Reposting: Singin' in the Baath Tub

Sam Lanin's Troubadors
Singin' In The Bathtub

30 December 2006: A young man signs the condolences book at the Jordanian Baath Party offices in Amman where party officials were receiving condolences following the execution of Iraq's ousted leader Saddam Hussien

The Syrian-Iraqi Baath party and its Nazi beginnings
(& Commislamist present)

2003
GEORGE KEREVAN

The chances of a lightning-quick war in Iraq evaporated with the unexpected determination and guerrilla tactics of the Baath Party militia. Trapped between a civilian population which viscerally hates them, and the advancing allies, it was predictable the petty bureaucrats and young thugs behind Saddam's totalitarian rule would fight it out. But who are the members of the Baath Party?

In Arabic, baath means renaissance or resurrection. The Baath Arab Socialist Party, to give the organisation its formal title, is the original secular Arab nationalist movement, founded in Damascus in the 1940s to combat Western colonial rule. But since then, the Baath Party has undergone many chameleon-like twists in belief and purpose. Even the young men in Iraq who today claim its discredited banner might be surprised at the party's real origins.

Those beginnings lie thousands of miles to the west, in the leafy streets and pavement cafes of the left bank of the Seine in Paris.

Here, in the 1930s, the two founders of the Baath Party were educated at the Sorbonne University. They were middle-class Arabs from the then French colony of Syria.

Michael Aflaq was a Greek Orthodox Christian and would become the main ideologue of Baathism, preaching freedom from Western colonialism, Arab unity and socialism. And Salah al-Din Bitar, born of a Muslim family in Damascus, would be the practical politician, later becoming prime minister of an independent Syria.

Back home in French Syria, they became teachers by day and political intriguers by night. Early Baathist ideas were strongly fringed with fascism, as you might expect from a group of men whose ideas were formed in France in the turbulent Thirties.

The movement was based on classless racial unity, hence the strong anti-Marxism, and on national socialism in the scientific sense of the word, such as nationalised industry and an autarkic economy serving the needs of the nation. Hence, the antipathy towards Western capitalism.

But the rise of German fascism also played a role. Many in the Arab world saw Hitler as an ally. In 1941, the Arab world was electrified by a pro-Axis coup in Baghdad. At that time, Iraq was nominally independent but Britain maintained a strong military presence. An Arab nationalist by the name of Rashid Ali al-Kailani organised an army coup against the pro-British Iraqi monarchy and requested help from Nazi Germany. In Damascus, then a Vichy French colony, the Baath Party founders immediately organised public demonstrations in support of Rashid Ali.

After the Second World War, the Baathists emerged as the leadership of Arab nationalism for two reasons. First, they were the only force with a coherent ideology. Second, the existing Arab political elites were blamed for the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Nor was Islam a competitor. For the Western-educated founders of Baathism, Islam smacked of backwardness. For the nascent Islamic fundamentalists, the Baathists were substituting Arabism for the much wider historic conquests of Muslim civilisation. But it was that pan-Arab nationalism that appealed to discontented Arab youth in the Fifties and Sixties.

Baathism had something else to offer these youths: its tight, disciplined internal organisation which - at any rate, before the party became corrupt - stood in sharp contrast to the ramshackle nature of many Arab civil institutions.

Like the Nazi and Communist parties, the Baath is organised through small cells in a rigid hierarchy. Members are expected to devote their life to the party. In Iraq, would-be members pass through four stages even before becoming a full member: supporter, sympathiser, nominee and trainee. Currently, there are about two million Iraqis in these categories. The system requires passing successfully a series of tests, so full members of Saddam's Baathist organisation are the most hardened and fanatical of his supporters.

With war looming, Saddam has extended this principle with the establishment of Fedayeen Saddam, many of whom have been in action against allied troops. The Fedayeen consists of teenage level members or novices eager to move up in the Baath hierarchy ladder. In this respect, they are very reminiscent of the Hitler Youth.

It is estimated that there are about 40,000 full members of the Baath Party in Iraq. Each is assigned to an autonomous cell. A cell consists of three to five members, only one of whom would have a link to the next level of operation. This limits the ability to penetrate the organisation from without. This structure was born of the original clandestine and illegal life of the Baathists before they came to power.

In 1947, the Baath Party was set up as a single party covering all the Arab counties, under a National Command (actually a pan-national body). In each Arab nation, a Regional Command - ostensibly the leadership of the local Baath Party - was created. The Iraqi branch of the Baath party was established in 1954. In the post-war period, the restored Iraqi monarchy was stoutly pro-Western, but it was overthrown in a military coup in 1958.

The new Iraqi strongman was Abdel Karim Qassim. He disappointed pan-Arabists like the Baath by rejecting joining a United Arab Republic with Syria and Egypt.

As a counterweight to the Baath, Qassim allied with the Iraqi Communist Party (the strongest in the Middle East).

On 8 February, 1963, the Baath Party staged a bloody coup against Qassim, killing thousands of communists. Many believe that the CIA was involved in the coup as a way of destroying communist influence in the region. Ali Saleh Al-Sa'adi, the Baath Party secretary general, said: "We came to power on a CIA train."

The Baath would not remain in power long. In November of 1963, there was an army counter-coup. But the humiliation of the Arab leaderships in the Seven Day War with Israel in 1967 finally gave the Baathists their moment, and the movement definitively seized power in 1968. The Syrian Baath had already grabbed power in 1963.

