Dedicated to the removal of the Islamic Regime in Iran ----
I prefer to Die on my feet than Live on my knees
من مرگ ایستاده روی پای خود را بر زندگی خم شده روی زانو ترجیح میدهم
Front Gate to British Embassy (called English Embassy by brain-dead Obama) in Tehran, Iran where I encountered my first brush with death at a very young age (under four) and also saved a life.
The embassy had a huge pool for embassy staff adults and a small pool for children. Water in the large one was crystal clear despite its size, while the small kid's pool had clean water but was not painted white or sky blue like the big one.
Mother did not allow me to swim in the very deep adult pool without an orange colored inner tube as there was no shallow end (if I remember correctly).
One day, when mother had to run an errand she asked the wife of a senior embassy staffer to watch over me while she went out and would return in an hour.
She failed to warn the wife, a grey haired lady, that I was an adventurous child and only an ingrained fear of angering my mother and good manners in general, kept me in any semblance of control.
Well, mother was gone, the grey haired lady was busy talking to a friend and I wanted to explore. Actually test my swimming skills without the inner tube.
Moving to the far end of the pool, to avoid supervision, I swam out from an armpit high ledge around the whole pool and once away tried to remove the inflated inner tube.
My efforts served only to tip me upside down and I slipped under water until my feet hooked onto the rubber tube.
Instead of struggling to free myself, the beauty of the lightly blue, crystal clear water all around me proved fascinating, so I hung there upside down enjoying the visual sensation.
Back "on shore" the grey haired friend, who had no intention of going in the water and was still wearing her rectangular diamond studded - not waterproof -watch saw the orange round swimming aid floating empty and calmly and it took her a while to register that my absence from the scene was only explained when she noticed my two feet.
The calm water around me signaled her that I was already dead. The thought of a young child fearlessly but stupidly enjoying being upside down under water was beyond her reasoning, so fearing accusations of dereliction of responsibility that caused my death she dived in to retrieve me - dead or alive.
My lack of alarm was mostly because I had taken a huge gulp of air before being submerged and from very early on in life could hold my breath for several minutes, so felt in no imminent danger.
Being grabbed and dragged to the edge of the pool in the choking crook of her elbow around my throat was far more distressing at the time.
Mother had to replace the diamond watch and I never really lived that down. Not even when a few days later I saved a baby which had crawled off and fallen face down into the children's pool and was floating - unnoticed by her nanny.
Again, as a very young child myself, I naively asked the nanny if the baby she was watching was learning to swim. On her horrified shriek, I jumped in and pulled pulled infant out. It spluttered and smiled up at me.
BTW, though I may appear to have been a very dumb child, I ended up with an average IQ score of 157. Not enough for Mensa (160) in those days but way above the 150 required today.
The photos of so-called "student" mobs set in motion by the Islamic regime in Iran show lower intelligence than a three-year old child at that location so many years ago.
NYT: "Britain said on Wednesday that it had closed its embassy in Tehran, withdrawn all its diplomats and ordered Iran to do the same within 48 hours at its own diplomatic mission in London in the worst rupture of relations in decades. The measures were announced in Parliament by Foreign Secretary William Hague a day after Iranian protesters shouting 'Death to England' stormed the British Embassy compound and a diplomatic residence in Tehran, tearing down the British flag, smashing windows, defacing walls and briefly detaining six staff members in what appeared to be a state-sponsored protest against Britain's tough new economic sanctions against Iran. The attack was the most serious diplomatic breach since the traumatic assault on the American Embassy after Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979. Mr. Hague had initially expressed outrage over the attack, saying Britain held Iran's government responsible and promising 'other, further, and serious consequences.' In Parliament Wednesday he declared: 'We have now closed the British embassy in Tehran. We have decided to evacuate all our staff.' All British diplomats had now left Iran, he said. 'We require the immediate closure of the Iranian embassy in London and all staff must leave in the next 48 hours,' he said... Separately, Norway said it had temporarily closed its embassy in Tehran but had not withdrawn diplomatic personnel. A spokeswoman, Hilde Steinfeld, said the Norwegian authorities decided on the move late Tuesday after the attack on the British facilities." http://t.uani.com/tG9VEO
Reuters: "The European Union condemned an attack on the British embassy in Tehran on Tuesday and called on Iran to protect diplomats on its territory. A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the attack by protesters on two British diplomatic compounds was a 'totally unacceptable incursion'. 'It is with extreme concern that we have learnt that the premises of the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Tehran have been overrun by demonstrators,' Maja Kocijancic said. 'We strongly condemn this totally unacceptable incursion and call on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran immediately to fulfil its international obligations... to protect diplomats and embassies.'" http://t.uani.com/rzgLR8
AFP: "US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday demanded that Iran protect foreign diplomats as she strongly condemned the storming of the British embassy in Tehran. Speaking to reporters at an aid conference in South Korea, Clinton said the United States condemned the attack on the embassy 'in the strongest possible terms.' 'It is an affront not only to the British people but also to the international community,' Clinton said. 'We stand ready to help in any way that we can to make this point as strongly as possible that governments owe a duty to the diplomatic community to protect life and property and we expect the government of Iran to do so,' she said. In Washington, President Barack Obama also urged Iran to 'hold those who are responsible to task.'" http://t.uani.com/siOCxp
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
NYT: "The large, deadly explosion at an Iran military base in Iran on Nov. 12, which Iranian authorities have called an accident that set back research work there by a few days, appears to have been far more devastating than their description suggested, according to an analysis of newly released commercial satellite images of the blast site. The images reveal vast destruction and chaotic disarray across a sprawling complex composed of more than a dozen buildings and large structures. The Institute for Science and International Security, a private group in Washington, made the satellite images public Monday, along with an analysis of the damage. 'It was pretty amazing to see that the entire facility was destroyed,' Paul Brannan, the report's author, said Tuesday in an interview. 'There were only a few buildings left standing.'" http://t.uani.com/s2tqbS
Bloomberg: "Iran faces new hurdles to getting paid for its oil as the U.S. tightens financial sanctions to deter buyers from the world's third-largest crude exporter. The U.S. approved extra curbs on Iran's banking system and oil industry on Nov. 21, hoping to thwart the country's nuclear program, and the European Union may follow. Current sanctions have led Indian importers to route payments for Iranian crude through a Turkish bank. These refiners, concerned Turkey may stop cooperating amid the latest U.S. rules, are asking banks in Russia to arrange alternatives, said three people with direct knowledge of the situation. 'The idea of the sanctions is to shrink the circle of buyers and so increase their ability to extract discounts from Iran,' said Robin Mills, an analyst at Dubai-based Manaar Energy Consulting, who worked for a decade at Royal Dutch Shell Plc in the Middle East." http://t.uani.com/vOs1XX
FP: "Senate Democrats and Republicans have agreed on a way forward regarding new sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) that would impose crippling sanctions on the Iranian economy, with an eye toward preventing a catastrophic consequence for the world oil markets. Last night, Sens. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) filed a new amendment to the defense policy bill that represents a compromise of the two separate amendments each had filed last week. The new bipartisan language would build upon the administration's announcement last week that it was naming the CBI as a 'primary money laundering concern' under the Patriot Act and go further than President Barack Obama's Nov. 19 executive order expanding sanctions on Iran's petroleum sector. The Senate amendment would add to that by barring any U.S. financial institution from doing business with any foreign financial institution that knowingly conducted any significant financial transaction with the CBI. The Kirk-Menendez amendment got unanimous consent in the Senate on Monday for consideration on the defense bill, which is on the floor this week. It will get a vote, probably before Dec. 2, and is expected to pass overwhelmingly. The administration has resisted any congressional efforts to force the imposition of Iran sanctions ahead of its own schedule, but Obama will be hard pressed to veto the must-pass defense bill over the issue." http://t.uani.com/tey97w
