On Capitol Hill, Democratic leaders say they’re open to paring down a healthcare reform bill in order to sway “conservative” Democrats who’ve threatened to oppose the measure that would create a government-run public insurance option. We speak with progressive Democrat, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). A House committee recently approved his amendment that would allow individual states to adopt a single-payer system. [includes rush transcript]... http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/21/as_obama_continues_push_for_healthcare
Here is a link to: 'Watch Obsession' - Website
America is at War Though we would like to think differently, there really are evil people who spend all their time thinking and planning the destruction of American men, women and children. While Christians and Jews are primary targets, these very bad terrorists do not discriminate in their desire to kill and destroy anyone who does not believe as they do. For our enemy, this is a cultural war, this is a religious war, this is a necessary war. Radical, militant Muslims have declared war on America.
https://www.watchobsession.org/
WHAT IF IT WASN’T THE ISLAMIC LOBBY THAT CONTROLS? What if it was not Islamo Arab [oil] lobby that sucks you to the bone and controls all international bodies? * We wouldn’t have been sending so many billions (in gas money) to those that hate us (no matter what we do). * The UN would finally start doing something, stopping the Arab genocide in the Sudan for starters… * The UN would have less bigoted anti-Israel obsessive “condemnations”. * US & EU could breath a little... * Anti American bashing wouldn’t be a “fashionable” feature. * War on terror would be easier.
* Oppressive totalitarian Islamic Republic of Iran wouldn’t get their ultimate weapon to destroy the world. * Islamic militants’ crimes against humanity wouldn’t be “justified” as “victim-hood”.
The 'Israel Lobby' MythBy George P. Shultz Posted September 9, 2007 Israel is a free, democratic, open, and relentlessly self-analytical place. To hear harsh criticism of Israel's policies and leaders, listen to the Israelis. So questioning Israel for its actions is legitimate, but lies are something else. Throughout human history, they have been used not only to vilify but to establish a basis for cruel and inhuman acts. The catalog of lies about Jews is long and astonishingly crude, matched only by the suffering that has followed their promulgation.Defaming the Jews by disputing their rightful place among the peoples of the world has been a long-running, well-documented, and disgraceful series of episodes across history. Again and again a time has come when legitimate criticism slips across an invisible line into what might be called the "badlands," a place where those who should be regarded as worthy adversaries in debate are turned into scapegoats, targets, all-purpose objects of blame.In America, we protect all speech, even the most hurtful lies. We allow a virtual free-for-all by which laws are adopted, enforced, and interpreted. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent yearly to influence this process; thousands of groups vie for influence. Among these are Jewish groups that have come under renewed criticism for being part of an all-powerful "Israel lobby," most notably in a book published this week by Profs. Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer.Jewish groups are influential. They also largely agree that the United States should support Israel. But the notion that they have anything like a uniform agenda and that U.S. policy in Israel and the Middle East is the result of this influence is simply wrong.One choice. Some critics seem overly impressed with the way of thinking that says to itself, "Since there is a huge Arab Islamic world out there with all the oil, and it is opposed to this tiny little Israel with no natural resources, then realistically the United States has to be on the Arab side and against Israel on every issue, and since this isn't the case, there must be some underhanded Jewish plot at work." This is a conspiracy theory, pure and simple.Another tried and true method for damaging the well-being and security of the Jewish people and the State of Israel is a dangerously false analogy. Witness former President Jimmy Carter's book Palestine—Peace Not Apartheid. Here the association on the one hand is between Israel's existentially threatened position and the measures it has taken to protect its population from terrorist attacks, driven by an ideology bent on the complete eradication of the State of Israel, and, on the other, the racist oppression of South Africa's black population by the white Boer regime.The tendency of mind that lies behind such repulsive analogies remains and is reinforced by the former president's views, spread across his book, which come down on the anti-Israel side of every case. These false analogies stir up and lend legitimacy to more widely based movements that take the same dangerous direction.Anyone who thinks that Jewish groups constitute a homogeneous "lobby" ought to spend some time dealing with them. For example, my decision to open a dialogue with Yasser Arafat after he met certain conditions evoked a wide spectrum of responses from the government of Israel, its political parties, and American Jewish groups who weighed in on one side or the other. Other examples in which the United States rejected Israel's view of an issue, or the view of the American Jewish community, include the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia and President Reagan's decision to go to the cemetery at Bitburg, Germany.The United States supports Israel not because of favoritism based on political pressure or influence but because the American people, and their leaders, say that supporting Israel is politically sound and morally just.We are a great nation. Mostly, we make good decisions. We are not babes in the woods. We act in our own interests. And when we mistakenly conclude from time to time—as we will—that an action or policy is in America's interest, we must take responsibility for the mistake.So, on every level, those who blame Israel and its Jewish supporters for U.S. policies they do not support are wrong. They are wrong because, to begin with, support for Israel is in our best interests. They are also wrong because Israel and its supporters have the right to try to influence U.S. policy. And they are wrong because the U.S. government is responsible for the policies it adopts, not any other state or any of the myriad lobbies and groups that battle daily—sometimes with lies—to win America's support.George Shultz was secretary of state from 1982 to 1989. This is excerpted from his introduction to The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control by Abraham Foxman (Palgrave Macmillan).