Once in power, the nature of Baathism changed. Both in Syria and Iraq, economic and military necessity required an alliance with the Soviet Union, eroding the old anti-communism. The attractions of power resulted in personal corruption.

The late President Hafez al-Assad of Syria was listed by Forbes Magazine as the eighth-richest person in the world, worth $2.3 billion - an impressive accomplishment in a state where the economy is nationalised.

The biggest change was the transformation of the party into the machinery of government. As in the old Soviet Union with the Bolshevik Party, the lines between party, state and military became totally blurred and internal democracy was eroded. That paved the way for dictatorship and the cult of personality in the shape of Saddam Hussein.

Saddam added a twist not seen in Syria, and much against the original spirit of Baathism. Religious sentiment is taking over from the secularism that once defined Iraqi Baathism. Saddam's government has increasingly turned to Islam in its desperate search for legitimacy, playing down the Arab nationalism that once served as its ideology.

What of the Baath Party in other Arab countries? National rivalries mean pan-Arabism is dead and the supra-national Baath Party structure is now an obsolete shell. The Baathists in Palestine and Jordan have been liquidated. In Syria, power is now in the hands of Hafez al-Assad's son, who - despite his anti-Western rhetoric - has purged the old party hierarchy and is quietly moving Syria towards a market economy.

And what of the founding members of the Baath movement? Michael Aflaq became an adviser to Saddam but was soon sidelined as the dictatorship mutated. He died a disappointed man in Baghdad in 1989.

Salah al-Din Bitar broke with the corrupt Syrian regime and went into exile in Paris where, long ago, the Baathist dream was born. There he was assassinated in 1980, most probably by the Syrian secret service.

What are the Baathists doing now, you may ask?
I'll tell you!

Jun 17, 2008 :

Iraq law on Baathists not being implemented

BAGHDAD, June 17 (Reuters) - When the Iraqi parliament passed a law in January aimed at rehiring former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, U.S. President George W. Bush praised it as a step towards national reconciliation.

The Accountability and Justice Law replaced the deBaathification Law, under which tens of thousands of former Baathists, mostly Sunni Arabs, were purged from government and security posts following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

But five months later, implementation of the law is bogged down by infighting between politicians, and the committee once tasked with hunting out Baathists in government has found itself in the odd position of overseeing the process of rehiring them or offering them state pensions.

The government has still not appointed a seven-member panel to replace the deBaathification Committee, whose enthusiastic purge of Baathists from government posts prompted minority Sunni Arabs to accuse them of conducting a witch-hunt.

The Accountability and Justice Law was the first of a series of so-called "benchmark" laws that Washington pressed Iraq's Shi'ite-led government to pass to foster reconciliation. Sunni Arabs, dominant under Saddam, had complained that the deBaathification programme amounted to collective punishment.

The law is seen as crucial to easing sectarian tensions between Iraq's majority Shi'ite sect and Sunni Arab Muslims that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006.

Ali al-Freji, 43, sits in his office behind the high walls of Saddam's former propaganda headquarters in Baghdad.

Freji is a director-general in the Accountability and Justice Committee, where staff rebuke visitors who still refer to it by its old name, the deBaathification Committee.

Freji, a former opponent of Saddam's rule who says he was jailed in Germany for more than a year for breaking into the Iraqi embassy there, sees himself as a man with a new mission.

"We are doing a professional job by offering former Baathists a new start and stop their suffering," he said.

Aww. My heart bleeds for them. [SNIP]


NOW: This is very very strange. WTF are these documents doing at the Hoover Institution?


Who should get the Baath Party's secret files?

The Hoover Institution, the conservative-leaning think tank located at my alma mater Stanford University, is finding itself in a bit of hot water over some 7 million pages of Baath Party records that both Iraqi and American archivists now say were taken by an "act of pillage" and must be returned to Iraq immediately.

The documents came to Stanford as part of a deal with the Iraq Memory Foundation, a nonprofit group run by Kanan Makiya (above left) -- an Iraqi exile known for his outspoken advocacy for the war in Iraq. Makiya, who stumbled upon the documents during the invasion's nascent period in 2003, maintains the information they contain is too dangerous for general view because they explicitly mention individuals who collaborated with the Hussein dictatorship:

This was not stuff for every Tom, Dick, and Harry to have access to," he said in a recent interview. "This stuff was dynamite."

And he knows all the names now, what power he has....

Why are key Iraqi records at Stanford?

A lot worse things have happened in Iraq, but the removal of the Baath Party archives from the country - 7 million pages that undoubtedly document atrocities of the Saddam Hussein regime - is significant.

The documents were seized shortly after the fall of Baghdad by Kanan Makiya, an Iraq-born emigre who teaches at Brandeis University and heads a private group called the Iraq Memory Foundation. Despite protests from the director of Iraq's National Library and Archives, the documents were shipped to the United States in 2006 by Makiya's foundation and in June deposited with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University under a deal struck with Makiya.

'Act of pillage'

The move was criticized in both countries. The Society of American Archivists said seizing and removing the documents was "an act of pillage" prohibited under the laws of war. Iraq's acting minister of culture, Akram H. Hadi, issued a statement in late June expressing the Iraqi government's "absolute rejection" of Makiya's deal. The documents "are part of the national heritage of Iraq," the statement declared, and must be returned to Iraq promptly.

Given the hundreds of thousands of deaths and the millions of refugees, why should anybody care about Iraq's archives? It comes down to whether you care about what happens to Iraq. It's part of its cultural patrimony. It's part of its ability to hold the previous regime accountable.