Reuters: "South African petrochemicals group Sasol said on Wednesday it had entered talks to potentially divest from its operations in Iran, a move already flagged in October. Sasol had said in a filing to the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission last month that there was a possible risk that sanctions may be imposed on the company by the United States, the European Union and the United Nations as a result of its investments in Iran... 'We previously announced our intention to review our investment in Iran and we have subsequently entered into discussions to potentially divest our stake in Arya Sasol Polymers Company,' chief financial officer Christine Ramon said in a statement. Sasol has a 50 percent stake in Arya Sasol Polymer company, a joint venture with Pars Petrochemical Company of Iran. The venture produces ethylene and polyethylene, which are used in the production of plastics." http://t.uani.com/rCMj6k
Reuters: "Iran shrugged off a fresh wave of international economic sanctions against it last week, saying they would have 'no impact' on its trade with other countries. But in Dubai, one of Iran's top trading partners, businessmen are starting to worry. 'The restrictions imposed on the Iranian traders here are getting so hard that they are virtually going to go out of business,' said Morteza Masoumzadeh, a member of the executive committee of the local Iranian Business Council and managing director of the Jumbo Line Shipping Agency. 'They are facing a hell of difficulties. Within a year or two, they will have to shut down. And these traders are dealing with basic commodities. There is no involvement with those banned items, or missile technology,' he said." http://t.uani.com/sw9hTE
Human Rights
AFP: "A UN expert tasked with investigating alleged human rights abuses in Iran will talk to Iranian activists in France, Germany and Belgium this week after a request to visit the country itself was refused. United Nations Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed will meet Iranians living in the three countries during a fact-finding mission from November 30 to December 8. 'A visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran would have allowed me to gain better understanding of the situation,' Shaheed said in a statement. 'However I will now study a wide range of human rights issues by meeting activists within the Iranian diaspora, alleged victims of human rights violations, intergovernmental and civil society organisations,' he said." http://t.uani.com/tWBzw0
Fox News: "The Iranian government calls it the Family Protection Bill, but activists call it the 'Anti-Family Protection Bill.' It would give men the right to take a second wife without the permission of the first, and it would enshrine a man's right to have an unlimited number of temporary marriages, which can last from 10 minutes to 99 years. Those arrangements come from Shariah law and have always existed in Iran, but the Family Protection Bill would make them official. Two groups -- the International Coalition Against Violence in Iran, and the Association of Iranian Researchers -- arranged a press conference in London last week to raise awareness of the issue." http://t.uani.com/rvZYYJ
Opinion & Analysis
Guardian Editorial Board: "There was little dissembling the official nature of the Iranian demonstration that stormed the British embassy and residence in Tehran yesterday. Police used teargas and secured the release of six embassy employees taken by what the semi-official Fars news agency called hardline students. But the students themselves included members of the paramilitary basij brigades and carried banners naming Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, which runs the overseas operations of the Revolutionary Guard. This may not have been a government-sanctioned operation but it was an official one, with three conservative institutions, the parliament, the judiciary and the supreme leader, behind it. So what was going on? The figleaf behind which Britain normally hides is to say that the embassy was attacked because it was there. True, British diplomats had been anticipating a major protest to mark the anniversary of the assassination of the senior Iranian nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari. Shahriari was killed by a hit team on motorcycles, for which Iran has blamed the Mossad. But there is more to this than the traditional Iranian belief, grounded, it has to be said, in history, that Britain is the master string-puller behind all that is bad that happens in Tehran. Britain was the first to cut off dealings with Iran's central bank, following this month's critical report on the Iranian nuclear programme by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Both the US and the EU have yet to do this. Italy and Spain, the largest buyers of Iran's oil in Europe, are opposed to targeting the central bank. As the oil industry, from which the Revolutionary Guard receives its income, relies heavily on the central bank for most of its transactions, Britain presents an obvious target. The Iranian parliament, the Majlis, voted to expel the British ambassador Dominick Chilcott on Sunday, and the parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani called the vote 'just the beginning of the road'. Another Iranian MP was quoted as saying that Britain needed a punch in the mouth. The attack on the embassy was well signposted. The fact that Suleimani's name was on the Revolutionary Guard's calling card is also significant. This is a power struggle on which the west's favourite bete noire, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is currently on the losing side." http://t.uani.com/uHGyau
Elliot Abrams in The Weekly Standard: "The attack on the British embassy in Tehran came just days after the Iranian 'parliament' voted to expel the British ambassador, and therefore reeks of official complicity. The attack-complete with an invasion of the grounds, looting, and a brief hostage-taking-is an always useful reminder of the nature of the regime in Tehran. These are thugs, whatever their religious titles. As every nation will condemn this assault on an embassy (the Russians were very quick to do so, for example) we should take advantage of the event. Just a week ago, President Sarkozy of France said, 'as Iran steps up its nuclear program, refuses negotiation and condemns its people to isolation, France advocates new sanctions on an unprecedented scale to convince Iran that it must negotiate....France therefore proposes to the European Union and its member states, the United States, Japan and Canada and other willing countries to take the decision to immediately freeze the assets of the Iranian central bank [and] stop purchases of Iranian oil.' The French proposal is practical. Iran exports about 2.2 million barrels a day. If one assumes that half of it will still be delivered (mostly to Asia), the world oil market can easily absorb the loss of roughly a million barrels a day. It did so easily enough when Libya's exports went from 1.3 million barrels a day in January to almost zero. With Libya returning to the market (exporting 350,000 barrels per day now) and spare Saudi capacity available, exclusion of Iranian exports would not create a crisis. The United States should get behind this proposal immediately, and seek to persuade the UK, Canada, and Japan to join such U.S.-EU action. These steps would strike a hard blow at the Iranian economy, even if there is leakage because the Chinese keep buying Iranian oil. The hope would be that the Iranian economy is sufficiently hurt to cause social unrest." http://t.uani.com/s6hfcA
Michael Rubin in Fox News: "Hardline Iranian students stormed the British embassy in Tehran this morning, smashing windows and burning the British flag. The students, protesting the latest British sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic as a result of its nuclear defiance, demanded Tehran break relations with London. Rather than protect the embassy, Iranian security forces charged with its protecting simply stood aside suggesting official endorsement of the act. The attack on the embassy follows the Iranian parliament's decision on Sunday to downgrade relations with Great Britain and expel the British ambassador. That vote was 179 in favor of downgrading relations, and four against with 11 abstentions. Importantly, the four parliamentarians who voted against the measure felt that the Iranian government should go even further and sever relations altogether. According to Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency, the radical students carried placards with photographs not only of Majid Shahriari, an assassinated Iranian nuclear scientist, but also Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Qods Force. Suleimani is one of the Islamic Republic's darkest figures responsible, according to American diplomatic cables, for running terror networks across Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon. He is perhaps responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans and dozens of British troops. As the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps consolidates power inside Iran, Suleimani maintains an increasing chance to become president himself, as Iran's hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad finishes his second and last term. That radical Iranian forces would attack the British embassy should surprise no one. Iranian authorities have never apologized for the seizure of the American embassy 33 years ago. While American diplomats and United Nations officials toast Iran's former reformist president Muhammad Khatami and his call for a 'dialogue of civilizations,' prior to becoming president, Khatami penned a piece praising those who took American diplomats hostage. Not only did Khatami, who ironically was honored at St. Andrews University in Scotland just five years ago, never retract his endorsement of hostage-taking, but he appointed Masoumeh Ebtekar, the spokeswoman of the U.S. embassy captors, to be his vice president." http://t.uani.com/t4rZkX
Explosions at facilities connected with Iran's nuclear and missile development programs suggest that either foreign agents are taking action, or the Iranian resistance is alive and well.
