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Our new security system prevents email messages coming through the AOL server from being delivered to our address. This is because of the probability of unwelcome and problematical attachments to messages from this source, coupled with the fact that AOL’s voluntary cooperation with various American, and foreign, law enforcement groups makes contact with them in any form a risky business.  Correspondents wishing to contact TBR News are suggested to use another server. To prevent unwanted correspondence from this source, simply put ‘aol.com’ on your block list. Ed.

Announcing TBR Ebooks!

Starting with a new publication concerning the background behind the 9/11 attacks, TBR News will be presenting a series of interesting, informative and definitive works for our readers. Future titles will include the complete Voice of the White House with much more added material that was considered too controversial to post, the heavily-censored Armenian Holocaust of 1916, the Bush-Lay private correspondence, the Assassination of JFK,Pearl Harbor intrigues and rare documents, Malaparte’s inside study of the making of revolution, sensational selected articles from the German Rudolf historical revision files, unpublished before Rudolf’s arrest and forced deportation to Germany, World War II studies of holocaust history, taken from secret German files and much more. Please see the title page for more information.

The Editors

Descending Into Darkness: The Harring Report

A well-researched study into the background of the 9/11 attack: Who knew what and when did they know it. Russian and German intelligence material, not published before show that the U.S. had ample warning...and did nothing about it.

THE VOICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE

The full collection of the twice-weekly commentary of what is really going on inside the corrupt Bush White House. The spectrum includes the Gannon scandal, the planned invasion of Iran, many stories of stupidity and corruption coupled with biting sarcasm. Interesting to note that many, if not most, of the predictions have come true.

REGICIDE The Official Assassination of John F. Kennedy

A landmark book that sold very well in hardback, this work contains actual intelligence documents concerning the inside U.S. plans to kill Kennedy; the reasons, the methods and the results.

The Final Reckoning: An Analysis of Demographics in Holocaust Literature

By Harold Kreig, Lt.Col, AUS ret.

This is the first rational, heavily documented work on the subject of the Holocaust. Colonel Krieg has taken thousands of documents, including the official SS concentration camp records from 1935 through 1945 and official U.S. government postwar analysis of the system and the casualties and causes of death and produced a book that is highly informative and readable.  Heavily footnoted and annotated, ‘The Final Reckoning’ is logical and compelling and is an historical work that should be read through by any student of the period and subject.

Coup D’Etat: The Technique Of Revolution

By Curzio Malaparte

First published in Italy by Curzio Malaparte in 1928, this is a seminal work on historical seizures of power from Napoleon through Hitler.

Gestapo-Chief: The CIA & Heinrich Müller by Gregory Douglas

                In 1948, the former head of Hitelr’s Gestapo was interviewed by senior officials of the CIA in Switzerland where Müller had been in hiding since the end of the Second World War. His interview, for Colonel James Critchfield of the CIA’s Gehlen Organization, runs to nearly a thousand pages and for years was hidden in the CIA’s files.

                This is a translation of a part of the interview, which was initially conducted in German and then translated into English for CIA use.

                It is a fascinating series of historical episodes covering both the Axis and Allied sides with comments on Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, Winston Churchill, the 20^th of July bomb plot against Hitler, Bishop von Galen’s heroic, and successful, attacks on the Nazis and their euthanasia program, the concentration camps, the Duke of Windsor, the Roger Casement diaries and many more fascinating and insightful views of a man who ran the most effective counter-intelligence agency in modern times. 

                There is also extensive information on the attempts on the part of the CIA to silence or discredit the fact that the Gestapo Chief worked for the United States and eventually came to live in Washington, D.C. as part of the notorious “Operation Paperclip.”

                Fascinating inside views of many top Nazis and CIA officials. 

The CIA COvenant: Nazis in Washington

by Gregory Douglas

* From the end of World War II, the American CIA imported thousands of Nazis into the United States to work for them, many on the list of wanted war criminals

*One of the most important of these was Heinrich Mueller, once head of Hitler's Gestapo. Mueller was recruited by Colonel James Critchfield who ran the CIA's "Gehnel Organization' in Munich.

* Mueller kept journals and this book is a translation of three years (1948-1951) of notes and observations made of top CIA officials, President Truman, top U.S. government officials, plans for murder, thefts, kidnappings, wholesale thefts of public money and a terrifying pattern of uncontrolled ambition, unchecked by any person or agency.

* Also included are CIA and other agency's activities that have never been revealed.