100 million other pages of Iraqi government documents are still in the hands of the U.S. military after being seized during the fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction. The documents now at the Hoover Institution were taken from the Baath Party Regional Command Headquarters in Baghdad and are particularly significant because they almost certainly reveal who secretly collaborated with Saddam - politically explosive information.

How did one man get possession of the entire Baath Party archives?

Makiya is best known not for his foundation or his 1989 book "Republic of Fear," but for his crucial role in persuading Americans - particularly leading journalists - to support a war to overthrow Saddam. "More than any single figure," Dexter Filkins wrote in the New York Times in October, Makiya "made the case for invading because it was the right thing to do." Makiya was an ally of Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney, and gained fame for a face-to-face meeting with President Bush two months before the U.S.-led invasion during which he said American troops "will be greeted with sweets and flowers."

Shortly after U.S. troops took Baghdad, Makiya and some associates discovered the documents in "a labyrinthine network of basement rooms under the Baath Party's regional headquarters," according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Makiya told a Chronicle reporter in January that he received permission from the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ruled Iraq at the time, to move the documents to his parents' home in Baghdad. In 2005, Makiya's foundation reached an agreement with the U.S. military to move the documents to the United States, and they finally arrived at Stanford in mid-June.

Makiya and the Hoover Institution assert that Baghdad is still too unsafe for the archives. They promise to protect and restore the documents, and eventually return them to Iraq.

It's true that chaotic and violent conditions after an invasion can endanger such crucial government documents. But what ought to happen in such circumstances is clear: It's the responsibility of the occupying power to protect and preserve the documents in question (along with the rest of a country's cultural heritage, such as the National Museum in Baghdad, which, of course, was looted as U.S. troops stood by). If the archives required protection, that was the job of the U.S. government and military, not a private individual.

[SNIP]

Kanan Makiya:

In 2003 Jeet Heer wrote in the National Post, quoting Christopher Hitchens, that Makiya is "known to veterans of the Trotskyist movement as a one-time leading Arab member of the Fourth International."

Former Trotskyist Stephen Schwartz responded that he, Makiya and Hitchens were part of a "three-and-a-half international", and that Makiya's "Trotskyist past had nothing whatever to do with his role in advising the Bush administration".

The Fourth International (FI) is a communist international organisation working in opposition to both capitalism and Stalinism. Consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky, it has striven for an eventual victory of the working class to bring about socialism.


Kanan Makiya is currently the Sylvia Hassenfeld Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Brandeis University

Soon I had these two lives. I became very active in the anti-war movement, which was burgeoning in the United States. And I was very active in supporting the emerging Palestinian Resistance Movement. I passed through the Nationalist Palestinian groups and I ended up in the Marxist one. All of this happened very rapidly. Within a span of a year I became a Marxist and was attracted to Trotskyist politics. The great influence on me was Emmanuel Farjoun, a member of the Israeli Socialist Organisation, Matzpen. He was also a student at MIT, much older than I. He had enjoyed a socialist training from day dot having grown up in a left socialist kibbutz. It was a revelation for me to meet an Israeli who was critical of his own society. He explained a) basic socialist principles which, of course, were completely new to me, and b) the nature of Israeli society, which was also a revelation for me. We became very, very close friends, almost brothers, for the next twenty-five years. (We fell out over the Iraq war but that's another story. That's sad, very sad.)

OK - I had heard of the "Third Way" AKA "Third Position" AKA "International Third Posistion" but the "Fourth International" was news to me:


ARCHIVES OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL


Middle East Articles from the Fourth International

1946:

"Thus when the “Arab Party,” led by the Mufti, Haj Amin el-Husseini, who acted as the mouthpiece of the Nazis among the Arabs, was revived in June 1944, the Arab Stalinists, organised in the National Freedom League, hastened to send the following telegram to the leadership of the party: “The National Freedom League in Palestine congratulates you on your decision to bring your national party into activity, and we believe that this decision will help us all in unifying our efforts in the service of our dear homeland.”

1947:

The Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. has announced an “Agreement for the Sale of Large Quantities of Crude Oil” to the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey and the Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. for a period of 20 years. One of the terms of the agreement is the “prior investigation by the parties of the possibility of constructing a pipeline from the Persian Gulf to the Eastern Mediterranean.”

1978: The Terrorist International and Western Europe ~ a must read

2004: From Russia With Terror - Traces KGB roots and control of various Jihad organizations

If the "Third Way" belongs to the Dhimmicrats as it openly does, even citing Blair and Clinton in the WIKI articles embedded above, it stands to reason that this is a legitimate question....does the "Fourth International" belong to the Republicrats?

The Fourth International is also incarnate as "The Internationalist Group" , the League for the Revolutionary Party (LRP) and the Communist Organization for the Fourth International (COFI)

"The League for the Revolutionary Party (LRP), based in the United States, is dedicated to the restoration of authentic Marxism and the political independence of the working class everywhere. Our guiding slogan is Re-create the Fourth International, and we are joined in this task by adherents to the Communist Organization for the Fourth International (COFI) abroad. We publish the political and theoretical magazine Proletarian Revolution."

BTW... the "Third Way" is intimately connected to both American White Power and Black Power groups and racial nationalist movements worldwide.... HELLOOOOOO OBAMA

All I intended to do was show the roots of the Baath party to you.....and look where I ended up! Yes, there is a "First International" and a "Second International"... but I won't subject you them today! Now I know where jihad learned to use millions of different names for the same old crap.

