TM Connect


Use "My TM" for log in & register.

Taylor Marsh has been writing on line since 1996, with the archives provided here a representation of that work.

Tag Archives | WMD

North Korea’s ‘Dear Leader’ is Dead

By on 19 December 2011

The North kept news of the death of its leader secret for roughly two days, perhaps a sign that the leadership was struggling to position itself for what many believe could be a particularly perilous transition. Kim Jong-il’s death came after a long illness, dating to 2008, that American intelligence agencies believed involved some form of a stroke. The North has indicated he was 69 years old, but scholars have said he could have been a year older. – Choe Sang Hun and David Sanger

The tyrant with a fetish for cigars, cognac and extravagant foods is dead. But during his reign he was able to touch off nuclear weapons that put the Korean Peninsula on alert and rattle the cages of the free world.

South Korea put its military on alert.

More from Sang-Hun and Sanger’s report:

Mr. Kim’s death poses a moment of peril for both Washington, the North’s nemesis, and Beijing, its last protector. “We’re entering a period that is especially dangerous,” said Jim Walsh, a professor at M.I.T.’s security studies programs who has met in recent months with several North Korean delegations as part of the behind-the-scenes, unofficial contacts from which the United States has gleaned some understanding of the power plays in Pyongyang. “Here is a young leader who may be distrusted by the military, and he has to prove himself,” he said of Kim Jong-un. “And that can lead to miscalculation and inadvertent war.”

[...] “There are a whole range of scenarios for when Kim dies,” one former American military commander in South Korea said recently, insisting on anonymity because he was discussing classified American response plans. “Anyone who tells you they understand what is going to happen is either lying or deceiving himself.”

The Atlantic’s J.J. Gould posted a link to B.R. Myers’ post on “After Kim Jong Il” that you might find instructive, especially if North Korea isn’t on your reading list, which it isn’t for most Americans.

His son Kim Jong Un is in his late twenties, with the tradition of passing leadership to him not seen by experts as certain. So, what kind of relationships he has or more likely doesn’t have with the military will play a part in whether he rises.

There are also reports that his uncle, Chang Sung-Task, could be the one to take over power, because he’s reportedly stepped into this position after Kim Jong Il’s stroke and further health demise.

But no one really knows what’s next.

Blogs of War has an interesting and sometimes unintentionally amusing Twitter feed section on North and South Korea.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

New York Times: Pakistan Arrests CIA Bin Laden Informants

By on 15 June 2011

With friends like these…

Pakistan’s top military spy agency has arrested some of the Pakistani informants who fed information to the Central Intelligence Agency in the months leading up to the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, according to American officials.

Pakistan’s detention of five C.I.A. informants, including a Pakistani Army major who officials said copied the license plates of cars visiting Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in the weeks before the raid, is the latest evidence of the fractured relationship between the United States and Pakistan. It comes at a time when the Obama administration is seeking Pakistan’s support in brokering an endgame in the war in neighboring Afghanistan. [...]

The Pakistanis are denying it.

But it’s no wonder we couldn’t “find” Osama bin Laden all these years. Our relationship with the Pakistanis has been duplicitous for a long time, with Pakistan’s own leadership threatened by internal challenges, making the entire endeavor to maintain a stable channel of communication a nightmare.

We need a bigger diplomatic stick. Time to do another mangoes for nukes deal with India?

Read full story · Comments { 2 }

Too Late, But Maybe Obama Will Hear Them Now

By on 16 November 2010

That dynamic, coupled with the GOP’s post-midterm swagger, emboldened leaders to insist that the president reschedule Thursday’s much-anticipated meeting until after Thanksgiving to accommodate their schedule, not his. The first post-election meeting between Obama and congressional leaders, billed by Obama as the fundamental first step in the post-election reconciliation process, will now take place Nov. 30th. – Behind postponed summit: GOP distrust of Obama

Pres. Obama’s position continues to deteriorate. The news about the postponed meeting between Obama and Republicans until after Thanksgiving sent an unmistakable signal. But not only is there GOP “swagger,” the reality is Obama has no leverage, because time and again he’s given ground and weakened his own position without any help from Republicans. However, with the Debt Commission, Republicans are seeing Obama send a message that he may also blink on Social Security. So now it’s open season on Obama’s presidency, because they know he’ll deal on anything.

