Iran leader says believes Israel will soon collapse
Wed Jan 3, 2007 4:53 PM ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a new verbal attack against Israel on Wednesday, saying he believed it would soon collapse, state media reported.
Ahmadinejad, who has sparked international outcry by referring to the killing of six million Jews in World War Two as a "myth" and calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map", made the comments in a speech in the southern province of Khuzestan.
"I'm sure that soon we will observe the collapse of the Zionist regime (Israel)," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying, without elaborating.
"The Holocaust was fabricated by the West in order to reach its goals," state television quoted him as saying.
Last month, he told delegates at an international conference in Tehran questioning the Holocaust that Israel's days were numbered: "Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon will send a second aircraft carrier and its escort ships to the Gulf, defense officials said on Wednesday, as a warning to Syria and Iran and to give commanders more flexibility in the region.
Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Bremerton, Washington-based USS John C. Stennis strike group would deploy this month. It will put 5,000 more U.S. sailors in the region, bringing the total to 16,000.
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier group entered the Gulf in December.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to comment, saying the Defense Department would not discuss future deployments or ship movements. But military analysts said the move was intended to demonstrate U.S. resolve in the face of acts by Iran and Syria that it sees as provocative, such as Tehran's pursuit of its nuclear program.
The Stennis had been scheduled to deploy to the Pacific region. But the Pentagon agreed instead to send the carrier group to the Gulf after a request from U.S. Central Command, the military command responsible for Middle East operations.
Senior defense officials have said that request was aimed at increasing Central Command's flexibility in a variety of operations and providing deterrence in the region.
INCREASED U.S. PRESENCE
Washington has locked horns with Tehran over the Iranian nuclear program. American defense officials also regularly charge Iran and Syria with fanning sectarian violence in Iraq and contributing to the deteriorating situation there by providing arms and technologies.
The second carrier, while adding relatively few service members to the region, is valuable as a symbol of America's increased presence in the Gulf, military analysts said.
Longer term, however, the Bush administration must decide if it will keep two carrier groups in the Gulf indefinitely.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates previously said the increased American presence in the Gulf was a message to the region as a whole and not a response to any specific action by Iran.
"I think the message that we are sending to everyone, not just Iran, is that the United States is an enduring presence in this part of the world," Gates told reporters on a December visit to Baghdad. "We will be here for a long time and everybody needs to remember that -- both our friends and those who might consider themselves our adversaries."
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has made clear he dislikes being the country's leader and would prefer to leave the job before his term ends. In an extensive interview with a US newspaper, Mr Maliki said he would certainly not be seeking a second term.
A compromise choice, his tenure has been plagued by factional strife within both the country and government, and rumours the US has no faith in him.
"I wish I could be done with it even before the end of this term," he said.
"I didn't want to take this position," he told the Wall Street Journal. "I only agreed because I thought it would serve the national interest, and I will not accept it again."
During his speech at yesterday's funeral service for Gerald Ford, former President George H.W. Bush bashed JFK "conspiracy theorists" and defended the Warren Commission report, another odd public outburst indicative of a crime family whose decades of misdeeds may finally be catching up with them.
"After a deluded gunman assassinated President Kennedy, our nation turned to Gerald Ford and a select handful of others to make sense of that madness," said Bush. "And the conspiracy theorists can say what they will , but the Warren Commission report will always have the final definitive say on this tragic matter. Why? Because Jerry Ford put his name on it and Jerry Ford's word was always good."
The only thing Ford was good for was running defense for criminals when he pardoned the remorseless Richard Nixon and others after Watergate, allowing larcenous felons to walk free and leaving the legacy in place that it's OK to break the law if you are the President, a form of absolutism that has been keenly inherited by the current crop of crooks, including Dick Cheney who praised Ford for 'allowing the nation to heal' by protecting a cadre of organized crime gangsters.
Of course, all of this had nothing to do with liberals or conservatives, bricklayers or office clerks," writes Kurt Nimmo , "It had to do with breaking the law, with “dirty tricks,” snooping on political opponents, sabotaging Democratic presidential candidates, going after Daniel Ellsberg for the public service he provided by bringing the Pentagon Papers to light, ordering the FBI to investigate CBS News reporter Daniel Schorr, discussing the possibility of having newspaper columnist Jack Anderson assassinated, and other crimes (evading taxes, accepting illicit campaign contributions, ordering secret bombings, and harassing opponents with executive agencies, wiretaps, and break-ins), all of it culminating in Watergate."
There's no doubt that Ford, not unlike Saddam Hussein who died days after, knew where the bodies were buried and Bush was simply eulogizing his noble service in sweeping the JFK assassination under the rug, shielding Poppy himself from serious questions about his own involvement in events at Dealy Plaza.
As Wayne Madsen comments, "The elder Bush cannot really remember where he was on November 22, 1963. He later claimed he was in Tyler, Texas although there is evidence that he was checked into the Dallas Sheraton Hotel that day. Mr. Bush, the conspiracy theorists will continue to say what they will until you start telling the truth about Zapata, deMohrenshildt, Mongoose, New Orleans, and JM/WAVE."