*Mueller's deals in stolen Nazi art for the CIA are covered in detail.

*Also to be found are the steps the frightened CIA have taken to prevent the publication, sales or distribution of this work.

An Essay on the Principle of Population

by Thomas Malthus

The 1798 classic study of how supplies of food do not keep up with an expanding population

Malthus' theory is that population growth is geometric while the food supply increase is arithmetic.

A very literate and current study that clearly highlights present and current population problems

With the world's population higher than ever before, this is a work of great and current interest

CONSPIRACIES for Fun and Profit

Contents
The Evil Catholics Murdered Abraham Lincoln
TWA Flight 800: The Gathering of the Nuts
The Real Truth About the Kennedy Assassination!
The Great 9-11 Plot
Who is Sorcha Faal?
The Bush Indictments
Faked Conspiracy photos
The Sinking of the MV Estonia
The German Guy and the Destruction of Houston
The Great Contrail Conspiracy
Planet X
Remote Viewing unveiled

Notice!

Our new security system prevents email messages coming through the AOL server from being delivered to our address. This is because of the probability of unwelcome and problematical attachments to messages from this source, coupled with the fact that AOL’s voluntary cooperation with various American, and foreign, law enforcement groups makes contact with them in any form a risky business.  Correspondents wishing to contact TBR News are suggested to use another server. Ed.

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people, On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
- H.L. Mencken

“That we are to stand by the president, right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
-Theodore Roosevelt

“Mass movements do not usually rise until the prevailing order has been discredited. The discrediting is not an automatic result of the blunders and abuses of those in power, but the deliberate work of men of words with a grievance.”
-Eric Hoffer The True Believer

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

America’s Enemies!

There are four entities who represent the most dangerous enemies to American liberties since George III.

They are:

1.                    The Neocons or Likudists who owe their personal allegiance to another country and now completely control our foreign policy. They lied and deceived us into the Iraq war and are demanding that more and more American soldiers die to preserve their own country and ideals.

2.                    The Christian Evangelical right who is trying to force the United States into becoming a theocracy under their rule. They know in their hearts that they alone can restructure a secular humanist America into their idea of Heaven on Earth.

3.                    An element of American society that call themselves Patriots and are obsessively militaristic and great admirers of the corporate or fascistic state. Many of these have been very minor members of the American military and as a counterbalance to their reserve or rear area tours of duty, are rabidly in favor of draconian military action, the bloodier the better. Usually these drumbeaters are too old, or too fat, to fight and have no sons of draft age.

4.                    George W. Bush, who is the worst president in the history of the United States and directly responsible for the huge death tolls in Iraq, is determined to rule the United States until God puts a stop to him and is even more determined to force the American people into becoming obedient, Christian and self-sacrificing lemmings who worship at his shrine and march in step.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C. July 20, 2006: “The information I am about to discuss has been discreetly circulating in Certain Circles (certainly not the White House) inside the Beltway for at least a month now and since it is about to be revealed elsewhere, I am going to discuss it.

Hitherto, I have kept very quiet about it because I certainly wouldn’t want to reveal it so that more and more devastating information can emerge into the light of day.

Some months ago, we learned that the top Israeli military, intelligence and diplomatic codes had been very effectively broken by a group of cryptanalysis experts both here and in the Russian Republic.

(How strange that there is now cooperation, if unofficial, between the two former enemies!)

In the United States, all I can say is that the code-breakers are not the NSA or the CIA. The latter are far too pro-Israel because many of their top executives are Jewish and the former has other things to do.

At the same time that Israel’s political, diplomatic and military secrets are circulating around the Beltway, and for a certainty, into at least two of the Embassies on Massachusetts Avenue, other very clandestine programs have pinpointed very strategic areas inside Israel to include, but are certainly not limited to: Sigint centers, repositories of very sensitive weaponry to include nuclear items and CW/BW stockpiles, major military communications centers, hidden command bunkers and hardened security bunkers in Tel Aviv for high level Israeli officials,  fuel stores for the military including gas and oil reserves, high-level military and governmental telephone exchanges and other vital infrastructure targets.

In Washington, the very highest level communications to and from the Israeli Embassy and certain important Israeli official commissions are being read and transcribed on a daily basis and excerpts of these have been, and are being, read by a number of people here and abroad ( and for a certainty also in various Arab Embassies here.)

