Conservatively Speaking

·       Crapper Primed in Massachusetts

·       Doing Good Or Do Gooders

·       Hitler, Stalin, Mao Misunderstood: Oliver Stone

·       Dumbest School Children

·       Would US or China Win World War 3?

As you know, security is being upgraded at the airports all across the country. In fact, today Nipolitano Put Osama bin Laden on the “no-fly” list.

Republican Massachusetts State Sen. Scott Brown could flush Democrat state Attorney General Martha Coakley’s campaign to replace deceased U. S. Senator Ted Kennedy. Everybody “knows” a Republican can’t be elected in Massachusetts – except for Mitt Romney and maybe Mr.  Brown.

 

Every candidate named Brown generates the slogan “If it’s “Brown Flush It Down” and Scott is no exception. But, less than 48-hours before Tuesday’s election it is still uncertain who will have the ignominy of being a guest in the political crapper.

 

A Suffolk University/7 News poll released Thursday night indicated that 50 percent of likely voters backed Brown, compared to 46 percent supporting Coakley. Another 3 percent of people questioned said they back Joseph Kennedy, no relation of Ted Kennedy’s clan a third party candidate running as a libertarian. The poll’s sampling error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

 

Two well-respected nonpartisan national political analysts, Charlie Cook and Stuart Rothenberg, rate the race a tossup.

 

The race is more than just one Senate seat. Coakley would be a reliable 60^th vote in the U. S. Senate breaking any Republican chance to fillibuster Obama’s agenda. Brown on the contrary would happily end Obama’s yearlong reign of political terror and be a warrior talking liberal bills to death.

 

The situation is so serious, close and important Obama elected to miss the NFL Playoff Sunday and fly to Massachusetts to campaign for Democrat Coakley. What if Obama’s descending from the sky can’t pull it off having lost two governor’s mansions – is the big issue.

 

In a potential battle of septuagenarians 73 year old Brooks Firestone Is toying with the idea of running against 70 year old Congresswoman Lois Capps for control of the so-called “Ribbon of Shame” otherwise known as California’s 23^rd District – it runs along  coast sometimes shrinking to 6 inches wide and then looping inland around Democrat voter enclaves. Firestone ran and lost in 1998. Capps has become a supplicant of the controversial and often bizarre Henry Waxman.

 

Many people, 37% of Americans told Rasmussen they are sending cash, want to help those in Haiti recover from the recent earthquake. Do gooders sometimes help  – sometimes they think they are but are not.

The peculiar comment from the Obama White House that this is an opportunity too big to waste was a thoughtless choice of words. But, words that symbolize the hazard and danger of amateurs, the thoughtless and unscrupulous doing more harm than good.

Celebrities are infamous for showing up for photo opportunities and sucking up badly needed resources.  In one case I was personally involved as a Hollywood fop demanded a specific brand of bottled water be provided so she could help. In another tons of outdated and generally worthless blister packed medicines wound up being bulldozed into trenches to clear dock and warehouse space for needed supplies – later it had to be dug up because it was poluting the water supply. Private planes and luxury yachts clog air and sea ports with gawkers’ of all sorts seeking an ego trip to cluck and claim they were there seeing suffering first hand.. Perhaps my favorite was the rush to ship and unload two locomotives to a country without railroads – eventually they were cut up for scrap having deteriorated into uselessness after years of having blocked valuable dock space. .

I recall seeing that the most valued commodity to arrive were sheets of plastic bubble pack while the suffering often threw aside what it wrapped to use it as insulating ground cloths. blanket, and waterproof shelter.

I personally had to restrain a costmetic dentist and his psychologist wife who specialized in self-esteem who flew a private plane into a disaster area and demanded to “help.” Their airplane took up valuable airport space, and actually pushed back an arriving Globemaster carrying a water purification plant. I confess those boobs were goodhearted if wrongheaded.

Add to those legions of politicians and media flacks that roar around trying to look and sound important and the hazard grows.

If you want to help:

1.    contribute to a reputable NGO. By the way look behind some of those charity ratings in-as-much as the leading ones are nothing more than the charity’s opinion of itself and without substance..

2.    Unless specifically requested don’t send things directly, and

3.    for Pete’s sake don’t clog the air and sea ports with a million doses of acne medication,  panty hose or your private plane or boat.

