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FROM MAAN NEWS

Fury after US vetoes UN settlements resolution



BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A top Fatah leader and former Palestinian intelligence official called Saturday for a "day of rage" against America after the Obama administration blocked a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements.

Tawfik Tirawi said Palestinians would protest next Friday, a week after the US directed its UN ambassador to kill the draft Security Council resolution even though the 14 other members of the 15-nation council voted in favor.

Tirawi told Ma’an that the move amounted to "blackmail" and exposed the true face of America as well as the extent to which its role in the Middle East peace process harmed Palestinian interests. 

America's refusal to take a real stand against settlements, despite total opposition in the Security Council and longstanding US policy, shows "they are liars who pretend to support democracy and peace. Far from it."

Tirawi also said the Palestinians would continue to push for statehood even if they suffer a financial crisis absent US funding: "This will not affect our steadfastness and insistence on our rights." 

Asked about the peace process, he said "there will be no negotiations with settlements." 

Israeli officials took an alternative position, praising the vote as beneficial to peace. 

"We seek a solution that will integrate the legitimate Palestinian aspirations with Israeli requirement of security and recognition," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. 

"The US decision makes it clear that the only way to peace is through negotiations. We are ready to vigorously advance negotiations and are interested in beginning the process of achieving secure peace and hope that the Palestinians will join the process." 

In New York, US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said Washington had "regrettably" chosen to oppose the resolution, sponsored by some 130 countries, after seeking its compromise measure was rejected.

"This draft resolution risks hardening the positions of both sides," Rice said. "It could encourage the parties to stay out of negotiations."


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THE TELEGRAPH

US vetoes UN condemnation of Israeli settlements

The Obama administration wielded its first veto at the UN security council last night in a move to swipe down a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.

The US stood alone among the 15 members of the security council in failing to condemn the resumption of settlement building that has caused a serious rift between the Israeli government and the Palestinian authority and derailed attempts to kick-start the peace process. The Palestinians have made clear that they will not return to the negotiating table until Israel suspends settlement building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The decision placed the US in a controversial position at a time when it is already struggling to define its strategy in a tumultuous Middle East.

The 14 member countries backing the Arab-drafted resolution included Britain and France.

The US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said the decision to use the veto power – open to the five permanent members of the UN, of which the US is one – "should not be misunderstood to mean we support settlement activity".

She said Washington's view was that the Israeli settlements lacked legitimacy, but added: "Unfortunately, this draft resolution risks hardening the positions of both sides and could encourage the parties to stay out of negotiations."

But the isolated stance of the Obama administration risked the appearance of weakness in its approach to the search for Middle East peace and set it on a contradictory course to its earlier tough language against the settlements.

The Palestinian observer at the UN, Riyad Mansour, said the veto was unfortunate. "We fear ... that the message sent today may be one that only encourages further Israeli intransigence and impunity," he said.


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FROM SOTT.NET

US National Guard troops heading to Egypt

Groton - Connecticut National Guard Detachment 2, Company I, 185th Aviation Regiment of Groton has mobilized and will deploy to the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, to support the Multinational Force and Observers. 

The unit left Connecticut Jan. 15 for Fort Benning, Ga., for further training and validation. The unit operates C-23C Sherpa aircraft and has deployed three times in the last seven years in support of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The unit will provide an on-demand aviation asset to the Multinational Force and Observers commander to support its mission of supervising the security provisions of the Egypt/ Israel Peace Treaty. 

Chief Warrant Officer Four James Smith of Ivoryton commands the aviation unit.

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FROM NEW ZCIENTIST

Has China's new jet launched a stealth arms race?

China's first flight test of its new high-tech J-20 stealth military jet on 11 January has drawn a lot of attention, particularly because it came during the visit of US defence secretary Robert Gates. What it means is another question, and the answers are complex.

Military analysts had known China was developing a combat plane in the class of the US F-22 Raptor stealth fighter, but they had not expected it to make its first appearance in December, Aviation Week and Space Technology reported. Several high-speed ground tests, in which the craft's front wheel rose off the ground, preceded the first flight.

China has released videos of the new jet on the ground, taking off, and landing at Chengdu. The New York Times quoted a Hong Kong analyst as saying the plane flew for 15 minutes over the airfield. With two distinctive angled tail fins like those of the F-22, it's clearly intended to be stealthy. The Times also reports it is intended carry missiles and fly long distances when refuelled in the air.

The demonstration worries some analysts because it's the first aircraft to challenge the performance of the F-22, the top of the US air force's fleet. "We have become accustomed to a world where our air power is dominant," Rand Corporation analyst Roger Cliff told Newsweek.

"But that dominance is now in question." Once the J-20 is deployed, in that scenario, US top guns would lose their high-performance stealth advantage and no longer rule the skies.

No so fast, says Aviation Week. New, more powerful radars using active electronically scaled arrays can pick up fainter and fainter targets, and are fast catching up to stealth technology. "Anti-stealth will bring into question all stealth designs," it says, hinting that the US may already have airborne radars able to spot stealth aircraft.


