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New York Times |
Patriot Act Faces Revisions Backed by Both Parties
New York Times WASHINGTON — After more than a decade of wrenching national debate over the intrusiveness of government intelligence agencies, a bipartisan wave of support has gathered to sharply limit the federal government's sweeps of phone and Internet records. Compromise on bill ending NSA record collection13WHAM-TV The New USA Freedom Act: A Step in the Right Direction, but More Must Be DoneEFF all 134 news articles » |
White House no longer sees anything special in UK relations
Congressional lawmakers, already conflicted about an impending nuclear deal with Iran, are increasingly angry over the incarceration of American citizens in that country, where at least three are imprisoned.
 The New Yorker |
US to continue close strategic ties with S. Arabia
DAWN.com WASHINGTON: The US State Department has said that changes in the Saudi court will not affect the kingdom's close strategic relationship with the United States. On Wednesday, King Salman issued a series of surprise royal decrees, shaking up the line of ... Game of thronesThe News International Saudi Minister's Removal Spurs Fears Among WomenWall Street Journal Saudi reshuffleDaily Times Business Standard all 92 news articles » |
A Finnish media company said it would sell its stake in Vedomosti, Russia’s most influential business newspaper, as well as ownership of The Moscow Times.
A timeline of the Vietnam War in words and pictures.
The White House said that it is not a violation of the government’s strict no-ransom policy for federal agents to facilitate ransom payments for hostages.
 New York Daily News |
Jeb Bush accidentally refers to Obama 'regime' at summit
New York Daily News Maybe Jeb Bush really is for regime change — right here at home. The ex-Florida governor and likely GOP presidential hopeful slipped and referred to the Obama administration as a “regime” Thursday. Bush looked embarrassed after he made the remark ... Bush forcefully defends his views on taxes, immigrationWashington Post (blog) Jeb Bush Sticks to Guns on Immigration, Common CoreWall Street Journal (blog) Radio Host Mark Levin Slams Jeb Bush's Immigration IdeasWestern Journalism Newsmax-National Review Online all 24 news articles » |
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The system, reportedly tested by Nasa at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, is based on electromagnetic drive which converts electrical energy into thrust without the need for rocket fuel.
Accusations that Germany’s intelligence service helped the U.S. spy on European allies have ensnared Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government in an espionage controversy.
 Patch.com |
Visiting Marine Dies at Camp Pendleton Barracks
Patch.com A Hawaii-based Marine who was attending a military education academy in California was pronounced dead Thursday after being found unresponsive in his barracks at Camp Pendleton. The Marine, whose name was withheld pending notification of next of ... and more » |
Freddie Gray protests: second prisoner in Baltimore police van comes forward by Oliver Laughland and Raya Jalabi in Baltimore
City braces for more demonstrations as Donta Allen dismisses reports he told police Freddie Gray caused his own injuries
A man identifying himself as a key witness to Freddie Gray’s death in custody has come forward toreject previous reports suggesting he told investigators the 25-year-old caused his own fatal injuries inside a police van.
Donta Allen, interviewed by two TV channels on Thursday, said he was the second prisonerauthorities had said was inside the vehicle with Gray on 12 April. According to a police timeline, the second prisoner was placed in the vehicle around 20 minutes after Gray was arrested at 1700 Presbury Street, in west Baltimore.
Congressman Cummings leading those with linked arms in song #baltimore https://t.co/wyO3H3zayx
Whoa. Caught two @BaltimorePolice officers giving out food, shoes, and coats to the homeless on guilford 12:30 am... pic.twitter.com/f0au5KOr9H
Continue reading...Russia strikes fatal blow at Caucasus Emirateby The European Union Times
On Sunday April 19th Russian security forces inflicted a fatal blow to the Caucasus Emirate by eliminating the organization’s leader Aliaskhab Kebekov, also known as “Ali Abu Muhammad al-Daghestani”, Shamil Hasanov Balakhani, leader of the Untsukul Jamaat and Omar Magomedov.
Security forces, coordinated by the FSB and the Ministry of Interior, surrounded the group inside a house in the village of Gerei-Avlak, in the Buynaksk area in Daghestan. The jihadists refused to surrender and shot towards the agents who were forced to return fire. The gang’s hideout was demolished and the agents seized a great amount of weapons including 8 grenade launchers, several AK-47 rifles, explosives, ammunitions and seven cars.
