Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdasta says America and its allies are ‘fearful of the Iranian forces and nation’; U.S. Defense Secretary warns that Iran only a year away from producing a nuclear bomb.

Haaretz

The Iranian army’s ground force commander said Monday that the United States and its allies would not dare launch an attack on the Islamic Republic, Iran’s state-run Press TV reported.

“They are fearful of the Iranian forces and nation,” Press TV quoted Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan as saying.

Pourdastan said that despite the fact that the U.S. dispatched the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, and despite the advanced weaponry in America’s possession, fears of an Iranian retaliation would deter any kind of attack by the U.S.

The U.S. and European nations have recently increased pressure on Iran by imposing a wide-reaching oil embargo over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

Earlier Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned that Iran is only one year away from producing a nuclear weapon, saying that the U.S. “will take whatever steps necessary” to stop it.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said earlier this month that Iran would stand up to growing international pressure over its nuclear program and threatened to “respond to attacks.”

Iran has retaliated to the growing pressure with threats to block oil transport through the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a large part of Middle East oil to the rest of the world.

Syrian opposition says would decline offer to attend talks with Syria authorities in Russia.

ed note–keep this in mind folks when reading anything dealing with ‘the opposition’ in Syria–whatever it is they are saying, they are merely acting as a mouthpiece for Israel and America, as they–the opposition–are no more than hired guns for the 2 in bringing down the regime in Syria. ‘No talking’ equates to ‘more shooting’, which is EXACTLY what Israel and America want.

Haaretz

A senior member of the Syrian opposition said on Monday that the Syrian National Council had not received any formal invitation to attend talks with Syria’s authorities in Russia, and would decline if one arrived.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the Syrian authorities had agreed to talks in Russia, and that it hoped the opposition would agree.

“We have not received any offer like that officially and I think, if such an offer exists, it will be no more than an attempt to influence the [UN] Security Council. But I say clearly that our position has not changed and it is that there is no dialogue with [President Bashar Assad],” Abdel Baset Seda, a member of the Syrian council’s executive committee, told Reuters.

He was speaking by telephone from New York, where he was following the Arab League’s bid to win support from the Security Council for its Syria peace plan.

Haaretz

An “armed terrorist group” in Syria blew up a gas pipeline at dawn Monday, the state-run media said, as activists reported gunfire and explosions in the suburbs of Damascus as the country’s conflict moves ever closer to the capital.

The pipeline carries gas from the central province of Homs to an area near the border with Lebanon. SANA news agency reported that the blast happened in Tal Hosh, which is about five miles (eight kilometers) from Talkalakh, along the border with Lebanon.

Further details were not immediately released.

There have been several pipeline attacks since the Syrian uprising began in mid-March, but it is not clear who is behind them.

President Bashar Assad’s regime has blamed “terrorists” for driving the country’s 10-month-old uprising, not protesters seeking democratic change.

On Sunday, Syrian troops in dozens of tanks and armored vehicles stormed rebellious areas near the capital, shelling neighborhoods that have fallen under the control of army dissidents and clashing with fighters.

Activists and residents said at least 62 people were killed in violence nationwide.

The large-scale Sunday offensive suggested the regime is worried that military defectors could close in on Damascus, the seat of Assad’s power. Early Monday, activists reported hearing gunfire and blasts in the Damascus suburbs, but there were no details.

The rising bloodshed added urgency to Arab and Western diplomatic efforts to end the 10-month conflict.

In the past two weeks, army dissidents have become more visible near the capital, seizing several suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus and setting up checkpoints where masked men wearing military attire and wielding assault rifles stop motorists and protect anti-regime protests.

Their presence so close to the capital is astonishing in tightly controlled Syria and suggests the Assad regime may either be losing control or setting up a trap for the fighters before going on the offensive.

The uprising against Assad, which began with largely peaceful demonstrations, has grown increasingly militarized recently as more frustrated protesters and army defectors have taken up arms.

In a bid to stamp out resistance in the capital’soutskirts, the military has responded with a withering assault on a string of suburbs, leading to a spike in violence that has killed at least 150 people since Thursday.

The United Nations says at least 5,400 people have been killed in the 10 months of violence.

The UN is holding talks on a new resolution on Syria and next week will discuss an Arab League peace plan aimed at ending the crisis. But the initiatives face two major obstacles: Damascus’ rejection of the Arab plan that it says impinges on its sovereignty, and Russia’s willingness to use its UN Security Council veto to protect Syria from sanctions.

U.S. Defense Secretary tells CBS that the U.S. does not want Iran to develop a nuclear bomb, and that it ‘shares common goals with Israel’.

ed note–generally speaking, Haaretz is fairly reasonable as far as the JMS media goes, certainly not as rabid as some of the more ‘traditional’ Jewish news outlets.