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FROM URUKNET

Iraqi government to purchase armored limousines worth $75 million for members of parliament

By Shaymaa Adel Azzaman, January 21, 2011 

The Iraqi government has decided to spend nearly $75 million from the country’s oil revenues to purchase armored limousines, one for each of the 325 members of parliament.

The government says the vehicles are needed because the parliamentarians are targets of attack by insurgents and 'terrorists.’

The high salaries and perks senior Iraqi officials get are fueling anger in Iraq and there has been a storm of protest from local media.

The benefits have turned them into a special class with body guards, armored vehicles and specially imported power generators to light, heat and cool their homes.

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Pentagon's Christmas Present: Largest Military Budget Since World War II
Rick Rozoff


On December 22 both houses of the U.S. Congress unanimously passed a bill authorizing $725 billion for next year's Defense Department budget.



The bill, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, was approved by all 100 senators as required and by a voice vote in the House.



The House had approved the bill, now sent to President Barack Obama to sign into law, five days earlier in a 341-48 roll call, but needed to vote on it again after the Senate altered it in the interim.



The proposed figure for the Pentagon's 2011 war chest includes, in addition to the base budget, $158.7 billion for what are now euphemistically referred to as overseas contingency operations: The military occupation of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan.



The $725 billion figure, although $17 billion more than the White House had requested, is not the final word on the subject, however, as supplements could be demanded as early as the beginning of next year, especially in regard to the Afghan war that will then be in its eleventh calendar year.



Even as it currently is, the amount is the highest in constant dollars (pegged at any given year's dollar and adjusted for inflation) since 1945, the final year of the Second World War. With recent U.S. census figures at 308 million, next year the Pentagon will spend $2,354 for every citizen of the country at the $725 billion price tag alone.



Last year's Pentagon budget, by way of comparison, was $680 billion, a base budget of $533.8 billion and the remainder for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In July of this year Congress approved the 2010 Supplemental Appropriations Act which contained an additional $37 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.



Next year's defense authorization of $725 billion compares to, according to the Center for Defense Information, a Pentagon budget of $444.6 billion in 1946; $460.4 billion in 1968, the highest yearly amount during the Vietnam War; and $443.4 billion in 1988, the highest during the eight years of the Ronald Reagan administration's massive military buildup. (Numbers in 2004 constant dollars.) [1]

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates American military spending for 2009 to have accounted for 43 percent of the world total. Carl Conetta, co-director of the Project on Defense Alternatives, earlier this year estimated the 2010 U.S. defense budget to constitute 47 percent of total worldwide military expenditures and to amount to 19 percent of all American federal spending.

In addition, Pentagon spending has increased by 100 percent since 1998 and "the Obama budget plans to spend more on the Pentagon over eight years than any administration has since World War II." [2]
 
With 2.25 million full-time civilian and military personnel, excluding part-time National Guard and Reserve members, the Defense Department is the U.S.'s largest employer, outstripping Walmart with 1.4 million employees and the U.S Post Office with 599,000. [3]



"Add in what Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and the Energy departments spend on defense and total US military spending will reach $861 billion in fiscal 2011, exceeding that of all other nations combined," according to Todd Harrison, senior fellow for Defense Budget Studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. [4]



In April Robert Higgs of The Independent Institute advocated that the budgets - in part or in whole - of the departments of Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, Energy, State and Treasury and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) should be calculated in the real military budget, which would in 2009 would have increased it to $901.5 billion.



"Adding [the] interest component to the previous all-agency total, the grand total comes to $1,027.8 billion, which is 61.5 percent greater than the Pentagon's outlays alone."

His numbers are:

National Security Outlays in Fiscal Year 2009
(billions of dollars)

Department of Defense 636.5

Department of Energy (nuclear weapons and environmental cleanup) 16.7

Department of State (plus international assistance) 36.3

Department of Veterans Affairs 95.5

Department of Homeland Security 51.7

Department of the Treasury (for the Military Retirement Fund) 54.9

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (1/2 of total) 9.6

Net interest attributable to past debt-financed defense outlays 126.3

Total 1,027.5 [5]



The above-cited Carl Conetta stated at the beginning of this year that the 2011 Pentagon budget will mark a milestone in that "the inflation-adjusted rise in spending since 1998 will probably exceed 100% in real terms by the end of the fiscal year.



"Taking the 2011 budget into account, the Defense Department has been given about $7.2 trillion since 1998, when the post-Cold War decline in defense spending ended. Approximately $2.5 trillion of this total is due to spending above the annual level set in 1998. This added amount constitutes the post-1998 spending surge."



Based on constant 2010 dollars, Conetta further details that the Ronald Reagan administration spent $4.1 trillion on the Defense Department, the Georgia W. Bush administration spent $4.65 trillion and "Barack Obama plans to spend more than $5 trillion."



He also compares the two previous largest post-World War Two surges in U.S. military spending to the current one:

From 1958-1968: 43 percent

From: 1975-1985 57 percent



In regards to which he said, "the 1998-2011 surge is as large as these two predecessors combined."

