Israeli Outpost Pits Courts Vs. Government (NPR Weekend Edition, 1/28/12)

An illegal Jewish outpost in the occupied West Bank is at the center of a swirling battle over settlements. The collection of trailers and makeshift buildings is called Migron, and the Israeli Supreme Court has said that it must be dismantled by the end of March. NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports.  Listen to story.

False Flag
(Mark Perry, Foreign Policy 1/13/12)

A series of CIA memos describes how Israeli
Mossad agents posed as American spies to recruit members of the terrorist organization Jundallah to fight their covert war against Iran.

Buried in the archives of America's intelligence services are a series of memos, written during the
last years of President George W. Bush's administration, that describe how Israeli Mossad officers recruited operatives belonging to the terrorist group Jundallah by passing themselves off as
American agents.

According to two U.S. intelligence officials, the Israelis, flush with American dollars and toting U.S. passports, posed as CIA officers in recruiting Jundallah operatives -- what is commonly referred to as a "false flag" operation.

Jundallah, according to the U.S. government and published reports, is responsible for assassinating Iranian government officials and killing Iranian women and children.

Israel's recruiting activities occurred under the nose of U.S. intelligence officers, most notably in London, where Mossad officers posing as CIA operatives met with Jundallah officials.
 
The officials did not know whether the Israeli program to recruit and use Jundallah is ongoing. Nevertheless, they were stunned by the brazenness of the Mossad's efforts.   "It's amazing what
the Israelis thought they could get away with," the intelligence officer said. "Their recruitment
activities were nearly in the open. They apparently didn't give a damn what we thought."
Interviews with six currently serving or recently retired intelligence officers over the last 18 months have helped to fill in the blanks of the Israeli false-flag operation.
 
There is no denying that there is a covert, bloody, and ongoing campaign aimed at stopping Iran's nuclear program, though no evidence has emerged connecting recent acts of sabotage and killings inside Iran to Jundallah.

Many reports have cited Israel as the architect of this covert campaign, which claimed its latest
victim on Jan. 11 when a motorcyclist in Tehran slipped a magnetic explosive device under the car
of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a young Iranian nuclear scientist. The explosion killed Roshan, making him the fourth scientist assassinated in the past two years.

The United States adamantly denies it is behind these killings.   Bush "went absolutely ballistic" when briefed on the contents of the "false flag" operation.
"The report sparked White House concerns that Israel's program was putting Americans at risk,"
the intelligence officer told me. "There's no question that the U.S. has cooperated with Israel in intelligence-gathering operations against the Iranians, but this was different. No matter what anyone thinks, we're not in the business of assassinating Iranian officials or killing Iranian civilians."

Israel's activities jeopardized the administration's fragile relationship with Pakistan, which was coming under intense pressure from Iran to crack down on Jundallah. It also undermined U.S. claims that it would never fight terror with terror, and invited attacks in kind on U.S. personnel.
 
The debate over Jundallah was resolved only after Bush left office when, within his first weeks as president, Barack Obama drastically scaled back joint U.S.-Israel intelligence programs targeting Iran, according to multiple serving and retired officers.
The decision was controversial inside the CIA, where officials were forced to shut down "some key intelligence-gathering operations," a recently retired CIA officer confirmed. This action was followed in November 2010 by the State Department's addition of Jundallah to its list of foreign terrorist organizations -- a decision that one former CIA officer called "an absolute no-brainer."

Israel regularly proposes conducting covert operations targeting Iranians, but is just as regularly shut down, according to retired and current intelligence officers. "They come into the room and spread
out their plans, and we just shake our heads," one highly placed intelligence source said, "and we say to them -- 'Don't even go there. The answer is no.'"

Unlike the Mujahedin-e Khalq, the controversial exiled Iranian terrorist group that seeks the overthrow of the Tehran regime and is supported by former leading U.S. policymakers, Jundallah is relatively unknown -- but just as violent.  There is a long line of terrorist attacks attributed to the organization. 

A spate of stories in 2007 and 2008, including a report by ABC News and a Seymour Hersh New Yorker article, suggested that the United States was offering covert support to Jundallah.