A Caucasus Emirate-linked website confirmed the death of Kebekov on April 21st, defining the event as “martyrdom” and the following day the website published a message of condolences on behalf of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
There are two interesting points in the message that are worth mentioning:
“He carried on despite the difficult situation and the small number of those who helped him, with patience, hoping for a reward from Allah, firmly adhering to the truth and not afraid of anything, leaving all sorts of excuses on procrastination from jihad by those whose hearts are covered by humiliation and who do not feel envy to honour and to the shrines of Islam”.
In this paragraph, “the small number of those who helped him” is an obvious reference to the recent split inside the organization, as several jamaats left the Emirate in order to join ISIS. According to local sources, by the end of 2014 six out of eleven jamaat leaders swore allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Among them Sultan Zaynalabidov (head of the Aukhovsky jamaat), Rustam Aselderov (head of Vilayat Daghestan), Arslan-Ali Kambulatov (head of Shamil’kalinsky sector) and Makhran Saidov (head of the Chechen Vedeno sector).
In February 2015 a young jihadist who claimed to be “Amir of Ingushetia” and who was later identified as “Amir Muhammad” declared support to ISIS and cited Islam Atabiev “Abu Jihad” and Umar al-Shishani”, but without taking any oath of allegiance.
On December 28th 2014, Aliaskhab Kebekov released a video where he warned his militants from siding with ISIS and expanding the “fitna” inside the Emirate, defining it an “act of treachery”. A problem that has reached north-Caucasian militants even in Syria, as explained by Chechensinsyria website:
“Rivalry between North Caucasian factions of IS in Syria and the CE began as far back as late summer 2013 when Umar Shishani and his faction in Jaish alMuhajireen wal-Ansar grew closer to then-ISIS, with Umar being appointed ISIS’s military emir in northern Syria. Umar and his faction broke away from JMA in December 2013 and went over to ISIS, with JMA openly aligning itself as the Syrian branch of the CE. Since then, the rivalry between the two groups in Syria has continued to develop, based in the main on a power struggle for control of North Caucasian militants in Syria but also partly based on ideology: some IS North Caucasians have accused the CE of nationalism and asserted that, with the establishment of the “Caliphate”, all jihadis should fight with IS”.
It is obvious that the Caucasus Emirate was seriously weakened by the departure of many north-Caucasian jihadists who decided to join the ranks of Islamist groups in Syria and later by the flow of jamaats and sub-groups which fled for ISIS.
In another paragraph AQIM claims: “If Abu Muhammad fell and was unable to expel Russia from the lands of the Caucasus, it is enough that he expelled them from the heart….”
This sentence almost sounds as an admission of defeat; the awareness that Aliaskhab Kebekov’s organization, already weakened by a difficult endogenous situation, did not manage in any way to hit Russia and if we take a look at the last 24 months of activity of the Caucasus Emirate we will realize how the organization went through the worst phase of its history.
In 2013 former Emirate leader Doku Umarov released a video where he threatened to attack the Sochi Winter Olympics, scheduled for February 2014; however things did not go as he had planned. Umarov was killed in September 2013 and the jihadists did not manage to get anywhere near Sochi. The only actions that the terrorists managed to carry out were the odious attacks in Volgograd in October and December 2013 against two buses and the train station, killing 40 people. A move that only manage to make things worse for the Emirate on both local and international level.
Starting in January 2014, Russian security forces conducted continuous counter-terror operations in the Caucasus region and especially in Daghestan, where many jamaat were eradicated and many gang leaders either arrested or eliminated.
In 2014, the number of terror-related incidents in Daghestan decreased by 20% as approximately 180 jihadists were killed and more than 200 arrested. The Emirate’s operational capabilities were seriously undermined to the point that its leadership did not manage to control its jamaats anymore. The impression was that many of the Daghestani gangs progressively loosened ties with the Caucasus Emirate central command and focused mostly on local criminal activities and obviously did not follow the new leadership’s directives to “avoid civilian casualties”, as part of a new strategy implemented by Kebekov in a desperate attempt to unlikely earn the sympathy of a population that never supported the infiltration of Wahhabism in the area.
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Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao weigh-in later ahead of their record-breaking clash in Las Vegas.
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Ferguson Cops to Use “Skunk” Chemical Weapon On Protesters by The European Union Times
IDF developed chemical said to be very effective in discouraging protests.
A weapon developed by the Israelis to discourage protesting Palestinians will soon be used on protesters in the United States.