However, as this story illustrtes, even the more ‘reasonable’ outlets seem to ‘run home to momma’ every once in a while. In the following story, US Sec of Defense is NOT saying that Iran is ’1 year’ away from building a bomb, but says rather that IF Iran decided to do so, she could put one together in a year. That is like saying so and so is ‘planning to kill his neighbor’ vs saying ‘well, if he WANTED to kill his neighbor, he certainly has the means to do it.’ Big difference.

The lesson to be learned in this is that sadly, even the more moderate and reasonable JMSM outlets will only go so far in telling the truth. The ethos of not turning against ‘la famiglia’ is something inculcated into these folks from cradle and is maintained until the grave, and rarely do any of them break free from this dangerous orbit.

Haaretz

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Sunday that Iran is only one year away from producing a nuclear weapon.

In an interview on the CBS show “60 Minutes,” Panetta said that “the consensus is that, if they decided to do it, it would probably take them about a year to be able to produce a bomb and then possibly another one to two years in order to put it on a deliverable vehicle of some sort in order to deliver that weapon.”

During the interview, Panetta reiterated Obama’s opposition to Iran’s nuclear program, and said that the U.S. shares common goals with Israel in its opposition to the program.

“The United States, and the president’s made this clear, does not want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us. And it’s a red line obviously for the Israelis so we share a common goal here,” he told CBS.

“If they proceed and we get intelligence that they’re proceeding with developing a nuclear weapon then we will take whatever steps are necessary to stop it,” he added.

A six-member delegation of inspectors from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived in Tehran on Sunday, according to an Iranian state television report.

Earlier, sources close to the Vienna-based IAEA said the visit would not involve inspections of nuclear facilities but would rather focus on resuming talks on Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

Again, keep in mind as you read this that the various ‘opposition’ groups operating against Assad ARE American/Israeli puppets, and cowardly ones at that, because if they were the true ‘freedom fighters’ they claim to be, they would be in Syria fighting a real war and not pussy-footing around in other countries.

forward.com

Washington — They may be disunited and  unskilled in the ways of Washington, but as carnage continues in Syria, exiled  Syrian dissidents in the United States are urging the Obama administration to  actively support opposition forces struggling to bring down the regime of Bashar  al-Assad.

A loose network of activists — some newly arrived, but most part of an  established Syrian exile community — are urging the administration to set up a  safe zone within Syria on the country’s border with Turkey. This could provide  shelter for dissidents being hunted down by the Assad regime, but would almost  certainly require some form of military intervention by the United States.

Though pursuing their advocacy thousands of miles from home, the Syrian  activists are not clear of danger. As the conflict between the Syrian government  and dissidents has intensified, they say the struggling Damascus regime has  increased its effort to discredit the émigrés as American puppets and to  intimidate them by harassing family members left behind.

“The Syrian Embassy here was operating as a security branch of the Assad  regime. They sent reports to Damascus about all my moves, and after that my  mother was interrogated by the security forces,” said Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian  dissident who has been advocating on behalf of the Syrian opposition.

The Syrian uprising, which broke out as part of the Arab Spring last March,  has cost the lives of more than 5,000 activists so far, according to the United  Nations, and is far from nearing its end. Forces loyal to Assad forcefully  lashed out at protesters, and a monitoring mission sent to Syria by the Arab  League was unsuccessful in stopping the bloodshed.

Over the past 10 months, the United States has gradually stopped expressing  concern and now openly demands that Assad step down. The United States has also  embraced the Syrian opposition. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has  made a point of meeting publicly with exiled dissidents. But the administration  has stopped short of even suggesting any forceful intervention, preferring  instead to see the Arab League take a leading role in dealing with Syria.

Syrian Americans, a community estimated at 300,000, have mobilized in  response to the events back home. But the community has yet to galvanize around  any of the three main opposition groups — the National Council of Syria, the  Syrian National Coordination Committee or the Free Syrian Army. With no central  organization coordinating Syrian Americans’ advocacy efforts, a dozen or so  pro-democracy Syrian groups now operate in the United States alongside  individual activists who work outside the groups.

“In the Syrian community, dissidents were always isolated,” said Ammar  Abdulhamid, who has been in exile in the United States since 2005. “Because of  this reality, we had to develop our own identity.”

In the period preceding the Arab Spring outbreak, the Syrian community saw an  infusion of opposition figures and political activists who fled Syria in recent  years and are now leading the call on behalf of the opposition movement.

Abdulhamid and his fellow dissidents divide their time between supporting the  opposition in Syria through social networking and spreading information and  lobbying American decision-makers and the American public on the need for a more  active role for the United States. They tread a thin line, trying to prod  Washington to action, but on the other not wanting to be seen as driving the  United States to war.