Israel is a free, democratic, open, and relentlessly self-analytical place. To hear harsh criticism of Israel's policies and leaders, listen to the Israelis. So questioning Israel for its actions is legitimate, but lies are something else. Throughout human history, they have been used not only to vilify but to establish a basis for cruel and inhuman acts. The catalog of lies about Jews is long and astonishingly crude, matched only by the suffering that has followed their promulgation.
Defaming the Jews by disputing their rightful place among the peoples of the world has been a long-running, well-documented, and disgraceful series of episodes across history. Again and again a time has come when legitimate criticism slips across an invisible line into what might be called the "badlands," a place where those who should be regarded as worthy adversaries in debate are turned into scapegoats, targets, all-purpose objects of blame.
In America, we protect all speech, even the most hurtful lies. We allow a virtual free-for-all by which laws are adopted, enforced, and interpreted. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent yearly to influence this process; thousands of groups vie for influence. Among these are Jewish groups that have come under renewed criticism for being part of an all-powerful "Israel lobby," most notably in a book published this week by Profs. Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer.
Jewish groups are influential. They also largely agree that the United States should support Israel. But the notion that they have anything like a uniform agenda and that U.S. policy in Israel and the Middle East is the result of this influence is simply wrong.
One choice. Some critics seem overly impressed with the way of thinking that says to itself, "Since there is a huge Arab Islamic world out there with all the oil, and it is opposed to this tiny little Israel with no natural resources, then realistically the United States has to be on the Arab side and against Israel on every issue, and since this isn't the case, there must be some underhanded Jewish plot at work." This is a conspiracy theory, pure and simple.
Another tried and true method for damaging the well-being and security of the Jewish people and the State of Israel is a dangerously false analogy. Witness former President Jimmy Carter's book Palestine—Peace Not Apartheid. Here the association on the one hand is between Israel's existentially threatened position and the measures it has taken to protect its population from terrorist attacks, driven by an ideology bent on the complete eradication of the State of Israel, and, on the other, the racist oppression of South Africa's black population by the white Boer regime.
The tendency of mind that lies behind such repulsive analogies remains and is reinforced by the former president's views, spread across his book, which come down on the anti-Israel side of every case. These false analogies stir up and lend legitimacy to more widely based movements that take the same dangerous direction.
Anyone who thinks that Jewish groups constitute a homogeneous "lobby" ought to spend some time dealing with them. For example, my decision to open a dialogue with Yasser Arafat after he met certain conditions evoked a wide spectrum of responses from the government of Israel, its political parties, and American Jewish groups who weighed in on one side or the other. Other examples in which the United States rejected Israel's view of an issue, or the view of the American Jewish community, include the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia and President Reagan's decision to go to the cemetery at Bitburg, Germany.
The United States supports Israel not because of favoritism based on political pressure or influence but because the American people, and their leaders, say that supporting Israel is politically sound and morally just.
We are a great nation. Mostly, we make good decisions. We are not babes in the woods. We act in our own interests. And when we mistakenly conclude from time to time—as we will—that an action or policy is in America's interest, we must take responsibility for the mistake.
So, on every level, those who blame Israel and its Jewish supporters for U.S. policies they do not support are wrong. They are wrong because, to begin with, support for Israel is in our best interests. They are also wrong because Israel and its supporters have the right to try to influence U.S. policy. And they are wrong because the U.S. government is responsible for the policies it adopts, not any other state or any of the myriad lobbies and groups that battle daily—sometimes with lies—to win America's support.
George Shultz was secretary of state from 1982 to 1989. This is excerpted from his introduction to The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control by Abraham Foxman (Palgrave Macmillan).
Warning: The danger of portraying the Islamic "Palestinians" aggressors as "victims", the genocidal thugs as "poor innocent"
Not only is it untrue to talk about those Islamists ['Palestinian' or Iranian leadership and it's Hezbollah global Mahdi army * * * * * *] seeking to annihilate the Jews as if they have some "political issue" or "resistance", but it's simply extremely dangerous, as Islamic fascism uses the 'Palestinian victim hood' myth as an excuse to hit.
Please do not help Jihad by justifying mass murder of the innocent!
* if you are unaware of the tricks [like using human shields, etc.] radical Islamists [Arab 'Palestinians' * * or Hezbollah *] are using in order to make sure that their kids die so that Israel gets tarnished, get informed, but don't bash Israel the real victim.