As for Republicans scuttling the New Start treaty, we’re supposed to buy that because Sen. Jon Kyl isn’t satisfied with Pres. Obama’s sweetened extra $4 billion, plus $100 billion more on modernization of the triad of of weaponry, submarines, bombers and missiles, the Republican senator from Texas is going to make sure the New Start treaty lags into the next Congress? Seriously, the White House cannot have really believed it was about anything other than power. They can’t still be that naive.

From the New York Times earlier today:

Mr. Obama had declared ratification of the New Start treaty his “top priority” in foreign affairs for the lame-duck session of Congress that opened this week. But the chances of winning the two-thirds vote required for passage of the treaty appeared to collapse with the announcement by Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate and the party’s point man on the issue, that the Senate should not vote on it this year.

“When Majority Leader Harry Reid asked me if I thought the treaty could be considered in the lame-duck session, I replied I did not think so given the combination of other work Congress must do and the complex and unresolved issues related to Start and modernization,” Mr. Kyl said in a statement. The senator added that he would continue to negotiate with administration officials for a possible vote next year.

A failure to approve the treaty in the departing Senate could undermine Mr. Obama’s broader campaign to curb nuclear weapons and eventually eliminate them. The treaty, which would trim American and Russian strategic arsenals and restore mutual inspections that lapsed last year, was supposed to be the first, and easiest, step in a long-term effort to bring an end to age of nuclear arms. …

The political atmosphere for quite some time has revealed Pres. Obama as losing control over events, with the midterms rendering him at the weakest point of his presidency, which his trip to Asia emphasized. Top that off with Rep. Eric Cantor’s pledge to Israel that the Right’s majority would “serve as a check on the Administration,” which even though it brought out damage control from Cantor’s office over the vociferous reaction to the Republican’s arrogance and overstepping, didn’t make up for what Republicans next moves, now taking aim at Obama on foreign policy.

They are setting the ground work for the only thing they want to accomplish in the next two years: making Pres. Obama a one-term president.

Unfortunately, Barack Obama set this situation up himself. His naivete in dealing with Republicans has been stunning. Telegraphing compromise before each fight on issue after issue, even sending signals that he’s willing to serve up Social Security, as long as it’s a bipartisan commission that recommends it. It’s been the most disastrous leadership flailing imaginable. Now Republicans think they’ve got him where they want him. Right now they do and there’s been absolutely no evidence that Pres. Obama has the political skill to turn the tables.

A good start would be for Obama to pull in the Democrats to tell them to take a vote only on middle class tax cuts. However, right now there’s only one senator weighing in affirmatively, Jeff Merkley, willing to dare Republicans to vote against it.

“Our nation can’t afford failed trickle-down economic policies that favor the wealthiest among us and leave working families behind. I support an up or down vote on middle-class tax cuts and believe that it would be a huge mistake to repeat the Bush giveaways for millionaires and billionaires.“

If Republicans and conservative Dems get their way on Bush tax cuts it will complete the epic collapse of a Democratic majority under Obama’s leadership.

Is there no one in the White House who knows what he or she is doing?

Read full story · Comments { 19 }

Palin Puts Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran Back in the News

By on 23 February 2010

hillaryiran_washingtonnot_jguyer

Sarah Palin has started quite a conversation. Riffing off of a Daniel Pipes column, though it was actually a mis-read of Patrick J. Buchanan’s article at Townhall, Palin on Iran has had its desired outcome. Now, I’ve already written about this, including Dick Cheney’s shot at Sarah, but Palin’s Iran comments have brought a lot of people forward to take her on over the last weeks. Interesting that Fareed Zakaria weighed in on Sarah Palin‘s bomb, bomb, bomb Iran advice for Pres. Obama. No doubt an exciting outcome for Sarah Palin’s foreign policy gurus, which include Randy Scheunemann.