Former Centcom chief and retired Gen. Joe Hoar said "While false-flag operations are hardly new, they're extremely dangerous. You're basically using your friendship with an ally for your own purposes. Israel is playing with fire. It gets us involved in their covert war, whether we want to be involved or not."

What has become crystal clear is the level of anger among senior intelligence officials about Israel's actions. "This was stupid and dangerous," the intelligence official who first told me about the operation said. "Israel is supposed to be working with us, not against us. If they want to shed blood, it would help a lot if it was their blood and not ours. You know, they're supposed to be a strategic asset. Well, guess what? There are a lot of people now, important people, who just don't think that's true." 

Related article:

In Signal to Israel and Iran, Obama Delays War Exercise
(Analysis; IPS News; 1/16/12)

Palestine doesn't ask for aid, but for freedom and recognition
(International Solidarity Movment  1/13/12)

Below is an excerpt from an opinion piece written by a Swedish international who recently lived in Palestine for 3 months and wrote about her experience.

"I always knew I would go to Palestine one day.  When I left Sweden my friends and family worried
that I might be hurt or injured because the Palestinian territory is supposed to be a dangerous place. However as I immediately discovered, Palestine is not a violent place and Palestine is not dangerous. What is dangerous and violent is the 64 year old occupation which has been imposed on Palestinians since 1948.

When I say that it is violent I want to distinguish between two sorts of violence. As an international in Palestine you see mainly the structural violence or the everyday violence in forms of military presence, checkpoints, watch towers, roadblocks, verbal assaults and harassment. If you stay long enough you will also experience or see some direct violence such as random arrests, house raids, home demolitions, prevention of Palestinian peaceful protests in form of rubber coated steel bullets, live ammunition, sound bombs, teargas and people being shot and abused.

The list can easily be made longer. These abuses of basic human rights are not only illegal under international law but very dangerous and violent both for the individual and the community. Occupation deprives Palestinians of their basic human needs, rights and recognition as human beings. It is violent and dangerous because it denies them the right to stay, live, and exist on their own land.

As such, occupation is visible and institutionalized in every aspect of life in Palestine.  It has nothing to do with security or Israel trying to protect itself. Rather it’s a strategy of occupation which aims at making life unbearable for Palestinians so that they will move and eventually leave whatever land they have left.

Since the beginning of the occupation, Israeli citizens are protected by civil law while Palestinians are under military law. This implicates several things. First of all, Israeli soldiers are not allowed to arrest or detain any Israeli citizen.  In the West Bank where settler violence against Palestinians has increased, soldiers in charge are not allowed to interfere with their citizens since their mandate is directed towards Palestinians only. There are several accounts where Israeli soldiers have either stood by or assisted settlers in committing violent acts against Palestinians.

Second, the military law means that any Palestinian can be put in administrative detention without access to a lawyer, not knowing what the charge is and how long they will be kept. Moreover, the Geneva based Defense for Children International (DCI) estimated in 2011 that more than 7,500 Palestinian children have been prosecuted in Israeli military courts since 2000. The report further concludes that ill treatment begins at the moment of arrest which often happens during night time military raids. The child is being abducted from the home with little or no information of where they are going. In most cases, parents are not allowed to visit their children, send them new clothes, and they get little information about their child’s well-being.

Military courts have no obligation to follow Israeli law or international legal obligations. Many reports from different sources have documented the use of ill-treatment, torture and a general failure to meet international standards in detention centers and prisons. When Israel is continuously being referred to as “the only democracy” in the Middle East, this is something we should keep in mind.

After three months in the West Bank, I am more than convinced that this is not a conflict nor a war–not between Arabs and Israelis and certainly not between Palestinians and Israelis. This is an occupation rooted in deep injustice. Israel is the one who is expanding settlements, building the wall, continuously demolishing Palestinian private property and confiscating more land.

As we look forward to a new year and new possibilities, Palestine has been under occupation for 64 years . As Palestine welcomes us to share the year of 2012, we should all remember that freedom means nothing without the freedom, equal rights, and the international recognition of Palestinians."

Emma is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movment (name has been changed).

