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Mideast: Iran tests an advanced warhead design as it gets caught shipping weapons to Hezbollah. Syria is reported to give the group operational control over Scud missiles. It's five minutes to midnight. Tyranny abhors a vacuum. While the U.S. and the West dither in Hamlet-like fashion over whatever we shall do in places such as Afghanistan and Iran, the Axis of Evil is in full swing in its plans to destroy Israel and threaten Europe and America. Israel last week seized what it said was the largest arms cache ever intercepted in the region. Israeli navy commandos boarded the Francop,...

The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned. The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as "breathtaking" and has added urgency ...

As the United States and its allies haggle with Iran over its nuclear program, Moscow has fueled Western unease about its military links to Tehran by pledging to continue selling arms to the Islamic republic. This has raised speculation that it may brush aside the strident objections of the United States and Israel and supply Iran with advanced S-300PMU surface-to-air missiles that would greatly enhance its defenses against airstrikes. The Russians, who have rejected the proposed imposition of economic sanctions on Iran as "counterproductive," are keeping the waters muddied with contradictory and ambiguous statements regarding the S-300s. On Wednesday, Russia's...

A military delegation from Iraq will visit Moscow in the near future to discuss the purchase of Russian weaponry, an Iraqi parliament member has said. "A large delegation from the Iraqi Defense Ministry will travel soon to Moscow for talks on arms purchases [from Russia]," Abbas al-Bayati said in an interview with the Al Iraqiya television. According to the Iraqi MP, Baghdad is seeking to sign arms contracts with Russia, Germany, France, Serbia and the United States by the end of 2011 "to complete the creation of Iraqi Armed Forces and security forces." Al-Bayati said the Iraqi leadership is interested...

Russia bewildered by N.Korea missile launch-Tass Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:24am EDT MOSCOW, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Russia is bewildered by the latest North Korean missile launch, Itar-Tass news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry source as saying on Monday. "The launch of short-range missiles by the Korean People's Democratic Republic causes bewilderment," the source said. "It was not the most suitable time to do this now, when all efforts are made to restart six-way talks on Korea's nuclear problem."

<p>It began with a thinly sourced but highly explosive report Monday in a British newspaper: Arab oil sheikhs are conspiring with the Russians and Chinese to quit using the dollar to set the value of oil trades – a direct threat to the global supremacy of the greenback.</p>

North Korea wants to placate key benefactor China by offering to return to disarmament talks and it is unclear whether it really intends to give up its cherished nuclear deterrent, analysts said Tuesday. Leader Kim Jong-Il told visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao late Monday the North is willing to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations -- on condition it first holds talks with the United States to improve "hostile relations". Some analysts expressed scepticism about the North's conditional offer to return to six-party dialogue, almost six months after it quit the forum and announced it would restart its bomb-making programme....

Netanyahu, has handed the Kremlin a list of Russian scientists believed by the Israelis to be helping Iran to develop a nuclear warhead. He is said to have delivered the list during a mysterious visit to Moscow.

Iran did something fairly important this week, in the grand scheme of things. Iran proved that President Bush and his “Axis of Evil” comment was accurate, and that President/Senator Obama (and all his liberal allies with blinders on) with his Pollyannish “Iran is not a threat” was wrong. Deadly wrong.(snip) Who is that naive and stupid? (Read Barry Buffoon)Combine this news with their known missile program (and their mad leader’s claims to wipe Israel off the map) and it becomes clear that Iran is taking this world into the abyss of hell.

3 Wrongs Don’t Make a Right 17 September 2009 By Robert R. Amsterdam The recent visits to Moscow and Tehran by Hugo Chavez raise a number of concerns about the deepening relations between Russia, Iran and Venezuela. The motivation behind the Russia-Iran-Venezuela alliance is often misunderstood. On the one hand, there is the narrative that these governments are pursuing national interests, seeking to deepen their security against ever-present external threats and accrue regional power. Others argue that the alliance is driven by an attempt to build an “alternative architecture” of global relations, one that is conveniently unconcerned with democracy and...