Help. But, use your head.

Canonical (kuh-NON-i-kuhl) adjective:

1. Authorized; recognized.
2. Religion: Relating to canon law.
3. Art: Relating to a particular artist’s works established as authentic and complete.
4. Literature: Relating to a list of literary works permanently established as having highest merit.
5. Math: In simplest or standard form.
6. Music: Relating to a piece of music in which a melody is played by different overlapping voices. Example: Pachelbel’s Canon.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin canon (measuring rod, rule), from Greek kanon (rule).

 

An American director’s upcoming Showtime documentary promises to put mass-murderers ‘in context’. According to liberal Hollywood director Oliver Stone, ‘Stalin, Hitler, Mao and McCarthy have been vilified pretty thoroughly by history’

 

Sometime great American director and often controversial Oliver Stone’s upcoming Showtime documentary miniseries “Secret History of America” promises to put mass-murderers such as Stalin and Hitler “in context.”

 

“Stalin, Hitler, Mao, (US Senator Joseph) McCarthy - these people have been vilified pretty thoroughly by history,” Stone told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s semi-annual press tour in Pasadena.

 

Stone went on saying, “Stalin has a complete other story,” Stone said. “Not to paint him as a hero, but to tell a more factual representation. He fought the German war machine more than any single person. We can’t judge people as only ‘bad’ or ‘good.’

 

“Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it’s been used cheaply. He’s the product of a series of actions. It’s cause and effect … People in America don’t know the connection between World War I and World War II.

 

“I’ve been able to walk in Stalin’s shoes and Hitler’s shoes to understand their point of view. We’re going to educate our minds and liberalize them and broaden them. We want to move beyond opinions … Go into the funding of the Nazi party. How many American corporations were involved, from GM through IBM. Hitler is just a man who could have easily been assassinated.”

 

The controversial director’s 10-part documentary series for Showtime promises to focus on events that “at the time went under-reported, but crucially shaped America’s unique and complex history of the last 60 years.” An airdate has not yet been set.

 

Subjects in “History” include President Harry Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and the origins of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

 

“You cannot approach history unless you have empathy for the person you may hate,” Stone said during the show’s trailer, which promised to put historical villains “in context.”

 

“I don’t want to put out conventional History Channel product where it’s easy to like it,” Stone said.

 

“He’s not saying we’re going to come out with a more positive view of Hitler,” emphasized professor Peter Kuznick, the lead writer on the project. “But we’re going to describe him as a historical phenomenon and not just somebody who appeared out of nowhere.”

 

The politically liberal Stone said that conservative pundits will dislike the show.

 

“Obviously, Rush Limbaugh is not going to like this history and, as usual, we’re going to get those kind of ignorant attacks,” said Stone, who also compared the experience of sympathizing with war criminals to making his “W” movie about former President George W. Bush. “I’m trying to understand somebody I thoroughly despised.”

 

The project will also show lesser-known positive aspects of American history and unsung heroes. Stone eventually hopes to send “Secret History” to schools as a teaching curriculum.

 

“It would be a very different counterweight to what they’re learning,” Stone said. “Nobody is going to force it down anybody’s throat.”

California Governor Schwarzenegger proposes to retrofit redlights in communities throughout the State to trap motorist who run stop lights. Fines range to nearly $300 and the State proposes to keep 85%. Traffic studies have consistently shown that the camera’s have no positive effect on safety. So this is simply a money scam.

Just when you thought America’s school shildren are the Wwrld’s dumbest comes this from the UK.

 

·         One in six children in Britain believe Auschwitz is a World War Two theme park, and

·         one in four think the atom bomb was dropped on Pearl Harbor –

 

a study conducted in the UK among 2,000 schoolchildren showed.

 

The study, published in the Daily Mail last Friday, tested children between the ages of nine and 15 on their knowledge of facts of both world wars, and reveals disturbing ignorance of the kids’ knowledge of the circumstances, the dates, and the people at their center.

 

One of the study’s more disturbing findings is that one in 20 British children believe Adolf Hitler was a German soccer coach, not the leader of the brutal Nazi regime.

