Encircling Iran

How Many Muslims in the World? How Many Muslim Terrorists?

"Muslim attacks worldwide and against all targets, failed and successful, add up to 18,000 since 2001. This number is bound to be controversial and subject to error. If this involved 18,000 Muslims, that's a little over one-thousandth of one percent of Muslims who engaged in a terrorist or violent attempted attack or attack anywhere in the world. How many Muslims have American forces killed since 2001? I've found a low-end estimate for 1990 to 2009, and it's 288,000. How many of these were Muslim terrorists? I can't find a tally so far. The number is very, very small relative to 288,000. The tally for drone strikes is 2-3,000 with a high proportion being innocent people." Continue reading →

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If Iran Mines the Strait of Hormuz

"In a sea drill the US Navy only found half of the mines planted in a Strait of Hormuz simulation drill. I don't know if you buy the 'we only found the important ones' argument or not but I think this exercise shows how difficult/how long it would take to reopen the strait if the Iranians mined the passage. If Iran ever does mine the strait it could take weeks to clear it. In the mean time the price of oil would explode to the upside. Perhaps this simulation will make our leaders and policy makers beat the war drum a bit softer?" Continue reading →

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US, Israel to hold major missile defense exercise

"More than 3,500 US personnel will take part in the drill, about 1,000 of them in Israel, putting a total price tag on the exercise at $60 million. The weapons will include US Patriot missile batteries and an AEGIS ballistic missile defense ship, along with the multi-tiered missile defense system that Israel has been developing. All but one of the launches will be simulated. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing the United States to set Iran an ultimatum or risk seeing Israel launch unilateral strikes." Continue reading →

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Michael Scheuer: Pity poor America: Obama, Romney, and Foreign Policy

"When you clear your way through all the spurious hot air about 'American exceptionalism' and 'a world eager for U.S. leadership,' you will hear the ardent desire of two men, two parties, and almost all of the media to maintain and even increase the cultural and military interventionism in the Muslim world that has killed so many Americans at home and abroad in the past sixteen years; which has brought the United States numerous, shameful military defeats; and which has created nothing but the prospect of an ever larger and more costly war with much of Islam in the years ahead." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMichael Scheuer: Pity poor America: Obama, Romney, and Foreign Policy

West-Backed Christian Holocaust in Syria

"After the US invasion of Iraq, some 300,000 Christians fled that 'liberated' country for Syria — one of the few places in the Middle East where Christians could feel safe and go about their lives unmolested. US/Saudi/Qatari/Israeli-supported 'freedom fighters' — who as German intelligence finds are as much as 95 percent non-Syrian — are putting an end to that, threatening to completely eradicate a Christian population that goes back to the time of Christ. What do American Christians do? Cheer on the rebels as they kill Christians left and right in Syria because their government tells them they are 'freedom fighters.'" Continue reading →

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Russia: Syria Jet Carrying Perfectly Legal Radar Parts

"Turkey forced the civilian plane down and held it for several hours. Russia has complained that this amounted to an act of 'air piracy,' while Syrian officials have accused Turkey of lying about the claims that they found anything illegal, adding that the cargo manifest was accurate and legal. While the Turkish government has refused to provide any details about the supposedly 'objectionable' material they seized from a detained Syrian passenger plane earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has provided some details." Continue reading →

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National Emergency Reminder

"Iran threatens each and every one of you. This is a serious threat. It is unusual and extraordinary. It requires emergency measures. It is threatening the American economy. It threatens foreign policy and national security. How do I know? Because William J. Clinton said so and because every president since has said so. Americans should be congratulated for withstanding these threats for the past 17 years straight. Congratulations! You shall go down in history for your courage and capacity to produce and consume in the face of these incessant, unusual, and extraordinary threats." Continue reading →

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Israel facing ‘increasing number of cyber attacks’

[In a total coincidence...] "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel was facing an increasing number of cyberattacks, just days after Washington issued a veiled warning to Iran over digital attacks on its interests. 'Every day there are many attempts to infiltrate Israel’s computer systems. That’s why I established the National Cyber Directorate last year, which serves as an electronic ‘Iron Dome’ against computer terrorism,' he added. He did not specify which systems had come under attack, nor did he say who was behind them." Continue reading →

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U.S. military prepares new aggressive rules to fight cyber war

"The United States faces a growing threat of a 'cyber-Pearl Harbor' and has drafted new rules for the military that would enable it to move aggressively against digital attacks, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said. Although he avoided the word 'offensive' to describe operations or capabilities, Panetta’s speech clearly implied that the military would be empowered to take the initiative in the cyber realm. Officials offered no further details, but as former CIA director, Panetta reportedly helped oversee an unprecedented cyber sabotage campaign that targeted Iran’s uranium enrichment program." Continue reading →

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Another Obama Executive Order Allows Seizure of Americans’ Bank Accounts

"If an individual is declared by the president, the secretary of state, or the secretary of the treasury to be a 'sanctioned person,' he (or she) will be unable to obtain access to his accounts, will be unable to process any loans (or make them), or move them to any other financial institution inside or outside the United States. The EO expands its authority by making him unable to use any third party such as 'a partnership, association, trust, joint venture, corporation, subgroup or other organization' that might wish to help him or allow him to obtain access to his funds. If the individual so 'sanctioned' decides that the ruling is unfair, he isn't allowed to sue." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAnother Obama Executive Order Allows Seizure of Americans’ Bank Accounts