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POPSOnly Rhetorical Extravagance by George Will Obama thinks government is not getting a "reasonable share" of oil companies' profits, which in 2007 were, as a percentage of revenues (8.3 percent), below those of U.S. manufacturing generally (8.9 percent). Exxon Mobil pays almost as much in corporate taxes to various governments as the bottom 50 percent of American earners pay in income taxes. Exxon Mobil does make $1,400 a second in profits -- hear the sharp intakes of breath from liberals with pursed lips -- but pays $4,000 a second in taxes and $15,000 a second in operating costs. Obama's rhetorical extravagances are inversely proportional to his details, as when he promises "nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy" in order to "end the age of oil." The diminished enthusiasm of some voters hitherto receptive to his appeals might have something to do with the seepage of reality from his rhetoric.
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POPS The Obama-Biden Ticket Or Biden's call to impeach Bush if Bush bombed Iran: Because, the right approach with Iran would be to address their "emotional needs": Biden appears to believe that what is happening in the Muslim world is our fault. An incredible position to take by any rational measure. So incredible, in fact, that it makes him the perfect sidekick for an Obama run for the White House. Consequences of Biden’s Pro-Muslim Lobbying in the Balkans A man on the record for stating that “all Serbs should be placed in Nazi-style concentration camps” during Senatorial deliberations in 1999 over NATO aggression on Serbia http://www.byzantinesacredart.com/blog/
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POPSJoe Biden, Friend of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps And the IRGC and its Quds Force were both designated “supporters of terrorism” in October 2007. Though the latter two designations would not have been so had Biden had his way. And most importantly – for the sake of sanctions and the unequivocal denial of any form of support to terrorists and terrorist supporters – the amendment said, “the United States should designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization … and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists.” The text of the amendment included Congressional testimony from then-commander of Multi-National-Force Iraq Gen. David Petraeus, who said, “Iran, through the use of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps Quds Force, seeks to turn the Shiia militia extremists into a Hezbollah-like force to serve its interests and fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq.”
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POPSThe End of The Fairy Tale by Ralph Peters Putin went to war and the American president went to a basketball game--reinforcing the Kremlin's conviction that it could do as it pleased and get away with it. (Bush's gravest flaw is that he's a dreadful judge of character, stubbornly trusting undeserving men, from Iraqi schemer Ahmed Chalabi , through the incompetent Alberto Gonzales , to Vladimir Putin , who played Bush for a fool.) French president Nicolas Sarkozy, well-intentioned and inadequate The Putin regime was perfectly willing to let Monsieur le President return to Paris with a signed piece of paper. The Russians have drawn the lesson from Western efforts to negotiate with Iran and other rogue states that Europe can be narcotized with empty agreements and nebulous promises and that Europe has become a continent of bureaucrats who much prefer paperwork to reality. And there are no penalties when the agreements prove worthless.
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POPSReport From a Forgotten War: Second in a Series
Taliban leaders also provided a haven for Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda to launch the 9/11 attack. In November 2001, when they were deposed by the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance, many of the Taliban fled south to Pakistan and east into Iran. This spring, they came back, intent on overthrowing the democratically elected government of President Hamid Karzi. That's when the Marines of TF 2/7 arrived "in country" to train and mentor Afghan Army and police forces. It's been a challenging assignment for the 1300 Marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen of TF 2/7. The unit's Area of Operations (A/O) is more than 28,000 square kilometers — roughly the size of Vermont. There is only one paved highway. Overland transport to some of the fifteen forward bases and combat outposts where TF 2/7 operates often takes more than 24 hours of continuous day and night movement. Until this week — when four CH-53 transport helos and four Cobra gunships arrived, the task force had to rely on NATO aircraft...
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POPSChavez To Discuss Joint Banking Venture During Moscow Visit The socialist leader, an outspoken critic of Washington and opponent of neoliberalism, has focused his foreign policy on bolstering ties with countries outside the U.S. sphere of influence since coming to power nine years ago. Chavez said last week he expected to meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and discuss a number of industrial and technological projects as part of a visit aimed at boosting bilateral relations. PetroCaribe is a regional energy security alliance between Caribbean countries and Venezuela established in 2005. The alliance enables its 17 member countries to purchase Venezuelan oil under a flexible credit payment system.