 

One in 20 think the Holocaust was a celebration held to mark the end of the war and one in 10 believe the SS refers to author Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven series, not Hitler’s personal bodyguards.

 

One in 12 said The Blitz was a massive clean-up operation in Europe after World War Two.

 

Britain marks its annual Remembrance Day next week, on November 11, but 40% of its schoolchildren are unaware of this, according to the study.

 

When asked to point to the nation’s symbol of Remembrance day – a red poppy – 12% of the children pointed to the McDonald’s gold arches instead.

 

Only half of the children know that the term D-Day refers to the invasion of Normandy – with a quarter of them thinking it means ‘Dooms Day’. A quarter of the children believe a nuclear bomb was dropped on Pearl Harbor which spurred America’s involvement in the war.

 

The study was conducted by war veterans’ charity Erskine in the run-up to Remembrance Day.

 

Major Jim Panton, chief executive of Erskine, said: “Some of the answers to this poll have shocked us”, adding that he believes more emphasis should be placed on educating society on the matter.

 

“Schoolchildren are the future of the country and it is important that we help them to learn about our history,” he added.

 

One encouraging finding was that 70% of the students said they would like to be taught more about the world wars at school.

 

NBC announced that they are putting the NBC peacock on the endangered species list.- Letterman

 

Since the future of our world is likely to be decided by WW3, it may be of interest to predict its outcome.

In 2005, General Chi Haotian of China, its “Minister of National Defense” since 1993 to 2003, revealed in his speeches that in China’s war on the U.S.A., from one-third to two-thirds of Americans would be poisoned or infected biologically by the Chinese, and their homes and property would be transferred over to Chinese settlers, since the Chinese (and not the Germans, as Chi stipulated in his speech) are the superior race and must have everything best in the world.

Anyway, a slave state (China) has this advantage over a free country (the United States): it can reward (enrich!) 100 million or 200 million of its troops and its civilians with what those killed (poisoned and infected) Americans and their ancestors had been acquiring for the past two and a half centuries.

In the United States, an American’s betrayal of his country to China may well be seen to be his use of his freedom. This certainly applies to the U.S. Presidents, whose elections (which have little to do with the appointment of the prime minister in Britain) contradict the knowledge of mental ability, according to which the value of a thought may include its exclusivity: Einstein said that he was understood by seven people in the world. It was only owing to Einstein’s letter to President Roosevelt in 1939 that the Americans got the nuclear bombs before Hitler’s Germany completed its nuclear project.

Einstein emigrated to the U.S.A. because he was a Jew. Suppose he was not a Jew and did not emigrate and Hitler would have “the bomb,” which his Germany began to develop earlier than the United States. But what about the 100-percent American professors? None of them wrote a letter to Roosevelt about both possibility and necessity of developing the nuclear bomb. Einstein did, though officially he was not yet even an immigrant.

Have you ever heard the word “professor” used before the name “Einstein”? To begin with, he was not a professor.

Mental worker and mental work have been evaluated in the free countries in the past centuries as “genius,” “highly important,” or as “mediocre twaddle,” “a pack of insults, to humiliate his opponents.” Today such comments are conspicuously rare in the United States. If a holder of an opinion is a professor (something one can buy Online!) or has another degree, rank, or title, that opinion is accepted at least politely, and if he/she is just an Einstein, his/her opinion is ignored or met with a pack of insults.

The result? My article “What the CIA Knows about Russia?” (worse than nothing!) in the September 1978 issue of the “Commentary” magazine was reprinted or outlined in about 500 periodicals all over the free world. The most powerful free country has no intelligence service! A catastrophy? Yes! But the case was buried by professors and other titled officials in total silence as beneath attention.

In the United States, it is still understood sometimes that scientific, technological, philosophical, political or artistic endeavors have different levels of achievement, and not just one level. Yet the academic and government bureaucracy in the U.S.A. tends to reduce all of its endeavors to one level of mediocrity.

In the post-1949 China, we have been facing a geostrategic paradox. By the standards which had prevailed before the “advanced” Hitler’s Germany was routed by the “backward Russia,” China was classified as “backward,” since it had a vast agricultural population living outside cities. In 1917, the “backward” Russia produced 3.1 million tons of steel, as against 45.8 million of the U.S.A. But in 1989, the figures were 160 million for Russia versus 96 million for the U.S.A. In 2007, China produced 489.2 million tons of steel, while the U.S. output stayed near its 1989 figure. Which one is a “backward” country?

