I don't understand why this isn't a scandal, why the mainstream is not pursuing the obvious question here. Philip Giraldi reports on Lani Kass, an Israeli-American who has an influential place in the Defense establishment and the usual anti-Islamic ideas. And of course Dennis Ross formerly of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute in Jerusalem is guiding our Iran policy, and Treasury officials who crank up sanctions against Iran are friends of AIPAC. It never ends. Bush Obama, same tune. Giraldi:
Kass was born, raised, and educated in Israel. She has a PhD in Russian studies and is fluent in Russian and Hebrew in addition to English. Kass reportedly reached the rank of major in the Israeli air force before moving to the United States and working her way up through the US defense establishment. She is currently the most senior civilian adviser to Air Force Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz and is believed to have access to most American defense secrets. Kass is best known to the public for her role in promoting Air Force cyberwarfare, but she also appears to have been a major player in counter-terrorism policy and in war preparations directed against Iran even though she has no actual substantive background in those areas. She believes that the US is engaged in a long war against Islamo-radicalism and that "winning" against Iran is necessary but the American people must be willing to pay the price to succeed. My concern regarding Dr. Kass is based on the potential conflict of interest and divided loyalty that is normal in anyone who is born in one country and moves to another. She comes from a country that has a history of large scale and highly aggressive espionage directed against the United States and she appears to continue to have close ties to her birthplace. Dr. Kass has become a naturalized American while apparently retaining her Israeli citizenship and her three children were reportedly born in Israel, not the United States....
One might argue that Dr. Lani Kass is just another Israel firster who has risen to high office in the US government, not really unlike Dennis Ross, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, and Douglas Feith. And that might well be true. But at the same time one must challenge the judgment of those who enabled her rise to a position of great responsibility and power and there should be serious questions about whether her bellicose and racially tinged viewpoint comes from objective and honest analysis of the genuine challenges confronting the United States or from her loyalty to her country of birth.
Has Dr. Kass hidden any of her biography to get her job? No. Her history and positions are clear. Obviously, she also had to get security clearance for her job so her past and positions were reviewed in detail.
So what is Phil complaining about? Since when it is assumed that someone would be disloyal without providing proof? Just because she is also an Israeli does that make her automatically disloyal to the US?
Sounds to me like the Dreyfus affair again. Either bring concrete proof against Dr. Kass or leave her alone. Raising allegations just based on the fact that she does not agree with your politics and is also Israeli is despicable.
how many American gentiles serve in the Israeli government? How many gentile Americans (who have not been corrupted by zionist payola) have access to Israeli military secrets?
What has that got to do with anything? Do you have any proof against Dr. Kass or is this just a smear campaign?
Do you view this as part of Jewish over reach in the US?
damn right I view this as “part of Jewish over reach in the US.”
ya, it’s just a smear campaign. got a problem with it?
I don’t like Israelis making decisions for my country. I think they don’t have the best interests of my country, the US, as their first priority.
I don’t need “proof” of anything not to like it, and to do my level best to change the situation.
don’t like my attitude? cry me a river.
No, I love your attitude and honesty. You just prove there is very little difference between the BDS campaign and neo-nazism.
Neo-Nazism? Shut up you mental midget. Get some new material.
talk about over reach.
and regarding nazism, it was good enough for the first zionists when they needed help in populating Palestine.
if you think slinging neo nazi labels somehow chastens me or makes your rancid tripe comments somehow endearing and persuasive, you’ve failed.
i’m a psycho, see? I don’t care if you think me a nazi. you can’t hurt me. you’re in deep doodoo ’cause your tired old tricks don’t work anymore. there is nothing you can say or do to me to cause me to think it is a better idea to pledge my allegiance to Israel than to the US. I’m an American and I don’t like Israel. deal with it.
eee: Has Dr. Kass hidden any of her biography to get her job? No.
—
No? How do you know?
Because her biography looks complete and she has not hidden her positions.
Do you know the opposite? You understand that the onus of proof is on you?
What does that mean?
Were you with her throughout her career, every step of the way?
If you think Dr. Kass is lying, prove it. The onus is on you.
I have no reason to not believe her or not trust the US security clearance process.
So far, all I see is that you support a nasty smear campaign without a shred of evidence.
@ eee
Hasbara Manual, page 32-33:
Name Calling
Through the careful choice of words, the name calling technique links a person or an idea to a negative symbol. Creating negative connotations by name calling is done to try and get the audience to reject a person or idea on the basis of negative associations, without allowing a real examination of that person or idea. The most obvious example is name calling — “they are a neo-Nazi group” tends to sound pretty negative to most people.
thanks bob.
time for some Hasbara manual jujitsu. defang it; who the foxtrot cares if a lower-case mental midget has to resort to calling people neo nazis? LAUGH at them, deride them, spit in their faces. that and more. time for the empire to strike back.
there is a profound tragedy in the inevitableness of the reaction that folk (perhaps I should say volk like eee set in motion, as inexorably as one ball striking another on Newton’s cradle: A Psychopathic god understands the fearful nature of mob whose rage has been unleashed. And I and eee are both anonymous cyberites. A real live person might not have the understanding and restraint that Psychopathic god is able to summon; a psychopathologized mob may vent its rage at a moment that is drawing closer and closer with each new salvo of provocations by the eee s of the world. the tippping point is fast approaching…. 3 minutes til Kristallnacht.
RE: “Has Dr. Kass hidden any of her biography…” – eee
FROM GIRALDI: “Kass’ official Air Force bio, which has been expunged from the Pentagon website possibly due to less than flattering commentary regarding her appointment…”
SOURCE – link to original.antiwar.com
It was not expunged because of inaccuracies. Where is your proof for this malicious smear campaign? You are willing to blame someone with disloyalty just because he is also Israeli. Very similar to the Dreyfus case.
eee, Philip Giraldi is not some small potatoes writer. He is a former CIA officer and station chief who speaks four languages. Everyone single one of his printed revelations about the Bush admin attempts at fomenting war with both Iraq and Iran have been true. Military and Intel officers say that his writings are coded goldmines about what is really going on.
You can bounce up and down in your jolly-jumper about whatever it is you think of him; however, you dont count. The US military does, and they know to pay attention to this guy.
Obviously, she also had to get security clearance for her job so her past and positions were reviewed in detail.
This is the crux of the problem. Our security clearance system is broken. If her nationality were anything other than Israeli, if her foreign military service had been with anyone other than the IDF, she would not be in that billet. There is a double standard an ocean wide when it comes to conflict-of-interest assessments of Israelis and American Israel Lobby operatives.
Sounds to me like the Dreyfus affair again.
False accusations of antisemitism used as a political weapon to silence illumination of Israel Lobby corruption don’t work anymore.
Either bring concrete proof against Dr. Kass or leave her alone.
You are missing the whole point. It is not about what Dr. Kass has done or not done. The issue is that she, or anyone else with her foreign military service background and ties, should not be in a United States national security billet in the first place.
eee,
You wrote:
Would you be willing to write the following, as well?
How many Palestinian citizens of Israel, a group which has historically been very loyal to the state, how many of those who serve in the Israeli army are allowed to reach ranks higher than a private?
I don’t suppose you’re going to bring “Arab” countries into this debate to show how Israel is no different?
Bear in mind that Israel is “the only democracy in the Middle East”.
Of course I would be willing to write what you suggest.
There are many Arab officers in the Israeli army. I myslef in officer school with several Arabs.
From wikipedia: Arab Generals in the IDF include Major General Hussain Fares, commander of Israel’s border police, and Major General Yosef Mishlav, head of the Home Front Command and current Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.[110] Both are members of the Druze community. Other high ranking officers in the IDF include Lieutenant Colonel Amos Yarkoni (born Abd el-Majid Hidr/ عبد الماجد حيدر) from the Bedouin community, a legendary officer in the Israel Defense Forces and one of six Israeli Arabs to have received the IDF’s third highest decoration, the Medal of Distinguished Service.
The third sentence should be: I myself went through officer school with several Arabs.
OK. Let’s see what we have here….
