Re: All things Middle East related
 

Radical Islamist group threatens violence after Egypt Morsi overthrow

[I]A new Islamist group has announced its formation in Egypt, calling the army's ousting of Mohamed Morsi a declaration of war on its faith and threatening to use violence to impose Islamic law.

Ansar Al-Sharia in Egypt said it would gather arms and start training its members, in a statement posted on an online forum for militants in the country's Sinai region Friday and recorded by the SITE Monitoring Service.

The army's move, which was backed by mass rallies across Egypt, has raised fears Islamists could desert officially recognised groups like Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and move to more militant movements.[/I]

[B][U]More[/U][/B] militant? Yikes!

[I]Ansar Al-Sharia said in its statement that the military overthrow, the closing of television channels and the death of Islamist protesters all amounted to "a war declared against Islam in Egypt," SITE reported.

The group blamed the events on "criminal" secularists, supporters of Mubarak and Egyptian Coptic Christians, state security forces and army commanders, who they said would turn the country into "a crusader, secular freak."

It denounced democracy as an "infidel system" and said it would instead champion Islamic law, or Sharia, acquire weapons and train to allow Muslims to "deter the attackers, preserve the religion and empower the Sharia of the Lord," SITE reported.[/I]

What a shocker......

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=NC_Skins;1014364][URL="http://www.aljazeera.com/watch_now/"]Al Jazeera English – Live News Streaming[/URL]

Live broadcast going on.





It didn't help that our[B] media wanted to paint them as some college kid hippies wanting a free handout.[/B] They had a vested interest not to support the movement. **** our corporate media.[/quote]

That's pretty accurate.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=NC_Skins;1014730]This 12 year old Egyptian kid is smarter than a majority of the American people.


[YT]QeDm2PrNV1I[/YT][/quote]

The reason he is so smart because at age 12 he is only in 1st grade. So that means he is not a product of public schools. LOL

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/12/world/united-nations-malala/index.html?hpt=hp_c2]Malala at U.N.: Taliban 'failed' to silence us - CNN.com[/url]

hero

Re: All things Middle East related
 

Jets player facing the same kind of anti-Palestinian bigotry that sadly we've sometimes seen on the Warpath.

[url=http://sports.yahoo.com/news/jets-aboushi-defends-himself-against-222223533--nfl.html]Y! SPORTS[/url]

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=Lotus;1015587]Jets player facing the same kind of anti-Palestinian bigotry that sadly we've sometimes seen on the Warpath.

[url=http://sports.yahoo.com/news/jets-aboushi-defends-himself-against-222223533--nfl.html]Y! SPORTS[/url][/quote]What Aboushi and the Jets said in the article was good, rather than throwing insults. The labels "extremist", "bigoted", "racist", etc. get used too much in politics nowadays, whenever there's disagreement. (tea party, Obama, the Zimmerman trial, etc.) The article was a nice change from that.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[URL="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2367152/Norwegian-woman-reported-raped-Dubai-jailed-16-months.html?ito=feeds-newsxml"]File this under 'Don't work in Dubai':[/URL]

[I]A young Norwegian woman has been sentenced to 16 months in jail after she reported a rape in Dubai.

The 25-year-old was in the United Arab Emirates on a business trip when she was raped and reported the assault to the local police.

Dubai police did not believe her, and instead took her passport and jailed her on suspicion of having had sex outside marriage.
[/I]
Dafuq!

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=RedskinRat;1015867][URL="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2367152/Norwegian-woman-reported-raped-Dubai-jailed-16-months.html?ito=feeds-newsxml"]File this under 'Don't work in Dubai':[/URL]

[I]A young Norwegian woman has been sentenced to 16 months in jail after she reported a rape in Dubai.

The 25-year-old was in the United Arab Emirates on a business trip when she was raped and reported the assault to the local police.

