will have lost again. It can ill afford to lose any more wars.
http://townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2009/01/02/the_necessi...

Two Endgames
By Charles Krauthammer
January 09, 2009
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/01/two_endgames_for_israe...
WASHINGTON -- Israel's leaders have purposely obscured their war aims in Gaza. But there are only two possible endgames: (A) a Lebanon-like cessation of hostilities to be supervised by international observers, or (B) the disintegration of Hamas rule in Gaza.
the only acceptable outcome of this war, both for Israel and for the civilized world, is Endgame B: the disintegration of Hamas rule. It is already under way. This is not about killing every last Hamas gunman. Not possible, not necessary. Regimes rule not by physically overpowering every person in their domain, but by getting the majority to accept their authority. That is what sustains Hamas, and that is what is now under massive assault. The disintegration of Hamas rule in Gaza would be a devastating blow to Palestinian rejectionists, who since the Hamas takeover of Gaza have been the ascendant "strong horse" in Palestinian politics. It would be a devastating blow to Iran as patron of radical Islamist movements throughout the region, particularly after the defeat and marginalization of Iran's Sadrist client in Iraq. It would encourage the moderate Arab states to continue their U.S.-allied confrontation of Iran and its proxies. And it would demonstrate Israel's irreplaceable strategic value to the U.S. in curbing and containing Iran's regional ambitions.

U.S. IMPERIALISM'S 'WHOLISTIC' STRATEGIC INTEGRATION

continuity: war-intel depts. already operating according to strategists' 'visions' for old 'new world order'
Obama picks defense lobbyist as deputy defense secretary
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/tag/cnn...
Obama, who campaigned on lessening the influence of lobbyists in government, has chosen a defense expert who is currently a vice president and lobbyist for one of the country’s biggest defense contractors to be his deputy secretary of defense: William Lynn, undersecretary of defense in President Bill Clinton’s second term, is nominated to Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ deputy. Lynn is currently a senior vice president at Raytheon, which has billions of dollars in Defense Department contracts and is the maker of the Army’s Patriot Missile system and the Tomahawk missile used by the Navy. The company is also developing a global positioning satellite communication system with the Air Force. As deputy secretary, Lynn would be involved in the process of budgeting and acquisitions, in addition to running the day-to-day operations of the Defense Department....
The transition office also announced other Defense Department nominations, including former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Robert Hale for undersecretary of defense and Michele Flournoy, who was part of Obama’s Pentagon transition team, for the undersecretary devoted to policy. Gates interviewed Lynn and the other appointments, according to the Pentagon
spokesman.

U.S. SPENDING ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS EXCEEDS $52 BILLION
Most U.S. Government spending on nuclear weapons-related programs is unclassified. But it is functionally secret since such spending is widely dispersed across many programs in several agencies and it is not formally tracked or reported. A new study estimated that the cost of U.S. nuclear weapons and weapons-related program exceeded $52 billion last year. "That's a floor, not a ceiling," said Stephen I. Schwartz, who led the study with Deepti Choubey. The estimate does not include the costs of classified nuclear weapons programs or nuclear-related intelligence programs, among other limiting factors. The $52 billion figure far exceeds the total annual budget for international diplomacy and foreign assistance ($39.5 billion) and comprises roughly 10 of all national defense spending...such priorities naturally emerge, undebated. Thus, the majority of nuclear weapons spending (55.5%) is allocated to upgrading, operating and sustaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal.... (10%) is devoted to controlling the spread of nuclear weapons and technology... See "Nuclear Security Spending: Assessing Costs, Examining Priorities," by Stephen I. Schwartz with Deepti Choubey, Jan. 2009. http://www.carnegieendowment.org/nuclearsecuritybudget
Secrecy News by Steven Aftergood, published by the Federation of American Scientists, is at: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