The bad old Axis of Evil is back in the news. That's not because President Barack Obama has resurrected the label, but because he's now planning to hold direct talks with its two surviving charter members, Iran and North Korea. It's one of many signs of change (if not hope) that the phrase itself, "axis of evil," has become less welcome in Washington's diplomatic calculus than envoys of that axis itself. Even before Obama scrapped the entire concept, President George W. Bush during his second term had abandoned the formulation. ... If the term "evil" has now been written out...

link only http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aK4daf8MD.Bw

Barack Obama Starts US Talks With 'Axis of Evil': North Korea and Iran President Barack Obama has approved plans for the US to start direct talks with both North Korea and Iran, in a significant shift in policy. By Philip Sherwell in New York and David Eimer in Beijing 12 Sep 2009 Barack Obama's new approach marks a significant change in American diplomacy The State Department said it would meet one-to-one with Pyongyang negotiators in an effort to persuade the reclusive Stalinist state to return to multilateral talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons programme. Washington has also accepted a vague...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said on Friday it was prepared to hold direct talks with North Korea to try to coax it back into multilateral negotiations on ending its nuclear programs. Previously, U.S. officials had sent mixed signals about direct meetings, at times saying Pyongyang must first commit to resume multilateral discussions and at others saying bilateral talks could only occur "in the context" of the multilateral discussions. The department denied changing its policy on direct talks, saying any bilateral meeting would be to bring Pyongyang back to multilateral talks. "We are prepared to enter into a...

The US and Russia have given differing responses to Iran's latest proposals on its nuclear programme. The proposals, aimed at ending the impasse over Iran's nuclear ambitions, were submitted to a group of six global powers on Wednesday. The US State Department said the proposals fell short of satisfying international demands. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said they contained something to work with. "Based on a brief review of the Iranian papers my impression is there is something there to use," Mr Lavrov said in Moscow. "The most important thing is (that) Iran is ready for a comprehensive discussion...

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi marked the 40th anniversary of the bloodless coup that brought him to power, with celebrations attended by African, Arab and Latin American leaders but largely ignored by the West. At the end of a two-hour show late Tuesday retracing the 40 years since Kadhafi ousted King Idriss in 1969, a brief video clip showed the return to Libya last month of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, but the western delegations present did not react. Kadhafi's party kicked off around midnight on Monday at the former US military base of Matega near Tripoli with a two-hour...

It has the makings of the opening sequence in an apocalyptic thriller. A ship enters the Gulf, carrying a secret, illicit cargo of munitions, bound for Iran from North Korea. The ship is seized by the United Arab Emirates, where authorities discover that instead of the oil boring equipment listed on the manifest, the cargo includes some 10 containers filled with rocket launchers, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades and detonators. The UAE seizes the cargo and notifies the United Nations Security Council. But for weeks, the public is told nothing about it – not by the UN, and not by Washington. The...

The Term "Axis of Evil" has been a source of liberal derision ever since President Bush coined the phrase in his 2002 State of the Union address... Seven years later Iraq is a fledgling democracy, but North Korea and Iran are still at it, in fact they are working together: The United Arab Emirates has seized a cargo ship earlier this month bound for Iran with a cache of banned arms from North Korea, the first such seizure since sanctions against North Korea were ramped up, diplomats and officials told The Associated Press Friday. The seizure was carried out in...

NEW YORK (CNN) — The United Arab Emirates seized a ship carrying banned arms from North Korea to Iran, diplomats told CNN Friday. The incident occurred in early August and was reported to the U.N. Security Council’s North Korea Sanctions committee, Western diplomats at the United Nations said. The diplomats did not disclose which country owned the vessel. It also was not immediately clear whether this was the first time such an incident had happened, or only the first time such a case had been revealed. A U.N. resolution passed in July imposes an embargo on the shipment of arms...

Amy Goodman of the Marxist Democracy Now! network reported yesterday on the arrest of a “leading Democratic donor” named Hassan Nemazee. Here is the story, in its entirety: Back in the United States, a leading Democratic donor has been arrested and charged with seeking to defraud the financial giant Citibank. Hassan Nemazee is accused of submitting forged documents to secure a $74 million loan. Nemazee has given at least $150,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee since 2006 and supported several other leading Democratic politicians. Not much to sink your teeth into there. Could it be that Goodman is downplaying...

Gaddafi: Terrorism Is Justified By Western Arrogance Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi sure was quiet during the Bush years. But, that's all changed. Yesterday, Gaddafi said terrorism was justified by Western arrogance. ANSAmed reported, via RIP: The scheduled visit by Italy's prime minister to Libya on August 30 is "most opportune" and will go ahead. Any rumours of second thoughts on the part of Silvio Berlusconi were thoroughly quashed yesterday by Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, and his visit to Tripoli, scheduled for the end of this month to celebrate the first anniversary of the signing of the Cooperation and Friendship Treaty...

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hinted today that Syria was responsible for last week’s bombings in Baghdad. In an unusually belligerent tone Maliki added that Iraq could respond in kind but refrains from doing so because of “our values and keen interest to reach an agreement with this country to get rid of those elements they host”. This is the first time the Prime Minister points at a particular state for involvement in violence in Iraq. Previous statements usually used the loose “neighboring countrie(s)” term. Although he only spoke about Syria, he also hinted that Syria might have a partner in...

LONDON — Iran and Syria reportedly participated in a failed missile launch by North Korea. ShareThis Western diplomatic sources said Iran, North Korea and Syria joined in the firing of two new ballistic missiles in 2009. The sources said the North Korean missiles veered off-course and killed or injured scores of people. None of the three countries has acknowledged a joint missile test. In May, Syria was said to have reported a natural gas explosion in the area of Manbij. "The test took place in Syria in May and was a complete failure," a diplomatic source said. On Aug. 14,...

20 Killed in Failed Syrian Scud Missile Test by Hana Levi Julian (IsraelNN.com) At least 20 Syrian civilians were killed and 60 were wounded in a failed missile test in May, Japan's Kyodo News reported Friday. The test involved two updated Scud missiles developed together by Syria, North Korea and Iran. Both exhibited defective guidance systems, according to a Middle Eastern military source quoted in the report. One of the short-range ballistic missiles hit a market near the Syrian-Turkish border, causing dozens of civilian casualties. Syrian forces attributed the blast to a gas explosion and blocked off the site to...

Twenty Syrians were killed and over 60 injured in a failed Scud missile test carried out by Syria, Iran and North Korea in May One of two missiles had apparently strayed off its course due to a technical malfunction, landing in a civilian populated area.

Remember all those polls during the Presidential Campaign, how Europe desperately wanted Barack Obama to win. How the European leadership fawned over Obama when he made his summer tour tour around the world? One of the President's campaign promises was that he was going to "repair" our relationship with Europe (as if they needed to be repaired). Ever since he was inaugurated, President Obama has done his best to diss our allies in Europe. There was that famous "non joint press conference" when Gordon Brown came to visit, refusing Nicolas Sarkozy offer to share a meal when Obama was a...

The Obama team has lifted a ban on the sale of some high-tech equipment to Syria. A recognized state sponsor of terrorism. WSJ reports: "The Obama administration has told Syria that it will work to ease U.S. sanctions against Damascus, as Washington intensifies its pursuit of détente with a longtime Middle East rival." [As Obama intensifies his efforts to legitimize a dictatorial state sponsor of terrorism, having just recently decided to return a U.S. ambassador] "The U.S. decision targets spare aircraft parts, information-technology products and telecommunications equipment, sales of which have been restricted by U.S. sanctions on Syria enacted in...

Imad Mustafa, the Syrian envoy to the US, said Monday that the Obama administration had lifted the ban imposed on exporting goods to the Syrian Aviation Industry, the Kuwait News Agency reported. Speaking on Syrian national television, Mustafa revealed that the US had also lifted the ban on exporting IT products, whether they were hardware or software, adding that US President Barack Obama was considering lifting more such restrictions.

(IsraelNN.com) The United States has alerted Syrian diplomats that America has decided to lift various embargos against Syria, with more suspensions of embargos on the way. Dr. Imad Mustafa, Syria's ambassador to Washington, told Syrian television Sunday that U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama has suspended several articles of the U.S. sanction against Syria, with more suspensions to come, according to Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed his most senior vice-president, it has been reported. The decision, reported by state news agency Irna, came after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered Mr Ahmadinejad to do so. First Vice-President Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie had caused anger by saying Iranians and Israelis were friends. An aide to the president was quoted by Irna as saying Mr Mashaie did not now consider himself first vice-president. The decision came after a week-long stand-off between Ayatollah Khamenei and Mr Ahmadinejad, who had defended Mr Mashaie. Ayatollah Khamenei wrote to the president, telling him that appointing Mr Mashaie...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said North Korea should not receive the attention it is seeking through behavior like missile launches and likened Pyongyang's behavior to that of unruly children. North Korea tested a nuclear device in May and fired seven ballistic missiles earlier this month in defiance of a U.N. resolution. "What we've seen is this constant demand for attention," Clinton, who is in India, said in an interview that aired on Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "And maybe it's the mother in me or the experience that I've had with small children and unruly...