The latest meeting of the Government Accountability and Transparency Board was closed to the press, a typical example of the administration's policies of "transparency"...
The authorities at UC Davis appear to be capitulating to the demands of the Occupy movement, including listening to their wish to have police removed, despite cases of on-campus crime.
How Socialism Took Root in American Education
Diane Kepus
Few people may know the name of Robert Owen, but this British-born early socialist was to become one of the main influences upon reforming American educator John Dewey.
Reuters: "Iranian protesters have stormed the British Embassy compound in Tehran, smashing windows, hurling petrol bombs and burning the British flag during a rally to protest against sanctions imposed by Britain. Several dozen protesters broke away from a crowd of a few hundred protesters outside the main embassy compound in downtown Tehran, scaled the embassy gates and went inside. Iranian security forces did little to stop them. The semi-official Mehr news agency said protesters pulled down the British flag, burned it, and put up the Iranian flag. Unconfirmed reports also suggested that the protesters had taken hostages. Inside, the demonstrators threw stones and petrol bombs. One waved a framed picture of Queen Elizabeth... The attacks, carried live on Iranian state television showed, followed the rapid approval by Iran's Guardian Council of a parliamentary bill compelling the government to expel the British ambassador in retaliation for the sanctions, and warnings from a lawmaker that angry Iranians could storm the British embassy as they did to the U.S. mission in 1979. The British Foreign Office said it was outraged by the incursion into embassy." http://t.uani.com/rSIBya
Reuters: "The sound of an apparent explosion was heard from Iran's Isfahan city on Monday afternoon, the head of the judiciary in the province said, but the province's deputy governor denied that there had been a big blast. 'In the afternoon, there was a noise like an explosion, but we don't have any information from security forces on the source of the noise,' provincial judiciary head Gholamreza Ansari was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency. However, Mehr news agency quoted Deputy Governor Mohammad Mehdi Ismaili as saying: 'So far no report of a major explosion has been heard from any government body in Isfahan.' ... An important Iranian nuclear facility involved in processing uranium is located near Isfahan city, although Iranian media reports of the incident did not refer to it. Iranian media provided contradictory information about the incident, which came less than three weeks after a massive explosion at a military base near Tehran that killed more than a dozen members of the Revolutionary Guard including the head of its missile forces." http://t.uani.com/t0yUkG
ISIS: "SIS has acquired commercial satellite imagery of a military compound near the town of Bid Kaneh in Iran where a large explosion occurred on November 12, 2011. Compared to an earlier picture of the site, an image taken on November 22, 2011 shows that most of the buildings on the compound appear extensively damaged (see figures 1 and 2). Some buildings appear to have been completely destroyed. Some of the destruction seen in the image may have also resulted from subsequent controlled demolition of buildings and removal of debris... ISIS learned that the blast occurred as Iran had achieved a major milestone in the development of a new missile. Iran was apparently performing a volatile procedure involving a missile engine at the site when the blast occurred." http://t.uani.com/vvbG7Y
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Reuters: "The European Union is preparing new restrictive measures against Iran and shares U.S. concerns about Tehran's nuclear program, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said on Monday. Van Rompuy did not offer details of the planned sanctions in remarks to reporters after a White House meeting with President Barack Obama and other top U.S. officials. In a joint statement issued after that meeting, the United States and European Union said they shared 'deep concern' about the possible military dimensions of Tehran's nuclear pursuits." http://t.uani.com/tbE5fK
Daily Telegraph: "Mr Hague said the expulsion of Dominick Chilcott, who has been in Tehran just one month, would damage its ties with Europe and other Western states. 'If the Iranian government confirms its intention to act on this, we shall respond robustly in consultation with our international partners,' Mr Hague said. 'It will do nothing to repair Iran's international reputation. To respond in this manner to pressure from the international community to engage is entirely counterproductive and yet another sign of Iran's continued unwillingness to enter into dialogue.' The Foreign Ofice was weighing its direct response, as the bill demands relations to be reduced to charge d'affair level but Iran does not have an ambassador in London." http://t.uani.com/vDZzHu
Reuters: "Italy's government will give diplomatic help to the country's oil companies to find alternative sources of crude if sanctions are imposed on imports from Iran, a senior industry official said on Monday, adding Saudi Arabia could make up the shortfall. 'They have taken our information about the negative impact of the possible suspension of supplies from Iran to see what they can do on the diplomatic level to help find sources to replace imports from Iran,' Pietro de Simone, director of oil industry lobby Unione Petrolifera, told Reuters after meeting government officials. Italy, which relies on Iran for about 13 percent of its total crude imports, would be able to replace an eventual shortfall of Iranian supplies with imports from Saudi Arabia, one of the world's biggest oil producers and exporters, he said." http://t.uani.com/sx1vsv
Reuters: "A French push for a European Union embargo on Iranian oil has run into opposition in some EU capitals, diplomats said on Monday, signalling that any decision was unlikely before a Dec. 9 summit of EU leaders. Paris has argued Europe should ban Iranian oil as part of Western steps to ratchet up pressure Iran over its nuclear programme, following the release of a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency that suggested Iran had worked on designing an atom bomb... EU powerbrokers Britain and Germany support the proposal, although London is still conducting an analysis of the costs, diplomats said. But some EU states, led by crisis-stricken Greece, have expressed concerns during talks on the issue about the economic impact of an oil embargo. Discussions are being held in Brussels ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Thursday, during which EU governments are set formally to approve an extension of Iranian sanctions lists by some 180 people, companies and institutions." http://t.uani.com/rPT2ZS
Bloomberg: "The U.K. government is examining whether to ban the sale of mobile-phone surveillance software to Iran and Syria, Business Minister Judith Wilcox said. Wilcox, answering questions in Parliament today about exports to Iran of software that can be used to help track, arrest and repress opposition activists, said the coalition government is actively considering controls on such products... 'Surveillance technology at the moment is not controlled under our current export licensing system, as it has legitimate applications.' Creativity Software Ltd., a British technology company, has exported software to Iran legitimately, Wilcox said, and the questioning of companies over exports to 'difficult countries' is 'very robust' to ensure that the technology is not misused." http://t.uani.com/ruWcmo
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "Iran has banned a popular computer game, 'Battlefield 3', depicting US armour and aircraft launching an assault on Tehran, an Iranian IT magazine reported. 'All computer stores are prohibited from selling this illegal game,' an unnamed deputy with the security and intelligence division of Iran's police said in a statement carried by Asr-e Ertebat weekly. A Tehran-based IT union warned all shops to abide by the ban. 'Battlefield 3', made by US videogame company Electronic Arts (EA), is based on a fictional near-future in which players take on the role of US Marines tackling shootem-up missions in Paris, New York and Tehran." http://t.uani.com/tAyrbW
Bloomberg: "Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi canceled a trip to the Netherlands this week after Hungary said it wouldn't allow his plane to enter its airspace, Iran's Shargh newspaper said, citing an official in Tehran. Hungary said the refusal to give clearance to the aircraft was due to technical problems, an explanation the unidentified Foreign Ministry official described as unconvincing, the Tehran- based paper reported. The ministry has sought an explanation from the Hungarian ambassador in Tehran, it said. The Hungarian Foreign Ministry said the decision was based on European Union air-safety rules and unrelated to sanctions against Iran. 'The aircraft which the Iranian foreign minister planned to use is on a banned list, according to a European Commission directive relating to flight safety,' the ministry in Budapest said in an e-mailed response to questions." http://t.uani.com/tJpfjZ
