US waves white flag in disastrous ‘war on drugs’

After 40 years, Washington is quietly giving up on a futile battle that has spread corruption and destroyed thousands of lives Read the full story

With a lanky legspan of up to nearly a half foot, a newly discovered spider species is the largest among its family of arachnids in the Middle East.

The spider, now dubbed Cerbalus aravensis, was discovered in the dunes of the Sands of Samar in the southern Arava region in Israel by a team of biologists from the University of Haifa-Oranim. The scientists say C. aravensis is nocturnal and mostly active during the hottest months of the year. Read the full story

Bomb Kills Tehran Professor

Target is seen as a longtime regime insider who veered toward supporting the opposition Read the full story

Dozens of protesters in Sao Paulo demonstrated Thursday against President Shimon Peres’ visit to Brazil and Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“War criminal, go home” the protesters shouted at Peres as he arrived in the city to give speak at a conference of local industrialists. Some of demonstrators held signs equating Peres with Hitler; others waved Lebanese and Palestinian flags.

Earlier Thursday, Peres with the world-renowned Brazilian soccer player Ronaldo, and invited him to visit Israel for a friendly soccer match between Israeli and Palestinain children. Read the full story

By Ori Lewis

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel triggered a fresh rift with Washington over settlement building on Tuesday by approving the building of 900 homes for Jews on West Bank land it occupied in a 1967 war and annexed to its Jerusalem municipality.

The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth said U.S. President Barack Obama’s envoy, George Mitchell, had asked an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at a meeting in London on Monday, to block the proposed construction at the settlement of Gilo.

But a government planning commission approved the addition of 900 housing units at Gilo, where 40,000 Israelis already live.

The Israeli decision drew an unusually sharply worded rebuke from the White House, which said it was “dismayed” and accused Israel of undermining Obama’s efforts to resume peace talks with Palestinians stalled since December. Read the full story

Iran’s Ex-Deputy Minister Reportedly Jailed in Israel

TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian former deputy defense minister who has been missing for nearly three years was abducted by Israeli agents and is now being held in Israel, several Iranian news Web sites reported Sunday.

Ali Reza Asgari, a retired general who served in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, disappeared while on a private trip to Turkey in December 2006. In March of this year, a former German Defense Ministry official said Asgari had defected and was providing considerable information to the West on Iran’s nuclear program.

Iranian officials and Asgari’s family have claimed that he was abducted.

One of Sunday’s Web reports, on a site called Alef, said German and British intelligence services assisted Israeli agents in abducting Asgari and taking him to Israel. The site is close to a conservative Iranian lawmaker.

“On the basis of a two-year investigation carried out by concerned bodies, Asgari was abducted by foreign intelligence services and is being held in a Zionist prison,” the site reported, apparently referring to an Iranian intelligence probe into the matter.

“Asgari was abducted with the cooperation of Mossad as well as German and British intelligence services and was finally taken to Israel,” the news report said.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry refused to comment.

Hans Ruehle, a former chief of the planning staff of the German Defense Ministry, wrote in a Swiss newspaper in March that Asgari told the West that Iran was financing North Korean steps to transform Syria into a nuclear weapons power, leading to an Israeli airstrike that targeted a site in Syria on Sept. 6, 2007.

The U.S. claims the site was a nearly finished nuclear reactor, but Syria denies that and says the facility was an unused military installation.

Ruehle said Asgari, who was instrumental in establishing the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, “changed sides” and provided information to the West on Iran’s own nuclear program.

The U.S. and its European allies, as well as Israel, suspect Iran is intent on using a civilian nuclear program as a cover for developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies that and says it only wants to generate power.

Iranian officials have said Asgari was not linked to Iran’s nuclear program, but Western media reports have said he has cooperated with U.S. intelligence and is considered a “high value” defector.

Asgari, who became involved in the olive business after retirement, arrived in Turkey on a private visit from Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 7, 2006, and disappeared on Dec. 9, according to Iranian officials.

Ziba Ahmadi, one of Asgari’s two wives, claimed at the time that her husband did not defect to Turkey and she believed “some evidence” showed he was abducted.

Reports: Iran ex-deputy minister jailed in Israel

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI (AP) – 6 hours ago

TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian former deputy defense minister who has been missing for nearly three years was abducted by Israeli agents and is now being held in Israel, several Iranian news Web sites reported Sunday.

Ali Reza Asgari, a retired general who served in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, disappeared while on a private trip to Turkey in December 2006. In March of this year, a former German Defense Ministry official said Asgari had defected and was providing considerable information to the West on Iran’s nuclear program.

Iranian officials and Asgari’s family have claimed that he was abducted.

One of Sunday’s Web reports, on a site called Alef, said German and British intelligence services assisted Israeli agents in abducting Asgari and taking him to Israel. The site, http://www.alef.ir, is close to a conservative Iranian lawmaker.

“On the basis of a two-year investigation carried out by concerned bodies, Asgari was abducted by foreign intelligence services and is being held in a Zionist prison,” the site reported, apparently referring to an Iranian intelligence probe into the matter.

“Asgari was abducted with the cooperation of Mossad as well as German and British intelligence services and was finally taken to Israel,” the news report said.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry refused to comment.

Hans Ruehle, a former chief of the planning staff of the German Defense Ministry, wrote in a Swiss newspaper in March that Asgari told the West that Iran was financing North Korean steps to transform Syria into a nuclear weapons power, leading to an Israeli airstrike that targeted a site in Syria on Sept. 6, 2007.

The U.S. claims the site was a nearly finished nuclear reactor, but Syria denies that and says the facility was an unused military installation.

Ruehle said Asgari, who was instrumental in establishing the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, “changed sides” and provided information to the West on Iran’s own nuclear program.

The U.S. and its European allies, as well as Israel, suspect Iran is intent on using a civilian nuclear program as a cover for developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies that and says it only wants to generate power.

Iranian officials have said Asgari was not linked to Iran’s nuclear program, but Western media reports have said he has cooperated with U.S. intelligence and is considered a “high value” defector.

Asgari, who became involved in the olive business after retirement, arrived in Turkey on a private visit from Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 7, 2006, and disappeared on Dec. 9, according to Iranian officials.

Ziba Ahmadi, one of Asgari’s two wives, claimed at the time that her husband did not defect to Turkey and she believed “some evidence” showed he was abducted.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The Video Journalism Movement reports on medical marijuana in Israel.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak told world diplomats on Tuesday that the Goldstone report, which accuses Israel of having committed war crimes in Gaza, is “false, distorted and promotes terror.”

Speaking to the foreign ministers of France, Britian, Spain and Norway, among others, ahead of a United Nations debate on the report scheduled for Thursday, Barak said that adopting the report would give terror organizations around the world an advantage.

“The democratic nations of the world must understand that adopting the report will cripple their ability to deal with terror organizations, and terror in general,” Barak said.

On Wednesday, it emerged that the UN Human Rights Council’s debate over the Goldstone report will also deal with Jerusalem, the Temple Mount riots and the siege of Gaza, according to a resolution the Palestinian Authority and a group of countries intend to submit.

Haaretz has obtained a copy of the document: Click here for the full text of the Palestinian draft resolution.

According to a political source in Jerusalem, the PA’s ambassador to UN institutions in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, told the ambassadors of the countries involved, most of them Arab and Muslim, that the main motivation behind the Palestinian request to discuss the Goldstone report stemmed from “Israeli provocations in Jerusalem.” The Palestinians had originally decided not to have the report discussed.

The Palestinian ambassador said Israel must be shown that it cannot evade international law.

The new draft resolution is entitled “The human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”

The resolution, which Foreign Ministry sources have described as “very extreme,” has three parts: East Jerusalem, the Goldstone report on Operation Cast Lead, and the report by the UN’s human rights commissioner on conditions in the Gaza Strip.

An official at the Foreign Ministry says the draft “will only serve to show how excessive the Palestinian claims really are.”

The deliberations at the council will take place Thursday and Friday, with a vote on the resolution on Monday.

http://www.haaretz.com/

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Friday that Israel must prepare for a protracted struggle against a damning United Nations report on its winter offensive in Gaza, after the UN’s Human Rights Council endorsed the report. Read the full story

The Palestinian Authority would not oppose the prosecution of Hamas militants on war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court, Israel Radio on Saturday quoted the PA’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva as saying. Read the full story

The 47-member UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution on the so-called “Goldstone report”, which accuses both Israel and Hamas militants of war crimes committed during the 22-day Gaza conflict last December and January. The resolution was passed by a vote of 25 in favor. The six countries that voted against it include the United States and several European countries. Read the full story

Exclusive BREAKING information. 14 Art Students, it has now been confirmed, were in the World Trade Center Towers with Construction Passes, Connection to Mossad Spy Ring

Hello everyone, I wrote and directed the film series found here at this website. If you have not yet seen it, it is free on the internet just google this key phrase: Core of Corruption. It should be on Youtube and Google Video. If you wish to support me, you can do so by purchasing merchandise from my store here on this website as well. Read the full story

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Western powers have used full-fledged psychological tactics as a lever to influence nations against their better judgment.

Ahmadinejad said some regimes, including those in Israel, are using propaganda campaigns and psychological tactics as their prime weapon-of-choice against other countries. Read the full story

Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has handed the Kremlin a list of Russian scientists believed by the Israelis to be helping Iran to develop a nuclear warhead. He is said to have delivered the list during a mysterious visit to Moscow.

Netanyahu flew to the Russian capital with Uzi Arad, his national security adviser, last month in a private jet. Read the full story

The corporate media have been given their orders to throw the focus back on to Iran.

Here is a recap of what they are trying to make you forget.

1. Last Spring, Rose Gottemoeller, an assistant secretary of state and Washington’s chief nuclear arms negotiator, asked Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel refused.

2. The United Nations passed a resolution calling on Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to submit to inspections. Israel refused. Read the full story

JERUSALEM: Video of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was handed over to Israeli authorities yesterday in exchange for the release of 20 female Palestinian prisoners.

It was the first image of Sergeant Shalit released by the militant Palestinian nationalist movement Hamas since his capture in June 2006. Read the full story

White House Condemns Iranian Missile Tests

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Shahab-3 medium-range missile during a drill at an undisclosed location, 28 Sep 2009

The White House on Monday condemned Iran’s latest missile tests as “provocative” and called on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to provide inspectors “unfettered access” to its nuclear facilities. Read the full story