Washington Post ombudsman Patrick Pexton has some spine; he writes about Israel’s nuclear arsenal, and marvels at the fact that no one talks about it, no one outs Israel. And why not?
Americans don’t leak about the Israeli nuclear program either….
George Perkovich, director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said there are benign and not-so-benign reasons that U.S. officials are so tight-lipped. The United States and Israel are allies and friends. “Do you ‘out’ your friends?” he asked…
Among the less benign reasons U.S. sources don’t leak is that it can hurt your career. Said Perkovich: “It’s like all things having to do with Israel and the United States. If you want to get ahead, you don’t talk about it; you don’t criticize Israel, you protect Israel. You don’t talk about illegal settlements on the West Bank even though everyone knows they are there.”
Remember Les Gelb explaining why he supported the Iraq War?
My initial support for the war [in Iraq] was symptomatic of unfortunate tendencies within the foreign policy community, namely the disposition and incentives to support wars to retain political and professional credibility.
“Do you ‘out’ your friends?”
If their director admits that they deliberately withhold information about the Israeli nuclear program, and the call the Israeli government their friend, should anyone take the positions of the nuclear policy program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace seriously?
Of course not.
If the think tanks say that the Middle Eastern foreign ministers must not adopt IAEA resolutions on Israel’s nuclear weapons program because it will undermine efforts to establish a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, should anyone believe that’s true?
Of course not. Inside the Washington Beltway these stupid bastards get credit for being tax-exempt educational entities. Everywhere else the people know they churn-out propaganda and ignore them.
exposing the process helps expose the lies
Phil Weiss wrote:
“Remember Les Gelb explaining why he supported the Iraq War?”
No no no, Phil. Not the same thing at all. There were any number of reasons one could give for not supporting that war, remember, other than that it was for Israel’s sake. Especially given that Israel was playing coy saying it *wasn’t* behind it.
Thus Gelb was merely talking about wanting to be a part of the herd of independent minds.
What Pexton is talking about is far far worse and ought to be the reason for great outcry and that is fear: That is, the network of jewish individuals in power in Washington who will positively *hurt* (if they can’t actually end) your Washington career if you speak out on such things as the settlements.
A very very different thing I think; very much like the level of remembering and malice and vengefulness talked about by guys like Paul Findlay.
And a very revealing one too given the sheer numbers who must be involved to have created and sustained that fear. Again like Findlay reported, with practically no secrets from any agency or institution in Washington, from the WH on down, that that the Israelis don’t just happen to know almost immediately after we learn them.
Indeed, quite a breakthrough to have this Pexton guy writing this as he’s surely on the list forever now.
Sort of convenient too: Wonder if this isn’t Obama striking back a little now at Israel: Has put his foot in concrete on no attack for now; has Dempsey saying we don’t even want to be complicit; is getting the predictable crap from the usual Israeli-inspired crowd not to mention Adelson and Yaweh-knows-who-else funding Romney instead of him … and so as with Dempsey’s comment is saying “enough, I’m going to start fighting back”?
Sure is something that’s overdue but still would be welcome, that’s for sure.
Israel isn’t a ‘friend’ and they all know it. It’s Zio Mob headquarters and the US government is the kidnap hostage the US zionist snatched to extract ransom money and anything else they can get anytime they want to.
I am telling you though it won’t last. For it to last you have to imagine that this small mob can ‘forever’ control the US, (and the world) that it can command the US to military or covert war after war, trillions upon trillions, for the ZioIsrael goal of dominating the ME.
Won’t happen, something will blow up along the way.
American
I couldnt agree with you more ..on the zio-mob ID….
I have been saying that for years on other boards…
I have now decided to call them the Borg….from star trek
it is a known fact out side the US that the Borg does
money laundering… blood diamonds…. human trafficking… human organ trafficking… drug running… assassination ….just to name a few
and the best of them all extortion…as in officially $3 billion yrly from the US taxpayer…unofficially I’d say more like $20 to 30 billion…
unfortunately I see not one member of this congress that has the integrity to call this group of what it is…a mob organization…
so dont hold your breadth hoping for change…
@ American
Something did happen, blew up along that way: 9/11
The Zios used it to get us into Iraq, to stay in Afghanistan, and now, they are using it to get Iran. Both Obama and Mitt have locked themselves into it all.