Energy Nominee Shifts His Stance
WASHINGTON — Physics met politics at the Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday for Steven Chu, the Nobel laureate scientist chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to head the Department of Energy, and the physics bent a bit, as Dr. Chu backed away slightly from earlier statements he has made — that gasoline prices should be higher, and that coal was his “nightmare.” ...
...In the course of the hearing, the main mission of the department — making, maintaining and dismantling nuclear weapons, and cleaning up from six decades of nuclear weapon production — got intermittent mention. According to a report on nuclear weapons spending by Stephen I. Schwartz and sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment, the budget for nuclear weapons in 2008 was over $52 billion. Robert Alvarez, who was a policy advisor to the energy secretary in the Clinton administration, said in an interview that the department is spending about 11 times more money on nuclear weapons than on energy conservation.... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/us/politics/13web-chu.html?8au=&emc=au...

Around the "ME" world with Biden: Cheney apparently 'advise' old buddy Biden it's OK to have 'more than one VP' where U.S. war proxies & plans are concerned

Biden travels to Iraq's troubled, oil-rich north after meeting PM
Buzz UpSendSharePrint
by Marwan Ibrahim – 1 hr 58 mins ago
Featured Topics: Barack Obama Presidential Transition
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090113/pl_afp/iraquspoliticsdiplomacy_2009...
AFP/IPMO – This picture made available by the Iraqi Prime Minister's office shows US Vice President-elect Joe …
Play Video Joe Biden Video: Official: Biden affirms 'responsible' pullout AP
Play Video Joe Biden Video: Readying Iraq for landmark elections AFP
Play Video Joe Biden Video: Around the World FOX News
KIRKUK, Iraq (AFP) – US vice president-elect Joe Biden, on a trail-blazing visit to Iraq ahead of Barack Obama's inauguration, met Tuesday with Iraq's prime minister before travelling to the troubled city of Kirkuk. After talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad, the Delaware senator arrived in the oil-rich city where he met governor Abdul Rahman Mustafa and his deputy Rakan Saeed al-Juburi. "Solving the main issues of Kirkuk is a major issue for the United States government in Iraq," Biden told a group of journalists at the airport.
"The new administration is very concerned about the conflict in Kirkuk and I call on all political parties in Iraq to find a consensus that will resolve this conflict."
The oil-rich Kirkuk province, with 900,000 inhabitants, is an ethnically mixed region made up of Turkmen, Arabs, Christians and Kurds. But the Kurds have demanded it be added to their autonomous region in the country's north...
Biden met Maliki after arriving in Baghdad from Afghanistan via Kuwait on Monday, and first holding talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
Travelling with Republican Senator Lindsay Graham, Biden also stopped early on Monday in Iraq's southern city of Basra where he met with British military officials, the US military said. Britain has a deployment of about 4,000 troops there.
Discussions with Maliki in Baghdad focused on the future of US forces in Iraq and improving economic relations with the administration of president-elect Barack Obama

Biden Promises More U.S. Help
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090110/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan
Gen McKiernan told Mr Biden that more helicopters, engineers, military police and other "additional enablers" would be needed for the thousands of extra US expected in Afghanistan later this year, said US military spokesman Col Greg Julian.

Pakistan Denies 'Official' Role in Mumbai Attacks:
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Friday Pakistan had sent India a response to evidence from the Mumbai attacks, as U.S. vice president-elect Joe Biden arrived on a trip aimed at easing tension in South Asia ... Biden, a Democrat and outgoing chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, arrived with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of the U.S. Armed Services Committee, a U.S. embassy spokesman said.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=6609562

