What is in Syria that keeps Obama quiet?

What is in Syria that is not being talked about? Hizballah, an Iranian terrorist group, is there. But what else is in Syria, besides a genocidal maniac of a president, which should give us cause for deep concern?

There are allegations and a book claiming that, when Saddam Hussein knew that he was about to be invaded, he started flying his chemicals and WMD related materials into Syria. “In April 2003 US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld stated that the US had evidence to suggest that Syria had been conducting chemical weapons tests over the prior 12 to 15 months”, as posted at GlobalSecurity .org. It has been claimed that two Iraqi Boeing airplanes had been used as the transportation for this task. The 56 flights were largely ignored due to the coming US invasion (everyone thought the civilians were getting out of the way, now we know that was not the case) and they coincided with a flood in Syria. This flood provided the presumption that Iraq was sending aid.

So, there is the opportunity and a method for moving WMD into Syria.

Since then there have been a multitude of banks, chemical, manufacturing, and construction firms doing business between Iran and Syria. A very few of them include Fars Chemical Industries Company, Export Development Bank of Iran, Machine Sazi Arak, Ministry of Defense Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), and Defense Industries Organization (DIO).

Fars Chemical produced and provided to Syria S.S. 304 reactors (used in nuclear reactors) equipped with agitators and laboratory equipment that include spectrophotometer, Perkin Elmer 1320 IR instrument, vacuum and other ovens, rotary vacuum distillation device. The rotary vacuum distillation device is found as part of a centrifuge distillation system used to produce up to 90% enriched uranium.

Machine Sazi Arak had been listed by the British government in 2010 as an entity of potential concern for WMD-related procurement; listed as an entity of concern for occasional military procurement activities in an early warning document distributed by the German government to industry in July 2005; identified by the British government in February 1998 as having procured goods and/or technology for weapons of mass destruction programs. Quite the resume, wouldn’t you say?

Defense Industries Organization (DIO) is in charge of Iranian military, missile, nuclear, biological, and chemical programs. It is controlled by Iran's Ministry of Defense Armed Forces Logistics. The U.S. Department of State indicates the DIO has engaged in activities that have materially contributed to the development of Iran's nuclear and missile programs such as making “Iran’s centrifuge program components."

Ministry of Defense Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) which ,according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, controls Iran's Defense Industries Organization (DIO) and is the ultimate authority over Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization and manufactures Shahab-3 missiles (medium range, liquid-propellant, road-mobile ballistic missile capable of deploying a nuclear warhead similar to the warhead design sold by A.Q. Khan to Libya (http://www.missilethreat.com/missilesoftheworld/id.107/missile_detail.asp)) and has brokered transactions involving materials and technologies with ballistic missile applications.

What is in Syria that is not being talked about? Hizballah, an Iranian terrorist group with a long and documented history of creating front groups to kill from, is there. But what else is in Syria, besides a genocidal maniac of a president who believes in and follows the same brand of Marxist Islam Khadafy followed, which should give us cause for deep concern?

 

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/exposing-hizballahs-front-groups/?singlepage=true

http://www.iranwatch.org/suspect/records/fars-chemical-industries-company.html

http://www.iranwatch.org/suspect/records/export-developmentbank-of-iran.html

http://www.iranwatch.org/suspect/records/machine-sazi-arak-(msa).html

http://www.iranwatch.org/suspect/records/ministry-of-defense-armed-forces-logistics-(modafl).html

Syrian Oil Banned

President Doolittle has signed an Executive Order banning the purchase/import of Syrian oil. With Syria being ranked in the o30’ on the list of oil producing countries globally, what does that really mean? I say it amounts to nothing; absolutely nothing. We, as a country, use more oil in one day than Syria exports all year!

How much oil do we import from Syria? Index Mundi has Syria ranked at 32^nd in the world for oil production at 400,400 bbl/day.

Another chart at Index Mundi indicates that oil from Syria dropped sharply in 2004/2005 and has fluctuated since

Country	2001	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Syria	522,700	525,000	403,800	405,000	433,200	381,600	400,400

How much of this does Syria export?

Country	2004	2005	2006	2008
Syria	285,000	254,500	175,000	155,000

How much oil does the US consume each year?

