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Joint Chiefs chairman to reassure Jordan, Israel

Robert Burns
Associated Press
Sat, 12 Feb 2011 01:43 UTC
Image
© Chad J. McNeeley/Navy
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Washington - With Egypt's military leading a hoped-for drive to democracy, President Barack Obama's senior military adviser was heading to the Mideast on Saturday to reassure two key allies - Jordan, facing its own rumblings of civil unrest, and Israel, which sees its security at stake in a wider transformation of the Arab world.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was stopping first in Amman for meetings Sunday with senior Jordanian officials, including King Abdullah II. Jordan has seen five weeks of protests inspired by unrest in Tunisia and later Egypt, though the numbers of marchers has been decreasing.

Mullen was then scheduled to travel to Tel Aviv for meetings and ceremonies Sunday and Monday marking the retirement of his Israeli counterpart, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, and talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres. Mullen had no plans to visit Egypt on this trip.

Israel is deeply worried about the prospect that Hosni Mubarak's ouster could lead to the emergence of a government less friendly to the Jewish state.

Israel and Egypt fought four bitter wars before a peace treaty was reached in 1979. Mubarak, who gave up power Friday after 30 years of rule, steadfastly honored the peace deal after succeeding Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated by Egyptian extremists two years after signing it.
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Gear

The New Machiavellis

Saman Mohammadi
Excavator
Sat, 12 Feb 2011 21:09 UTC
"Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties, even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization." - Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives; Pg. 35.

"Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat." - Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard; Pg. 211.

"The attitude of the American public toward the external projection of American power has been much more ambivalent. The public supported America's engagement in World War II largely because of the shock effect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor." - Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard; Pg. 24-25.
A general consensus is emerging that in the quest for American hegemony America's plutocrats and warhawks staged a new pearl harbor (the September 11 attacks) on American soil to get the American people fired up once more about an external threat, and then manipulated their feelings of fear, patriotism, and revenge to launch a global war on terrorism, and military invasions of various countries in the Middle East.

The need for a new pearl harbor to arouse the American people and give them a new historical mission was a key observation made in a report published in September 2000 by the Project for the New American Century, a neoconservative thinktank, called Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century. The September 11, 2001 attacks fulfilled the necons' wish. In their minds they are benevolent authoritarians and heroes because they believe that they gave America a wake up call in the form of a grand act of violence and terrorism on the country's biggest stage. In reality, though, they acted as high-level rioters who incited the America people, and terrorized their psyche - and by spreading American state terrorism around the globe, they have also terrorized the world's psyche.
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Briefcase

Egypt: Hosni Mubarak used last 18 days in power to secure his fortune

Philip Sherwell, Robert Mendick, & Nick Meo
Telegraph UK
Sat, 12 Feb 2011 20:37 UTC
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© Reuters
The price of Brent crude rose sharply early on Friday when it appeared that President Mubarak would cling to power
Hosni Mubarak used the 18 days it took for protesters to topple him to shift his vast wealth into untraceable accounts overseas, Western intelligence sources have said.

The former Egyptian president is accused of amassing a fortune of more than £3 billion - although some suggest it could be as much as £40 billion - during his 30 years in power. It is claimed his wealth was tied up in foreign banks, investments, bullion and properties in London, New York, Paris and Beverly Hills.

In the knowledge his downfall was imminent, Mr Mubarak is understood to have attempted to place his assets out of reach of potential investigators.
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Bomb

Bomb blast kills 28 in Iraq


Press TV
Sat, 12 Feb 2011 11:26 UTC
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In this Press TV file photo, Security forces, emergency responders and civilians stand near a destroyed building after a car bomb attack in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011.
A bomb explosion has claimed the lives of 28 people, all Shia pilgrims, and has wounded 22 others in Iraq's northern Salahudin Province, police say.

The explosion took place Saturday afternoon when a bomber struck a bus carrying Shia pilgrims outside Samarra, 110 km north of Baghdad, a provincial police source said, Xinhua reported.

The attack comes two days after a similar incident killed nine people in the same area.

An explosives-laden vehicle went off near worshippers in the small Shia town of Dujail in Salahudin Province on Thursday killing nine people and wounding 43 others.
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Star of David

Israel staggered by Egypt protests, social tensions at home

Jean Shaoul
Axis of Logic
Fri, 11 Feb 2011 10:57 UTC
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The right-wing Israeli government of Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has been staggered by the massive demonstrations and strike wave engulfing Egypt, its critical Arab ally in the region, and the simultaneous emergence of social opposition in Israel itself.

In recent weeks, there have been several demonstrations in Israel's predominantly Arab towns in support of the Egypt protests, including a small one in Tel Aviv of Palestinian and Jewish Israelis. In addition, Israel's newspapers have noted in passing expressions of public sympathy for the mass protests in Egypt calling for an end to the Mubarak regime.