* Ever wanted how desperate they are for you to see them as "victims" that they will bring about their own children's death? Why do you think do they have the custom of shooting out of densely populated civilian areas, firing behind their kids' little shoulders or hiding under women's skirts? *, *, *, *, ** If you don't know that the Arab 'Palestinians' are no more a generation or two away from Arab settlers, immigrated into Israel 'Palestine' * , check out the facts but don't keep buying 'Palestinian' lies as if they are "natives for thousands of years".
* If you don't know that the Arab racists started massacring the Jews in Israel - 'Palestine' already at the turn of the century *, *, study the history of the region instead of copying 'Palestinian' propaganda as if the 'problem started in 1948'.
* If you really believe the images & stories coming out of 'Palestinian' sources as "fascts", than you don't know about Pallywood *, *, * booming industry.
* If you fail to see that the goliath Arab Muslim world controls the international decisive organizations such as the U.N. * * and others via oil, economic power and terror tactics, ask yourself the constant persecution of racist boycotts and "condemnations" on anything Israel does to defend itself from murderers terrorists, comparing all that to the silence on 'Palestinians', leadership, teachers, imams and parents crimes on their own people in leading them to a radical Jihad death cult.
* Why is it still a PC to sing that song: 'oh those poor Palestinians' [thus 'make their day' for ruthless terrorists]? When will we see the mainstream (biased *) irresponsible media finally recognize that: the Muslim 'Palestinians' have no one but themselves to blame for their self destructive, self inflicted wounds,since 1948 *, and still recenly *, * by choosing 'victim-hood' status over advancement, bigotry over recognition of the 'non Muslims', 'non Arabs' Israelis to exist, teaching their kids *, [The Indoctrination of Palestinian Children to Seek Death] hatred instead of peace & harmony, Death; Suicide & Genocide - how to die and murder instead of how to live?
* If you don't know about the Arab lobby control over policy, be surprised how the Goliath Arab Muslim lobby is powerful. *, *, *, *, *, *
* If you thought it's just a small minority that is so evil among 'Palestinian' Atab Muslims, think again, Friday, February 16, 2007 NEC 12-15 February Poll: 75% of Palestinians do not think that Israel has the right to exist, Poll: Most Palestinians think Hamas should not recognize Israel ...[19/09/06], Fatah leaders appeared on TV praying in the mosques even when the sermons delivered preached genocide. Islamic education was given prominence in the PA's school system... FATAH'S RELIGIOUS pretense was so successful that it Islamicized its own people, especially Palestinian youth. In a March 2005 poll, 70 percent of Palestinians preferred Islamic law, Shari'a, to the laws of the PA parliament. Less than a year later, in January 2006, Hamas completed its journey from a fringe movement to the Prime Minister's Office. The push by Arafat and Abbas to make religion a dominant motivation behind the war with Israel had been more "successful" than they could have anticipated.Yes, it's mainstream and majority of Islamo Arab "Palestinians" that is so terrible!
* If you don't know that the Islamo Arab coward attackers [of little heroic Israel] always called to annihilate Jews ['Itbach al Yahud' * - their slogan since the 1920's, 'throwing them into the sea' - in the Arab Israeli wars *, 'wiping off' *, *, *, *, *, *, *] than you don't know the first thing Israel is 'fighting for', survival of course.
For truth and justice sake and for survival against terrorism - Do not play into Islamofascism's propaganda hands.
Ultimately it's for anyone's survival too - * ,*, *, *, *, (Hamas reiterates goal of world domination by Islam - annihilation, ) totalitarian Islamification of everyone else.
It's rockin' right now at HuffPo: New Group Wants To Overthrow Obama At Convention and the author is Thomas B. Edsall, one of their most respected essayists.
Maybe, just maybe, a bunch of delegates to the Democratic Convention in Denver will change their minds at the last minute. Maybe there is an outside chance that between now and the last week of August a critical mass will decide that Barack Obama is not their guy -- that, to the surprise of one and all, Hillary Rodham Clinton is to be the 2008 nominee after all.That is the thinking behind a small but determined band of Hillary backers, some of whom have formed a 527 fundraising committee that has already run one $9,700 ad in the Chicago Tribune, and plans more in the weeks to come.The Denver Group: Keeping the Democratic Party democratic, created by Georgetown Law professor Heidi Li Feldman and freelance advertising man Marc Rubin, ran an ad in Friday's Chicago Tribune declaring:"Senator Clinton's name must be put in nomination. Her supporters must be allowed to make speeches on her behalf of her candidacy. There must be an honest roll call vote, not a symbolic one, so superdelegates can cast their votes honestly, for either candidate, as their judgment, conscience and democratic principles dictate."Feldman told the Huffington Post that the goal of the Denver Group "is to insure substantive and legitimate selection of the nominee." DNC chairman and other party leaders "should be taking responsibility for making sure it's a legitimate procedure. They cannot demand that people simply unify around either one of them."Feldman argued that it is entirely conceivable that an open vote could produce a Clinton victory. "Then, the decision comes down to the superdelegates. I have no Idea what they are going to do six weeks from now.".... read the entire article here.