Opinion & Analysis
Fredrik Dahl in Reuters: "Iran regards its nuclear program as a source of power and prestige and tougher sanctions look unlikely to alter Tehran's cost-benefit analysis much despite the economic pain they cause. Deep mistrust of Western intentions and security concerns in a volatile region where the United States maintains a strong military presence could help explain Iran's resolve not to back down and curb nuclear work its foes fear has weapons aims. That determination may have been further reinforced by the fall in August of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, who agreed in 2003 to abandon efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction only to be toppled after his people rose up and Western powers turned against him. Iran is facing a new wave of punitive measures after a United Nations nuclear watchdog report this month lent independent weight to suspicions, rejected by Tehran, that it has been developing a capability to make atomic bombs. 'Iran's nuclear program is motivated by regime survival,' said international policy analyst Alireza Nader of RAND Corporation, a U.S.-based research group. 'It appears the Islamic Republic has made the calculation that a potential nuclear weapons capability is worth the price of sanctions, as long as sanctions do not imperil the regime.' If that is the case, the latest push by the United States and its European allies may do little to force a change of course by Iran in the long-running nuclear dispute, which has the potential to trigger a wider conflict in the Middle East. 'The mere fact that Iran is ready to bear the brunt of increasingly painful sanctions demonstrates that they are entrenching themselves in a siege mentality, ready for a showdown if need be,' said Bruno Tertrais, a senior research fellow at France's Strategic Research Foundation think tank. European Union foreign ministers meet on Thursday to discuss new sanctions on Tehran, after the United States, Canada and Britain last week announced measures against Iran's energy and financial sectors. Iranian leaders are responding in a characteristically defiant manner to the latest such measures to target the major oil producer, which is already subject to four rounds of U.N. sanctions as well as separate U.S. and European steps." http://t.uani.com/vnSygt
Alan Note: reminder of th extent of Qatar's interference in Libya.
by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamim
Recently it has been reported that Libya's interim Prime Minister -- Abdurrahim el-Keib -- has named a line-up of secularists as part of his interim cabinet at the expense of Islamists, running counter to the expectations of many analysts. Most notably, Osama al-Juwali, the chief of the military council in the small town of Zintan in western Libya, was appointed defense minister instead of Abdelhakim Belhaj, the Islamist head of the Tripoli Military Council.
What are the reasons behind these surprising appointments? Do they show Libya is on the path to true liberal democracy?
The most important point to appreciate is that the country's transitional leaders are keen to avoid an impression of acting at the behest of a foreign power. For the Islamists, therefore, backing from Qatar has now proven to be a hindrance rather an advantage in the struggle for power. On more than one occasion, figures in the National Transitional Council (NTC) like the Libyan ambassador to the UN have rebuked Qatar for what is perceived as excessive interference by the Gulf nation in Libyan affairs.
This is hardly an unjustified criticism. Qatari aid has circumvented the NTC and besides the close ties to Belhaj, one Libyan Islamist cleric supported by Qatar is Sheikh Ali Sallabi, who presently resides in Doha.
Even now, Ali Tarhouni, who has said he refused an offer to join the transitional cabinet on the grounds that the members are not representative of the country as a whole, could well have been alluding to Qatar -- as suggested by a journalist and something to which he did not object -- when he was speaking of outside nations that had interests in backing the rebels in Libya, "some which we know and some which we don't know." In a somewhat similar vein, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the NTC, slammed Qatar earlier last week for interfering in Libya.
Linked to this rejection of Qatari interference is a desire to placate factions based around Misrata and Zintan that are deeply suspicious of the likes of Belhaj, were responsible for capturing and handing over Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, and have grown alarmed at the Islamist presence around Tripoli.
Accordingly, they have been competing with Islamist militias for control of the harbor and airports of the Libyan capital. Thus, the interim government naturally feels a need to calm tensions in the western parts of the country and maintain some degree of stability.
The transitional leaders are also undoubtedly eager to restart economic ties with the West: particularly Western Europe. Given Libya's dependence on oil and a virtual halt in petroleum production on account of the civil war, the interim government evidently fears that a significant Islamist presence in cabinet positions could jeopardize potential business deals with Western companies to revive Libya's economic growth by increasing oil output to pre-civil war levels.
So do these cabinet appointments mean that my predictions that Islamism would probably be the dominant ideological force in Libya are all wrong? Not necessarily. To begin with, the Islamists may well decide that it is better to maintain a low profile to avoid triggering outside alarm, and therefore devise a de facto arrangement similar to that which existed in Mubarak's Egypt, whereby the Islamists might be snubbed formally in the higher ranks of government but their ideology permeates at the ground level.
Such an arrangement included numerous concessions to the Muslim Brotherhood, such as the glorification and teaching of jihad in Egyptian school textbooks, discrimination against the Copts, and the promotion of discourse on television with Brotherhood clerics calling for the extermination of Bahais in Egypt and inciting mob attacks upon them in villages.
Furthermore, as Michael Rubin notes, "a Brotherhood sympathizer took Koran scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd to court in Egypt. To appease the group, the court -- with Mubarak's consent -- declared Abu Zayd an apostate and forcibly divorced him from his wife, because a Muslim woman cannot be married to a non-Muslim man in Egypt." Another clear instance of enforcement of Sharia norms in Egypt.
In this context, it is worth pointing out that Abdul-Jalil's pronouncements that Sharia would be the principal source of law were more likely an indication of his feeling intimidated by Islamists rather than sincere ideological convictions on his own part. Yet this sense of intimidation is precisely the problem, for Libya's transitional leaders have already felt the same impulse to pander to the Islamists, above all in the debacle involving David Gerbi and his attempts to rebuild Tripoli's abandoned synagogue.
Meanwhile, Belhaj -- Libya's leading Islamist -- has been sent by the Libyan authorities to meet with the Free Syrian Army in Turkey, seeking to provide money, weapons and perhaps training for Syrian rebels.
It is also noteworthy how the interim cabinet appointments have completely excluded the Islamists' most vociferous opponents and advocates of liberal secularism in Libya: the Berber minority, prompting justifiable outrage on their part. Indeed, the contrast between the generally liberal mores of the Berber town of Zwara and the dominance of Islamism on the ground in the neighboring "Arab" (in reality just Berbers who have been Arabized over the centuries) city of Sabratha could not be more apparent.
In short, therefore, the cabinet appointments of "technocrats" (as is being widely reported) are not automatically a cause for optimistic hope of liberal democracy in Libya. Islamism in Libya does not appear to be going away anytime soon, and could well entrench itself even more deeply in the country in the coming months.
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and an intern at the Middle East Forum.
The White House on Friday threw its weight behind Egypt's resurgent protest movement, urging for the first time the handover of power by the interim military rulers. "The United States strongly believes that the new Egyptian government must be empowered with real authority immediately," the White House said. The statement is a significant escalation of the international pressure on the generals because the United States is among the Egyptian military's closest allies. (New York Times)
A heavy machine gun was still clattering away in the pitch black as the five soldiers described how they had just deserted from the Syrian Army to join the revolution. A sixth had not made it. "We heard him screaming," said Mahmoud Ali, one of the defecting soldiers, "but we couldn't go back." They had fought their way out of their base, running under fire to reach the Bab Amr quarter of Homs. Now, people were coming out into the street to embrace them, the newest members of the Free Syrian Army.