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POPSMcCain Showed Best How to React to Russian Force Obama’s initial reaction was to urge both the rapist and the victim to show restraint , while McCain spoke forcefully to denounce the invasion and to call for specific actions, including withdrawal from “sovereign Georgian territory,” an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, action by other official bodies and the creation of “a truly independent and neutral peacekeeping force.” Ten days later, McCain’s first response appears to have been the right one. Obama reflected uncertainty in part because of inexperience and in part, too, because he was responding as events unfolded. He is far more comfortable, as indeed the administration’s critics are, in letting President Bush act and then declaring that he or they would have been smarter, wiser and righter had they been making the decision. President Bush’s strongest response was to reach agreement with Poland last Thursday to base 10 interceptor missiles to protect Europe from those fired by Iran or Nort
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POPSRice Says She Won't Block Strikes Against Nuclear Sites "We don't say yes or no to Israeli military operations; Israel is a sovereign country," Ms. Rice said. "Every day that the centrifuges continue to spin brings Iran closer to a nuclear weapons capability and threatens the stability and security of the region and the world," Israel's ambassador in Washington, Sallai Meridor, said. "The international community should immediately apply additional robust sanctions." The Security Council, which has imposed three rounds of mild sanctions on Iran since 2006, has traditionally taken its time before agreeing on compromise action that manages to satisfy Russia, China, and several European countries that prefer conducting business with Iran to halting its nuclear run . The process is also very slow, the American U.N. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, acknowledged yesterday.
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POPSHorrors! Olympics: Controversy In Iran Over Female Flag Carrier Whoever is responsible for this unforgivable act, he should know that this gesture constitutes an obstacle for the 'appearance' of Mahdi," said Elmalhoda. He was referring to the mainly Shia Islam belief that imam Mohammed al-Mahdi will appear to fight a final apocalyptic battle over the forces of evil. Followers believe he was born in the year 868 and has been in hiding ever since awaiting a decision from god to reappear. from Adnkronos International, August 8:
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POPSIslamic Iran's Effort To Wipe Out Dissent - Twenty-Nine Executed In One Day IRAN HIDING UNCONTROLLED AIDS EPIDEMIC, WHILE EXECUTING DOZENS AT A TIME. Societal structure and conditions lead to incredibly greater infection by AIDS in the Islamic Iran population (similar to some African nations) because one third of Islamic Iran's population is drug addicted and shares needles. A far higher statistic than the government wants to admit and is (as usual) suppressing the information and the reliable source the two medical brothers provided in their expert and experienced capacity. Remember, one third of 70 million residents in Islamic Iran means OVER 20 MILLION addicted people, who for whatever reasons are vulnerable to contracting and transmitting AIDS and other infectious diseases. Islamic Iran has the highest proportion of Heroin addicts to population of any country in the world. pederasty definition ▸ noun: sexual relations between a man and a boy (usually anal intercourse with the boy as a passive partner)
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POPSSecret US-Iranian Dialogue Shakes Up Mid East Alliances and the Sunni guerrilla insurgents in Iraq, to allow President Bush to claim his Iraq campaign had ended successfully before leaving the White House. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Tehran ordered Iranian intelligence officers working undercover in Iraq to halt attacks on US troops by pro-Iranian militias, including Moqtada Sadr’s Mehdi Army. This has left US and Iraqi government force with free hands for large-scale operations against al Qaeda. Read Full Article
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POPS The Goodwill Of Nancy Pelosi continued when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities-the Iranians.” Of course, Basra had nothing to do with the surge in the first place and in the second Iran has been, along with al Qaeda, the chief facilitator of terrorism in post-Saddam Iraq. You’d think after giving credit for American success to America’s sworn enemies, the Speaker of the House would back off from flattering the mullahs. She might even attempt to clarify or correct the record. A mere “‘goodwill’ was the wrong term” would have gone a long way. Yet no clarification or correction was issued. And Pelosi’s comments this morning confirm the reason: She gives Iran the benefit of the doubt. After the kidnappings, the terrorist activities that have killed Americans over three decades, the threats to destroy Israel, the attempts to destroy Iraq, the training and support of Hezbollah, the torture and murder of thousands of Iranians,