1. We have a guy who for some odd reason found it nessecary to change his Arabic name to a Jewish Israeli one:
Amos Yarkoni (born Abd el-Majid Hidr)
2. Then we have “Yosef Mishlav” which is a Jewish name. Are we to presume that he, too, changed his name?
3. Then we have the only Arabic name:
Major General Hussain Fares
who is in fact an immigrant from Somalia.
What does this tell us, eee?
correction: *necessary
I mixed up Hussain with a different one. OK. So, there’s one guy who retained his name and serves in a high ranking position.
Avi,
General Fares is a Somali? What are you talking about? He is an Arab Druze from a family that has live in Israel/Palestine for generations.
So what if people changed their names? Does that make them less Arab? Many Jews changed their names in the US to help them assimilate. What is wrong with that?
The fact is that there are tons of Arab officers in the Israeli army and also a general. What we have is you trying to justify Phil’s despicable position on Dr. Kass based on a false premise about how Israel treats Arabs in its military. Not only are you using the two wrongs make a right argument, you are also using a wrong wrong.
Well, you and I both know that if you were honest with yourself you’d point out the antisemitism that forces one to change their name to “help them assimilate”.
Should blacks in the 1950s have painted their faces and bodies white to “help them assimilate”?
Are you kidding me?
There are a myriad of reasons people change their names, some also to avoid prejudice. But since these people are famous, and everyone in Israel knows that they are Arabs, the reasons in their case are probably different.
But this is all beside the point. Do you have any evidence for supporting the smear campaign against Dr. Kass?
No this isn’t beside the point. This goes to the heart of your hypocrisy with which you continue to litter this forum.
So, now you’re claiming that they changed their names AFTER they reached their respective high ranking positions?
I’ll remind you that Palestinians make up 20% of Israel’s population. So far, you’ve mentioned three, two of whom found it necessary to change their names to Jewish sounding ones and they’re all Druze, a minority that isn’t classified as “Arab” by the Israeli Ministry of Interior, anyway.
The point of this thread is simple. You are supporting a Dreyfus like smear campaign without a shred of evidence. Furthermore, you are unsuccessfully trying to use the two wrongs make a right argument.
Let’s assume for the sake of argument that I am an hypocrite. Please explain how that justifies the smear campaign against Dr. Kass.
I’m not comfortable with the notion of “assuming” that you are a hypocrite. It’s unfortunate that I have to say this, but you have proven to be a hypocrite.
But, for the sake of argument, let’s pretend I didn’t just write that.
This isn’t a smear campaign against Lani Kass, these are facts which raise a few red flags.
1. How did someone who served in a high ranking position in a foreign nation get the second highest ranking job in the US Air Force, and within a relatively short period of time after moving to the US?
2. How did someone who is clearly unqualified to lead a cyber-warfare department get that position? Note that her specialty was Russian studies.
3. Given the fact that cyber-warfare is a diverse field that spans the globe, certainly not something that only Muslims specialize in, why does she have such anti-Muslim bias?
4. When an Israeli hacker managed to break into some of the Pentagon’s most secure servers, PM Netanyahu at the time said that he was proud of the hacker. The hacker didn’t even get arrested, charged with breaking a law, or serve any time in jail. In other words, while cyber-warfare can involve countries like Israel, the person in charge of the department, has a particular anti-Muslim bias.
I have seen tapes of Druze in Israel who say they are not Arabs. Is that done to get ahead? Does anyone know if the Druze in Lebanon and Jordan, say they are not Arabs? Can a person be Druze and Palestinian at the same time?
The short answer to your last answer is “Yes.” As far as whether Druze are Arabs… I was of the understanding that Druze are an offshoot of Islam. I admittedly don’t know enough about the finer points of the difference between Druze beliefs and practices, and those of Arabs and mainstream Islam, but if they are a separate ethnic group, they would be one with a close relationship to Arab peoples.
In Israel? Being Arab is the proverbial yellow Star of David, so I can rather understand why the Druze wish to dissociate themselves from Arabs so that they don’t suffer quite as intense a discrimination, regardless of the differentiation between the two groups. I can imagine there is a lot of pressure.
All your points are irrelevant or just wrong factually.
If you have problems with Dr. Kass’ appointment, criticize the people who appointed her in the USAF. Dr. Kass has nothing to answer to unless you have actual proof she is disloyal. The fact that you are smearing her is despicable.
you mean this israeli hacker avi?
link to news.cnet.com
That’s it? Irrelevant or factually wrong?
They are in fact relevant, very much so, and none of them is factually wrong.
Which one of my points is factually wrong?
It would be nice to hear specifics instead of a broad dismissal like the Goldstone report received. There too, none of those dismissing it explained their reasons.
Despicable in the maximalitst sense? Or just despicable?
From over a decade ago, yonira? Really now. How long did it take for you to dig backwards for that straw man.
eee, I don’t think it’s a Dreyfus like smear campaign so much as a blood libel.
or maybe it’s holocaust denial — ya, that’s it, nothing worse than holocaust denial.
or that old canard ‘dual loyalty’…. maybe it’s a dual loyalty smear.
or maybe they hate us because we’re rich. or smart. or because we get so many Nobel prizes. …
No, you explained it well, they hate us because we over reach. We just do not know our place and must be punished.
Gee, yeah, sorry eee that we object to you guys erasing whole villages of Palestinians and using your military to carve out chunks of empire from your neighbors. Sorry the rest of us live in the 21st century when clearly, you desire to live by 19th century rules of colonization and conquest.
Excellent questions, Avi. You highlighted exactly the kind of issues that bother most of us. Lani Kass may hardly be the only poorly qualified person for the high level job she holds. The military, the security establishment have quite a few of those who get ‘there” more by force of political connections than merit or even seniority. But what raises questions is the entire history of the unusually rapid rise of Kass to a position where her obvious prejudices can do perhaps the most damage. At each step of the way, people who should have raised questions didn’t. And this is very disturbing indeed.
Danaa,
How did you reach the conclusion that Dr. Kass is not qualified?
Would Mullen have let her stay unless she was qualified?
Maybe she rose quickly because she is very qualified and smart. It really smacks of McCarthyism when you assume a person is not qualified just because he holds different political views than you.
Obviously, you have no idea what actually goes on in the Pentagon.
The article says she moved to the US, but nothing about her taking US citizenship and renouncing Israeli.
She is a dual-citizen.
Oath of Allegiance to US, required of all naturalized citizens:
RE: “Philip Giraldi reports on Lani Kass, an Israeli-American who has an influential place in the Defense establishment and the usual anti-Islamic ideas.” – Weiss
SEE ALSO: Dr. Strangelove, Made in Israel, by Philip Giraldi, Antiwar.com, 04/15/10
(excerpt)…In early November 2006, US Air Force officials formed the Air Force Cyberspace Command that had the “authority to launch wars in cyberspace.” The command was reported to be “largely the brainchild of Dr. Lani Kass, director of the Air Force Cyberspace Task Force.”
Dr. Kass’ position and access inevitably raise a number of questions. Her appointment is somewhat unseemly, which even the Air Force appeared to recognize when it removed her bio from the website. Surely there must be qualified Americans who would be both delighted and proud to serve their country in the position she holds. Surely someone in Washington must see the security implications of a former foreign military officer holding a high level post in the Pentagon with full access to classified information. To challenge Dr. Kass’s position is not to question her academic credentials and intelligence or even her ability or integrity, but it is not unreasonable to ask why the Pentagon would appoint to a sensitive position someone who was born, raised, and served at a senior level with the armed forces in a foreign country.
And it is also not unreasonable to stop and consider whether Kass might well be an agent working for the Israeli government, which aggressively spies against the United States. She left Israel and began her journey through the US defense department in 1981, when Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard was still active. Israeli intelligence certainly was then and is now capable of what is referred to in intelligence jargon as a seeding operation in which “a mole” is placed in an innocuous position and expected to rise higher, eventually obtaining access to top secret information and even sometimes winding up in a position in which it is possible to direct policy as a so-called agent of influence. Kass started her ascent by working on Russia for beltway bandit Booz Allen Hamilton, quite likely for completely innocent reasons but also possibly because it was a non-threatening way to ease her entry into the world of government contractors.