Country	2001	2003	2004	2007	2009
United States	19,650,000	20,030,000	20,730,000	20,680,000	18,690,000

In short, the banning of oil from Syria will do actually no damage to US oil reserves. I seriously doubt that any person with scruples high enough to slaughter his own citizens is going to find reason to stay bound to “the law”. I believe that al-Assad will find plenty of buyers for his petroleum, perhaps starting with North Korea. This is an empty gesture from an empty suit that will amount to nothing more than wasted time and dead Syrians under the heel of a;-Assad.

Presidential Memorandum--Blocking Property of the Government of Syria and Prohibiting Certain Transactions with Respect to Syria

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:

Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA) and in light of the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-175) (SAA), I hereby report that I have issued an Executive Order (the "order") that takes additional steps with respect to the Government of Syria's continuing escalation of violence against the people of Syria and with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13338 of May 11, 2004, as modified in scope and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13399 of April 25, 2006, Executive Order 13460 of February 13, 2008, Executive Order 13572 of April 29, 2011, and Executive Order 13573 of May 18, 2011.

In Executive Order 13338, the President found that the actions of the Government of Syria constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.  To address that threat and to implement the SAA, the President in Executive Order 13338 blocked the property of certain persons and imposed additional prohibitions on certain transactions with respect to Syria.  In Executive Order 13572, I expanded the scope of that national emergency and imposed additional sanctions.

The order blocks the property and interests in property of the Government of Syria.  The order also provides criteria for designations of persons determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State:

• to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to the order; or
• to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to the order.

The order also prohibits the following:

• new investment in Syria by a United States person, wherever located;
• the exportation, reexportation, sale, or supply, directly or indirectly, from the United States, or by a United States person, wherever located, of any services to Syria;
• the importation into the United States of petroleum or petroleum products of Syrian origin;
• any transaction or dealing by a United States person, wherever located, including purchasing, selling, transporting, swapping, brokering, approving, financing, facilitating, or guaranteeing, in or related to petroleum or petroleum products of Syrian origin; and
• any approval, financing, facilitation, or guarantee by a United States person, wherever located, of a transaction by a foreign person where the transaction by that foreign person would be prohibited by section 2 of the order if performed by a United States person or within the United States.

I have delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury the authority, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA, as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of the order.

All agencies of the United States Government are directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority to carry out the provisions of the order.

I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/08/18/presidential-memorandum-blocking-property-government-syria-and-prohibiti

http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?c=sy&v=88

Somali Test Bombers

Do you recall last week when three Somalis tried to get a fake bomb into the terminal? I do. I thought we were busy savign Somalis in Somalia? Why are they trying to bomb us here? Ongoing investigation or not, call your elected perpetrators, er representatives and DEMAND that the US STOP sending aid dollars into Somalia. I am telling you, folks, nothing good is going to come out of helping Somalia. We went there under Clintonian efforts to save the people during a famine (sound familiar?) then Black Hawk Down happened. In 2007 two aid planes were shot down. Just recently it has been "revealed" that aid is being stolen, rerouted, and extorted from those who need it most. This is Somalia! This is how they say thank you!

Phoenix TSA Bomb ‘Probe’ Confounds

By John Guzzon
Modern Times Magazine
Aug. 17, 2011 — When a Somali immigrant was stopped by TSA agents last week at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport for allegedly carrying a fake bomb onto a plane, no one really seemed to notice.
Sure, it was reported by all the usual sources, but because it is an ongoing investigation, law enforcement — specifically the FBI — is not providing many details. The only three people that had anything to do with the ‘fake bomb’  — as far as the public knows — are in jail. The only information available for public consumption is a press release from the FBI announcing a complaint had been filed and the complaint itself.
The scant evidence — Sheriff’s Office mugshots and the complaint — leaves a wide range of options within which to speculate on what happened. But make no mistake, this might be one of the most important homeland security events since 2001.
But then again, it could be just someone carrying something that authorities thought was  bomb although it was an innocent mistake.
See what I mean?
Luwiza Laku Daman, the Somali woman who was taken into custody by TSA and Phoenix Police for trying to get through security with what looked like a bomb, told law enforcement she came to Phoenix from Des Moines, Iowa, for a wedding and that she was indirectly given a package from a Somali living in Phoenix. She was asked by a friend to take the package to a Somali man living in DesMoines. Virtually all of the other details of Daman’s initial story have changed, although in the complaint it is acknowledged that language barriers between law enforcement and the suspects made interrogations difficult.
But the inconsistencies don’t really seem to amount to much. Daman, who has been in the U.S. for about four months, initially said she was staying with one woman, but that person said she stayed with another woman. The details of how she got the package have changed — but just how she got it. One version of the story says “Jaffa” who eventually was discovered to be Shullu Gorado of West Phoenix gave it to another woman at her house. Another story says he gave it to same woman at another person’s home.
He was sending some “halva” a middle-eastern confection, to friends in Iowa. The halva, according to police, was the simulated explosive.
Another man, Asa Shani, says he found a cellular phone in Phoenix and was hoping Daman would take it to his brother in Des Moines. It was taped to the top of the box of halva. He even took investigators out to his car where they inspected the tape he used.
That, according to investigators, was the simulated detonator.
Now, that is the story the suspects told. As every red-blooded American knows from the cop shows, the stories might just be a tale, or it may be the truth.
The federal complain charges the three suspects with violation of Title 18 — which makes it illegal to transmit a fake bomb through security at an airport. Even if the simualted exposive device turns out to be some sugar and flour in a box with a phone taped on it. The thing didn’t even have any wires.
Special Agent Benjamin Oesterle wrote in the complaint that it was believed that the actions of Daman, Gorado and Shani could have been to probe airport security to find out how to exploit it and TSA’s response. But the fact is, if that is happening, who is financing them and where will they strike next? If some terror group is responsible for probing two airports thousands of miles apart within the same few days, isn’t that a pretty big threat?
But then again, it might just be a few security guards and cops getting a little too paranoid about a box of dessert and a cell phone.
Wierd.John Guzzon is editor of Modern Times Magazine

And, Still, They Die

Obama and Clinton condemn Assad. Assad condemns the US for condemning him. Really, what else was expected? And still they die whil Obama dithers http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/08/19/bloomberg1376-LQ81D01A1I4H01-3UCMJ86N4F4U087RIKG7MPDOCE.DTL

BLUF

It is more expedient and safer for Obama and Clinton to build a stronger international outcry against Assad than to actually do anything. By safer I mean that his ratings will take a straight line drop if he gets us into another messy spot right now. Libya is still going on and Obama cannot take the pressure of getting into another war, particularly after having lambasted Bush for doing that.  I also do not believe that Obama will do anything until the Organization of Islamic Countries tells the UN to get America into the game.

BACKGROUND

Syrian troops have continued their assault on the Syrian people. In events that are frighteningly similar to those of 1993 in Bugojno where Croats were rounded up and held captive at the Iskra Soccer Club before being tortured and executed, Syrians are undergoing a mass arrest and detention that is most likely to end in mass murder.

The people being rounded up and held in the stadium in Latakia were simply trying to escape the onslaught from the government forces. Many people have been killed trying to run away. Perhaps now that a Palestinian camp in Latakia has been shelled and evacuated the Arab Street (read Gutter) will rail against Assad. Why not? Israel gets slammed for defending themselves against Palestinian rockets, why not Assad getting a slap on the wrist for shelling a Palestinian refugee camp?

The White House said the US was working with other countries to pressure Assad to end the "outright murder of his own people." This statement has come from Jay Carney, but still no real action. Carney says that Obama is talking with other countries about what to do. "The Syrian people deserve a peaceful transition to democracy; they deserve a government that doesn't torture them, arrest them and kill them. And we are looking, together with a broad array of international partners, to increase pressure on President Assad"

Obama is going on a three day bus tour that has already cost more than $2.2 million dollars. Assad is using naval bombardment, snipers, and tanks against his own citizenry. Where is the outrage? Where is the disgust? Edmund Burke said that when good men do nothing, evil triumphs.

I can, to a point, understand the reluctance of the UN and its lackeys to not get involved in or say anything about Syria. The UN is already bleeding out in Sudan and have been for years. The UN suffered assault after assault along the Ethiopia/Eritrea border. They proved utterly useless in Bosnia in protecting citizens with “gun free” and UN safe zones like Prijedor and Srebrenica. So, why get into it with Assad? Why do anything without the permission of the OIC (the largets voting bloc in the UN)? Why go to Syria when there is no shelling, sniping, or bombardment of rural areas and cities in Burma?

Burma? Really, UN? I thought that sub continent Asian country ceased to exist and has for years been called Myanmar. I know the UN is going to just waste time and dither while people are slaughtered, raped, murdered en masse globally. These crimes are being committed daily by their own member states while we, the people of the US, pay them with our tax dollars.

So, Obama and Clinton feel that it is better for all if Assad hears more and more nations say that he has to go. Fine; what happens if, in six months, all the countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia say that Assad has to go. Will he? Will he just step down to accept a trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity? Omar al-Bashir and Khadafy are both under warrant for war crimes such as slaughtering their own people.

In my opinion it is easier and more expedient for Obama to say little and do nothing about Assad. Obama’s ratings plummeted as the Libya intervention lingered, and lingers, on. Assad will continue, unfettered, unchecked, until he has completely cleansed his country of anyone who would dare say that he was not a kind and benevolent leader.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/17/world/middleeast/17syria.html?_r=1

http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/08/16/un-rights-investigator-to-visit-burma-next-week/

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/united-nations-needs-harsh-sanctions-against-syria

Growing Unrest in the Middle East

As the violence from the Arab Spring spreads, it comes to mind that it might, just MIGHT, have something to do with the foreknowledge that the US is pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Just a thought, but, onto the BLUF

Bottom Line Up Front

No real action will be taken against Syria until the UN has gotten permission from the Organization of Islamic Countries. When action does come, the US will be at the forefront and reigned back by other regimes.

Background

The Middle East is now, always has been, and always will be, a violent mess. The so called "Arab Spring" brings to mind all sorts of lush, new green, budding growth. Nothing could be farther from the truth. World bodies, comprised of presumably democratic nations, stand and do nothing. The only action that is taken, be it in Iran, Algeria, Egypt, or now Syria, comes after the UN first goes through a regular series of steps to publicly "do something". It ends after the US gets called on by the UNSC to actually do something. When it was Lybia, Obama acted under the War Powers Act by putting us and NATO in the air and on the ground there. Now, with Syria five months into killings protestors, the UN continues to talk about and to consider what actions may (not will, but may) be taken.

On the UNSC are three bodies opposing stronger sanctions, sanctions that require unanimous support to be passed (no talk about enforcing, just passing) as a legal resolution. Those opposing the passage are Russia, China, and Lebanon. There is no shock that Russia and China, both of whom have strong records of making their own citizens disappear and die, are opposed to actions against Syria. So, too, is Lebanon. Lebanon is the proxy presence of Iran on the UNSC.

There are also reports that the United States has evidence of crimes against humanity that the Assad regime is now guilty of. Crimes which UN Secratary General Ban Ki-Moon says are very possibly real. These alleged and hinted at vharges are goig to be used as leverage, by the US, to get Assad to step down. To step down, ouch. That he gets to step down after committing crimes against humanity and slaughtering his own people is a sickening thought. Five months of killing his citizens and he could face the possibility of being asked to step down.

Considering the rally such a statement from the US would result in, this would likely come to the bloody and tortuous end of those who rallied at the words of our President. So, while the civilized world is "appalled" by the daily murder of Syrians citizens by their dictator Assad, the Ditherer In Chief waits for the OIC and the UN to let him off of his leash.Even while the impotent UN meets to talk about taking more action, Surians continue to suffer and die. Assets that the US can freeze have been. State Department personnel seem distressed that Assad cannot hear the call of the international community to stop. He can't seem to hear anything over the sound of the guns being used to kill protestors en masse. Leaders of Arab nations will continue to meet and discuss this uprising in Syria in their cool, clean offices and sprawling dining rooms, entreating their wayward cohort to be more gentle with his people.The nearly 2,000 people who have died during the last 5, almost 6, months will bear silent witness to the lack of concern for anyone.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/crimes-against-humanity-possible-in-syria-un_721685.html

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gC-QbkO61noyu9aKJB6RcyXBFmew?docId=CNG.d1c504bf387227a7f8244a7ff8064da3.481

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/UN-Security-Council-Meeting-on-Syria-127443678.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/08/09/bloomberg1376-LPOO8F1A74E901-1JGKKEAQ2BAM1PTBP3R96QKV9I.DTL&ao=2

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/09/the-u-n-and-double-standards/

Hamas and Hezbollah Use Disabled and Amputees as Warriors

From the Vicious Babushka! Why not the crippled? They spent years telling children to go a spray flowers on foreigners.

Hamas and Hezbollah Use Disabled and Amputees as Warriors

Islamic Jihad military wing hold all-in-one PR campaign, military maneuvers – using crippled and injured militants in bid to prove they won't let anything stop them
What PR value is there in a military display that includes crippled and injured operatives? According to the Islamic Jihad's website, the military wing recently held maneuvers in which veteran members of the Jihad who had been injured over the years in battles with Israeli forces had a starring role.
The maneuvers included sights not usually seen on the battlefield, one-legged men carrying Kalashnikov rifles or RPG launchers while leaning on crutches or sitting in wheelchairs.
According to armed factions in Gaza the display is a PR demonstration that strengthens their activities within the Palestinian internal political system.
The Islamic Jihad has puffed up its position against Hamas as the group spearheading the struggle against Israel. The organization has gone all out on a PR campaign to glorify its fighters in the Gaza Strip – the height of the campaign is their latest exhibition maneuver.
"Bombing us and leaving us amputees will not stop the Jihad," the military wing's website quoted one militant, Abu Abdallah who lost both his legs in clashes near Khan Yunis. "We will continue to fight even when our bodies are torn to pieces."
The website quotes another militant, Abed al-Rahman whose leg was cut off in "an IDF strike". "We trust in the Jihad way and we will not change it. There is no alternative to Jihad and resistance, until all Palestinian land is freed from the criminal Zionists," he stressed. According to al-Rahman, even when he was being rushed to hospital after he was injured, he promised himself that he would return to the Jihad path upon his release.

 

Child Soldiers in Yemen

Since the beginning of the popular uprising, Yemen’s government has had to intensify its military recruitment campaign. With the recent waves of defections and the opening of several new fronts, the army is in great need of fresh blood. But most importantly, the government is trying to gather new loyalty under its banner in order to face the threat posed by Sheikh Sadeeq al-Ahmar. Although only a tribal leader, Sheikh Sadeeq has managed over the years to build up a militia quite capable of challenging the Yemeni army.
In response to this, the Defense Minister decided a few months ago to reopen the doors of its training camps, hoping that the promises of a steady income and a state pension would encourage many Yemenis to sign up. Officers close to defected General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar are saying that al-Islah and the 1st Armored Division are also following suit, trying to enroll more men to their cause, promising them a resemblance of financial security.

In a country where over 40% of the population is out of work, finding a government job is pretty much what everyone is after. Although the salaries are no more than 25,000 YER, about $110, many are attracted by the guarantee of a lifetime income. And if this tactic is pretty much “old school” when it comes to the military, a worrying trend is starting to emerge, as many of the new recruits are actually children.

Lambs to the Wolves

Young Ahmed Iryani, for example, is only 15 years old; he was hired by the 1st Armored Division just after General Mohsen decided to side with the revolutionaries, severing ties with the government. “It is better for me to work for 25,000 YER a month than stay home without anything to do,” he said. With a gun bigger than him, Ahmed is proudly manning one of the checkpoints around “Change Square”, not realizing that if a conflict were to break out, he would be standing directly on its frontline. “Those kids are meat for the Regime and al-Islah… they are posted where it is most dangerous. It’s sad,” said a Sana’a resident.
Child rights advocates are now warning against the trend, adding that if Yemen were to sink into war, many of its children would be sacrificed on the battlefields, innocent victims of a vicious system which preys on the most vulnerable.

Since March, most of the men enlisted are well below the legal age of 18. The recruiters are being told by the government to turn a blind eye and to falsify the army documents, making the new recruits appear older. “Two months ago, my 14-year-old cousin got an ID card showing he is 18 and he joined the Republican Guards,” Hamid al-Ghurbani, a high school teacher in Sana’a, told IRIN. “Last week, I saw him carrying a gun.”

Once the military IDs have been issued it is almost impossible to verify whether the soldiers are truly of legal age. To make matters worse, most of the recruits’ families, when they have any, are accomplice to this charade, preoccupied only by the new source of income.

On both sides, whether it be the government or the tribes, the same phenomenon is taking place. A retired general revealed that the “tactic” had been used systematically for several decades by Saleh’s regime. The Army usually targets orphans and runaways, offering them shelter and money against their undying loyalty. “Those kids were alone, without parents or guardians to look after them. The Army became their home, and President Ali their father,” said the general. But the government and Gen. Mohsen are now going one step further in child abuse. They are using the young recruits as bait to calculate the opposition’s reactions.
In Hasaba and in Arhab, those kids are sent as scouts to spy on the enemies’ positions or are used as decoy. Back in May, Hameed al-Ahmar used them to secure the area around his house. With only a few sand bags to protect them, they were asked to hold their positions no matter what. Residents reported that the children were so terrified that they did not dare look up from their shelter and were shooting blindly.
A recent report from the UN estimated that at least 15% of the tribal militia affiliated with the regime are children.
Human Right Watch rang the alarm bell as well, confirming that over the past few months they had come across several dozens of soldiers who appeared to be well below the legal age requirement. According to the organization so far this year 500 “child soldiers” were killed in action.

http://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2011/08/08/child-soldiers-in-yemen/

Iranian Aid To Eritrea and Somalia

Bottom Line Up Front

BLUF

Training, supplies, transportation, and other logistics support are provided by Eritrea to al-Shabaab in Somalia. Why would Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and General Te'ame Goitom, Eritrea's external intelligence operations chief in the horn, go through the trouble and expense of imposing taxes on its expats? According to the chart at NationMaster.com ranking countries by income per capita, Eritrea is ranked 164^th out of 170 nations with an average income of $145.39 per person. If I was at the head of a country with that kind of income I would push for expat workers to send something back, too.

Background:

But, why spend what little money they get on war and a proxy war with Ethiopia? The two countries have been fighting since 1963. Eritrea is currently a 50/50 split on religion, Christianity and Islam, being the two major beliefs. I do not think that is really at the base of the issue. I believe that, since Iran has shown interest in uranium (which is available in the Horn of Africa) and sees an opportunity to impact how trade is shipped (control one end of the Red Sea and you can effectively shut down the Suez Canal), the continuance of this decades old conflict is being fueled by Iran.

Where Iran sees a chance to get some cash and have a wider influence, Afwerki sees a partner in unseating Ethiopian dictator Meles Zenawi. How can fueling conflict in Somalia unseat Zenawi in Ethiopia? If Zenawi spends enough resources and time in Somalia propping up the fragile government there, Eritrea can conduct easier and more effective border skirmishes with Ethiopia.

More and more nations are recognizing that Afwerki has been sending plane loads of weapons and aid to al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia in violation of UN bans and international agreements.

With the addition of a new naval base at Jask at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, and new basing at Assab in Eritrea, Iran can exercise a decisive military presence on multiple shores astride the pivotal oil sea lanes.

Iran has been, for several years now, strengthening its diplomatic and economic ties to several African nations including, but not limited to, Nigeria, The Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania, Uganda, and Sudan. With stronger ties and, presumably, a correspondingly stronger presence around Africa, Iran stands to gain regional influence  that is likely to threaten, or at least severely degrade, security in the European southern coastal regions and the Western Hemisphere. I believe that such a relationship will not significantly degrade, but rather spread, piracy like that which is being seen in Somali waters.

With Iranian aid going to both Shabaab and the Somali government, how does US aid fit in? Where is the line between supporting the corrupt and weak Transitional Federal Government and supporting terrorist groups? How is it that we can operate alongside a country which has been and is still under international legal sanctions for overtly and covertly supporting terrorism?

Articles Referenced

http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/money-raised-from-bay-area-eritreans-help-finance-al-shabaab-al-qaeda/

http://www.asmarino.com/news-analysis/170-eritreas-dangerous-iran-and-al-shabaab-connections-

http://thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=980&pageid=37&pagename=Page+One

http://www.irantracker.org/foreign-relations/somalia-iran-foreign-relations

http://www.economist.com/node/15453225

UN human rights experts urge Syria to end use of violence against civilians

The UN is urging them?! Why isn't the UN leading the charge to cut off funding? Why aren't we, the US, leading the charge to cut off funding?

5 August 2011 – As the crackdown by the Syrian Government against its own people continues unabated, a group of United Nations human rights experts today renewed their call for an immediate end to the violence used by the authorities against ongoing protests.
“The Government of Syria cannot be allowed to violate with impunity its obligation to uphold international law nor attack the very citizens it has sworn to protect without consequences,” the experts stressed in a news release.
“We unequivocally call on the Government of Syria to immediately cease the violent crackdown, stop the killings and pursue dialogue through peaceful processes,” they added.
The call by the experts, who all report in an independent and unpaid capacity to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, comes two days after the Security Council condemned the widespread violation of human rights in Syria and the use of force against civilians by the security forces.
The country has been rocked by deadly civil unrest since mid-March, with the Government cracking down on protesters demanding greater civil liberties. Similar protests have erupted across North Africa and the Middle East since the start of this year, having already toppled regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, and leading to ongoing conflict in Libya.
Media reports say that Syrian security forces opened fire today on protesters who poured into the streets by the tens of thousands as the regime continued its assault on the besieged city of Hama, where around 100 people are reported to have been killed in recent days.
The experts said they continued to receive reports of the systematic use of excessive force resulting in killings and injuries; allegations of torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detention of protestors; targeting of human rights defenders; and unjustified limitations on freedoms of peaceful assembly and expression.
The Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, stressed that freedom of peaceful assembly is core to any democratic society.
“It is of utmost importance that the Government finally addresses the legitimate concerns of peaceful protestors, instead of silencing their voices with brute force,” said Mr. Kiai.
The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, added that the indiscriminate use of heavy artillery against demonstrators cannot be justified.
“No State is allowed to use its military force against an unarmed civilian population regardless of the situation prevailing on the ground,” he stated. “The killings that result are clearly arbitrary executions and punishable under international law.”
Also speaking out today were the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan Méndez; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue; and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya.
The Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Jeremy Sarkin, and the Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, El Hadji Malick Sow, also joined the call on Syria to end its violent crackdown.

Week In Review

This week has been busy for a number of people in a number of countries. 108 terror related bombings, which include those that were hoaxes and those which were found prior to detonation. The targets of these attacks include police, students, medical facilities, transit centers, and the like. Some of the bombings were dual attacks; that is to say, there was a second bomb timed to go off during the first responders arrival. One large attack in Iraq this week was timed to blow up people who were simply cashing their checks.

Syrian bodies, I presume Syrians, were reportedly being dumped into the ocean for disposal. Isn’t this some sort of environmental issue?

All these years later and people are still getting mysterious powders mailed in envelopes, why? Because fear works; that is the point of terrorism, to cause fear for a political gain.

Of course the United Nations is going to say nothing and do less in the wake of the attacks this week. The largest voting bloc in the UN is the OIC, the Organization of Islamic Countries; a group that has infiltrated and adopted its own policies which are contrary to all the principles of America. Yet, America still pays more than 25% of the UN operating budget and has paid to Middle Eastern states (which comprise the OIC) $33,486,000,000. That is nearly thirty three and a half BILLION dollars paid into the coffers of our enemies. That number, as shocking and sickening as it is, is only the tip of the iceberg.

The member states of the OIC are also U.N. members. Doesn’t this create a situation in which some states are represented twice while other member states are represented by one person?

The OIC has stood in the way of the US led Global War on Terror in many ways. One is by maintaining ccontradictions between OIC's and other U.N. member’s legal definition of terrorism. This has stymied efforts at the U.N. to produce a comprehensive convention on international terrorism.

In 2008 OPEC/OIC states have received $11,734,000,000 US Tax Dollars. I don’t know about you, but I want to identify the elected representatives who insist on these monies being paid, and firing them. Those reps should not even be eligible for their ”pension” after doing this. That is just my opinion, for what it’s worth.

Korea is in charge of the U.N. Office of Disarmament and the head of the Iranian Guard Corps is now the president of OPEC. A gross and I do mean ‘gross’ violator of disarmament principles, human rights, and an armed psychopath who has threatened America with unprovoked nuclear attacks is now in charge of policing the world’s weapons.

The price of gas is only going to get worse. I really cannot summarize the threats illustrated by Wiki-Leaks which I posted earlier this week. I expect that Obama is going to kill the Keystone XL Pipeline project. All those jobs, union members and non-union alike, are going to not happen.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has been busy ethnically cleansing itself. Enjoy the return on the investment of $963,000,000 dollars in 2008 in Pakistan.

The question is what now? What do we do now? We stop the leaks. Those bills, laws, acts, all that leaad to sending our money to our enemies need to be repealed, and the wirters/supporters removed. If the people who are in leadership positions can not love, honor, and respect this country and her citizens then they have no right being in those leadership positions.