The chemical is called Skunk and it is described as a type of “malodorant” and a cross between “dead animal and human excrement.” The smell lasts for weeks.
Israel developed the weapon after criticism of its use of rubber-coated steel bullets. The chemical is more effective than tear gas at dissuading protesters, according to news reports.
A variant of Skunk is now being provided to police departments around the country by Mistral, a company in Bethesda, Maryland. The chemical has reportedly been sent to the Ferguson Police Department.
According to a write-up on the chemical on the Wikipedia website, Skunk “is an organic and non-toxic blend of baking powder, yeast, and other ingredients” that is “dispersed as a form of yellow mist, fired from a water cannon, which leaves a powerful odor similar to rot or sewage on whatever it touches.”
A BBC reporter described the chemical as follows:
“Imagine the worst, most foul thing you have ever smelled. An overpowering mix of rotting meat, old socks that haven’t been washed for weeks – topped off with the pungent waft of an open sewer. . .Imagine being covered in the stuff as it is liberally sprayed from a water cannon. Then imagine not being able to get rid of the stench for at least three days, no matter how often you try to scrub yourself clean.”
The use of a chemical in the United States used to disperse Palestinians in the West Bank reveals the desperation of the establishment as they attempt to put down demonstrations against police violence.
After police departments adopt the chemical, it will undoubtedly be the preferred weapon deployed against protesters exercising their constitutional right to protest the government.
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A man identifying himself as Donta Allen speaks to CBS Baltimore, saying that his was the second prisoner in the police van with Freddie Gray on 12 April. Allen dismisses reports he told police that Gray caused his own injuries following a leaked police document on Thursday, reported by the Washington Post, that said the second prisoner - Allen - believed Gray intentionally tried to injure himself Continue reading...
 New York Times |
George Washington Bridge Scandal: What You Need to Know
New York Times Q. What actually happened? A. Workers at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey shut down two of three access lanes from Fort Lee, N.J., to the toll plaza of the George Washington Bridge for several days starting on Sept. 9, 2013. They did so on ... New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Political Ally David Wildstein to Plead Guilty in ...ABC News US Attorneys Expected to Unveil Findings of George Washington Bridge Probe ...Wall Street Journal Bridgegate: Charges in George Washington Bridge scandal to be announced ...NJ.com CBS Local -NBC New York -seattlepi.com all 90 news articles » |
SURUC, Turkey — The battle for the Syrian border town of Kobani was a watershed in the war against the Islamic State group — Syrian Kurdish forces fought the militants in rubble-strewn streets for months as U.S. aircraft pounded the extremists from the skies until ultimately expelling them from the town earlier this year.
It was the Islamic State’s bloodiest defeat to date in Syria. But now, three months since Kobani was liberated, tens of thousands of its residents are still stranded in Turkey, reluctant to return to a wasteland of collapsed buildings and at a loss as to how and where to rebuild their lives.
The Kurdish town on the Turkish-Syrian border is still a haunting, apocalyptic vista of hollowed out facades and streets littered with unexploded ordnance — a testimony to the massive price that came with the victory over ISIS.
There is no electricity or clean water, nor any immediate plans to restore basic services and start rebuilding.
While grateful for the U.S. airstrikes that helped turn the tide in favor of the Kobani fighters and drive out ISIS militants, residents say their wretched situation underscores the lack of any serious follow-up by the international community in its war against ISIS.
“First, Islamic State fighters were holed up in our home and then the American planes bombed it,” said Sabah Khalil, pointing from across the border in Suruc, Turkey, to where her family house in Kobani is now a pile of crumpled cement.
“Who is going to help us rebuild? That’s what everyone is asking,” she added, sitting on a stone outside her tent, soaking in the spring sun as children in tattered shoes played nearby.
For four ferocious months, Kobani was the focus of the international media after ISIS militants barreled into the town and surrounding villages, triggering an exodus of some 300,000 residents who poured across the border into Turkey.
The battle for Kobani became the centerpiece of the campaign against ISIS. Dozens of TV crews flocked to the Turkish side of the border and from a hill, trained their cameras on the besieged town, recording plumes of smoke rising from explosions as the U.S.-led coalition pounded IS hideouts inside the town.
In late January, the Kurdish fighters finally ousted the Islamic State from the town — a significant victory for both the Kurds and the U.S.-led coalition. For ISIS, which by some estimates lost around 2,000 fighters in Kobani, it was a defeat that punctured the group’s image and sapped morale.