Bush senior's outburst marks the second time in the same amount of months that he has felt the need to publicly attack those who would normally be relegated to the fringes of political discourse by big media consensus.
During an appearance with his wife Barbara on Fox News in November, George Bush senior slammed Internet bloggers for creating an adversarial and ugly climate, echoing the rhetoric of fellow Neo-Cons and the White House itself in trashing the reputation of the world wide web and the political blogosphere.
The fact that Bush is being pressured into bad mouthing so-called "conspiracy theorists" and bloggers proves that the chorus of dissent is beginning to make these cretins lose some sleep at night.
The Bush family as a whole is starting to exhibit some seriously offbeat behavior that suggests their decades of underhand chicanery, murders, cover-ups and scams are finally beginning to catch up with them.
Last month Bush senior burst into tears during a speech at his son Jeb's leadership forum. Jeb Bush himself recently declared that he "had no future" in politics. George W. Bush's obvious deteriorating mental acumen, characterized by a consistent supply of "Bushisms," has led several commentators to conclude that the current President is in the early stages of pre-senile dementia. The Bush daughters' behavior doesn't seem to be maturing with age either after U.S. Embassy officials strongly urged them to cut short last month's escapade in Argentina.
Are the Bush's breaking down? Is the fact that the President is less popular than Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Satan combined finally starting to provoke pangs of conscience amongst the notorious crime family?
Gaza City - Palestinian security officials advised on Wednesday that European and American nationals should leave Gaza because of a threat of kidnappings, said a top official, two days after the abduction of an AFP photographer who remains missing in the impoverished territory.
A security source: "We've had warnings of kidnapping operations and have asked American and European nationals to leave Gaza."
Another security source said that the request was in part directed at expatriate employees of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees.
But the agency said it had no plans to pull its foreign nationals out.
"Christar Nordahl, deputy director in Gaza confirmed receiving general advice from Palestinian preventative security about a general kidnap threat," said Johan Eriksson, an Unrwa spokesperson.
"In our view, this doesn't change the situation from what it has been in the past two years... at the moment we are staying put."
AFP photographer Jaime Razuri was snatched by gunmen in front of the agency's offices in Gaza City on Monday, the latest foreigner to be abducted in the increasingly lawless coastal strip.
Two days later, no group had yet claimed responsibility for the abduction or issued any demands.
Fatah militant shot dead in Gaza
Meanwhile a member of a militant group close to Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party was killed on Wednesday and five people were wounded in subsequent clashes between Fatah and Hamas gunmen in northern Gaza, said security sources and medics.
Ala Mohammed Ainaya, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was shot as he was leaving his house in Jabaliya, said the sources.
The 25-year-old was close to a local Fatah leader in the northern Gaza town, they said.
Later five people were wounded in clashes between forces loyal to Fatah and those of the Hamas-led interior ministry in Jabaliya, they said.
Wednesday's unrest followed clashes and a series of abductions on Monday between militants from the ruling Hamas party and Fatah in the north of the coastal strip.
The two sides called a ceasefire on December 20 to end deadly violence that erupted after Abbas announced plans for early presidential and parliamentary elections to resolve a months-long stand-off with the ruling Islamists.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - In what has become an annual tradition of prognostications, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson predicted Tuesday that a terrorist attack on the United States would result in “mass killing” late in 2007.
“I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear,” he said during his news-and-talk television show “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network. “The Lord didn’t say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that.”
Robertson said God told him during a recent prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September.
Robertson said God also told him that the U.S. only feigns friendship with Israel and that U.S. policies are pushing Israel toward “national suicide.”
Robertson suggested in January 2006 that God punished then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a stroke for ceding Israeli-controlled land to the Palestinians.
The broadcaster predicted in January 2004 that President Bush would easily win re-election. Bush won 51 percent of the vote that fall, beating Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. He also predicted Bush’s victory for a second term in 2005.
“I have a relatively good track record,” he said. “Sometimes I miss.”
With Congress back in session on January 3, the federal "hate crimes" bill could be reintroduced any time. The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith introduced the same legislation last January 6, three days after Congress convened.
This is the most dangerous legislation ever to come before Congress. It leads directly to an end of free speech. Once free speech is gone, there is little to prevent the loss of all our other freedoms. The new Democrat-controlled Congress has all the votes it needs to quickly run this Orwellian bill through committee in the House and Senate and pass it. Unless they lose their nerve, thrown back by massive protest from the American people.
Extraordinary action must be taken NOW to back down ADL and intimidate them from even introducing the hate bill in this session.
Your Voice Will Make the Difference
Protest from the American people has defeated the hate bill three times in the last two years. Here's how, with God's help, we can do it again:
1) Powerfully impact members of Congress from your district:
At www.truthtellers.org are listed the names of the top legislative aides for every member of Congress (except the newly elected members). These legal experts and researchers exert tremendous influence on how busy senators and representatives think and vote. Now you can just as powerfully influence them!