It is known, here at least, that a number of Russian Jews, now employed in highly sensitive positions in Israel, have been transmitting certain information of a top level nature to Moscow and some, but not all, of this is coming to the United States (but certainly not officially !) The main reason? Family still inside Russia and the fact that the U.S. shares top level data with Israel and by tapping into this, the Russians can much more easily break certain codes and read satellite pictures.

Many messages contain directives to the Ambassador as to what is to be conveyed to a completely sympathetic President and Secretary of State, their very private responses, directives to intelligence operatives controlled from the Embassy, a significant number of references, often double coded, as to Isreal-sympathetic U.S. government officials, both appointed and elected. Not all of these are Jewish, by the way.

Classified information, much at the very highest level, is pouring into the Israeli Embassy, evaluated by them , coded and  responses sent back to Tel Aviv…and being read as soon as it is received and sent out!

With the full cooperation and even encouragement of the President, Israel has been preparing a coup d’main against Arab commandos both in Lebanon and Gaza and has been planning, again with the full cooperation of the White House, to use these “terrorist attacks” (deliberately provoked) on them to move militarily into Syria and “completely crush” the government there which they view as working with Iran to infiltrate deadly, long range missiles into Lebanon to attack vital targets deep inside Israel.

There also has been the intention of Israel to involve the United States in a sneak attack on Tehran using tactical nuclear weapons. The President finds himself in a position wherein he completely sympathizes with Israel’s determination to crush any kind of Arab activism in the Middle East because he feels that these same activists are also Iran sponsored and are responsible for the casualties in Iraq.

The idea under discussion, according to the extracts, is for this to happen just before the U.S. midterm elections in November, to give Bush and the Republicans a desperately needed boost in public opinion.

Our military, which is behind these code-breaking schemes, is bitterly opposed to any extension of hostilities in the area because their troops would then be fully engaged with military, rather than irregular, units and we simply do not have enough equipment or personnel on the ground to deal with it.

The military feels that if significant numbers of our troops were to be overrun and killed or wounded by a massive Arab military campaign, the Army and Marines would be effectively neutralized for some time to come and utterly unable to cope with any national or global crisis that would undoubtedly  be instigated by any one of our growing list of enemies. These perceive that America is pinned down in a no-win guerrilla war in Iraq and that it would be virtually impossible, for example, to send American troops into Mexico in the event of a left-wing coup there or into Venezuela to remove the obnoxious left-wing and Bush-hating Chavez.

Israeli leaders have been closeted with many of their American counterparts in the hopes of a joint action against both Syria and Iran but logistics are against them. (Mossad people regularly meet in Langley with their CIA counterparts to exchange information) The Israelis are shocked to discover the quantity and quality of the rocketry (and other weapons) being used against them and since Bush, at their foolish request, has agreed to give them a free hand in blasting Lebanon, there is a growing and very serious military belief that the war will suddenly escalate and  Israel will not only attack Lebanon with ground troops but will use siezed areas in that country to launch a military attack on Syria which they see as a surrogate for Iran. Nuclear war is a specific probability at this juncture.

An attack on Iran, problematical thought it might be, is not to be taken lightly because Israel is determined to “neutralize” (read “exterminate”) both states as major threats to their existence. There seems to be growing frustration on Israel’s leaders part about the possible inability of the U.S. to intervene on their side in such a blitzkrieg.

Iran is far better armed that most observers realize and the deliberate refusal of Bush to use his office to force a cease fire will. In all probability,  lead to an unforeseen escalation of combat in Lebanon that will  result in terrible damage and high death tolls but he has repeatedly demonstrated that such matters are of absolutely no consequence to him or his top advisors.

A compendium of information gleaned from this overview is being prepared for future publication”

United States to Israel: You Have One More Week to Blast Hizbullah

Bush 'gave green light' for limited attack, say Israeli and UK sources

July 19, 2006
by Ewen MacAskill, Simon Tisdall and Patrick Wintour
The Guardian/UK

The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources.

The Bush administration, backed by Britain, has blocked efforts for an immediate halt to the fighting initiated at the UN security council, the G8 summit in St Petersburg and the European foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.

It's clear the Americans have given the Israelis the green light. They [the Israeli attacks] will be allowed to go on longer, perhaps for another week," a senior European official said yesterday. Diplomatic sources said there was a clear time limit, partly dictated by fears that a prolonged conflict could spin out of control.

US strategy in allowing Israel this freedom for a limited period has several objectives, one of which is delivering a slap to Iran and Syria, who Washington claims are directing Hizbullah and Hamas militants from behind the scenes.