Dubai police did not believe her, and instead took her passport and jailed her on suspicion of having had sex outside marriage.
[/I]
Dafuq![/quote]But if they think sexual intercourse had occurred... then
[IMG]http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/t11kr_salvador/30724086/382/382_320.png[/IMG]

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/22/world/meast/uae-norway-rape-controversy/index.html?hpt=hp_c3]Dubai ruler pardons Norwegian woman convicted after she reported rape - CNN.com[/url]

Quite a story. Amazing even in a "moderate" middle east country this occurs and to a foreign national on top of that. Check out the recent history:

The United Arab Emirates has been heavily criticized by rights groups, which say it condones sexual violence against women. Human Rights Watch has called its record "shameful," saying it must change the way it handles such cases.

In December 2012, a British woman reported being raped by three men in Dubai. She was found guilty of drinking alcohol without a license and fined.

In January 2010, a British woman told authorities she was raped by an employee at a Dubai hotel. She was charged with public intoxication and having sex outside of marriage.

An Australian woman reported in 2008 that she was drugged and gang-raped. She was convicted of having sex outside marriage and drinking alcohol, and she was sentenced to 11 months in prison

Would love to see a travel boycott by the US and Europe

Re: All things Middle East related
 

Yes, and this horrific tale from 2007 makes it seem far more frequent than Dubai authorities would like people to think:

[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/world/middleeast/01dubai.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0"]15 year old French boy[/URL]

[I]There were, in fact, three Emirati men in the car, including a pair of former convicts ages 35 and 18, according to Alex. He says they drove him past his house and into a dark patch of desert, between a row of new villas and a power plant, took away his cellphone, threatened him with a knife and a club, and told him they would kill his family if he ever reported them.

Then they stripped off his pants and one by one sodomized him in the back seat of the car. They dumped Alex across from one of Dubai’s luxury hotel towers.
[/I]

And quite a few more.

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i doubt there will be any kind of action taken, that's the friendliest nation towards the US over there, and there are strong military ties (not to dubai, but the UAE).

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=RedskinRat;1016197]Yes, and this horrific tale from 2007 makes it seem far more frequent than Dubai authorities would like people to think:

[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/world/middleeast/01dubai.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0"]15 year old French boy[/URL]

[I]There were, in fact, three Emirati men in the car, including a pair of former convicts ages 35 and 18, according to Alex. He says they drove him past his house and into a dark patch of desert, between a row of new villas and a power plant, took away his cellphone, threatened him with a knife and a club, and told him they would kill his family if he ever reported them.

Then they stripped off his pants and one by one sodomized him in the back seat of the car. They dumped Alex across from one of Dubai’s luxury hotel towers.
[/I]

And quite a few more.[/quote]

Also from the article:

[quote]The authorities not only discouraged Alex from pressing charges, he, his family and French diplomats say; they raised the possibility of charging him with criminal homosexual activity, and neglected for weeks to inform him or his parents that one of his attackers had tested H.I.V. positive while in prison four years earlier.

...

Despite its shortfalls, [B]the United Arab Emirates have combined Islamic values with the best practices from the West to create “the most modern legal system among the Arab countries,” [/B]said Salim Al Shaali, a former police officer and prosecutor who now practices criminal law.[/quote]

Really? the "most modern legal system" in all of Arabia? Charging the victims with homosexuality and fornication?

1) To call such a system barbaric is an to insult barbarians. It doesn't even rise to the level of Hammurabi's Code (an eye for an eye) from ~1800 B.C. If this is the most modern system, I would hate to be under the jurisdiction of the others.

2) What cowardly laws. The laws of these cultures are designed, in essence, to protect "the honor" of Islamic men by denigrating others, to institutionalize unequal treatment under the guise of the Rule of Law (we are all equal under the law - it's just that some of us are more equal than others), and to "protect" men from themselves i.e. women are punished for dressing in a manner that "tempts" men; rape is only provable by confession or the eyewitness testimony of two other men (so - two guys are just standing by watching a rape? Seems like the more manly thing to do would be to stop the attack. Guess that's just me). Sorry, but "real" men don't need laws to punish folks for tempting them, they just control their base urges and move on. But then, I guess these women (and boys) are just asking for it.