According to Fox News, “virtually all records and billing in the U.S. are done for the telephone companies by Amdocs Ltd., an Israeli-based private telecommunication company, contracting with the 25 biggest phone companies in America, and more worldwide,” said Fox chief political correspondent Carl Cameron in a four-part series—the video and transcript content of which were removed from Fox’s website after both were preserved by internet sources. [cf. Tom Flocco.com]
One of the main concerns raised by Cameron's series for Fox News is evidence of security breaches in the system. In effect, it means that no citizen of the United States is secure in their electronically transmitted personal communications, bank accounts, retirement funds, investment portfolios, medical records or other private demographics. It means that the United States government is not secure in its communications.Most importantly, it leads one to wonder why the Israeli government, working through AIPAC and representing the interests of not just the Israeli private telecommunications industry, but also the Mossad and CIA partnership that worked to mine the data being produced, would have such a highly sensitive and apparently classified interest in immunity from litigation, given what we now know of their role in providing the intelligence warnings prior to 9/11 vis-a-vis these very resources. In an interview after the vote, Senator Hillary Clinton was curiously quoted to have said that the immunity provision of FISA now severely restricts future investigations into 9/11. That is quite an amazing statement when you stop and think about its implications.Here is a portion of Senator Clinton's written statement to the press, provided at Huffington Post, that for some reason the controlled media believed insignificant or that it didn't quite communicate the talking points they were looking for:
"...But the legislation has other significant shortcomings. The legislation also makes no meaningful change to the immunity provisions. There is little disagreement that the legislation effectively grants retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies. In my judgment, immunity under these circumstances has the practical effect of shutting down a critical avenue for holding the administration accountable for its conduct. It is precisely why I have supported efforts in the Senate to strip the bill of these provisions, both today and during previous debates on this subject. Unfortunately, these efforts have been unsuccessful. "What is more, even as we considered this legislation, the administration refused to allow the overwhelming majority of Senators to examine the warrantless wiretapping program. This made it exceedingly difficult for those Senators who are not on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees to assess the need for the operational details of the legislation, and whether greater protections are necessary. The same can be said for an assessment of the telecom immunity provisions. On an issue of such tremendous importance to our citizens - and in particular to New Yorkers - all Senators should have been entitled to receive briefings that would have enabled them to make an informed decision about the merits of this legislation. I cannot support this legislation when we know neither the nature of the surveillance activities authorized nor the role played by telecommunications companies granted immunity..."
"What is more, even as we considered this legislation, the administration refused to allow the overwhelming majority of Senators to examine the warrantless wiretapping program. This made it exceedingly difficult for those Senators who are not on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees to assess the need for the operational details of the legislation, and whether greater protections are necessary. The same can be said for an assessment of the telecom immunity provisions. On an issue of such tremendous importance to our citizens - and in particular to New Yorkers - all Senators should have been entitled to receive briefings that would have enabled them to make an informed decision about the merits of this legislation. I cannot support this legislation when we know neither the nature of the surveillance activities authorized nor the role played by telecommunications companies granted immunity..."
...Meanwhile, Barack Obama is complaining that his "friends on the left" just don't understand him -- he's not moving to the center, he is "no doubt" a progressive, just one who now supports the scandalous FISA "compromise" and Antonin Scalia's views on gun rights and the death penalty, no longer plans to accept public campaign funding, and wants to make sure women aren't feigning mental distress to get a "partial-birth" abortion (the right's despicable term of choice; the correct phrase is either late-term or third-trimester abortion). I actually have some sympathy for Obama. He was never the great progressive savior that his fans either thought he was, or peddled to their readers. While Arianna Huffington and Markos Moulitsas and Tom Hayden were hyping him as the progressive alternative to Hillary Clinton, Obama was getting away with backing a healthcare bill less progressive than Clinton's, adopting GOP talking points on the Social Security "crisis" and double-talking on NAFTA. So why shouldn't he think his "friends on the left" will put up with his abandoning other progressive causes? I've admired Obama, but I never confused him with a genuine progressive leader. Today I don't admire him at all. His collapse on FISA is unforgivable. The only thing Obama has going for him this week is that McCain is matching him misstep for misstep. While we're railing about Obama's craven vote on FISA -- rightfully; Glenn Greenwald is a hero for his work on this topic -- McCain was outdoing Dick Cheney with neocon crazy talk, warning that Iran's test of nine old missiles we already knew they had increases the chances of a "second Holocaust." Every time I wonder whether I can ultimately vote for Obama in November, given all of his political cave-ins, McCain does something new to make sure I have to. But Obama needs to watch himself. Telling voters they have no place else to go, before he officially has the nomination, is not a winning strategy. That's what his people told Clinton voters. That's what they're saying about opponents of the FISA sellout. That's the line on those concerned about his "partial-birth" abortion remarks. It's arrogant -- up against the backdrop of Obama's big plans for an Invesco Field acceptance speech in Denver and a Brandenberg Gate extravaganza in Berlin, I'm starting to worry about grandiosity -- and it could backfire.
I actually have some sympathy for Obama. He was never the great progressive savior that his fans either thought he was, or peddled to their readers. While Arianna Huffington and Markos Moulitsas and Tom Hayden were hyping him as the progressive alternative to Hillary Clinton, Obama was getting away with backing a healthcare bill less progressive than Clinton's, adopting GOP talking points on the Social Security "crisis" and double-talking on NAFTA. So why shouldn't he think his "friends on the left" will put up with his abandoning other progressive causes?
I've admired Obama, but I never confused him with a genuine progressive leader. Today I don't admire him at all. His collapse on FISA is unforgivable. The only thing Obama has going for him this week is that McCain is matching him misstep for misstep. While we're railing about Obama's craven vote on FISA -- rightfully; Glenn Greenwald is a hero for his work on this topic -- McCain was outdoing Dick Cheney with neocon crazy talk, warning that Iran's test of nine old missiles we already knew they had increases the chances of a "second Holocaust." Every time I wonder whether I can ultimately vote for Obama in November, given all of his political cave-ins, McCain does something new to make sure I have to.
But Obama needs to watch himself. Telling voters they have no place else to go, before he officially has the nomination, is not a winning strategy. That's what his people told Clinton voters. That's what they're saying about opponents of the FISA sellout. That's the line on those concerned about his "partial-birth" abortion remarks. It's arrogant -- up against the backdrop of Obama's big plans for an Invesco Field acceptance speech in Denver and a Brandenberg Gate extravaganza in Berlin, I'm starting to worry about grandiosity -- and it could backfire.
APPENDIX-B: Comverse-Infosys - Verint
This article is a translation of the Dutch article Nederlandse tapkamers niet kosjer that will appear in c't 2003-01, which will be available in the shops on december 19 2002
Dutch tapping room not kosher
by Paul Wouters, Patrick Smits
According to anonymous sources within the Dutch intelligence community, all tapping equipment of the Dutch intelligence services and half the tapping equipment of the national police force, is insecure and is leaking information to Israel. How difficult is it to make a back-door in the Dutch Transport of Intercepted IP Traffic[1] system?
The discussion focusses on the tapping installations for telephony and internet delivered to the government in the last few years by the Israeli company Verint[2].
This company was called Comverse-Infosys[3] until half a year ago, but was quickly renamed when the FBI started several investigations against it and arrested some of its employees in the US on suspicion of espionage. (See pulled FoxNews stories, Politech, Cryptome or Google).
Complete article
Israeli Spy-Ring in the USA
.........It turns out that Israel has had a potential wiretap on every phone in America for years, along with the ability to monitor and record who any person is calling, anywhere in America; information of great value even if one does not listen to the calls themselves. Amdocs, Inc., the company which subcontracts billing and directory services for phone companies around the world, including 90 percent of American phone companies, is owned by Israeli interests. Yet another company, Comverse Infosys, is suspected of having built a “back door” into the equipment permanently installed into the phone system that allows instant eavesdropping by law enforcement agencies on any phone in America. This includes yours.....
Complete article (alternative)
Israeli Security to Protect London's Underground
(IsraelNN.com) Verint Systems, a subsidiary of Israel's Comverse Technology announced that Metronet Rail has selected Verint's networked video solution to enhance security of the London Underground, according to an Israel21c report...........
At first blush, the recent adoption by the House of Representatives of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act, which gives telecommunications companies that illegally eavesdropped on the telephone conversations, faxes, text messages, and emails of Americans retroactive immunity from lawsuits from privacy-violated and aggrieved customers, would see to have little to do with the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
However, the support for the bill by AIPAC's biggest boosters, including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, whose sister, Bernice Manocherian, was an executive president of AIPAC, and Jane Harman, who was slated to become chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) but whose nomination was nixed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi after a Justice Department investigation of Harman's contacts with AIPAC, poses an interesting question: Why would Israel's lobby be adamantly opposed to lawsuits against phone companies that illegally spied on Americans? WMR has obtained internal Department of Justice memos and emails that document the department's concerns for the possible penetration by Israeli intelligence of federal law enforcement T2S2 digital wire intercept facilities, including those located in High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) operations centers across the United States.