Pakistan responds to Indian dossier as Biden arrives
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE50829E20090109?sp=true
Biden told President Asif Ali Zardari the new U.S. administration wanted to support Pakistani stability and its nascent democracy while Zardari briefed Biden on efforts in the campaign against militancy, his office said. A U.S. counterterrorism official said in Washington on Thursday al Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan, Usama al-Kini, and a top aide were believed to be dead. The official declined to say how or when the men, both Kenyan, died, other than it was in South Waziristan, on Pakistan's Afghan border...
Washington has urged full Pakistani cooperation in investigating the Mumbai attack and action against any domestic groups involved. On Friday, the United States said it was determined to get to the bottom of the attack plot. "We want to make sure that the groups that were involved, the groups that originated this attack in Pakistan, those groups are shut down, put out of business, brought to justice," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said in Mumbai...
The tension with India has had ramifications on Pakistani domestic politics with Gilani sacking his national security adviser on Wednesday for releasing news of the nationality of the surviving gunman before consulting him. Gilani said he had sacked the adviser, Mahmud Ali Durrani, in the interests of the country and of governance and denied the affair had created a rift with President Zardari....

Seattle Post-Intelligencer (6 Jan 2009) online PLANES: India likely to buy more aircraft from U.S.

Former Pentagon chief predicts Iran crisis soon:
William Perry, who headed the Pentagon during a 1994 nuclear standoff with North Korea, predicted on Thursday that President-elect Barack Obama will soon face a nuclear crisis with Iran. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090108/ap_on_el_pr/obama_nuclear_challenges

Iran likely taking US nuclear threat seriously: US ex-defense chief
James Schlesinger, former US defense secretary said at a Pentagon news conference, Iran may regard the threat of a US nuclear attack as "much more likely" in light of Hillary Clinton's warning during the US presidential campaign that "we can obliterate you", Tehran. Schlesinger, who served under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, said North Korea probably has come to believe it is "reasonably safe from a nuclear response" because of the US response to its development of nuclear weapons.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090108/pl_afp/usnucleariranschlesingerisra...

iran suppports Hamas but Hamas is no Iranian Puppet
Analyst Karim Sadjadpour, Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor, CFR.org January 8, 2009
http://www.cfr.org/publication/18159/iran_supports_hamas_but_hamas_is_no...

...When we're looking at the prospects for some type of a U.S.-Iranian diplomatic accommodation, the Palestine issue is going to be I think a major impediment...
When I look at the U.S.-Iran relationship, there are six issues in which Iran plays an integral role and which are crucial challenges for U.S. foreign policy: Iraq, Afghanistan, the Arab-Israeli conflict, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and energy security. There are common interests on many issues, mainly Iraq, Afghanistan, and terrorism, given mutual concerns about Sunni radicals like Al Qaeda. The one issue where there really is no common ground and both sides have a very inflexible position is the Israeli-Palestinian issue. And I think if we choose to start dialogue or engagement with Iran on that issue, there's no potential for confidence to be built. At this time at least, the Iranian position on Israel is very inflexible...

Iran has said it will accept whatever the Palestinians themselves accept. When the Bush administration started the Annapolis project in 2007, they marketed it less as an effort to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian issue but more as means to unite the moderate countries in the region against the radicals-Iran, Hamas, Syria, Hezbollah. I think when you market it as such, when Palestinian-Israeli peace talks become a public means to isolate Iran, I think you provide incentives to the Iranians to try to sabotage the peace talks. So I would say that for the Obama team moving forward, it's not realistic for them to invite Iran to participate in the Arab-Israeli peace process because it's equivalent to inviting vegetarians to a barbeque-Iran disagrees with the fundamental premise of a two-state solution. But if we want them to refrain from playing a destructive role, in my opinion, the best way to defang them is by offering a bilateral U.S.-Iran dialogue. Otherwise, I don't see Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who is now 69 year old and who on a weekly or daily basis over the last three decades has repeated the vitriolic rhetoric towards Israel, suddenly reinventing himself and saying, "we've decided to change our approach towards Israel."

