US, talks on missile defence
by staff report AP via reed 2008-07-07 22:37:02

WASHINGTON (AP) — Poland and the United States said Monday that missile defense talks would continue despite Warsaw's rebuff of the latest U.S. offer.

Following talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski rejected the suggestion that the hastily arranged meeting was aimed at salvaging a deal to allow U.S. interceptors on Polish soil.

"There is no need to salvage, because talks have continued all along and will continue," he said.

He called the meeting productive and said that Poland had clarified its position.

On Friday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that an offer of U.S. security aid in exchange for allowing long-range U.S. interceptors in Poland had not met Polish security needs. Poland is seeking U.S. short- and medium-range anti-missile systems including a Patriot missile battery to shore up its own defenses.

"Poland presented a new variant of what stationing Patriot batteries in Poland could look like," Sikorski told Polish reporters Monday following his talks with Rice.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday that the United States was still seeking a breakthrough, though he added that it has other options should negotiations fail. U.S. and Lithuanian officials have recently discussed missile defense plans.

"You always have in the back of your mind, Plan B, C or D, but our energies are still focused on talking to the Polish government as evidenced by the foreign minister's visit today," he said.

Washington and Warsaw opened negotiations 18 months ago on placing the 10 missile interceptors in northern Poland to protect the U.S. and Europe from possible future attacks from Iran.

The base would be linked to a radar-tracking system Washington wants to build in the Czech Republic. Prague has agreed in principle to the plan, but the Czech parliament still must approve the deal.

While in Washington, Sikorski was scheduled to speak by telephone with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday evening. He was expected to meet with Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Tuesday.

Sikorski said that the Polish government has great respect for both candidates.

Associated Press writers Foster Klug in Washington and Ryan Lucas in Warsaw contributed to this report.

© 2008 The Associated Press

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g3v1Yi9jPqpm7BdmjUMjjaLmOzSgD91P4MMG0

New War Brewing: US, Israel Take Dangerous Steps
by Eric Margolis via rialator 2008-07-07 22:50:08

GENEVA – The U.S., Israel and Iran are playing a very dangerous game of chicken that soon could result in a new Mideast war.

U.S. intelligence has concluded that Iran is not working on nuclear weapons. But the Bush administration and Israel, recently joined by France, are issuing increasingly loud threats of military action to frighten Iran into halting its nuclear enrichment program.

Iran insists its nuclear program is entirely for civilian use. Tehran is alternating between conciliatory statements and threats to retaliate against any attack by inflicting economic chaos on the global economy. Europe fears the economic damage a war against Iran would bring far more than Iran’s nuclear program.

Senior Israeli officials are openly threatening to attack Iran’s nuclear installations before President George W. Bush’s term expires. Early, this month Israel staged a large, U.S.-approved exercise using F-15s and F-16s to rehearse an attack over 900 miles – precisely the distance to Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The highly regarded American journalist Seymour Hersh just confirmed that the U.S. Congress authorized a $400-million plan to overthrow Iran’s government and incite ethnic unrest. This column reported a year ago that U.S. and British special forces were operating in Iran, preparing for a massive air campaign. Israel’s destruction of an alleged Syrian reactor last fall was a warning to Iran.

This week a Pentagon official claimed an Israeli attack on Iran was coming before year end.

Other Pentagon and CIA sources say a U.S. attack on Iran is imminent, with or without Israel. The Bush administration is even considering using small tactical nuclear weapons against deeply buried Iranian targets.

Senior American officers Admiral William Fallon and Air Force Chief Michael Mosley recently were fired for opposing war against Iran. According to Israel’s media, President Bush even told Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he could not trust America’s intelligence community and preferred to rely on Israeli intelligence.

AIR BLITZ

Intensifying activity is evident at U.S. bases in Europe and the Gulf, aimed at preparing a massive air blitz that may include repeated attacks on 3,100 targets in Iran. Other sources say Iranian Revolutionary Guard installations will be barraged by cruise missiles.

In Washington, Congress, under intense pressure from the Israel lobby, is about to adopt a resolution calling for a naval blockade of Iran, an overt act of war.

Pro-Israel groups have been airing TV commercials claiming Iran is attacking American troops in Iraq and threatens the U.S.

The Bush administration’s last desperate act, its Götterdämmerung, could be war with Iran. UN weapons inspectors concur with U.S. intelligence that there is no proof Iran is working on nuclear arms, but the neocon war party in Washington is determined to loosen a final Parthian shaft by striking Iran.

Israel asserts the right to maintain its Mideast nuclear monopoly by destroying all fissile-producing reactors in the region. Iran vows to retaliate against Israel with its inaccurate Shahab missiles, shut the Strait of Hormuz and mine the Gulf, producing worldwide financial panic, severe fuel shortages, and $400-$500 per barrel oil. Iran likely will attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait, and strike Saudi and Kuwaiti oil facilities. Canadians in Afghanistan could also become targets.

GRAVE DAMAGE

The embattled Bush administration’s bunker mentality is leading to war that will gravely damage long-term U.S. Mideast interests. A single Iranian missile hit on Israel’s reactor would do more damage to the Jewish state than all its previous wars. Besides, Israel cannot destroy Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. A U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran will guarantee Tehran decides to build nuclear weapons. Israel and Iran have turned their regional rivalry into a confrontation that threatens all.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, not its bombastic President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, controls that nation’s military and insists Iran will not produce nuclear weapons. Israel claims it faces a second holocaust. Iran says Israel’s nuclear forces threaten its existence.

The dogs of war are being unleashed.

© 2008 Eric Margolis

http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis115.html

dumbfounded
by doki 2008-07-08 01:41:55

The real oddity in all this is the paralysis of the people not only in the USA, people everywhere appear frozen -- i'm dumbfounded! so i searched google and got this little verse:

"And murder foul and brutal deed
When man will only think of greed.
And man shall walk as if asleep
He does not look - he many not peep"

etc.

Mother Shipton -- a staggering, prophetic poem.

US, Czech Republic sign missile defence deal
by staff report AFP via reed 2008-07-08 07:44:28

PRAGUE (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed a missile defence deal with the Czech Republic on Tuesday, describing it as a step forward for global security despite staunch Russian opposition.

The accord permits the siting of a radar station on Czech soil as part of an extended US missile shield that Washington says is necessary to ward off potential attacks by so-called "rogue" states such as Iran.

The United States wants the radar twinned with interceptor missiles in neighbouring Poland, although negotiations with Warsaw have becomed bogged down with Polish demands for additional security guarantees.

"This missile defence agreement is significant as a building block not just for the security of the United States and the Czech Republic but also for the security of NATO and the security of the international community as a whole," Rice said.

"Ballistic missile proliferation is not an imaginary threat," she added.

Russia has denounced the plan as a provocative threat to its own security, despite repeated US assurances.

"We want the system to be transparent to the Russians," Rice insisted Tuesday.

The United States has in the past suggested that Russian inspectors could visit the anti-missile sites, as long as Prague and Warsaw agreed.

In Prague, protestors from Greenpeace unrolled a massive image of a target across the city's skyline ahead of Rice's arrival.

"Do not make a target of us," proclaimed the banner at Letna hill overlooking the Czech capital at the foot of a giant metronome erected by the artist Vratislav Novak in 1991 following the collapse of the communist regime.

Polls regularly show around two-thirds of Czech opposed to hosting the US radar.

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said the deal reflected a "joint desire to protect the free world".

Prague was the first leg of a three-country tour that will take Rice to Bulgaria and Georgia where she will renew US support for Tblisi's bid for NATO membership -- another bone of contention with Moscow.

She will also try to calm tensions between Moscow and Tblisi over the separatist Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

"We have said both Georgia and Russia need to avoid provocative behaviour but frankly some of the things the Russians did over the last couple of months added to tension in the region," Rice said, citing Moscow's failure to consult with Georgia over a presidential order offering Abkhazia direct relations.

"Georgia is an independent state. It has to be treated like one," Rice added.

"I want to make very clear that the US commitment to Georgia's territorial integrity is strong," she added.

Georgia regularly accuses Russia of seeking to annex South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and derailing its efforts to join the NATO military alliance. Russia in turn accuses Tbilisi of preparing to take back the breakaway regions by force.

Rice said she would not be visiting Poland, where 14 months of talks have so far failed to resolve obstacles to the siting of the proposed US interceptor missiles.

"There are remaining issues, but the United States has made a very generous offer" to the Poles who want to improve their air defences, Rice said.

NATO endorsed the US missile defence plan at its April summit in the Bucharest.

© 2008 AFP

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hWqELMpJDZQRyw80j2ufYvj4w3fw