His calculations also include a growth in Pentagon contract employees of 40 percent since 1989, thereby freeing up uniformed service members for more direct combat roles.  

The U.S. share of global military spending grew from 28 percent during the Cold War to 41 percent by 2006 and that of NATO member states, including the U.S., from 49 percent to 70 percent in the same period.


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FROM ANTIWAR.COM


Israeli government officials confirmed today that they will go ahead with plans to “buy” a number of F-35 stealth fighter jets from US military contractor Lockheed Martin. Reports suggest the deal will be worth $2.75 billion, making it one of the largest single arms purchases ever.


The high cost of the F-35s made the deal controversial among Israeli defense officials, which is perhaps surprising inasmuch as the Israeli government won’t actually be paying a dime for the warplanes.


Rather the entire cost will be covered by the US government in the form of military aid, meaning the US will be pasying Lockheed directly and delivering the warplnes to Israel for free.


The F-35′s enormous costs have made it hugely controversial in the US as well, though the question of giving Israel a number of the planes does not appear to have been questioned at all. The planes are expected to be delivered in 2015, assuming development goes according to plans.




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Human-
Pakistan is being bombarded by high tech unmanned aerial vehicles controlled remotley by paid iTards ever more frequently, with the latest incident happening yesterday in which 14 people were killed (see story below) all of which we are lead to believe were evil and deserved death. Meanwhile reports indicate they are having a hard time getting much needed aid out to the Pakistani flood victims with this technology, as Haiti (only a stones throw from America) endures storm after storm in tents only having recieved 2-5% of the pledged aid 8 months after the tragedy. The video below does alot to make Drone attacks seem cool and even rebellious while warming us to all these aerial infringements. In the future while awaiting aid you wont be dogging bees (they will be extinct) you will be dodging missiles from drones like the one advertised in the video below...


From Al Jazeera 
Deaths in Pakistan 'drone attack 'Two suspected US drone attacks targeting Haqqani network leave at least 14 people dead in North Waziristan region.
Last Modified: 08 Sep 2010 12:55 GMT

At least 14 people have been killed in two suspected US drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal region, near the border with Afghanistan, officials said.

The attacks took place hours apart on Wednesday near Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan region.

At least 10 people were killed in the first attack, when missiles struck a compound, which officials say was used to house fighters allied with the Taliban an al-Qaeda.

The house targeted by the drone reportedly belonged to members of the Haqqani network - a faction fighting alongside the Taliban against US-led forces in Afghanistan.

A second drone attack later targeted a vehicle carrying other suspected Haqqani members.

"A US drone fired two missiles, which struck a vehicle carrying militants, killing four rebels," a senior security official in the area told the AFP news agency. Another security official in the area confirmed the strike and casualties.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in air raids in the area since August 2008.

North Waziristan is known as a haven for Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters who enter Afghanistan.

Continued violence

On Tuesday, at least 20 people were killed and more than 56 injured in a car bomb attack targeting a police headquarters in Pakistan's northwestern garrison town of Kohat in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. 

A number of houses collapsed from the force of the blast and rescuers sought to pull out survivors, but a senior Kohat administrative official said that most of the victims were women and children.

Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan's prime minister, denounced the Kohat attack as a "heinous crime".

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The fact is the squabble is over a "dimebag" it all started from the creation of a bullshit law intended to generate profits, likely smuggled in with the assistance of the CIA so they can fill their private prisons, maybe even planted on her, I doubt she would put up this much of a fight if she was "innocent". But yeah "innocent" of what, being a drug addict??? They should be doing this to BP shareholders and Dickhead Cheney, This cop may have been just doing his job, but so were the gestapo. Fuck the police.
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Seriously, think about this for a second. It takes decades for a person to die from HIV (lets not get into that debate about if it causes aids and blah blah). With the drugs people can live a long time, for starters this is blatant propaganda, and if its real a mere fear tactic utilized by the CIA funded Taliban to bolster more support for this opium/ oil pipeline/ bankster war. All the more justification to use our own illegal weapons. You will see this all over the media lately, headlines like "Taliban gaining ground", NATO soldiers dying etc, and a lot of it is on the self-proclaimed liberal media, who is attempting to aggrandize the enemy as they always do to get all the war naysayers on the defensive. Remember Saddam? He had "The fourth largest military in the world" and "WMDs" lol. 


FROM Sun copyright whores


By TOM NEWTON DUNN (dunce)

TALIBAN fighters are burying dirty needles with their bombs in a bid to infect British troops with HIV, The Sun can reveal.

Hypodermic syringes are hidden below the surface pointing upwards to prick bomb squad experts as they hunt for devices.

The heroin needles are feared to be contaminated with hepatitis and HIV. And if the bomb goes off, the needles become deadly flying shrapnel.


Deadly ... needles become flying shrapnelThe tactic, used in the Afghan badlands of Helmand, was exposed by Tory MP and ex-Army officer Patrick Mercer.

Read more at this shit website : http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/3005443/Taliban-using-HIV-bombs.html#ixzz0qSXbS2q5
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