3) All in all, the Islamic Code ultimately fails and leads to inequities b/c it attempts to legislate divine morality and not just any divine morality - the divine morality of a 7th century BC nomadic culture. By claiming the law to be divine, and denying its human invention, the inequities have become so entrenched as to be unassailble by logic or rationality.

(Yes, I know there are many areas of the Sharia that deal with non-religious issues. At the same time, the code is a unified thing - much like the laws of the US or the individual States. Even if not directly referencing legislated divine morality, that morality forms the context from which all the law is viewed).

Until they divorce themselves from the Sharia code, Islamic countries will continue to be backwaters of justice, hindering their own growth and rightfully held in contempt by all who accept the Rule of Law.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

I just wish we could free ourselves from the Great Oil Dependency so that we could let these backwaters of civilization go their own way and extinguish themselves through their own shortsighted pride.

[QUOTE=JoeRedskin;1016298]Also from the article:



Really? the "most modern legal system" in all of Arabia? Charging the victims with homosexuality and fornication?[/QUOTE]

One of your better posts, JR. wordy but wise, sir.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

Re: All things Middle East related
 

not a good time to go see the pyramids, horrible whats going on over there. We shouldnt support this

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=over the mountain;1013979]Now Morsi is equally unliked, but removing him power could be seen a major step backwards for the revolution. After all, Morsi — as he is quick to point out — was democratically elected. If he can be forced out by violent protests or military order, then what kind of democracy does Egypt really have? The people want him gone, but are they willing to do so at the cost of giving power back to a military that can order a president around? The world now waits for his answer.

^^^i found this section of an article fairly enlightening.[/quote]

'Democratically' elected, to be fair. If the MB weren't out bullying the rural voters he wouldn't have got in.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=Chico23231;1019011]not a good time to go see the pyramids, horrible whats going on over there. We shouldnt support this[/quote]


Talk about a weird time , even the New President of Iran is telling them to calm down .

Re: All things Middle East related
 

Probably using the money and guns Obama sent them.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

Egypt in terms of importance/influence within the region is maybe just behind Saudi Arabia. Not a good situation now. Probably should stop writing checks

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=JoeRedskin;1016299]I just wish we could free ourselves from the Great Oil Dependency so that we could let these backwaters of civilization go their own way and extinguish themselves through their own shortsighted pride.[/quote]

You can thank those greedy ****s for that. They lobby to kill any type of energy/fuel type improvements so they can continue bilking in the cash from oil.


That said, we only get a small supply from the middle east so why in the hell do we continue to **** around over there is beyond me.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[url=http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-turmoil-deepens-militants-kill-25-policemen-081257863.html]Egypt turmoil deepens; militants kill 25 policemen[/url]

Real ugly over there.



[quote=Chico23231;1019011]not a good time to go see the pyramids, horrible whats going on over there. We shouldnt support this[/quote]

Hate to say it but our military would do the same to us if we revolted. Don't believe so, just look at history to see how wrong of a assumption that would be. People in power will do anything to stay in power.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=NC_Skins;1019309][URL="http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-turmoil-deepens-militants-kill-25-policemen-081257863.html"]Egypt turmoil deepens; militants kill 25 policemen[/URL]

Real ugly over there.





Hate to say it but our military would do the same to us if we revolted. Don't believe so, just look at history to see how wrong of a assumption that would be. People in power will do anything to stay in power.[/quote]

This is the same military that helped the people over throw the last goverment in Egypt. So they go both ways. LOL

Re: All things Middle East related
 

I guess some people will never learn you don't throw rocks at tanks or at people with guns.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=NC_Skins;1019309][url=http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-turmoil-deepens-militants-kill-25-policemen-081257863.html]Egypt turmoil deepens; militants kill 25 policemen[/url]

Real ugly over there.





