Why the Bridges Fall Down and Other Mysteries (Partially) Explained

Ever wonder where all that tax money goes? All those billions of dollars pried out of your wallet each April by the Feds? Why the potholes, the leaky dams and levees, the unsafe bridges. Not to mention schools that are crumbling and hospitals you wouldn't take a dog to. Don't get me started on the underfunded libraries.

So where, oh where, is all that cash going? Beside being poured into the evil lie that is Iraq (for our freedoms you know), did you know that a royally big chunk is going to folks who actively steal classified information from us! Google "Israeli art students" and "Jonathan Pollard" just for starters.

I mean, WTF??

Blue Ibis
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Murderers' deals: U.S. and Israel close gap on defence aid payouts

Dan Williams
Reuters africa
Sun, 12 Aug 2007 07:36 EDT

JERUSALEM - The United States has yielded to some Israeli demands on how new U.S. military aid will be paid out, ending a brief dispute over the issue, an Israeli official involved in the talks said on Sunday.

[Whoa!! We sure know who's in charge of OUR Budget, huh?}

With an eye on an ascendant Iran, Washington announced a defence package for its allies in the region on July 30 including stepping up aid to Israel -- which now receives $2.4 billion a year -- by 25 percent, for a total of $30 billion over the next decade.

Comment: US taxpayer money instead of being available for education, health, infrastructure, catastrophe due to weather changes, etc, is being "lent" to Israel to wage more wars and murder more Palestinians.

The Bush administration wanted to increase the aid by a set amount each year, the Israeli official said, while Israel asked for the new funds to be "front-loaded", i.e. for a bigger chunk to be paid out in the first years, or spread evenly so the annual sum was $3 billion.

"We reached an agreement that is somewhere in the middle," the Israeli official said, adding that first payout under the new schedule would be $2.55 billion as proposed by Washington.

"After that, the increases will be steeper, meaning we achieve the $3 billion mark more quickly," the official said.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns was expected in Israel last week for the signature of the aid deal but postponed his visit. The State Department said this was a result of scheduling problems.

The Israeli official said Burns was expected to arrive on Wednesday and for the talks to be completed by Thursday.

ARMS UPGRADES

Under the package announced on July 30 and awaiting approval by Congress, Egypt is expected to receive an additional $13 billion in the next decade while Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states could receive arms upgrades worth $20 billion.

Tom Lantos, a U.S. congressional leader, described ratification of the aid increase to Israel as a certainty.

"(It) will receive congressional support and will guarantee, for the next decade, along with Israel's own determination and military capability, the security of this nation," he told reporters during a visit to Jerusalem.

"One of the most important aspects of this $30 billion package, unprecedented in scope, is that it will guarantee the continuance of Israel's qualitative military edge."

[What could YOU do with $30 BILLION? Bet something more constructive than kill people.]

The United States has in the past provided Arab allies with military equipment on a par with that given to Israel. Analysts say one reason for Israel's perceived advantage in combat is the application of its own technology to the U.S. hardware.

"The argument is that we have the ability to make the most of the equipment, thanks to our add-ons," retired general Giora Eiland, Israel's former national security adviser, told Reuters.

Israel, which suffered surprise setbacks in its war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas last year, has been building up its armed forces in case of a flare-up with arch-foe Iran.

(Additional reporting by Adam Entous)

A Reasonable Question to Ask IMO

Flashback: To one of gems that only sites like Signs of the Times can bring you. The rest of the media are too cowed/bought off to do so. You don't suppose this is one of the secondary reasons the US is putting pressure on Iran? It certainly clear that AIPAC is calling the shots in Congress. Oh, and that "Israel wiped off the map" comment? See HERE for the real skinny. CNN ain't gonna tell you.

Long live real free speech.

Blue Ibis
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Iranian president sticks by anti-Israel comments

12 Dec 2005

TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday stuck by comments casting doubt on the Holocaust that drew censure from the U.N. Security Council and widespread condemnation by world leaders.

Ahmadinejad, echoing statements he made in Saudi Arabia last week, was quoted by state television and the semi-official ILNA news agency as accusing the West of using the Holocaust as an excuse to favor Israel.

"If the killing of Jews in Europe is true and the Zionists are supported because of this excuse, why should the Palestinian nation pay the price?" he said.

Speaking at a conference entitled "International Congress to Support the Islamic Revolution of Palestine", Ahmadinejad said Islamic countries had done too little to support Palestinians.

The conference was attended by Khaled Meshaal, chief-in-exile of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

"The Islamic world should avoid its existing passiveness and handle the Palestinian issue more actively," said Ahmadinejad.

"As you see, since the Palestinians have become more active their situation has improved," he said.

Since taking office in August, Ahmadinejad has spoken out frequently against Israel in terms which were almost unheard of under his reformist predecessor Mohammad Khatami.

European diplomats say his anti-Israel comments, which have included calling the Jewish state a "tumor" that should be "wiped off the map", may cause a delay in planned talks between the European Union and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program.

Comment: Of course, all right-thinking people understand that the claims that Israel wields disproportionate influence over American and European politics are nothing but lies and thinly -veiled anti-Semitism and that there is no evidence to back up such proposterous accusations... right?...

Too Angry to Make Up A Title

Jesus-tap-dancing-Christ!!

Every time I think I am going to post about something else (anything else!!) besides murderous Zionist/Neocon psychopaths, something like this comes along.

How can an Israeli stay in Palestine and sleep at night, knowing that acts like this secure their place?

Blue Ibis

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Why Was the Palestinian Mother of Eleven Murdered While Trying to Protect Her Deaf Husband?

by Paul Findley
mediamonitors
Thu, 08 Feb 2007 21:27 EST

"U.S. media are generally brave, except where Israel is concerned. So are members of Congress. So is the presidency. And the rest of us? Almost everyone is afraid to criticize Israel, no matter how barbaric its behavior."

Alison Weir, a California journalist and activist who chronicles the bias in U.S. media coverage of Middle East events, bestirred many Americans - perhaps many thousands - in early October with a powerful, chilling Internet account of the largely unreported murder of a Palestinian mother of 11 children by Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

Itemad Ismail Abu Mo'ammar was fatally shot while trying to rescue her deaf husband from a severe beating by Israeli soldiers, who were furious because he did not answer their questions.

Weir wrote:

"Foolishly or valiantly, how is one to say, the 35-year-old woman interfered. She tried to explain that her husband was deaf and couldn't hear their questions. Then she attempted to stop them from hitting him. So they shot her. Several times. She didn't die, though. That took longer, because the soldiers refused to allow an ambulance to transport her to a physician. Finally, after approximately five hours, one was permitted to take her to a hospital where physicians were able to render one service: pronounce her dead. Why did this all happen? The family lived behind the residence of a resistance fighter wanted by Israel. The death of Itemad was simply 'collateral damage' in a failed Israeli assassination-kidnapping operation."

Weir searched major U.S. media - broadcast and print - from coast to coast, and found Itemad's death reported in only three newspapers, a single-sentence notice in each. One of the three, The Washington Post, reported inaccurately that the woman was killed by an Israeli tank round. After exchanging messages with Weir, the Post cleared for publication her letter that explained that multiple bullets, fired close up - not a tank round - were the cause of death. But the Post reneged. The letter was not published. Why? Weir's explanation: "After all, these were only Palestinians, and it was just another mother dead."

Ponder the "why" of the shooting. Although the distraught woman struggled to get the armed soldiers to stop beating her deaf husband, she surely posed no physical threat to them. Even if they did not understand what she said, she was, at worst, an inconvenience, hardly deserving to be shot.

Now consider the "why" of the aftermath. Were the hearts of the Israeli squad so hardened that they could not act with compassion as the husband and children watched helplessly through unavailing tears as the woman bled to death? Why did they want her dead?

This Gaza atrocity is not an isolated aberration. Israeli brutality is commonplace, and so is American silence in response. What transformed the soldiers, their military superiors, as well as the civilian leaders of the Israeli government into callous brutes? Is the whole Israeli governmental system so corrupted with anti-Arab passion that mercy for a dying mother is nowhere to be found?

Other questions beg answers. Will the killers be punished or even rebuked? Will messages of regret, consolation, and - yes - compensation be sent to the survivors? Sadly, I know from the wells of memory the answer to these two questions is no.

Such messages should come from Washington, not just from Israel, as the guns and bullets used in the killing were almost certainly gifts of the U.S. government. Will the U.S. ambassador deliver messages to the aggrieved, as well as a threatening protest to Israeli officials, demanding an end to the brutal treatment of innocent people? Here again, the answer is no.

Why the cover-up in major U.S. media? The awful circumstances of Itemad's death were not reported, because major media are afraid - yes, afraid - to feature Israeli criminal behavior. Israel's influence is suffocating. Imagine the intense, sustained coverage that would have dominated major media if the roles in Gaza had been reversed, with a dying Israeli woman denied medical service for hours by Palestinians who had shot her at close range for no good reason.

U.S. media are generally brave, except where Israel is concerned. So are members of Congress. So is the presidency. And the rest of us? Almost everyone is afraid to criticize Israel, no matter how barbaric its behavior.

U.S. silence in the face of an Israeli atrocity is a green light to more crime. If we look at our own hands, we may find a trace of Itemad's blood right there in plain sight.