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POPSMessiah Lies About His Senate Committee Assignment John explains the rest: But Obama is not a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Obama just made that up so he could count the committee's action as one of "my deeds." If committed by a Republican, this would be a gaffe of historic proportions. Even a Senator as inattentive to his duties as Obama certainly knows what committees he serves on. For him to fabricate the claim, out of whole cloth, that the Senate Banking Committee is " committee," strikes me as another sign of Obama's megalomania. That, plus more evidence that he is totally at sea without a teleprompter. Illinois Senator's Record Of Inaction Leaves Him Discredited WASHINGTON, July 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being issued by the Republican National Committee: As Chairman Of The Subcommittee With NATO Oversight, Obama Has Failed To Hold Any Hearings On Afghanistan:
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POPSNow Bush Is Appeasing Iran joined envoys from France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany in talks with Saeed Jalili -- Iran's nuclear negotiator and an Ahmadinejad confidant -- about incentives to give to Tehran. ven with record oil prices, mismanagement has driven the Iranian economy into the ground. On July 14, the Ministry of Housing reported an "historical" 125% rise in housing prices. The same day, Tabnak, a news Web site run by a former head of the IRGC, admitted foodstuff inflation had reached 50% annually. On July 8, 2008, a National Iranian Oil Company executive acknowledged in the Iranian press that, without significant investment in infrastructure, Iranian oil production would decline each year by 300,000 barrels a day. In the past month alone, Iranian workers have struck for unpaid wages at the Khodro automotive plant (which assembles Peugeots), the Alburz Tire Company, and the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane factory.
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POPSMaliki's Bet Mr. Obama, he is also placing one on Mr. McCain, which is that in the event the Republican is elected, he will place principle and the national interest over politics and petty vindictiveness. For our part we see the emergence of an Iraq making its own choices in these matters rather than having them dictated by the American ambassador or American generals as yet another sign of victory in the Battle of Iraq. The Iraqis want America as their friends whether Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain is president. For all the talk by critics of how the Iraq War supposedly alienated America from the world, here is an administration in Baghdad maneuvering for a friend in the White House.
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POPSRussian Bombers Could Be Deployed To Cuba It was unclear if the source was suggesting that Russia would reopen a base in Cuba or merely use an airfield there for stopovers by the bombers, Tu-160s and Tu-95s, which are already capable of reaching the United States from bases in Russia. Russian strategic bombers, long mothballed, resumed worldwide patrols last year under orders from then-President Vladimir Putin. The flights have continued under his successor, Dmitry Medvedev. Aircraft from the NATO alliance have repeatedly scrambled as the bombers approached but did not enter the airspace of alliance countries. The Russian bombers also buzzed low over the USS Nimitz, an American aircraft carrier, in the Pacific Ocean this year. The United States says it wants to deploy tracking radar in the Czech Republic and 10 missile interceptors in Poland as a defensive measure against missiles that might be fired from countries such as Iran.
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POPSHezbollah Brigades Propaganda Specialist Captured In Baghdad Shia terror groups have launched a handful of IRAM attacks on US and Iraqi outposts in Baghdad. http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/06/mahdi_army_uses_flyi.php Hezbollah Brigades also posted video of an attack on a US patrol with an Iranian-supplied, armor-piercing, explosively formed projectile, or EFP. The capture of the Hezbollah Brigades propaganda expert is the latest in a series of raids against Shia terrorists. Scores of Special Groups operatives have been captured over the past month, including senior leaders, weapons smugglers, financiers, trainers, and cell leaders.
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POPSMiddle East Minefield For Barack Obama But Israeli officials - with whom he's reportedly meeting on Tuesday - will press him to define his policies about nuclear power and Iran, experts said. "The Israelis are going to have real questions about Iran, and about how he views taking out nuclear facilities there - if they haven't done it already themselves by the time Bush leaves," said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "That topic will come up, on both sides. He'll get asked about it," said former State Department Mideast analyst Graeme Bannerman. "He's got to remember he's speaking to Americans - he's in a campaign, after all - even if that means he has to say things that make the locals very nervous."
