US to Iran: ‘In Case of Israeli Strike, Please Don’t Fire on Our Bases’

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The United States has no intention of joining in a preemptive Israeli strike on Iran and expects the Islamic Republic to refrain from attacking US targets in the case of such an attack, senior Washington officials told their Iranian counterparts, according to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth on Monday.

In recent days, senior administration officials reportedly sent messages to Iran, through diplomats from two European states, addressing the possibility that Israel would launch a unilateral strike and establishing that the US expects Iran to not draw it into a conflict by firing on American army bases and aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf.

Monday’s report came amid widespread debate over the level of coordination between Israel and the US on halting Iran’s nuclear program, which — despite assurances by US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro on Sunday that the relationship is as good as ever — appeared to be strained.

While Israel has warned that the Iranians are quickly approaching a potential weapons capability and that the use of force must be seriously considered, the US says sanctions and international diplomacy must be given more time to work.

Highlighting the disagreement between the two countries on the use of force were reports of a scaling-down of joint US-Israel missile defense exercises in October, and public comments by the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, who said last Thursday that he did not want to be “complicit” in an Israeli attack on Iran.

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The Strange, Strange Story of ‘Gay Fascism’ Deniers

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There has been an article floating around the Internet for a long time by a self-described “gay left-wing man” named Johann Hari, a columnist for the London Independent. The article is titled “The Strange, Strange Story of the Gay Fascists,” and you can read it for yourself at the vehemently pro-”gay” Huffington Post website. It contains the remarkably forthright admission that homosexuality and fascism have always gone hand in hand. Hari writes:

The twisted truth is that gay men have been at the heart of every major fascist movement that ever was – including the gay-gassing, homocidal Third Reich. With the exception of Jean-Marie Le Pen, all the most high-profile fascists in Europe in the past 30 years have been gay. It’s time to admit something. Fascism isn’t something that happens out there, a nasty habit acquired by the straight boys. It is – in part, at least – a gay thing, and it’s time for non-fascist gay people to wake up and face the marching music.

Now, I have a special interest in this article because I am the co-author, along with Orthodox Jewish researcher Kevin E. Abrams of “The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party,” which makes a nearly identical claim, but one backed with nearly 400 pages of documentation.

What I find most interesting about Hari’s article is that it has garnered virtually no opposition. The few comments on the HuffPo page are mostly benign, and if you do a search on Hari’s name you find not a single suggestion that his article constitutes “Holocaust revisionism” or that he, himself, is a “homophobic bigot.” That’s very strange, because I’ve been called both a revisionist and a bigot for writing “The Pink Swastika.” Indeed, the Southern Poverty Law Center (that legendary beacon of fair-mindedness) has labeled me a “hate group” for writing it (though they refuse to publicly debate me on the issue).

On a recent speaking trip to Oklahoma City, my arrival was featured in the newspaper in a story characterizing me as a “Holocaust revisionist.” This label has been permanently added to the “gay” activist talking points about me, as well as the canard that “the book has been discredited by historians.” It has not.

The Hari article is not the only admission by homosexuals that the Nazi Party was filled with “gays.” At least a fifth of the sources we cited in “The Pink Swastika” were homosexuals.

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Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President Makes First Visit by an Egyptian Leader to Iran in Decades

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Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi arrived in Tehran on Thursday in the first visit by an Egyptian leader to Iran in decades.

The Egyptian president was attending a summit of the Nonaligned Movement, and is supposed to transfer leadership of the 120-nation bloc to Tehran.

Iran’s state TV in a live broadcast showed Morsi being received by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the summit conference hall in Tehran.

Tehran cut diplomatic relations in 1979 because of Egypt’s peace accord with Israel. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran has considered Israel as its arch foe.

Iran’s leadership welcomed the 2011 uprising in Egypt that ultimately brought Morsi, an Islamist, to the presidency.

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Global Food Prices Soaring, Result of Crop Failures in US, Russia, ethanol

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Photo credit: CraneStation

Global food prices have leapt by 10% in the month of July, raising fears of soaring prices for the planet’s poorest, the World Bank has warned.

The bank said that a US heatwave and drought in parts of Eastern Europe were partly to blame for the rising costs.

The price of key grains such as corn, wheat and soybean saw the most dramatic increases, described by the World Bank president as “historic”.

The bank warned countries importing grains will be particularly vulnerable.

From June to July this year, corn and wheat prices each rose by 25% while soybean prices increased by 17%, the World Bank said. Only rice prices decreased – by 4%.

In the United States, the most severe, widespread drought in half a century has wreaked havoc on the corn and soybean crops while in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, wheat crops have been badly damaged.

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The “Supreme Leader of Iran” Praises US Occupy Movement

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Photo credit: indigoprime

The Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – the “supreme leader” of Iran – praised America’s “Occupy Wall Street” movement on Thursday, calling it a reflection of people around the world who are “losing their patience” with the dominance of the United States and Israel in the international community.

“Everybody has become tired of this faulty international structure,” Khamenei said in his inaugural address to the Non-Aligned Summit, a gathering of 120 nations now taking place in Tehran.

“The 99-percent movement of the American people against the centers of wealth and power in America and the widespread protests of the people in Western Europe against the economic policies of their governments show that the people are losing their patience with this situation,” Iran’s Fars news agency quoted him as saying.

(The Occupy movement, born in lower Manhattan one year ago, claims to speak for the “99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent. During the fall of 2011, the Occupy movement was charged with antisemitism after several videos showed protesters denouncing Jews.)

“It is necessary to remedy this irrational situation,” Khamenei said, adding that “firm” bonds between NAM member states “can play an important role” in minimizing U.S.-Israeli influence.

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Once confident China, “rattled” by Europe’s debt crisis; Chinese exports plunge

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Premier Wen Jiabao told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Europe must “strike a balance” between fiscal tightening and measures to promote growth. “Europe’s debt crisis has continued to worsen, giving rise to serious concerns in the international community. Frankly, I am also worried,” he said.

His comments mark a shift in Chinese policy. Beijing has until now backed austerity across Euroland, but the severity of China’s own downturn has begun to rattle policymakers.

Exports of electronic goods to Italy crashed 43pc in July from a year earlier, and sales to Germany fell 11pc. Caixin reported that processing trade to Europe fell 21pc.

The country’s two largest shipping groups COSCO and China Shipping both reported a drastic losses today. The Shanghai composite index of stocks threatened to break below 2000 today, the lowest since the Lehman crisis.

Mr Wen asked for clarification over whether Italy and Spain would adopt “comprehensive rescue measures” needed to unlock the EU bail-out machinery – and open the door to bond purchases by the European Central Bank.

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Allen West: Iran is a Growing Threat in Latin America that cannot be Ignored

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Photo credit: Collin Harvey

As we enter into a campaign season wholeheartedly focused on our economic security, let us not forget our national security.

Right here, under our noses, a strategic alliance is being formed between Iran and Venezuela. More than 150 Iranian diplomats are accredited in Caracas — a disproportionate number by any count — demonstrating the Tehran regime’s unusual involvement in Latin America. Over the past few years, this honeymoon between Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has given birth to increased military involvement between the two countries, a complex financial web to bypass international sanctions against the ayatollahs and an operational infrastructure for carrying out terrorism against the nations of the free world, especially the United States and Israel.

This growing alliance between their respective military establishments allows Iran to extend its strategic coordination deep into the Western Hemisphere, enabling conventional, nuclear and terrorist capabilities well beyond Tehran’s geographic vicinity. It was revealed recently that Venezuela is building military drones for Iran and has supplied Iran with an unknown number of F-16 warplanes for countermeasure training and radar calibration. Also, the top Venezuelan diplomat in Florida, Consul General Livia Acosta, was expelled in January by the State Department because of her well-documented involvement with an Iranian cyberterrorism plot against American nuclear facilities.