But the price was daunting.
Today more than 70 percent of Kobani lies in ruins. More than 560 Kurdish fighters died in the battles.
About 70,000 of the refugees have returned to the town and surrounding areas, some only to pitch tents outside their destroyed homes, according to Aisha Afandi, co-chair of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD.
With no outside help, the Kurdish fighters use primitive tools to dismantle mines and booby traps left behind by ISIS militants. The rotting bodies of dead fighters are still trapped under the rubble, and as the weather gets warmer, there are concerns of spreading disease.
Afandi said an appeal for international donors and Kurdish communities everywhere will be launched at a Kurdish conference on Kobani, due May 2 in the mainly Kurdish-populated city of Diyarbakir in Turkey. There are also plans to transform parts of the town center into a museum, she added.
“It is important for future generations to remember the history that was made here,” she said over the telephone from Kobani.
Three times a week, when Turkish officials open the gate at the Mursitpinar border crossing for a few hours, refugees trickle back into Kobani.
On a recent day, a few dozen people carrying suitcases and bags were at the gate, waiting to cross. Vans loaded with mattresses and other belongings were lined up on a dirt road.
At the nearby Arin Mirxan camp in Suruc, named after a female Kurdish fighter in Kobani who is said to have carried out a suicide bombing against IS militants in October, the hopelessness is on full display.
Ali Hussein and his mother Zalikha Qader sit next to each other in the camp, eating roasted pumpkin seeds and wiling the time away.
In nearby “Tent Number 3,” Shahin Tamo, 21, takes care of his 7-year-old brother Sarwan, a skeletal child with large eyes who suffers from a serious neurological condition. They are here with their parents, two brothers and two sisters. Their Kobani home was looted and burnt.
“Everything is gone. Our house, my education, my future,” Tamo said. “Who will compensate that?”
At least once a day, camp residents go out to the main street to greet a procession bringing in fallen Kurdish fighters from inside Syria.
The bodies, in simple wooden coffins draped in the Kurdish red, white and green-color flag, are the tragic toll of still ongoing fighting back home between the main Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, and ISIS militants in areas around Kobani.
“Your blood will not go in vain!” the refugees shouted in Kurdish.
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Iranian foreign minister angers supporters with human rights claim by Saeed Kamali Dehghan
Mohammad Javad Zarif is accused of lying after saying during a Charlie Rose interview in the US that Iran does not jail citizens for their opinions
Iran’s foreign minister is facing a backlash from his supporters, after claiming in a recent US interview that his country does not imprison citizens solely because of their opinions.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, who remains popular in Iran for his handling of the nuclear negotiations, appeared on the Charlie Rose talkshow this week while on a visit to New York for a review conference of the non-proliferation treaty at the UN.
Continue reading...
 The Guardian |
Isis leader incapacitated with suspected spinal injuries after air strike
The Guardian The leader of the Islamic State (Isis), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi remains incapacitated due to suspected spinal damage and is being treated by two doctors who travel to his hideout from the group's stronghold of Mosul, the Guardian has learned. More than ... and more » |
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 Huffington Post |
Keep U.S. Military Home: Washington is Bigger Threat than Iran to Mideast Stability
Huffington Post The Obama administration's decision to negotiate with Tehran triggered near hysteria among U.S. politicians and pundits who advocate perpetual war in the Middle East. One complaint is that the talks were not broad enough. They did not address Iran's ... and more » |
 Washington Times |
ISIS emir Baghdadi incapacitated by spinal injury?
The Hindu Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State (ISIS), has been incapacitated due to suspected spinal damage and he may never again lead the dreaded radical group, a media report said on Friday. The world's most wanted terrorist, in his mid-40's, ... IS leader paralyzed by spinal injury afterYnetnews ISIS chief Baghdadi incapacitated with serious spinal injuryTimes of India Isis leader incapacitated with suspected spinal injuries after air strikeThe Guardian Foreign Policy (blog) -Washington Times all 53 news articles » |
LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - The German government needs to quickly clear up accusations that its BND foreign intelligence agency helped the United States spy on government officials and firms in Europe such as Airbus Group, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Friday.
President Clinton and daughter Chelsea urge for equal opportunities for girls in ...