Obama views Iran as a “genuine threat” to US security: says he's willing to initiate diplomacy
WASHINGTON (Agencies)
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said on Friday he views Iran as a "genuine threat" but still favors initiating a dialogue with the Islamic republic. Asked about Iran at a news conference, Obama said he would not go into detail on his policy toward Tehran because of the principle that there is only one president at a time. But he said, "I have said in the past during the course of the campaign that Iran is a genuine threat to U.S. national security." "But I have also said that we should be willing to initiate diplomacy as a mechanism to achieve our national security goals, and my national security team, I think, is reflective of that practical, pragmatic approach to foreign policy,".
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/01/09/63878.html

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will keep his job briefly to oversee the massive security operation for the inauguration [unless there's a 'calculated crisis demanding longer 'continuity'

ruling class pick has proven his worth
Dennis C. Blair, Director of National Intelligence
Author: CFR, Joanna Klonsky, Associate Editor
January 9, 2009
Retired four-star Admiral Dennis C. Blair is President-elect Barack Obama's pick to be director of national intelligence (DNI). Blair, a thirty-four-year Navy veteran, is the former commander-in-chief of U.S. Pacific Command. He also served as associate director of central intelligence for military support, coordinating intelligence and military operations under the Clinton administration. He was director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, and commanded the Kitty Hawk Strike Group aircraft carrier and the destroyer Cochrane.
From 2003 to 2007, Blair was president of the Institute for Defense Analyses, a nonprofit corporation that manages federally funded national security research and development centers. He stepped down in the face of concerns that his positions on the boards of major defense contractors presented a conflict of interest.
Blair speaks Russian and is an expert on U.S. policy toward Asia. He co-chaired the Council on Foreign Relations independent task force that published a 2007 report recommending that the U.S. government work to integrate China into the global community.... As DNI, Blair would oversee the U.S. intelligence community and deliver Obama's daily intelligence briefings.

Adm. Dennis Blair and the Church Killings in East Timor: Obama’s Bloodstained National Intelligence Chief Aided Perpetrators of Indonesian Massacres
By Allan Nairn
http://www.creative-i.info/?p=3682
...In 1999, in the midst of massacres of East Timor civilians and churches, Admiral Blair gave support to the perpetrators, the armed forces of Indonesia.
Two days after a massacre at Liquica that left flesh hanging from the church walls, Blair contacted the Indonesian commander, offered him US aid, and according to classified US cables, failed to tell him to stop the attacks. Reassured by the evident support from Blair, then the US Pacific Command chief, the Indonesian commander, General Wiranto, escalated the attacks. The Indonesian forces subsequently struck the Red Cross and the Bishop’s residence, killing more than a thousand as they went, burning churches and raping nuns. They were trying to derail a free election[...]

MUMBAI, AS VALUABLE TRAINING OP.
Bloomberg & Kelly fresh from israel -- lots of tech. help available in terror war police state security
NYPD Eyes Disrupting Cell Phones in Event of Terrorist Attack
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/08/nypd-interrupt-cell-phone-ser...
The New York Police Department is training for new threats in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, Commissioner Raymond Kelly is set to tell a Senate committee Thursday. The New York Police Department is looking for ways to disrupt cell phone calls and other forms of electronic communication among terrorists in the event of another terror attack in New York, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says.... Kelly says that in the Mumbai attack, the terrorists' handlers used cell phones and other portable communications devices to order the killing of hostages and to adjust other tactics while the attacks were underway....
Another change, initially reported by The New York Post, is the decision to ensure that more police officers are trained to use machine guns and other heavy weapons. In mid-December, for the first time, recruits at the police academy received basic instruction in the operating systems of three types of heavy weapons. Prior to this, the testimony says, only the Police Department's Emergency Service Unit was given such training. Now it will become a standard feature at the police academy.

On Dec. 5, the NYPD also conducted two exercises -- a tactical drill for Emergency Service Unit officers and a tabletop exercise for commanders. Both scenarios were based on the attacks in Mumbai, Kelly says.
Since the 9/11 attacks, New York City has invested heavily in counterterrorism, devoting some 1,000 officers to the effort. The department has installed advanced radiation detection devices at all points of access to the city's five boroughs, including roads, bridges, tunnels and waterways.