It turns out that there are second acts in international politics. Four years after the Bush administration severed diplomatic relations with Syria, in the aftermath of the Damascus regime’s suspected involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, the unofficial member of the “axis of evil” has received a warmer reception from the Bush administration’s successor. President Obama has expressed his intention to engage Syria, and the administration took a decisive step in that direction last month when it announced plans to send an ambassador to the country. But as the U.S. prepares to engage the Assad...

Apart from the Soviet Union, Asia was the major killing field of communism. Perhaps 75 million innocent men, women and children were killed for communism in Asia - mainly in China, North Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia. The western effort to stop this evil in Korea and Vietnam was a great and noble cause, and partially successful. The brave Americans who died in Korea and Vietnam did not die for nothing. They did not die for "a lie". They died for the freedom of South Korea and South Vietnam. In Korea, they were partially successful. North Korea fell to the darkness,...

North Korea earns over US$2 billion annually in arms deals with Iran, according to Larry Niksch, a specialist in Asian affairs with the U.S. Congressional Research Service. Niksch made the claim at a conference ["Engaging China to Solve the North Korea Problem"] Tuesday hosted by the Cato Institute in Washington on China's role in North Korean affairs. He called on China to block flights between Pyongyang and Tehran in addition to financial sanctions against the Stalinist country. Scientists and engineers as well as missiles, missile parts and technical drawings for missiles are being transferred by air between the North and...

Syria's first lady has put out the welcome mat for the Obamas, a further sign that the once frosty relations between the two nations is thawing. In an interview with Britain's Sky News, Asma al Assad envisioned her husband, Bashar, and Barack Obama joining forces. "The fact is President Obama is young," al Assad said, "and President Assad is also very young as well, so maybe it is time for these young leaders to make a difference in the world." Asma was born in London and moved to Damascus after marrying Bashar al Assad nine years ago. Last week, the...

A post-launch examination of the Unha-2 By David Wright and Theodore A. Postol | 29 June 2009 Article Highlights * The launch vehicle North Korea tested on April 5, the Unha-2, represents a significant advance over North Korea's previous launchers. * In particular, it would have the capability to reach the continental United States with a payload of 1 ton or more if Pyongyang modified it for use as a ballistic missile. * However, if key Unha-2's components were acquired from Russia and elsewhere, North Korea's domestic missile development program may be much more limited than commonly assumed. North Korea...

Syria's First Lady has exclusively told Sky News she would welcome the Obamas to Damascus. Asma al Assad's comments are the latest in a series of signs US Syrian relations are improving after years of tension. "The fact is President Obama is young," she said, "and President Assad is also very young as well, so maybe it is time for these young leaders to make a difference in the world". And she gladly envisioned welcoming Michelle Obama and her husband in a presidential palace in Damascus in the near future. "I can see myself hosting them in Damascus in the...

U.S. 'ready' for N. Korean missile Pyongyang expected to test ICBM By Bill Gertz July 2, 2009 COLORADO SPRINGS | U.S. missile defenses are prepared to try to knock down the last stage of a Taepodong-2 missile that North Korea is expected soon to launch if sensors detect the weapon threatens U.S. territory, the commander of the U.S. Northern Command told The Washington Times. "The nation has a very, very credible ballistic-missile defense capability. Our ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California, I'm very comfortable, give me a capability that if we really are threatened by a long-range ICBM that I've...

I was reading the above linked article about our "UN sanctions" that allow us to track but not board north korean vessels without permission and thought I would pose the question... who is the greater threat N Korea or Iran here is an excerpt from the article Suspected NKorean ship changes course By PAULINE JELINEK – 6 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back toward the north where it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of...

BAGHDAD – The top U.S. military commander in Iraq on Tuesday accused Iran of continuing to support and train militants who are carrying out attacks, including most of the ones in Baghdad. Gen. Ray Odierno said the attacks have fallen in number but are still a problem. He made the comments just after the U.S. relinquished security for Baghdad and other urban areas to Iraqi forces, part of a security agreement that will see all American soldiers out of the country by the end of 2011. "Iran is still supporting, funding and training surrogates who operate inside of Iraq. They...