Fox News Former President Bill Clinton, center, smiles and laughs while children perform a dance to welcome him at the Farasi Lane Primary School in Nairobi, Kenya Friday, May 1, 2015. Former President Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton are in the East ... and more » |
New York Times |
First Draft | Marco Rubio Courts Right on Iran and Immigration
New York Times WASHINGTON — Senator Marco Rubio, who described the possibility of his becoming president as “an increasingly optimistic hypothetical,” spent Friday morning answering questions both immediate and, yes, hypothetical at the National Review's ideas ... As Iran runs amok, freshmen senators go off the railsWashington Post (blog) GOP conservatives support Rubio's 'recognize Israel' amendment to Iran ...Haaretz Rubio: A bad Iran deal 'almost guarantees war'CNN Payvand all 130 news articles » |
List of Charges Against Baltimore Officersby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Charges Against Six Members of the Baltimore Police Department: Officer Caesar R. Goodson, Jr. 1) Second degree depraved heart murder (30 yrs.) 2) Manslaughter (10 yrs.) 3) Assault/second degree (10 yrs.) 4) Manslaughter by vehicle (gross negligence) (10 yrs.) 5) Manslaughter by vehicle (criminal negligence) (3 yrs.) 6) Misconduct in office (8th Amendment*) Officer William G. Porter 1) Manslaughter (involuntary) (10 yrs.) 2) Assault/second degree (10 yrs.) 3) Misconduct in...
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military signaled on Friday it may allow warships to accompany other nations' vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran's seizure of a container ship this week prompted the Navy to start accompanying U.S.-flagged vessels.
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The United States has decommissioned its treatment unit Thursday for Liberian healthcare workers infected with Ebola, with the country set to be declared free of the virus within two weeks.
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 Daily News & Analysis |
Sexual assault in US military has fallen: pentagon survey
Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sexual assault in the U.S. military declined over the past two years, and studies found that men and women experience the crime in different circumstances, offering new insight into curbing the problem, the Pentagon said in an ... Sexual assault in the ranks remains a critical problemUSA TODAY Pentagon grapples with retaliation in sex assault casesChron.com all 30 news articles » |
Arabs at Camp David summit will ask for more arms and containment of Tehran after nuclear deal
Obama: 'Vital' to Seek Truth in Freddie Gray Deathby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Following the announcement of charges against six Baltimore police officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray, U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday "it is absolutely vital that the truth comes out" on what happened to the 25-year-old African-American man who died in police custody last month. "What I think the people of Baltimore want more than anything else is the truth," said President Obama in remarks at the White House. "That's what people around...
In what could be the first use of a drone for public vandalism, graffiti artist Katsu attached a spray can to a quadcopter and painted a large billboard in New York City on Wednesday, 29 April. The artist said it took him less than a minute to perform the illegal stunt Continue reading...
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President Obama says his administration wants to get to the bottom of what happened in the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man who died from injuries sustained while in Baltimore police custody.
Speaking at the White House, Obama said 'it's absolutely vital that the truth come out on what happened to Mr Freddie Gray.' Six Baltimore police officers have been charged, including one with murder, in Gray's death Continue reading...
Speaking at the White House, Obama said 'it's absolutely vital that the truth come out on what happened to Mr Freddie Gray.' Six Baltimore police officers have been charged, including one with murder, in Gray's death Continue reading...
Britain’s nail-biting
election, and the fragile coalition government it seems likely to produce, are confirming many of Washington’s worst fears about the country’s dwindling influence in the world.
Once the US’ most reliable ally, the UK is now seen as a distant player in the crisis over the Ukraine and the euro, has introduced swingeing cuts to its military and recently rebuffed Washington by joining a China-led bank.
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On top of that, the Obama administration is waking up to the prospect that the next government in London could be even more inward-looking as it grapples with Britain’s membership of the European Union and strong support for Scottish independence.
US officials say they still value close intelligence and military ties with the UK, but at times sound almost dismissive about the current British government’s reluctance to play a bigger role in the world.
“They are still one of our first phone calls but there are times when they just do not seem that engaged,” says a senior administration official.
The fabled “special relationship” between Washington and London has always contained an element of hype that played to Britain’s postcolonial quest for relevance. Successive US administrations have valued Britain’s role as a bridge between North America and the EU, as a mediator within Nato and as a reliable supporter in times of crisis.
“Until recently, Britain was very much our most trusted, dependable and capable ally,” says Nicholas Burns, a former US ambassador to Nato and third-ranking official at the state department, who worries that Britain might soon no longer play a “central role in global affairs”.
“It is very striking the way that Angela Merkel has become the undisputed leader of Europe,” he said.
British officials demur that Germany was always going to be the dominant voice in discussions over the euro — of which the UK is not a member — and even over Ukraine, given its greater proximity and ties with Russia.
They are still one of our first phone calls but there are times when they just do not seem thatengaged
- Senior Obama administration official
But American anxiety about British relevance is also based on the major reductions in the British military, which has seen the army cut from 102,000 to 82,000 and has left the navy without a functioning aircraft carrier.
Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, has called the defence cuts in the UK and other parts of Europe “very concerning”, while General Ray Odierno, head of the US army, said last month that the smaller British force meant the Pentagon would have to make adjustments “to see that we can still work together”.
The worry in Washington is that election results will only further British disengagement. President Barack Obama has a reasonably close and personal relationship with British prime minister David Cameron and would not relish having to establish a rapport with a new leader, especially given the predictions that the next British government might be shortlived.
It has not gone unnoticed in Washington that Labour leader Ed Miliband’s recent foreign policy speech barely mentioned the US or that he has been making a virtue of his 2013 opposition to US air strikes in Syria. “Standing up to the leader of the free world shows a certain amount of toughness,” he said last month.
However, Mr Cameron has promised a referendum on Britain’s place in the EU — something the US sees as central to London’s international influence — and the one certainty about the election results seems to be a new debate about Scotland’s place within the UK.
Some analysts also believe Mr Cameron might have to make additional cuts to the military in order to meet his budget targets. Frank Hoffman, at the National Defense University in Washington, says he doubts that “the UK is turning inward in a strategic sense”. But he also believes that further cuts would mean “Britain’s claim as a major power will be more precarious than it has been in hundreds of years”.
The frustrations in Washington with Mr Cameron’s government burst into the open last month when a senior US official accused the UK of “constant accommodation” of China after London decided to join the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Mr Obama himself has also been accused of looking to disengage from parts of America’s traditional role in the world and one former senior US official said that the president had not been helped by Mr Cameron’s international reticence. He pointed to Margaret Thatcher’s famous warning to George HW Bush after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 that he should not “go wobbly”.
The former US official continued: “Obama has at times looked lost and it would have helped him to have a stronger British prime minister who could have given him some direction.”
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· · · ·
Election confirms Washington’s fears about its ally’s waning influence
Javad Zarif / Patricia De Melo Moreira / Getty Images
Not since Baryshnikov has a foreigner so captivated a New York audience. “A Conversation with H.E. DR. Mohammad Javad Zarif, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran” played the other day at NYU. The show ran for just 90 minutes, but reviews were spectacular. Give this man a Tony: Zarif slayed ’em.
“Demonstrating suave fluency in English and a familiarity with American history and law,” wrote theNew York Times, “Iran’s foreign minister said Wednesday that the United States would risk global ostracism if it were to scrap a signed international pact that resolves the Iranian nuclear dispute.” Zarif, the Times went on, “was easygoing and smiling, living up to his image as a diplomatic charmer to an audience that was polite and respectful.” Not to mention sycophantic.
Zarif, adds Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker, “comes off as practically American.” Why? Well, “He went to college in the United States, at San Francisco State University, and to graduate school at the University of Denver. As Ambassador to the United Nations, he lived in New York for five years. His English is perfect.”
Perfect English? Is that all it takes to have reporters and diplomats praise your suavity and charisma, chuckle at your jokes, cavil to your every demand? Bibi Netanyahu’s English is perfect too—but Hell will freeze before he sees Zarif’s press.
I don’t find the Iranian foreign minister a “diplomatic charmer” at all. His demeanor at NYU was arrogant, insulting, bullying, unrepentant. David Ignatius of the Washington Post sat there like a semi-conscious mummy as Zarif ordered Congress around, declared that all sanctions will be lifted immediately upon the conclusion of any deal, warned that “people” should be “worrying about the U.S. violating its obligations and us snapping back,” refused to accept culpability for spreading disorder in the Middle East, wouldn’t say if U.N. inspectors will have access to Iranian military sites, said Iran has no intention of speaking to the Jewish State, accused the Washington Post (Ignatius’ paper) of running a “publicity campaign” on behalf of one of its reporters held prisoner in Iran, and took every opportunity to fling sarcasm and insult and enmity toward Netanyahu, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and America in general. No wonder John Kerry’s a fan.