Israeli high-tech companies work for U.S.
U.S. law enforcement wiretaps authorized by the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA)
[Isreali] Amdocs provides billing and directory assistance for most American phone companies, Comverse Infosys handles telephone tapping equipment for US law enforcement, Odigo runs "Instant Message" systems on computers. All three are closely tied to the Mossad and the Israeli Defense Force, which is massively funded by u.s. Most firewalls on US corporate and government computer systems are provided by Israeli Checkpoint Systems. Odigo's offices near the World Trade Towers allegedly received two hour advance warning of the 911attacks...

USRAELI freedom of the press/media
Few in U.S. See Jazeera’s Coverage of Gaza War
By NOAM COHEN
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/business/media/12jazeera.html?th=&emc=...
...While getting to the story has not been an insurmountable problem for Al Jazeera English’s journalists — they are, in effect, surrounded by it — getting their reports to the English-speaking public has been a bit trickier. The network is largely unavailable in the United States, carried only by cable providers in Burlington, Vt.; Toledo, Ohio; and Washington, D.C... By contrast, Al Jazeera’s English-language service can be seen in over 100 countries via cable and satellite, according to Molly Conroy, a spokeswoman for the network in Washington.
Recognizing that its material from Gaza will have influence in the United States only if it is highly accessible online, Al Jazeera has aggressively experimented with using the Internet to distribute the information it has gathered...
The near-total blackout in the United States is no doubt related to the sharp criticism Al Jazeera received from the United States government during the initial stages of the war in Iraq for its coverage of the American invasion. Officials like Vice President Dick Cheney and the defense secretary at the time, Donald Rumsfeld, said the network’s reporting was inflammatory, irresponsible and frequently misleading. And in Israel, where news media commonly quote from material on Al Jazeera, the network is frequently criticized for inflaming the Arab public by running unfiltered and out-of-context videotape showing blood and gore in battle zones.... Al Jazeera officials respond they are being blamed for accurately reporting what is going on in the world...
Al Jazeera planned to announce this week that all its video material of the war in Gaza would become available under the most lenient Creative Commons license, which basically means it can be used by anyone — rival broadcaster, documentary maker or individual blogger, for example — as long as Al Jazeera is credited...Also, it currently streams its broadcasts in a variety of formats and has a dedicated channel on YouTube with more than 6,800 videos. Al Jazeera said that since the war started the number of people watching its broadcasts via the Livestation service has increased by over 500 percent, and the views of videos on its YouTube channel have increased by more than 150 percent......the dearth of distribution in the United States means that the dispatches... reach America almost exclusively via the Internet... focusing on the introduction of a platform at aljazeera.net to allow the public to contribute opinion or “citizen journalism,” ....

"From the depth of our heart --  thanks to The Israeli Defense Forces"
Microsoft logo under the text with the Israeli national flag in the  background.

Microsoft CEO: Our company almost as Israeli as American
By Maayan Cohen, TheMarker Correspondent, and Reuters
Microsoft's Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, on a visit to Israel, said Wednesday that Microsoft is an Israeli company almost as much as it is American.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the American software giant's new research and development center in Herzliya, Ballmer said that the proportion of Microsoft employees per capita in Israel is almost similar to that in the United States. Ballmer noted that the IT sector in Israel is very advanced, and that Tel Aviv is a lot like the Silicon Valley. He said he knows very few places around the world that offer such a variety of startup opportunities, and that his company intends to purchase more Israeli startup companies... the CEO said Microsoft is not looking to buy all of Yahoo! but is currently engaging in negotiations about other types of deals with the U.S. No. 2 search engine.
Related articles:
# Microsoft Israel creating new R&D center in Herzliya
# Yahoo! President Susan Decker takes interest in Israel
# Internet giant Yahoo! to follow rivals Google, Microsoft to Israel

U.S.: Wants to Still Hold Iraqi Prisoners Without Charge:
Some prisoners held indefinitely without charge by U.S. forces in Iraq may not be freed or given trials, though U.S. forces lost the authority to hold them at the beginning of 2009 a U.S. military spokesman said.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/09/us-iraqi-prisoners-may-st_n_156554.html