AND NOW... A WORD FROM IKE:

1961: Dwight D Eisenhower

What You See Is What You Get

The Dramatics ~ What You See Is What You Get

CLICK ME!

Some people are made of plastic
And you know some people are made of wood
Some people have hearts of stone
Some people are up to no good

But baby I'm for real
I'm as real as real can get
If what you're looking for is real loving
Then what you see is what you get

What you see is what you get
What you see is what you get

I said what you see is what you get now baby
And the real thing is the best thing yet

You know some people
Are made of lies
to bring you down
And shame your name
But baby, I have good intentions
Cause breaking hearts just ain't my game

All I want to do is love you
And sugar I won't pin you with regret
If what you're looking for is real loving
Then what you see is what you get

Missing Links in the Realm of the Dark Lady

Scorpions ~ Dark Lady

As Condi Feasts on Israel


Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Tuesday that the Palestinian negotiators hold meetings with U.S. Secretary of State once or twice every month to review the peace negotiations with Israel



Rice signs missile defense deal with Poland


8/17/08: Transcript: Condoleezza Rice on 'FOX News Sunday'

Here's the money part - for all the bullshit.... again, it's ALL A SHOW:

RICE: Well, let's remember that there were Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia — or in South Ossetia, which is really the zone of conflict that we're talking about here. They were there as — in an agreement that goes all the way back to 1992. Those peacekeepers will be permitted to stay.

The Russians also had talked about some special security measures that their peacekeepers could take in a very limited area outside of the zone of conflict. They will be permitted to do that for a limited period of time in a very proscribed way.

5/28/08: Georgia could declare Russian peacekeepers occupiers


6/18/08: Russia warns Georgia on provocations against peacekeepers


6/21/08: Russian president backs peacekeepers in Georgia


8/14/08: Russia may increase peacekeepers in Georgia's rebel region


8/17/08: Russian peacekeepers replacing troops in Georgia


8/18/08: Russia keeping 'peacekeepers' in Georgia

MEANTIME:


2006: The "Russian Peacekeepers" were supposed to withdraw YEARS AGO:

PRAGUE, July 19, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The Georgian parliament passed on July 18 by 144 votes (of a total of 235, and in the absence of opposition deputies) a resolution calling on the government to take immediate measures to expedite the withdrawal from South Ossetia and Abkhazia of the Russian peacekeeping contingents that have been deployed there since 1992 and 1994 respectively.

2005: GEORGIA ON RUSSIAN "PEACEKEEPING:" ENOUGH IS ENOUGH


PRAVDA: NATO hits the US in the face


"We can't draw a line in the sand"


"Bullies know weakness when they see it"
And I know complicity when I see it.

And the Georgians will do the dying


MEANTIME, in Nuclear Ready Pakistan......



Gay rights activist accuses Vatican of "moral vandalism"


Gay rights activist has dick to say about this shit though


This dude is quite the 'Gay Rights Activist". Him and Big Dick Dawkins oughtta start up a bowling team together or something.

Scorpions ~ Living and Dying

Perfect Strangers to a Gypsy's Kiss

Deep Purple ~ Perfect Strangers

Can you remember
remember my name
As I flow through your life
A thousand oceans I have flown
And cold spirits of ice
All my life
I am the echo of your past

I am returning
the echo of a point in time
Distant faces shine
A thousand warriors I have known
And laughing as the spirits appear
All your life
Shadows of another day
And if you hear me talking on the wind
You got to understand
We must remain
Perfect strangers

I know I must remain inside this silent well of sorrow

A strand of silver hanging through the sky
Touching more than you see
The voice of ages in your mind
Is aching with the dead of the night
Precious life
your tears are lost in falling rain

And if you hear me talking on the wind
You got to understand
We must remain
Perfect strangers

Deep Purple ~ Gypsy's Kiss

"Murder and rape with your power
The 10th revolution in far away days
It's come to this ~ A gypsy's kiss
All your power's gonna fade in the haze"

"Hear the small voice of truth
Above the shouting despair of the crowd
What do you wish ~ A Gypsy's Kiss

Gets you strong for crying out loud"

US & Israel Sign Murder-Suicide Pact

Allman Bros. ~ Whipping Post

American crews will control US FBX-band radar granted Israel

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

August 19, 2008, 12:43 PM (GMT+02:00)

In granting Israel the powerful FBX-T radar system to enhance its early warning resources against incoming missiles, Washington laid down a strict hands-off proviso. The system will be installed at a US base in the southern Israeli Negev. It will be off-limits to Israelis and managed exclusively by American personnel.

This discovery, revealed here for the first time by DEBKAfile's military sources, has aroused astonished rancor in senior Israel army circles. They questioned the judgment of prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak, foreign minister Tzipi Livni, Shaul Mofaz, who leads the Israeli side of the twice-annual strategic dialogue with the US, and chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi in accepting this proviso.

Even Poland, one officer commented, looked after its sovereignty and only signed its defense pact with the United States for the installation of missile interceptors on its Baltic coast after the Americans agreed to instruct Polish crews in their future operation.

Yet none of the Israeli officials involved in the radar transaction saw fit to carry this point. The FBX-T was requested to allow Israel's Arrow missile defense system to engage a Shehab-3 missile about halfway through its 11-minute flight from Iran, several times sooner than the Arrow's Green Pines radar is capable of doing.