Palestinian Sesame Street ails without US funds
(Independent UK 1/07/12)

It's quiet time on Palestinian Sesame Street. The iconic children's program, known as "Sharaa Simsim" in Arabic, has been put on hold for the 2012 season because of a funding freeze by the US Congress.  Sharaa Simsim is one of many US-funded Palestinian programmes suffering after Congress froze the transfer of nearly $200 million (£130m) to the US Agency for International Development in October. The suspension aimed to punish the Palestinians for appealing to the
United Nations for statehood.

The funding suspension — affecting hospitals, education, and government ministries that all rely on American aid — is breeding resentment and frustration in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, even among the most progressive organizations.

Even as the freeze put Palestinian Sesame Street on hold, the State Department is investing
$750,000 in the Israeli version of the show, which is now filming its newest season with an emphasis on teaching children the value of fairness.

Danny Labin, an executive at the Israeli TV channel that co-produces Israeli Sesame Street, calls
the funding halt to the Palestinian show "extremely unfortunate."  "Young children, whether Israeli or Palestinian, who are in need of educational tools to foster diversity appreciation and to prepare for life in a pluralistic society, should not be penalized or held accountable to the politics and political leadership, over which they have no control," Labin said.

Sharaa Simsim, the Palestinian show, debuted in 1996 and has produced five seasons since, with long intermissions for fundraising. It has promoted a message of peace and tolerance that Israeli critics say is often missing from Palestinian airwaves. The main characters Haneen, a red-headed orange muppet, and the green rooster Kareem have became household names for Palestinian children.

Executive producer Daoud Kuttab said production takes months. Sharaa Simsim was supposed to begin the process in October, but Kuttab said the show now won't be able to air in 2012.   "Every month we are behind schedule it actually means two or three months down the line," he said. " 
From 2008-2011, USAID gave $2.5 million to the programme, covering nearly the entire budget, Kuttab said.

USAID was scheduled to issue another $2.5 million grant to Sharaa Simsim to last until 2014, Kuttab said. But in early October, Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican, placed holds
on $192 million in funding to USAID for programs in the West Bank and Gaza.   She said this was
in reaction to the Palestinian's appeal to the UN to admit the Palestinians as a full member state.
The US, Israel and others oppose the move, saying a Palestinian state can only come about through negotiations.

Congress restored $40 million of the funding in December but it's doubtful any will go to the show. Many programs are clamoring for funding, including healthcare and humanitarian projects, said a USAID official, speaking on condition of anonymity because
of ongoing Congressional debates.  Nasser Abdul Karim, an economist at Birzeit University in the West Bank, said the freeze hurt Washington's image.

The US donates more than $500 million a year to the Palestinians, including funds for security
forces, the government's operating budget and USAID programs.

(New York Times)

NATO Forced to Admit Air Strikes Killed Dozens of Libyan Civilians
(Democracy Now 12/22/11)

JUAN GONZALEZ: NATO is admitting for the first time Libyan civilians were killed and injured during its seven-month bombing campaign that led to the ouster and death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. NATO made the acknowledgment after a New York Times investigation revealed at least 40 civilians, and perhaps more than 70, were killed by the bombing raids. The New York Times reports the victims include at least 29 women or children, who often had been asleep in homes when the ordnance hit. Others were killed when NATO warplanes bombed ambulance crews and civilians who were attempting to aid the wounded from earlier strikes.

AMY GOODMAN: Despite NATO’s acknowledgment of civilian deaths, the alliance is saying it does not have the capacity or intention of investigating the deadly strikes on civilians. Unlike in Afghanistan, NATO has not expressed condolences or given small payments to victims or their families.  Overall, NATO destroyed more than 5,900 military targets and carried out 9,700 strikes during the seven-month bombing campaign.

New York Times reporter Eric Schmitt co-wrote the investigation with C.J. Chivers.

ERIC SCHMITT: the principal findings was that initially NATO had said, and the Secretary General of NATO had said, that throughout the seven-month air campaign, they knew of no confirmed civilian casualties on the ground as a result of NATO air strikes. What our investigation has shown that there were at least a dozen or so instances where there were air strikes that caused civilian casualties.  This is a relatively small number in the overall number, as you said, 9,700 strike sorties that were carried out, but still significant enough that there were somewhere between 40 and 70 civilian deaths. And that’s just what we know of. Of course, we only saw a small sampling of the strike sites that may have been affected, so the death toll is probably much larger.

C.J. CHIVERS: NATO has withheld details on most of the errors and labored to portray its role in the war as all but flawless. Until this month, it insisted it had not confirmed the killing or wounding of a single civilian.

ERIC SCHMITT: Well, here’s the problem with the Secretary General’s statement, and it was a statement that was repeated over and over again by NATO officials throughout the campaign: "We have no information of confirmed casualties." Well, the problem is that NATO and the U.S. did not have any boots on the ground, at least none that they’ve acknowledged, and so until they had such boots on the ground that they could conduct their own investigation, they were not going to acknowledge any kind of error, even though, of course, there were times, air strikes, where the pro-Gaddafi regime came out and claimed casualties for strikes. These were dismissed as propaganda. The question now is, what will be done about it? NATO has not committed to going in on the ground to investigate these strikes, as they’ve done in places, as you noted, in Afghanistan. They’re essentially waiting for the Libyan government to invite them in to do this. So far, the Libyans are preoccupied with setting up their new government and dealing with other challenges, apparently, to do this.
And as a result of our story, I was told just yesterday by the NATO spokesman, for instance, that they are now working to gather information on unexploded ordnance. These are essentially duds, bombs that were dropped but didn’t go off, that pose a real threat to civilians, including children. NATO is now trying to track those—because the pilots knew when their bombs didn’t explode—track them, figure out where they are, and get that information to the Libyan government so they can get it out to their people. I’m told that NATO will try and get that information to the Libyan government by the end of January.

Happy Christmas, O prisoners of the Little Town of Bethlehem
(Stu littlewood, Salem-News.com 12/22/11)
additional article:

It's the right moment for churches to pay attention to Israel's occupation
(James Wall, Electronic Intifada 12/23/11)
The Kairos Palestine Document calls on churches to pay attention to Israel’s occupation.
Below is combined excerpt;
Dore Stein added to wording of last paragraph.

At this rate, there will soon be no Christians left in the land where Christianity was born...

While carving the turkey for your family and merrily quaffing mulled wine ‘midst happy laughter, remember that the romantic Little Town of Bethlehem at the centre of our childhood Christmases is now “an immense prison” in the words of Michel Sabbah, former Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and entirely surrounded by Israel’s 8-metre separation wall bristling with machine-gun towers.  The  citizens of Bethlehem are cut off from their capital Jerusalem, only six miles away, the rest of the West Bank and the whole world.

Consider that the United Nations designated Jerusalem and Bethlehem a protected international zone under UN administration. Israeli rule was not to be permitted.  Consider also that when Palestine was under British mandate Christians accounted for 20 per cent of the population and how 63 years of terror, illegal occupation, dispossession, interference and economic wrecking tactics have whittled their numbers down to less than 2 per cent.  Consider that, at this rate, there will soon be no Christians left in the land where Christianity was born… thanks to the cowardice and inaction of political leaders.
 
As usual, many Palestinians in Bethlehem and the other cities and villages throughout occupied Palestine will be unable to reunite with their families or celebrate Christmas at their holy places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem due to Israeli-imposed travel restrictions.

American politicians function within a bipartisan political operation which accepts and promotes the “Israel is a permanent victim” narrative. The large majority of Americans have accepted this narrative as the only available reality. This obscures the political reality that Israel serves as an important part of the American empire, which seeks to control the people of the Middle East through military power and political deceit.  The invasion of Iraq and the agitation for war against Iran are recent examples of this power and deceit.

In the New Year civil society must resolve to speak out and acknowledge that Israel’s occupation of Palestine is unjust, immoral, illegal and destructive.  It is time to fight the wall of ignorance that endorses Palestinian suffering. At a time of Arab Spring and Occupy Wall St. it is essential that attention be paid to the conduct of the governments in Israel and in the United States, who are the two military powers who have the power to maintain or end Palestinian suffering.

Tunisian Town Marks Anniversary
of Revolution (Al Jazeera, 12/17/11)
companion article:

A year after Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire, little has improved in Sidi Bouzid, the town where the Arab Awakening began
(Al Jazeera, 12/17/11)

The fuse for "Arab Spring" uprisings was lit on December 17, 2010 when Mohammed Bouazizi, an unemployed university graduate, set himself on fire after police confiscated his unlicensed fruit and vegetable cart.  His death took the lid off simmering anger about poverty, joblessness, corruption and repression and was the trigger for what is the most widespread series of popular protests in the Arab world since the anti-colonisation movements of the 50s and 60s.  Protests erupted across Tunisia, forcing President Ben Ali to flee the country less than a month later.  Tunisia's revolution inspired other Arabs to rise up against entrenched authoritarian rulers.

Tens of thousands packed Sidi Bouzid's town square to celebrate the first anniversary of Tunisia's revolution in the place where it began and a giant statue of Mohamed Bouazizi was unveiled.  However, democratic change in Tunisia has yet to ease poverty and high unemployment, and have triggered rioting.  In Sidi Bouzid, most are still waiting for the change for which they risked their lives when they took to the streets that day. 

Many of the people of Sidi Bouzid appear frustrated that their struggle has been reduced to the story of  one man, rather than a collective uprising during which 219 Tunisians lost their lives and many hundreds more suffered crippling injuries.  Much of this anger has been directed at the Bouazizi family. Manoubia, Mohammed's mother, has been honoured at events in New York, Paris, Doha and Istanbul.  "My son was the spark of the revolution," she stated on the eve of the anniversary. "He spread it across the country, it rocked the Arab world, and then reached the rest of the world. I am proud of him and of all the martyrs."  In Sidi Bouzid, however, she is less welcome. By April, the family had left the town to live in the upscale suburb of La Marsa, in Tunis, saying that the jealousy and rumours had just become too much.

Fadhla Zawadi, a 27-year-old activist, said "December 17 isn't an anniversary but a starting point," arguing that people in the marginalised town have yet to see any economic or social benefits from their uprising, and that it is too early for celebrations.  He acknowledges that since the uprising, people have been able to participate in the country’s October election, and that they now have freedom of speech.  (Tunisia's revolution has brought democratic freedoms for the first time since independence from France in 1956.)   Yet nothing, Fadhla says, has been done to solve their most pressing problems of socio-economic marginalisation.  "The basis of freedom is to eat and the right to work," he said.

Nabila Abidi, an unemployed university graduate from Sidi Bouzid stated "Only jobs can restore our dignity."  Another resident, Mansour Amamou said "The new government must understand the message well and take care of us and improve our conditions.  If not, the revolution will return."

For Handouni Nader, a union activist who participated in the uprising from that very first protest a year ago, the attacks against Bouazizi’s legacy are a distraction from the real issues.  Nader said the underlying issues of unemployment, underdevelopment and corruption are as bad as they were before the uprising.  "Nothing has changed in Sidi Bouzid, everyone feels let down," the 36-year-old said. "This government must understand these things, and go beyond rhetoric to action."

Tunisia's first democratically elected government was appointed just days before the anniversary, after nearly a year of successive, highly contested, interim governments.

Ultimately the mood throughout Tunisia will hinge on whether the people can finally share in the fruits of what was the collective rising up of a nation.

Gingrich Calls Palestinians
an "Invented" People
(Al Jazeera, 12/10/11)
(NY Times, 12/9/11)
Click for Video Excerpt

Combined excerpt from NY Times and Al Jazeera:

Newt Gingrich called Palestinians an “invented” people who could have chosen to live elsewhere and the current stalled peace process “delusional.”

The former House of Representatives speaker, who is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for the 2012 presidential race, made the remarks in an interview with the US Jewish Channel broadcaster released on Friday.

Asked whether he considers himself a Zionist, he answered: "I believe that the Jewish people have the right to a state ... Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire until the early 20th century. I think that we've had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs, and who were historically part of the Arab community.  And they had a chance to go many places, and for a variety of political reasons we have sustained this war against Israel now
since the 1940s, and it's tragic."