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POPSWill Washington Betray Anti-Regime Iranians? and I believe that that should lead to a review of whether they are still a terrorist organization or not." Since then, an interagency group of the U.S. government, led by the FBI, has exonerated the Iranians at Ashraf of terrorism. After a British court ruled that the group was not "concerned in terrorism," the U.K. government in June removed the group from its terrorist list. The Iranian regime is determined to destroy its main opponent and, with some success, has pressured the Iraqi government to disband Camp Ashraf and turn MEK members over to Iran. Then, on July 9, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said that the Iraqi government had decided to expel members of the MEK. The Iranian ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kezemi-Qomi, specified that the Iraqi cabinet had agreed quickly to expel the MEK from Iraq. Iranian television reported on July 6 that "American military forces have announced their readiness to hand over" Camp Ashraf to Baghdad.
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POPSFeckless To Reckless, Pelosi Should Resign But she's not fooling anyone. In playing politics with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the speaker has moved beyond the incompetence and irresponsibility that have characterized her leadership to date. President Bush, however, isn't about to be suckered into releasing the reserves just long enough for pump prices to fall by Election Day, thereby saving Democrats' skins so they can carry on their drill-nothingism for an additional two years. The president needs to do two things with Pelosi's proposal: First, tell her "no," unless she comes up with a plan to open up more drilling. Second, expose it for what it is — a bid to paint Bush as the problem to distract from her own sorry record. borders on recklessness, something we cannot tolerate in such dangerous times.
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POPSSilent No More: Iranian Student Sentenced To Death The protests Mr Batebi took part in nine years ago frightened Iran’s rulers. The students were angry about censorship, the persecution of intellectuals and the thugs who beat up any student overheard disparaging the regime. Mr Batebi thinks Iran could well turn solidly democratic some day. In neighbouring states, religious extremism is popular. In Iran, he says, the government is religiously extreme, but the people are not. He is cagey about how exactly he escaped. But he says he used a cellphone camera to record virtually every step of his journey, and will soon go public with the pictures and his commentary. Meanwhile, he seems to be enjoying America. He praises the way “people have the opportunity to become who they want to be”. Shortly after he arrived, he posted a picture of himself in front of the Capitol on his Farsi-language blog,* with the caption: “Your hands will never touch me again.” http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-KjyoxDgwc6uQN8Q8PTn1n8dj8oA-?cq=1
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POPSVienna-Based Investigators Getting Tough On Iran Now Why the emphasis now on sins Iran may have committed in the past? Wasn’t the finding that warhead design stopped in 2003 reassuring enough? No, say nuclear experts inside and outside the international agency. Candor about Iran’s progress in designing a weapon matters because Tehran’s scientists continue to move forward on a related front. They are learning how to make uranium fuel. And if they already have a good warhead design in hand, the lack of fuel may be the one thing standing between them and the ability to make a bomb. The American finding last December that Iran suspended its weapon-design work in 2003 created a classic case of a glass that could be seen as either half full or half empty. That does not mean they have a workable design for the most frightening kind of bomb in today’s world — one miniaturized to about one ton so it can sit atop a missile, which is much faster and harder to stop than any plane
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POPSRussia Objects To US-Czech Shield: Iran Flexes It's Missiles What a missile defense system in Europe would do is restore the ambiguity inherent in the American deterrent posture even in the event Iran has nuclear weapons. If the Ayatollahs cannot rely on their missiles penetrating the defense, they are faced with possibility that America could actually destroy it utterly, leaving no time for Teheran to even deploy shipping container bombs, in response to any attack Washington considered sufficiently offensive. The Ayatollahs could persuade themselves that Washington mightn’t but it would have to admit that it could. And that doubt might make all the difference. Because of the value that comes from the ambiguity of what the US may do to an adversary if the acts we seek to deter are carried out, it hurts to portray ourselves as too fully rational and cool-headed. ‘This essential sense of fear is the working force of deterrence. That the US may become irrational and vindictive if its vital interests are attacked
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POPSMahmoud The Fauxtographer Update: This image, part of a framegrab from an Al Alam television broadcast of the launch (apparently taken at approximately the same time from a slightly higher elevation) makes it pretty clear which missile was conjured from borrowed pixels.
