IMPOSING SANCTIONS: The Los Angeles Times reports:
House and Senate negotiators reached agreement Monday [6/21/10] on legislation that would impose additional U.S. sanctions against Iran in hopes the economic punishment convinces Tehran to curb its nuclear ambitions.
The new penalties would come on top of a fourth round of United Nations Security Council sanctions, and would be in addition to new unilateral sanctions by the United States and the European Union. …
“There's a significant cost to having your name linked to these bad Iranian actors," said Mark Dubowitz, of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies …
ENFORCING SANCTIONS: FDD’s Claudia Rosett argues that President Obama
should lose no time in signing the new Iran sanctions legislation that Congress has finally sent to his desk, approved … [by] votes of 99-0 in the Senate, and 408-8 in the House. …
[F]or years now the U.S. Treasury has had an overly lean team working overtime to chase down Iran's shape-shifting network of proliferation-related fronts and operations. But the big problems begin where U.S. jurisdiction ends. Enlisting the U.N. on paper means nothing unless Obama also finds ways -- polite or otherwise -- to enlist the serious cooperation of its members in practice. If Obama wants to bet on the commitment of the "international community" to impose sanctions on Iran, he's got to lead the way, and however angry it makes the mullahs and their pals, he's got to go all in.
The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. and E.U. sanctions
will make it even more difficult for Iran's oil and natural-gas industries to access badly needed funding, technology and new equipment.
"The new European and U.S. sanctions will kill a dying patient, which is (Iran's) oil exploration and production," said Fereidun Fesharaki, an Iranian specialist at FACTS Global Energy, a consultancy.
The sanctions legislation was strengthened in conference committee -- something that rarely occurs. Foreign Policy reports that one last-minute change
requires the administration to analyze the impact of Iran acquiring energy "know-how" by engaging in joint ventures for energy development. That's related to concerns that joint ventures outside Iran could aid Iran's energy sector, such as ongoing cooperation with BP as described by Time magazine's Massimo Calabresi. …
[T]he real test of the administration's commitment to the new measures will come in their implementation. Advocates of strong sanctions have accused the administration of showing reluctance to enforce the sanctions currently on the books, so lawmakers and staffers are planning to keep a close watch to see how the law is carried out.
The
Time article (in which Mark also is quoted) is
here.
French energy firm Total and Spanish energy firm Repsol have ended gasoline sales to Iran. More
here and
here.
FDD’s Michael Ledeen writes:
Iran is one of the world’s principal aggressors. On the one hand, the regime has unleashed its proxy forces -- most significantly, the revolutionary guards, but also Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda -- throughout the Middle East, East Africa, and South America. Americans have been the primary victims of this proxy war, from the Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon in 1983 to the current campaign against our soldiers and diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Saudis can testify to attacks by Iranian proxies on numerous occasions, as can the Argentines, who have indicted several Iranian leaders for mass murder in Buenos Aires.
But Iran does not limit its aggression to the use of proxies. Virtually unnoticed by the chattering classes, Tehran is waging open war against Iraq. More precisely, against the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Iranian campaign involves both ground troops and air assaults, and seems to be carried out in tandem with their new Turkish allies. …
Back in the Clinton years, I remarked that it seems to be a fixed principal of American foreign policy to betray the Kurds at least once every 10 years, and we have certainly respected the rules. But this is considerably worse, for not only do we leave the Kurds at the mercy of the two big Islamist countries; we have failed to guarantee the territorial integrity of Iraq, which is a much more serious matter.
So I think it’s fair to say that anyone who claims that Iran has not launched military attacks outside its territory is either misinformed or dissembling.
PERSIAN COWBOYS? Rep. Sue Myrick has written to the Department of Homeland Security, citing
several developments that would point to Hizbullah creeping closer to and inside the U.S., with the help of Mexican drug gangs…
[G]ang members in prisons in the American southwest are starting to show up with tattoos in Farsi, implying a "Persian influence that can likely be traced back to Iran and its proxy army, Hizbullah."
Myrick said, too:
Hezbollah has been known for years to operate drug trafficking rings in South America, especially on the Brazil-Argentina-Paraguay border, but recently claims have been surfacing that it has stepped into the Mexican drug trade as well.
Hezbollah's drug agents undergo Spanish language lessons sponsored by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, after which they disguise themselves as Mexican civilians in order to obtain false US entry passes.
THE AF-PAK FRONT: FDD’s Tom Joscelyn reports:
The three principal insurgent groups in Afghanistan -- the Quetta Shura Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and the Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin (HiG) organization -- share a common goal: the expulsion of American-led forces from Afghanistan. While they fight in Afghanistan, they are rooted in Pakistan, where the senior leadership for each organization is headquartered. …
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that “somewhere in [the Pakistani] government are people who know where Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda is, where Mullah Oma" target="_blank">here and here.
Meanwhile, closing Gitmo is a “fading priority” for the Obama administration with members of Congress -- from both parties -- opposed to moving detainees to the U.S. More
here.
MOSQUE AND STATE: The Wall Street Journal’s Mira Sethi points to another group persecuted in Pakistan: Ahamdi Muslims. Under the law, it is
a crime for Ahmadis to call themselves Muslims. They were forbidden from declaring their faith publicly, using the traditional Islamic greeting, and referring to their places of worship as mosques. In short, virtually any public act of worship or devotion by an Ahmadi can be treated as a criminal offense punishable by death.
Unsurprisingly, attacks on the Ahmadi community followed. …
[P]assing Lahore's busiest road, I saw a banner on a building facing the Lahore High Court: "Jews, Christians and Ahmadis are enemies of Islam." …
Routinely, the graffiti along Lahore's stylish boulevards will proclaim that Shiites are infidels. More than 100 Christian houses were burned in a town in central Pakistan last year over a claim that a Christian had defiled the Quran. That same year, 37 Ahmadis were charged under the blasphemy laws.
Pakistan is the only Muslim nation to explicitly define who is or is not a "Muslim" under its constitution. This serves only one purpose: to embolden groups like the Pakistani Taliban who use the laws as justification to declare Ahmadis as "wajib ul qatl" or "worthy of death." As long as the state continues to decide who is and is not a Muslim -- a personal, private question -- we will continue to see attacks on minorities and medieval banners in the public square.
IS “START” A NON-STARTER? FDD’s Rebeccah Heinrichs provides analysis
here.
THE FAR LEFT: Daniel Pipes on what it wants and with whom it cooperates (Islamists) in order to achieve its goals. He postulates that the Far Left
retrenched after the fall of Leninism and now threatens humanity with a new version of its anti-Western, anti-rational, anti-liberty, anti-individualist ideology.
CONNECT THESE DOTS: Bruce Bawer observes:
In France and Italy, Oriana Fallaci is put on trial for disparaging Islam. In Canada, Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant are hauled before “human rights commission” tribunals for criticizing Islam in print. In Australia, an Islamic organization sues two pastors for “vilification of Muslims.” In Britain, a Daily Telegraph columnist is arrested on charges of hate speech for having written negatively about Islam, and the Archbishop of Canterbury proposes that Parliament pass stronger laws against such speech acts. And in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, the head of the Freedom Party, which performed so well in the June 9 general elections that Wilders may end up in the governing coalition, still faces trial for having made a film about the Koranic foundations of terrorism.
Mark Steyn on Bawer
here.
WE LINK, YOU DECIDE: The Defense Department’s Michele Flournoy and Ashton B. Carter argue that missile defense is essential and that the Obama administration is not negotiating with Russia to limit America’s options. More
here.
Investigative reporter Bill Gertz suggests
here that the reality is rather different.
--Cliff May
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
"I want to plead guilty and I'm going to plead guilty a hundred times forward … [We will be attacking [the] U.S., and I plead guilty to that. …… I consider myself a mujahid, a Muslim soldier."
(06/21/2010) Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber, New York City Federal Court.
"Yes I condemn killing any innocent people, but not any kuffar [infidel]."
(06/22/2005) Omar Bakri Mohammed, leader of the UK-based Saviour Sect.
"[A]t the end of the day innocent people -- when we say innocent people we mean Muslims. As far as non-Muslims are concerned, they have not accepted Islam, and as far as we are concerned, that is a crime against God. … As far as far as Muslims are concerned , you are innocent if you are a Muslim -- then you are innocent in the eyes of God. If you are a non-Muslim, then you are guilty of not believing in God."
(08/10/2005) njum Chaudri, a follower of Omar Bakri Mohammed and UK leader of the radical al Muhajiroun.
IN THE MEDIA
A Good General Is Not Enough
06/28/2010, Thomas Joscelyn, The
Weekly Standard
As General David Petraeus takes over the war in Afghanistan from General Stanley McChrystal, he faces a daunting set of challenges. Thirty years of fighting have taken their toll on the country. Afghanistan is a backwards place with little infrastructure. The heroin capital of the world, its opium fields are a rich source of income for the Taliban and its allies. The country is rife with corruption and tribalism.