Earlier that day they were ordered to fire on unarmed protesters in the streets of Homs. "They gave us the order to shoot on the demonstrators," said Ahmed Daleti. "So we said 'No,' these people are peaceful. They just want freedom. We are all one people, one blood - we couldn't just shoot them."
We had entered Syria from Lebanon with men running guns to what is a growing insurgency. Arriving in Bab Amr, we saw members of the Free Army on street corners with heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. Lt. Waleed al Abdullah, one of the Free Army leaders in Homs, said that the regime would quickly crumble if there was a no-fly zone in Syria, just like the one NATO imposed over Libya. "70% of the army are ready to defect," he said. "Whole brigades with their officers; even the Special Forces." (Telegraph-UK)
The Arab League overwhelmingly approved sanctions Sunday against Syria to pressure Damascus to end its deadly crackdown on dissent. In Cairo, Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim said 19 of the League's 22 member nations approved the sanctions, which include cutting off transactions with the Syrian central bank and halting Arab government funding for projects in Syria. (AP-Los Angeles Times)
Syrian rebels held secret talks with Libya's new authorities on Friday in Istanbul, aiming to secure weapons and money for their insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. (Telegraph-UK)
Diplomatic circles in Israel expressed criticism of the White House, which called on Friday for the Egyptian government to transfer the reigns of authority to a civilian government at the earliest possible time. "The U.S. is repeating the same mistake it made during the first revolution in Egypt, when it called on Mubarak to turn over the government."
The Foreign Ministry is now operating through Israel's ambassadors in France, Germany, and Britain to pass a message that nothing should be done which shakes up the structure of government in Egypt and which could plunge it into a civil war. (Maariv-Hebrew-28Nov11)
A Muslim Brotherhood rally in Cairo's most prominent mosque Friday turned into a venomous anti-Israel protest, with attendants vowing to "one day kill all Jews." Some 5,000 people joined the rally that coincided with the anniversary of the UN partition plan in 1947, which called for the establishment of a Jewish state. Throughout the event, Muslim Brotherhood activists chanted: "Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, judgment day has come." (Ynet News)
Ill winds blowing through the Arab Spring will force Israel to rethink its overall security needs, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated at the cabinet meeting on Sunday. "There was a lot of talk about where the Arab Spring was going," one government source said. "It appears now that it is not going in a good direction."
Noted the source, who was in the cabinet meeting, "There were elections in Tunisia, and the Islamists won. There were elections in Morocco over the weekend, and the Islamists won. People here are very concerned about Egypt. It looks now as if the revolution is going in a certain direction. Wherever the Arabs vote, the Islamists are winning." (Jerusalem Post)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Jerusalem municipality and the Public Security Ministry on Friday to postpone for one week the demolition of the Mughrabi Bridge, which leads from the Western Wall Plaza to the Temple Mount, due to warnings from Egypt and Jordan of possible repercussions. The Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader, Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, called Thursday on Jordanian King Abdullah to dissuade Israel from replacing the ramp. (Ha'aretz)
See also The Mughrabi Gate to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem: The Urgent Need for a Permanent Access Bridge - Nadav Shragai (Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) The_Mughrabi_Gate_to_the_Temple_Mount_in_Jerusalem:
Gaza farmers began exporting hundreds of tons of produce to Europe on Sunday. Yousef Shaath of Gaza's Agricultural Development Association said 250 farmers hope to export 600 tons of strawberries, 350 tons of bell peppers, 160 tons of cherry tomatoes and 17 million carnations, for estimated revenues of $25 million - up dramatically from last year. (AP-Ynet News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
The notions of dialogue and compromise are still foreign to an Egyptian society reeling after a very long period of living under a dictatorship. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has been conducting a dialogue with the Muslim Brothers from the day it took power in the hope that former and present-day officers could maintain their hold on at least a third of the Egyptian economy. Secular parties do not want the army to have a special status, but only the army can prevent the establishment of an Islamic state. The writer is a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt. (Jerusalem Post)
Imagine the tribal areas of Pakistan wedged snug against, say, Belgium instead of against Afghanistan. Next imagine that Belgium, usually so good about these sorts of details, hadn't bothered to erect a border fence to at least try to keep the jihadis in their own yard. This is approximately the situation Israel suddenly faces with the Sinai Peninsula portion of Egypt, except that as a prime target of fundamentalist wrath Israel's situation actually is even more fraught. A professed affiliate of al-Qaeda, officially known as Takfir wal-Hijra or Excommunication and Exodus, has set up in the lawless expanses just west of the Israeli border. (TIME)
Unrest has returned to the streets of Amman and the remote towns of Karak, Shoubak, and Ma'an. The south is the monarchy's base of strength, but severe problems of poverty and unemployment have driven demonstrators to violence and vandalism. (Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)
The Justice and Development Party, which is identified with the Muslim Brotherhood, won the elections in Morocco held on November 26. The media's accounts of a "moderate" Justice and Development Party do not accurately reflect this party's ideology. The party's outlook, its leaders' statements, and the platform of its parent party point clearly to the stance of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is hostile to the West and its culture and views Israel as a cardinal enemy.
Abdelilah Benkirane, head of the Justice and Development Party, visited Gaza in March 2009, where he said: "The inhabitants of Arab Morocco do not think there is only a duty to identify with the Palestinians, but want to wage a jihad struggle alongside them....The Moroccans see the Islamic resistance movement Hamas as the mother of resistance and steadfastness. The Moroccans very much love the Hamas movement."
Benkirane signed a manifesto which said: "We emphasize the right of the Muslim Palestinian people to struggle aggressively for its land...and we view this resistance as legally, Islamically mandated warfare....We regard every signature on agreements or treaties that renounce the right of struggle, or the right of return of the refugees, or the right of the Islamic identity of Al-Quds [Jerusalem] in particular and of Palestine in general, as an offense to the ummah, a deviation from its fundamental principles, and a sacrifice of its interests."
The party's victory in Morocco constitutes a further triumph for the Islamist movement, so soon after the victory of the Ennahda movement in the Tunisian elections.
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is expected to make substantial gains in the three-stage elections that began on November 28.
In Libya, the new government has undertaken to make Sharia law a primary source of legislation.
In Yemen, the Islamist movements have played a central role in the revolt against the rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Earlier, in 2006, the Hamas movement - the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood - triumphed in the Palestinian Authority elections.
The domino effect that began with the revolt in Tunisia is coloring the Middle East green, as the Islamic revolution gradually alters the regional balance of power and, eventually, could well forge a new front to challenge the existing world order.
Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, is a former advisor to the Policy Planning Division of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Foreword: First, here is an analysis by a knowledgeable Iranian, which tends to set the stage for the article which triggered the above title. The Egyptian article follows below.
Alan update: The titular head of the Moslem Brotherhood, Yousef Qaradawi has arrived in Cairo to influence the situation for his Moslem Brotherhood.
Is it really just a coincidence that Obama has started pounding on the Egyptian military to hand over power to civilians EVEN if it means to the terrorist organization called the Moslem Brotherhood? As if that is not EXACTLY what Obama wants to happen! And in Libya and in Tunisia and now in Morocco and emerging in Jordan and growing in all Middle East and Persian Gulf nations where there used to be any resistance to the Moslem Brotherhood. He has and is destabilizing and shoving their leadership under the bus to make room for his Moslem Brotherhood buddies. Who give him his marching orders from their desks in the White House!