Just a decade ago, China was still considered “backward” because of its huge population. Today it is obvious (not to most academic and government officials in the U.S.A.) that the population of China, which is 1,331 billion, that is, more than four times larger than that of the United States, can be converted by the slave state of China into at least four times more creators and users of the latest weapons than can the United States.

A “slave state” is a mobilized military country, in which every slave is a mobilized military man or woman. The slave state of China has been at war, though that war is internal until it becomes an assuredly victorious limited operation, like conversion of the United States (described by General Chi Haotian) into a Chinese country as part of the Chinese world empire.

On the other hand, a free country enables everyone to be a great thinker as Einstein was. But many Americans would not like to be Einsteins even if they had the ability to. I have not met east or west anyone more dedicated to freedom than those in charge of NewsMax and WorldTribune. But the tremendous mission of rescue of the free world from the slave state of China requires a far greater attention. Hence life in the United States is presented by the rest of the media as an ongoing festival, in which money as well as new goods and services, crimes and sex are the most prominent, while for weeks or months China seems to have never existed.

Few people in the free countries believed that Hitler would launch aggressive wars to become the world dictator until he launched them just as soon as he was able to do so. But to the owners of China, wars should not be started unless there is a certainty that having started them, they will win them. The masters and slaves of China are preparing victorious wars while free Americans enjoy their festival.

In related news Rasmussen finds that 40% of American voters do not think the Space shuttle has been worth the cost while 37% disagree. Such polls have encouraged Obama to further restrict spending on space research throwing open the door for China that’s plan for the weaponization of space is thinly disguised.

Edited from a paper by Lev Navrozov who emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1972. His columns are today read in both English and Russian. To learn more about Mr. Navrozov’s work with the  Center for the Survival of Western Democracies.

Turns out the US is paying Paleu $12 million per Uigher a total of $240 million in “aide.” to take them from Gitmo.

AP reports four Guantanamo Bay detainees, part of a group of Chinese Muslims, have been resettled in luxury in Bermuda with U. S. taxpayers paying the bill.

Abdul Nasser, one of the four detainees who landed in Bermuda early Thursday morning, issued a statement through his lawyers, saying: “Growing up under communism we always dreamed of living in peace and working in free society like this one. Today you have let freedom ring.”

It’s the first time since 2006 that the U.S. has successfully resettled any of Guantanamo’s population of Uighurs (WEE’-gurs), whose fate has been wending through the courts for years. The U.S. government had determined that they weren’t enemy combatants and should be released. But China resisted their release, contending they were part of a Chinese separatist movement, and it had been unclear where they would go free.

The Uighur detainees are from a Chinese region that borders several Central Asian nations, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, where they were captured in 2001. Thirteen other Uighurs remain to be freed from Guantanamo.

The Justice Department on Thursday issued a statement thanking the government of Bermuda for helping resettle four of the detainees. Arrangements are being made for other Uighurs to be sent to the Pacific island nation of Palau.

It is strongly believed that Bermuda’s and Palau’s acceptance of the Uighurs came at a very high price to American taxpayers.

The Uighurs’ lawyers said they will be part of Bermuda’s guest worker program.

“We will consult regularly with the government of Bermuda on the status of these individuals,” said Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd.

One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss negotiations between the two nations, said the four would not be allowed to travel to the United States without prior approval from American authorities.

The departure of the four detainees for Bermuda - a British territory - leaves 234 detainees remaining at Guantanamo, and comes in a busy week at the military base in Cuba including:.

1. On Tuesday morning, authorities brought detainee Ahmed Ghailani to New York to face trial in civilian court for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa. And the president of Palau said his nation will take some Uighurs.

2. At the same time comes news that combatants will and in fact are being read Miranda rights when captured that muist leave them and certainly our troops scratching their heads. The Miranda warning says,”

• You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Do you understand?
• Anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand?
• You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. Do you understand?
• If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. Do you understand?
• If you decide to answer questions now without an attorney present you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney. Do you understand?
• Knowing and understanding your rights as I have explained them to you, are you willing to answer my questions without an attorney present?