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POPSDefinition Of Patriotism: "Happiness When The US Defeats The Enemy" They have lost their supposedly divine endorsement; why would Allah have called them to action, just to see them destroyed by the infidels? The sheer bloodthirstiness of their actions in Iraq have exposed them as drug-driven demons, not righteous jihadists. While Barack Obama and the Democratic party run around shouting to every microphone they can find that “Al-Qaeda is stronger today than it was on 9/11″ have challenged the core assumptions of Al-Qaeda’s motivating philosophy, that Allah is on their side and they cannot fail, and in doing so have crushed the spirit of Al-Qaeda’s followers and assured that recruiting into “Allah’s army” is far more difficult that it would have been if otherwise. Al Qaeda itself is telling a different story. Al-Qaeda leaders admit: 'We are in crisis. There is panic and fear' http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3346386.ece
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POPSIran Announces Bid For UN Security Council Seat Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced his country's bid today for a seat on the United Nations Security Council, a candidacy that U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad immediately rejected. U.S. opposition would be based on the unwritten rule at the UN that nations under Security Council sanctions aren't elected to the panel. The council has adopted three resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment as part of its nuclear program.
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POPSMcCain vs. Obama On National Security that espouses the destruction of the State of Israel as its fondest wish and pledges undying enmity to the United States to possess the weapons to advance their malevolent ambitions." He also rejects "unconditional dialogues" with Iran. Obama has delivered messages on Iran that were more mixed. But that only makes diplomacy more important. If we must use military force, we are more likely to succeed, and will have far greater support at home and abroad, if we have exhausted our diplomatic efforts." In the same speech, however, Obama promised: "aggressive, principled diplomacy without self-defeating preconditions....Obama missed a vote on a controversial amendment offered by Sen. Jon Kyl and Lieberman that proposed labeling Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization . Obama called the amendment a repeat of the mistakes that led to war in Iraq; however, he had cosponsored an earlier bill declaring the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization
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POPSFair-Weather Civil Libertarians In January, Greenwald reports, Olbermann delivered an unhinged rant in which he called the immunity provision a "shameless, breathless, literally textbook example of fascism"--and in case you thought he meant the nongenocidal Italian kind, he also likened proponents of immunity to "the bureaucrats of the Third Reich." "But that was five whole months ago" Greenwald observes: Now that Barack Obama supports a law that does the same thing--and now that Obama justifies that support by claiming that this bill is necessary to keep us Safe from the Terrorists--everything has changed. . . . Olbermann invited Newsweek's Jonathan Alter onto his show to discuss Obama's support for the FISA. There wasn't a word of rational criticism of the bill. Instead, the two media stars jointly hailed Obama's bravery and strength--as evidenced by his "standing up to the left" in order to support this important centrist FISA compromise.
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POPSAn Iranian "Embassy" In Boston [mullahs lobby machine] Two year ago when Maleki came to Harvard, Sadegh Kharrazi, a close friend and collaborator of his, told Shargh newspaper in Tehran (May 28, 2006): "There is actually an Iranian lobby in US which illustrates itself occasionally…. should remain non-governmental, but the government could support it, promote it and rely on it". Maleki's goal has been to turn this "occasional" lobby to a full time and large scale machine of influence and misinformation. It is now apparent that the policy of United States on Iran over the past has been packed with confusion and shortsightedness. It is certainly not a mere security oversight to allow so many former officials enter the United States. Almost certainly, the United States’ goal is to create a back door channel to the mullahs in Iran, a de facto Iranian embassy. Nevertheless, this “embassy” is acting more like a Trojan horse than an ambassadorial channel.