Wake up America and realize to what extent Obama is selling us out to Islam, which is no friend of the USA. Herewith, please find an analysis of Dr. Bassam Abdallah's article:
In 1929 Britain, the "Old Colonizer", established the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Organization (hereinafter known as the "Organization") with a mission to protect its interests and exert its dominance over the Islamic world in which, of course, many of the most prolific oil-producing countries are located.
However, to disguise its mission and role, the Old Colonizer stipulated that the Organization be established as Hassan Al Banna of Egypt.
To achieve such a goal, the Organization (currently protected and comfortably esconced in the Obama White House) assassinated or at least greatly subdued the activities of anyone who opposed it.
For assurance that its aims would be realized, the Old Colonizer instituted a dictum that rulers of Islamic countries are to be Freemasons. In Iran, for example, three prime ministers, Hossein Hajeer, General Haji Ali Razmara, and Hassanali Mansour, who were not Freemasons, were assassinated by the Organization's members.
Moreover, the entire political systems and governmental infrastructures were undermined in the countries which opposed the Old Colonizer via the Organization. This happened in Iran whereby not only the Shah was deposed but in addition, most of the patriotic and loyal people in his government were done away with; the agent to this end was an American president, Jimmy Carter (see below).
Hosny Mubarak, like the Shah, who was a great leader and an American loyal ally, was destroyed by Obama. Consequently, right after Mubarak stepped down, the Organization gained notable power in all countries affected by its tyrannical activities.
Furthermore, only a few weeks after Mubarak left office, the British foreign minister visited Egypt accompanied by four heads of arms-producing companies. One needs to bear in mind that the country's entire army was equipped with American arms but now that lucrative market was being handed over at least partially to British arms makers.
Mr. Obama, in his speech in Cairo, talked about his Islamic background, which speaking for himself personally was acceptable.
However, such certainly was not the case with his announcement on behalf of 300,000,000 Americans when he stated that America is no longer a Christian nation.
This indeed was a blatant violation of the basic rights of a majority of Americans. A president had no right to divest America orally of its religious history and Christian foundations.
All countries whose leaders stepped down or were destroyed by Obama, declared that their new government is Islamic.
In my view, America has played a leading role in the Old Colonizer's achievement of its goal. This could not not be done without help from higher-ups in the American governmental hierarchy.
This is what Dr. Essam Abdullah elucidated in his Article. The Old Colonizer's main objective is to take back whatever America won via the Revolutionary War in the eighteenth century. Moreover, it would appear that President Jimmy Carter played into the hands of the Old Colonizer in 1978 by assisting in the toppling of the late Shah's entire governmental system.
And it was American diplomats, not British, who were taken hostage.
Also, American Marines, not their British counterparts, were killed by a suicide attack in Lebanon.
America, not Britain, was viciously and methodically attacked on September 11, 2001.
Britain has realized a hundred-billion dollars in profit from trade with Iran. However, such has certainly not been the case with America.
And why Obama is apparently given carte blanche by the Legislative and Judicial Branches to perpetuate and even further his socialistic and possibly surreptitiously Islamic objectives is most puzzling.
Gentlemen, America must cease being an agent and party to British aims of regaining American colonial territories. And America must extricate itself from its present state of being led down the wrong path by a liberal and socialistic president and return to its highly successful form of democracy where individual initiative and accountability reigns supreme.
Where are the Muslim Brotherhood and the Obama Administration Taking America?
Dr. Essam Abdallah
October 31, 2011
In this article, published in the leading liberal pan Arab "Elaph”, Egyptian liberal writer Dr. Essam Abdallah exposes the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood within the Obama Administration and the campaign led by CAIR and its allies against Middle East Christians, US experts and American Muslim reformers.
Abdallah's article is powerful evidence to a reckless policy of backing Islamists, perpetrated by the Obama Administration and its advisors on Islamic affairs.
Disturbing reports are coming out of Washington, D.C.
These reports reveal the depth of the below-the-surface coordination between the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and Jordan.
This bloc of regimes and organizations is now becoming the greatest Islamist radical lobby ever to penetrate and infiltrate the White House, Congress, the State Department and the main decision making centers of the US government.
All of this is happening at a time when the US government is going through its most strategically dangerous period in modern times because of its need to confront the Iranian Mullahs regime, which is expanding in the Middle East, as well as penetrating the United States, via powerful and influential allies.
It looks like the near future will uncover many surprises after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, as we realize more and more that the popular revolts in the Arab world - and the Obama Administration’s position towards them - were determined by political battles between various pressure groups in Washington.
Moreover, pressures by these lobbying groups have left an impact on the region's events, the last of which was the canceling of the visit of Maronite Patriarch Rahi to Washington. A number of Arab and Western news agencies have leaked that one of “those who sought to cancel this visit was Dalia Mujahid, a top advisor on Islamic and Arab affairs at the State Department, who is of Egyptian origin.
And that”, said the reports, “came at the request of the high command of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, who wish to see the US Administration support the Islamist Sunni current.”
Also very noticeable at this point is the growing domination of Islamist forces around the Mediterranean: the victory of the Nahda Islamist Party in Tunisia, the declaration by (TNC Chairman) Mustafa Abdeljalil that Libya is an Islamist state and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
These developments wouldn't have happened without the approval of the United States. A document published in Washington indicated that Egypt will face more violence and tensions while moving to the Pakistani, rather than the Turkish, model.
Egypt will be ruled by an opportunistic bourgeoisie and a regime declaring itself Islamist, and it will be backed by a military institution. The military will be used by the Islamists to maintain power but the armed forces, the parliament, the regime and the constitution will all become Islamist.
In return, the Maronite Patriarch is denied a visit to Washington, Coptic Christian churches are destroyed in Egypt, and Coptic demonstrators are massacred at Maspero in Cairo by the Egyptian military, demonstrating that the goal is to suppress Christians in the Middle East, who are - as Patriarch Rahi said - paying a high price for the revolts of the Arab Spring.
Rahi expressed his concerns about the fate of Syrian and Lebanese Christians and sees, as does the world, the flight of millions of Iraqi and Middle Eastern Christians from their homelands as a result of events in Iraq, and the methodic persecution against the Copts. The Christians of Egypt aren't only facing suppression and ethnic cleansing but a form of genocide.
The real question now is: who is allowing the Muslim Brotherhood lobby to damage the relationship between the US Administration and millions of Middle East Christians?
This lobby was able to delay meetings between leaders from Coptic Solidarity International, including Magdi Khalil and Adel Guindy, with the US Government.
Similar obstructions have been happening with Chaldean and Assyrian delegations over the past few years.
Moreover, the Muslim Brotherhood has waged a hysterical campaign against prominent experts in counterterrorism such as Steven Emerson, Daniel Pipes, John Guandolo and Robert Spencer.
One particularly rough campaign was waged by CAIR against Professor Walid Phares, one of the most important, and even prescient, experts in counterterrorism and Jihadist movements in the US.
In his book, “The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East”, Dr. Phares predicted its evolution and the shape of coming Islamist regimes in the region.
But the Muslim Brotherhood’s campaign is not limited to liberal Arabs, Christians, Jews and Atheists.
It has also targeted Muslims who oppose the Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) lobby such as:
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, the President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD); Sherkoh Abbas, from the Syrian Kurdish Council;
Farid Ghadri; the Somali-American author Ayan Hirsi Ali;
Ali al Yammi;
Tarek Fatah and many more.
Attacking Muslim liberals in the West helps the Muslim Brotherhood's project in the radical Islamization of the Middle East, but it does not at all help US interests.
