Republican Opponents Of The Iran Deal Are The Same People That Still Advocate Invading Iraq Was A Good Thing. Meanwhile, General Colin Powell Fully Supports The Iran Agreement

Republican Colin Powell, former National Security Adviser, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former Secretary of State support the Iran Deal.  He revealed his support in fairly laudatory terms on Meet the Press.

 

Here’s the summary:

 

It’s a pretty good deal… I know there are objections to it, but here’s why I think it’s a good deal,” the former Secretary of State said. He continued, “One of the great concerns that the opposition has that we are leaving open a ‘lane’ for the Iranians to go back to creating a nuclear weapon in 10-15 years are forgetting the reality that they have been on a superhighway for the last ten years to create a nuclear weapon or nuclear weapons program with no speed limit.”

 

And while Dick Cheney Tried to ignore the reality that under the Bush Administration Iran went from 0 Centrifuges to 5,000, Colin Powell was not ignoring reality.

 

 “In the last ten years they’ve gone from 136 centrifuges up to something like 19,000 centrifuges.” That is something Republicans never talk about. Powell pointed out, “This agreement will take them down to 5,000 cent all of this will be under IAEA supervision and I think this is a good outcome.”

 

“They had stockpiled something in the neighborhood of 12,000 kilograms of uranium. This deal will bring it down to 300 kilograms,” Powell said. “It’s a remarkable reduction. I’m amazed that they would do this but they have done it.” [Daily Kos]

 

Twitter @sheriffali

 

 

US Warship Heads To Yemeni Waters; Could block Iran weapons

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a stepped-up response to Iranian backing of Shiite rebels in Yemen, the Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is steaming toward the waters off Yemen to beef up security and join other American ships that are prepared to intercept any Iranian vessels carrying weapons to the Houthi rebels.

 

The deployment comes after a U.N. Security Council resolution approved last week imposed an arms embargo on leaders of the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels. The resolution passed in a 14-0 vote with Russia abstaining.

 

Navy officials said Monday that the Roosevelt was moving through the Arabian Sea. A massive ship that carries F/A-18 fighter jets, the Roosevelt is seen more of a deterrent and show of force in the region.

 

The U.S. Navy has been beefing up its presence in the Gulf of Aden and the southern Arabian Sea in response to reports that a convoy of about eight Iranian ships is heading toward Yemen and possibly carrying arms for the Houthis. Navy officials said there are about nine U.S. warships in the region, including cruisers and destroyers carrying teams that can board and search other vessels.

 

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ship movement on the record.

 

Saudi Arabia and several of its allies, mainly Gulf Arab countries, have been trying to drive back the rebels, who seized the capital of Sanaa in September and have overrun many other northern provinces with the help of security forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The U.S. supports the Saudi campaign.

 

Western governments and Sunni Arab countries say the Houthis get their arms from Iran. Tehran and the rebels deny that, although the Islamic Republic has provided political and humanitarian support to the Shiite group.

The U.S. has been providing logistical and intelligence support to the Saudi coalition launching airstrikes against the Houthis. That air campaign is now in its fourth week, and the U.S. has also begun refueling coalition aircraft involved in the conflict.

 

White House spokesman Josh Earnest would not comment specifically on any Navy movements in Yemeni waters, but said the U.S. has concerns about Iran’s “continued support for the Houthis.

 

“We have seen evidence that the Iranians are supplying weapons and other armed support to the Houthis in Yemen. That support will only contribute to greater violence in that country. These are exactly the kind of destabilizing activities that we have in mind when we raise concerns about Iran’s destabilizing activities in the Middle East.”

 

He said, “The Iranians are acutely aware of our concerns for their continued support of the Houthis by sending them large shipments of weapons.”

 

The expanded U.S. Navy activity in the region comes at a sensitive time, as the U.S. and six world powers have reached a framework deal with Iran to control its nuclear program. Since the preliminary deal with reached on April 2, Iran and the U.S. have been disputing the details of the deal. And on Monday, a lawyer for Tehran-based Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian said Tehran had charged Rezaian with espionage and three other crimes. The Obama administration dismisses the charges as “absurd.”

 

The U.S. Navy generally conducts consensual boardings of ships when needed, including to combat piracy around Africa and the region. So far, however, U.S. naval personnel have not boarded any Iranian vessels since the Yemen conflict began.

 

Officials said it’s too soon to speculate on what the Navy ships may do as the Iranian convoy approaches, including whether Iran would consent to a boarding request, and what actions the Navy would take if its request was refused.

 

Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, has been pushed to the brink of collapse by ground fighting and the Saudi-led airstrikes in support of current President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who was forced to flee to Saudi Arabia. Observers say the fighting in the strategic Mideast nation is taking on the appearance of a proxy war between Iran, the Shiite powerhouse backing the Houthis, and Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington and Ahmed al-Haj in Sanaa, Yemen, contributed to this report.

 

Twitter @sheriffali

 

Benjamin Netanyahu And Republicans Along With The Corporate Owned Media Are Trying To Bait Us Into Another Reckless War Like They Did With Iraq.

On Easter Sunday, A Day Supposed To Be About Peace, America’s Corporate Owned Media, Afforded Warmonger, Benjamin Netanyahu Prime Time On The Morning Shows, To Promote His Warmongering And Disloyalty To America For War With Iran.

 

Benjamin Netanyahu Was On NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, And FOX And On The Front Pages Of America’s News Papers. No Hosts Asked Benjamin Netanyahu About The 200 Illegal Nuclear Warheads We America, Installed There, Subsequent To The Golan Heights War In 1967, In Complete Violation Of The NNPT – Non Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.

 

We Don’t Only Remember, But Every Day We Live Out That Horrendous Iraqi War Tragedy, From George W Bush And Dick Cheney’s Illegal War. We See What They Created ISIS Are Doing To Humanity.

 

Make No Mistake Invading Iraq Broke The Jar For Which We America Had Stored Worms For Decades. In 1953, The CIA Under President Eisenhower Overthrew The Democratically Elected Iranian Prime Minister And Installed The Dictator – The Shah Of Iran. Karma, Never Forgets!

 

No More War! Allow Diplomacy To Work, It Saves Lives…….

 

We In America, That Is – The Republican Party Acts Like Saints When In Fact They Have An Affinity For Judas!

 

Twitter @sheriffali

 

 

 

 

John Boehner And Republicans Secret Mission In Their Unrelenting Scheme With Israel To Start A War With Iran Blows Up On Twitter.

John Boehner Isn’t In Israel, He Is In Iraq And So Is Mitch McConnell And A Delegation of Republicans. America, Don’t Let These People Start Another War, It is Your Sons And Daughters That Would Die; It Is The United States Treasury That Would Be Tapped For Trillions Of Dollars; And, These Warmongers Would Profit Out of This Tragedy, Like Dick Cheney And George Bush Did With The Illegal Iraq war.

It was all supposed to be hush-hush. The offices of Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky were only too happy to tell the world they were leading Republican delegations to Israel and into the wilds of a Middle East coming apart at the seams. But most of the itinerary was to be a secret.

 

Someone forgot to tell the governments in the region.

 

On Monday, the Jordanian Embassy in Washington posted a lovely picture on Twitter of King Abdullah II around a table with Mr. McConnell by his side. Many of the leader’s travel mates are not easily made out, but Senators Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Thom Tillis of North Carolina andCory Gardner of Colorado were clear enough.

 

Not long after, the Jordanians posted a photo of the foreign minister sitting across from Mr. Boehner and Representatives Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, Devin Nunes of California and Mike Simpson of Idaho. They added a photo of Mr. Boehner with the king, Mr. Nunes and a smiling Queen Rania.

 

Then on Tuesday, Mr. Boehner embarked on his most perilous leg: a trip to Baghdad. The office of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi helpfully announced his arrival with a news release and a photo.

 

Seeming to acknowledge that the secrets had become well known, Mr. Boehner’s office released a statement later on Tuesday detailing a meeting in Saudi Arabia and showing a photo of Mr. Boehner and Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi defense minister, sitting in ornate gold chairs.

 

 — Jonathan Weisman [NYT]

 

Twitter @sheriffali

 

It Turns Out Hamas Didn’t Kidnap and Kill the 3 Israeli Teens After All [New York Magazine]

Only Benjamin Netanyahu could take a Police Matter and turn it into a full blow War, killing Children, Women and Men, including 43 Israeli Soldiers thus far.

 

 When the bodies of three Israeli teenagers, kidnapped in the West Bank, were found late last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not mince words. “Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay,” he said, initiating a campaign that eventually escalated into the present conflict in the region.  But now, officials admit the kidnappings were not Hamas’s handiwork after all. 

 

BuzzFeed reporter Sheera Frenkel was among the first to suggest that it was unlikely that Hamas was behind the deaths of Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frenkel, and Eyal Yifrach. Citing Palestinian sources and experts in the field, Frenkel reported that kidnapping three Israeli teens would be afoolish move for Hamas. International experts told her it was likely the work of a local group, acting without concern for the repercussions: 

 

[Gershon Baskin] pointed out that Hamas had earlier this month signed an agreement to form a unity government with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, bridging, for the first time in seven years, the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank and Gaza.

 

“They will lose their reconciliation agreement with Abbas if they do take responsibility for [the kidnappings],” Baskin added.

 

Today, she was proven right:

 

 Repeated inconsistencies in Israeli descriptions of the situation have sparked debate over whether Israel wanted to provoke Hamas into a confrontation. Israeli intelligence is also said to have known that the boys were dead shortly after they disappeared, but to have maintained public optimism about their safe return to beef up support from the Jewish Diaspora.

 

All the illegal and immoral actions related to Operation Brother’s Keeper were justified under the premise of finding and saving the missing teens whom the Israeli government knew to be dead — cynically exploiting the tragedy to whip up public outcry in order to provoke and then confront Hamas. This pattern of deception continues under the ongoing military offensive in Gaza. For example, last week in collaboration with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Abbas, in its efforts to alienate Hamas, Israel announced a bad-faith cease-fire proposal, which Hamas was not consulted on and never agreed to but whose violation supposedly justified Israel’s expansion and intensification of the military campaign into Gaza.

 

Despite continued negotiations, the violence shows no signs of letting up, and after Thursday night’s massive protests in the West Bank, there is still no ceasefire agreement. On Friday, it became clear that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s attempts to broker a seven-day truce were rejected by Israeli officials. Instead, Israel will apparently widen its ground operation in the Gaza Strip, despite international outcry about the civilian death toll. According to unnamed officials, the proposed truce was too generous to Hamas’s demands. 

 

Hamas, meanwhile, still hasn’t weighed in on the agreement, whose details are being kept secret, but continued to launch rockets into Israel. International peace talks are set to resume in France this weekend, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed.

 

Updated, Sat. 11:44 a.m.: This claim was also reported by BBC’s Jon Donnison, who spoke to Israel Police Foreign Press Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld:

 

Twitter @sheriffali

 

 

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/07/hamas-didnt-kidnap-the-israeli-teens-after-all.html

 

 

Republicans Have Institutionalized Dishonesty!

Politicians lie. We all know this. There are lies of omission and lies of commission and lies that are the result of willful ignorance and lies that are the result of simple ignorance in its purest form. But only one party has institutionalized dishonesty, and that is the Republican Party.

 

They have lied about everything, from Obamacare to Benghazi to the economy, like these, And Republicans obviously think that’s okay, as the recent bruhaha over the prisoner exchange that returned Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl to his family:

 

 

Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA) flip-flopped.

 

 

Republicans deleted comments they made previously in support of freeing Bergdahl so that they can accuse Obama of doing what they had previously supported.

 

 

They claim Obama did not discuss the exchange with them but it turns out Obama did discuss it with them as far back as 2011.

 

 

And they are sure as shooting not going to bring up the 500+ GItmo prisoners released by President George W. Bush. For the math challenged, that’s 100 x as many prisoners as Obama exchanged for Bergdahl.

 

 

 

The Cuban anarchist, Ted Cruz, falsely claimed until Obama no American president had ever negotiated with terrorists

Sarah Palin condemned Obama’s action yet in 2008 prayed for his release.

 

 

 

John McCain flip-flopped: he was for a prisoner swap and then suddenly against it. And not only did he flip-flop, but he then lied about having flip-flopped.

 

 

And perhaps the most egregious example of dishonesty and hypocrisy comes from Oliver North. North, deeply involved in the Iran-Contra scandal and convicted on multiple counts after engaging in trading 2000 missiles to Iran in exchange for seven Americans being held in Lebanon, then gave the money from that missile sale to Iran Contra death squads…well; let’s just let a photo do the talking:

 

 

Of course, the mainstream media is more than willing to let North get away with this without reminding viewers of Iran-Contra, but Jon Stewart was not. As Stewart put it, “You’re saying it now like it’s a bad thing.”

 

 

Open the link for the full story and numerous photos:

 

 

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/06/07/republican-party-institutionalized-dishonesty.html

 

 

 

Twitter @sheriffali

 

 

 

The President was right!

Soldiers don’t risk their lives only for those Americans who deserve it; they do it for the nation as a whole.

 

The president and vice president, the only government officials elected directly by the entire nation, have a special responsibility to nurture this national solidarity. So, of course, President Obama had to take all measures necessary to secure the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Of course, he had to do all he could do to not forsake an American citizen.

 

It doesn’t matter if Bergdahl had deserted his post or not. It doesn’t matter if he is a confused young man who said insulting and shameful things about his country and his Army. The debt we owe to fellow Americans is not based on individual merit. It is based on citizenship, and loyalty to the national community we all share.

 

National solidarity is especially important for the national defense. Men and women serve in the armed forces for a variety of reasons, but one of them is the awareness that it is an extraordinary privilege to be an American, that it is a debt that needs to be repaid with service.

 

Soldiers in combat not only protect their buddies, they show amazing devotion to anyone in the uniform, without asking about state or ethnicity. This is the cohesion that makes armies effective.

 

These commitments, so crucial, are based on deep fraternal sentiments that have to be nurtured with action. They are based on the notion that we are members of one national community. We will not abandon each other; we will protect one another; heroic measures will be taken to leave no one behind. Even if it is just a lifeless body that we are retrieving, it is important to repatriate all Americans.

 

It is not dispositive either that the deal to release Bergdahl may put others at risk. The five prisoners released from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in a swap for Bergdahl seem like terrible men who could do harm. But their release may have been imminent anyway. And the loss of national fraternity that would result if we start abandoning Americans in the field would be a greater and more long lasting harm.

 

Israel once traded 1,027 Palestinian prisoners to get back one of their own. Another time they traded 1,150 prisoners to get back three of their own. They did it because of a deep awareness that national cohesion is essential to national survival. They did it because Israeli parents share a common emotional bond; the imprisonment of one of their children touches them all. In polarized countries, especially, you have to take care of your own. If you don’t, the corrosive effects will be cumulative.

 

 It doesn’t matter either that the United States government ended up dealing with terrorists. In the first place, the Taliban is not a terrorist organization the way Al Qaeda is. America has always tried to reach a negotiated arrangement with the Taliban, and this agreement may be a piece of that. In the second place, this is the dirty world we live in. Sometimes national leaders are called upon to take the sins of the situation upon themselves for the good of the country, to deal with the hateful and compromise with the loathsome. That’s their form of sacrifice and service. [David Brooks – New York Times]

 

 

http://nyti.ms/1kFjZj7

 

Twitter @sheriffali

 

 

Satan’s Son Dick Cheney went on Fox Hades and denounced Obama’s Afghan Troop Withdrawal!

 

We lost 6,781 Soldiers and 50,159 were wounded, when George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld were in Office and, Dick Cheney had the nerve to go on Fox News and denounce Obama’s planned troop withdrawal from Afghanistan at the end of 2014. [We have been in Afghanistan for 13 years; lost over 2,000 precious lives; spent trillions and yet, Cheney and the warmongering right wing doesn’t only want to remain in Afghanistan, they want to start wars, almost everywhere. Just listen to John McCain and Lindsay Grahm!]

