NOVANEWS
WikiLeaks – More Israeli Game Theory Warfare?
by Jeff Gates
“The United States is the real victim of WikiLeaks. It’s an action aimed at discrediting them.” Franco Frattini, Foreign Minister of Italy
The impact of the WikiLeaks release of diplomatic cables fits the behavior profile of those well versed in game theory warfare.
When Israeli mathematician Robert J. Aumann received the 2005 Nobel Prize in economic science for his work on game theory, he conceded, “the entire school of thought that we have developed here in Israel” has turned “Israel into the leading authority in this field.”
The candor of this Israeli-American offered a rare insight into an enclave long known for waging war from the shadows. Israel’s most notable success to date was “fixing” the intelligence that induced the U.S. to invade Iraq in pursuit of a geopolitical agenda long sought by Tel Aviv
When waging intelligence wars, timing is often the critical factor for game-theory war planners. The outcome of the WikiLeaks release suggests a psy-ops directed at the U.S.
Why now? Tel Aviv was feeling pressure to end its six-decade occupation of Palestine. With this release, its foot-dragging on the peace process was displaced with talk of an attack on Iran.
While the U.S. bore the brunt of the damage, the target was global public opinion. To maintain the plausibility of The Clash of Civilizations, a focus must be maintained on Iran as a credible Evil Doer.
With fast-emerging transparency, Israel and pro-Israelis have been identified as the source of the intelligence that took coalition forces to war in Iraq. Thus the need to shift attention off Tel Aviv.
WikiLeaks may yet succeed in that mission.
Foreseeable Futures
Game theory war planning aims to create outcomes that are predictable – within an acceptable range of probabilities. That’s why Israeli war planners focus on gaining traction for a plausible narrative and then advancing that storyline step by gradual step.
For the Zionist state to succeed with its expansionist agenda, Iran must remain at center stage as an essential villain in a geopolitical morality play pitting the West against Islamo Fascists.
To displace facts with false beliefs – as with belief in the intelligence that induced the invasion of Iraq – momentum must be maintained for the storyline. Lose the plot (The Clash) and peace might break out. And those deceived may identify the deceiver.
Thus the timing of this latest WikiLeaks release. Its goal: to have us believe that it is not Tel Aviv but Washington that is the forefront of geopolitical duplicity and a source of Evil Doing.
Intelligence wars rely on mathematical models to anticipate the response of those targeted. With game theory algorithms, reactions become foreseeable – within an acceptable range of probabilities.
Control enough of the variables and outcomes become a mathematical inevitability.
The WikiLeaks Motive
Was the reaction to this latest WikiLeaks foreseeable? With exquisite timing, the U.S. was discredited with an array of revelations that called into question U.S. motives and put in jeopardy U.S. relations worldwide.
As the Italian Foreign Minister summarized: “The news released by WikiLeaks will change diplomatic relations between countries.”
The hard-earned trust of the Pakistanis disappeared overnight. Attempts to engage Iran were set back. The overall effect advanced The Clash storyline. If Washington could so badly misread North Korean intentions, then why is the U.S. to be trusted when it comes to a nuclear Iran?
This Wiki-catalyzed storyline pushed Israel off the front page in favor of Iran.
Even U.S. detainees at Guantanamo are again at issue, reigniting that shameful spectacle as a provocation for extremism and terror. U.S. diplomats will now be suspected of spying and lying. What nation can now trust Americans to maintain confidences?
In short, the risks increased for everyone.
Except Israel.
Should Israel launch an attack on Iran, Tel Aviv can cite WikiLeaks as its rationale. Though an attack would be calamitous from a human, economic and financial perspective, even that foreseeable outcome would be dwarfed by the enduring hatred that would ensue.
That too is foreseeable – from a game theory perspective of those marketing The Clash.
The effect of the U.S. invasion of Iraq was predictable. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia foresaw it, noting simply that the U.S. invasion would “give Iraq to Iran as a gift on a golden platter.”
With the elimination of Sunni leader Saddam Hussein, the numerically dominant Shiites of Iraq were drawn into the political orbit of the Shiite-dominant Iran.
Game theorists focus their manipulation of affairs on their control of key variables. Then events take on a life all their own. The impact of this discrediting release was wide-ranging and fully foreseeable.
A Mossad case officer explained Israel’s success at waging war by way of deception: “Once the orchestra starts to play, we just hum along.”
These, after all, are the leading authorities in the field.
Former Pakistani General: CIA, Mossad behind WikiLeaks Reports
TEHRAN (FNA)- A former Pakistani army commander said that the disclosure of classified documents by the whistleblower site of Wikileaks is a US plot to create rift among friendly and neighboring states.
“The US has a hand in this plot, and these reports (posted by the WikiLeaks website) are part of the US psychological warfare,” former Chief of the Staff of the Pakistani Army General Mirza Aslam Beg told FNA in Islamabad on Tuesday.
He stated that the US could prevent the leak of information if it wanted to do so, and warned that the real plot and conspiracy pursued by these reports will be unraveled in future.
Aslam Beg further reiterated that the CIA and Israel’s spy agency Mossad have launched efforts to weaken and destabilize Pakistan, and WikiLeaks reports are part of these efforts.
The remarks by the Pakistani figure came after US embassy cables posted by WikiLeaks website sparked hot reactions in the region.
In one cable, the WikiLeaks claimed, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, a close ally of Pakistan, reportedly called Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari the main cause of his country’s woes.
Pakistani President’s office responded on Monday that the leaks were “no more than an attempt to create misperceptions between two important and brotherly Muslim countries”.
US severs access to diplomatic files
In dramatic move following disclosure of sensitive cables, State Department disconnects access to government’s classified computer network.
(AP) Reeling from disclosures of sensitive diplomatic messages, the State Department has disconnected access to its files from the US government’s classified computer network.
The move dramatically reduces the number of employees inside the government who can see important diplomatic messages.
In first public comments since release of hundreds of thousands of classified State Department cables, US secretary of state says leak erodes trust among nations. Obama administration ‘aggressively pursuing’ those responsible, she adds
A State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley, said Tuesday that the decision was temporary, at least until workers correct what he called “weaknesses in the system that have become evident because of this leak.”
WikiLeaks, a self-styled whistle-blower organization, this week published some of more than a quarter-million diplomatic memos that were never intended to be read outside the US government.
The State Department also said that secret instructions to American diplomats to gather sensitive personal information about foreign leaders originated from the US intelligence community but did not require diplomats to spy.
According to Crowley, requests for DNA and biometric data on foreign officials contained in leaked classified cables published by WikiLeaks came from “outside the Department of State.” He said other government agencies passed the requests along as part of a “wish list” for information on foreign officials.
A senior department official said the requests came from “intelligence community managers.”
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday that WikiLeaks’ mass dump of classified American documents was embarrassing but will have little impact on US relations with other countries.
‘West is assassinating scientists as negotiation strategy’
(jpost.com) Iranian atomic chief: Killings are carrot-stick approach ahead of talks; Ahmadinejad threatens legal action against UNSC members. Addressing mourners at a funeral procession for assassinated scientist Majid Shahriari in Teheran on Wednesday, Head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi said, “Ahead of the upcoming talks, the malicious [arrogant powers] intended to display a glimpse of their political mischief, which is their carrot and stick approach.”
Talks between the West and Iran on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program are scheduled to begin early next week.
Speaking to veterans and families of war casualties in northern Iran on Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened take legal action against the world’s most powerful nations
Addressing the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist this week, Ahmadinejad said, “By God, if such a thing happens again, we will put each of the UN Security Council permanent members on trial,” official Iranian news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday. Ahmadinejad added that Iran would put forward cases going back before the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
He did not specify what judicial body he would take action in.
“They falsely think that if they take nuclear scientists or other scientists from us, the forward-looking path of the Iranian nation will be stopped,” IRNA reported. He added, the “intelligence forces will whole-heartedly guard the scientists.”
Ostensibly referring to nuclear talks scheduled to take place with the West next week, Ahmadinejad said, “Do you want to hold dialogue this way? Your move showed that you have hostile intentions,” according to the report.
WikiLeaks: Iran won’t use nuclear bomb on Israel, says Assad
Iran would never risk massive Palestinian casualties, Syrian president told U.S. officials.
A US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks revealed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told U.S. officials Iran would not use a nuclear weapon against Israel, according to media reports Tuesday.
According to the cable, the Syrian president said “an Iranian nuclear strike against Israel would result in massive Palestinian casualties, which Iran would never risk.”
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. |
Photo by: AP |
The cable was sent from the US embassy in Damascus in March last year and described a meeting between al-Assad and several US senators.
In the meeting, al-Assad stressed that he was not convinced Iran was developing nuclear weapons.
Al-Assad also said he wanted peace between Syria and Israel, and encouraged US involvement in the issue.
Aid groups: Plight of Gaza civilians still dire
(AP) Business and construction in the Gaza Strip remain stifled half a year after Israel announced it would ease its three-year-old blockade of the needy, war-ravaged Palestinian territory, a report by several aid groups said Tuesday.
The groups accused Israel of ducking promises to ease the blockade’s effects on civilians, a pledge it made under pressure after a deadly Israeli commando raid in May on an international flotilla protesting the restrictions. The report said Israel is allowing in more food and some building materials but is dragging its feet on major construction projects.
“We aren’t seeing an easing of the blockade compared to Israel’s declared aims,” said Karl Schembri of Oxfam, among the 21 groups behind the report. Others included Amnesty International and Save the Children.
“It’s not having any impact,” he said.
Israel and Egypt have blockaded Gaza since the Islamic militant Hamas group seized power there in June 2007. Israel says the blockade is needed to keep Hamas, which has fired thousands of rockets into southern Israel, from building up its arsenal. But critics counter that the blockade has failed to weaken Hamas, while causing widespread misery among Gaza’s 1.5 million people.
Government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel is easing the blockade but must check everything entering Gaza.
“We want to see civilian goods reach the civilian population of the Gaza Strip,” he said. “Obviously goods have to be checked to make sure weapons and dual-use goods don’t enter the Gaza Strip.”
Israeli military spokesman Guy Inbar rejected the findings, saying Palestinians in Gaza had not built up the capacity to allow more materials to enter the coastal territory. While they were allowed to bring in 250 trucks a day, Palestinians were only bringing in 176.
Inbar said movement at the crossings was sluggish because the crossings were being renovated to enlarge their capacity.
He said Israel strictly supervised the entry of building materials because militants could use items like concrete and pipes in their fight against Israel.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the report “needs immediate translation into action … to force the occupation government to immediately end the Gaza Strip’s suffering.”
The blockade kept out raw materials for factories and construction — hindering economic recovery and reconstruction after Israel’s winter 2009 offensive against Hamas, which left thousands of Gaza buildings in ruins. It also penned in residents, banned exports and restricted fuel to Gaza.
Gaza residents largely made due with goods — ranging from cows to computers — smuggled through tunnels under the border with Egypt.
Hamas also obtains building materials, weapons and cash through the tunnels, meaning shortages most harshly affect civilians.
On May 31, Israeli commandos raided an international flotilla seeking to break the blockade, killing nine activists on a Turkish ferry boat. The incident drew international criticism, and Israel said it would ease the blockade and facilitate large projects supervised by the United Nations and other aid groups.
The report said Israel’s easing has focused on food and consumer products, which have largely replaced dusty, tunnel-smuggled goods on Gaza’s shelves. But it has had little effect on larger projects.
The U.N. has plans to build 100 schools and 10,000 housing units, some to replace those destroyed in the war. The report said it has been able to start only 7 percent of these and even those have been slowed by Israeli bureaucracy and sluggish border crossings.
Israel has allowed other groups to begin work on projects like sewage plants, wells and community centers, but the report describes these as marginal compared with Gaza’s needs.
Overall, 11 percent of the materials entering Gaza before the blockade are now getting in, the report said.
The report noted that Israel has allowed in materials like wood for building and butter and fabric for factories. But it said the continued ban on most raw materials has kept 65 percent of Gaza’s factories shut.
Some 40 percent of Gazans are unemployed and 80 percent depend on aid.
US Announces More Sanctions Against Iran
One Week Ahead of Talks, US Extends Sanctions Yet More
by Jason Ditz,
www.antiwar.com
The Obama Administration has decided to ratchet up their sactions against Iran once again, with officials announcing today that 10 additional businesses and five more individuals were blacklisted for ostensible ties with Iran’s nuclear program.
The companies were centered around Iran’s banking and shipping industry, and the US Treasury Department is freezing all assets they have in US jurisdictions. Though the companies were described by officials as “Iranian fronts,” eight were actually Manx companies, and one was Malaysian-based.
The moves come just one week before the P5+1 talks with Iran in Geneva, Switzerland, and will almost certainly be viewed in a negative light by Iranian officials. As the talks are meant to reconcile Iran’s nuclear program with US demands it appears odd timing.
It will likely take a back seat in the question of US hostility to the talks, however, compared to Admiral Michael Mullen’s Sunday comments, suggesting that the US was still considering attacking Iran in the near future. The US has been threatening to attack Iran regularly for years.
Mike Huckabee Demands Bradley Manning’s Execution
Anything Short of Execution ‘Too Kind’
by Jason Ditz,
www.antiwar.com
In the midst of a book signing for his new children’s book “Can’t Wait Till Christmas!” former government and presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee appeared to lose sight of his Christmas spirit and went off on a tirade demanding the immediate execution of Pfc Bradley Manning, a 23 year old Army intelligence analyst.
Gov. Huckabee wants Bradley Manning executed
editor’s note–We are forced to wonder what Huckabee’s position is viz a viz Jonathon Pollard, the Israeli spy whose treason led to the deaths of over 1,000 intelligence agents/assets serving behind the Iron Curtain? We would be safe in betting our last dime on the likelihood that if asked Huckabee is in favor of commuting Pollard’s sentence and that short of that, would be decidedly opposed to Pollard riding the lightning express.
Manning is facing up to 52 years in prison for leaking documents to WikiLeaks, which violates the Uniform Code of Military Justice with regards to his handling of classified materials. Huckabee angrily declared that a prison sentence was “too kind.”
Rather Huckabee says that the leaker “is guilty of treason” and that anything short of execution was unacceptable. So far none of the charges against Manning could even theoretically carry the death penalty.
Later Huckabee condemned the New York Times for publishing the documents because “they know they (were) obtained in a way that is not appropriate.” He quickly transitioned from outraged demands for execution back into jovial joking with interviewers, and advised people to stay away from sugar during the holiday season.
Manning is being held incommunicado by the US military and as such was not available for immediate comment on the call for his death.
State Dept Warned Spain: US ‘Running Out of Patience’ With Antiwar Positions
Ambassador Told PM Zapatero to ‘Tone Down’ Criticism of Iraq War
by Jason Ditz,
www.antiwar.com
A new revelation from the WikiLeaks Cablegate releases comes from 2007, as Spain’s government was preparing to fight for reelection. The Bush-era State Department reacted with outrage that Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero’s Socialist Party was criticizing the former government’s involvement in the Iraq War, and concern that they were associating with “pacifists.”
Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero
Zapatero’s first term in office was won largely on opposition to the Iraq War, and he withdrew all the Spanish troops from Iraq shortly thereafter. Faced with criticism over his handling of the internal ETA conflict, the prime minister re-raised the issue of the Iraq War, condemning the invasion as “illegal.”
This was of serious concern to the Bush Administration which warned him that they were “running out of patience” with his public criticisms of the war, even though this is nearly three years after Spain had ended its participation in it. Then-ambassador Eduardo Aguirre is said to have accused Zapatero of being unfair in bringing the US and Britain into his criticism of the invasion of Iraq, saying Zapatero should focus exclusively on internal political rivals.
The cable ends with a warning to Zapatero to “tone down” his criticism of US foreign policy, and a note that Deputy Envoy Hugo Llorens (now ambassador to Honduras) intended to warn other top members of Spain’s ruling party not to publicly criticize the US invasion of Iraq in their campaigns.
Wiki-Leaks Serves Israeli Agenda Of Demonizing Iran
Joe Quinn
Sott.net
I obviously missed the momentous occasion when the mainstream media turned anti-war. But who can now deny that it is so when we see Wiki-leaks and the mainstream media joining forces to expose the ugly truth of the US invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, and more recently, what the US state department thinks of world leaders? I mean, that is what is happening, right?
Wrong.
What is happening is that Wiki-leaks is being promoted by the media in order to sell the same old lies, except that now the lies are coming sugar-coated, with a ‘whistle-blower’ gloss to better enable digestion. The lies themselves don’t frustrate me so much anymore, and I can understand why the general public are fooled, but I have to admit to being disappointed at how effortlessly the Wiki-leaks poison is being swallowed by so many supposedly alternative news sites. Sites like Counterpunch, Global Research, Citizens for a Legitimate Government and Information Clearing House, to name but a few, are all disseminating the Wiki-leaks story without so much as a hint of critical thought it seems.
From day one, the Wiki-leaks Afghan – and then Iraq – war logs revealed little if anything that was not already publicly available:
That the US uses assassination squads in Iraq and Afghanistan? Old news. Seven years ago the Guardianinformed us that not only were US ‘hit squads’ operating in Iraq, but that they were being trained by the Israelis! And in any case, is the idea that ‘hit squads’ are being used to track down the evil ‘Taliban’ in Afghanistan more appalling than the fact, splashed across American broadsheets earlier this year, that Obama signed a bill authorizing the assassination of American citizens by the CIA??
That the US pays the Iraqi and Afghan media for positive coverage is not only old news, it’s only half the story! Have we already forgotten the Lincoln Group and the precocious Christian Bailey? In 2005 the Lincoln group won (was awarded) a $100 Million contract to essentially control the entire Iraqi media via its own ‘Iraqi’ publications and the monopolization of the Iraqi advertising industry on an ongoing basis. All of these details have been carried in the mainstream press, yet they have done nothing to stop the bogus endless ‘war on terrorism’. Why then are we being encouraged to expect that the Wikileaks documents, which convey the same information, will fare any better? Is it because these details will soon be consigned to the memory hole (again) while other, more strategically important, details will be repeated ad nauseum?
Julian Assange and Wiki-leaks support the bogus ‘Iraq body count’ estimation of Iraqi deaths
That the US has killed thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan? Old news. In fact, on this one, the Wiki-leaks documents offered support for the much lower estimation of deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan by the discredited ‘Iraq Body Count’ rather than the much more realistic estimation of almost 1.5 million (in Iraq) by Just Foreign Policy
But quibbling over the number of dead Muslims is not important these days anyway, after all, they’re only Muslims, not real people, and the over-all exposure by the mainstream media of US misdeeds in Iraq and Afghanistan is, in itself, no bad thing. If Wiki-leaks left it at that, I would be more than happy to applaud the mysterious Mr Assange and the equally mysterious provenance of his documents. But the Wiki-leaks documents tell much more than arbitrary killing in wars of conquest, they also provide support for the continuation and expansion of those wars, most notably to Iran and Pakistan.
For example, the Afghan ‘war logs’ offered ‘evidence’ that Pakistan is helping the Taliban – that’s Pakistan, and not, as has been reported, the CIA:
Persistent accounts of western forces in Afghanistan using their helicopters to ferry Taleban fighters, strongly denied by the military, is feeding mistrust of the forces that are supposed to be bringing order to the country.
One such tale came from a soldier from the 209th Shahin Corps of the Afghan National Army, fighting against the growing insurgency in Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan. Over several months, he had taken part in several pitched battles against the armed opposition.
“Just when the police and army managed to surround the Taleban in a village of Qala-e-Zaal district, we saw helicopters land with support teams,” he said. “They managed to rescue their friends from our encirclement, and even to inflict defeat on the Afghan National Army.”
The UK Guardian‘s summation of the Afghan war logs was this:
– How a secret “black” unit of special forces hunts down Taliban leaders for “kill or capture” without trial.
– How the US covered up evidence that the Taliban have acquired deadly surface-to-air missiles.
– How NATO commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fueling the insurgency.
– How the Taliban have caused growing carnage with a massive escalation of their roadside bombing campaign, which has killed more than 2,000 civilians to date.
Are these the type of revelations that are going to cause serious problems for the US governments? Are they going to outrage the public? Having been conditioned for years to believe that the ‘Taliban’ are evil monsters, are people going to be angry or quietly proud that a ‘secret special forces unit’ is hunting the Taliban down ‘without trial’?
Does the ‘revelation’ that the Taliban acquired surface-to-air missiles damage or bolster the US government claim that they are fighting a war against a formidable foe in Afghanistan? Of what significance is it that the coalition covered up this alleged ‘fact’?
And the data that the Taliban ‘massively escalated their roadside bombing campaign, killing more than 2,000 civilians’; is this damaging to the US government, or ‘evidence’ that the US is fighting the good fight in Afghanistan?
The other English paper that ran with the Afghan ‘war logs’ was the NY Times. Their headline summation told us:
Pakistan Spy Service Aids Insurgents, Reports Assert
The fate of Combat Outpost Keating illustrates many of the frustrations of the allied effort: low troop levels, unreliable Afghan partners and a growing insurgency.
The military and intelligence reports provide a real-time history of the Afghan war from the vantage point of American troops actually doing the fighting and reconstruction.