George Bush last night said that he suspected Syria was trying to reassert its influence in Lebanon. Speaking in Washington, he said: "It's in our interest for Syria to stay out of Lebanon and for this government in Lebanon to succeed and survive. The root cause of the problem is Hizbullah and that problem needs to be addressed."

Tony Blair yesterday swung behind the US position that Israel need not end the bombing until Hizbullah hands over captured prisoners and ends its rocket attacks. During a Commons statement, he resisted backbench demands that he call for a ceasefire.

Echoing the US position, he told MPs: "Of course we all want violence to stop and stop immediately, but we recognise the only realistic way to achieve such a ceasefire is to address the underlying reasons why this violence has broken out."

He also indicated it might take many months to agree the terms of a UN stabilisation force on the Lebanese border.

After Mr Blair spoke, British officials privately acknowledged the US had given Israel a green light to continue bombing Lebanon until it believes Hizbullah's infrastructure has been destroyed.

Washington's hands-off approach was underlined yesterday when it was confirmed that Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, is delaying a visit to the region until she has met a special UN team. She is expected in the region on Friday, according to Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the UN.

The US is publicly denying any role in setting a timeframe for Israeli strikes. When asked whether the US was holding back diplomatically, Tony Snow, the White House's press spokesman, said yesterday: "No, no; the insinuation there is that there is active military planning, collaboration or collusion, between the United States and Israel - and there isn't ... the US has been in the lead of the diplomatic efforts, issuing repeated calls for restraint, but at the same time putting together an international consensus. You've got to remember who was responsible for this: Hizbullah ... It would be misleading to say the United States hasn't been engaged. We've been deeply engaged."

Steven Cook, a specialist in US-Middle East policy at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations, said: "It's abundantly clear [that US policy is] to give the Israelis the opportunity to strike a blow at Hizbullah ...

"They have global reach, and prior to 9/11 they killed more Americans than any other group. But the Israelis are overplaying their hand."

Israel is already laying the ground for negotiations. "We are beginning a diplomatic process alongside the military operation that will continue," said Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, yesterday. "The diplomatic process is not meant to shorten the window of time of the army's operation, but rather is meant to be an extension of it and to prevent a need for future military operations," she added.

Moshe Kaplinsky, Israel's deputy army chief, said the offensive could end within a few weeks, adding that Israel needed time to complete "clear goals". Israeli officials said fighting could begin to wind down after the weekend, if Hizbullah stops firing rockets.

A peace formula is also beginning to emerge: it includes an understanding on a future prisoner exchange, a deployment of the Lebanese army up to the Israeli border, a Hizbullah pullback, and the beefing up of an international monitoring force. For the first time, Ms Livni suggested Israel might accept such a force on a temporary basis.

There were signs of differences of emphasis between the Foreign Office and Downing Street over the conflict.

Kim Howells, a Foreign Office minister, explicitly called for the US to rein in Israel. "I very much hope the Americans will be putting pressure on the Israelis to stop as quickly as possible." he told the BBC. "We understand the pressure the Israeli government is under, but we call on them to look very carefully at the pressure ordinary people are under in southern Lebanon and other parts of Lebanon too ... We want to stop this as quickly as possible".

Israeli airstrikes killed 31 yesterday, including a family of nine in Aitaroun. More than 230 civilians in Lebanon have been killed in the past week.

An Israeli man was killed by a Hizbullah rocket in Nahariya in northern Israel, bringing the total of Israeli civilian deaths to 13. The army said 50 missiles were fired yesterday at northern Israel, injuring at least 14 people.

Flashpoints

· 31 Lebanese killed in Israeli air raids. Nine members of one family were killed and four wounded in a strike on their house in the village of Aitaroun. Five were killed in other strikes in the south and two in the Bekaa Valley. An attack on a Lebanese army barracks east of Beirut killed 11 soldiers and wounded 30. A truck carrying medical supplies was hit and its driver killed on the Beirut-Damascus highway. Hizbullah says one of its fighters was killed.

· One man killed as he was walking to a bomb shelter in Nahariya, northern Israel. The army said Hizbullah fired 50 missiles, hitting the port and railway depot at Haifa, as well as the towns of Safed, Acre and Kiryat Shmona.

· Hundreds evacuated from Beirut in helicopters and boats. HMS Gloucester arrives to start evacuation of Britons. The Orient Queen, a cruise ship capable of carrying 750, sets out from Cyprus, escorted by a US destroyer.