The FBX-T can track objects in space such as a missile tipped with a chemical, germ or nuclear warhead.

When they swung the deal in Washington last month, Barak and Ashkenazi said the Israeli Defense Forces would acquire a major resource and Israel a valuable shield against enemy missiles.

But they erred badly in failing to demand its integration in Israel's national interceptor system for four reasons:

1. Israel will have no denied direct access to the data gathered by the system and can only hope the American operators will pass on the information as and when Israel needs it for self-defense rather than when it suits US interests.

2. The FBX-T will not only be able to track Iranian and Syrian missiles and aircraft but also keep watch on Israeli operations, giving the Washington a handle for stalling them. DEBKAfile's military sources point out that the Americans are suddenly in a hurry to have the system deployed in the Negev as soon as September. They will then be in position to forestall a possible Israeli pre-emptive attack on Iran's nuclear installations should one be decided in Jerusalem.

3. US experts say the FBX-T radar will lengthen the Israeli Arrow anti-missile system's range for detecting incoming Iranian missiles several times over. This is technically accurate, but in practice this enhanced capability is entirely contingent on a Pentagon order to the American crews in the Negev to activate a link between them.

4. Barak and Ashkenazi said on their return from Washington that they had procured US consent to links between Israel's early warning and missile interceptor systems, the X-band radar (which can pick up a missile 2,000 km from target) and also the American JTAGS satellites (which detects a missile launch).

This is not the case.

Any links between the IDF's radar and interceptors and the JATG satellites must be channeled through the X-band radar base in the Negev and are not direct. The data passed to Israel will be subject to pre-selection by American decision-makers.

Several billion dollars of US and Israeli funds have been sunk into developing the Arrow, which Israeli officials until recently claimed was a match for Iran's Shehab-3 ballistic missiles. It turns out now that the Arrow and its Green Pine radar pick up incoming missiles only when they are 800 km short of their target. Israel applied for the FBX-T radar to extend that range to 2,000 km from its territory. But as long as the system is operated exclusively by American personnel, its usefulness for shielding Israel against enemy missiles will circumscribed.

---

AUGUST 13, 2008:



U.S. puts brakes on Israeli plan for attack on Iran nuclear facilities



By Aluf Benn


The Americans viewed the request, which was transmitted (and rejected) at the highest level, as a sign that Israel is in the advanced stages of preparations to attack Iran. They therefore warned Israel against attacking, saying such a strike would undermine American interests. They also demanded that Israel give them prior notice if it nevertheless decided to strike Iran. As compensation for the requests it rejected, Washington offered to improve Israel's defenses against surface-to-surface missiles. Israel responded by saying it reserves the right to take whatever action it deems necessary if diplomatic efforts to halt Iran's nuclearization fail.


Senior Israeli officials had originally hoped that U.S. President George Bush would order an American strike on Iran's nuclear facilities before leaving office, as America's military is far better equipped to conduct such a strike successfully than is Israel's. Jerusalem also fears that an Israeli strike, even if it succeeded well enough to delay Iran's nuclear development for a few years, would give Iran international legitimacy for its program, which it currently lacks. Israel, in contrast, would be portrayed as an aggressor, and would be forced to contend alone with Iran's retaliation, which would probably include thousands of missile strikes by Iranian allies Hezbollah, Hamas and perhaps even Syria. Recently, however, Israel has concluded that Bush is unlikely to attack, and will focus instead on ratcheting up diplomatic pressure on Tehran. It prefers to wait until this process has been exhausted, though without conceding the military option.


Israel's assumption is that Iran will continue to use delaying tactics, and may even agree to briefly suspend its uranium enrichment program in an effort to see out the rest of Bush's term in peace. The American-Israeli dispute over a military strike against Iran erupted during Bush's visit to Jerusalem in May. At the time, Bush held a private meeting on the Iranian threat with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and the Israelis presented their request for certain specific items of military equipment, along with diplomatic and security backing. Following Bush's return to Washington, the administration studied Israel's request, and this led it to suspect that Israel was planning to attack Iran within the next few months. The Americans therefore decided to send a strong message warning it not to do so. U.S. National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen both visited here in June and, according to the Washington Post, told senior Israeli defense officials that Iran is still far from obtaining nuclear weapons, and that an attack on Iran would undermine American interests.


Therefore, they said, the U.S. would not allow Israeli planes to overfly Iraq en route to Iran. The Americans sent a similar message to Iraq, which had objected vociferously to the idea of its air space being used for an Israeli attack on Iran. These private messages were accompanied by a series of leaks from the Pentagon that Israel interpreted as attempts to thwart any possibility of an attack on Iran. For instance, the Americans revealed details of a major Israel Air Force exercise in the Mediterranean; they also said they doubted Israel had adequate intelligence about Iran's nuclear facilities. In addition, Mullen spoke out publicly against an attack on Iran. Two weeks ago, Barak visited Washington for talks with his American counterpart, Robert Gates, and Vice President Richard Cheney. Both conversations focused on Iran, but the two Americans presented conflicting views: Gates vehemently opposes an attack on Iran, while Cheney is the administration's leading hawk.