The top U.S. military commander in Iraq says that Iran still supports and trains militants who carry out attacks _ mostly with mortars and sophisticated roadside bombs _ inside Iraq. Gen. Ray Odierno says the attacks have been reduced but are still a problem. He spoke on Tuesday at his base outside of Baghdad, as Iraqi forces took control of security in the Iraqi capital and other urban areas. June 30 was the deadline for American troops to pull out of Iraqi cities under a U.S.-Iraqi security pact. The pullout was completed on Monday. Odiero says Tehran is "still supporting,...

In diplomacy, messages are often not direct or straightforward. Sometimes lessons from one theatre have relevance for another. The belligerence of North Korean dictator Kim Jong II over the past few weeks is a sobering reminder of how things can go wrong if a paramount power decides to speak softly without waving a big stick. On May 25, Pyongyang tested a nuclear device. A North Korean ship is currently on the high seas, apparently carrying an illegal cargo of missiles and other weaponry to Burma. On July 4, Independence Day in the United States, Mr Kim has promised to fire...

SEOUL, South Korea — Punching their fists into the air and shouting "Let's crush them!" some 100,000 North Koreans packed Pyongyang's main square Thursday for an anti-U.S. rally as the communist regime promised a "fire shower of nuclear retaliation" for any American-led attack. Several demonstrators held up a placard depicting a pair of hands smashing a missile with "U.S." written on it, according to footage taken by APTN in Pyongyang on the anniversary of the day North Korean troops charged southward, sparking the three-year Korean War in 1950. North Korean troops will respond to any sanctions or U.S. provocations with...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – President Barack Obama has decided to send a U.S. ambassador back to Syria, a dramatic sign of reconciliation between the two countries, senior administration officials tell CNN. The announcement is expected to be made this week. "It's in our interests to have an ambassador in Syria, a senior administration official told CNN Tuesday night. "We have been having more and more discussions and we need to have someone there to engage."

Russia says it backs the results of Iran's presidential elections - a crucial voteof confidence for hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who says he won re-election by a landslide. The Foreign Ministry also says that disputes about the June 12 vote "should be settled in strict compliance with Iran's Constitution and law" and are "exclusively an internal matter." The statement was posted on the ministry's Web site late Monday. Iranian opposition supporters allege systematic fraud and have demanded a new election.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the German firm's shady dealings with the Iranian regime, which included helping the country develop "one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale." This story was even more shocking the first time I read it in the Washington Times.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Monday it views all issues linked to Iran's presidential election as the Islamic Republic's internal affair. "According to the officially announced results of Iran's presidential election, it was won by current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We consider all issues linked to Iran's election as this country's exclusively internal affair. We believe the discords that emerged after the election must be settled in strict conformity with the Islamic Republic's constitution and laws." Iran's opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, who was officially beaten into second place by Ahmadinejad in an election...

U.S. boosts missile defense amid reports of planned N. Korea test Defense chief Robert M. Gates' remarks about shoring up Hawaii's defense may be aimed at deterring a test launch and signals that the U.S. is willing to act to prevent a successful test. By Julian E. Barnes June 18, 2009 Reporting from Washington -- Reacting to reports that North Korea may be preparing to test-fire a missile toward Hawaii, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that he had ordered additional assets deployed to shore up defense of the islands. Gates ordered the deployment of a powerful sea-based radar...

Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican, urged President Obama to put North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terror, arguing that the regime took advantage of the Bush administration's decision to take Pyongyang off the list. "All North Korea did after we took them off that list was to use the flexibility that we gave them to reclaim the assets that had been frozen and use them to expedite their nuclear program," he said in an interview on The Washington Times' morning radio show, "America's Morning News." "They're basically slapping us in the face for trying to...

What could be more American than “bombs bursting in air” on the Fourth of July, Michael Kinsley notwithstanding? Hawaii may get more Americana than it wants for its Independence Day celebrations, thanks to North Korea’s nutcase dictator, Kim Jong-Il. Kim has threatened to shoot a long-range ballistic missile at our 50th state, taking provocation to the edge of a cassus belli: