Fake Words, Fake Names, Fake Tears

David Brooks
Henry Paulson
Jim Hoagland

"The president has shown himself indifferent to Europe, sentimental and somewhat conflicted about Africa, perplexed by the Middle East and largely oblivious to Latin America." - Jim Hoagland

"It seems like everybody is out of work except for bank lobbyists." - Lobbyist

"As a culture, shouldn’t we be more compassionate to innocent people–especially those who are less fortunate?” - Bristol Palin

fake words... 

When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Irqan was suddenly a nuclear nation, he also announced that Iran was planning on building 10 more nuclear plants. Take that, America! Od course, the reality is that Iran as a nuclear nation is similar to their announcement that they were now advanced in satellite technology because they sent some kid's poor pets into space... Yesterday Hillary Clinton made a public statement, saying that Iran was in danger of becoming a military dictatorship: “We see that the government of Iran, the supreme leader, the president, the Parliament is being supplanted and that Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship,”

Bouncing right back, Ahmadinejad today dissed back: "We don't take her comments seriously,” Ahmadinejad said at a press conference Tuesday. "These comments she is making are not wise.” He added: "If anyone does anything against Iran, then our response won't be the same as in the past. No, we will definitely react and make them regretful." He is not too happy about the necklace of missiles we are placing around Iran along with seismic monitors.

Then, a government spokesman sent out the zinger: "We are regretful that the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tries to conceal facts about the stance of the U.S. administration through fake words,”

Whenever Ahmadinejad has the attention of the press, which he does clamor for, despite banning reporters from entering Iran, he brings up the subject of the UN's plan for trading uranium rods for fuel: "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran was ready to suspend enrichment if it could exchange its low-enriched uranium stockpile for processed fuel rods from abroad. But he said the swap should be “simultaneous” — a demand already dismissed by the United States and its allies.


“We are still ready for an exchange, even with America,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said, according to Reuters." We should take him up on his offer, see if he's bluffing or not. But Iran's need for nuclear fuel is be greater than it is currently able to create, especially if it builds 10 more Russian-made reactors. so he is posturing and trying to maneuver events so they can get the fuel sooner. Al Jazeera reports that: "Ahmadinejad said Iran had not planned to produce the further enriched uranium domestically, because it had a low amount of uranium stocks that it wanted to enrich and the move was not economical, but was forced to do so." He also is trying to avoid sanctions, after all, ruling members of the Revolutionary Guards don't want to see their foreign bank accounts frozen, then they would not be able to afford their toys, driving their BMW's and Land Rovers through the mean streets of Tehran. Just ask the military junta of Burma how happy they are...

The Saudis see sanctions as taking too long to achieve a goal, it wants a more immediate solution, especially as they are much closer to Iran than the US is. Oh, and they would like Israel also to give up their nuclear warheads, then they might think about giving up the ones they possess. Both countries are undeclared to having nuclear weapons of mass destruction, it's common knowledge that Israel has them, and an even bigger secret that the Saudis have some buried in the sand.

Just like he is doing to the Republicans in Congress, Barack Obama will reach out again to try and engage Iran, and this time it's in their interests to accept. We can accept the bluff and ignore the fake words, if it leads towards the negotiation table. That's what patient diplomacy is all about. Let's hope Hillary can be as successful as she was with the English and Irish...


and fake names...
Remember the senior Hamas figure that was Killed in a Dubai hotel room? And the Dubai police sent the passport information on 11 people to Interpol? Well, British and Irish officials are saying that the passports were fakes: "We have run the passport numbers and names through our system and there are no passports in those names or with those numbers," a department spokesman said."

There are two suspects in custody, and, surprise, they are Palestinians, which might mean that the hit squad was hired by Hamas itself, who is crying loudly that the Mossad did it: Two Palestinians have been arrested over the killing, but the Hamas movement, which governs the Gaza Strip, has blamed Israeli agents for Mabhouh's death.


Dhafi Khalfan, Dubai's police chief, said on Monday that he had not ruled out "the involvement of Mossad [Israel's intelligence agency] or other parties in the assassination"

Mahmud al Mabhouh entered Dubai also on a fake passport, and the hit squad knew his itinery, renting a room across the hall from his. I have read conflicting stories about what he was up to, the Jerusalem Post claims that he was forced by Hamas officials to give another interview to al Jazeera here, Hamas claims that he was buying weapons, and we can't rule out that he could have engaged in some extra-marital hanky-panky,  a subject where all Muslim countries are in denial... Perhaps revealing the extent that Dubai has security cameras placed all over and the extent that they have embraced modern technology: "The group were believed to have rented a room across the corridor from al-Mabhouh around the time of the murder, spending just 24 hours in Dubai without using credit cards or local phone lines, the police chief said. Khalfan showed a news conference airport surveillance video of the alleged assassination team arriving on separate flights before checking into separate hotels.


In the footage, which also included images from the hotel where al-Mabhouh was killed, the one woman among the group of suspects appears to be wearing a wig and at times wears a big hat and sunglasses. Others were seen apparently posing as tourists, wearing tennis clothes and carrying rackets."


I said before how this is playing out like a spy novel, and who knows if any of the suspects will now be caught?  Perhaps some are in some country's criminal database. It also looks real good that the Mossad was involved, though I keep thinking that they would have been more professional and stealthy, since they are one of the world's elite intelligence agencies. Only time will tell, so we'll see what happens next week...


beck book...

"Is Glenn Beck America?" All ages have their charlatans. The fact that Beck's stew of venom and fabrication has been such a triumph probably says less about Beck than about us. He has merely captured the moment."  - Dana Milbank

One of my favorite columnists, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank has announced that Doubleday will publish his book on Glenn Beck later this year, titled "Tears of a Clown." I will be looking on Amazon Books for the preorder information. thanks to Politico for the info and Milbank quote.