The Truth About U.N.'s Iran Sanctions
06/25/2010, Claudia Rosett, Forbes.com
When the United Nations Security Council passed its latest sanctions resolution on Iran, on June 9, President Barack Obama hailed it as "the toughest sanctions ever faced by the Iranian government." This resolution, he said, "sends an unmistakable message about the international community's commitment to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons."
Victims of The Ayatollah
06/24/2010, Clifford D. May, Scripps Howard News Service
Iran’s rulers have long embraced Stalin’s impeccable logic: “The people who cast the votes don't decide an election; the people who count the votes do.” So a year ago this month, they held an election and blatantly falsified the results. Iranians protested and were brutally suppressed.
Times Square Bomber Discusses Taliban Ties at Plea Hearing
06/23/2010, Thomas Joscelyn, The
Long War Journal
During a plea hearing in New York on Monday, Faisal Shahzad, who attempted to detonate a car bomb in Times Square on May 1, pled guilty to all of the charges levied against him and discussed his ties to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (the TTP, or Pakistani Taliban). In a back and forth with District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, Shahzad said he had made a "pact" with the TTP.
Syriana
06/22/2010, Tony Badran,
Tablet Magazine
In the annals of "big policy ideas," perhaps none has had as much staying power in the face of a dismal track record than the seemingly perpetual conviction that integrating Syria into the pro-American order in the Middle East is a real, achievable possibility. The ultimate authority invoked in support of the idea that Syria is the keystone for stability in the region is usually Henry Kissinger, the arch-realist of American foreign policy, who is said to have said, "You can't make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can't make peace without Syria."
Hezbollah Acts Local, Thinks Global
06/22/2010, Tony Badran,
NOW Lebanon
A couple of recent arrests have once again shined the spotlight on the subject of Hezbollah’s global networks, namely its financial networks and illicit sources of funding worldwide. Some of these are based not only at the United States’ doorstep, but actually within its borders.
Congress Pushes Tough Iran Sanctions
06/22/2010, Laura Grossman, Frum Forum
The Conference Report on the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, released yesterday, gives the president sweeping new authority to sanction energy companies and financial institutions that do business with Iran, as well as Iranians involved in human rights abuses.
Saudi Gitmo Recidivists
06/21/2010, Thomas Joscelyn, The
Long War Journal
On Saturday, June 19, Saudi officials told reporters that about 25 former Guantanamo detainees, or approximately 20 percent of the 120 detainees who have been repatriated to Saudi Arabia, have returned to terrorism since being transferred. All of the recidivists had been enrolled in a rehabilitation program established by the Saudi government.
Should the New START Treaty Be a Non-Starter?
06/21/2010, Rebeccah Heinrichs, FoxNews.com
America’s most senior foreign policy officials defended the merits of the first strategic arms control treaty to be brought before the Senate in almost 20 years last week. Secretaries Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, and Admiral Michael Mullen went to bat on behalf of the Obama administration, which is anxious for the Senate to ratify the New START Treaty quickly, to reduce the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, and win hearts in the Kremlin.
Happening Now
06/25/2010, Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland, Fox News Channel
Enforcing Iran sanctions.
Point of View
06/28/2010, Jonathan Schanzer, Syndicated
Passage of Iran sanctions legislation.
The Bill Meyer Show
06/25/2010, Claudia Rosett, KMED - Medford (OR)
Change in command in Afghanistan.
Wake Up Call
06/23/2010, Jonathan Schanzer, KPNW - Eugene (OR)
Change in command in Afghanistan.
The Fishman File
06/23/2010, Bill Roggio, WSYR - Syracuse (NY)
Change in command in Afghanistan.
KCOL Mornings
06/23/2010, Bill Roggio, KCOL - Fort Collins (CO)
Change in command in Afghanistan.
The Don Kroah Show
06/22/2010, Clifford D. May, WAVA - Washington DC
Change in command in Afghanistan.
The World Today
06/22/2010, Jonathan Schanzer, BBC World Service
Change in command in Afghanistan.
Dateline: Washington
06/21/2010, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Radio America
New Supreme Court decision on material support for terrorism.
Monday Night Live
06/21/2010, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, WAFG - Fort Lauderdale (FL)
State of the war on terror.
NEWS AND EVENTS