The unholy alliance also has enabled Iran to skirt United Nations‘ and other international economic sanctions meant to slow Tehran’s nuclear weapons program. Venezuela has publicly declared its support for Iran’s nuclear aspirations, and an economic and financial web of joint ventures, accounts and agreements makes it easy for Iran to bypass arms embargoes, banking freezes, oil boycotts and other economic steps taken to slow the theocracy’s nuclear policy of proliferation. For instance, Venezuela provides front companies and facilities to Iran’s petrochemical and arms industries, uses its banking system to middle-man oil payments, and extends political support for Tehran in the international arena in order to bypass international sanctions. This Venezuelan support constitutes a vital lifeline, nurturing the ayatollahs’ bomb, and enables Iran’s nuclear program to grow and strengthen.

Yet the Iranian infiltration of Latin America goes beyond Venezuela.

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17 Beheaded in Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan for Attending Wedding Party with Dancing

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Insurgents beheaded 17 civilians in a Taliban-controlled area of southern Afghanistan, apparently because they attended a dance party that flouted the extreme brand of Islam embraced by the militants, officials said Monday.

The killings, in a district where U.S. Marines have battled the Taliban for years, were a reminder of how much power the insurgent group still wields in the south — particularly as international forces draw down and hand areas over to Afghan forces.

The victims were part of a large group that had gathered late Sunday in Helmand province’s Musa Qala district for a celebration involving music and dancing, said district government chief Neyamatullah Khan. He said the Taliban slaughtered them to show their disapproval of the event.

All of the bodies were decapitated but it was not clear if they had been shot first, said provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi.

Information was only trickling out slowly because the area where the killings occurred is largely Taliban controlled, Khan said. The Taliban spokesman for southern Afghanistan could not be reached for comment.

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Egypt Allows Iranian Navy Ship Through Suez After Complaining About US Ships Just Last Year

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Egypt has again allowed an Iranian Navy ship to pass the Suez Canal toward Syria.

A senior official said the Egyptian Navy approved the passage of an Iranian ship loaded with weapons to move from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. The official said Egypt dismissed a request by the United States to stop the Iranian ship at the canal.

“The Egyptian Navy refused a U.S. request to strike an Iranian ship loaded with weapons that was on its way to Syria through the Suez Canal,” Mohab Mamish, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, said.

Mamish, a former member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, said he was authorized to make all decisions on the canal, a leading earner of revenue for Egypt.

Mamish, whose remarks were also reported by Egypt’s official daily Al Ahram, said the Egyptian military objected to deployment of U.S. Navy ships at the southern entrance of the canal in January 2011. At the time, President Hosni Mubarak faced massive unrest, which led to his ouster by the military 18 days later.

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RT News Reports Russian Intelligence Is Attempting to Influence Mass Audiences through Social Media

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Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has ordered three systems worth about US$1 million that will automatically spread information on the Internet.

The systems were ordered in a three separate tenders and the official client’s name is Military Unit 54939, but Kommersant Daily newspaper, which broke the news, writes that according to its sources this military unit belongs to the Foreign Intelligence Service’s structure.

The first system is called Dispute and is responsible for overall monitoring of the blogosphere and social networks in order to single out the centers where the information is created and the ways by which it is spread among the virtual society. It also looks at factors that affect the popularity of various reports among internet users.

The second system, Monitor-3, will develop the methods of organization and management of a “virtual community of attracted experts” – setting of tasks, control over work and regular reports on chosen issues.

The third, and probably most important, of the systems is Storm-12 – its task is to automatically spread the necessary information through the blogosphere, as well as “information support of operations with pre-prepared scenarios of influence on mass audience in social networks.”

Read more from this story HERE. Please note that the source story is from RT News. RT News originates from Russia and has alleged connections to the Russian government.