Barak presented Israel's assessments of the Iranian situation and warned that Iran was liable to advance its nuclear program under cover of the endless deliberations about sanctions - which have thus far produced little in the way of action. He also acknowledged that effective sanctions would require cooperation from Russia, China and India, all of which currently oppose sanctions with real teeth. Russia, however, is considered key to efforts to isolate Iran, and Israeli officials have therefore urged their American counterparts in recent months to tone down Washington's other disputes with Moscow to focus all its efforts on obtaining Russia's backing against Iran. For instance, they suggested that Washington offer to drop its plan to station a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic - a proposal Russia views as a threat, though Washington insists the system is aimed solely at Iran - in exchange for Russia agreeing to stiffer sanctions against Iran.


However, the administration rejected this idea. In an attempt to compensate Israel for having rejected all its proposals, Washington then offered to bolster Israel's defenses against ballistic missiles. For instance, Gates proposed stationing an advanced radar system in Israel and linking Israel directly into America's early warning satellite network; he also offered increased American funding for the development of two Israeli missile defense systems - the Arrow-3, an upgrade of Israel's existing Arrow system for intercepting ballistic missiles, and Iron Dome, a system designed to intercept short-range rockets. In addition, Washington agreed to sell Israel nine Super Hercules long-range transport aircraft for $2 billion.


However, it would not agree to supply Israel with any offensive systems. Now, Israel is awaiting the outcome of the latest talks between the West and Iran, as well as a formal announcement of the opening of an American interests section in Tehran. Israel views the latter as sure proof that Washington is not planning a military strike.


7/31/08: Olmert to Quit AFTER ELECTIONS IN SEPTEMBER


8/17/08: Israel to free 200 MORE prisoners as Rice visits Mideast

Ian Gillan ~ Gethsemane

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
~ Genesis 12:3

Missing Links vs the Fall of Night & the Mares it Rides in on

Artie Shaw ~ Nightmare ~ 1938


Russian Black Sea Fleet Approaching Ukraine

Hudna Hudna Al Hudnavich: Russian Troops Seize Georgian port


Inside Gori - Overrun by the Soviet Army


Russia buying US Steel from the Carlysle Group
Why don't we just sell them our mothers and children while we're at it?

Russian atrocities in Georgia mount: Where's the media?


Queen Condi lets us know that Russia is rebuilding Soviet Union
No shit, Ms. Sherlockvia Abu Al Sellyerass McCondivitch


Putin Takes on a Powerless West

This time Putin is wearing a white windbreaker, as a group of women, refugees from South Ossetia listen, spellbound, to what he has to say. The war in neighboring Georgia, triggered a day earlier by a massive rocket and tank offensive against the autonomous region of the South Ossetians by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's army, has forced tens of thousands of terrified civilians across Georgia's northern border into Russia.

They tell Putin, now Russia's prime minister, who sees himself as the patron saint of the small province, about the harm the Georgians have done to their homeland, and they too derive new courage from Putin, with his biting voice. He tells them that the Georgians' behavior is "a crime," that after this act of "aggression" it will be difficult to imagine South Ossetia remaining part of Georgia, and that Russia will do everything to protect the Ossetians.

Russia lies, tightens grip

Georgian television reporter Tamara Urushadze was shot in the arm 8/18/08 while reporting on live television. Unbelievably she tries to continue her report as colleagues bandage her up. In the dramatic footage she says that her arm had been grazed by a sniper bullet.

NYT Calls Brigette Gabriel a "Radical Islamophobe"
I guess almost being killed by the PLO as a child might do that to you, ya dhimmi MFers. But her "fear" is unfounded, right? She WILL NOT TAKE THE MARK & NEITHER WILL WE.


Boys Forced into Muslim Flogging Ritual


NYT blames Georgia, of course

Attack on Algerian police school leaves 43 dead


OPEC likely to cut supply come early September


Chirac awarded Putin with Legion of Honor award 9/27/06


Marxism alive in Hawaii & Kenya

HORNE: I’m working on a history of the radical, Communist and working-class movement in Hawaii. It is not well known, I’m afraid, that before statehood in 1959 probably the most vigorous, communist and radical trade union movement under the U.S. flag was in Hawaii. To cite one example among many, in 1953, when you had the Smith Act trials of alleged and actual Communist leaders in Hawaii, and they were convicted, 20,000 workers went out on strike. Nothing like that happened on the mainland. I make the suggestion in this book that Hawaii, which had been a colony of the United States from 1894, was taken on as a state even though it is 2000 miles from the U.S. mainland, not least because the rulers in Washington could not decide whether the best way to contain the communists and the radicals and the working class movement there, was to keep it as a colony or to accept it as a state, and it was decided that the latter was the better part of wisdom.

California's highest court has ruled doctors cannot discriminate against gay patients on the basis of religious belief


Daddy's Little Girl ~ Muslim Style:
Najaf Sultana, 16, was burnt by her father while she was sleeping at the age of 5, apparently because he didn't want to have another girl in the family. She has undergone plastic surgery around 15 times to try to recover from her scars.