In seeking to discover how she wound up where she is now it is fair to ask how exactly she obtained the positions that she has held with the Pentagon and who sponsored her through the bureaucracy. How did she manage to obtain a clearance in spite of the obvious red flags in her background? In light of legitimate security concerns, has she been polygraphed, what questions about her relationship with her former country were asked, and what were her answers? Was any deception indicated? Has she been re-polygraphed recently? This is not intended as harassment or as any accusation against Kass but rather to determine if she has been subject to normal and appropriate security measures. CIA officers are, for example, required to undergo polygraph exams every five years and the questions concentrate on possible unreported relationships with foreign governments.
Critics note that while Kass is genuinely an expert on Russia, she has little background to qualify her as an authority on the currently fashionable Cyberwarfare, where she has somehow turned herself into a major spokesman through mastery of the necessary buzzwords and talking points. Nor does she have any genuine expertise on the Middle East or on terrorism to share with Mullen and others, apart from her own Israeli perspective. Her access to the highest levels of the Air Force also raises the questions of just what is she advising and what does she know? Does she support an air war against Iran, for example, and is she actively promoting that option? Does she know how the Obama Administration will react if Tel Aviv tries to stage a unilateral attack on Iran? Such information would be pure gold for the Israeli government….
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to original.antiwar.com
The case against having dual citizens in policy making positions grows the more we learn about Dr. Kass.
Let us remember how the New York Times joined in jumping on Wen Ho Lee who was accused of being a spy and then kept in jail on what was known to be false or incorrect testimony. What kind of evidence is the Times gathering on Dr. Kass, let alone those who put her into the position she has? We need to learn how much damage, if any, she has done to US foreign policy.
I am the last one to even hint less than 100% contempt for Israel and its destestable financiers/promoters/agitators/sympathizers throughout the United States. Lani Kass is not a scandal for the same reason Rahm Emanuel is not a scandal – a responsible and respected federal executive saw fit to employ this person for his own reasons (despite the appearance to others of risks they see as unacceptable, which Schwartz sees as acceptable). If the appointment “goes bad”, all the elements for Schwartz’ accountability are present – and he knows that.
The point to be made is that unlike Rahm Emanuel’s appointment, the Lani Kas appointment took place at a time when Neoconservative Zionists held high ranking positions in the Pentagon and the Defense establishment to have facilitated Kas’ appointment without going through the normal vetting process. And that’s the very reason that Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer writes:
A rank of Major in the Israeli army is a prerequisite to serving as an intelligence officer (i.e. Mossad).
RE: “So what is Phil complaining about? Since when it is assumed that someone would be disloyal without providing proof? Just because she is also an Israeli does that make her automatically disloyal to the US?” – eee
FROM GIRALDI’S 04/22/10 ARTICLE: “…More information has also been developed regarding Kass’s current role. According to a highly reliable source, Dr. Lani Kass is now the principal adviser to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen regarding the Middle East…”
SEE: Who’s behind the Gates memo leak?, by Paul Woodward, War in Context, 04/18/10
(excerpts) The New York Times reports on a “secret three-page memorandum” that Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent to National Security Adviser Gen James Jones in January, warning that “the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability,” according to unnamed officials who leaked the information.
The narrative line here which is presumably the line which was being fed to the New York Times‘ ever-obliging reporters, was that the there are gaps in the US strategy for dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions. It’s far from clear that this was actually the thrust of Gates’ memo…
…There is no indication in this account that the New York Times reporters saw the memo (and it seems reasonable to infer that they did not), so as is so often the case, it’s likely that the most significant detail in this story is the one that will not be revealed: the identity of the senior official who is the primary source of the narrative…
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to warincontext.org
What a low and despicable attack. Antiwar says that it does not know who leaked the memo. You take that as evidence that Dr. Kass did. Quite sick.
Why do you think beating up on a straw man is convincing anyone here?
What straw man? Care to elaborate?
Juuust as soon as you quote me the part of Dickerson’s post where he finds Dr. Kass unequivocally guilty, eee.
Now you are using the straw man.
What I wrote is this:
What a low and despicable attack. Antiwar says that it does not know who leaked the memo. You take that as evidence that Dr. Kass did. Quite sick.
Is Dick implying or not that Kass may have leaked the document? He is. But there is ZERO evidence to support that. It is sick what he is doing.
Keep spinning in circles. I love it!
Government employees (including family members) and decision makers who have dual citizenship with other countries should not be in US policy making positions concerning the country or region of their other citizenship. Israeli citizens have no more business making US policy about Israel or the Middle East than Russian citizens should be making US policy about the old USSR or Europe. At best the person has divided loyalties, at worse a traitor. US security must come first. Foreign governments have no problem finding US spies. Their vetting and cost should not be born by US taxpayers.
The problem with Lani Kass is there because of the widening divergence in interests between israel and the US. For example, there can be absolutely no doubt that it is Israel that’s behind all the clamoring for sanctions and bombings on Iran. Whereas this is absolutely NOT in the US’ interest which would prefer to work with Iran as an ally in the region – and could get so many more concessions through carrots rather than sticks. Iran is also one of the few countries that can contain the huge threat presented by Israel’s armed-to-the-teeth and hostile outlook towards the region. And that israel represents a threat to regional – and possibly world – peace is something that’s becoming fast obvious to most foreign policy experts as well as to the region’s other countries such as Turkey.
Yesterday, there was an entry about under secretaries Levey and Cohen (what a pair, eh?) to the treasury who seem to be AIPAC operatives, with an agenda that may not be in the US’ interests vis a vis Iran, and maybe wall street. The similarities between these individuals and the Douglas Feith/Michael Ledeen school of neocon traitors is obvious. I long ago stopped believing that neocons had America;’s interests in mind, and the proof is the invasion of Iraq, the death of 1000s of American soldiers and million or more Iraqis. This debacle represented a major blow to America’s standing in the world, its political power and its treasury. one would be hard pressed to find a single positive outcome for American interests from this adventure. In fact, one could say, that the US – as a country and as a superpower was collateral damage for what israel wanted. The worst part of this is that the iraq atrocity made all Americans complicit in massacres and war crime was – so we are all guilty, even as Israelis, with their notoriously selective conscience, sleep soundly, when not actually reveling in the mayhem they caused.
Adding to the political infiltration by AIPAC into both presidency and congress, there is ubiquitous presence of Israeli agents in aerospace companies and the security establishment – something that DOD is actually trying to clamp down on by instituting more careful security clearance procedures.. As for DOE – alas, not so much – to the best of my knowledge.
I speak out on this because I know full well the Israeli mind frame that consists of 2 parts hubris and 1 part paranoia. Knowing what I know – from personal experience – I simply can’t trust a dual Israeli citizen in any high level position in either the US military or the political ranks. Maybe that’s unfair. Actually, it probably is – as there are surely many more such as myself. After all, I hail from the same country and do consider myself a staunch US loyalist – a position I came to over time and for what I consider good reasons, rather than something adopted as a slogan. But then, at some point i did find it necessary to renounce the israeli citizenship – mostly for a peace of mind and as an act of affirmation. Probably for much the same reasons I try [emphasis on "try"] to be vegetarian. For all of us, there may come a time in life when one has to back talk with actions, or else one is doomed to drown in a sea of hypocricy.
Personally, I don’t take the concept of ” loyalty” for granted – on any level, or for any entity. And I learnty better that to try to simplify mental complexities into sound bites. But I can claim some familiarity with the mind frame that allows one to hide conflicting loyalties and barely acknowledged agendas under the carpet. It’s kind of what alcoholics do too, don’t they? And a barely acknowledged addiction to ziocaine (?) is what may well afflict both Lani Kass and the likes of Levey.
There’s nothing one can do about levey as that could easily deteriorate into an unseemly and dangerous witch hunt. transparency and accountability are the only weapons we have against his and Ross’ ilk. No different than any other political appointee tainted by allegiance to a lobby – just more so. But in Kass’ case, would absolutely require that she take the difficult step of formally renouncing her israeli citizenship, because transparency is simply not enough of a weapon for a position as sensitive as hers. I’ll bring as Exhibit A Oren’s renounciation of his American citizenship upon his official appointment as a representative of israel. For the very same reasons, I’d BTW ask the same of Rahm Emanuel – who, in Israel’s eyes he is now and will always be a citizen.