Military force-feeding 10 percent of Guantanamo detainees:
Ten percent of captives at the US Guantanamo Bay prison -- many of whom have never been charged of a crime -- are having their heads velcroed to chairs and forced to take in nutritional supplements by a tube forcibly inserted through their noses by US guards.http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Military_forcefeeding_10_percent_of_Guanatamo_0108.html

surprise!
Judge Rules Madoff Can Remain Free on Bail
A judge declined request to jail Bernard L. Madoff, allowing him to remain under watch in his apartment.... Prosecutors first went to court last week to have Mr. Madoff’s bail revoked for violating the terms of his bail, one of which was a requirement not to dispose of any assets. Prosecutors said that Mr. Madoff and his wife sent at least a million dollars worth of jewelry as gifts to family members and friends. In addition Mr. Madoff had plans to transfer $200 million to $300 million of investors’ money to family members and friends. When authorities searched Mr. Madoff’s office desk, they found $173 million in signed checks ready to be sent off. The packages Mr. Madoff sent, prosecutors said, contained 13 watches, 4 diamond brooches, a jade necklace, 2 sets of cufflinks and other jewelry. Most of the items sent were recovered.
In a response, Mr. Sorkin and Daniel J. Horwitz, who represent Mr. Madoff, have argued that jailing him would be unfair and wrong.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/business/13bail.html?8au&emc=au

in case you missed it....
not to 'Homeland Security' police state apparatus -- but Obama's SEC Chair appointment
Bernard Madoff`s Money Trail Leads to Washington
2008/12/23
...We are told that Wall Street icon, Bernie Madoff, a key player in self regulation of Wall Street, has stolen $50 billion from investors in a Ponzi scheme stretching over what is now emerging as a three-decade crime spree, or longer. Despite our sprawling Homeland Security apparatus that regularly catches Democratic governors, law enforcement did not catch Madoff; his two sons turned him in after he confessed. As of December 19, Blagojevich had been released and was in the Governor’s Mansion issuing pardons; Madoff was in his $7 million penthouse in Manhattan after being allowed to post, as collateral for his bond, the East Coast mansions he likely bought with Ponzi money stolen from an eclectic group of charities, Florida pensioners and a well-heeled country club set. Dreier was still in jail even though he stole less than 1 percent of the Madoff take. Apparently, Mr. Dreier lacks the right friends in high places.
The major beneficiary of the week was Citigroup. The leaky piggy bank disappeared from the news along with the investor lawsuit charging it with running its own Ponzi scheme on a scale to dwarf Madoff to piker status. Had it not been for the Madoff media frenzy, folks might have started connecting the dots to a $300 billion taxpayer bailout of a bank serially charged with global misdeeds, market maneuvers internally named “Dr. Evil” and “Black Hole,” and recent press reports that Citigroup had stashed over $1.2 trillion off its balance sheet....
NASD Regulation merged with the enforcement and arbitration units of the New York Stock Exchange in July 2007 to create the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). CEO of the consolidated body is Mary Schapiro, who formerly headed up NASD Regulation, one of the most conflicted bodies in the history of finance. Ms. Schapiro has just been nominated by President-Elect Barack Obama to be the new SEC Chair. [...]
Pam Martens worked on Wall Street for 21 years; she has no security position, long or short, in any company mentioned in this article. She writes on public interest issues from New Hampshire. She can be reached at: pamk741@aol.com http://www.counterpunch.org

FBI seeks more than 3,000 new staff in historic hiring blitz
Government Executive

GROWING ARMY OF THE UNEMPLOYED
Total 2008 job loss: 2.6 million, U.S. Payrolls Post Biggest Annual Drop Since 1945 with the unemployment rate climbing to 15-year high of 7.2 percent in December [includes only those currently receiving benefits] plus estimated 3 mill. involuntarily employed only "marginally", 8 mill. involuntarily employed only part-time, all told according to NBC national news 1/9/9, about 20 mill., 19% of the 'workforce'.