Not so the Israeli government. In speech after speech, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has warned that should the Mubarak dictatorship fall, chaos will prevail. Though the Muslim Brotherhood do not have majority support and have made very clear their intention not to lead protests against Mubarak, Netanyahu constantly raises the spectre of the Islamic revolution in Iran: the Islamists, meaning the Muslim Brotherhood, will take control in Egypt, abrogate the 1978-9 peace deal at Camp David, and march on Israel.
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Chess

Bahrain says supports Egyptian people's choice

Martina Fuchs
Reuters
Sat, 12 Feb 2011 10:08 UTC
Bahrain dinars

Dubai - Bahrain respects the choice of the Egyptian people, the pro-government Al Watan newspaper quoted a government statement as saying on Saturday, a day after mass protests in Egypt forced President Hosni Mubarak to resign.

The island kingdom, where a Sunni minority reigns over a Shi'ite majority, said it is confident in the ability of the Egyptian Higher Military Council to establish security and stability, the paper reported.

Mubarak's 30 years of autocratic rule ended on Friday after 18 days of street protests, just four weeks after Tunisians toppled their own ageing strongman.
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Cult

Mass Mind Control

Laura Knight-Jadczyk
SOTT
Sat, 12 Feb 2011 04:47 UTC

Comment: When considering current events, it is often useful to review past events and compare. The following article was written by Laura Knight-Jadczyk in 2005. Please read it carefully and especially consider the last few paragraphs in view of the Egyptian Revolution.


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Where did Flight 77 go? We don't know. But in a world ruled by psychopaths, options are open to them that would never be considered by humans.
July 23, 2005: Funny thing: I'm taking a French class in Toulouse. In the class, I met two Americans who vacation on their boat for two months every year. It is currently tied up in Toulouse. He is retired from advertising, she is a school teacher who will retire next year. They made a few remarks about the U.S. and creeping fascism, so I decided to invite them down to the house for an afternoon chat.

Well, of course, we gradually approached the subject of 9-11, but right there they balked. Yes, they firmly believe that a bunch of Fundies have taken over the government and they don't like it, but they just had a lot of trouble "going there" when considering the idea that 9-11 was designed to facilitate the Fundie take-over, and that the Fundie position itself was probably a manipulation.

So, we lent them David Ray Griffen's book, The New Pearl Harbor, to sort of "break it to them gently." After a few days, they gave it back with a stunned look in their eyes, and I gave them a couple more: Thierry Meyssan's books. A day or so later, the fellow told me: okay, I can accept that the government might be complicit in 9-11... but if a 757 didn't hit the Pentagon, what happened to IT?

And that's where they got stuck.

They know all about Pearl Harbor and other similar events, they understand that the U.S. government can, has and DOES engage in covert operations in order to get the public to support whatever power mongering urge they may have at the moment, but that was THEN and this is NOW. It can't happen NOW! Even though they say "yeah, we agree that nothing about the Pentagon makes a lick of sense, it sure does SEEM like there was no 757, but where is the 757, what happened to the people on it? How could so many people keep quiet?"

Ah, the 64,000 Dollar Question.
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Whistle

Ron Paul Supporters Call Cheney and Rumsfeld "War Criminals" at CPAC


Ampedstatus
Fri, 11 Feb 2011 20:34 UTC
In true Orwellian fashion, Dick Cheney presented Donald Rumsfeld with the "Defender of the Constitution Award" at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Turns out, they're not even welcome around their own party. Ron Paul supporters were on hand to shout and boo them down, screaming "War criminal!"

3 minute mark is my favorite part:

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Attention

Uh Oh! Wisconsin (USA) Governor Walker May Call In National Guard as State Employees Learn of Budget Proposal

Ann-Elise Henzl
WUWM News
Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:08 UTC
Gov. Scott Walker says he is confident state workers will continue to show up for work and do their jobs, despite their potential disappointment in his emergency budget proposal.

However, if there is worker unrest, Walker says the Wisconsin National Guard is prepared to respond.
The governor revealed Friday that he wants the state Legislature to go into Special Session next week to take up his plan to close a budget deficit. His plan calls for workers to lose nearly all their collective bargaining rights. State employees also would be required to pay more for pension and health care benefits.
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Display

After Mubarak, U.S. Intelligence Officers Look to Monitor Mideast 'Aftershocks'


Fox News
Fri, 11 Feb 2011 15:05 UTC
Image
© Unknown

Protests across the Middle East have claimed two autocrats, one in Tunisia and one in Egypt.

The question U.S. intelligence officials are now asking themselves is: Who's next?

Though the White House hailed as "pivotal" Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's decision Friday to resign and transfer power, the historic moment raises immediate concerns about stability in the rest of the region.

The Arab world is filled with countries facing conditions just like those that sparked the two successful uprisings -- autocratic regimes, disenchanted youth, economic hardship and a lack of personal and political freedoms. Barring Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories, the 22-member Arab League is a democracy-free zone when it comes to those at the top.
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