Danaa,
I’m glad to see you joined the smear campaign with your characteristic soporific diatribes.
Is there any shred of evidence that Dr. Kass is not loyal to the US? What about presumption of innocence? Don’t you see the similarities to the Dreyfus affair?
eee,
I’m glad to see your continued mention of the Dreyfus affair.
It will cause more and more people to research the actual situation; they will discover that yes, Dreyfus was wrongly imprisoned, but ultimately the French judicial system worked and Dreyfus was freed: the rule of law triumphed.
In the US, hundreds, perhaps thousands of Americans are falsely accused, convicted, and imprisoned, many of the them for far more years than Dreyfus was inconvenienced, and many of them, perhaps most of them, are never, ever freed, as was Dreyfus.
If you will continue to harp on the Dreyfus affair, as I hope you do, then more and more Americans will learn that Theodore Herzl was a psychologically fragile man, who responded irrationally to a distressing situation that was, as noted above, corrected by the ultimate working of the rule of law. Herzl became obsessed with this irrationality — or perhaps he required some stimulus to his flagging career? In any event, most Jews in France and in Germany were not impressed with Herzl and his obsessive dreams, and they did not gain traction for nearly a decade, and only then when the pressure of Russian Jewish immigrants on the lives and comfort of settled German Jews presented an opportunity, a polity to transport to the land of Herzl’s fevered fantasy.
Toss in Rothschild’s recognition that an expanded Jewish presence in Palestine had investment potential and the makings of a state misbegotten at conception, birth, and development are all in order.
Is it any surprise that the misbegotten scion of a fevered ideologue should mature into a dangerous delinquent?
eee, the ‘smear’ campaign you see is through the lens of your own ofertile imagination. The questions being raised about Lani Kass’ qualifications and her meteoric rise to a high level position for which she seems poorly suited are legitimate. The defense and security establishments have a vetting process in the US just like they one in Israel. It appears that Kass was no more vetted than palin was. But unlike Palin, where politics of the moment and the blind desperation of an office seeker combined to fuel a lightweight to serious candidacy, Kass should have been vetted by professionals, people whose reputation, skill and dedication to the job are above and beyond. Yet, this appears not to have been done; instead, a Russian expert metamorphoses into a cyber expert, seemingly overnight, even as her prejudices that should have barred her from getting through certain wickets apparently were glossed over. In other words, she got the vetting metted out to political personalities, not to security experts.
The problem, in a nutshell, just for you is not so much that her loyalties are in question. We do not know though we may suspect where her loyalties are based on actions and words. But even so, these will remain suspicions.
Instead of drawing pathetically inapplicable analogies to Dreyfus, you should ask yourself the following: would such a dubious appointment have been made in Israel? would someone rise to a high level in, say, the shin bet, if there was any serious question about their attachment to eg, the US?
The Dreyfus analogy doesn’t work. Dreyfus was persecuted because he was Jewish–in this case Giraldi points to some quite reasonable concerns. Namely–
” My concern regarding Dr. Kass is based on the potential conflict of interest and divided loyalty that is normal in anyone who is born in one country and moves to another. She comes from a country that has a history of large scale and highly aggressive espionage directed against the United States and she appears to continue to have close ties to her birthplace. Dr. Kass has become a naturalized American while apparently retaining her Israeli citizenship and her three children were reportedly born in Israel, not the United States….”
There’s nothing inherently antisemitic in any of this. The same concern could be raised about, say, a rightwing Cuban exile who had fought against Castro getting into the CIA and influencing our Latin American policy back in the early 60′s. It wouldn’t make one anti-Hispanic to raise such questions.
My opinion overall is basically the same as Sin Nombre’s below–maybe a careful examination of her life and record showed she deserved a security clearance. But it’s not silly to ask whether someone who was a major in the Israeli military and might have retained her Israeli citizenship should receive one.
Not that I get that worked up over security clearance questions anyway.
The Dreyfus analogy certainly does apply, about as much as the apartheid analogy applies to Israel.
She is a target for her nationality, in spite of being hired for her merit.
Giraldi is the one doing the targeting. And Phil is adding his two cents.
More equivocations. Dual loyalty, spying, etc. are a reality now. There was no Jewish State before. There is now. Stop your lies, Dick.
Dreyfus was a French national and ONLY a French National.
He was targeted for his religious views, or rather his religious identity.
He was not targeted because there was a suspicion that he may be loyal to say Great Britain, the Ottoman Empire, etc.
He was targeted solely because he belonged to a different religious group despite being a French National.
Ross on the other hand was a high ranking member of the military establishment of a foreign country – a foreign country which incidentally has strategic interests that are at odds with the United States.
She came to the United States, and somehow rose to a VERY high ranking position, a position that gives her a great deal of leeway in American foreign policy via the US military.
She also claims to be a dual national citizen claiming both American and Israeli citizenship.
Furthermore, she has very little in the way of qualifications in regards to her assignment (Iran and cyberterror) and her rapid rise is highly questionable.
The fact that a foreign national has the amount of influence that Ross does should be a matter of debate and questioning.
Especially when that person seems to be advocating the Israeli line towards the matter at hand.
This is NOTHING like the Dreyfus affair. For you to even try to bring it to that level is again you trying to reduce any criticism of Israel and Israeli lobbying down to “antisemitism.”
Of course the Dreyfus analogy doesn’t work, but when did that ever stop a troll on the make.
In other news, something more to add to the long list of Zionist crimes:
IOF soldiers force Palestinian child to drink sewage water
link to palestine-info.co.uk
Something for fascists like Dick to drain down the memory hole.
James beat me to it–I was about to say that unless he was a time traveler, my impression was that Dreyfus was a patriotic French citizen and not an Israeli national, someone framed by antisemites because he was Jewish. Kass is someone who was an Israeli citizen who reached the rank of major in her former country’s military. Is it common for people who reach that sort of rank in another country to receive security clearance here?
Her views also seem a bit nutty. This from Girardi’s earlier link–
“In a speech at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho on July 9, 2007, she said radical Muslims hate the western world because Europe took their dominant political position away and they want it back. To support her claim she produced a map taken from an obscure Jihadi website showing the entire world depicted as the “United States of Islam,” in which everyone will have to follow Sharia Muslim law. Kass likes to use the map as a prop in many of her public appearances. In her speech she explained that Muslims hate western culture and want to dominate the world, adding that because radical Islam has a “culture of death” all those who do not submit to Islam must die, an assertion so absurd that one suspects her political analysis derives from the Free Republic website. She also compared all Americans to sheep and sheepdogs. “
Looks like Dick Witty reflexively supported this Zio-Nutcase like all the other Zionist village idiots.
Zalmay Kalilzad, Former US Amb to UN, to Iraq & Afghanistan, was on C Span Wash Journ yesterday and articulated basically the same “mind set” (a phrase used that Dimitri Simes uses to refer to the way neoconservatives think) as Kass expresses. It is the Bernard Lewis thesis: Muslims long for their long-ago glory and seek to once again “dominate the entire world.” Kalilzad focuses this mind set in Iranian leaders.
link to c-span.org
As is true of the best propaganda, Kalilzad’s thesis has a kernel of truth at its center — Khomeini did view Islam as a unifying force for all nations in the Middle East whose post-Ottoman nationalist ambitions and hopes were being thwarted by western imperial ambitions and the zionist project in the Levant.
As is also true of the best propaganda, it relies on the ignorance of the audience, as does Kalilzad’s formulation of the “clash of civilizations” concept he pronounced. There were several strands of Islam operative in the Mediterranean world of the Middle Ages/time of Turkish Muslim commercial dominance and also the era of Jewry’s Golden Age, in partnership with Muslims in Andalusia. Kalilzad chooses to emphasize only one aspect of the flowering of Islam in the Middle Ages; he shares with Kass a fundamental dishonesty for the purpose of inciting hatred.