In U.S., Not All Casualties Are Equal

July 19, 2006
by Emad Mekay
Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON - Numerous U.S. groups, intellectuals, politicians and media outlets are mobilising in the United States to back Israel in its ongoing assault on neighbouring Lebanon with one main idea to promote -- that Israel is always the victim.

On Sunday morning, millions of U.S. citizens watched as the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, a Republican from Georgia, argued on the network television news show "Meet the Press" that the Israeli demolition of Lebanese infrastructure, targeting of civilians and total blockade of the small Arab nation was an act of self-defence.

He and many other public figures in the United States also echoed the Israeli line of blaming Iran and Syria for recent events.

There is, Gingrich said, a "Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas alliance trying to destroy Israel."

"You clearly have Iranian involvement, there are at least 400 Iranian guards in south Lebanon," he added, without citing any evidence.

The reason the United States should continue to back the Israeli campaign with weapons and aid is because this is "World War III", which includes the United States, Gingrich claimed.

"I mean, this is absolutely a question of the survival of Israel, but it's also a question of what is really a world war," he said

The so-called U.S. mainstream media has also largely avoided depicting the scenes of civilian carnage on the Lebanese side, with many referring to the onslaught as one that has targeted Hezbollah. In fact, the targets have so far included women and children, a lighthouse, a medical truck and a dairy factory.

On Monday, for example, the front page photo on the Washington Post was of stressed out Israeli rescue workers operating in Haifa, where eight people were killed by Hezbollah rocket fire on Sunday.

However, the previous day, when 13 members of one family, including children and women, were killed in an Israeli air attack, the paper ran a relatively bland picture of an explosion near advertising billboards in Lebanon.

Most headlines have also either favoured Israel or remained so general that the intensity of the Israeli attack was hardly conveyed.

Many television stations here sought to present the current crisis in terms of equal suffering, with Israeli civilians hit by Hezbollah rockets as savagely as Lebanese civilians were targeted by Israel's U.S.-made bombs.

More than 250 Lebanese, most of them civilians, including women and children, have bee killed in Israeli air sorties using 500-pound laser guided U.S.-made bombs. The Lebanese economy suffered billions of dollars worth of damage after Israel targeted Beirut's airport, bridges, roads and factories.

To date, 25 Israelis have been killed, half of them uniformed soldiers in combat with Hezbollah fighters.

"Syrian President May Hold Key to Mideast Crisis" read the Wall Street Journal's headline on Tuesday.

"Toll Climbs in Mideast as Fighting Rages On," was the Washington's Post generic headline for the same day.

In editorial after editorial, Israel was portrayed as the victim.

"Make no mistake about it: Responsibility for the escalating carnage in Lebanon and northern Israel lies with one side, and one side only. And that is Hezbollah, the Islamist militant party, along with its Syrian and Iranian backers," said the Los Angeles Times editorial on Monday.

Palestine Media Watch, a group monitoring coverage of events in the Middle East, says it called CNN's International Desk on Sunday to complain about the network's lack of coverage of civilian suffering on the Lebanese side.

The pro-Arab organisation reported that the answer they got from CNN was "they did not have enough equipment and could not be everywhere at the same time".

"I think it's been strikingly one-sided in the coverage. The downplaying of the civilian casualties in Lebanon, I think, is fairly remarkable," said Jim Naureckas of the New York media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR).

"And the sort of acceptance that Israel is engaging in some kind of normal behaviour by responding to the one violent incident on the border by declaring war on an entire country is treated as a matter of course by U.S media commentators when it is really an amazing escalation."

He said that with the U.S. media coverage so biased, the public and politicians would be very hard pressed not to take sides with Israel.

"Certainly by giving only one part of the narrative where you have Israeli victims as the victims of unprovoked violence, it would be hard not to take Israel's side. If you are taking your information from the U.S. media, it'll be hard to construct a different way of looking at it," said Naureckas.

Already, several U.S. lawmakers have hurried to the defence of Israel, repeating the Israeli line that it was provoked and that its military action was in self-defence.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, a Democrat from New York, cited common Israeli and U.S. values for her support. Clinton, a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2008 U.S. elections, criticised the "unwarranted, unprovoked attacks from Hamas, Hezbollah and their state sponsors" and named them "the new totalitarians of the 21st century."

"We will stand with Israel because Israel is standing for American values as well as Israeli ones," she said.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate was still preparing a resolution supporting Israel in its conflict in Lebanon.

Nobel laureate and holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, joined hundreds of people who rallied outside the United Nations in defence of the Jewish state as the mobilisation for Israel picks up pace.

In Washington, a group of right-wing Christian fundamentalists, Christians United for Israel (CUFI) said they were gathering at least 3,500 people to rally in the U.S. capital on Tuesday to drum up political backing for Israel in its offensive against Lebanon.

The organisation, lead by fundamentalist pastor John C. Hagee, says that Jewish leaders will also take part, including Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon, retired Israeli defence chief Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon and Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman.

The support for Israel in the U.S. comes despite U.S. laws that, if activated, would mean the end of this backing. The U.S. Arms Export Control Act restricts the use of U.S. weapons to justifiable self-defence and internal security, meaning that U.S. weapons cannot be used to target civilians in offensive operations.

The U.S. Foreign Assistance Act also bars U.S. aid to a country with a pattern of gross human rights violations. Several human rights groups have so far condemned the Israeli attack.

But despite those injunctions in the U.S. law, on the first few days of the offensive against Lebanon, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of U.S. munitions have been used by the Israeli army against a country friendly to the United States and a government fully supported by the United States.

The fact that civilian structures, including milk factories and houses of worship, have been targeted may have a left a dent in the position of those backing Israel's offensive. But it didn't. After all, they say Israel is the victim.

Controlling the News

New York, July 20, 2006: “Here, for your people, is a typical example of Pentagon propaganda being spewed out on a daily basis:

‘MISSING ISRAELI SOLDIERS HELD AT THE IRANIAN EMBASSY IN BEIRUT

Delicate Intelligence information coming out of Hezbollah indicated that the 2 missing captives of the Israeli Army Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev have been smuggled outside Southern Lebanon to the capital.

They are secretly being held at the Embassy of Iran in Beirut, under direct Iranian security guards supervision.

http://www.free-lebanon.com/’

This group is entirely funded by the United States as are similar groups in Venezuela, various of the former Russian territories, Radio Free Europe, the Voice of America, Radio Liberty and other “Free (fill in the blanks here)” This is the crudest of propaganda and in general, we do not use it because it is obviously untrue. We are also being informed, from On High, that we will present the fighting in Lebanon as fully justified self-defense on the part of Israel, which it is most certainly not.”

The Green Zone Follies

Baghdad, 19 Jul 06: “Conference of the brass here and the leaks and latrine rumors, mostly very accurate, are that the senior officers are badly upset over the mess in Lebanon. They all feel, strongly, that if the U.S. and the U.S. do not immediately broker a cease fire, Israel will end up by destroying the infrastructure of Lebanon, attack Syria and so disrupt the balance in that area that Iran, whom we all know is behind the agitation and the supply of long range rockets to Hezbollah, will step forward as the Savior of the Muslim faith and then our troops here will bear the full brunt of military attacks from Iran. We do know that the Iranians have a large army, at least partially supplied by Russia and we know that there are Russian military “advisors” in Iran to train the locals in the use of anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles. New Russian weapons are well in advance of ours and these, coupled with a large and well-armed military could do terrible damage to our troops and military infrastructure.

Our men are short of equipment, which does not do well in the desert, low on ammunition, some of which is obviously old and malfunctioning (more Pentagon/Big Business scams… does ‘Halliburton’ or ‘Custer Battles’mean anything?) and the morale here, even among senior officers, is dropping quickly.

None of this negativity is offset by the knowledge that the Bush Administration is not really supportive of the men and is merely using them as expendable pawns on their chess board. No, this Israeli business needs to be stopped now, right now, before this entire area, dry as tinder in the high summer, explodes into wildfire that cannot be put out.”

Israel Violates Law on U.S. Weapons in Mideast

July 18, 2006
by Thalif Deen
Asia Times

UNITED NATIONS - Israel is in violation of U.S. arms control laws for deploying U.S.-made fighter planes, combat helicopters and missiles to kill civilians and destroy Lebanon's infrastructure in the ongoing six-day devastation of that militarily-weak country.

The death toll, according to published reports, is over 200 people -- mostly civilians -- while the economic losses have been estimated at about 100 million dollars per day.

"Section 4 of the (U.S.) Arms Export Control Act requires that military items transferred to foreign governments by the United States be used solely for internal security and legitimate self-defense," says Stephen Zunes, professor of politics at the University of San Francisco.