Oppressing opposition, diversity, pluralism, and shedding human rights and freedoms are in direct contradiction to the values defended, and sacrificed for, by America's founding fathers as well as by all those who fought wars for America throughout her history.
These intimidation and suppression campaigns directed against Arab and Middle East Christians – and against intellectuals and researchers opposing the Muslim Brotherhood and its sinister ties to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran - in fact are aimed at America’s ability to become aware of the threat all of them pose to American freedoms.
For American strength isn't only in its navies and military power, but in its Constitution and the laws which provide the moral force for all other distinctly American liberties.
(Alan note: which Obama is hell bent on destroying and suppressing)
Note that the US Constitution did not include any suppressive articles (regarding freedom of religion or freedom of speech), the lack of which is the case in many Middle Eastern countries. Rather, it was written in the spirit of a Jeffersonian federal democracy based on individual freedoms.
So, all things considered both here and in the Middle East, where exactly are the Obama Administration and the Muslim Brotherhood lobby, together, taking America? And why?
(Alan note:Or is that a silly question? A question exactly like WHY did he give official Presidential pardons recently to fiveLOW LEVEL drug dealers and commuted the sentence of a sixth. What secrets is he hiding there? The Moslem Brotherhood aspects are obvious with a self-serving person like Islamist Obama angling to become Secretary General of the United Nations and later the Head or very high up in the global Islamic Caliphate the Moslem Brotherhood is trying to establish by using them and Islamic terrorism to achieve support for both these selfish positions).
Dr. Essam Abdallah is an Egyptian liberal intellectual who writes for the leading liberal pan Arab "Elaph”.
I don’t have a sense that he’s ever had a meeting. I hear stories that you will not believe.
“I think it’s the people around him. Too many people around him are like little kids with propellers on their heads.”
Well, now, here is a liberal, who unbelievably has captured logic and is no longer bitten by the voodoo of Obama. Listen to what Chris Matthews says here. He is right on, however, we have known what he says here, from the beginning. Wake up, AMERICA, listen to Chris Matthews, formerly of the Obama Camp, tell it how it is!!!!
You might want to read the story to the left of Chris Matthews, “Democrat Pollsters: Obama Should Abandon Run For Second Term.
We are going to hear more of this, as Obama keeps acting and opening his mouth.
AND
The Exasperation of the Democratic Billionaire Real-estate and newspaper mogul Mortimer Zuckerman voted for Obama but began seeing trouble as soon as the stimulus went into the pockets of municipal unions.
'It's as if he doesn't like people," says real-estate mogul and New York Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman of the president of the United States. Barack Obama doesn't seem to care for individuals, elaborates Mr. Zuckerman, though the president enjoys addressing millions of them on television.
The Boston Properties CEO is trying to understand why Mr. Obama has made little effort to build relationships on Capitol Hill or negotiate a bipartisan economic plan.
A longtime supporter of the Democratic Party, Mr. Zuckerman wrote in these pages two months ago that the entire business community was "pleading for some kind of adult supervision" in Washington and "desperate for strong leadership." Writing soon after the historic downgrade of U.S. Treasury debt by Standard & Poor's, he wrote, "I long for a triple-A president to run a triple-A country."
His words struck a chord. When I visit Mr. Zuckerman this week in his midtown Manhattan office, he reports that three people approached him at dinner the previous evening to discuss his August op-ed.
Among business executives who supported Barack Obama in 2008, he says, "there is enormously widespread anxiety over the political leadership of the country." Mr. Zuckerman reports that among Democrats, "The sense is that the policies of this government have failed. . What they say about [Mr. Obama] when he's not in the room, so to speak, is astonishing."
We are sitting on the 18th floor of a skyscraper the day after protesters have marched on the homes of other Manhattan billionaires. It may seem odd that most of the targeted rich people had nothing to do with creating the financial crisis.
But as Mr. Zuckerman ponders the Occupy Wall Street movement, he concludes that "the door to it was opened by the Obama administration, going after the 'millionaires and billionaires' as if everybody is a millionaire and a billionaire and they didn't earn it. . . . To fan that flame of populist anger I think is very divisive and very dangerous for this country."
This doesn't mean that Mr. Zuckerman opposes the protesters or questions their motives. When pressed, he concedes that the crowd in Lower Manhattan may include some full-time radicals, but he argues that the protesters are people with a legitimate grievance, as the country suffers high unemployment and stagnant middle-class incomes.
It is a subject he has obviously studied at length, and he explains how the real unemployment rate is actually well above the official level of 9.1%, which only measures people who have applied for a job within the previous four weeks.
In fact, he says, unemployment has even surged beyond the Department of Labor's "U-6" number of 16.5% that has received increasing attention lately because it includes people who have given up looking for work within the past year, plus people who have been cut back from full-time employees to part-timers.
Mr. Zuckerman says that when you also consider the labor-force participation rate and the so-called "birth-death series" that measures business starts and failures, the real U.S. unemployment rate is now 20%. His voice rising with equal parts anger and sadness, he exclaims, "That's not America!"
It certainly isn't the America that Mr. Zuckerman discovered when he moved south from Canada to study at Wharton and Harvard Law School, graduating from both in the early 1960s. He reports feeling immediately at home and says he never considered returning "because of the sheer openness and energy of life in America."
Steve Moore on the Senate Republicans jobs plan, Rick Perry's new economic and energy plan, and the Club for Growth's take on Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan.
The U.S. "has fundamentally great qualities," he says. "It's a society that welcomes talent, nourishes talent, admires talent . . . and rewards talent." But he sees "potentially catastrophic" political and fiscal problems. Mr. Zuckerman reports that when he was a young man, 50% of the top quartile of graduates from Canadian universities moved to the U.S. Now, he says, "I don't want my daughter telling me, 'Dad, I want to move back to Canada because that's the land of opportunity.'"
Mr. Zuckerman's bearish outlook since 2006 has been good for his business. That's when he decided that there was a bubble in commercial real estate and his publicly traded real estate investment trust needed to sell some of its office buildings.
'We've had a strategy in our business of trying to have 'A' assets in 'A' locations.
I think we had 126 buildings at that point and we came to the conclusion that 16 of them were either A assets in B locations or B assets in A locations, like 280 Park [Avenue in New York]—it was a great address but not a good building. So we sold. We got through 15 of the 16 and we raised in the range of four and a half billion dollars," he says.
Once the downturn began, that cash pile helped him buy some famous properties at depressed prices, such as the General Motors building in New York and the John Hancock Tower in Boston. But he says his firm is still prepared for possible rough economic times ahead. "We're keeping it very liquid," he says, "because I don't know where this is going."
Mr. Zuckerman maintains that America will solve its problems over the long haul—"I am not somebody who's pessimistic about this country. I have had a life that's been better than my fantasies," he says—but he's certainly pessimistic about the current administration. That began shortly after inauguration day in 2009.
Anthony Scaramucci on why Wall Street donors are splitting with President Obama.
At that time he supported Mr. Obama's call for heavy spending on infrastructure. "But if you look at the make-up of the stimulus program," says Mr. Zuckerman, "roughly half of it went to state and local municipalities, which is in effect to the municipal unions which are at the core of the Democratic Party."
He adds that "the Republicans understood this" and it diminished the chances for bipartisan legislating.
Then there was health-care reform: "Eighty percent of the country wanted them to get costs under control, not to extend the coverage. They used all their political capital to extend the coverage. I always had the feeling the country looked at that bill and said, 'Well, he may be doing it because he wants to be a transformational president, but I want to get my costs down!'"
