* soto :
"You’ll recall how quickly the Bush Administration was to blame the Syrians for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri last year. You’ll also recall how some of us thought it made no sense at all for the Syrians to kill Hariri and bring down the inevitable international outcry upon themselves for killing him.phew. other people are finally asking this question (i've long thought the same).
In light of recent events over the last two weeks, I ask the following question. Knowing now that it was critical under this alternate scenario to get the Syrians out of Lebanon for these off-the-shelf plans to proceed at an opportune time, who really killed Hariri last year?"
* soto:
"Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate and Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a man who conspired with the White House to suppress the votes of thousands of African Americans and didn’t bother to count the votes of tens of thousands more in the 2004 election under the cover of being Ohio’s chief elections official, is heading for a defeat of historic proportions that will destroy the Ohio GOP this November. Better still, Democratic representative Sherrod Brown is leading GOP incumbent senator Mike DeWine now by eight points as well."
* wingnuttia has this funny idea that glenn needs/uses sockpuppets. hysterical.
* arianna:
"To fully understand why Bill Clinton will be spending Monday in Connecticut campaigning for Joe Lieberman, you'll need to make two appointments -- one with Sigmund Freud and one with James Carville."
11 comments:
There's no sense in this "Get back 3 'kidnapped' soldiers no matter how many more troops & civilians have to die in the process" war, and of course the media isn't going to play anything straight because of the Israeli angle and the extreme right-wing stranglehold on the message. A few days ago, I posted a comment at BooTrib. Part of it:
It's not like the Israelis might be bombing the hell out of their [Lebanon], or acting covertly and assassinating people, or embedding spies to assist bombers, or anything like that. I'm sure the North American media would let us know if that were the case.
Israel has an extensive history of acting unilaterally in its own interests. The linked bits in that paragraph aside, the nation's history is built upon doing whatever the hell they want, including obscuring their own nuclear capabilities (avoiding those pesky treaties and inspectors) and, after luring him from the UK, kidnapping from Italy Mordechai Vanunu, the man who 'outed it'. Surviving British troops who served in Palestine pre-1948 will tell you the Isrealis understand terrorism and assassination very well.
Another commenter here, Romunov, seems far more into it than I; this post of his notes a few other bits of the current situation that have trouble making it into the current reports.
And lest we think that this is the first time an authoritarian US Administration has "green lighted" unilateral Israeli actions, try this:
Washington, D.C., 7 October 2003 - During the 1973 October War, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger secretly gave Israeli authorities a green light to breach a cease-fire agreement arranged with the Soviet Union, according to new documents published by the National Security Archive today on the war's 30th anniversary. Declassified documents detail Kissinger's efforts to buy time for Israeli military advances despite the impending cease-fire deadline. This episode is not discussed in Kissinger's new book, Crisis, and was downplayed in his memoirs.
And we know how many of Nixon's disciples are still with us today...
don - i've almost been expecting evidence that israel herself actually kidnapped those two folks. there's nothing that would surprise me these days. nothing.
thnx for the Romunov link. Romunov always has smart things to contribute.
re vanunu - i actually have a one-degree-of-separation link to that story and the whole thing makes me a bit uncomfortable.
btw - isnt it very odd that two kidnapped soldiers upset people more than 8 dead soldiers?
what a fucked up world.
btw - isnt it very odd that two kidnapped soldiers upset people more than 8 dead soldiers?
Or 25 dead Israelis, or 300 dead Lebanese... fucked up doesn't begin to describe it.
One question for you: spotted this JPost story at RS re: "Hizbullah willing to talk". As seems to happen so often, the interesting para was buried at the end (emphases mine):
"Everything has a price. I don't think there will be some sort of move to free Gilad without a price. That's not the way it works in the Middle East," said Noam Shalit. "There is no reason not to consider this after this incident in order to free someone who was sent by the state to the front lines," he said.
How do you read that last sentence? I read the suggestion of a pointed finger but without context, it's vague.
Mr. Shalit's been very vocal through this, calling bullshit on the IDF's 'efforts' to regain his son. And, inevitably like Jill Carroll and Cindy Sheehan before him, he's taking typical right-wing flack for it.
Times like this that I realize we are all the same. It's the bullshit elitists in power who need to get with the program.
One obnoxious side note: another paragraph higher up in that JPost story:
No word had been heard from Goldwasser, 31, and fellow reservist Regev, 26, since they were captured July 12 by Hizbullah guerrillas who attacked their patrol on the Israeli side of the Lebanese border.
And the spin doctors spun on...
the spin is indeed dizzying. i must admit that i've suffered something akin to vertigo re Mr. Shalit's comments. - i've only come across him in passing - but i've noticed that there appears to be a disconnect between what he appears to be saying, and how his words have been spun.
again - my interpration is just from a fleeting glimpse - but it appears that he says 'i want my son back' - and the media seems to spin that into "kill everyone - i dont care"
And from the "Do you fucking believe the nerve of these people"-file, courtesy of the Jerusalem Newswire ("Serving up a daily diet of news for Bible-believing Israel-lovers... Watch - So you can pray") we have:
'Where is the shock and awe?' - US disturbed by weak Israeli offensive:
Said one [US defense] analyst, "There's no shock and awe here. Hizb'allah has been hurt but has managed to continue."
and...
WMD hunt on in Lebanon - Report: Hizb'allah poised to launch 'dirty bomb' strike:
In related news, [WorldNetDaily's Aaron] Klein quoted MI6 sources in London as saying Hizb'allah is poised to fire "dirty bomb" rockets at Israel using spent nuclear rods from Iran's nuclear program.
Y'know, I think I can buy that first story, but Iran's nuclear program must have really sped up. I kinda thought you had to have been enriching uranium for a long while to produce fuel rods (plural) and then actually expended it to have spent rods, but what do I know.
They must find their defence/intel sources the same way G-Dub gets his foreign policy guidance. Hey, I wonder if they can find out where Hoffa is... and what happened to Flight 19... and how about that beastie up in Loch Ness, anyway...?
The impression I'm getting on Noam Shalit is that he's being spun and smeared by the right at the same time. If an Israeli right-wing organization is waging a smear campaign against him and smearing his son (a la Jill Carroll) something's not kosher there. He's embarassing someone with his daily statements.
One last note, then I'll leave this thread. That article "Noam Shalit: Enemy of the People" appeared first at Ynet. The talkback on it is instructive and thoroughly disturbing.
thnx don. very interesting, and disturbing.
it kinda reminds me of those people (christians?) that were kidnapped in iraq - and the right-wingers were hoping desperately for a beheading.
lol. priceless. fp'd
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