"Since Israeli attacks against Lebanon's civilian infrastructure and population centers clearly go beyond legitimate self-defense, the United States is legally obliged to suspend arms transfers to Israel," Zunes told IPS.

Frida Berrigan, a senior research associate with the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute in New York, is equally outraged at the misuse by Israel of U.S.-supplied weapons.

"As Israel jets bombard locations in Gaza, Haifa and Beirut, killing civilians (including as many as seven Canadians vacationing in Aitaroun), it is worth remembering that U.S. law is clear about how U.S.-origin weapons and military systems ought to be used," Berrigan told IPS.

She pointed out that the U.S. Arms Export Control Act clear states that U.S. origin weapons should not be used for "non-defensive purposes."

"In light of this clear statement, the United States has an opportunity to stave off further bloodshed and suffering by demanding that its weaponry and military aid not be used in attacks against Lebanon and elsewhere, and challenging Israeli assertions that it is using military force defensively," she added.

That would demonstrate the kind of "utmost restraint" that world leaders called for at the G8 Summit of the world's most industrialized nations, which just ended in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The 25-member European Union has said that Israel's military retaliation against Lebanon is "grossly disproportionate" to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers last week by the Islamic militant group Hezbollah, which is a coalition partner of the U.S.-supported government in Beirut.

Israel has accused both Syria and Iran of providing rockets and missiles to Hezbollah, which has used these weapons to hit mostly civilian targets inside Israel.

Israel's prodigious military power -- currently unleashed on a virtually defenseless Lebanon -- is sourced primarily to the United States.

Armed mostly with state-of-the-art U.S.-supplied fighter planes and combat helicopters, the Israeli military is capable of matching a combination of all or most of the armies in most Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The air force has continued to devastate Beirut and its suburbs with no resistance in the skies during six days of incessant bombings, causing civilian deaths and infrastructure destruction.

"The Israeli Air Force now flies only U.S.-origin fighters, a mix of F-15s and F-16s, and the rest of the service's fleet is almost completely of U.S. origin," says Tom Baranauskas, a senior Middle East analyst at Forecast International, a leading provider of defense market intelligence services in the United States.

While in earlier years Israel bought from a variety of arms suppliers, with the French in particular being strong sellers to Israel of such items as Mirage fighters, over the past couple of decades the United States has developed into Israel's preponderant arms supplier, he added.

"The U.S. domination as Israel's arms supplier can be seen in the Congressional Research Service's (CRS) annual study of arms sales," Baranauskas told IPS.

He said the latest CRS survey shows a total of 8.4 billion dollars of arms deliveries to Israel in the 1997-2004 period, with fully 7.1 billion dollars or 84.5 percent coming from a single source: the United States.

A major factor in this trend was the rise in U.S. Foreign Military Financing (FMF) -- outright U.S. grants to Israel -- which now totals about 2.3 billion dollars a year paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

By U.S. law, Baranauskas said, 74 percent of FMF assistance to Israel must be spent on U.S. military products. This U.S. assistance has now become the main source of financing for Israel's major arms procurements, especially its fighter planes.

From a historical perspective, he said, U.S. assistance to Israel during 1950-2005 has been staggeringly high: Foreign Military Financing (FMF) amounting to 59.5 billion dollars; 27 billion dollars in Foreign Military Sales (FMS) mostly government-to-government arms transactions; and eight billion dollars in commercial arms sales by the private sector.

Berrigan of the Arms Trade Resource Center said the United States is undoubtedly the primary supplier of Israeli firepower.

In the interest of strengthening Israel's security and maintaining the country's "qualitative military edge" over neighboring militaries, the U.S. Congress provides Israel with annual FMF grants that represent about 23 percent of its overall defense budget. Israel's 2006 military budget is estimated at 7.4 billion dollars.

According to the Congressional Research Service, FMF levels are expected to increase incrementally by 60 million dollars a year to a level of 2.4 billion dollars by 2008 compared with 2.2 billion dollars in 2005.

"Israel has been the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid every year since 1976," Berrigan said.

Additionally, the United States provides Israel with billions of dollars worth of weaponry.

She pointed out that recent military sales to Israel include propulsion systems for fast patrol boats worth more than 15 million dollars from MTU Detroit Diesel; an eight-million-dollar contract to Lockheed Martin for high-tech infrared "navigation and targeting" capabilities for Israeli jets; and a 145-million-dollar deal with Oshkosh Truck Corp to build more than 900 armour kits for Israeli Medium Tactical Vehicles.