Washington — “We believe it doesn’t have to be  a Libya-style bombing campaign,” Abdulhamid said. What most activists are asking  for is a supply of light weapons to the opposition, a maritime blockade to stop  the Syrian military from rearming and the establishment of safe zones near the  Syrian-Turkish border. These zones could provide shelter to activists and  refugees, but would require the declaration of no-fly and no-access rules and  the potential use of military force to carry them out.

The administration has rejected such proposals, making clear that, among  other things, it lacks the international backing it had during the uprising in  Libya. “It’s important to note that no member of the Security Council is  advocating for military intervention in Syria, as the Arabs did when they  initiated the action for Libya,” Susan Rice, America’s ambassador to the United  Nations, said in a January 23 meeting in New York with the American Jewish  Committee.

Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of  Democracies, which supports. military action by the United States to maintain  democracy in the Middle East, lamented this position. “People think you need a  perfect situation, like we had in Libya, before we intervene,” he said. “Unfortunately, Libya has become the threshold test, and if that’s what we are  waiting for, it will never happen.”

Ziadeh has been unable to return home to Syria since 2007, when the  government issued an arrest warrant for him shortly after he came to the United  States. With several other activists, he founded the Syrian Center for Political & Strategic Studies, a think tank and advocacy group dedicated to advancing  democracy in Syria. The center’s push for increased pressure from America on  Assad includes meetings with members of Congress and administration officials,  and appeals in the media to move the Syrian issue to the front burner.

“Obviously, the administration has taken some excellent steps,” Ziadeh said, “but since calling for Assad to step down in September, the U.S. has been  leading from behind. If we miss the opportunity now, it will never come  again.”

Ziadeh, who openly met with Clinton last August, said he was called to a  meeting at the Syrian Embassy in Washington and told that information on his  anti-government activities had been sent to security forces in Syria. He said  his mother was interrogated and informed that if she told her son “to be  silent,” she would be granted an exit visa to visit him. A call to the Syrian  embassy seeking comment on Ziadeh’s claim was not returned.

Ziadeh is one of the few Syrian activists to communicate with American Jewish  groups. He appeared twice at events organized by the AJC, a group that has taken  a leading role in supporting Syrian opposition. A video of one of his speeches  was posted on YouTube, presumably by pro-regime activists, with a title  describing Ziadeh as a spy.

Two Syrian dissidents in the United States who gave an interview to Israel’s  daily Yediot Aharonot without disclosing their identity are now in hiding after  the state-run TV in Syria exposed their names and accused them of treason. The  report also included a fabricated letter in which the newspaper supposedly  acknowledges their identity.

Abdulhamid said that talking to Israelis and to Jewish groups is a matter of  controversy within the Syrian exile community, but he is among those who  maintain contacts with Jewish activists in Washington. “It’s true that at times  we are demonized when we do so, but we forget that if we want our rights, we  need to communicate,” he said. “We need to develop diplomatic skills.”

ed note– some real nuggets here. While most of it is typical circular, sel-absorbed mouthiness we see coming from the JMSM, there is a real nugget down towards the bottom.

This author is discussing recent surveys in Israel on religious tendencies, finding that it is a mishmash of opinions, but notes however that–

“Despite most of us being subjected to this nonsensical rule, we still cling to the belief that we are the “chosen people.” Even those who doubt that God chose us to lead the world and impart positive traits believe that we hold a unique hereditary and cultural tradition that enabled us to reach exceptional intellectual achievements, such as disproportional representation among Nobel Prize laureates.“

Which seems to be the one thing that unites all Jews from various ethnicities, religious confessions, cultures, etc, is this narcissism of their “betterness” and status as ‘Chosen’. And yet, we are told to discount this as a possible explanation as to why they have been treated as they have throughout history.

ynet

Last week, God was happy. A serious poll found that the number of believers in His existence is growing. Israelis who define themselves as “haredim,” “religious” and “traditional” currently comprise an overwhelming majority among the population.

The responses provided to questions regarding faith in the Messiah’s coming, the existence of a soul, the Jewish nation’s uniqueness and so on showed that most Jewish Israelis hold views that entail belief in God. We are the most faithful population among Western nations.   On the other hand, God’s disappointment with the Jews who live outside of Israel continues. About half of all American Jews, and according to some studies even more, say they do not believe in God’s existence. Moreover, the younger, more educated and wealthier they are, the weaker their faith.

As America’s Jews are the world’s most educated ethnic group and among the richest too, one may wonder about God’s negligence in meting out justice. After all, he happens to spoil the heretics of all people.

A statistical correspondence between education and economic status on the one hand and the lack of faith on the other is reflected by the data collected in Israel as well, even though statistics is a crude measure of the truth. After all, there are many faithful among those who succeeded in life and possess great wealth and plenty of knowledge. This does not undermine my unfaithfulness, but rather, boosts my concern.

I wonder whether the extensive and growing spread of faith in God is good for us. Some argue it serves as national glue. This is a tempting claim, yet we should keep in mind that many nations disappeared from this world while incredibly united by beliefs that shattered in the face of changes. It’s more important to look into the products of faith in God, and given the poll’s results I believe this faith comprises major intellectual flaws.

Chosen people?

For example, most Jews in Israel believe in the coming of the Messiah. Had I been convinced that their faith expresses longing for a better world, I would say it’s a constructive force. Yet based on what I see around me, this isn’t the case: For many, the “Messiah” is a noble person who shall revive the dead, bring the Temple down to our world, produce a heaven on earth, and while at it make sure that Maccabi Tel Aviv wins the European Championship. I shall cautiously say that the probability of such Messiah’s arrival isn’t high.

Or, for example, the faith in the existence of a “soul” that is separate from the body. Most believers do not view the “soul” as a metaphor for emotions, but rather, are certain that it is an entity lacking weight or volume that flies out of one’s body upon his death, exists forever, and is absorbed in the bodies of people who are yet to be born. I doubt whether a society where most people believe in such nonsense can produce an enlightened nation.

Yet despite most of us being subjected to this nonsensical rule, we still cling to the belief that we are the “chosen people.” Even those who doubt that God chose us to lead the world and impart positive traits believe that we hold a unique hereditary and cultural tradition that enabled us to reach exceptional intellectual achievements, such as disproportional representation among Nobel Prize laureates.

Yet the truth is that almost all Jewish Nobel laureates greatly distanced from Jewish culture and most of them were and still are complete heretics. It was only the willingness to leave faith behind that enabled Jews to excel. Hence, the poll’s results show us that the path for going back from “enlightenment” to the Middle Ages has been paved.

This process bodes badly for the State’s existence. Luckily, our neighbors espouse Allah more than we cling to God. The qualitative gap between us and them will be eliminated once the last Israeli atheists disappear as well.

Syrian opposition sources tell Egyptian daily al-Masri al-Youm that Free Syrian Army rebel forces managed to prevent escape of first lady Asma Assad, relatives

ed note–let’s cut past all the fancy language and say what this is really all about–

KIDNAPPING and HOSTAGE TAKING

Here we have the rebels talking about their plans to take as hostage innocent women and children in order to further their political goals, which in truth AREN’T THEIRS AT ALL, BUT RATHER THOSE OF ISRAEL AND THE US.

WHERE IS THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA TO DISCUSS THIS? WHERE IS THE PRESS CONFERENCE FROM THE US PRESIDENT AND STATE DEPARTMENT CONDEMING SUCH ACTIONS??? ISN’T TAKING HOSTAGES CONSIDERED A ‘COWARD’S WAY’ OF WAGING WAR??? WEREN’T THE IRANIANS ‘TERRORISTS’ FOR TAKING AMERICAN HOSTAGES AFTER THEIR REVOLUTION IN 1979???

Has Bashar Assad’s wife been attempting to follow in the footsteps of the wife of Muammar Gadaffi? Egypt’s al-Masri al-Youm newspaper reported Sunday that Syrian rebels thwarted an attempt to smuggle Asma Assad, wife of Syrian President Bashar Assad out of the country.

Sources within the Syrian opposition said that the Free Syrian Army forces managed to prevent the escape of the first lady of Syria and additional relatives through Damascus airport.

According to the Egyptian daily, the sources claimed that Asma Assad, her children, Bashar Assad’s mother and his cousin were all in a convoy on the way to the airport when rebel forces under the command of a former senior officer in the Syrian army, blocked the their path.

After heavy exchanges of fire, the presidential security forces managed to get the convoy back to the presidential palace. The opposition sources alleged that Assad’s security forces pursued the deserter general, Mahmoud Halouf, former head of the Palestine branch of Syrian intelligence.

Tactical withdrawal?

The general’s unit, all former soldiers who deserted with him, 300 in total, said that when they saw the convoy the believed it was an attempt to smuggle senior officials out of the country – which is why they blocked the convoy’s path.

Meanwhile, Armored forces loyal to President Assad took control on Sunday of eastern suburbs of Damascus that had fallen into opposition control after two days of bombardment and fighting with rebels, activists said.

“The Free Syrian Army has made a tactical withdrawal. Regime forces have re-occupied the suburbs and started making house to house arrests,” Kamal, one of the activists, said by phone from the eastern Ghouta area on the edge Damascus.

He was referring to army defectors loosely grouped under the Free Syrian Army.

If the report about Asma Assad’s attempted escape is true, it would not be the first time during the Arab Spring that relatives of a failing ruler find a way to escape. Last August Muammar Gaddafi’s wife and three of his children managed to escape war-torn Libya and reach Algeria. Gaddafi was killed not long after.