No one is explaining what happens if a captive says they do not understand their rights but, it is clear American taxpayers will get the bill for lawyers.

The Uighurs are a unique group among the Guantanamo detainees. A federal judge ordered last year that they be released in the United States, but an appeals court overruled that decision. U.S. officials would not return them to China out of concerns they would be tortured or executed.

Albania accepted five Uighurs from Guantanamo in 2006, but declined to take more. Many nations have said no to receiving the Uighurs, out of concerns that doing so would anger the Chinese government.

Uighurs are from Xinjiang, an isolated region that borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and six Central Asian nations. They say they have been repressed by the Chinese government. China long has said that insurgents are leading an Islamic separatist movement in Xinjiang.

At one point, officials had considered bringing some of the Uighurs to Virginia, but the possibility provoked intense opposition in Congress, and the plan was shelved.

Nobody told the UK that the US would send four Gitmo detainees to Bermuda - its protectorate. The Brits are disquieted by Obama’s arrogance or what some say is something worse. Bermuda’s parliament is unhappy. Now Bermuda’s majority party is saying they will only be there temporarily aftrer becoming citizens they are free to leave including China were they are wanted for capital crimes and could be executed.

  Running on a slogan “Deeds Not Words” R. Creigh Deeds (D), a longtime Virginia legislator from rural Bath County, won a stunning come-from-behind victory in the Democratic primary for Virginia governor overwhelming a pair of better-funded and better-positioned opponents.  Deeds stomped Washington DC insider Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran getting more votes than their combined totals sweeping 11 of its 12 Congressional districts including Moran’s father’s district. Observers say it is a litmus test that shows BIG shift in last 6 months.

Deeds, 51, will face Republican Robert F. McDonnell in a general election battle that amounts to a rematch of the race for attorney general four years ago, which McDonnell barely won after a late surge by Deeds.

Republicans hungry for a victory think they see light at the end of the tunnel will spend millions of dollars in Virginia to try to win back the governor’s mansion as the nation watches. Obama and Virginia Governor Kaine both see Virginia as a litmus test for liberal White House policies. In recent weeks Republicans have taken the lead among voters who trust them more on economic and hence job issues. That surge is part of Obama’s latest campaign to prove his liberal spending agenda is working.

Moran was the early favorite until McAuliffe jumped in pulling him left to support the homosexual agenda, and to oppose off shore oil drilling, for instance and tossing the door open for Deeds who stayed closer to the middle.  McAuliffe and Moran worked aggressively to push back against the surging Deeds by reminding voters of his right-leaning record, which included support for allowing concealed weapons in restaurants that serve alcohol and opposition to a ban on restricting handgun purchases to one a month. Perhaps that devided the liberal vote between them and Deeds squirted out.

Northern Virginia, around Washington DC, is peopled by largely liberal federal workers while the southern and more rural areas are much more conservative. In any case it promises to be a dustup this Fall.

What’s becoming increasingly clear is that Americans are surly about federal borrowing and spending and don’t think Obama’s “stimulaus plan is working. Forty-five percent (45%) of Americans say the rest of the new government spending authorized in the $787-billion economic stimulus plan should now be canceled. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 36% disagree and 20% are not sure.

 According to news reports, only $36 billion of the stimulus plan had been spent as of late May and it is increasingly seens as an bankrupting boondoogle.

During his fast-moving two days stay in the Middle East, crowned by a speech from Cairo to the world’s Muslims on June 4, Obama pursued some practical politicking behind the scenes. His private talks with Saudi King Abdullah and overnight stay in Riyadh June 3 and his conversation with Hosni Mubarak at the presidential Quba palace the next day cemented a new coalition between the US, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

 

This was the first strategic bond ever signed by those three nations as a combined front for combating Islamic radicalism, chiefly al Qaeda and Taliban, and applying the brakes to Iran’s drive for a nuclear weapon. Osama bin Laden was quick to respond by warning Muslims that “alliances with Christians and Jews would turn them into apostates.”

 

For all three allies, it is a major transformation, but most of all for Israel, from whom Obama proposes to minimize America’s strategic ties. This means that the US president and his advisers intend to start cutting down on their military and intelligence discourse with Israel. Instead of conferring with Israel on its military and undercover moves the Middle East and Muslim world, Washington will make Cairo and Riyadh the crux of its regional team, only turning to Jerusalem when unavoidable.

 

Administration leaders have opted for this policy reorientation because they seek to enter into negotiations with Iran unencumbered by Israeli baggage. Close US ties with the Jewish state are also seen as a burden in Obama’s prospective diplomatic engagements with Arab and Muslim governments such as Syria, which he wants to see harnessed to his new Arab line-up. Should Israel suffer or even cease to exists seems of only limited interest to Obama.

 

When he said in his epic speech “America will align its policies with those who seek peace,” he was saying that his hands are free to henceforth pick and choose US allies without being bound by the past.

A 35 year old unemployed mortgage worker from Southern California had the luck of his life this week: he hit the jackpot twice in two days. Sean Sanders won $1,400 from Tuesday night’s California Lottery draw while there, he checked his Mega Millions ticket and found he had won an additional $141,519. Californias tax collectors are reportedly stalking him with a tax bill.

In perhaps the biggest foreign policy shift in six decades and after repeated snubs and waffling by Obama Israel and Russia are holding ” exploratory” talks on weapons exports with the goal of resolving differences and potentially enhancing strategic cooperation.

Officials said the Kremlin has agreed to an Israeli offer to inform the Jewish state of the weapons requests by such countries as Iran, Lebanon and Syria.

“It is very important for us to elaborate a single approach on arms supplies to our regions the Middle East and the Caucasus,” Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.

Lieberman met Kremlin leaders during his visit to Moscow on June 2 in what officials said marked the most serious Israeli effort to improve strategic cooperation with Russia.

Lieberman, a Russian native and fluent in the language, has advocated strong ties with Moscow amid the expected decline in U.S. relations with the Jewish state.

Officials said both Israel and Russia have complained of the arms policies of the other. Israel has cited Russia’s desire to sell weapons and nuclear technology to Iran and Syria, while Moscow has been angered by Israeli military supplies to Georgia. Those supplies have largely been part of a cooperation with the US to keep Georgia in place as a democracy on Russia’s southern border that sits astride it major Caspian gas pipeline going from Eeast to West.

This is bad news for Georgia, presuimably the U. S. and good news for Russia that seems determined to unravel western relations with it. Under the proposed framework, Israel and Russia would consult on any arms sales to rival and hostile states. Officials said Israel severed the flow of weapons to Georgia since the brief war with Russia in August 2008.

In April, officials said, the Kremlin suspended plans to sell at least six MiG-31 fighter-jets to Syria. They said the Russian decision came after numerous requests by Israel and the United States.

During Lieberman’s visit, Israel and Russia agreed to continue cooperation in the realm of space and satellites. Israel has used the Russian Cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan for the launch of dual-use satellites.

“Foreign Minister Liberman and his hosts discussed Israeli-Russian relations and agreed to continue promoting economic ties between the two states and cooperation in the realms of space technology and hi-tech, cultural cooperation, and the international law for the protection of investments,” an Israeli Foreign Ministry statement said on June 3.

Meanwhile, Obama has refused to commit to major weapons deals with or technology transfer to Israel including sale of the F-22 or F-35 stealth fighters. Those warpalnes are believed to be capable of penetrating Iran’s Russian supplied air defense network. .

“The requests are being thoroughly examined for their impact on U.S. national security,” and could take months - in other words “No.”an administration source said.

Israel’s requests were discussed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak during his visit to Washington in early June. On June 4, Barak met Defense Secretary Robert Gates and senior Pentagon officials in a discussion on Iran and U.S. military assistance to Israel.

“Secretary Gates assured Minister Barak that the U.S. is prepared to continue on-going dialogue regarding our security assistance and cooperation with Israel to address common challenges,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

But the sources said Gates did not commit to any Israeli request for advanced U.S. airborne platforms, weapons and other systems. The sources said a key issue was whether these sales would bolster Israel’s capability to threaten Iran amid a U.S. reconciliation effort with the Teheran regime.

Israel, which received $2.4 billion in U.S. aid in 2009, has also sought to purchase at least six AH-64 Apache Longbow attack helicopters for the air force. The sources said the Israeli request has been submitted for an interagency review to determine the Longbow’s impact on any Israeli attack on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Apache was extensively used by the Israel Air Force in the 22-day war with the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip in early 2009. The sources said the administration was dismayed by the use of the helicopters in attacks in which Palestinian civilians were killed.

Barak and Gates discussed the Israeli requests during a private meeting at the Pentagon. “The two defense leaders met in private before joining senior advisers to discuss a range of security issues,” the Pentagon said.

The sources said Barak has also urged the Pentagon to approve an Israeli request to install indigenous electronic warfare systems in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. So far, the United States has insisted that the JSF platform would not be modified for export clients.

The administration was not expected to approve major U.S. arms sales until Israel accepted Obama’s plan to end all Jewish construction in the West Bank, launch talks with Syria and agree to establish a Palestinian state. In mid-June, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was scheduled to address Obama’s demands in what was billed a major speech.

“Right now, it is safe to say that the Palestinian issue has topped our strategic agenda [with Israel],” the source said.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.– Ralph Waldo Emerson

  The Iranian-backed Shi’ite forces are engaged in a military buildup in Iraq and are stockpiling weapons watching the U. S. pullout.  Shi’ite forces financed and sponsored by Iran are accelerating weapons acquisition to prepare for a civil war in Iraq. Shi’ite militias, particularly the Mahdi Army, have concluded that the weapons would be required against Sunni forces financed by Saudi Arabia in a renewed power struggle.

“Right now, everybody is waiting to see whether and how fast the United States withdraws from Iraq,” an official said. “From that point on, the fighting for control begins.”

On June 1, Iraqi police were reported to have captured one of its biggest weapons caches in Shi’ite areas of Iraq. The police seized a cache that contained 50 surface-to-air missiles and 10 improvised explosive devices in the province of Thi Qar.

“The cache was found on Monday morning in the Bherat area of Suqal Shyukh suburb, 30 kilometers south of Nasseriya,” a police statement said. “The cache consisted of 50 air defense missiles and 10 roadside bombs.”

Nasseriya, located 360 kilometers south of Baghdad, has been regarded as an emerging stronghold of the Mahdi Army. Mahdi, headed by Shi’ite cleric Moqtada Sadr, has been challenged by the traditional Shi’ite leadership aligned with other elements in Iran.

Officials said Shi’ite militias have been intensifying the smuggling of weapons from neighboring Iran in 2009 to prepare for the power vaccum expected to result from the U.S. military withdrawal. The U.S. military has been committed to withdrawing from all Iraqi cities by June 30.

In a related report the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran has expanded its operational gas centrifuge fleet to nearly 5,000.

The agency said the increase in the centrifuge fleet has hampered efforts to monitor Iranian nuclear activity. In a report, IAEA said the centrifuges enabled Iran to increase its stockpile by 500 kilograms of enriched uranium in 2009 to reach a total of 1,339 kilograms.

In all, Iran has reported the operation of 4,920 centrifuges, with another 2,132 machines installed and undergoing vacuum tests. The figure marked a 25 percent increase in centrifuges since Obama took office.

The total number of centrifuges at the Natanz uranium enrichment center has reached 7,231. Iran plans to operate 54,000 centrifuges for an industrial nuclear fuel program.

Between Jan. 15 and May 23, 54 kilograms of UF6 was fed into the 10-machine IR-3 cascade, the 10-machine IR-2 cascade and single IR-1, IR-2, IR-2 modified, IR-3 and IR-4 centrifuges at Natanz. The rate of fuel enrichment was said not to have exceeded five percent.

The report said Iran continued to hamper agency inspection efforts. On May 19, IAEA said, Iran did not allow an inspection team to enter Natanz because of a security exercise. Since August 2008, Teheran has also banned inspectors from the IR-40 heavy nuclear reactor at Arak.

In as much as all four major candidates in Iran’s recent presidential election supported continuing its nuclear program it is unlikely anything with change in its pursuit.

Ironically some are saying that Obama’s Cairo speech likely hardened the position of Iran’s ruling Mullahs’ and could even have contributed to what many now see as manipulated results resulting in a “landslide” by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad