March 02, 2011| News | Eli Clifton

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for March 2nd, 2011:

The Wall Street Journal: The WSJ’s editorial board catalogs newspaper and blog commentary on “The ‘Israel First’ Myth: Obsessed with the Jewish state, Mideast ‘experts’ got the region all wrong.” The writers lash out at the New York Times’s Thomas Friedman for his history of endorsing “linkage” and for suggesting that, “If Israel could finalize a deal with the Palestinians, it will find that a more democratic Arab world is a more stable partner.” They write: “It was fanciful of Friedman to think that Arab dictators–whom he now acknowledges have depended on scapegoating Israel to maintain their hold on power–would have agreed to such plans,” and “The current regime in Iran is dedicated to Israel’s destruction. It’s hard to see how Israel would be better off today if it had entrusted its security to the Arab dictators whose own people have suddenly made them an endangered species.”

Tablet Magazine: Hudson Institute Visiting Fellow Lee Smith opines that “While protest rage across the Middle East, Israel stands as a regional model of resiliency, relevance and democratic stability.” Smith admits that this is an about-face from the position he took last week, when he claimed that “Israel is finished” and “the fall of Hosni Mubarak is only the latest setback in a decade of extraordinary strategic debacles for Israel.” This week, he argues, “The Arab model for success is not Iran, or Turkey, but Israel,” and, more specifically on Iran: “Iran’s nuclear program and full-throated opposition to the United States and the Zionist entity may make it the envy of some fans of resistance in the region, but the fact is that an Iranian bomb is the Hail Mary pass of a dying society where there’s been no economic development for 30 years.”

The Washington Post: The Post’s “Right Turn” blogger takes issue with the White House’s “tepid language” in denouncing the Iranian government for its detainment of opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Jennifer Rubin observes that “[the administration’s statements] highlights perhaps the greatest failing of the Obama administration: its failure to seize the moment and provide support (rhetorical and otherwise) to the Green Movement in 2009.”

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March 02, 2011| News | Eric Garris

Statement from the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund

The charges against Ray McGovern have been dropped and the government has decided not to proceed with its prosecution. Mr. McGovern, age 71, was subjected to an outrageous and abusive arrest, which left him bruised and bleeding. He had been standing silently with his back turned to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she delivered her address on Feb. 15 at George Washington University, in which she insisted other governments around the world not stifle free expression.

McGovern was an Army officer and CIA analyst for almost 30 years. He was among the first to expose the corruption of intelligence to “justify” the ongoing wars. He was wearing a Veterans for Peace T-shirt at the time of his arrest.

“The Constitution lives. I am hugely grateful for the widespread condemnation of the brutal treatment I encountered two weeks ago for exercising my First Amendment rights. It strikes me as an empowering example of what we can do together in standing for Justice and against the violence of war. If Defense Secretary Robert Gates is spared arrest when he acknowledges the folly of committing U.S. troops to a land war in Asia, we too should be spared arrest and brutality at the hands of those for whom the Constitution is merely a piece of paper,” stated Mr. McGovern.

“This outrageous arrest laid bare the hypocrisy of Clinton’s presentation about free speech and free expression. While lecturing other governments, she never even paused while Mr. McGovern was brutally hauled out right in front of her and arrested while peacefully and silently expressing dissent,” stated Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, one of Mr. McGovern’s attorneys at the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, which is representing Mr. McGovern.

Since Ray McGovern’s arrest, there has been a huge outpouring of support from people of conscience all over the country and widespread coverage in the alternative media in defense of free speech rights.

Mr. McGovern and his attorneys at the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund are evaluating his next legal options.

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March 01, 2011| News | Eric Garris

Rep. Ron Paul sparred with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in today’s House Committee on Foreign Affairs meeting.

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February 28, 2011| Antiwar Radio, Fox News, Media | Angela Keaton

Antiwar Radio host Scott Horton appeared tonight (02/28) on Fox Business Channel’s Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano. The topic is Libya. Freedom Watch airs at 8pm ET and 11pm ET, Monday through Friday.

Watch the clip below:

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February 28, 2011| News | Eli Clifton

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for February 28th, 2011:

The Washington Post: Jennifer Rubin blogs that White House Middle East Adviser (and Middle East Quarterly board member) Dennis Ross’s appearance at the J Street conference today “was an odd assignment, given that J Street, in concert with the pro-Iranian-regime NIAC had conspired to try to prevent his appointment.” She observes, “The applause greeting him was slight, almost imperceptible.” (I attended Ross’s speech and remember Ross receiving a polite reception from the crowd.) She adds, “on Iran’s nuclear program, he gave the Obama-approved squishy line, saying we are determined to try to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.”

RealClearPolitics: Hawkish senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) on RealClearPolitics’s State of the Union blog. “The president should reverse the terrible decision he made in 2009 to not support the demonstrators in Tehran,” said McCain, in response to a question about the Obama administration holding off criticism of Libya out of concern that Americans there might be taken hostage. “Stand up for democracy in Iran and tell those people that we are with them,” he continued, “And that should be true not only throughout the Arab countries but as far as China and other parts of the world as well.”

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February 25, 2011| News | Justin Raimondo

The War Party is on the warpath, with two of the biggest Usual  Suspects in the lead:

“The calls are increasing in Washington for the Obama administration to take new, stronger measures to punish the Libyan government led by Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi for atrocities and to protect Libyan civilians.

“Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) implored Obama on in a press conference to establish a no-fly zone in Libya, abandon its recognition of the Qaddafi government, transfer recognition to a transitional government formed by the rebels as soon as possible, and provide the opposition with support, including weapons.”

They didn’t ask, they didn’t demand — they implored! Well, I’ve got my own imploring to do: please oh puh-leeeze, Senators McCain and Liberman, could you kindly STFU? The Libyan dictator is on his last legs, but your “imploring” could be used to garner support for Qaddafi from Libyans still on the fence.

“The government of Libya, epitomized by Muammar Qaddafi is massacring some of his people. There is very little doubt about Mr. Qaddafi’s commitment to remaining in power no matter how much blood has to be shed,” McCain said on behalf of both senators at a Friday press conference in Jerusalem. “When a government massacres its own people, it loses its legitimacy. So, we should no longer recognize the existing government of Libya.”

Hmmmm, let’s see: the government of Iraq murdered at least 11 protesters in Iraq: does that mean we should withdraw recognition from the Maliki regime? How about instituting a no-fly zone? And what about Bahrain, where the King — our loyal ally — slaughtered protesters as they slept?

The neocons and liberal interventionists behind this latest push could care less about the people of Libya: they just want to grandstand, score political points, and insert themselves into a situation that has nothing to do with them, or, frankly, with the US.  Here’s more drivel from the same people who got us into Iraq, and can’t wait to get us into  Iran:

“On Friday, a bipartisan group of senior mostly-Republican foreign policy experts penned an open letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to make good on his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, when he said, ‘Inaction tears at our conscience and can lead to more costly intervention later.’

“The experts asked Obama to call on NATO to urgently develop plans to establish an air and naval presence in Libya, freeze all Libyan government assets in the U.S. and Europe, consider halting Libyan oil imports, pledge to hold Qaddafi responsible for any atrocities, and speed humanitarian aid to the Libyan people.

“‘With violence spiraling to new heights, and with the apparent willingness of the Qaddafi regime to use all weapons at its disposal against the Libyan people, we may be on the threshold of a moral and humanitarian catastrophe,’ the experts wrote. “Inaction, or slow and inadequate measures, may not only fail to stop the slaughter in Libya but will cast doubt on the commitment of the United States and Europe to basic principles of human rights and freedoms.”

“The letter was signed by several senior GOP former officials, including Elliott Abrams, Paul Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol, Eric Edelman, Eliot Cohen, Jamie Fly and Scott Carpenter, human rights activities David Kramer and Neil Hicks, and Clinton administration official John Shattuck.

“‘The United States and our European allies have a moral interest in both an end to the violence and an end to the murderous Libyan regime. There is no time for delay and indecisiveness,’ they wrote. ‘The people of Libya, the people of the Middle East, and the world require clear U.S. leadership in this time of opportunity and peril.’”

What are these “experts” so “expert” at, except creating fake “emergencies” and very real policy disasters? Bill Kristol should be barred — by law — from making any substantive comment on foreign policy matters, under pain of having to go fight in the frontlines of the next war he manages to gin up. As for  Wolfowitz and all the rest: that these people have no shame is axiomatic, but one  would think that the key role they all played in launching the biggest strategic disaster in US history would relegate coverage of this “open letter” to The Onion.

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