South Korea (AP) - Military officials say a South Korean navy ship has sunk off an island not far from North Korea.
An official with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said early Saturday that the ship sank some four hours after it began taking on water. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with department policy.
The official said at least 58 of the 104 crew members have been rescued. There was no immediate confirmation of casualties. A rescue operation was still under way.
A huge statue of Bill Clinton is being unveiled in the heart of Kosovos capital city. Hes celebrated there as the man who ordered NATOs offensive against Serbia in 1999. For Kosovo Albanians, the former American president is a hero, who sanctioned NATOs bombing of Serbia ten years ago. But for Serbs hes the epitome of horror
Russia is offering to modernize Cuba's deteriorating weapons systems – installed when the former Soviet Union was expanding worldwide – and it also wants to reactivate a sensitive electronic eavesdropping station on the nearby island at Lourdes, use Cuba as a base to refuel its bombers and a port to replenish supplies on its warships, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
These developments emerged following the visit to Cuba in late September by Gen. Nikolai Makarov, chief of the Russian General Staff. Makarov met with Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana.
Cuba's Soviet-made military equipment has been falling apart. After an assessment, the Russian military has decided to undertake a comprehensive modernization. In addition, the Cuban army also will receive Russian military training....
...in August 2008 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared that Russia needed to rebuild its links to the Cuban island.
He was careful not to say that Russia was establishing bases in Cuba, even though Moscow apparently intends to use the Caribbean island as a potential refueling stop for its nuclear-capable bombers and for ports of call for its warships.
Then Russian Air Force chief Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev in March 2009 had made it clear that Cuba, as well as Venezuela, could be used to base Russia's strategic bombers, although the Kremlin was quick to add at the time that such a development was "hypothetical."
"We need to reestablish positions on Cuba and in other countries," Putin said.
The moves have been developing for some time. In December 2008 a group of Russian warships, headed by the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, visited.
The second Israeli cabinet-level discussion in the last few days on the Iranian threat - nuclear and regional - took place Monday, Sept. 7, in the inner cabinet, on the heels of a recent security cabinet meeting which surveyed Israel military and homeland security preparations for a missile attack from four sources, Iran, Syria, the Lebanese Hizballah and the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza.
The Monday meeting was held behind closed doors but DEBKAfile's military sources report that speakers underscored the rapid tempo of the developing Iranian threat. Monday, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he was willing to discuss "global challenges" with US president Barack Obama but repeated his government's standing refusal to negotiate his country's "inalienable nuclear rights." This put the lid on the US president's policy of dialogue with Tehran on its nuclear program and rendered the European engagement initiative pointless.
Monday, too, the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, said talks with the Islamic republic were at a "stalemate. He delivered a bleak account of Iran's nuclear compliance to a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.
Yet tougher UN sanctions are a diminishing prospect in the light of Russian and Chinese objections.
Saturday, Sept. 5, DEBKAfile reported the growing concern in security circles over the failure of the US, Israel and other international parties to put the brakes on Iran's fast-paced advance toward a nuclear weapon although Obama had been in office for nine months and Netanyahu sat down in the prime minister's office all of six months ago. Tehran seized this inaction for the biggest leap forward since its hidden nuclear program was launched.
First it was Russia calling us down for socialism. Now it’s China.
Responding to the Obama administration’s enactment of prohibitive tariffs on Chinese-made tires, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce expressed strong opposition, calling it “a serious act of trade protectionism.” China, said the Ministry, “reserves the right to make further response.”
And, responding to the continued roar of the money-printing press here, a top Chinese official said his country was dismayed. "We hope there will be a change in monetary policy as soon as they have positive growth again," said this official. "If they keep printing money to buy [U.S. Treasury] bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard."
It all brings to mind the words of Bob Dylan:
The line it is drawn The curse it is cast The slow one now Will later be fast As the present now Will later be past The order is Rapidly fadin'. And the first one now Will later be last For the times they are a-changin'
Note - to read more of Dr. Thies's articles on foreign affairs, please visit our sister site Worldwide
This is a brief letter written by an Iranian woman who is going to attend the anti-regime rally tomorrow:
I'll participate in the rally tomorrow in Tehran. It might be violent. I may be one of those who will die tomorrow. I want to listen to all beautiful tunes that I have heard in my life, again. I want to listen to some cheap Los Angeles made Iranian music. I always wanted to have much narrower eyebrows too. Yeah, I'll check in with my hair-dresser tomorrow before I go to the rally. Oh, there are some excellent scenes in the famous Iranian movie Hamoon I want to see before I leave. And I gotta re-visit my own bookshelf. Shamloo and Farrokhzad's poems are worth re-reading. I've to see the family photo albums once again.
I'll have to call my friends and say good-bye to them. In this big world, my possession is only two bookshelves. I've already told mom and dad whom to give these books if I never come back. There are only two more courses left for me to get my BA degree but to hell with the degree. I'm anxious and excited. I wrote these scattered words for the future generations so that they know we were not sentimental or uselessly emotional.
I'm writing this so they know we did every thing in our power to make this work for them and so that they realize if our forefathers surrendered to the Arab and Mongolian invaders but they didn't give in to their tyranny. They resisted it. And I wrote this for tomorrow's children...
Updated @ 3am ET: Iranian regime supreme dictator Khamenei will be leading the Tehran's Friday prayer in a few hours. Today is the 'Make or Break' day for the people of Iran and the regime. I can't see Rafsanjani, Khatami and Karoubi among the VIP row.
Updated @ 4:35am ET: Listening to supreme dictator Khamenei's speech on CNN now. So far he is appealing to the nation to calm down. Yet he knows, by examples he gave from Islamic history, that his regime is under pressure. Though I admit he sounds confident. (Maybe he knows Mousavi is not a direct threat to his own existence and he's certain he can find a way to settle this down with him). 4:39 am: He's appealing to the hidden 12th Imam. The first sermon was VERY SHORT. 2nd sermon just began. 4:41 am ET: There he goes. Exaggerating... LoL. He is trying to say every vote people did cast was a vote for the regime (that's why people should not participate in regime's political games). And now he's slamming "Democracies". This man is no democrat. He is an evil murderer.
4:48am ET: He just recognized the riff between the factions (Which is not new. We all knew it). He's now claiming the election as a victory for the regime again. What's a religious democracy?
4:51 am: god bless the enemies of Iran. What would mullahs do without these so-called enemies? LoL - And now he's talking about lack of trust in regime among the people. And he knows people mistrust him and his dictatorship. He acknowledges that people don't trust him and his minions. And now he says a regime that has lost the trust of its people is a goner. 4:55 am: 3rd point of his sermon is about the 'robust debate' among the candidates. 4:56 am: Khamenei just called the media 'dirty Zionists'. And now he's defending Ahmadinejad. He called him 'trusted'. And now he's praising the candidates as part of the Iranian regime's establishment. He says they all belong to the regime. 5:02 am ET: Khamenei is slamming the Zionists, tricky Americans and dirty Brits. He is also openly admitting to the infighting within the regime. Khamenei is not addressing any of the opposition's problems so far. 5:05 am ET: He is now saying indirectly that the "DEBATE" should not last any longer. Khamenei said if it lasts any longer, it will result in 'hatred'. 5:12 am: Khamenei criticized the emotional charge of the TV debates. He's blaming both camps for the ongoing problems. But he's now defending Ahmadinejad openly. He is also defending Rafsanjani but he just left the door to investigate the corruption charges of Rafsanjani's family.
5:16 am: He admits to several differences between himself and Rafsanjani. He just picked the side of Ahmadinejad against Rafsanjani. People shouting : "Death to anti Velayate Faghih people". 5:24 am ET: Khamenei says there was no vote rigging. He says there's no way 11 mln votes were stolen or faked. And now is calling for legal ways. He just said he won't budge to 'illegal pressure'. He announced he won't approve 'illegal challenges' either. This is an ultimatum to the protesters.
5:28 am: Khamenei is now threatening the political figures. Khamenei is now warning the opposition that they'll be responsible for violence and bloodshed if they go farther. 5:34 am ET: Now calling protesters 'terrorists'? Khamenei wants an END TO STREET RALLIES & threatened the protesters with more consequences. 5:37 am: Khamenei said budging under pressure is dictatorship. He is again threatening the heads of the opposition. He says people should try the 'kinder' way and saying if people go another way, then I'll be more blunt. 5:41 am: He's now taking a jab at the US and EU governments. I think he's trying to link the protests to the foreign governments now. 5:50 am et: Khamenei is saying Iran is no Georgia and there'll be no velvet revolution in this country. Now giving food to the stupid leftists in the western world... saying Iraq war is against human rights. Now criticizing Hillary Clinton and her husband for Waco incident. Khamenei says the Iranian govt is the defender of 'human rights' around the world. 5:51 am ET: He is now basically saying that he is willing to give his life to defend the revolution & Islamic state. -----
My gut feelings: I predict Tiananmen Square in Iran
What did Bush say?The "Axis of Evil?"Well, President George W. Bush, author of the "axis of evil" concept, toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, but got nowhere containing Iran and North Korea, either with policies of rigid isolation or, later, multilateral diplomacy.
Now, with Iran's uranium enrichment centrifuges spinning and North Korea testing both nuclear weapons and missiles, it's Obama's turn - and top aides are fully aware that the two challenges are linked. "Whatever we do with respect to North Korea is going to be closely watched by Iran," a senior White House aide told me.... (Mort Kondracke - Real Clear Politics)
North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile towards Hawaii on American Independence Day, according to Japanese intelligence officials.
The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles, would be launched in early July from the Dongchang-ni site on the north-western coast of the secretive country.
Intelligence analysts do not believe the device would be capable of hitting Hawaii's main islands, which are 4,500 miles from North Korea.
It was announced today that the U.S. has deployed anti-missile defences around Hawaii in response to the threat.
North Korea test-fired a similar long-range missile on July 4 three years ago, but it failed seconds after liftoff.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the additional defenses around Hawaii consist of a ground-based mobile missile system and a radar system nearby.
Together they could shoot an incoming missile in mid air.
'Without telegraphing what we will do, I would just say... we are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect Americans and American territory,' Gates said today.
A new missile launch - though not expected to reach U.S. territory - would be a brazen slap in the face of the international community, which punished North Korea with new U.N. sanctions for conducting a second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of a U.N. ban.
North Korea spurned the U.N. Security Council resolution with threats of war and pledges to expand its nuclear bomb-making program....
Bush called it -- North Korea and Iran, the "evil 3" -- This is Obama's chance to shine!
CNN producer: Iranian students say they’re doomed if Obama accepts the Iranian election
Much depends on the meaning of “accepts,” though, doesn’t it? I’m sure we’ll get some patented Hopenchange drivel tomorrow about “grave concerns,” etc, but if Iran’s kids are expecting The One to walk away from nuke negotiations in protest of the coup, they’re kidding themselves. For one thing, that’s something Bush would do, and of course Bush was never, evah right. For another, if Obama walks away then he’s essentially betting all his chips on a full-blown counterrevolution to erupt and topple the regime. If it doesn’t, or if it’s put down a la Tiananmen Square, Khamenei et al. will be in no mood to forgive and forget. Which means it’s either war to take out Iran’s nuke infrastructure or learn to stop worrying and love the Iranian bomb. Israelis are learning already!
What if Obama did walk away, though? There’s actually another possibility here: Western leaders protest the result by ending negotiations and refusing to recognize Ahmadinejad as president, which in turn encourages protesters to keep up their agitation for several more months. Paralyzed and afraid of being overthrown, the regime becomes so desperate that it agrees to give up the nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of all sanctions and renewed diplomatic ties with the U.S. in hopes that the economic turnaround produced by the influx of foreign capital will placate the people. The dilemma for The One here is that he campaigned on the moronic assumption that Iran might conceivably be willing to make a deal on nukes if we just talked nice to them or sweetened our offer a bit. Now comes the moment of truth: Does he really believe that? Does he honestly believe, after years of stonewalling, with the country maybe a year away from being able to build a bomb, that they’re going to throw in the towel now? If not, then walk away. There’s no downside and potentially a tremendous upside if the regime falls or a grateful Mousavi ends up being installed as president. And needless to say, from a moral standpoint, he’d be on the side of the angels. Conflict with the regime is inevitable; if the Iranian public’s willing to fight our battle for us, let’s support them with all we’ve got. As Hitchens eloquently puts it, “Fascism at home sooner or later means fascism abroad. Face it now or fight it later.”
(Graphic Warning) Video: Iranian thugs beat protester to death in broad daylight
