Barack Obama tells Israel conference: 'too much loose talk of war'

Barack Obama has admonished Israel for "too much loose talk of war" with Iran and said the world has a responsibility to give sanctions an opportunity to discourage Tehran from pursuing a nuclear weapon.

Speaking before a meeting on Monday with the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, Obama sought to head off pressure for him to commit to military action against Tehran if it crosses specified "red lines" in its nuclear programme.

The president told a sceptical audience at the annual conference of America's most influential pro-Israel lobby group that he accepts a "basic truth" that no Israeli government can tolerate Iran developing a nuclear weapon, and that he therefore understands the "profound historical obligation" weighing on the shoulders of Israel's leaders.

Obama said explicitly that he is prepared to use force against Iran to defend US interests if necessary, but he chastised those who appear to be in a hurry for war in comments apparently aimed at Israeli officials who have been making belligerent noises.

"I would ask that we all remember the weightiness of these issues; the stakes involved for Israel, for America, and for the world. Already, there is too much loose talk of war," he told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac). "Over the last few weeks, such talk has only benefited the Iranian government, by driving up the price of oil, which they depend upon to fund their nuclear programme. For the sake of Israel's security, America's security, and the peace and security of the world, now is not the time for bluster; now is the time to let our increased pressure sink in, and to sustain the broad international coalition that we have built.

" Now is the time to heed that timeless advice from Teddy Roosevelt: speak softly, but carry a big stick."

Obama pleased Aipac delegates by saying he would not pursue a policy of "containment" of a nuclear-armed Iran – a commitment Aipac has been pressing through support of resolutions in Congress. He also said that he "will take no option off the table" and that includes "a military effort to be prepared for any contingency".

"I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary to defend the United States and its interests," he said.

But Netanyahu wants Obama to go further and commit to the use of force if Iran crosses agreed "red lines" in the development of its nuclear programme.

In his response to the speech, Netanyahu said he appreciated Obama's reiteration that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons: "Perhaps most important of all, I appreciated the fact that he said that Israel must be able to defend itself, by itself, against any threat."

But the Israeli leader also set the stage for what is likely to be a difficult meeting with Obama by saying that he will go his own way if he finds it necessary.

Netanyahu warned on Friday that the international community should not fall into the "trap" of negotiating while Iran continues its "relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons". He said that the international community should demand the immediate dismantling of Iran's underground nuclear facility in Qom and a halt to uranium enrichment.

Israel's president, Shimon Peres, pressed the point when he told the conference on Sunday that Iran was an evil and corrupt regime and "an affront to human dignity".

"It must be stopped, and it will be stopped," he said. "If we are forced to fight, trust me, we shall prevail."

US officials have made clear the president will not set the "red lines" wanted by Netanyahu out of concern it will be interpreted by the Israelis as a tacit endorsement of an attack if Iran fails to meet demands. Obama is instead expected to repeat in private to Netanyahu what he has said in public – that there is time for sanctions and diplomacy to work.

"I firmly believe that an opportunity remains for diplomacy – backed by pressure – to succeed. The United States and Israel both assess that Iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon, and we are exceedingly vigilant in monitoring their programme. Now, the international community has a responsibility to use the time and space that exists," he said to virtual silence from the Aipac delegates. "Iran's leaders still have the opportunity to make the right decision. They can choose a path that brings them back into the community of nations, or they can continue down a dead end.

"Given their history, there are of course no guarantees that the Iranian regime will make the right choice. But both Israel and the United States have an interest in seeing this challenge resolved diplomatically. After all, the only way to truly solve this problem is for the Iranian government to make a decision to forsake nuclear weapons. That's what history tells us."

Obama went on to say that the experience of sending Americans to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan had left him in no hurry for a war in Iran.

"As president and commander-in-chief, I have a deeply-held preference for peace over war. I have sent men and women into harm's way," he said. "For this reason, as part of my solemn obligation to the American people, I will only use force when the time and circumstances demand it. And I know that Israeli leaders also know all too well the costs and consequences of war, even as they recognise their obligation to defend their country."