What made Zarif’s appearance all the more nauseating was his pretense of moral standing. He has none. His lecture to the United States took place as his regime held a container ship it had seized in international waters, and as evidence emerged of Iranian violations of U.N. sanctions. It is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxies such as Hezbollah and the Houthis and other Shiite militias that are fomenting and exploiting sectarian conflict in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. Iran’s human rights record is abysmal. Since Zarif returned to government in the administration of Hassan Rouhani, there has been a “surge” in executions in Iran. “The authorities restricted freedoms of expression, association, and assembly, arresting, detaining, and prosecuting in unfair trials minority and women’s rights activists, journalists, human rights defenders, and others who voiced dissent” say the right-wing extremists at Amnesty International, whose most recent report catalogues the torture and cruel and unusual punishments of the Iranian regime.
In addition to David Ignatius’ colleague Jason Rezaian, the Iranian authorities hold captive American citizens Saeed Abedini, a pastor, and Amir Hekmati, a Marine. General David Petraeus says Iranian-backed militias are “the foremost threat to Iraq’s long-term stability.” Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska explains how Iran supplies Explosively Formed Projectiles (EFPs) to these militias, which have mutilated and killed U.S. soldiers. Last year Zarif’s true boss, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei,posted on Twitter his 9-point plan to eliminate Israel.
Khamenei and Zarif are diplomatic trolls, online troublemakers using social media to antagonize their enemies. The ayatollah has been tweeting so often about race relations in the United States, about Ferguson and Staten Island and Baltimore, that it’s become hard to distinguish his feed from Salon’s. Within hours of the State Department releasing a fact sheet on the preliminary nuclear agreement reached in Lausanne, Switzerland, last month, Zarif tweeted that it was a bunch of lies. When Cotton challenged Zarif to debate the nuclear deal, Zarif replied with congratulations on the birth this week of Cotton’s son—Zarif no doubt aware that when the spokesman for a rogue regime and sponsor of terror mentions your first born, it’s not a salutation but a threat.
At NYU Zarif said America will have to lift sanctions on Iran “whether Senator Cotton likes it or not.” The “polite” and “respectful” audience broke into laughter—at Cotton. “I couldn’t resist,” Zarif said. No troll could.
“I am tempted to say you will pay for that,” Ignatius said. “But you already know that.” Actually, Zarif doesn’t know that he will “pay for that” because he and his Islamic fundamentalist superiors haven’t paid for a goddam thing for years. On the contrary: We’re paying them. They crushed a student movement and nothing happened. They’ve killed our soldiers and assisted in crimes against humanity in Syria and no one’s lifted a finger. They lie about their nuclear program and President Obama doesn’t retaliate. They scream at Kerry and he takes it. They say lift the sanctions and we say sure. We might even give them a signing bonus.
No reason to expect Zarif or his government to change their behavior when it’s been such a success. You can’t really blame the Iranians—they have goals such as nuclear power and weapons, economic relief, greater influence, perpetuation of the regime—and conceding nothing while demanding everything is helping them achieve those goals. What bothers me is the wooly-headedness of liberals in government and the media who, in their search for peace and harmony, ignore or repress the knowledge of Iranian malfeasance and ill will. Zarif’s remarks on implementation of and compliance with the nuclear deal are almost exactly the opposite of what President Obama has been telling Congress and the American people, yet this contradiction won’t slow the president’s quest for détente with Iran one bit.
I wonder what it is about liberals, why it is they’re so willing to filter out evidence of bad intentions and awful behavior. Maybe a sense of historical guilt, a condescending assumption that the victims of past wrongs can’t be expected to live up to present standards; maybe a deeply held belief in the universal humanity and goodness of man, that badness is a function of environment so if you want to change a person change his surroundings; maybe pacifism; maybe gullibility; maybe on some level they agree with the criticisms America’s adversaries level against us, feel that America’s standing has been severely compromised, ask why we lecture others when we’re not so good ourselves.
Apparatchiks like Zarif exploit such ideas and sentiments in pursuit of a more dangerous and less liberal world. Our ability to make moral distinctions, to identify friend and foe, has become so attenuated that not only do liberals fail to recognize Zarif for what he is—a theocratic tool—they laugh at his jokes, identify with him, want to be his friend, applaud him. Like spectators on Broadway, they’ve willfully fallen for a con; an act; a put-up job. Difference is, the cast of An American In Parisdoesn’t want to nuke Tel Aviv. The world won’t be safe until the tomatoes and catcalls fly—until Javad Zarif is afraid to take the stage.
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