 

Cheney should be wearing an Orange Jump Suit with a Number on the back along with the rest of Bush’s Vulcans [gods of fire], for their criminal negligence in truncating the Afghanistan Justified War to Invade Iraq.

 

Why can’t the followers of these inept people see the truth? The malfeasance of these pernicious people and uselessness of the GOP House and Senate is so self evident, one has to be totally uninformed, ignorant and brainwashed, “to defend what was once called “The Grand Old Party,” the GOP!”

 

Twitter @sheriffali

Senators John McCain, Lindsay Graham and other GOP’S blocked a 21 billion Veterans Bill

The Bill would have expanded federal healthcare and education programs for veterans, the Senate GOP said the $24 billion bill would bust the budget.  However, the same unpatriotic Republicans that betrayed the Veterans find it fitting to display outrage for the Veterans Administrations fallibilities.

 

 

In a shameful display of partisan obstruction by the Mitch McConnell led Senate Republicans that blocked the bill that would have improved veterans benefits.

 

 

Senate Republicans blocked the veteran’s bill by using a procedural maneuver to invoke the 60 vote rule. The final vote to waive the budget point of order failed, 56-41. Only two Republicans (Sen. Dean Heller and Sen. Jerry Moran) joined with Democrats on the vote.

 

 

(Reuters) – “U.S. Senate Republicans blocked legislation that would have expanded federal healthcare and education programs for veterans, saying the $24 billion bill would bust the budget.

 

Even though the legislation cleared a procedural vote by a 99-0 vote, the measure quickly got bogged down in partisan fighting.

 

Supporters said the measure would have brought the most significant changes in decades to U.S. veterans’ programs. For example, it called for 27 new medical facilities to help a healthcare system that is strained by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.”

 

Twitter @sheriffali

 

Bonnie and Clyde Internecine Polices Implemented by Bush, Wrecked America but the GOP continues to beat the Benghazi and Obamacare Drum!

President Obama has brought us a long way from the dark days of 2008, but the GOP and their right-wing followers with Fox News as their mouth piece, castigates Obama every day because the damage done to America by Bush and Cheney wiping out 235 years of goodwill and good fortune, hasn’t all been restored in the five years Obama has been President.

 

George W. Bush [Raymond Hamilton], Clyde Barrow [Dick Cheney] and Bonnie Parker [Condoleezza Rice] – “Bonnie and Clyde” 2001 – 2008

 

Dick Cheney used the Iraq War to help himself to No-Bid Contracts to enhance his Wealth through his Halliburton Company, making billions at the cost of American lives; Tax Payers Money and yet, this morally bankrupt Vulture, has the nerve to assign blame to Hillary Clinton and President Obama. In the final analysis, Iraq war was a “cash-cow” for pernicious Cheney and former President George W. Bush, bears the responsibility for all of this “evil,” because after all, he was President for eight [8] years.

 

Bush’s Policies Vis a Vis Bonnie and Clyde “killed” 6,781 American Soldiers; wounded in excess of 55,000 and left 75,000 with severe Mental Problems, at a financial cost to America’s Tax Payers of 4.1 Trillion Dollars and counting. The Republican Trolls should at least include “facts” rather than phantasmagoric rationales and internecine narcissism, in their 24/7, brainwashed, uninformed and ignorant “rant.”  

 

Bonnie [Condoleezza Rice] and Clyde Barrow [Dick Cheney] Polices that were implemented by former President George W. Bush, [Raymond Hamilton] has been the worst in the “entire” History of America. For Fox News, Bonnie, Clyde, Hamilton and the outrageous Republicans that are still harping on Benghazi, even though we have had 13 Hearings and a Criminal Investigation by former Republican Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Retired Republican Admiral Michael Mullen, whose “written” report found no malfeasance, is self evident of the moral bankruptcy by Repugnant Republican Reprobates, as they continue to use the tragic deaths of the four Americans, to raise money in their attempt to win the November 2014 Mid-Term Elections and the White House in 2016.

 

 

Twitter @sheriffali