Like every other president of recent times, Obama restated to Aipac the "unbreakable bonds" between the US and Israel and his own commitment to the Jewish state. But he sounded unusually defensive in the face of Republican accusations that he is endangering Israel's security with his Iran policy and that he has been "anti-Israel" by pressing Netanyahu to take peace negotiations with the Palestinians seriously, beginning with a halt to continued construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

"As you examine my commitment, you don't just have to count on my words. You can look at my deeds. Because over the last three years, as president of the United States, I have kept my commitments to the state of Israel. At every crucial juncture, at every fork in the road‚ we have been there for Israel. Every single time," he said.

theguardian

US congressional nominee: Holocaust ‘blackest lie’ in history

A US Republican congressional hopeful has emphasized that “Holocaust never happened” and that such an event amounts to “the blackest lie in history.”

Arthur Jones, who hopes to challenge Democrat Dan Lipinski in Illinois' 3rd Congressional District, noted that the claim of killing millions of Jews and other people by Nazis during the World War II “is nothing more than an international extortion racket by the Jews,” Hoffington Post reported.

“It’s the blackest lie in history. Millions of dollars are being made by Jews telling this tale of woe and misfortune in books, movies, plays and TV,” he said

"The more survivors, the more lies that are told," the 64-year-old candidate said.

Jones said he hopes to win the Republican primary nomination and move on to challenge Democrat Dan Lipinski next November.

He also questioned Lipinski’s strange affiliation with powerful pro-Israeli lobby group in the US-- American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Jones underlined that the pro-Israeli lobby “was bragging on their website” on how Lipinski is “spearheading an effort in the [US] House of Representatives with a Jewish Congressman from Virginia named Frank Wolf to get tough with Iran, including closing off any oil exports to China that could lead to World War III.”

Jones, a Vietnam War veteran, also compared current conditions in the US to the situation in Germany following the end of World War I and insisted that “our country is falling apart economically, politically, culturally, militarily.”

“We are going down,” he noted angrily.

“These war-mongering fools in congress like [Republican presidential candidates] Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney -- we can’t let Iran have one nuclear weapon but we let Israel have all the nuclear weapons they want,” Jones said. “This is ridiculous.”

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called on a number of occasions for a historical examination of ‘the Holocaust’ in an effort to uncover realities of the much publicized World War II event. His remarks, however, have sparked outrage among pro-Israeli Western powers, labeling him as a “holocaust denier.”

DB/MB/MA
PRESSTV

Only Whites are Racist in Duluth

Jaenelle Antas

The city of Duluth, Minnesota is running an “Un-Fair Campaign”, implying that all White people and only White people are racist. The campaign includes billboards that say things like “It’s hard to see racism when you’re White” and photos of White faces written on in black marker about our inherent “White privilege”—all the advantages Whites get from being White but aren’t even aware of. Like the one below:

The stated mission of the Un-Fair campaign is to:

… raise awareness about white privilege in our community, provide resources for understanding and action, and facilitate dialogue and partnership that results in fundamental, systemic change towards racial justice.

This campaign’s partners include the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin-Lake Superior College (all overflowing with over “enlightened” ivory tower liberals), the NAACP (who are constantly agitating for Black privilege), the YWCA (their mission is to eliminate racism and empower women), Community Action Duluth (whose work with low-income people seems premised on the belief that White privilege is keeping people down), and the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial (dedicated to the memory of three Blacks who were lynched in Duluth 80 years ago; their mission is fighting ‘institutional racism’). It gets an official stamp of approval from the City of Duluth and the mayor, Don Ness.

Duluth is, after all, a predominantly White city and the liberal establishment wants us to believe this is a problem. The Un-Fair Campaign states on their website:

The population of Duluth is 89% white, which may be a factor in our community appearing and functioning as a monoculture. This causes some groups to feel marginalized and excluded.

This outcome was confirmed in a recent report on a three year study, Soul of the Community, commissioned by the Knight Foundation, which stated:

The [Duluth Area] community significantly underperforms against the comparison group overall and in four of the seven individual openness measures. … Fewer residents than in other comparable communities say it is a good place for racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, young adults without children, and talented college graduates looking for work.

However, no one is running an anti-racism campaign in Detroit, which is 85% Black, where the racism that has made non-Blacks feel so unwelcome that they have left the city en masse. By 1940, Detroit was 90% White, but the influx of ‘diversity’ and the crime and urban decay that came with it drove away pretty much all the Whites who could afford to leave. Today Detroit is one of the least livable cities in America.

Duluth, by contrast is clean and safe (it doesn’t even have a ‘Crime’ section on its Wikipedia entry), with good schools and good jobs. This “racist” city has managed to provide a much higher standard of living compared to other, more diverse cities, including for those residents who are supposedly discriminated against in some invisible fashion. This is probably why there has never been a mass exodus of non-Whites from Duluth. The living there is pretty good all around.

In one television news program (below), a black girl in Duluth is shown saying that the Un-Fair campaign is a good thing because maybe it will result in more opportunities and jobs for Blacks.

Detroit, which is run by blacks and where racism presumably can’t exist due to the lack of white people, has roughly a 20% unemployment rate. Duluth’s unemployment rate is just under 6%, which means that the vast majority of Blacks there who want jobs can get them. Nor is there any shortage of good schools in Duluth. Every black child there is going to get a much better education than they would in Detroit, which opens up opportunities to them that Blacks in other cities could never dream of.

As someone who grew up in Minnesota and has since traveled all around America and the rest of the globe, I can say with certainty that Minnesotans are among the least racist and most tolerant people there are, hands down. White people everywhere tend to bend over backwards so as not to come across as racist, but nowhere is this truer than in Minnesota where the concept of Minnesota Nice is a reality and the inhabitants outside of the Twin Cities haven’t had enough exposure to other races to have any reason to be hostile to them.

The Un-Fair Campaign is inventing a problem that doesn’t exist. In saying they want to have a conversation about race, what they really mean is that they want White people to admit they are racist and apologise for it until they are blue in the face. Whites aren’t allowed to argue the point of whether or not they are privileged because they are told they can’t see it anyway. (Convenient circular logic there.) Non-Whites are not encouraged or expected to take responsibility for their own behaviour, but rather to blame any and all misfortunes on White folk and to interpret every negative experience they have through the lens of discrimination. This isn’t a conversation. It is a scripted dialogue and there is no colour-blind casting—only Whites can play the villain, only non-Whites can play the victim.

The only racism whites have difficulty seeing is the racism directed at them. Whites bow down willingly to this kind of rhetoric, blindly accepting their guilt for the crime of having been born. Whites make excuses for racially motivated anti-White crime, refusing to call it what it is. Whites allow themselves to be brainwashed into believing they have no culture, no tribe, no identity beyond that of the individual.

Indeed, I would venture to say that Whites in general are the least racially aware people on the planet. No thinking Black, Hispanic, or Asian believes that race is only a “social construct,” and they agitate aggressively on behalf of their own people. They speak in terms such as “the black community” or “the Latino community.” They don’t claim to be colourblind. In fact, they see race everywhere they look, are acutely aware of it, and eager to point it out. I doubt the majority of Whites in Duluth think about race much at all or have any real experience with racial issues. That just simply isn’t a part of life in areas that are 90%+ White.

The Un-Fair Campaign is certainly unfair. It’s not about combating racism. I doubt much exists in Duluth, of all places. It’s about furthering the idea of inherent White guilt and creating division within a community as a publicity stunt. Non-whites in Duluth wouldn’t feel as though they were being victimised if they weren’t constantly being told that they are. In any situation, it’s always important to ask who stands to gain. The people of Duluth don’t stand to benefit from this. All the Un-Fair Campaign will do is create hostility and resentment that didn’t exist before. The elite, however, always benefit when the lesser classes are divided and distracted and spreading accusations of racism is a convenient way to do this.

Occidental Observer

Russian scientists reach buried Antarctic Lake Vostok

A group of Russian scientists in Antarctica has succeeded in drilling to a lake buried two miles beneath the icy landmass, the state-run Russian news service Ria Novosti reported -- following a week of radio silence from the team that had some scratching their heads.

“Yesterday, our scientists stopped drilling at the depth of 3,768 meters and reached the surface of the sub-glacial lake,” the source reportedly said in a story posted Monday, Feb. 6. An unnamed source with Russia's Federal Service for Hydrometeorology confirmed the news as well, Russian business newspaper The View reported.

John Priscu, a microbiologist with Montana State University who has worked on a similar Antarctic exploration program, hopes Vostok and other subglacial lakes buried beneath the continent may offer a glimpse of extreme new forms of life. "If they were successful, their efforts will transform the way we do science in Antarctica and provide us with an entirely new view of what exists under the vast Antarctic ice sheet," he told FoxNews.com.

The team from Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) had been drilling for weeks in an effort to reach isolated Lake Vostok, a vast, dark body of water hidden 13,000 ft. below the ice sheet's surface. The lake hasn't been exposed to air in more than 20 million years. Russia has not yet officially confirmed the breakthrough.

Beyond the fantastic science, Ria Novosti noted a number of rumors about the lake, including one that talks of a secret Nazi sub base, and the bodies of Hitler and his mistress being delivered there for cloning -- fantastic stories that again are surfacing in the Russian press.

A brief break in communication with colleagues in the unfrozen world had some asking questions about the scientists, as Antarctica’s killing winter draws near. But despite the lack of info and onset of winter, which brings temperatures as low as -80 F or colder, the team was never in danger, Priscu said. "They are very capable scientists and drillers and the thought never entered my mind that they are in any kind of danger," he told FoxNews.com. The buried lake may be similar to the conditions on Mars and Jupiter’s moon Europa, Ria Novosti said.

The Lake Vostok project has been years in the making, with initial drilling at the massive lake -- 6,060 square miles (15,690 square kilometers) -- starting in 1998. The scientists were quickly able to reach 11,800 feet (3,600 meters), but had to stop due to concerns of possible contamination of the never-before-touched lake water. The scientists came up with a clever way to make sure the water would not be contaminated: They agreed to drill until a sensor warned them of free water. At that point they took out the kerosene and adjusted the pressure so that none of the liquids would fall into the lake, but rather lake water would rise through the hole due to pressure from below.

The Russians are not alone in such a mission: Scientists from around the world are literally racing to explore the mysteries of Antarctica. There are two other Antarctic digs underway.

A team from the British Antarctic Survey is on a competing mission, set to plumb the depths of Lake Ellsworth, one of a string of more than 370 lakes beneath Antarctica that may soon see light for the first time. And a third Antarctic expedition -- a study of the subglacial Whillans Ice Stream -- mainly features U.S. scientists.

FoxNews.com

U.N. has Designated Today to Remember Hitler’s Holocaust

Op-Ed in Today's Houston Chronicle: State-Sponsored Anti-Semitism Must be Taken Seriously

On Jan. 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp. In 2005, the United Nations established Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

The day’s official tagline, “Remembrance and Beyond,” denotes its dual significance. First is the obligation of the world body’s members to remember and memorialize the 6 million Jewish victims of Nazi genocide and, in those countries where it took place, to recall the particular circumstances of the tragedy. Second, venturing “beyond” remembrance, the U.N. explicitly rejects denial that the Holocaust took place, and mandates educational programs aimed at ensuring that nothing like it ever happens again.

This second theme faces a severe challenge in our time. While the world was shocked in the later stages of World War II to learn of the destruction of European Jewry, Adolf Hitler had never made any secret of his plan to carry it out. From the outset of his political career, Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat in World War I, the worldwide economic depression and any other ills that had plagued the German people. As early as 1922 he promised his followers, “If I am ever really in power, the destruction of the Jews will be my first and most important job.” This principle, which figures prominently in his book Mein Kampf, was the rationale for the comprehensive anti-jewish laws enacted by the Nazi regime. After the outbreak of war it provided the opportunity to carry out the long-contemplated plan, forming the basis for genocide.

Even as he harped on the need to destroy the Jews, Hitler cleverly insisted that it was world Jewry that was conspiring against Germany. Nazi rhetoric portrayed Jews as a cancer whose elimination was necessary to guarantee the health of the German nation. In a 1939 speech, Hitler asserted that it was “international finance Jewry” that wanted to “plunge the peoples into a world war,” and the result — entirely defensive — would be “annihilation” of the Jews.

In Houston, the American Jewish Committee and the Holocaust Museum Houston, along with the Houston consular corps, come together on this day to recognize a World War II diplomat who did not stand by and watch annihilation. We will remember and tell the story of Giorgio Perlasca, an Italian businessman who posed as a Spanish diplomat and intervened on behalf of Hungarian Jews. We have also honored diplomats from El Salvador, China and Mexico over the past three years.

Fast forward to 2012. There is one head of state who openly defies the intent of the U.N.’S International Holocaust Remembrance Day by denying the Holocaust and at the same time promising to re-enact it against the one Jewish state in the world. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called the Holocaust “a myth” and urged the formation of an international inquiry to “expose” it. He calls the state of Israel a “fake regime” that “must be wiped off the map.” This head of state who calls for the destruction of a fellow U.N. member state is regularly allowed to address the very U.N. General Assembly, in New York, that today solemnly pledges to prevent any repetition of the Holocaust.

Ahmadinejad, like Hitler, announces in advance his intention to kill Jews, and portrays this as a defensive reaction to an economic attack on his country by world Jewry (for which he uses the term “Zionists”). But in one important sense Iran is a step ahead of Nazi Germany. While the latter had to conquer Europe country by country and laboriously ferret out the Jews and send them to their deaths, Iran — as demonstrated in a recent report by the U.N.’S International Atomic Energy Agency — is well on its way to securing nuclear weapons and the missile capability to launch them against Israel, home to another 6 million Jews. Some say that this danger is wildly exaggerated, since Iran would never begin a nuclear war that would lead to its own devastation by Israeli retaliation. Too many world leaders today, like their predecessors in the 1930s, interpret calls to kill Jews as empty rhetoric. But the clear message of International Holocaust Remembrance Day is that state-sponsored anti-semitism must be taken seriously — especially if the state will soon be ready to deploy a nuclear weapon to carry it out.

Dena Palermo is the co-chair of the American Jewish Committee Houston’s U.N. Holocaust Victim Observance for the consular corps.

Cuidado con Chile

Por Cristián Warnken 

¿Qué pasaría si la Catedral de Notre Dame de París se quemara y se descubriera que el origen del incendio es producto de la negligencia de un turista extranjero que prendió fuego al interior de ella? ¿Qué ocurriría si por un descuido de un turista chileno se incendiara una sinagoga milenaria en Jerusalén o una mezquita en La Meca? El que miles de hectáreas de las Torres del Paine estén ardiendo es tan grave para Chile como lo serían para franceses, judíos e islámicos las imaginarias destrucciones que acabo de enumerar. Porque los templos de Chile son nuestras cumbres, nuestros bosques, porque nuestro tesoro espiritual y sagrado es nuestra geografía y paisaje. Por eso Neruda en su poema "Entrada a la Madera", cuando se sumerge en el bosque austral, afirma: "en tu catedral dura me arrodillo/ golpeándome los labios con un ángel". Hay turistas que, en estas lejanías, se arrodillan sólo para hacer sus necesidades o quemar papel confort y hacer arder miles, millones de años de historia y prehistoria.

¿Pero merecemos que las Torres del Paine sean nuestras? Quien ha recibido un regalo tan inconmensurable y puro como éste debe cuidarlo. Cuidarlo no significa sólo tener un puñado de guardaparques o levantar hoteles cinco estrellas bajo un cielo de millones de estrellas en noches y amaneceres únicos en el mundo. Hay que primero amar y luego conocer el Ser de lo que se cuida, para merecer "domesticarlo": el verbo fue acuñado por el autor de "El Principito", Antoine de Saint Exupéry, quien sobrevoló como piloto aeropostal y se deslumbró con esta Patagonia hoy afrentada. El valor de las Torres del Paine tiene que ver con la dimensión estética y metafísica de nuestro territorio. Y será un valor cada vez más escaso y apreciado en el mundo. Me gustaría que nuestros propios reservistas, nuestros jóvenes fueran enviados a la Patagonia a conocerla y habitarla, antes que miles de reservistas de un país lejano que acampan en lugares prohibidos, infringen y desobedecen toda norma y prenden fogatas con ramas de hojas perennes. Dudo que hagan lo mismo en su propio país.

¿Pero no somos nosotros mismos los peores turistas de lo propio? ¿No basureamos acaso nuestro litoral? ¿No hemos convertido a Valparaíso, Patrimonio de la Humanidad, en una postal pintada a la rápida "con una mano de gato" de colores chillones, sin un mínimo sentido de nuestra propia estética e historia? En Santiago disminuyen las áreas verdes y aumenta el cemento, convirtiendo a nuestra ciudad en una caldera en el verano. Se alzan torres babélicas y se derriban árboles. Se privatizan las dunas de Concón y una "mano negra" redujo las 45 hectáreas del Santuario de la Naturaleza a 12. La avidez inmobiliaria no tiene límites, pero sí mucho lobby .

Hay pocos países del mundo que junten tanta belleza con tanta inconsciencia y negligencia como éste. Dicen que O'Higgins, antes de morir, la última palabra que pronunció fue "Magallanes". Tenía plena conciencia de la frágil soberanía sobre esas tierras australes, sobre ese paraíso. Dudo que la última palabra antes de morir de los miembros de nuestra clase dirigente sea el nombre propio de algún rincón de Chile. Ellos están pensando en votos, y en la Patagonia hay pocos habitantes por metro cuadrado. El Puro Chile se ha convertido en pura desidia, en puras declaraciones y en pura usura, y basura. Ahora la basura ardió. Nos fueron dados bosques centenarios de lenga y ñirre, hoy convertidos en ceniza, y el huemul, nuestro ciervo nativo, querrá con toda razón salirse del escudo nacional. ¿Conocen nuestros estudiantes el nombre propio de los árboles del sur, o de alguna de las más de 125 especies de aves patagónicas? ¿Saben quién es el zorro gris o qué es el calafate, una de las especies nativas más dañadas con este incendio? Tarea urgente para el nuevo ministro de Educación: que a las nuevas generaciones se les enseñe a amar y a conocer la geopoética de este territorio sagrado hoy en llamas.

Me gustaría que nuestros jóvenes fueran enviados a la Patagonia a conocerla y habitarla, antes que miles de otros de un país lejano que acampan en lugares prohibidos, infringen y desobedecen toda norma y prenden fogatas con ramas de hojas perennes.

Presunto culpable de Incendio en Torres del Paine queda con arraigo regional y firma semanal

SANTIAGO.- Con arraigo regional y firma semanal quedó el joven israelí acusado de provocar el siniestro que afecta al Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Roter Singer.

El presunto culpable fue formalizado esta tarde en Puerto Natales, donde se determinó que se realizará una investigación de tres meses por negligencia. De ser hallado culpable, arriesga una pena de entre 41 y 61 días.

El turista de 23 años admitió su responsabilidad en los hechos, afirmando que de forma negligente quemó un rollo de papel higiénico, el cual generó el incendio.

El Fiscal en Jefe Regional de Magallanes, Juan Agustín Meléndez, indicó que los antecedentes recopilados hasta ahora sólo permiten procesarlo por negligencia, delito que, admitió, "tiene una pena baja".

"Se ha formalizado de acuerdo a los antecedentes recopilados hasta hoy. El problema fue que se prendió papel en un parque y no se apagó bien (...) La pena por el momento, conforme al hecho, es una violación a la ley de bosques. Es una pena baja", señaló en declaraciones difundidas por Radio Natales.

La detención del acusado se produjo tras el empadronamiento de más de 300 personas, en su mayoría turistas, que se encontraban en el recinto afectado por el incendio. El testimonio de testigos permitió determinar la presunta responsabilidad del joven en el siniestro.

EEUU venderá armas a Irak por 11 mil millones de dólares pese a crisis política interna

Tras la retirada de tropas estadounidenses de Irak, Washington afina los detalles para vender armas a ese país por 11 mil millones de dólares, además de la aplicación un programa de entrenamiento a los militares del país árabe.

Según informó hoy el diario The New York Times en su edición digital, el Pentágono decidió proceder con la transacción pese a las preocupaciones de que el primer ministro iraquí, Nuri Al Maliki, está tratando de crear un estado dominado por un único partido chiita, y abandonar el sistema de gobierno de la alianza actual.

La ayuda militar, de la que se ha entregado ya una parte, incluye aviones de combate F-16 y tanques de batalla M1A1, y pretende ayudar al gobierno iraquí a proteger sus fronteras y devolver a su Ejército al nivel anterior a la guerra del Golfo de 1991, cuando era uno de los mayores del mundo, señala el diario.

"El propósito de este programa es asistir la capacidad de los iraquíes para defender su soberanía contra amenazas extranjeras a su seguridad", dijo al rotativo el vocero del Pentágono, John Kirby.

Coordinada a través de la embajada estadounidense en Bagdad, la venta incluye además chalecos antibalas, cascos, cargadores de munición y vehículos, que los críticos de la decisión advierten que pueden ser usados por los servicios de seguridad del régimen para ayudar a Al Maliki a consolidar su poder.

CRISIS POLITICA
Irak vive una crisis política a raíz de la orden de detención dictada contra el ex vicepresidente del país Tareq Al Hashemi, del bloque político Al Iraquiya, una coalición laica formada tanto por chiitas como por sunitas que tiene ocho ministros en el Ejecutivo.

Washington teme que la orden de arresto forme parte de una estrategia del partido de Al Maliki, Estado de Derecho, para excluir a la minoría suní del Ejecutivo, y se inquieta ante la posibilidad de que Bagdad se alíe finalmente con la teocracia chií que gobierna Teherán.

Varios políticos y expertos iraquíes expresaron al diario su temor de que la venta beneficie a un cuerpo militar iraquí que está más interesado en marginalizar a los sunitas que en proteger la soberanía del país, que eleva en sus tanques la bandera chiita y no la nacional.

"Es muy arriesgado armar a un Ejército sectario. Con todos los sacrificios que hemos hecho, el presupuesto que vamos a gastar y el apoyo de Estados Unidos, todo eso va a resultar en un Ejército de milicias", aseguró el ministro de Finanzas del país, el sunita Rafe al-Essawi.

No obstante, el gobierno de Barack Obama mantiene que la venta está basada en condiciones que exigen la entrada de inspectores estadounidenses que vigilarán cómo se usan las armas.

"Washington tiene aún una capacidad de maniobra considerable en Irak: puede congelar o retirar sus paquetes de asistencia, emitir serias alertas de viaje que afectarán directamente la inversión directa en el país, y modificar sus relaciones diplomáticas o sus acuerdos de comercio", opinó Matthew Sherman, un exf uncionario del Departamento de Estado que pasó tres años en Irak.

La Tercera

LÍBANO: Hezbollah señaló que los EE.UU. están detrás de la ola de atentados producidos en Siria e Irak

 

Hasán Nasrallah, secretario general del grupo libanés chií Hezbolá (Partido de Dios)

Hezbollah acusó este viernes a los Estados Unidos, de haber orquestado los atentados suicidas que azotaron la capital siria, durante la mañana del viernes, matando, dejando más de 40 muertos y decenas de heridos.
“Estos atentados, que causaron la muerte e hirieron a decenas de personas, en su mayoría mujeres y niños, es la especialidad de los Estados Unidos, madre de todo el terrorismo”, dijo la oficina de prensa de Hezbollah.
“[Los EE.UU.] se especializan en apuntar a los inocentes, matarlos y aterrorizarlos, para forzarlos a obedecer la política estadounidense para lograr el interés de los sionista, que los norteamericanos colocan por encima de todo”, agregó el comunicado.
Hezbollah, el principal aliado de Siria en el Líbano, sostiene que una conspiración extranjera liderada por Estados Unidos e Israel tiene como objetivo apuntar al liderazgo sirio, por su alianza con Irán y su apoyo a los grupos de resistencia como Hezbollah y Hamas.
En su declaración del viernes, Hezbolá también dijo que los ataques fueron el comienzo de una serie de represalias después de lo que el partido describió como la derrota de Estados Unidos en Irak.
“Este horrible crimen terrorista, que fue cometido por los enemigos de la humanidad, se produce un día después de las explosiones coordinadas en Bagdad y otras ciudades iraquíes, lo que sugiere que las personas afectadas por la gran derrota de los Estados Unidos en Irak, han iniciado una operación sangrienta y cobarde, de represalia “, dijo el comunicado.
El Viceministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Siria, Faisal Meqdad, dijo que más de 30 personas murieron y más de 100 resultaron heridas como consecuencia de los ataques que ocurrieron justo antes del mediodía del viernes.
La televisión estatal dijo que las explosiones tuvieron lugar en el distrito de Kfar Sousa y apuntaron contra el edificio que alberga a la seguridad del Estado y un edificio de inteligencia cercano al barrio.

Fuente: TDS / PI

Waterstone's backs down over Mein Kampf

Booksellers Waterstone's has apologised for inappropriately promoting Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf as a "perfect" Christmas present.

 "The perfect present" according to Waterstone’s in Huddersfield

But the UK's largest bookshop chain has denied it is attempting to bolster sales of the infamously antisemitic work, despite the JC discovering several stores deliberately and prominently displaying the book.
Staff at Waterstone's in Huddersfield used a festive point-of-sale sticker to promote the book as "the perfect present" with an accompanying personal recommendation message by a staff member trumpeting the book as "an essential read for anyone".
Town-centre stores in Manchester, Liverpool and Cheshire have been displaying front covers of multiple copies of the book, a sales technique designed to attract the attention of shoppers.
The trend was first spotted by Jewish travelling salesman Jonathan Levine, 44, from north Manchester. He has now received an apology from Waterstone's, after he complained.
Mr Levine said: "I would be most obliged if Waterstone's would explain what lies behind the apparent zeal on their part to promote this disgusting work. When challenging one of the staff in Manchester's Deansgate branch, I was told that it was 'a Christmas bestseller which sold really well'. A dubious justification indeed for selling this hateful work."
A Waterstone's spokesperson said: "We do not believe we actively promote this book; our customers are capable of forming their own opinions on whether to purchase it or not.
"However, you do raise a couple of instances where we have obviously got things wrong. The book should not be stocked in any politics section, and our Huddersfield branch should not have used inappropriate seasonal stickers on the book.
"We have instructed stores accordingly, and apologise for the offence caused. We will also communicate with all our branches at the earliest possible opportunity to remind them of the sensitivities surrounding our stocking of Mein Kampf."