At www.truthtellers.org your two Senators and their aides are listed alphabetically according to state. House members and their aides are separately listed the same way. On the list, locate the House member for your district. (If you don't know your district, call the capitol hotline tollfree at 1-877-851-6437 or toll at 1-202-225-3121. This information is also available by calling your local library or at www.house.gov/writerep.) Print out both sides of - http://www.truthtellers.org/hatelawsflyermailer.pdf - NPN's brochure "Hate Laws Will Make You a Criminal," available on the home page at www.truthtellers.org. Make about 30 copies, enough to send to each member of the Senate and House from your district plus their aides. Fold into thirds. Address each name and tape (do not staple) the flyer closed, add postage and mail.
Because you are a constituent of these members of Congress and their aides, you have considerable influence. You have power to vote them out next term and power to end the aides' employment. When they see your zip code, they will read the flyer. It will deeply impact them because all they have heard so far is ADL propaganda. These brochures will burrow deep into every legislative office, raising questions, doubts, fears and curiosity about ADL's hate crimes agenda.
Don't hesitate to send this brochure to liberal members of Congress or their aides. Hate laws can turn on them also. Already in many western nations liberals who publicly criticize Islam can be indicted as hate criminals. If enough of these brochures penetrate Congress, the effect will be to prejudice even liberal members of Congress and their staffs against the ADL hate crimes agenda. (Note: Do not send this brochure to members of Congress or their aides outside your district. Nonconstituent mail is discarded.)
2) Influence all members of Congress:
Begin toll-free phone calls to Congress on January 3. Visit www.truthtellers.org for the complete list of members of the new Congress. Set aside 15 minutes a day (before work or during lunch) to call toll-free 1-877-851-6437 or 1-866-340-9281 (toll is 1-202-225-3121). Leave this message: "Please don?t vote for 'anti-hate' legislation. Hate laws have taken away free speech in Canada and most European countries." Ask to be transferred to the next member of Congress on the list or use the redial feature on your phone. In only 15 minutes a day for 7 weeks, you can voice a powerful protest to every member of Congress against establishment of a "big brother" federal hate crimes bureaucracy like Canada's.
TALK SHOW HOSTS:
Before Christmas, 23 national talk show hosts responded to my initial warning that Democrat control of Congress meant certain passage of the hate bill. Their interviews with me alerted hundreds of thousands of patriots to this unprecedented threat to freedom.
It is vital that all of these hosts re-book me. Many others should join them. In upcoming broadcasts I will emphasize NPN's new program to saturate congressional offices with flyers telling the whole truth about hate laws. Over the holidays, many listeners may have become distracted from the urgent hate bill threat. Talk hosts should call me now at 503-631-3808 to help generate a new tidal wave of truth into Congress -- washing away ADL's lies and backroom deals. With your help, this effort could make the deciding difference in securing freedom for talk radio and the internet for years to come!
At least 26 agency employees say they witnessed inmates being mistreated and subjected to harsh interrogation.
One reported seeing a man whose head was covered in duct tape, another saw detainees chained from hand to foot in the foetal position for up to 24 hours.
The report was released to a US civil liberties group fighting a law suit.
A federal judge has yet to decide whether to accept the suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (Aclu) against former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others on behalf of former inmates who say they were abused.
A Pentagon spokesman said the department had a clear policy: "We treat detainees humanely. The United States operates safe, humane and professional detention operations for enemy combatants who are providing valuable information in the war on terror."
Nonetheless, the BBC's Jonathan Beale says the report appears to clearly contradict such assurances, which have also been made by President George W Bush.
'Not new'
In 2004, the FBI asked 493 employees whether they had witnessed aggressive treatment that was not in line with agency policies.
It says it received 26 witness statements detailing abuse that included:
* Rooms kept so hot that a detainee was rendered almost unconscious, with a pile of hair next to him that he apparently pulled out * Detainees left for over 24 hours chained to the floor hand and foot in foetal position, with no chair, food or water - most urinated or defecated on themselves * Sleep deprivation interviews with strobe lights and loud music, apparently lasting up to 4 days * A detainee brought into an interview room appearing to have broken fingers and facial injuries * A detainee gagged with duct tape that covered much of his head after reportedly chanting the Koran non-stop * A detainee draped in an Israeli flag in a room with loud music and strobe lights
Many of the allegations are already in the public domain, the FBI said, while stressing that its own personnel were not involved.
The agency's report added that some officials had told FBI agents that the interrogation techniques had been approved at the defence department by officials who included Mr Rumsfeld.
The report does not amount to a criminal investigation, and all the information has been passed on to the Pentagon's inspector general, the FBI said.
It was made in response to a freedom of information request by the Aclu, which has already obtained a number of documented abuse allegations in this manner.