Our top military officer, Gen Dempsey, recently said, not once, but twice, that he didn’t favor an Israeli attack on Iran, and that he wanted to make it clear to everybody that he was not complicit in anyone bombing Iran. So when Condi indirectly, and McCain and Romney much more directly, went on national tv in prime time at Tampa telling us we need to bomb, bomb Iran (and pour even more tax dollars into our Pentagon budget at the expense of our domestic safety nets), did anybody get on the news coverage of the GOP convention and say, “Wait a minute, didn’t General Dempsey just say that what the GOP leaders are advocating is not in the best interest of America? It’s not just Jill Stein and Ron Paul, is it?”
I’m pretty sure I heard Chris Matthews point out how bass-ackwards & tone-deaf the warmongering was, what with the vast majority of Americans sick and tired of endless war, and its obscene costs in “blood and treasure.”
I know he blamed Dan Senor for the foreign policy part of RMoney’s speech, which was dripping with telltale neo-con phlegm (“Obama threw Israel unner da bus!!! Moar warz!!1! Prepare to feel the Wrath of Mitt, Russia & China!!!).
Matthews alternately blurts out shocking truths and utter nonsense. Is it some form of Tourette’s?!
@ tear-stained uzi
Mattthews spit, drooled out Mitt’s foreign policy (throwing Israel under the bus”) was the result of his advisers, whom he called “neocons.” He only stayed on that topic for a few seconds, rushing on to other aspects of Mitt’s speech, and nobody he was chattering with added anything–pretty amazing in light of the stark cartoon hasbara rhetoric Mitt used.
Pexton’s days as ombudsman are numbered, now. That high-pitched whistling noise you hear crescendo-ing in the background is Abe Foxman, et al, collectively inhaling before the inevitable shriek: “ANTI-SSSSSSSSSEMITE!!!
I was thinking the same. Maybe that’s why he penned this before a long weekend.
McCain never saw a war he didn’t like (or want us to get into). I don’t know if Romney wants to fight every war in sight but he sure seems intent on one with Iran. I can’t see how he squares that with repairing our economy, creating jobs and otherwise rebuilding America.
Maybe it’s because I was in the Navy when Israel attacked the USS Liberty but I’ve never understood what it is about Israel that sets so many hearts aflutter. Bill Clinton once said he would grab a gun and “die for Israel.” Steven Spielberg once said the same thing, though he at least had the decency to add he would die for America too.
As for Romney’s claim that Obama threw Israel under the bus, well it’s not remotely true and even if it was, ostensible allies who continually abuse us need to feel the bus tires once in a while.
Sort of related to the issue of careers and Israel.
We probably should be following the FBI story behind the story of the congressmen skinny dipping in Israel.
An Israeli comes to the US on the new congressional law that if a foreigner invest $500,000 in some US business they get a indefinite US visa to live here.
So an Israeli comes to the US under that law and becomes a aide to Mike Grimm’s (R-NY) campaign doing his fundraising.
This Israeli has connections to a big Jewish Rabbi mystic who alternates between NY and Israel and raises money for Grimm from the Rabbi’s followers.
One account says this Israeli was an aid to the Rabbi in Israel before he came to the US on the visa to fund raise among Rabbi’s group for Grimm.
Somewhere along the line the FBI becomes suspicous of something. Grimm, himself was a former FBI with a not so cricket reputation within the agency.
So, it’s discovered that the Israeli lied about the $500,000 he claimed on his visa application and where it came from.
So far in the story it hasn’t been revealed where the Israeli got the money to invest to get the visa, the money has to come from llegal or ‘legitimate’ sources and his claim that it was a loan from family didn’t pan out.
So the Israeli is now arrested by the FBI for immigration fraud.
It is suggested that Grimm was being looked at anyway for trips to Israel with a privately paid for by someone side trip to Cyprus while in Israel and for taking campaign funds from non US ctizens.
Then the Rabbi involved in this claims this Israeli was ‘extorting” him and his organization.
The Rabbi said he had complained to Eric Cantor about it and Cantor reported it to the FBI.
No one has said what the Israeli had on the Rabbi to blackmail him with.
But the Rabbi’s own father- in- law had previously accused the Rabbi of money laundering.
Among the things turned up was Israelis contibuting to Grimm.
So far no action has been taken against Grimm.
The questions would be:
1) Who did give the Israeli the investment money to get the visa?
2) How did the Israeli end up working for political candidate Grimm?
3) What was behind the extortion claim of the Rabbi?
$) If the Israeli got the $500,000 by extorting the Rabbi in Israel why would he use to get the US and then re establishment contact with the Rabbi for the purpose of raising money for Grimm…what was the Israeli to get out that that would equal the $500,000 he might have extorted from the Rabbi?
4) Is this more Israeli inflitration?
5) Just another scam of theives scamming theives?
6) Or both.
7) What’s Grimm’s real position in all this?
Stay tuned for all the intrigue.
link to nytimes.com
Congressional Fund-Raiser Charged With Immigration Fraud
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
Published: August 17, 2012
A former rabbinical aide who may hold the fate of a United States representative in his hands has been arrested on immigration-fraud charges, federal authorities said on Friday.
Yossef Ben Yossef
Ofer Biton has been accused of immigration fraud.
According to a criminal complaint unsealed on Friday, the aide, Ofer Biton, 39, who used to work for Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto of Manhattan, schemed to commit immigration fraud and other illegal acts with other people.
United States Magistrate Judge Steven M. Gold signed a warrant on Monday that led to Mr. Biton’s arrest late in the week.
Mr. Biton, who was arraigned in Brooklyn on Friday and ordered held at the Metropolitan Detention Center without bail, has previously denied any wrongdoing. His lawyer, Jeffrey Udell, declined to comment on Friday.
According to the complaint, Mr. Biton deceived the government in June 2010 about the source of $500,000 that he claimed to have put into a new business that was to make him eligible for a permanent visa.
Immigrants who can document that they have invested significant amounts of capital in the United States and have created jobs for Americans are often eligible for a permanent visa for themselves and their families. But under the rules, the seed money for the business has to have been obtained honestly.
In his papers, Mr. Biton claimed much of the money for his business came from a loan from a family friend.
In challenging that account, the complaint strongly hints that the money was raised through more coercive means, like extortion.
While it was not mentioned in the complaint, Mr. Biton has also emerged as a key figure in the 2009-10 Congressional campaign of Representative Michael G. Grimm, a Republican who represents Staten Island and Brooklyn and is seeking re-election. Though Mr. Biton is barred from raising money for federal election campaigns because he is an illegal immigrant, he is said to have raised much of Mr. Grimm’s campaign money for that race from the rabbi’s followers and left the impression with some of them that he expected help with his visa problems in return if Mr. Grimm was elected.
Top Fundraiser For Rep. Michael Grimm Arrested By FBI
Ryan J. Reilly | August 17, 2012, 9:53PM
Ofer Biton, an Israeli man who traveled around the New York region with Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) to raise money for his 2010 congressional campaign, has been arrested by the FBI.
As first reported by the New York Daily News, Biton has been arrested for lying on immigration documents. The case does not appear to be directly related to his fundraising efforts for the Grimm campaign, which are under FBI investigation
link to haaretz.com
The congressman has acknowledged that Biton was instrumental in helping him make connections with Pinto’s followers. In an earlier interview with the Advance, a newspaper on Staten Island, he said that Biton arranged meetings with Pinto’s followers, many of whom are Israelis, and kept lists of potential donors.
Torossian also donated $5,750 to Grimm, who campaigned, in part, on a pledge to be a strong supporter of Israel. A former member of Pinto’s congregation, Torossian has said that Pinto was the one who first introduced him to Grimm
Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto held a closed meeting with 80 Jewish American businessmen in Bulgaria on Wednesday and asked them to invest $5 billion in the Israeli economy, including $2 billion in the coming year.
The businessmen who met with Pinto included entrepreneur Jay Schottenstein and one of the owners of the Victoria’s Secret women’s wear retailer.
Entertainment website says NBA superstar paid New York rabbi ‘in the neighborhood of six figures’ to guide him spiritually during business meetings on yacht
“In such days of economic opportunities, we must remember that we, the sons of the Jewish people, must preserve the country, built it and ensure that its economic flourishes,” the rabbi told the businessmen.
link to backchannel.al-monitor.com
RE: “George Perkovich, director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said there are benign and not-so-benign reasons that U.S. officials are so tight-lipped. The United States and Israel are allies and friends. ‘Do you ‘out’ your friends?’ he asked. . .” ~ by Patrick Pexton
ALSO SEE: “UNFLIPPINGBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!! Israel to keep nuclear ‘ambiguity’”, by irish, sodahead.com, 5/12/10
SOURCE – link to sodahead.com
* P.S. RE: “Israel is ineligible for any US aid whatsoever, which is why it continues to lie about its nuclear weapons, and the US government . . . continues shelling out the money, even though this is illegal under US law.” ~ by irish (above)
LOUIS BRANDEIS ON ‘BLOWBACK’ – Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis elaborated in Olmstead v. United States (1928):
P.S. ALSO SEE:
• Will Obama Break the Lawfor Israel’s Sake?” ~ by Grant F. Smith, Antiwar.com, 2/11/09
LINK – link to antiwar.com
• Israeli Nukes, US Foreign Aid and the Symington Amendment. – link to irmep.org
• Symington Amendment - link to en.wikipedia.org
Louis Beres, former Princeton poli-scientist and John Chain, former US Strategic Air Command honcho have co-authored an article in which they argue that Israel is looking at a new MAD era of facing off with a nuclear-armed Iran. The MAD paradigm works best w/ bluster. You’re safer to not only put your nukes on display but to list your targets, according to Beres/Chain. And that makes sense. I mean, nobody with a brain is going to go into a deterrence show-down saying “We might have nukes, then again, we might not.”
Summary and links at item #3 here: link to something-stinks.com
If Iran should ever test a nuke, that will likely be the point at which Israel’s nuclear ambiguity becomes a whole lot less ambiguous. Ironically, I think Iran is probably thinking, and right in thinking, that the quickest way to a nuclear-free Middle East is to acquire a bomb, force Israel out of the closet, and then offer tit-for-tat disarmament. God willing, as they say.
Is US trying to wake up?
In Foreign Policy Journal there is this article
US Preparing for a Post-Israel Middle East?
by Franklin Lamb
August 28, 2012–……”It’s a paper entitled “Preparing For A Post Israel Middle East”, an 82-page analysis that concludes that the American national interest in fundamentally at odds with that of Zionist Israel. The authors conclude that Israel is currently the greatest threat to US national interests because its nature and actions prevent normal US relations with Arab and Muslim countries and, to a growing degree, the wider international community.
The study was commissioned by the US Intelligence Community comprising 16 American intelligence agencies”….
link to foreignpolicyjournal.com
Holy wee-wee!! This is dynamite!
Surely the Intelligence Community report is bi-partisan, but it would never have been written if Obama had not been elected. This is, in and of itself, reason to elect him again, in spite of the way Republicans destroyed his first term.
Look at how many times this “look-out-bus-here-comes-Israel report” refers to changes in American sentiments toward Israel. This thing could have been written by Phil or Annie or others here.
You’re having an effect MW. Keep the pressure on.
Denis says:
September 2, 2012 at 12:55 pm
Holy wee-wee!! This is dynamite!
>>>>>>>
Don’t get excited. I’ve looked everywhere without success for some confirmation this is authentic since I first saw it.
.
There may be a report and it even may state some of those conclusions, which I have no doubt is the sentiment in the agencies named, but they won’t be published for the public.
If it actually does exist it would be a great ”leak’….after the election.
And a great leak to hold over Netanyahu’s head. LOL
Cause you know the zio agents embedded in our agencies know about this report if it exist.
Oddly enough there are no hysterics on the zio network about it or denying it or condemning it . I can think of some reasons there aren’t any hysterics.
It doesn’t exist — or– someone on the Romney side suckered Lamb into showing Obama’s adm is anti Israel —or the most favorable to us reason, would be there is a report and it is critical and Lamb was a ‘pinprick leak’ by someone and Israel doesn’t want to draw attention to it by screeching about it.
@American: but they won’t be published for the public.
They don’t have to be, Lamb’s summary is enough to turn the wheel. Give it enough momentum and it goes on its own.
@American: Romney side suckered Lamb into showing Obama’s adm is anti Israel
I like the way you think. Another Dan Rather debacle? Karl Rove? Could be anything. Could be an valid summary of an actual report, which would be a curtain call for Israel’s hegemony.
There is a sense that Bibi has over-played his hand and things are falling apart for Israel as far as the US goes, which means falling apart — period.
For instance, Adelson’s Israeli rag is reporting that the US has sent a message to Tehran that the US will not be involved in any Israeli strike, just in case they didn’t hear Dempsey’s “not complicit” comment.
link to israelnationalnews.com
Obama is worried, and should be worried, about Tehran’s Mach 3, surface-skimming cruise missile. The Enterprise and the Lincoln are in the Persian Gulf. The Stennis, which had just returned to home port not long ago, was suddenly pulled out of a 3-5 year re-fit and is underway. (The Eisenhower is off the Israeli coast.) The next new moon, in about 2 weeks, could be interesting.
In order to cover his own back, Obama has to let the public know that he gave Israel plenty of warning that the US will not “be complicit” in an attack on Iran. When Israel suffers the blow-back of thousands of Hezbollah missiles and whatever Iran can throw at them, Obama has to be able to say: Israel is on its own; we warned them. When the dust settles, having a report from his own intelligence people enumerating all the reasons Israel sucks (or sucked) is going to be awfully helpful.
Likely Bibi will do what Golda did in 1973 and threaten a nuclear holocaust if the US doesn’t back it up. It worked with Nixon; should work again.
Is US trying to wake up?
It’s much more likely that the author of the draft report leaked the information to Franklin Lamb because it wasn’t approved by any of the higher-ups of the 16 intelligence agencies concerned.
We’re familiar enough with Obama by now to know that he would never let something like that see the light of day. He’s competing with Romney to see who can come-off as the biggest supporter of Israel. Don’t forget he just gave them an additional $70 million during Romney’s recent visit to Israel. That’s not the way you try to “wake up” from the past record of lopsided US support for Israel.
Israel needs to get rid of Dempsey, IMO. He’s the tough bird saying what the admin can’t or won’t because of political concerns. Electing Romney would do it. Dempsey has way more effect on the average American than the Prez, because so many families have military members.
EDIT: I agree that someone leaked it to Lamb in Lebanon. Whether it was the author or not, I don’t know. But the paper is not saying anything that Petraeus didn’t say publicly to the Senate in March 2010; the confidential report was enough to “stun” JCOS Chairman Mullen at the time, according to Mark Perry. (See Mark Perry, Foreign Policy mag.)
If you are a young American Jew and want to get ahead here, you join the IDF and most definitely not the US military. Just ask Corporal Jeffrey Goldberg who joined the IDF to become a camp guard for Palestinian prisoners.
If you are a young American Jew and want to get ahead here, you join the IDF and most definitely not the US military. Just ask Corporal Jeffrey Goldberg
I’d rather ask Gen. Norton Schwartz who just stepped down as US Air Force Chief of Staff in a retirement ceremony on August 10th. He got a much better pay and benefits package than Corporal Goldberg;-)
Speaking of the Washington Post, the headline, “What about Israel’s nuclear weapons?” leads to a piece by the paper’s ombudsman.
Patrick B. Pexton
Published: August 31
Readers periodically ask me some variation on this question: “Why does the press follow every jot and tittle of Iran’s nuclear program, but we never see any stories about Israel’s nuclear weapons capability?”
. . .
link to washingtonpost.com
“Among the less benign reasons U.S. sources don’t leak is that it can hurt your career. Said Perkovich: “It’s like all things having to do with Israel and the United States. If you want to get ahead, you don’t talk about it; you don’t criticize Israel, you protect Israel. You don’t talk about illegal settlements on the West Bank even though everyone knows they are there.””
It’s a court thing. It has no natural support in the wider population. It’s a bunch of well connected **** who have effective executive influence. Very murky.
Something is going to expose it. It could be an oil price surge post an Iran attack.
Blind support for Israel is intimately connected with the widening of the GINI coefficient. Neither is sustainable long term.