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POPSSufism, Sophistry And Politics from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. Would the Pakistanis or the Moroccans burn their homeland by joining "the ball of fire" because Khomeinism is denied the bomb? The "ball of fire" is a poetic expression, and I wondered where it came from. Would Turks and Algerians jump on the "ball of fire" to show solidarity with a regime that has helped terror groups against them for decades? Even the Syrian rulers are unlikely to risk their survival by trying to jump on El-Baradaei's "ball of fire" to please the mullahs. They like the mullahs' money, not the mullahs themselves. Despite Tehran's massive handouts in recent years, one doubts even Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in general would take risks to show solidarity with a regime that, while generous, has been trying to impose ideological control. That leaves the branches of the Hezbollah, especially the largest and best-financed Lebanese one. But then, as always what Hezbollah does will be decided in Tehran not Beir
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POPSFeds Charge Two With Conspiracy To Export Aircraft Parts To Iran Federal agents executed a search warrant at Bujduveanu's home and business immediately after his arrest. Agents found boxes of military aircraft parts stored on Bujduvenau's property, including hundreds of parts for the C-130, the F-5, and other military aircraft. "Today's defendants are charged with illegally selling US military equipment to Iran, thus helping that country build up its military strength," said R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. "We owe it to the many service men and women who defend us to vigorously prosecute illegal exports of American military equipment." "Disrupting illegal procurement networks that attempt to circumvent our sanctions against Iran is a top priority of the Bureau of Industry and Security," said Special Agent in Charge, Michael Johnson. "This case demonstrates the importance of team work in preventing diversion of sensitive US goods," he added.
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POPS Suicidal Mystics With Nukes After more UN sanctions were threatened, Ahmadinejad stated: As God promised, the oppressors will have their noses rubbed in the dirt. Now they are fulfilling this promise by themselves... Let it be known that in whatever we do, I see the hand of God and the hidden imam at every moment. The expansion is driven by an apocalyptic vision: that Shiite Islam's long-hidden 12th Imam, or Mahdi, will soon emerge -- possibly at the mosque of Jamkaran -- to inaugurate the end of the world. The man who provided $20 million to prepare the shrine for that moment, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has reportedly told his cabinet that he expects the Mahdi to arrive within the next two years.
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POPSThe Lava Lamp Candidate ElBaradei's New Brief, Same as His Old Brief The buzz circulating now is that IAEA Director Mohammed ElBaradei said on al-Arabiya that Iran could be months away from producing a nuclear weapon, as noted by AllahPundit at Hot Air and Jeff Stein at Congressional Quarterly. What's more, just about all analyses completely ignore Iran's pursuit of a plutonium -based weapon through external acquisition and production beyond Iran's borders and beneath the IAEA and Western international radar. Syria is only now entertaining the idea of limited and restricted IAEA inspections of the nuclear facility destroyed by Israel last September 6. This "only line of defense" claim comes from the same UN "nuclear watchdog" that has no enforcement mechanism and the same one that failed to detect and/or deter North Korea, India, and Pakistan from developing nuclear weapons. http://tank.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTg2MjNmOTc1YTkzMGI4YjA1YWE0MTYyN2Q0YzNiMjc=
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POPSObama: It's Only About Winning But here's what's scary: For all of Kerry's reputed smoothness and Eastern intellect, he often tied himself in knots trying to reconcile his absurdly opposing positions. Obama can flip and flop with unmatched alacrity and facility and with the absence of self-consciousness and accountability of an accomplished sociopath . This guy doesn't even acknowledge he's changing positions; he does it without breaking a sweat and never looks back. I ask you to consider the common thread underlying these turnarounds his nearly immediate backtracking on whether Iran poses a serious threat to America; his progressive position shifts on Iraq from "don't go in, stay in, and get out"; and his vigorous defense then abandonment of both his pastor and his church. The common thread, in a word, is expedience. It is not toughness; it is not savvy; it is not gravitas; and by all means, it is not admirable. Barack Obama is every bit as politically calculating as Bill Clinton but twice as smooth.
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POPSThe Israeli "Dry Run"On Iran's Nuclear Facilities Looks like there would be a side benefit from an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities: the blind, toothless UN atomic "watchdog" -- Mohamed El Baradei -- promised to resign if Iran is targeted. US officials reported on Friday that more than 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s staged a complex operation over the Mediterranean during the first week of June. The aircraft traversed more than 900 miles, about the distance from Israel to Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment facility; the exercise also tested the refueling of planes and helicopters tasked with rescuing downed pilots. El Baradei wasn't pleased. He warned that any attack on Iran would turn the entire Middle East "into a fireball." Russia's response: as Iran's preeminent nuclear technology supplier, Russia is concerned with its cash flow. It also warned Israel not to attack. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov instructed Israel not to use force, claiming there is no proof Iran is trying to acquire atomic weapons.
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