So, thanks to Wiki-leaks, the unlikely darling of the mainstream media, the world is being informed that the ‘enemy’ in Afghanistan is growing stronger, Pakistan and Iran are to blame, and brave US troops are engaged in ‘reconstruction’ there!
But Pakistan and the Taliban are not the main target of disinformation in these documents. As more documents are released, it becomes clear that, sitting square in the bulls-eye, is Iran. The initial round of leaks provided this sensational ‘revelation’, reported here by the UK Telegraph:
Wiki-leaks: how Iran devised new suicide vest for al-Qaeda to use in Iraq
Iranian-backed forces supplied insurgents attacking coalition troops and devised new forms of suicide vests for al-Qaeda, according to assessments released by Wiki-leaks.
Only in their wildest dreams could the war-mongers in Washington and Tel Aviv have wished for a more on-message leak of ‘secret information’.
And so to the latest raft of documents, partially released just a few days ago. When I read their contents, to say that I was shocked would be to grossly over-state my reaction. I could have written them myself:
Wiki-leaks: Iran ‘obtains North Korea missiles which can strike Europe’
This one, I have to admit, is entirely believable because, after all, everyone knows Saddam had the same capability several years ago, remember? In fact, this ‘revelation’ about Iran’s capability to threaten Europe is even more believable than the ‘sexed-up’ Iraq dossier claim, because this revelation comes from Wiki-leaks, an honest-to-god whistle blower organization, right? I mean, there’s just no way that agents working on behalf of the US and Israeli governments could possibly use such an organization to spread propaganda, right?
Is there no one in the alternative news community that can see this for what it is? North Korea supplying missiles to Iran to attack Europe?! Right when the US and Israel are involved in a protracted effort to demonize Iran to the world and the US has an aircraft carrier sitting off the Korean Coast!? Is all of this meant to be so obvious, or did my reading of ‘psychological operations for dummies’ gift me with amazing insight into how political propaganda really works?
Does anyone truly believe that the fact that someone in the US State Department thinks that Sarkozy is an ‘Emperor with no clothes’ will do any real damage? Is this meant to be a secret? It is certainly no secret to over 60% of the French public who, years ago, openly stated as much. Likewise the ‘revelation’ about Berlusconi; ‘feckless, vain and ineffective as a modern European leader’? What about ‘senile, megalomaniac, psychopath, pedophile’ this is what the Italians and most Europeans are saying, does the US State Department not read the papers before compiling ‘secret dossiers’ on foreign leaders?
Wiki-leaks reveals inane, open secrets about Presidents and Prime Ministers
And what of the the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il? He’s a ‘flabby old chap’ according to these ‘damaging reports’. Is this meant to cause some kind of diplomatic rift between North Korea and Washington before or after the USA and its client state of South Korea bombs Kim and a few million North Koreans back to the stone age? And Iranian President Ahmadinejad – ‘Hitler’?? Does anyone expect the Obama government to want to retract that one or hide it from the public? More to the point, are we all suffering from collective amnesia? Who has repeatedly referred to Iran and it’s democratically-elected leader as Nazi Germany and a new Hitler? Anyone? Ok, here’s a hint.
Ok, so I mentioned Israel a couple of times. Why? Here’s one reason, from the horse’s mouth:
In Israel the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that he felt vindicated by [Wiki-leaks] revelations about the extent of international and Arab concern about Iran and its nuclear programme. “Israel has not been damaged at all by the WikiLeaks publications,” Netayahu said.
“The documents show many sources backing Israel’s assessments, particularly of Iran. Our region has been hostage to a narrative that is the result of 60 years of propaganda, which paints Israel as the greatest threat. In reality leaders understand that that view is bankrupt. For the first time in history there is agreement that Iran is the threat,” he said.
There is also the fact that it is public knowledge that Israel operates an extensive and very well-entrenched network of spies in the US, including the infamous Israeli art students.
In 2005 the FBI noted, for example, that Israel maintains “an active program to gather proprietary information within the United States.” A key Israeli method, said the FBI report, is computer intrusion.
And what are we to make of the strange coincidence where, on the very same day that Wiki-leaks releases documents that contain key data about the Iranian nuclear program, the Israeli Mossad murdersone Iranian nuclear scientist and injures another in Tehran?
In determining the origin of the Wiki-leaks documents, we need ask ourselves but one question: in whose interest is it to put pressure on the US government through the release of documents to the press (via Wiki-leaks) that force the US to do a certain amount of damage control, while simultaneously portraying Iran as the biggest threat to world peace? Because that, in the final analysis, is the overall effect of the Wiki-leaks documents. Wiki-leaks performs so poorly in the ‘smell test’ that I feel confident in suggesting that the documents may not even be original documents; and if they are, they have very likely been amended in such a way that they serve the Israeli/Zionist agenda.
CIA implanted electrodes in brains of unsuspecting soldiers, suit alleges
By David Edwards
(rawstory.com) A group of military veterans are suing to get the CIA to come clean about allegedly implanting remote control devices in their brains.
It’s well known that the CIA began testing substances like LSD on soldiers beginning in the 1950s but less is known about allegations that the agency implanted electrodes in subjects.
A 2009 lawsuit (.pdf) claimed that the CIA intended to design and test septal electrodes that would enable them to control human behavior. The lawsuit said that because the government never disclosed the risks, the subjects were not able to give informed consent.
Bruce Price, one plaintiff in the lawsuit, believes that MRI scans confirm that the CIA placed a device in his brain in 1966.
At one point, Bruce was ordered to visit a building with a chain link fence that housed test animals, including dogs, cats, guinea pigs and monkeys. After reporting, Bruce was strapped across his chest, his wrists, and his ankles to a gurney. Bruce occasionally would regain consciousness for brief moments. On one such instance, he remembers being covered with a great deal of blood, and assumed it was his own, but did not really know the source. Also portions of his arms and the backs of his hand were blue. His wrist and ankles were bruised and sore at the points where he had been strapped to the gurney. Bruce believes that this is the time period during which a septal implant was placed in his brain.
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DEFENDANTS placed some sort of an implant in Bruce’s right ethmoid sinus near the frontal lobe of his brain. The implant appears on CT scans as a “foreign body” of undetermined composition (perhaps plastic or some composite material) in Bruce’s right ethmoid, as confirmed in a radiology report dated June 30, 2004.
According to a 1979 book by former State Department intelligence officer John Marks, The CIA and the Search for the Manchurian Candidate, an internal 1961 memo by a top agency scientist reported that “the feasibility of remote control of activities in several species of animals has been demonstrated… Special investigations and evaluations will be conducted toward the application of selected elements of these techniques to man.”
“The CIA pursued such experiments because it was convinced the Soviets were doing the same,” The Washington Post‘s Jeff Stein noted.
In mid-November, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Larson ruled that the CIA must produce records and testimony regarding the experiments conducted on thousands of soldiers from 1950 through 1975.
“The CIA has already claimed that some documents are protected under the state-secrets privilege, but Larson said the agency needs to be more specific,” Courthouse News Service reported.
The CIA insisted discovery was unwarranted in its case, because it never funded or conducted drug research on military personnel.
Larson wasn’t convinced.
“[T]his court rejects the conclusion that the CIA necessarily lacks a nexus to Plaintiffs’ claims, and orders the CIA to respond in earnest” to the veterans’ requests, “particularly because defendants have presented evidence that would appear to cast doubt on that conclusion,” he wrote.
But Larson ruled that the CIA did not have to produce records about devices implanted in some of the subjects.
Gordon P. Erspamer, lead attorney for the veterans, told The Washington Post that he is still pursuing the CIA for implanting devices in his clients’ brains.
“There is no question that these experiments were done but defendants say that they used private researchers and test subjects drawn from prisons, hospitals and nursing homes as subjects, not active duty military [personnel],” Erspamer said. “CIA said it had no one knowledgeable on this topic.”
Erspamer noted that papers filed in the case describe “electrical devices implanted in brain tissue with electrodes in various regions, including the hippocampus, the hypothalamus, the frontal lobe (via the septum), the cortex and various other places.”
“A lot of this work was done out of Tulane University using a local state hospital and funding from a cut-out (front) organization called the Commonwealth Fund,” he said.
“We tried to get docs from Tulane, but they told us that they were destroyed in the hurricane flooding.”
“Return to sender” – Israel blocks the mail to Gaza
Palestinians in line at a post office in Gaza City.
(Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)
by Rami Almeghari
During the last four years of siege, Israel has tightly restricted the movement of people and goods in and out of the occupied Gaza Strip, which is home to 1.5 million Palestinians, the vast majority refugees.
Palestinians in Gaza cannot even communicate by mail, as Israel also severely restricts or delays the delivery of post including letters and packages.
Mahmoud Shehab owns a small factory in Gaza City that has made household water heaters for the past 15 years. Recently a friend of Shehab’s in London advised him to try to export his heaters. During a visit to Gaza, the friend was impressed by Shehab’s products and offered to send him some samples of parts that could be used to manufacture the products to a higher standard and produce a heater that would be considered environmentally-friendly.
“I did receive some catalogues and a small part,” Shehab said, but “for the past three months I have been trying to bring in British sample equipment. I am exhausted from phone calls to Majdi [his friend], and to courier offices in Gaza and Israel. I have lost about $600 in phone calls.”
Shehab still hasn’t given up. He says he has heard that someone from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, who is currently based in London, is planning a visit home to see his family. “He has been asked if he would agree to bring the equipment to Gaza with him,” Shehab said.
For Shehab the inability to send and receive material is devastating: “Can you imagine, If I had received the parts I need in the past three months, I would have already shipped at least one sample water heater back to London.”
Despite Israel’s announcement that it has “eased” the blockade of Gaza in the wake of its attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla last May — when nine activists were shot dead by Israeli commandos — Palestinians in Gaza still have severe problems receiving mail. Israel especially blocks electronic equipment, which affects doctors, those needing hearing aids, electricians, technicians of all kinds and journalists.
Indeed, last week EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said that Israel had largely failed to live up to its promises to ease the siege. Ashton, speaking on behalf of EU foreign ministers, said that too few goods to meet humanitarian and reconstruction needs were flowing in to Gaza and “at the present time, we think that what’s happened with Gaza is unsatisfactory, the volume of goods is not increasing as significantly as it needs to.”
Yousef al-Mansi, Minister of Post and Telecommunications with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority in Gaza, told The Electronic Intifada that Israel continues to block the regular movement of mail in and out of Gaza.
“They now prevent everything. For example, for the past eight months they have restricted entry of papers and documents. We have been in constant contact with concerned postal bodies worldwide in order to pressure the Israeli side,” al-Mansi said. According to the postal ministry, in the summer of 2008, Israel withheld about twenty trucks loaded with mail packages from abroad. When the cargo was released in the winter of 2009, most of the items inside packages were either damaged or expired. International courier offices in the region say that Israel permits only papers, documents and some clothes into Gaza.
Israel’s mail blockade has attracted some international solidarity. In August, the Canadian postal workers union announced its support for activist efforts to send a Canadian boat to try to break the blockade on Gaza. The union said it would symbolically deliver mail to Gaza on the boat. This followed the announcement by Canada Post, the country’s postal service, that it would no longer accept mail destined for Gaza since there was no way to deliver it.
Explaining his members’ support for the boat to Gaza, Denis Lemelin, president of the Canadian postal workers union, told The Star newspaper “Mail is something that’s important for people. It’s contact with members of family and the outside world. It’s always important to find an alternative and this alternative is the boat to Gaza” (“Postal union gives stamp of approval to Gaza mail mission,” 25 August 2010).
For Mahmoud Shehab there is no immediate relief in sight. “It is my right to proceed with my production,” he said. “I wonder why the Israelis prevent the entry of the equipment I need?”
The restrictions on the mail are just one more way Israel keeps Palestinians in Gaza cut off and prevents them using their own creativity to improve their situation.
Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the Gaza Strip.
5 Palestinians Injured By Army Fire In Gaza
(uruknet.de) Five Palestinian workers were wounded, on Tuesday, in an area close to the border north of Gaza after the army opened fire at them. The incident followed a rapid succession of sniper attacks, Ma’an News reported.
The attack took place when the men were reportedly gathering stone aggregates in the northern Gaza Strip, near the Israeli settlement of Eli Sinai, north of Beit Lahia. The injured were taken by Red Crescent ambulances that took them to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalia.
According to medics, the five were first carried out from the area by donkey cart, as ambulances could not reach the area, until they were safely taken out of the “no-go-zone” imposed by Israel.
The Palestinians are not allowed into the zone as the army believes attacks against nearby Israeli areas stem from there. The lands of this zone form about 20% of arable farm lands in the coastal strip.
With the latest injuries confirmed, the number of workers shot by Israeli forces went up to 12 in the last 48 hours.
Israel blocks two UN Gaza schools, citing Hamas threat