Cheap Trick ~ Dream Police ~ 1979

Open Thread: The Guns of Navarone

Guns of Navarone - The Skatalites

Mallory: Can you do anything at all?
Corporal Miller: I don't know. There's always a way to blow up explosives. The trick is not to be around when they go off. But aren't you forgetting something? The lady. As I see it we have three choices. One we can leave her here but there's no guarantee she won't be found, and in her case they won't need a truth drug. Two, we can take her with us, but that would make things worse than they are already. And three... well, that's Andrea's choice, remember?
Mallory: You really want your pound of flesh, don't you?
Corporal Miller: Yes, I do. You see, somehow I just couldn't get to sleep.
Mallory: Well, if you're so anxious to kill her, go ahead!
Corporal Miller: I'm not anxious to kill her, I'm not anxious to kill anyone. You see, I'm not a born soldier. I was trapped. You may find me facetious from time to time, but if I didn't make some rather bad jokes I'd go out of my mind. No, I prefer to leave the killing to someone like you, an officer and a gentleman, a leader of men.
Mallory: If you think I wanted this, any of this, you're out of your mind, I was trapped like you, just like anyone who put on the uniform!
Corporal Miller: Of *course* you wanted it, you're an officer, aren't you? I never let them make *me* an officer! I don't want the responsibility!
Mallory: So you've had a free ride, all this time! Someone's *got* to take responsibility if the job's going to get done! You think that's easy?
Corporal Miller: [shouts] I don't know! I'm not even sure who really is responsible any more.

3 Wood: Dollars vs Euros

The Dollar continues to gain strength against other currencies including the Yen and the Euro.


Dollar hits 6-month high versus Euro


While the MSM loves to print any bad news it can find about the US economy and act as if this is 1930 again, the US economy is doing OK compared to some other places around the world. the U.S. lower inflation and lower relative interest rates are serving to attract foreign purchasers looking for bargains.

Therefore, they are selling their currencies, buying dollars, and the U.S. dollar is rising. Part of the reason for this too is the strong action (some might say too strong) taken by the Federal Reserve Board over the past 12 months or so to eliminate volatility in the economy. Most of the rest of the world stood pat and just watched. Now that is starting to haunt them.

As someone told me in Ireland a few months ago, when the U.S. catches a cold, the whole rest of the world gets sick. I responded that the rest of the world needs to look out for it's own health too. I actually think that we are two to three months away from growing out way out of this down turn, as long as oil prices stay stable.
~ 3 Wood

Tommy McCook & The Skatalites
Silver Dollar

3 Wood..... I don't know crap about economics, but I do not think oil will stay stable:

TEHRAN -- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries could decide to roll over or cut crude oil production from existing levels when the group meets in early September in Vienna, Iran's OPEC governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi said Saturday.


Also: the $$ just fell back down again over the weekend due to that story ~


Dollar Falls Against Yen, Euro Before Housing, Inflation Data

The dollar weakened after the Wall Street Journal reported OPEC may decide to roll over or cut crude oil production when the group meets in early September ...


~ Your Spleen

INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING UPDATE : GEORGIA

Sakartvelo (Georgia)

HAT TIP: The Archangel Michael





From the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs site:

MAP OF RUSSIAN MILITARY UNITS

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Timeline of Events in the Russians Invasion & Occupation of Georgia

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Timeline of Events in the Russians Invasion & Occupation of Georgia

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Chronology of Bombing Facts

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Timeline of Events in the Russians Invasion & Occupation of Georgia

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Information for the Press

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Timeline of Events in the Russians Invasion & Occupation of Georgia

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Timeline by 16th of August 21:30

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Violations Only Regarding Journalists

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Timeline by 16th of August 16:00

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Joint Briefing of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and Estonia

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Timeline by 16th of August 14:50

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Timeline by 16th of August 10:00

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Timeline by 15th of August 22:00

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Timeline by 15th of August 19:00

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Timeline by 15th of August 16:30

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Timeline by 15th of August by 10:00

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Development and Reforms Foundation launches new urgent Program – "Unite as we stand"

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Timeline by 14th of August 20:00

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Appeal of the Parliament of Georgia to the International Community



FROM AFI RESEARCH

Contact: RBMedia[at]Hotmail.co.uk

INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING UPDATE

ARMED FORCES OF GEORGIA - ORBAT

AUGUST 2008 UPDATE

Independent Tank Battalion HQ Gori

Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion HQ Kobuleti



1st Infantry Brigade HQ Gori

2nd Infantry Brigade HQ Senaki

3rd Infantry Brigade HQ Kutaisi

4th Infantry Brigade HQ Vaziani

5th Infantry Brigade HQ Khelvachauri (not fully operational)

with around 150 older light armoured Vehicles

Infantry weapons included some 800 Mortars, 150 SA-7 grail MANPAD Systems, several thousand RPG Anti-tank Rocket Launchers and a small number of Anti-tank missile systems. Reasonably well equipped with modern small arms



The 1st and 2nd Infantry Brigades along with the Independent Tank Battalion and most of the front line artillery units are no longer combat capable. There have been very significant losses in weapons, ammunition stocks and damage done to the military infrastructure



Artillery Brigade HQ Gori

Artillery Regiment HQ Gori

Artillery Regiment HQ Khoni

Equipment included around 150 towed 122mm &152mm Artillery; 90 assorted self-propelled 122mm, 152mm &203mm Artillery and 200 Mobile 122mm Multiple Rocket Launchers



Independent Air Defence Battalion HQ Kutaisi

Equipment included around 100 towed/static AA Artillery and some SAM including SA13 Gopher mobile missile systems



Significant quantities of new offensive military equipment; large stocks of ammunition and spare parts for a protracted campaign have been acquired since 2004 when preparations for a major military operation against South Ossetia, Georgia and were working closely with the Georgian Armed Forces. Since the signing of the 1999 GUAM agreement, Georgia has been the recipient of extensive US military aid.

Barely a few months ago, in early May 2008, the Russian Ministry of Defence accused Washington, "claiming that [US as well as NATO and Israeli] military assistance to Georgia is destabilizing the region."

