A.LOEWENSTEIN ONLINE NEWSLETTER

• America thrives on protectionism and screws the world
• Washington and Israel preparing to bomb Iran (to peace, of course)
• Zionism as rejectionism
• Colombo hearts Israel but dissent exists
• Judy Miller talks about integrity over Wikileaks but should look in the mirror
• Wikileaks shows how keen Israel is to launch wars in the Middle East

America thrives on protectionism and screws the world Posted: 03 Jan 2011 02:00 PM PST US diplomats must be busy. Spying on the UN and other countries. And pimping for Boeing. The glories of empire, indeed: The king of Saudi Arabia wanted the United States to outfit his personal jet with the same high-tech devices as Air Force One. The president of Turkey wanted the Obama administration to let a Turkish astronaut sit in on a NASA space flight. And in Bangladesh, the prime minister pressed the State Department to re-establish landing rights at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Each of these government leaders had one thing in common: they were trying to decide whether to buy billions of dollars’ worth of commercial jets from Boeing or its European competitor, Airbus. And United States diplomats were acting like marketing agents, offering deals to heads of state and airline executives whose decisions could be influenced by price, performance and, as with all finicky customers with plenty to spend, perks. This is the high-stakes, international trading bazaar for large commercial jets, where tens of billions of dollars are on the line, along with hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs. At its heart, it is a global wrestling match fought every day by executives at two giant companies, Boeing and Airbus, in which each controls about half of the global market for such planes. To a greater degree than previously known, diplomats are a big part of the sales force, according to hundreds of cables released by WikiLeaks, which describe politicking and cajoling at the highest levels. It is not surprising that the United States helps American companies doing business abroad, given that each sale is worth thousands of jobs and that their foreign competitors do the same. But like the other WikiLeaks cables, these offer a remarkably detailed look at what had previously been only glimpsed — in this case, the sales war between American diplomats and their European counterparts. The cables describe letters from presidents, state visits as bargaining chits and a number of world leaders making big purchases based, at least in part, on how much the companies are willing to dress up private planes. The documents also suggest that demands for bribes, or at least payment to suspicious intermediaries who offer to serve as “agents,” still take place. Boeing says it is committed to avoiding any such corrupt practices. State Department and Boeing officials, in interviews last month, acknowledged the important role the United States government plays in helping them sell commercial airplanes, despite a trade agreement signed by the United States and European leaders three decades ago intended to remove international politics from the process.

Washington and Israel preparing to bomb Iran (to peace, of course) Posted: 03 Jan 2011 02:39 AM PST The Wikileaks revelations just keep on coming, this time from Aftenposten. Barack Obama wanting to assist Israel strike Iran? Yes (via Richard Silverstein): Wikileaks cable describes a November, 2009 meeting between a high-level delegation of Israeli and American political, military and intelligence operatives.  On the agenda was the U.S. delivery of 100 bunker-buster bombs to Israel meant to be used to assault Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities.  Those attending the meeting urged: “…That deliveries should take place in silence so that we could avoid allegations that the U.S. government was helping Israel to prepare for an attack on Iran, “the document noted… “From the discussion in the leaked document originating from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, it seems that the Israelis have obtained the bombs, by all accounts [approximately] 100, to break the Iranian nuclear program, the day they were to become necessary.”

Zionism as rejectionism   Posted: 03 Jan 2011 02:29 AM PST   While the Economist says Barack Obama should simply impose a settlement in the Middle East, Israeli media is now reporting that the Israeli government isn’t even willing to look at documents presented by the corrupt Palestinian Authority. It’s a complete sham and the Zionist state continues to marinate in its own occupying juices.

Colombo hearts Israel but dissent exists Posted: 02 Jan 2011 08:37 PM PST Israel will sell arms to anybody; the more brutal the better, really. Sri Lanka is therefore the perfect country for Tel Aviv to engage but according to this piece in the country’s Sunday Leaderdisquiet rules: The news that Sri Lanka is to boost relations with Israel in the agricultural field comes as a surprise considering the treatment we have received from the Zionist state in the past. Way back in 1991 Commodore Douglas Ivan Attanayake told an inquiry the Israelis had tampered with the engines of the three Super Dvora boats the government had purchased thus preventing the boats from travelling at its rated speed. The Commodore said if the tampering had not been detected the engines would have seized and would have had to be thrown away. Initially Israel refused to entertain our complaint and it was through Lloyds that Israel agreed to replace the engines. Why did Israel tamper with the engines? In his lid blowing book By Way Of Deception, Victor Ostrovosky said the Israelis described our army personnel as monkeys. After a hard days work they were probably having fun at the expense of our boys. That they trained the LTTE whilst training our army personnel at the same time is no secret. India’s Subramaniam Swamy is on record boasting it was he who had introduced the LTTE to the Israeli Mossad. The Jain Commission probing the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi reported there were links between the LTTE and Israel’s spy agency Mossad. Evidence for this report was provided by RAW and IB.  On July 15, 1995 the Lanka Guardian edited by the legendary, fearless and irreplaceable Meryn Silva, reported ‘hard evidence of Israel supplying arms to the LTTE’ under the headline ‘Australian Police Confirm Israel Supplied Arms To The LTTE’. Add to this the fact that an Israeli arms shipment to the government was conveniently hijacked by the LTTE. In 1994 the Israelis abused Sri Lanka’s port rules when they were nabbed with four containers of chemicals they use to manufacture nerve gas. There was no apology. That’s how much they respect our sovereignty.

Judy Miller talks about integrity over Wikileaks but should look in the mirror Posted: 02 Jan 2011 05:56 PM PST Former New York Times “journalist” Judy Miller – who pushed countless bogus reports over Iraq’s non-existent WMDs – tells Fox News (where else?) that Julian Assange is a “bad journalist” because he didn’t verify his sources. You can’t make this stuff up:

Wikileaks shows how keen Israel is to launch wars in the Middle East Posted: 02 Jan 2011 05:49 PM PST Juan Cole brings news of yet more Wikileaks cables that show the threat Israel poses to world peace: The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten has summarized an Israeli military briefing by Israeli Chief of Staff Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi of a US congressional delegation a little over a year ago and concludes that “The memo on the talks between Ashkenazi and [Congressman Ike] Skelton, as well as numerous other documents from the same period of time, to which Aftenposten has gained access, leave a clear message: The Israeli military is forging ahead at full speed with preparations for a new war in the Middle East.” The paper says that US cables quote Ashkenazi telling the US congressmen, “I’m preparing the Israeli army for a major war, since it is easier to scale down to a smaller operation than to do the opposite.” The general’s plans are driven by fear of growing stockpiles of rockets in Hamas-controlled Gaza and in Hizbullah-controlled Southern Lebanon, the likely theaters of the planned major new war. Ashkenazi does not seem capable of considering that, given a number of Israeli invasions and occupations of those regions, the rockets may be primarily defensive.   The memos reveal that none of the goals of Israel’s 2006 war on Lebanon and its 2008-9 war on little Gaza were achieved, and that both Hamas and Hizbullah have effectively re-armed. What makes Ashkenazi think things would be different this time? Israel hawks have doomed themselves to the particular hell of Sisyphus, forced to roll the same stone up the hill over and over again with no hope of ever balancing it on the summit.