Harman, who would have had oversight over FISA matters as HPSCI chair, was under investigation by Justice for trying to make a deal with the Bush administration to curtail an espionage investigation of AIPAC stemming from the receipt by two AIPAC officials -- Keith Weissman and Steven Rosen -- of highly classified intelligence documents from the CIA and the Pentagon from convicted Israeli spy Larry Franklin, in return for AIPAC support for her as HPSCI chair and other support for Bush administration initiatives. The documents were passed to a Mossad agent attached to the Israeli embassy in Washington. Harman's bid to become HPSCI chair was backed by wealthy Hollywood mogul Haim Saban, who also funds the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and is currently nesting a number of pro-Israel policy makers who will likely enter a Barack Obama administration to ensure no deviation from the United States in its unbridled support for Israel. However, these Israeli acolytes may be sorely disappointed by a President Obama. The Democratic candidate vowed to gut the retroactive immunity provisions from the amended FISA bill if he is elected president.
To ensure a lock on the no retroactive lawsuit provisions, the man who became HPSCI chair, Sylvestre Reyes, supported the measure. He was joined by other AIPAC sure bets, including Brad Sherman (D-CA), Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), John Yarmuth (KY), Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), Jason Altmire (D-PA), and, for added measure Pelosi.
If lawsuits were permitted against telecommunications firms, the discovery process may have resulted in details being unearthed about the extent of Israel's involvement in federal wiretapping and illegal surveillance of Americans.
The Justice Department red flags were first raised after the Fox News expose of the espionage activities of Israeli "art students." A December 18, 2001 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) email cites these concerns (it is also noteworthy that the report on the suspicious pre-9/11 activities of over 120 Israeli "art students" originated with the DEA:
From: [DELETED]Sent: (DELETED]To: [DELETED]Subject: [DELETED]I'm not sure what is meant by "Bottom line we should have caught it."------Original message-------From: Raffanello, Heidi M.Sent:Tuesday, December 18, 2001 3:04 PMTo:Zeisset, Dale M.Cc:Newton, Otis L; Howard, JPSubject: ComverseAs you may have heard Security Program is briefing the Administrator[42] tomorrow morning on the Israeli students investigation to include T2S2 Comverse and JSI. This was a result of the Fox network expose on Israeli counterintelligence activities. In our discussions about remote maintenance for JSI and Comverse, we realized that Comverse remote maintenance for field systems was not addressed in the C & A process. We will approach it in the similar fashion as we did in the JSI issue, however the foreign national factor doesn't apply. It remains unclear if Comverse personnel are security cleared and if so, who are they and what type of clearances are on record. If you have names, I can run their status in Personnel Security. If not, we will need to have Comverse and ST identify a short list of personnel that will require clearances.
DEAR MR.OBAMA,
FORMERLY DISAFFECTED BY POLITICS, AND ESPECIALLY BY THE INFLUENCE OF SMALL, BUT POWERFULLY DOMINANT GROUPS IN WASHINGTON, I HAVE NOT PARTICIPATED IN POLITICS SINCE VOTING FOR BILL CLINTON IN 1992, THOUGH I HAVE ALWAYS STAYED ATTUNED TO WHAT IS HAPPENING IN MY COUNTRY AND THE WORLD.
YOU HAVE SAID THAT ONE OF THE CORNERSTONES OF YOUR CANDIDACY IS REINING IN THE POWER OF LOBBYISTS AND SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS IN WASHINGTON. YOU SOUNDED CONVINCING AND HONEST, AND INDEED I WAS INSPIRED BY YOU, SO I WHOLEHEARTEDLY SUPPORTED YOUR CAPMPAIGN IN VARIOUS WAYS, PROMOTED YOU AS ¨NOT JUST ANOTHER POLITICIAN¨ TO OTHERS, AND WAS EXUBERANT WHEN YOU FINALLY CLINCHED THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION LAST NIGHT, THOUGH I HAD STILL HAD SOME RESERVATIONS.
BUT THEN THIS MORNING I TURNED ON CNN AND SAW THAT THE VERY FIRST THING YOU DID ON THE VERY FIRST MORNING AFTER OFFICIALLY BECOMING THE NOMINEE WAS TO SPEAK AT THE AIPAC CONFERENCE AND DECLARE YOUR UNDYNG LOYALTY TO ISRAEL AND TO AN ¨UNDIVIDED JERUSALEM¨ AS THE CAPITAL OF THE JEWISH STATE, ALTHOUGH NOT EVEN WASHINGTON´S POWER THUS FAR HAS BEEN ABLE TO GET THE UN TO RECOGNIZE JERUSALEM AS THE CAPITAL OF ISRAEL.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT THE VERY FIRST THING THAT A PROFESSED ANTI-LOBBYIST DOES AFTER WINNING THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION IS PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO A FOREIGN POWER AT THE CONFERENCE OF THE MOST POWERFUL LOBBY IN THE AMERICA?
MR. OBAMA, ON YOUR BLOG PAGE TODAY, YOU EVEN PUT YUR VISIT TO THE LOBBY AHEAD OF THE OTHER ARTICLES CONCERNING YOUR HISTORIC WIN.
WHOM DO YOU SERVE FIRST, SIR? THE PEOPLE?
BY DECALRING THAT A ¨UNIFIED¨ JERUSALEM MUST BE THE CAPITAL OF THE JEWISH STATE, YOU HAVE DECLARED NULL THE AGREEMENT FOR PEACE THAT ALL ARAB GROUPS, INCLUDING EVEN HAMAS, HAVE AGREED TO - A RECOGNITION OF ISRAEL WITHIN THE PRE-1967 BORDERS. (IN A TIME MAGAZINE ARTICE, IMPARTIALLY ENTITLED ¨THE SPOILER,¨ KHALED MESHAAL AGREED TO THIS.)
CONCERNING JERUSLAEM, ISRAELI, ARAB, AMERICAN, AND INDEPENDENT SOURCES HAVE ALL CONFIRMED THAT THE EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE 1967 SIX DAY WAR AND THE WAR ITSELF, IN WHICH ISRAEL TOOK CONTROL OVER EAST JERUSALEM (AS WELL AS THE GAZA STRIP, THE GOLAN HEIGHTS, AND OTHER STRATEGIC AREAS) WERE INTENTIONALLY INSTIGATED BY ISRAEL IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE EXACTLY WHAT THEY DID ACHIEVE: CONTROL OVER THOSE STRATEGIC AREAS THROUGH DISHONEST ATTEMPTS TO MAKE THE ARABS APPEAR TO BE THE AGGRESSORS AND OUTRIGHT OFFENSIVE WARFARE.
For example, on Nov. 13, 1966, ISRAEL ATTACKED THE JORDANIAN ADMINISTERED WEST BANK SUPPOSEDLY IN RESPONSE TO A MINE THAT ISRAELI SOLDIERS HIT ON A BORDER PATROL ON NOV. 11. But Special Assistant to LBJ, Walt Rostow, wrote to the president "retaliation is not the point in this case. This 3000-man raid with tanks and planes was out of all proportion to the provocation and was aimed at the wrong target...(The Israelis) wrecked a good system of tacit cooperation between Hussein (the Jordanian king) and the Israelis... Israel's attack increases the pressure on him to counterattack not only from the more radical Arab governments and from the Palestinians in Jordan but also from the Army...They've set back progress toward a long term accommodation with the Arabs...¨
DOES THIS SOUND LIKE ANY OTHER WARS WHICH MAY HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN RECENT YEARS?
Syria also had repeatedly complained to the UN Security Council about aggressive Israeli violations of agreements and border intrusions which seemed to be intentionally provocative. In 1976, Moshe Dayan, the Israeli defense minister at that time, said, ¨I know how at least 80 percent of the clashes there started... It went this way: We would send a tractor to plow some area where it wasn't possible to do anything, in the demilitarized area, and knew in advance that the Syrians would start to shoot. If they didn't shoot, we would tell the tractor to advance farther, until in the end the Syrians would get annoyed and shoot. And then we would use artillery and later the air force also, and that's how it was...¨
DEAR MR.OBAMA, WE KNOW THAT BOTH JOHN MCCAIN AND HILARY CLINTON WERE ALSO PLEDGING THEIR ALLEGIANCE TO THIS POWERFUL LOBBY AND ITS CAUSES AT THE SAME TIME AS YOU DID, AND WE KNOW OF THE POLITICAL RAMIFICATIONS IF YOU HAD NOT ALSO DONE SO IMMEDIATELY.
HOWEVER, YOUR TRIP THERE REMINDS ME OF THE FRENCH PRESIDENT SARKOZY´S IMMEDIATE VISIT TO A FRENCH BILLIONIARE FOLLOWING HIS ELECTORAL VICTORY.
¨POWER TO THE PEOPLE?¨
WE ARE PAINFULLY AWARE OF THE NATURE OF POLITICS.
IN YOUR INTERVIEW IN THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE, AFTER STATING THAT JUSTICE IS ON THE SIDE OF THE ZIONIST CAUSE, YOU SAID, ¨I MYSELF AM A POLITICIAN AND I AM AWARE THAT WE DO NOT ALWAYS ACT WITH JUSTICE UPPERMOST IN OUR MINDS.¨
WE ARE ALSO PAINFULLY AWARE THAT A GROUP PURPORTING TO REPRESENT 1.7% OF THE U.S. POPULATION, AND DEDICATED TO DEFENDING WHAT THEY SEE AS THE INTERESTS OF A SMALL FOREIGN NATION OF SEVEN MILLION PEOPLE, HAS THE POWER TO EFFECTIVELY VOID THE CANDIDACY OF ANY U.S. POLITICIAN AT A NATIONAL LEVEL, UP TO THE SUPPOSEDLY HIGHEST OFFICE IN THE LAND.
WE ARE ALSO AWARE THAT MEMEBERS OF THIS 1.7% OF THE U.S. POPULATION CONTROL AT LEAST 20% OF THE COUNTRY´S WEALTH AND LEADS AT LEAST 80% OF THE MAJOR MEDIA OUTLETS IN THE NATION.
IT SEEMS, SIR, THAT THERE IS ONE LOBBY WHOSE INFLUENCE YOU WILL NOT ONLY NOT BE CHALLENGING, BUT INSTEAD ACQUIESCING TO, DESPITE YOUR OFT REPEATED CRIES OF ¨CHANGE¨ AND PUBLICLY PROFESSED ANTI-LOBBYIST STANCE.
WE ALSO KNOW THAT AT THIS TIME, WITHOUT THIS HYPOCRISY, YOU WOULD HAVE NO CHANCE TO BE PRESIDENT. WE UNDERSTAND AND SYMPATHIZE WITH YOUR POSITION.
INTENTIONAL DECEIT, LAND GRABS, AND OFFENSIVE WARARE, AS WE ALL KNOW, HAVE ALL BEEN A HALLMARK OF ISRAEL´S POLICIES RIGHT FROM THE NATURE OF ITS VERY CREATION THROUGH TO THE BUILDING OF THE ¨WALL OF SEPARATION¨ AND BEYOND.
I AM NOT ARAB OR MUSLIM, BUT SIMPLY A LOVER OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE.
SO I ASK YOU SIR, IN TRUTH, IS THIS JUSTICE?
OUR HEARTS EVERYWHERE CRY OUT FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE.
BUT WE UNDERSTAND THAT YOU HAVE NO CHOICE...
REGRETTABLY, ALTHOUGH AT THIS TIME YOUR HANDS ARE TIED, I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO BRING ABOUT THE ACTUAL ¨BIG CHANGES¨ ON WHICH YOU ARE BASING YOUR PLATFORM, AT LEAST NOT IN REGARDS TO THIS ISSUE OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE, AND NOT TO OTHER MAJOR ONES.
THERE IS ONE LOBBY, THE MOST POWERFUL ONE IN THE UNITED STATES, THAT WILL CONTINUE TO DICTATE TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, JUSTLY OR NOT.
AND ALTHOUGH YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY WIN THE PRESIDENCY WITHOUT BEING POLITICALLY PRACTICAL AT THIS TIME, UNFORTUNATELY I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT, EVEN AFTER YOU ARE ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, YOU WILL HAVE WITHIN YOU EITHER THE HONOR OR THE STRENGTH OF WILL TO EVEN RESIST THE POWER OF THIS LOBBY AND TO BRING THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES BACK UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY REMAIN THE SAME...
I STILL BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE THE BEST CANDIDATE FOR THE JOB, BUT TRUTH AND JUSTICE WILL ONLY GO SO FAR UNDER YOU. SO REGRETTABLY I AM WITHDRAWING MY SUPPORT FOR YOU AND YOUR CAMPAIGN AND RATHER FOCUSING MY ENERGIES ON CREATIVE AND PEACEFUL MEANS OF PURSUING TRUTH AND JUSTICE FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND ALL THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD.
ALTHOUGH THE LOSS AND CONTINUED DISAFFECTION OF PEOPLE LIKE ME WILL SEEM TO BE NECESSARY CASUALTIES IN THE WAR FOR THE WHITE HOUSE, I DO BELIEVE THAT AS MARTIN LUTHER KING REPEATED, ¨THE ARC OF THE MORAL UNIVERSE IS LONG, BUT IT BENDS TOWARDS JUSTICE.¨
KIND REGARDS TO YOU SIR,
DARREN THOMAS
GRATITUDEHEALSANDOPENSTHEDOOR@GOOGLEMAIL.COM
Being an Obama supporter and believer in his call for change I was very disappointed to read that he has, like all democratic presidential nominees before him, put the interests of Israel (as perceived by AIPAC) above those of every other country in the region and above the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people. I think this position is patently unfair and will result in more of the same discord in the region and continue to undercut our popularity around the world. So I'm calling on all Obama supporters who want to see justice prevail in the Middle East to make their wishes known to Mr. Obama that a change is also needed in Middle East policy; away from pandering to Israel and toward a genuinely even-handed approach. Those of us who really want to see justice and peace in the Middle East cannot allow the "Israel Lobby" to continue to dictate our Middle East policy. We need to start pushing our candidates just as hard as it does. So let's get pushy! Contact Obama's people and let them no that business as usual in Middle East policy is just as unacceptable to you as business as usual in American politics generally.