The Russian Defense Ministry said there were plans to deliver to Georgia 145 armored vehicles, 262 guns and mortars, 14 combat aircraft including four Mirazh-2000 destroyers, 25 combat helicopters, 15 American Black Hawk aircraft, six surface-to-air missile systems and other arms." (Interfax News Agency, Moscow)

US troops and civilian contractors, who he said were stationed in the area around Tblisi" (AFP, 9 August 2008).

In fact, US-NATO military presence in Georgia is on a larger scale to that acknowledged in official statements. The number of NATO personnel in Georgia, [text missing]

Tblisi announced the opening of a second military base at Gori which would also "comply with NATO regulations in terms of military requirements as well as social conditions." (Ria Novosti, 26 May 2006).

The Gori base has been used to train Georgian troops dispatched to fight under US command in the Iraq war theater.

It is worth noting that under a March 31, 2006, agreement between Tblisi and Moscow, Russia's two Soviet-era military bases in Georgia - Akhalkalaki and Batumi [text missing]

[Text missing] Israel, from the Czech Republic – six MLRS RM-70.

What is more, from Ukraine and the Czech Republic, Georgia has bought 86 T-72 tanks, 52 infantry combat vehicles BMP-2 and 30 armoured carriers BTR-80, as well as self-propelled howitzers 2S3 "Akacia". A part of the tanks is modernized to level SIM1, i.e. is provided with navigation receivers, connection systems and termovisors to detect the target in complete darkness. Over 400 recently bought trucks KrAZ and Japanese pick-ups Toyota Hilux supply Bulgaria and licensed in the times of the Soviet Union.



Ukrainian Defense Ministry confirms weapons supplies Georgia

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has confirmed statements by the South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoyty that Ukraine supplied weapons to Georgia. Commenting on the issue, the Moscow-based Nezavisimaya Gazeta reminds its readers about an article that was published on the Russian Defense Ministry's website in May. The article titled "On Foreign Military Aid to Georgia" unveils how many and what types of weapons Georgia received from Ukraine.

Mikhail Pogrebisnky, the head of the Center for Political Studies and Conflictology in Kyiv, remarks in this connection that there is common international practice to refrain from arms supplies to regions fraught with potential military conflicts. In the analyst's opinion, Ukraine sends weapons to Georgia in order to create problems for US.

A subsidiary of BAE Systems Ltd, will supply anti-tank weapons to the Georgian army. The weapons that will be supplied is Bill 2 ATGW, the NLAW light anti-tank weapon and the anti-tank artilly shells, Bonus and Excalibur. The anti tank weapons are to delivered to the Georgian army during the 4th quarter 2008.

The commander of the Georgian Land Forces, LTC Alexander Osepaishvili, says that "the new anti-tank weapons will significantly increase the capabilities of the Georgian army. The new weapons are for self defence only and are not to be regarded as offensive".

An obstacle has been that the weapons are developed and produced in Sweden by BAE Systems AB Bofors and Saab Systems AB, but by supplying the anti-tank weapons through BAE Inc in the US, the Swedish government approves to the sales.



Offensive military training with large numbers of armoured vehicles, artillery and ground attack aircraft has been carried out regularly since June 2005.



Several Battalions of Special Operations Forces have received significant training and large supplies of modern military equipment from the [text missing]



22 Su-25KM; 13 Su-25UB; 11 L-39 and 2 L-29 Ground Attack aircraft



(Unconfirmed presence of 5 Su-17, 4 Su-24, 12 MiG-25, 18 MiG-21 and numerous Su-25 airframes at the TAM Tbilisi Aerospace Manufacturing (Tbilaviamsheni" former Soviet GAZ-31 factory), though at least one MiG-21UM was in flying condition. However this facility which produces the upgraded Su-25 Ground Attack fighter with technical support from Israel was heavily bombed on several occasions during the conflict and significant damage resulted)



3 Operational Combat Helicopter Squadrons operate:

1 Mi-35 "Hind" ; 19 Mi-24-P "Hind" and 21 Mi-24-V "Hind" Attack helicopters

Other units operate:

18 Mil Mi-14 ; 16 Mi-8 "Hip"; 6 Bell-212; 40 UH-1H and 2 Mil Mi-2 Transport helicopters (many of which have now been armed)



Main Military Air Bases

Vaziani MAB (2-3 kilometers from Tbilisi), International Kopitnari AB (several kilometers from Kutaisi)



Air Defence Missile Units included around 10 old SA2 Guideline static, 38 SA3 Goa static, 40 SA4 Ganef mobile and SA5 Gammon static missile systems.

Air Defence Artillery Units included

35 ZSU-23-4,15 C-60 and 40 MT-LB with towed ZU-23

Some rather more modern Western missile systems are reportedly now available.



NAVY OF GEORGIA

Mobilized - around 900 Officers and Men

7 ex-French La Combattante II Fast Patrol Boats armed with 2 OTO-Melara 76 mm/L62 guns, modified anti-aircraft guns, and Exocet missiles

11-13 P 269 Lindos Fast Patrol Boats armed with 2 C802 anti-ship missile batteries and AK-630M guns

(Most vessels have been destroyed)



NATIONAL GUARD OF GEORGIA

(Mobilized - around 25,000 Officers and Men)

Chief Researcher - AFI Research
David McKenzie


Consultants - AFI Research
Richard M Bennett
Giorgi Robakidze