ISRAEL - IRAN - SYRIA - HAMAS - HEZBOLLAH - WWWIII?

Human shield deters Israel strike

The Israelis have called off a planned air attack on a house in Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza after hundreds of Palestinians formed a human shield.

Mohammedweil Baroud said he was warned by Israeli forces to leave his home. He instead ran to a mosque and summoned neighbours to help defend the house.

Mr Baroud is a commander in the Popular Resistance Committees militant group.

The Israeli army often orders people out of homes ahead of attacks, saying it aims to avoid casualties.

A Hamas commander at the scene said people had gathered to show that the demolition strategy of the Israelis could be defeated.

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed to Reuters news agency that the raid had been called off because of the Palestinian action.

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Israel must learn that super military power is not the answer to win "wars" or for peace.

JABALIA CAMP



Jabalia camp is located north of Gaza City beside a village of the same name. The camp was established after the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict for 35,000 refugees who had fled from villages in southern Palestine. The refugees were at first provided with tents, which UNRWA later replaced with cement block shelters with asbestos roofs.

The camp covers an area of 1.4 sq. km. The shelters, which usually consist of two or three small rooms, a small kitchen and bathroom on an area of maximum 40 sq. m, are packed closely together. Narrow alleys and pathways, some less than one meter wide, run between the shelters. The camp lacks basic infrastructure. Solid waste is collected by UNRWA's sanitation labourers. Water is supplied by the local municipality or comes from UNRWA and private water wells.

The first Palestinian Intifadah started in Jabalia Camp in December 1987.

Prior to the closure of the Gaza Strip in September 2000, most of the refugees worked as labourers in Israel or locally in agriculture in nearby farms in Beit Lahia. Some own small shops in the camp and a few work in small businesses.

ican quote:
'Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq;'

I don't twist facts, I just read them.

If you can say Bushie isn't blaming Iraq, you could probably get a job as a spin doctor at the White House.
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www.c-span.org/resources/pdf/hjres114.pdf
Public Law 107-243 107th Congress Joint Resolution Oct. 16, 2002 (H.J. Res. 114) To authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq.
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Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq;

Whereas Iraq continues to aid and harbor other international terrorist organizations, including organizations that threaten the lives and safety of United States citizens;
...

Tuesday night, September 11, 2001, the President broadcast to the nation:
www.9-11commission.gov/report/index.htm Chapter 10

We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.

pachelbel wrote:

ican quote:
'Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq;'

I don't twist facts, I just read them.

If you can say Bushie isn't blaming Iraq, you could probably get a job as a spin doctor at the White House.
...

Either you twist the facts you read, or you simply do not understand the facts you read.

Bush did not blame Iraq for 9/11. Bush blamed al-Qaeda for 9/11. Bush blamed Iraq for harboring al-Qaeda after USA invaded Afghanistan and after 9/11.

Read what Congress said. Bush did not make the statement you quoted. Congress made that statement.

Congress wrote:

www.c-span.org/resources/pdf/hjres114.pdf
Public Law 107-243 107th Congress Joint Resolution Oct. 16, 2002 (H.J. Res. 114) To authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq.
...
Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq;

Whereas Iraq continues to aid and harbor other international terrorist organizations, including organizations that threaten the lives and safety of United States citizens;
...

Congress did not blame Iraq for 9/11. Congress blamed al-Qaeda for 9/11. Congress blamed Iraq for allowing al-Qaeda sanctuary in Iraq.

Blame Bush for this statement:
...

Quote:

Tuesday night, September 11, 2001, the President broadcast to the nation:
www.9-11commission.gov/report/index.htm Chapter 10

We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.

CIA analysis finds no Iranian nuclear weapons drive: report
(AFP)

19 November 2006

WASHINGTON - A classified draft CIA assessment has found no firm evidence of a secret drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons, as alleged by the White House, a top US investigative reporter said on Saturday.

Seymour Hersh, writing in an article for the November 27 issue of the magazine The New Yorker released in advance, reported on whether the administration of Republican President George W. Bush was more, or less, inclined to attack Iran after Democrats won control of Congress last week.

A month before the November 7 legislative elections, Hersh wrote, Vice President Dick Cheney attended a national-security discussion that touched on the impact of Democratic victory in both chambers on Iran policy.

"If the Democrats won on November 7th, the vice president said, that victory would not stop the administration from pursuing a military option with Iran," Hersh wrote, citing a source familiar with the discussion.

Cheney said the White House would circumvent any legislative restrictions "and thus stop Congress from getting in its way," he said.

The Democratic victory unleashed a surge of calls for the Bush administration to begin direct talks with Iran.

But the administration's planning of a military option was made "far more complicated" in recent months by a highly classified draft assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency "challenging the White House's assumptions about how close Iran might be to building a nuclear bomb," he wrote.

"The CIA found no conclusive evidence, as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear-weapons program running parallel to the civilian operations that Iran has declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency," Hersh wrote, adding the CIA had declined to comment on that story.

A current senior intelligence official confirmed the existence of the CIA analysis and said the White House had been hostile to it, he wrote.

Cheney and his aides had discounted the assessment, the official said.

"They're not looking for a smoking gun," the official was quoted as saying, referring to specific intelligence about Iranian nuclear planning.

"They're looking for the degree of comfort level they think they need to accomplish the mission."

The United States and other major powers believe Iran's uranium enrichment program is ultimately aimed at producing fissile material for nuclear weapons.

Iran insists it will use the enriched uranium only to fuel nuclear power stations, something it is permitted to do as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The major powers have been debating a draft United Nations resolution drawn up by Britain, France and Germany that would impose limited sanctions on Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile sectors for Tehran's failure to comply with an earlier UN resolution on halting enrichment.

On Wednesday, Israel's outgoing US ambassador Danny Ayalon said in an interview that Bush would not hesitate to use force against Iran to halt its nuclear program if other options failed.

"US President George W. Bush will not hesitate to use force against Iran in order to halt its nuclear program," Ayalon told the Maariv daily.

Israel, widely considered the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, views Iran as its arch-foe, pointing to repeated calls by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to wipe the Jewish state off the map.

xingu, you beat me to it.

revel wrote:

xingu, you beat me to it.

But only by 12 minutes. It was close

xingu wrote:

revel wrote:

xingu, you beat me to it.

But only by 12 minutes. It was close

It takes me a while to get my thoughts in order with a lot of revising in the post section. (sometimes, other times I just post on the fly usually a mistake in more ways than one)

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has not found conclusive evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, a US magazine has reported.

Veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, writing in The New Yorker, cites a secret CIA report based on intelligence such as satellite images

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Saddam hated al-Qaeda - why would he harbor them?

Whether or not Saddam truly hated al-Qaeda before 9/11, is unclear. He communicated with them before 9/11 according to al-Qaeda. Certainly Saddam did not hate al-Qaeda after 9/11. Otherwise he would have removed them from northeast Iraq just like he did those Kurds in 1996 that he hated.

What an idiotic statement, ican. As a poster has already noted - Americans were allowed to think that Iraq was involved. And now you know - the rest of the story.

Americans were allowed to think that Iraq was involved Surely you realize that is truly an idiotic statement. Allowed to think

Americans like you allowed yourselves to think Bush alleged Iraq was involved in 9/11, despite the President's repeated statements that Iraq was not involved in 9/11. See the 9/11 Commission Report, Chapter 10, and in particular read Chapter 10.3 "Phase Two" and the Question of Iraq.

Iraq began harboring al-Qaeda after 9/11, beginning in December 2001. Obviously, that harboring began after the USA invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 to remove al-Qaeda from there.