“What he’s saying is far to the right of the democratically elected Likud leadership of the State
of Israel, not to mention established U.S. policy for decades,” said David Harris, chief executive of the National Jewish Democratic Council, an American Jewish group. “This is as clear a demonstration as one needs that he’s not ready for prime time.”

Most historians mark the start of Palestinian Arab nationalist sentiment in 1834, when Arab residents of the Palestinian region revolted against Ottoman rule. Israel, founded amid the 1948 Arab-Israel war, took shape along the lines of a 1947 UN plan for ethnic partition of the then-British ruled territory of Palestine which Arabs rejected.  More than 700,000 Palestinians were forced from their lands by Zionist armed groups in 1948, in an episode Palestinians refer to as the Nakba or "catastrophe".

Gingrich also sharply criticised US President Barack Obama's approach to Middle East diplomacy, saying that it was "so out of touch with reality that it would be like taking your child to the zoo and explaining that a lion was a bunny rabbit.  If I'm even-handed between a civilian democracy that obeys the rule of law and a group of terrorists that are firing missiles every day, that's not even-handed, that's favouring the terrorists."

He also said the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, share an
"enormous desire to destroy Israel".  “You have Abbas who says in the United Nations, ‘We do
not necessarily concede Israel’s right to exist,’” Mr. Gingrich said.  “So you have to start with this question ‘Who are you making peace with?’” he added.

President Mahmoud Abbas has long forsworn violence against Israel as a means to secure an independent state. The Palestinian Authority, which rules the occupied West Bank, formally recognises Israel's right to exist.

Mr. Abbas, who unsuccessfully sought to have a Palestinian state admitted as a member of the United Nations in September, said in his speech at the time that he favored peace talks. In a statement read on his behalf last month at the United Nations, he said, “We do not want and we do not seek to delegitimize Israel by applying for membership in the United Nations, but to delegitimize its settlement activities and the seizure of our occupied lands.”

Gingrich's comments drew a swift rebuke from a spokesman for the American Task Force on Palestine, Hussein Ibish, who said: "There was no Israel and no such thing as an "Israeli people" before 1948.  "So the idea that Palestinians are 'an invented people' while Israelis somehow are not
is historically indefensible and inaccurate.

"Such statements seem to merely reflect deep historical ignorance and an irrational hostility towards Palestinian identity and nationalism."

Sabri Saidam, adviser to the Palestinian president said "Let me ask Newt Gingrich if he would ever entertain the thought of addressing Indian Americans by saying that they never existed, that they
were the invention of a separate nation, would that be tolerated?"

"Let's also reverse the statement; let's put ourselves in "the shoe of Jews who are listening now. Would they ever accept such statements being made about them?"
Saidam said, "I think it's time that America rejects such statements and closes the door to such horrendous and unacceptable statements."

Media in the eye of the storm as revolutions sweep the Arab world
(Reporters Without Borders [RSF] 12/1/11)

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is the largest press freedom organization in the world, with over 120 correspondents across the globe. Founded in 1985, RSF has been working to protect and defend journalists for nearly 30 years.   Excerpt from RSF report:

A year after the start of democratic uprisings in the Arab world, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) takes stock of censorship and violations of free speech during the “Arab Spring”. Journalists, especially photographers, have paid a heavy price.  Eleven media workers have been killed in the performance of their duty, among them several internationally known photojournalists. However, most of the victims were local journalists.

In its report "Upheaval in the Arab World; Media as key witnesses and political pawns", RSF takes a look at the methods used by the authorities to strangle the flow of information during the popular uprisings in six countries (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria and Yemen).

The political processes at work are far from over, especially in Egypt, Yemen and Syria.

In each of the six countries RSF has compiled figures before and after January 14, 2011 in the following categories: journalists assaulted,
citizens jailed for opinions expressed, and
media organizations attacked and websites censored.