If for no other reason, Kass is inappropriate for the post she holds because someone whose public speeches focus on inciting hatred is working against US interests and outside of the American value system.
The Dreyfus analogy is not perfect but it is very relevant. If Dr. Kass were British and American, Giraldi probably and Phil for sure would not have bothered with this and would not have had a problem with this issue. It is the fact that she is Israeli also that really irks you, and that is why the Dreyfus analogy is the correct one to bring up. It is the irrational hatred of Israel that is making you pursue this subject.
There is absolutely no proof Kass did anything wrong. Just vile innuendo based on prejudice: An Israeli woman has succeeded in the US defense forces so there must be foul play involved.
Donald, “Is it common for people who reach that sort of rank in another country to receive security clearance here?”
According to Colonel Pat Lang, it is unheard of.
“If Dr. Kass were British and American, Giraldi probably and Phil for sure would not have bothered with this and would not have had a problem with this issue. It is the fact that she is Israeli also that really irks you, and that is why the Dreyfus analogy is the correct one to bring up. It is the irrational hatred of Israel that is making you pursue this subject.”
Actually, I think the US in the past has been leery of sharing too much intelligence with the British because of the commie spy thing, but I’m no expert on the history of intelligence, so my memory might be garbled. I brought up the Cuban exile analogy because I think our foreign policy could conceivably have been effected in a bad way by having rightwing Cubans tied too closely with our intelligence services–maybe someone more familiar with the background to the Bay of Pigs and the US terror campaign against Cuba could either verify or refute me on this. And some say Iraqi exiles are partly responsible for the impression some Americans had that the American troops would be greeted with candy and flowers. It’s just not a good idea for one’s own intelligence services to be tied too closely with those of another country. There are all sorts of conflicts even when the two countries are allied.
Though again, I view this with a bit of detachment, since I don’t much trust the national security apparatus of any country, mine included.
Daana, I agree with your sentiments wholeheartedly.
It’s one thing to be a dual Israeli/US citizen and quite another to serve in key positions while retaining that dual citizenship.
Incidentally, several former Israeli army officers currently hold ministerial positions in the government of Georgia, the same Georgia that is considered a gateway to an attack on Iran.
The same Georgia that they maneuvered into an attack on Russia, whereupon they instantly fled home to Israel
Avi, good reminder about Georgia – may be part of a similar MO, maybe not. Still, when it comes to Georgia, there is no reason to even hide the tracks.
Is it true that the Air Force had Corporal Jeffrey Goldberg vouch for her loyalty?
I heard it was Sandy Koufax.
and Jerry Seinfeld
Yonira and eee, you overlooked Jonathan Pollard, who, unlike Goldberg, never served in the IDF.
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Its a sickening original article, and a sickening posting by Phil.
Bit close to home, huh?
That represents the worst, the fascist applications, of the Walt/Mearsheimer thesis, the David Duke application, but from the pen of Phil Weiss.
Witty, exactly what does the all-purpose “fascist” epithet stand for in your universe?
It’s code word for anti-Semite, of course. Why else do you think he’s using it to staple David Duke’s name to me and Mr. Weiss? The unfortunate case of Judge Goldstone has demonstrated that the anti-Semite label isn’t just for goyim anymore.
“That represents the worst, the fascist applications, of the Walt/Mearsheimer thesis, the David Duke application, but from the pen of Phil Weiss. ”
You’ve already said that twice now Witty, but have yet to explain how and why.
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Philip Giraldi updated his article this morning, which I see Dickerson gave a link to above. The substance of his update is important reading. The salient paragraphs are below, which I am going to quote in full because this is the end of the thread. Note the recent meeting with Petraeus, Mullen, and Kass, and how Petraeus IGNORED Kass’ protestations. Interesting.
Isn’t Dov Zakheim among the top dogs at Booz Allen?
He still sits on a committee overseeing regulation of Defense Department contract-granting processes. Talk about foxes and henhouses. When Zakheim was at Pentagon it bled treasure and fighter jets, and somehow, that pool of blood puddled in Israel.
This has to be seen as a shout-out to Mullen that he has a snake-in-the-grass who was not properly vetted. Military intelligence is scurrying today to get to the bottom of this.
Petraeus took part in a ‘conversation’ at Wilson Center a few days ago. His statements there do not provide a lot of reasons to believe he is anything but fully involved in the Israel first agenda.
link to al.com
I heard the discussion on C Span radio; I don’t think it’s archived at C Span. Petraeus was introduced by Lee Hamilton, (I think) although the introduction should more appropriately be called a canonization.
MRW, good that you (and Dickerson) posted the update. Here’s the interesting question I have:
In the process of getting a security clearance, people who work or worked with a candidate get interviewed – along with personal friends and acquaintances. One such person apparently had reservations about Kass’ eligibility for high clearance level. I wonder how many others voiced the same doubts. If enough such doubts are raised (and one negative review is not enough to sink a nomination, for obvious reasons), the clearance process is bounced to a higher level of scrutiny. That’s just normal procedure.
It appears that somewhere along the line, the process of vetting was interfered with or overiden, possibly through high up defense connections (eg Booz Allen) and/or political interjection. Since kass’ elevation was done during Bush’s tenure, it’s not hard to imagine whether or who might weigh in. But it is highly disturbing that the clearance process appears to have been corrupted somewhere.
I am sure that happens in other cases as well. But this particular case should raise alarm bells all over the place, given access to highly sensitive information.
Somewhere in the recent past, I have seen references to the likelihood of there being one or more israeli moles in high places in the security establishment. Kass’ connections are, at least hard to hide, which makes me wonder whether she is a decoy.
And there I was, accusing others of fertile imagination. E$xcept mine has a tendency of hitting a few right at the goal lines a bit more often than is comfortable.
Danaa, I’m viewing these two articles by Giraldi as highly significant. He’s alerting the Joint Chiefs to something that they might not know. After all, Admiral Mullen came up through the Navy, not the Air Force; why would he have any reason to doubt that Kass wasn’t vetted sufficiently. She was in charge at the Louisiana air force base when those nukes were found bound for the ME underneath a B? bomber while still on the tarmac, and a lowly base technician called the Stars & Stripes to alert them. The Air Force, if you recall, shut down the entire force for a day to find out how they managed to slip out of the Minot ND inventory unnoticed. There is still one nuke missing, but the AF isn’t talking about what it discovered. Kass bounced out of there into her current job.
And you’re right about your goal lines. You tend to sidle up when no one is looking and say touchdown.
Huh. That’s… interesting. And, you know, scary as hell.
The test run from Barksdale Air Force Base, called Rex Redux, was to check out the feasibility of of a pre-emptive nuclear attack against Iran. Moving the nukes from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale in Louisiana required high level decision makers in the Air Force. Kass was in the chain of command but I don’t know that she was in charge at Barksdale, but she could just have easily commanded the operation from Virginia where she may have been based at the time.
Remember that it was early discovered to be a lie that an “accident” caused nuclear missiles to be flown from Minot, North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. No one would lay claim to making the order to do so. Kass seems to have had the authority to do so and certainly the temerity. And she is still doing her work.
A serious lunatic with nukes, not nutty Bin Laden but a nutty Israeli Jew armed to the teeth thanks to the US Air Force.
For starters go to:
link to en.wikipedia.org
link to rumormillnews.com
On August 24, 2007, three B-52s operating from Barksdale flew a training exercise called REX REDUX, officially billed as a commemoration of a 1938 B-17 flight directed at the Italian luxury liner SS Rex. The exercise, personally ordered by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley, was actually testing an Israeli-developed imaging and targeting pod called LITENING II on a U.S. Navy contracted merchant vessel, the USNS Bobo, in the Atlantic east of Bermuda and several targets of opportunity along the planes’ flight paths through the southern United States.
REX REDUX also involved assets of the Air Force’s embryonic Cyber Command in Washington and Barksdale.
Four days later, on August 30, a Barksdale-based B-52 flew six nuclear warhead tipped AGM-129 advanced cruise missiles from Minot to Barksdale. The incident was later called a “mistake” by Air Force officials. However, three high-ranking Air Force officers leaked the incident to the Air Force Times.
Les, there was raw intel at the time. I wonder if the wikipedia story isn’t the cover story. The Air Force put everyone on lockdown because of this, an absolute rarity.
eee, I tend to agree with you that some of your contenders on this thread are taking a bit too blunted approach. However, this is just making your position easier despite its deep flaws: No one, not even a born-and-bred U.S. citizen, has any right to a job with the U.S. gov’t. Even less does anyone have a right to a security clearance. And indeed both in logic and the supposedly practiced theory the burden of proof as regards security clearances does *not* rest on the gov’t or someone else showing you don’t deserve one, it rests on you to show that you *do*.
The question therefore is quite properly whether Dr. Kass deserves one. And that of her known past recounted here is certainly and indeed even abundantly legitimate grounds for questioning same. Maybe—hopefully—she did deserve it despite that known past. However, those who say that no, nothing can overcome the risks associated with such a past are not being illegitimate at all; they’re just saying they think the proper bar—the burden being on the earner—ought to be raised, that’s all.
Absolutely entirely legitimate. Still may be in error in terms of wrongly disqualifying some good people, but logic and the theory accepts that you *already* are disqualifying at least *some* good people because that’s the price you gotta pay for a sensible system. All the folks here are saying is that we’d be smart to pay that higher price given the perceived increased benefits.
Can’t say that I disagree too much even: Maybe if I was the one vetting Dr. Kass’ application for a security clearance I could find she merited one. Very possibly even. But I will say that if I was *designing* the system I don’t know that I’d trust anyone *else* to allow her one with her background, and this I think is the key: You don’t construct the system based on trust. After all the entire *nature* of this issue is about *distrust*, isn’t it? So yeah, I could also easily see me saying “Nope, nobody with Dr. Kass’ background gets a clearance, no matter what, period.”
Sin,
My position is not that Dr. Kass deserves a security clearance. My position is that she has gotten it so the onus is on her detractors to prove she is disloyal. Just smearing her name without evidence is quite low. And if you want to criticize her getting security clearance, remember, that is not her doing and she should not be criticized for that.
If the US would put in place a policy whereby to have security clearance you need to be born in the US, I would not have a problem with that. That is legitimate. But to focus just on Israelis is very strange. And that is what the other commentators are doing.
Isn’t this kind of like how Donald Rumsfeld’s proof that Iraq was using chemical/biological weapons on American troops was that he’d ordered our troops to go into battle equipped with biohazard gear?
Either show that her vetting was botched by the DOD or bring some proof that she is disloyal. Otherwise, you are just continuing a completely unjustified smear campaign.
You don’t see the irony, an Israeli fighting viciously to defend the appointment of an Israeli to a highly placed and potentially compromising position in US national security? You honestly think this is helping? Not to mention how hypocritical it is, considering your incessant demands that the United States has no business inserting its influence into Israeli affairs.
eee, disloyalty is not the issue. Dual loyalty is. You are confusing the two, or dont understand the difference, or why it is so important. She is still an Israeli citizen, and still holds an Israeli passport.
Giraldi is already showing that the vetting is botched, if you’ve bothered to read the articles.
all I need to know is that Kass is an Israeli citizen and a former member of the Israeli military. Israelis have proven untrustworthy in the past when in positions of power in US government.
No foreign national should have access to US secrets and power.
I suppose there are other foreign nationals in decision-making positions in US government — US has a very large Hispanic population; as they grow and prosper, Hispanics will assume more positions of influence in federal government.
Is there a difference between the way Hispanics should be vetted and the way Kass rose through the ranks? I don’t know. I also don’t recall ever reading that Hispanics had spied on the US government from their positions of trust, or that they used US tax money and weapons to kill a population that they were colonizing, and that they defied US requests to abide by international sanctions.
Completely agree with you about Hispanics/Latinos, PG.
eee, earlier in this same thread: Has Dr. Kass hidden any of her biography to get her job? No. So you don’t see any hidden things on her bio, so you conclude there is no hidden stuff. Apart from the fallacy (wich should you get fired if you work in intelligence or HR, but makes great comedy), it is your own claim. You yourself constructed it. Why ask someone else to prove or disprove anything about your belief.
Because that’s how a straw man works, eGuard. (Yeah, I know it was rhetorical, but still.)
The US policy for a top security position is that you be a US citizen. When did she become a US citizen? And, as Philip Giraldi noted in his first article, “Kass’s colleague [at the AISI] told the caller [at the Industrial War College] that Kass was an intelligence officer who thought of herself as an Israeli and added that putting her in any position of influence would be a bad idea.”
Giraldi’s articles are not inflammatory. He is asking questions that should have been asked 20 years ago and for which there should be good answers now. His articles point out that someone didn’t ask the questions.
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Were I able to obtain citizenship in an EU country, I would do so in a moment. I also would accept that it would disqualify me from holding policy making positions in the US government that affected Europe and the lucky EU country that would have me. That would be a burden I would just have to bear.
Giraldi:
“And it is also not unreasonable to stop and consider whether Kass might well be an agent working for the Israeli government, which aggressively spies against the United States. She left Israel and began her journey through the US defense department in 1981, when Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard was still active.”
Yes it is very unreasonable. Typical progressive attitude to attempt to crucify someone without a shred of proof.
Really, it is entirely an accusation based on her nation of origin, and likely hiding a prejudice that she is Jewish.
Oh yes, Witty, because Jews are such a discriminated against minority in the United States. Only, what, fourteen, fifteen senators are Jewish? Representing a 2% minority of the population?
Wirtty, I heard she is not very jewish. She came from a secular family so likely she knows didley squat about Judaism.
So it’s not about Judaism. It’s about voicing opinions that would get her hawled into court in several places and be reason to deny her any future clearance.
Now what do you know about her competence in cyber security? from what I read it’s basically the equivalent of Sarah Palin’s. maybe you have better credentials than she does and should apply for that job?
If I were you I’d stop defending the indefensible. We are beginning to wonder why….or, do we?
There is anti-semitism that is directed towards Jews, using “dual loyalty” as its “legitimate” concern.
I can’t imagine anyone regarding that concern as legitimate except for “loyal authentic/native Americans”.
Stop equivocating, Dick.
This person is not being singled out because of religion. I know you want it that way – you’re sick.
You don’t seem able to distinguish between a former major in the Israeli military and someone born and raised in America who is Jewish. Suspicion of the former is not equivalent to suspicion of the latter and anyone who can’t tell the difference is thinking like an antisemite.
Why would he distinguish?
The guy regularly deludes himself.
He looks at facts like a painting.
It is a pattern. He latches onto a talking point and won’t budge. He won’t pay any attention to anyone’s arguments. Why should he? He’s perfect, he knows he’s right, and it’s just a question of repeating his talking points over and over again until people lose their tempers, which just shows how morally superior he is.
I don’t know for a fact that Giraldi is an anti-semite.
I do know that he selected an American citizen, born in Israel, Jewish, to single out.
If it was for her ideas, it would be abusive.
She serves in a staff position. If her employer was not happy with her work, he/she would replace her. If her employer bows to this identity based assessment (after she had been vetted for national security clearance officially), then America will be in another form of decline.
It is a fascistic theme.
He might like good Jews, loyal Jews, Jews that know their place.
“I do know that he selected an American citizen, born in Israel, Jewish, to single out.”
You left out the part about her being a major in the Israeli Air Force. How odd that you would do that, almost as if you don’t want to stray from your talking point. It’s not just that some immigrant came over here and made good–it’s someone who was an officer in the Israeli military who has (according to Girardi anyway) Islamophobic views and who now has a security clearance.
I also don’t quite understand why someone who was a patriotic Israeli who served in the Israeli military would give up her citizenship (if she did give up her citizenship) and then act as an advisor to our military. That’s just odd. I would have thought a patriotic gungho Islamophobic Israeli would be the last person one would expect to give up her Israeli citizenship. And if she didn’t give up her Israeli citizenship, what in the hell is she doing with a security clearance? Can anyone get one? Maybe the folks at Wikileaks should apply. (I rather wish they would.)
Anyone notice how the “liberal Zionist” agrees far, far more often with the neoconservative nutjob, the foul mouthed semi-Jew and the social Darwinist Israeli far, far more often than he agrees with anyone else?
I agree with EEE, Unix, Yonira, and sometimes WJ, on your abusive style.
Good Witty, then we know how little credibility the claim is.
If eee does not think that Dr. Klass’s dual citizenship alone disqualifies her for her current position, perhaps he can enplain why the current Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, a dual citizen, had to give up his U.S. when he accepted his ambassadorship. eee is taking a position his own government would not support in a similar situation in Israel.
Bringing up the fact that Druze, Bedouin, and communities of other “nationals” serve in the Israel Defense Forces is simply a red herring and is immaterial to this discussion. The Israeli government claims that these persons are full and equal citizens of the Jewish and democratic state of Israel. They do not claim a dual citizenship with another state. In this thread, the discussion is about the perceived loyality of a person holding dual citizenship
Sorry, explain not enplain, and U. S. citizen, not U. S.
Charles,
eee did not bring up the fact” that Druze, Bedouin, and communities of other “nationals” serve in the Israel Defense Forces”. Avi did, using a typical and juvenile whataboutery tactic. It is really interesting to see who is after Lani Kass. A veritable who’s who of the ZOG school of thought. Buchanan, Antiwar, Kevin MacDonald, Intifada fans, etc.
Mondowankers, you don’t have to join the neo-nazi fan club to polish your anti-zionist credentials, you know. Would any of you vicious haters have any objection to Ilan Pappe serving in the US military ? He is Israeli and I am sure he reached the rank of major in the IDF too.
The commentariat here reflects the confluence of the brown-green-red alliance that comes together only in opposition to Israel. It is pathetic that Phil joins in. It is also pathetic to see Danaa and Avi piling on. Let’s see how Avi reacts when he is refused a job because he is Israeli -whenever of course he decides to leave his parents basement- I guess Danaa does not have to worry since she is too old to work. Haha.
The US welcomes 1 million immigrants a year. The US is a country of immigrants. Should they all be washing dishes? It is the same shit whenever a Jew, pardon me , a zionist, reaches the high echelons of the US governement.
rachel AKA ruth
AKA “yet another foul-mouthed, shrewish Zionist”
you are owning rachel/ruth.
About the level of sophistication, and capitalization, we’ve come to expect from Zionist intellectualism.
is that why you can’t challenge a word she said?
So what should I challenge first? Whether Avi lives in his parent’s basement or whether Danaa could actually possibly be more of an ancient hag than ruth/rachel? Little miss “Alzheimer’s took my password.”
“Would any of you vicious haters have any objection to Ilan Pappe serving in the US military ? He is Israeli and I am sure he reached the rank of major in the IDF too.”
Did he? I’d be surprised to see him with his criticism of Israeli war crimes come over to America, give up his Israeli citizenship, and then join the US military and participate in our unjust wars. It’d be rather weird and I’d wonder what his motives were. And I bet the people who screen for security clearances would wonder that too. Maybe there’d be some new interesting material at wikileaks, they’d probably be thinking.
I understand people who see themselves as leftwingers and citizens of the world being rather casual about citizenship. I don’t quite get it from someone like Kass, if her views are as Girardi portrays them. Islamophobic and then she comes over here and joins the US military. Did she keep her Israeli citizenship or not? Does she think there’s no daylight between US interests and Israeli interests as someone like her sees them? So yeah, her views are what bother me. I don’t quite see a peacenik like Pappe joining the US military, but if leftist Israeli peaceniks start renouncing their Israeli citizenship and joining the US military in order to change its culture from within, then yeah, more power to them. I bet it’d be hard to do another Iraqi invasion with a US army full of Ilan Pappe types.
I don’t think you can get security clearance w/ dual citizenship.
Gee! Then its a good thing Lani Kass doesn’t have a security clearance!
You’re even slower on the uptake than usual tonight.
I’ve been wondering about that. The dual citizenship thing. Does she have it or not? If she does, that’s a scandal. If not, then it’s not a scandal really–it’s just a person with views I probably despise in a position I’d rather she not be in.
LOL, a person in her position has to have clearance. the radical israel hating left must be proud to have someone like you chaos, a total ignoramus.
I am sure she relinquished it at some point, but i can’t really find out. unfortunate if you google her name and security clearance you get pages and pages of anti-israel, hate site sites :(
Get that people? The military-industrial complex gave Kass security clearance, so obviously Kass, being born and raised in Israel, can’t possibly be a dual citizen.
I mean, the same people told us with absolute conviction that Iraq’s WMDs were an immediate threat to the rest of the world. I guess you were right about that too, yonira!
another conspiracy huh Chaos? do you ever get sick of them?
So now apparently recognition that there were no WMDs to be found in Iraq is a “conspiracy theory.”
are you really this stupid or do you just like playing games? you know exactly what i am talking about you fucking moron.
I have to partially retract what I said before–the dual citizenship issue is important, but Pat Lang (cited in MRW’s post somewhere above) said that they normally don’t give security clearances to former members of intelligence services of other countries. So is she an exception to the usual rule?
Yonira, I don’t even believe you have the faintest clue what you are talking about. Why should I be the one to pick up your slack? Or your slack-jaw?
What intelligence service was she a member of?
So you didn’t bother to read the article at all before posting comments? Who do you think you are? Witty?
The IAF?
That is false. I worked with dual nationals in a facility where everyone was required to have secret-level clearances or higher.
The secret-level clearance is not very high. Even I had it at one time. They just prosecuted a dual Israeli-US citizen who was working under a secret-level clearance doing translations, in fact, in Silver Spring and he’s going to jail. It was ideology not money in his case. The problem is severe and Witty’s arguments are not prevailing, because there is a long and sordid history of abuse. Witty and his pals can object all they like. Their arguments are not prevailing and security clearances are being denied, even to non dual citizens. That’s what a pattern of abuse will get you, eventually. The dual loyalty argument is no longer a so-called blood libel–not when it comes to the national security of the United States.
Dude, Israel is talking about attacking Iran against the direct orders of the United States. Kass should be put on the polygraph today. I doubt she could pass it just based on her answers to past events. She sounds like she gets all torqued up with Islamophobia, which is also no longer acceptable to the US military, as the canning of Graham by the Pentagon richly illustrates. It’s better to get rid of her now than to wait and bust her for espionage. Better for her, better for us and better for Israel.
We just can’t be too careful in light of the fact that Israel is trying to figure out how to attack Iran against the policy and command of the United States.
This is kinda fun. I wonder what sort of hater I am if I daydream about a US military full of Jerry Habers, Ilan Pappes, and maybe an Avi Shlaim or two. I like the idea, frankly. They’re getting kind of old, though. Have to ease them into the rigors of bootcamp rather gradually, I’m sure.
Can you imagine?! A military that refuses to fire on Muslim (and possibly Christian) children! What a novelty.
Normally, I avoid responding to commenters like yourself, but since you’re new here, I’ll explain the reference above.
First and foremost, is the question of loyalty. eee seems to think that it’s outrageous that a foreign national’s loyalty is questioned. The accusation, as always, is along the lines of “You people hate Israel”.
This is where my point above comes in, if it is so outrageous to question the loyalty of a foreign national, then isn’t doubly outrageous to question the loyalty of natural born citizens, which the Palestinians in Israel are?
I’m not surprised you’re not willing to hear criticism of Israel. You can love your dove and protect it all you want, but for someone who’s not a natural born citizen of Israel to pretend as though Israel is perfect is quite the stretch. Feel free to view this criticism as juvenile, as well. I honestly don’t care.
Pappe gave up his Israeli citizenship openly when he moved to the UK. Lots of foreigners serve in the US military, though as grunts, with the promise of citizenship. An American Zionist who has not yet made their Aliyah is obliged to be an Israeli agent, right?
Chaos,
Go play with Avi and Cliff. It is against the law to fraternize with underage kids. I don’t do pedophilia.
Anyone else shocked that the Zionist witch goes straight for the anti-gay epithet?
Or that she can’t tell the Reply button from a hole in the ground?
so all gays are pedophiles? nice to know Chaos. I wonder what the gay community would think of your attitudes towards them…..
Yeah, yonira, that comment really works after you posted this.
you said it Chaos, she didn’t say anything about gays, but pedophiles. you automatically put the two together…… you hear pedophilia and automatically think someone is saying something anti-gay…. ur the one w/ the issues dude.
You know, everyone can read the comment I linked to that you made against me.
and they can also read that you equate pedophilia with homosexuality. you only solidify the validity of my comment chaos.
dude ur catholic, i think the church is calling your name.
Gee, nice one. I suppose it wouldn’t be a full trifecta of Zionist and/or booze fueled homophobia without the priest scandal reference.
you fit the mold.
Spoken like a true bigot.
Donald,
Do you really think that she has that much power? The power to change the culture from within? Are American generals so dumb that they will engage in wars because she said so? Come, on now. Besides, don’t you think that America has its own well embedded imperialistic and militaristic culture with or without Israel? They don’t need much encouragement to attack a country. Remember how Clinton was attacking Irak to change the subject during the famous blue dress episode? Lani Kass is just some lowly specialist in Russian Studies. I am sure the US governement has many foreign born specialists advising them on a number of issues related to different countries. It is a bit of witch hunt going here. May be she came to America to expand her horizons. Israel is a very tiny place with few avenues for an ambitious person. May be she fell in love and came over here to live. Who knows? Maybe it is not that nefarious.
Re Ilan Pappe. I am sure if he was offered a magnificient job in the US military , he will take it.
Yes, we all remembered how Clinton declared war on “Irak.” It was the chief reason his son George, upon becoming president, decided to best his father by not just invading Iraq but conveniently turning it into a meat grinder for American troops, thereby averting the massive budget surplus crisis that was threatening to destroy the United States.
She’s referring to an episode where Clinton bombed Iraq on some trumped up excuse in 98 or 99–supposedly Saddam was insufficiently cooperative with the weapons inspectors, but I think Scott Ritter later said it was a phony excuse. I doubt it was to distract attention from Monica, as Christopher Hitchens said at the time–I think it was just to do the usual US chest-pounding.
So it’s only okay when right-wing swindlers with Nazi-collaborating fathers (or grandfathers) do it? Are you really sure you want to stare into that abyss by trying to make sense of her posts? It is past her bed time, you know. She gets somewhat more incoherent at this hour.
I’m not sure what you’re saying Chaos–I don’t like Rachel’s views. I’m just pointing out what her historical reference was. And I’m also taking a potshot at Clinton, who was no slouch when it came to war crimes.
Fair enough. Myself, I’ve decided that both parties of the American government are equally culpable when it comes to war crimes at this point.
Yeah, speculation about her motives proves nothing one way or the other. The questions boil down to whether she has dual citizenship and whether the usual procedures for awarding security clearances were followed in her case. Apparently Pat Lang, who should know (he’s a former colonel in Pentagon intelligence) thinks not.
As for her power, I assume they hire advisors for something, or maybe they hire likeminded people who tell them what they want to hear. So assuming for the sake of argument that there was nothing illegal or out of the ordinary in how she got her clearance, I still don’t like her views and would rather there be people with less Islamophobic attitudes giving advice. It’s unfortunate that someone like Rashid Khalidi is radioactive in a political campaign–I’d like to think people like him would be giving advice at the highest levels.
As for embedded militaristic cultures, Israel and the US feed each other’s worst proclivities. During the cold war Israel had some links to some of the most unsavory regimes around, places that had no connection with the Mideast, places like Rios Montt’s Guatemala. The US supported these regimes except when Congress would get squeamish, and I’ve always wondered if there was some secret behind the scenes agreement between sectors of the US government and Israel that Israel would step in when that happened.
What, you mean like how Iran-Contra was facilitated?
Donald, when I say US military, I don’t mean the foot soldiers!
Haber, Schlaim, and Pappe can still serve as experts on the Middle east.
I don’t know the names of all the various depts!
How about a panel made up of Khalidi, Pappe, Abuminah, and Avi Schlaim?
Can you imagine what will happen to the US if it turns peacenik? Total collapse of the economy. Russia will take back Alaska without a shot.
But then again history has shown us what leftists do when they have power.
What, rachel/ruth/granny, because no Jew is supposed to sully themselves by picking up a gun and fighting for any country other than Israel? Well, that explains Rahm Emmanuel, I suppose.
I’m glad you Zionist freaks are just a vocal, domineering, avaricious minority among Jews. I think sooner or later the rest of Judaism is going to throw of its oligarchy and taste true freedom. From fear, from hatred, and from really, really terrible rhetorical skills.
“It is past her bed time, you know.”
For once, the little twerp is right. Buena Noche.
She gets somewhat more incoherent at this hour”
Au contraire, mon cher. Top of my faculties. But a woman needs her beauty sleep.
I wouldn’t recommend it. I wouldn’t wish a coma of that duration on even my worst enemy.
I must admit that was funny, chaotic mind.
” During the cold war Israel had some links to some of the most unsavory regimes around, places that had no connection with the Mideast, places like Rios Montt’s Guatemala.”
Well, I guess with many Islamic countries barred to them for business, Israel had to expand its links. Unfortunately, self interest trumps principles.
“The US supported these regimes except when Congress would get squeamish, and I’ve always wondered if there was some secret behind the scenes agreement between sectors of the US government and Israel that Israel would step in when that happened
There was the Contra affair and all of that. I am sure they supported each others interest. Governements do that!!!
Anyways, interesting conversation but it is getting way too late!!!!
Ciao!
Well doesn’t that just sum up Zionism in a nutshell.
Donald and others have voiced puzzlement as to how can someone have a dual citizenship AND a high level security clearance. In truth, that has gotten quite difficult in the past 10-20 years, and the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals (DOHA) records have quite a few cases where security clearance was denied or revoked on account of having a foreign citizenship, including an Israeli one.
To be on the safe side, here’s what Wikipedia has to say on the subject:
There is even a study (don’t have the link), that shows that since 1996, the year in which the DOHA, which adjudicates security clearance issues, began making its decisions public, there were 47 cases involving Israel and 29 of them were denied clearance. In most cases brought to the appeals board, the government argued that ties of the applicant with Israel, either by dual citizenship, holding an Israeli passport or having close family members in Israel, should serve as a disqualifying factor due to “foreign preference” or “foreign influence.”
As Wikipedia says, one criterion for losing clearance is having a valid foreign passport. However, given that israeli citizenship can be dormant, merely having an old passport in a dusty drawer which has not been used or renewed for years may not serve as enough of a bar, at least for lower level clearance. So it’s all about “intent”. Renewing a foreign passport has been judged by DOHA to show intent to maintain allegiance to the foreign country, and that has been reason enough to deny clearance, all the way through appeals.
As for Dr. Kass’ case, it should be easy enough to check whether she has, in fact, taken steps to renounce her israeli citizenship. This, BTW, can be a protracted procedure which can take years, and costs quite a few dollars, and require lots of documentation, original or notarized. Israel does not seem particularly inclined to let people off the hook so easily, and the entire procedure is more like a divorce than a simple affidavit and a form to fill out (which is the way it is for Canadians for example).
I have reason to believe Leny Kass did not, in fact, go through the process of formally renouncing her citizenship, and though I cannot know for sure, my guess is that she still has a valid israeli passport in her possession (she is welcome to correct me on this, BTW). Therefore, her security clearance should have been revoked (though I am not surprised it was granted 20 years back or so when criteria were more lax). This would be consistent with DOHA’s decisions in the past 10 years. And here we are led back to the question – why does she still have her clearance, and who’s responsible for keeping her at the position she has?
I would therefore call on Lenny Kass to state whether she still has her israeli citizenship and if not, when was it renounced. Without sharing this bit of information, the doubts as to her motivations and loyalties is bound to remain, casting a shadow on any effectiveness she may have.
Trying to put in a response to dalybean’s comment above, but the software won’t let me for some reason. Now, were I the suspicious kind….
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