In December of last year, Lockheed Martin was awarded a 29.8-million-dollar contract to provide spares part for Israel's F-16 fighter planes.

Berrigan also said that Israel has one of the world's largest fleets of F-16 fighter planes, made in Fort Worth, Texas and also in Israel by Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Israel has a total of over 378 F-16s, considered one of the world's most advanced fighter planes -- besides 117 F-15s, 94 Skyhawks, 110 Phantoms -- all supplied by the United States.

Israel links missile defense assets as attacks increase

July 19, 2006

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

TEL AVIV — Israel is urgently pooling its missile defense assets to defend against Hizbullah medium-range rockets as the frequency of attacks continues to increase.

Officials acknowledged an increase in rocket strikes despite heavy air attacks on Hizbullah facilities and weapons convoys. They said more than 130 Hizbullah rockets were fired on Tuesday, compared to 90 on July 17.

The Defense Ministry has been discussing the prospect of linking existing systems to intercept Iranian-origin medium-range rockets fired by Hizbullah over the last week. Officials said the effort was designed to link several tactical systems into a regional defense umbrella.

“We know we don't have an effective solution to short-range rockets," an official said. "But we think we could link systems to provide some protection against medium-range rockets."

Officials said one prospect was the use of the Barak-1 sea-based anti-missile system to protect strategic facilities along the northern Israeli coast. They said the Barak-1, with a range of 10 kilometers, could be used to intercept medium-range missiles fired toward such sites as Haifa's naval base, refinery and petrochemical facility.

Israel has completed the Barak-2, with a range of 16 kilometers. IAI has also developed a land-based Barak missile defense system.

"Urgent efforts are being made to use various relevant systems to counter the rockets," Defense Ministry spokeswoman Rachel Ashkenazi said. "The systems are in place and in use."

Hizbullah resumed rocket fire on Haifa and other northern Israeli communities on Wednesday. At the same time, a Hizbullah ground force attacked Israeli border positions and Lebanese sources reported that at least two Israelis were killed.

The Israel Air Force has invested much of its effort in destroying Hizbullah's medium-range rocket capability. On Tuesday, Israeli fighter-jets attacked four trucks laden with weapons that entered Lebanon from Syria.

"Several trucks with weapons that traveled from Syria to Lebanon were destroyed," Maj. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, commander of the military's Operations Directorate, said.

Officials said 15 medium-range rockets, including the Zelzal-1, were destroyed. The Zelzal-1 was said to have a range of about 150 kilometers and a payload of 600 kilograms.

"We have already destroyed around 50 percent of Hizbullah's rockets and missiles," Brig. Gen. Alon Friedman, a senior air force officer, said. "Our air force will continue attacks to stop supplies from Syria from reaching Hizbullah."

The Barak-1 system has been deployed on the Israel Navy's fleet of Saar-5 and Saar-4.5 missile boats. On July 14, a Saar-5 vessel was struck by a Chinese-origin C-802 cruise missile off the Lebanese coast.

Officials said the Barak-1 system did not detect the Iranian-produced C-802 because of the navy's failure to enter data regarding such a missile. They said Israeli intelligence was unaware that Hizbullah had procured the C-802.

The Defense Ministry has been discussing the deployment of much of the navy's fleet of Saar-5 and Saar-4.5 vessels in Haifa bay to protect strategic facilities in the city. The navy has three Saar-5s and six Hetz-class Saar 4.5 vessels. Another five older Aliya-class Saar-4.5 vessels do not have the missile defense system.

"The Barak is missile is meant to defend against sea-to-sea missiles and could defend against air weapons," Rear Adm. Noam Feig, head of the navy's surface vessel division, said.

Under the proposal, first reported by the Israeli daily Haaretz, the Barak-1 systems would be linked to the Green Pine long-range radar. The Green Pine, manufactured by Israel Aircraft Industries, was designed to detect enemy launches for the Arrow-2 missile defense system.

Officials said the military could also use the Patriot PAC-2 to help intercept medium-range Hizbullah rockets such as the Zelzal and Fajr-5. Over the weekend, the military deployed a PAC-2 battery in Haifa, which so far has not attempted to intercept Hizbullah rockets.

The Defense Ministry has been examining options to develop and procure a system to protect against short- and medium-range rockets unable to be intercepted by either the Arrow-2 or Patriot. In May, the ministry selected a team of Rafael, Israel Armament Development Authority and Raytheon to design such a system.