The media played a critical role in these revolutions, reporting on the protests and their suppression, and maintaining momentum. In most cases new media such as Facebook
and Twitter were used to spread information, as a substitute for a traditional press at the beck and call of the ruling powers. Despite the variability of its coverage, especially in Bahrain, Al-Jazeera played an important part in allowing
opposition voices to be heard.

Ruling authorities have tried to impose total censorship, with media staff, bloggers and netizens bearing the cost of brutal and murderous repression. Every country developed
its own ways of blocking or inhibiting the flow of information, such as Internet monitoring, cutting off access to the Internet and mobile phone networks, jamming satellite television stations, seizure of newspapers, assaults and arrests of media
workers, bloggers and Internet users, kidnappings and murders, expulsions of foreign reporters, visa refusals, etc.

The RSF report covers the period from 17 December 2010* to 17 November 2011, but also includes more recent events in Egypt. The figures cited are conservative since it
has not been possible to compile an exhaustive list of abuses.

* 12/17/11 is the date a young street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, set fire to himself in the town of Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia igniting a wave of popular anger against the security forces and providing the spark  for the Arab Spring.

I don’t know if you want to call it a "psychosis," but it’s some sort of a fantasy land being built up here, as it was with Iraq, the same sort of no lessons learned.  In fact, the latest (IAEA; International Atomic Energy Agency) report that everybody’s so agog about also says that, once again, we find no evidence that Iran has diverted any uranium that it’s enriching.

What you have is, in '04, ’05, ’06, ’07, even until the end of their term in office, Cheney kept on having the Joint Special Operations Force Command, JSOC— send teams inside Iran. They would work with various dissident groups—the Azeris, the Kurds, even Jundallah, which is a very fanatic Sunni opposition group—and they would do everything they could to try and find evidence of an undeclared underground facility. We monitored everything. We have incredible surveillance. In those days, what we did then, we can even do better now.  They found nothing. Nothing. No evidence of any weaponization. In other words, no evidence of a facility to build the bomb. They have facilities to enrich, but not separate facilities for building a bomb. This is simply a fact.  The big change was, in the last few weeks, the IAEA came out with a new report. And it’s not a scientific report, it’s a political document.

This new report has nothing new in it. This isn’t me talking. I talked to former inspectors. They’re different voices than you read in the New York Times and the Washington Post. There are other people that don’t get reported who are much more skeptical of this report, and you just don’t see it in the (mainstream) coverage...

The way it works, over the years a report will show up that will turn out to be spurious, turn out to be propaganda, whether started by us or a European intelligence agency—it’s not clear. This all happened, if you remember the Ahmed Chalabi stuff, during the buildup to the war in [Iraq], all about the great arsenals that existed inside [Iraq]. The same sort of propaganda is being used now.

And what you have is some sort of a hysteria that we had over Iraq that’s coming up again in Iran. And as far as sanctions are concerned, you know, excuse me, we’ve been sanctioning Cuba for 60 years, and Castro is still there. Sanctions are not going to work.

AMY GOODMAN: How would you compare the Obama administration to the Bush administration when it comes to Iran?

SEYMOUR HERSH:  Same—a little less bellicose, but the same thing.  I have every reason to believe that, unlike Mr. Bush, President Obama really is worried about an attack. He doesn’t want to see the Israelis bomb Iran. That’s the kind of talk we’ve been getting in the press lately.

What makes me nervous is Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak and Bibi Netanyahu, are together on this. They’re not always together on many things. They both agree, and that’s worrisome because, again, it’s a political issue there. The country is moving quickly to the right, Israel is, obviously.
 
But the former head of Mossad, Meir Dagan, has been vehement about the foolishness of attempting to go after Iran, on the grounds that it’s not clear what they have. They’re certainly far away from a bomb. Israel has been saying for 20 years they’re six months away from making a bomb.

If you asked Israelis in the intelligence business — and there are many — "Do you really think, if they got a bomb—they would hit Tel Aviv?" and the answer was, "Do you think they’re crazy? We would incinerate them. Of course not. They’ve been around 2,000 years. That’s not going to happen."

There’s an element rationality in the Israeli intelligence community that’s not being expressed by the political leadership. It’s the same madness we have here.