Hate to say it but our military would do the same to us if we revolted. Don't believe so, just look at history to see how wrong of a assumption that would be. People in power will do anything to stay in power.[/quote]

You think our military would fire on protestors? Or basically that incident could happen here...I really dont think so.

I dont know, think someone turned the lights off on you in the assumption room and locked the door.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=Chico23231;1019710]You think our military would fire on protestors? Or basically that incident could happen here...I really dont think so.

I dont know, think someone turned the lights off on you in the assumption room and locked the door.[/quote]

Really? I suggest you look up Kent State shooting and see the results. Military personnel firing on protestors.

[url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/05/04/may_4_1970_the_kent_state_university_shootings_told_through_pictures_photos.html]May 4, 1970: The Kent State University shootings told through pictures (PHOTOS).[/url]


Why do people act as if that it won't happen here? Sure, there are many military men that would refuse that order, but there are many that would not. Especially when you have your superior officers telling you that they are "terrorists" or the "bad guys". We've seen our military men blasting away civilians at ease and being quite casual about it.

[YT]-AMjVyzRqrY[/YT]


To think our own military would not fire on us is laughable at best. History and current events show otherwise.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

Kent St is a good example, but Im pretty positive Kent St doesnt happen today. just an opinion. History is just that history, it can mos def repeat itself in some instances, I just dont think we would see that today. I think Kent St military acted independently of government direction, where in Egypt I think both were in on this plan of violence. Both acts equally disturbing.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=NC_Skins;1019714]Really? I suggest you look up Kent State shooting and see the results. Military personnel firing on protestors.

[URL="http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/05/04/may_4_1970_the_kent_state_university_shootings_told_through_pictures_photos.html"]May 4, 1970: The Kent State University shootings told through pictures (PHOTOS).[/URL]


Why do people act as if that it won't happen here? Sure, there are many military men that would refuse that order, but there are many that would not. Especially when you have your superior officers telling you that they are "terrorists" or the "bad guys". We've seen our military men blasting away civilians at ease and being quite casual about it.

[YT]-AMjVyzRqrY[/YT]


To think our own military would not fire on us is laughable at best. History and current events show otherwise.[/quote]

Your going to use a war zone to make a point that our military will fire on people.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

Next time someone says "You should respect peoples views on religion", show them this:

[URL="http://www.clarionproject.org/news/al-qaeda-iraqi-border-execute-syrian-truck-drivers"]AQ affiliates on the rebel side against Assad murder suspected Sunni truck drivers[/URL]

[I]Terrorists from the group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) – a merger of Al-Qaeda fighters in Iraq and Syria – can be seen stopping trucks in Iraq that were headed to Syria. The drivers are forced to exit their trucks and subsequently grilled by a Sunni jihadist on whether they are Sunnis or Shi’ites.

After failing to answer the religious questions correctly to prove that they are Sunnis, they are executed amid cries of "Allahu Akbar!" (God is great).

The video ends with a threat to the "Armies of the Cross in Dabiq," saying they will be burned by the “fire who spark ignited Iraq.” Dabiq is a town near Aleppo where, in the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire defeated the Mamluks.[/I]

The link above contains a video showing just how revolting these religious thugs are.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2011/06/the_baby_and_the_baath_water.html"]THE BABY AND THE BAATH WATER[/URL]

Could also be titled 'Leave Syria Alone'

[I]What is happening in Syria feels like one of the last gasps of the age of the military dictators. An old way of running the world is still desperately trying to cling to power, but the underlying feeling in the west is that somehow Assad's archaic and cruel military rule will inevitably collapse and Syrians will move forward into a democratic age.

That may, or may not, happen, but what is extraordinary is that we have been here before. Between 1947 and 1949 an odd group of idealists and hard realists in the American government set out to intervene in Syria. Their aim was to liberate the Syrian people from a corrupt autocratic elite - and allow true democracy to flourish. They did this because they were convinced that "the Syrian people are naturally democratic" and that all that was neccessary was to get rid of the elites - and a new world of "peace and progress" would inevitably emerge.

What resulted was a disaster, and the consequences of that disaster then led, through a weird series of bloody twists and turns, to the rise to power of the Assad family and the widescale repression in Syria today.[/I]

[B][COLOR=Black]"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" - [/COLOR][/B][B]Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás[/B]

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[url=http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/428793/september-03-2013/stephen-s-science-project---chemical-weapons-in-syria]Stephen's Science Project & Chemical Weapons in Syria - The Colbert Report - 2013-03-09 - Video Clip | Comedy Central[/url]


[quote]"The United States has no choice but to attack Syria because dictator Bashar Al Asad is killing his own people with chemical weapons. Before he was just killing them with bullets, but if America cared about shooting people, we'd be invading Chicago." - Stephen Colbert[/quote]


:laughing-

Re: All things Middle East related
 

Why not just arm the entire middle east and watch as they kill themself off.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[url=http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/09/04/iranian-presidents-surprising-message-to-jews/?hpt=hp_t5]Iranian president's surprising message to Jews – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs[/url]

Wow, thats good to see.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=NC_Skins;1022341][url=http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/428793/september-03-2013/stephen-s-science-project---chemical-weapons-in-syria]Stephen's Science Project & Chemical Weapons in Syria - The Colbert Report - 2013-03-09 - Video Clip | Comedy Central[/url]





:laughing-[/quote]

When is Colbert not spot on?

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=Chico23231;1022359][URL="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/09/04/iranian-presidents-surprising-message-to-jews/?hpt=hp_t5"]Iranian president's surprising message to Jews – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs[/URL]

Wow, thats good to see.[/quote]

If it were true:

[I]On Thursday, however, Mohammadreza Sadegh, an adviser to Rouhani, told Iran's Fars News Agency that the Rosh Hashanah tweet [U][B]did not come from Rouhani.[/B][/U] The tweet came from former campaign aides, rather, who run the Twitter account, Sadegh said.[/I]

Re: All things Middle East related
 

Oh, and:

[URL="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/05/201268/russia-releases-100-page-report.html#.Uii_mT95f_9#storylink=cpy"]Russia says it's compiled 100-page report blaming Syrian rebels for a chemical weapons attack[/URL]

[I]Russia says it has compiled a 100-page report detailing what it says is evidence that Syrian rebels, not forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, were behind a deadly sarin gas attack in an Aleppo suburb earlier this year.

In a statement posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website late Wednesday. Russia said the report had been delivered to the United Nations in July and includes detailed scientific analysis of samples that Russian technicians collected at the site of the alleged attack, Khan al Asal.

Russia said its investigation of the March 19 incident was conducted under strict protocols established by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international agency that governs adherence to treaties prohibiting the use of chemical weapons. It said samples that Russian technicians had collected had been sent to OPCW-certified laboratories in Russia.[/I]

They also have their fleet chugging into the theater. <SIGH>

Re: All things Middle East related
 

well, syria provides the only major military port in the area for the russians (tartus), so they have a vested interest to keep their friendly deal going.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=That Guy;1022446]well, syria provides the only major military port in the area for the russians (tartus), so they have a vested interest to keep their friendly deal going.[/quote]

Don't forget their arms sales.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

Mmmmm! The Gordian Knot that is the Middle East:

[URL="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/aug/30/syria-chemical-attack-war-intervention-oil-gas-energy-pipelines"]Syria intervention plan fueled by oil interests, not chemical weapon concern[/URL] - The Guardian

[I]In 2009 - the same year former French foreign minister Dumas alleges the British began planning operations in Syria - Assad refused to sign a proposed agreement with Qatar that would run a pipeline from the latter's North field, contiguous with Iran's South Pars field, through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and on to Turkey, with a view to supply European markets - albeit crucially bypassing Russia. Assad's rationale was "to protect the interests of [his] Russian ally, which is Europe's top supplier of natural gas."

Instead, the following year, Assad pursued negotiations for an alternative $10 billion pipeline plan with Iran, across Iraq to Syria, that would also potentially allow Iran to supply gas to Europe from its South Pars field shared with Qatar. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the project was signed in July 2012 - just as Syria's civil war was spreading to Damascus and Aleppo - and earlier this year Iraq signed a framework agreement for construction of the gas pipelines.

The Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline plan was a "direct slap in the face" to Qatar's plans. No wonder Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, in a failed attempt to bribe Russia to switch sides, told President Vladmir Putin that "whatever regime comes after" Assad, it will be "completely" in Saudi Arabia's hands and will "not sign any agreement allowing any Gulf country to transport its gas across Syria to Europe and compete with Russian gas exports", according to diplomatic sources. When Putin refused, the Prince vowed military action.[/I]

And:

[URL="http://www.newswithviews.com/McGuire/paul184.htm"]AMERICA, SYRIA, AND RUSSIA: OPENING THE GATES OF HELL[/URL] - Paul McGuire

[I]The Nabucco Agreement was signed by a handful of European nations and Turkey back in 2009. It was an agreement to run a natural gas pipeline across Turkey into Austria, bypassing Russia again with Qatar in the mix as a supplier to a feeder pipeline via the proposed Arab pipeline from Libya to Egypt to Nabucco (is the picture getting clearer?). The problem with all of this is that a Russian backed Syria stands in the way.

Qatar would love to sell its LNG to the EU and the hot Mediterranean markets. The problem for Qatar in achieving this is Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have already said "NO" to an overland pipe cutting across the Land of Saud. The only solution for Qatar if it wants to sell its oil is to cut a deal with the U.S.

Recently Exxon Mobile and Qatar Petroleum International have made a $10 Billion deal that allows Exxon Mobile to sell natural gas through a port in Texas to the UK and Mediterranean markets. Qatar stands to make a lot of money and the only thing standing in the way of their aspirations is Syria.

The US plays into this in that it has vast wells of natural gas, in fact the largest known supply in the world. There is a reason why natural gas prices have been suppressed for so long in the US. This is to set the stage for US involvement in the Natural Gas market in Europe while smashing the monopoly that the Russians have enjoyed for so long. What appears to be a conflict with Syria is really a conflict between the U.S. and Russia!

The main cities of turmoil and conflict in Syria right now are Damascus, Homs, and Aleppo. These are the same cities that the proposed gas pipelines happen to run through. Qatar is the biggest financier of the Syrian uprising, having spent over $3 billion so far on the conflict. The other side of the story is Saudi Arabia, which finances anti-Assad groups in Syria. The Saudis do not want to be marginalized by Qatar; thus they too want to topple Assad and implant their own puppet government, one that would sign off on a pipeline deal and charge Qatar for running their pipes through to Nabucco.[/I]

No 'Boots on the Ground'? Wanna bet?

[I]The proposed AUMF focuses on Syrian WMD but is otherwise very broad. It authorizes the President to use any element of the U.S. Armed Forces and any method of force. It does not contain specific limits on targets – either in terms of the identity of the targets (e.g. the Syrian government, Syrian rebels, Hezbollah, Iran) or the geography of the targets. Its main limit comes on the purposes for which force can be used. Four points are worth making about these purposes.

First, the proposed AUMF authorizes the President to use force “in connection with” the use of WMD in the Syrian civil war. (It does not limit the President’s use force to the territory of Syria, but rather says that the use of force must have a connection to the use of WMD in the Syrian conflict. Activities outside Syria can and certainly do have a connection to the use of WMD in the Syrian civil war.).

Second, the use of force must be designed to “prevent or deter the use or proliferation” of WMDs “within, to or from Syria” or (broader yet) to “protect the United States and its allies and partners against the threat posed by such weapons.”

Third, the proposed AUMF gives the President final interpretive authority to determine when these criteria are satisfied (“as he determines to be necessary and appropriate”).

Fourth, the proposed AUMF contemplates no procedural restrictions on the President’s powers (such as a time limit).

I think this AUMF has much broader implications than Ilya Somin described. Some questions for Congress to ponder:

(1) Does the proposed AUMF authorize the President to take sides in the Syrian Civil War, or to attack Syrian rebels associated with al Qaeda, or to remove Assad from power? Yes, as long as the President determines that any of these entities has a (mere) connection to the use of WMD in the Syrian civil war, and that the use of force against one of them would prevent or deter the use or proliferation of WMD within, or to and from, Syria, or protect the U.S. or its allies (e.g. Israel) against the (mere) threat posed by those weapons. It is very easy to imagine the President making such determinations with regard to Assad or one or more of the rebel groups.

(2) Does the proposed AUMF authorize the President to use force against Iran or Hezbollah, in Iran or Lebanon? Again, yes, as long as the President determines that Iran or Hezbollah has a (mere) a connection to the use of WMD in the Syrian civil war, and the use of force against Iran or Hezbollah would prevent or deter the use or proliferation of WMD within, or to and from, Syria, or protect the U.S. or its allies (e.g. Israel) against the (mere) threat posed by those weapons.
[/I]

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=RedskinRat;1022388]If it were true:

[I]On Thursday, however, Mohammadreza Sadegh, an adviser to Rouhani, told Iran's Fars News Agency that the Rosh Hashanah tweet [U][B]did not come from Rouhani.[/B][/U] The tweet came from former campaign aides, rather, who run the Twitter account, Sadegh said.[/I][/quote]

I heard it was from him on NPR with seemingly reliable confirmation.

Re: All things Middle East related
 

[quote=RedskinRat;1022473]Mmmmm! The Gordian Knot that is the Middle East:

[URL="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/aug/30/syria-chemical-attack-war-intervention-oil-gas-energy-pipelines"]Syria intervention plan fueled by oil interests, not chemical weapon concern[/URL] - The Guardian

[I]In 2009 - the same year former French foreign minister Dumas alleges the British began planning operations in Syria - Assad refused to sign a proposed agreement with Qatar that would run a pipeline from the latter's North field, contiguous with Iran's South Pars field, through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and on to Turkey, with a view to supply European markets - albeit crucially bypassing Russia. Assad's rationale was "to protect the interests of [his] Russian ally, which is Europe's top supplier of natural gas."

Instead, the following year, Assad pursued negotiations for an alternative $10 billion pipeline plan with Iran, across Iraq to Syria, that would also potentially allow Iran to supply gas to Europe from its South Pars field shared with Qatar. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the project was signed in July 2012 - just as Syria's civil war was spreading to Damascus and Aleppo - and earlier this year Iraq signed a framework agreement for construction of the gas pipelines.

The Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline plan was a "direct slap in the face" to Qatar's plans. No wonder Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, in a failed attempt to bribe Russia to switch sides, told President Vladmir Putin that "whatever regime comes after" Assad, it will be "completely" in Saudi Arabia's hands and will "not sign any agreement allowing any Gulf country to transport its gas across Syria to Europe and compete with Russian gas exports", according to diplomatic sources. When Putin refused, the Prince vowed military action.[/I]

And:

[URL="http://www.newswithviews.com/McGuire/paul184.htm"]AMERICA, SYRIA, AND RUSSIA: OPENING THE GATES OF HELL[/URL] - Paul McGuire

[I]The Nabucco Agreement was signed by a handful of European nations and Turkey back in 2009. It was an agreement to run a natural gas pipeline across Turkey into Austria, bypassing Russia again with Qatar in the mix as a supplier to a feeder pipeline via the proposed Arab pipeline from Libya to Egypt to Nabucco (is the picture getting clearer?). The problem with all of this is that a Russian backed Syria stands in the way.

Qatar would love to sell its LNG to the EU and the hot Mediterranean markets. The problem for Qatar in achieving this is Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have already said "NO" to an overland pipe cutting across the Land of Saud. The only solution for Qatar if it wants to sell its oil is to cut a deal with the U.S.

Recently Exxon Mobile and Qatar Petroleum International have made a $10 Billion deal that allows Exxon Mobile to sell natural gas through a port in Texas to the UK and Mediterranean markets. Qatar stands to make a lot of money and the only thing standing in the way of their aspirations is Syria.

The US plays into this in that it has vast wells of natural gas, in fact the largest known supply in the world. There is a reason why natural gas prices have been suppressed for so long in the US. This is to set the stage for US involvement in the Natural Gas market in Europe while smashing the monopoly that the Russians have enjoyed for so long. What appears to be a conflict with Syria is really a conflict between the U.S. and Russia!

The main cities of turmoil and conflict in Syria right now are Damascus, Homs, and Aleppo. These are the same cities that the proposed gas pipelines happen to run through. Qatar is the biggest financier of the Syrian uprising, having spent over $3 billion so far on the conflict. The other side of the story is Saudi Arabia, which finances anti-Assad groups in Syria. The Saudis do not want to be marginalized by Qatar; thus they too want to topple Assad and implant their own puppet government, one that would sign off on a pipeline deal and charge Qatar for running their pipes through to Nabucco.[/I]

No 'Boots on the Ground'? Wanna bet?

[I]The proposed AUMF focuses on Syrian WMD but is otherwise very broad. It authorizes the President to use any element of the U.S. Armed Forces and any method of force. It does not contain specific limits on targets – either in terms of the identity of the targets (e.g. the Syrian government, Syrian rebels, Hezbollah, Iran) or the geography of the targets. Its main limit comes on the purposes for which force can be used. Four points are worth making about these purposes.

First, the proposed AUMF authorizes the President to use force “in connection with” the use of WMD in the Syrian civil war. (It does not limit the President’s use force to the territory of Syria, but rather says that the use of force must have a connection to the use of WMD in the Syrian conflict. Activities outside Syria can and certainly do have a connection to the use of WMD in the Syrian civil war.).

Second, the use of force must be designed to “prevent or deter the use or proliferation” of WMDs “within, to or from Syria” or (broader yet) to “protect the United States and its allies and partners against the threat posed by such weapons.”

Third, the proposed AUMF gives the President final interpretive authority to determine when these criteria are satisfied (“as he determines to be necessary and appropriate”).

Fourth, the proposed AUMF contemplates no procedural restrictions on the President’s powers (such as a time limit).

I think this AUMF has much broader implications than Ilya Somin described. Some questions for Congress to ponder:

(1) Does the proposed AUMF authorize the President to take sides in the Syrian Civil War, or to attack Syrian rebels associated with al Qaeda, or to remove Assad from power? Yes, as long as the President determines that any of these entities has a (mere) connection to the use of WMD in the Syrian civil war, and that the use of force against one of them would prevent or deter the use or proliferation of WMD within, or to and from, Syria, or protect the U.S. or its allies (e.g. Israel) against the (mere) threat posed by those weapons. It is very easy to imagine the President making such determinations with regard to Assad or one or more of the rebel groups.

(2) Does the proposed AUMF authorize the President to use force against Iran or Hezbollah, in Iran or Lebanon? Again, yes, as long as the President determines that Iran or Hezbollah has a (mere) a connection to the use of WMD in the Syrian civil war, and the use of force against Iran or Hezbollah would prevent or deter the use or proliferation of WMD within, or to and from, Syria, or protect the U.S. or its allies (e.g. Israel) against the (mere) threat posed by those weapons.
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thats interesting reads rat. but with re to russia and the oil pipeline .... im at the point to say eff russia, i dont care if we use our military in a less than genuine purpose if it is to eff to russia. but who knows. maybe we were the jerks first. im glad i stopped following this stuff closely. sticks head in sand.