Mr. Zuckerman recalls reports of Mr. Obama consulting various historians on the qualities of a transformational president. "But remember, transformations can go up and they can go down."
Now comes the latest fight over Mr. Obama's jobs plan, which has as its centerpiece a tax increase on the wealthy with obvious populist appeal. Mr. Zuckerman supports raising taxes on the rich but says such a proposal cannot be taken seriously unless it's paired with other measures to grow the economy and restrain deficit spending.
He also wonders why, if the president wanted to get a plan enacted, he didn't begin with private bipartisan discussions with House and Senate leaders, instead of another address to a joint session of Congress.
"Even if you want to do this to revive your support in the base, to revive your credibility on the issues of the economy and jobs, which has fallen off the table, this isn't going to accomplish it.
Another speech from this guy? The country knows this is just another speech. They understand it almost instantaneously, and his numbers have continued to go down for that reason. What the country wanted was some way of coming up with a solution."
The only solution Mr. Zuckerman sees now to juice the economy "is to broaden the tax base and simplify and lower tax [rates].
To me that will be as close to revenue-neutral as you're going to have so it isn't going to be seen as a budget buster." He views GOP candidate Herman Cain's "9-9-9 plan" as a "little bit simple-minded," but he says that a reform that closes loopholes and reduces compliance costs will stimulate both business and consumer spending.
Mr. Zuckerman sees a need for a cooperative effort like that of President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill when they reformed Social Security in 1983. That wasn't a permanent solution, of course, as Social Security needs more significant changes now, but Mr. Zuckerman sees it as a model of bipartisan progress.
Unprompted, he spends much of our discussion reminiscing about the Reagan presidency. Mr. Zuckerman has for years owned U.S. News and World Report, and in 1986 its Moscow correspondent Nicholas Daniloff was seized without warning by the KGB.
Mr. Zuckerman immediately flew to Russia but returned home when Soviet officials refused to release their new prisoner. "I worked in the White House for the next four weeks virtually every day and through that I met Reagan," says Mr. Zuckerman. Reagan secured Mr. Daniloff's release in a swap that included a Soviet spy held in the U.S.
"Reagan surprised me," says Mr. Zuckerman. "He got the point of every argument. . . . He was very decisive. And everybody loved working for him. They followed his lead because they really respected his decisiveness and his instincts."
'I was not a Republican and I was not an admirer of his before I knew him," continues Mr. Zuckerman. "And you know, Harry Truman had a wonderful definition for the presidency. He said the president has to be someone who can persuade the American people to do what they don't want to do and to like it.
And that's what you have to do. Somebody like Reagan had that authority. He was liked so much and he had a kind of moral authority. That's what this president has lost."
"Democracy does not work without the right leadership," he says later, "and you can't play politics." The smile inspired by Reagan memories is gone now and Mr. Zuckerman is pounding his circular conference table. "The country has got to come to the conclusion at some point that what you're doing is not just because of an ideology or politics but for the interests of the country."
In his Thanksgiving message this year, Barack Obama reminded us that the economy still sucks and that we are our brother’s keeper.
And once again FAILS TO MENTION GOD!
His “understanding of Christianity” was demonstrated when he used his muslim left hand (used to wipe yourself clean after defecating) to make a parody sign of the cross over two turkeys in a disgraceful national press display.
His muslim mentors must have enjoyed a good chuckle over that insult!
At least he didn't name those turkeys after muslim warriors...not this year anyway.
Yes they wipe their backsides with their left hand, by tradition, that’s why using the left hand in any public function (like dipping into the communal eating platter) is an insult. That’s why they amputate the right hand of a thief - ensures future shunning at group feasts
"We’re also grateful for the Americans who are taking time out of their holiday to serve in soup kitchens and shelters, making sure their neighbors have a hot meal and a place to stay. This sense of mutual responsibility – the idea that I am my brother’s keeper; that I am my sister’s keeper – has always been a part of what makes our country special. And it’s one of the reasons the Thanksgiving tradition has endured…
I know that for many of you, this Thanksgiving is more difficult than most. But no matter how tough things are right now, we still give thanks for that most American of blessings, the chance to determine our own destiny. The problems we face didn’t develop overnight, and we won’t solve them overnight. But we will solve them. All it takes is for each of us to do our part.
With all the partisanship and gridlock here in Washington, it’s easy to wonder if such unity is really possible. But think about what’s happening at this very moment: Americans from all walks of life are coming together as one people, grateful for the blessings of family, community, and country."
Why does Obama continually say that we are our brother’s keeper and sister’s keeper?
I heard him once say that he was attracted to Christianity as an adult, by concepts such as our being our brother’s and sister’s keeper.
But, he is completely misunderstanding and distorting the meaning of the Bible verse in Genesis, in which God asks Cain where his brother is, and Cain responds, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
It’s hard to believe that Obama is any sort of knowledgeable or devout Christian, when he continually cites this as a key tenet of Christianity, and he continually shows that he does not understand the meaning of the Bible verse he’s allegedly inspired by.
Massachusetts taxpayers are the keepers of His illegal aunt and his drunk driving illegal uncle.
Excerpt from the above article from July 2011 (referring to Obama always using the term “brother’s keeper”. The term “keeper” is meant as an overseer, owner, etc.:
Excerpt:
Now, if you think that treating your brother like a dumb animal, a clothes collection, a tree, a gate, a vine, or a doorway is charitable, then consider the context — Cain was wise-assing God! Cain wasn’t responsibly pondering, “Am I my brother’s noble defender?” He was saying, “How the hell do I know where he is? It’s not in my job description to keep track of him!”.......
Look, the pages of American Thinker are hardly the place to get into a theological debate about the meaning of obscure biblical phrases, but you need to know that when a die-hard leftist appropriates a wise-ass remark made by the archetypal murderer, he is really showing you more about himself than he would like.
He’s really saying, “It’s my job (because I take it upon myself) to keep these people in line because they are unthinking, inanimate, and helpless objects which are frankly more like property than equals.” If that is what Obama really thinks of the American people, then we can only hope we escape his brotherly affections.
Why does Obama continually say that we are our brother’s keeper and sister’s keeper?
He means the government. Odumbass has no concept of family or charity - except through government. When he uses the pronoun "we" he means himself and other govt. officials. When he uses "they" or, the plural "you", he means everyone else except union members. He considers them quasi-government and are included in his "family". If one were to dig deep enough I would bet he sees unions as a 'family' alongside government entities.
Name one black obama relative who does not live on welfare or in poverty.
I wonder what soup kitchen served Thanskgiving dinner to his aunt zaituni? Or did she use her food stamps to shop and cook at her welfare apartment? Uncle Onyango brought the wine?
His step-Granny and some of her spawn live in “Council Housing”(welfare housing) in Great Britain.
Of course, when Obama reminded us that we are our brother’s keeper, he wasn’t talking about his brother George. High as a kite, George Obama poses outside his foul-smelling Kenyan slum hut with his friends in Huruma estate.
Left to Right : Rastaman, One of the girls in George’s room, George Hussein Obama, Jack, a body guard in the Kenyan slum. (Thaindian)
Barack Obama’s brother George, also a community organizer, was arrested on a charge of marijuana possession in 2009. He was interviewed in his slum in 2008.
In 2010, George Obama, a former gang member, moved to an apartment near the slum in Kenya.
For many years involved with intelligence and security matters in Iran with significant access at top levels during the rule of the Shah, until early 1979. Currently an Iran SME (subject matter expert), analyst/commentator, and multi-linguist.