It is important to recognize the magnitude of what people like Palin are advocating. The United States is being asked to launch a military invasion of a state that poses no imminent threat to America, without sanction from any international body and with few governments willing to publicly endorse such an action. Al-Qaeda and its ilk would present it as the third American invasion of a Muslim nation in a decade, proof positive that the United States is engaged in a war of civilizations. Moderate Arab states and Muslim governments everywhere would be on the defensive. And as Washington has surely come to realize, wars unleash forces that cannot be predicted or controlled.

Of course, Mr. Zakaria is far too smart not to know Pres. Obama will not bomb Iran. But the traditional media tribe is restless.

Today, Anne Applebaum invokes Sarah Palin in order to take a walk into the storyland reality of Israel hitting Iran. She’s joined there by Richard Cohen, though he doesn’t invoke Sarah Palin, but instead suggests Obama go down the “Madman Theory” of spooking Ahmadinejad. It’s a Nixonian era insanity not worth quoting, except that all this Washington Post print on Iran was driven by Sarah Palin.

But Zakaria, one of the only people to bluntly ask Michael Oren about Israel’s nuclear capabilities, does use Sarah Palin’s moment on Iran to weigh in on others things of importance. First, Zakaria asks a question: Can we live with a nuclear Iran? As I’ve said many times, it’s not a question of if or whether Iran becomes a nuclear nation, but when. As to Zakaria’s question, he answers it simply: Well, we’re living with a nuclear North Korea (boxed in and contained by its neighbors). And we lived with a nuclear Soviet Union and Communist China. Anne Applebaum takes it to the next step, however indirectly, that boils down to asking: can Israel live with a nuclear Iran?

Then Zakaria takes on something else. Sect. Clinton’s comments that Iran is resembling more and more a “military dictatorship.”

The most significant recent development in Iran has been the displacement of the clerical elite by the Revolutionary Guards, a military organization that is now the center of power. Clinton confirmed this when she warned of an emerging “military dictatorship” there. I’m not sure which is worse for the Iranian people: rule by nasty mullahs or by thuggish soldiers. But we know this: Military regimes are calculating. They act in ways that keep themselves in power. That instinct for self-preservation is what will make a containment strategy work.

It’s a shot across the Administration’s bow, through Sect. Clinton’s cage rattling words, with no proof whatsoever offered that Iran would be any bigger threat to the United States if the Revolutionary Guards had the power. The rest is about Israel.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Jonathan Guyer is Steve Clemons and The Washington Note’s cartoonist.

Read full story · Comments { 17 }

Who Started the Iranian Badge Story?

By on 22 May 2006

(cross-posted at firedoglake)

UPDATE: Amir Taheri has been pressured to release a statement.

Regarding the dress code story it seems that my column was used as the basis for a number of reports that somehow jumped the gun. As far as my article is concerned I stand by it.

The law has been passed by the Islamic Majlis and will now be submitted to the Council of Guardians. A committee has been appointed to work out the modalities of implementation. …

PRESS RELEASE: AMIR TAHERI ADDRESSES QUERIES ABOUT DRESS CODE STORY

This isn't the first investigative piece I've done, because it's something I've enjoyed for years, having done investigative work into the sex trade in all ways, manners and places. But if you haven't been following this story, welcome to the latest Iranian intrigue misinformation push meant to move us closer to a strike against Iran. That's my assessment so far, with more questions popping up and few answers, the further into it I look. So, let's
unwind it. For regular readers, you've seen some of this, but there's even more that's trasnpired today.

After hearing about the story early last Friday, I spoke with Aaron Breitbart, a senior researcher of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who was eager to confirm it, using words like “throwback” to the Nazi era, “very true”
and “very scary,” as well as offering that the dean and founder of
the Center, Rabbi Marvin Hier, had been on the phone for “four hours”
confirming the story. As someone said to me today, it makes you wonder what
the Rabbi was doing on the phone for 4 hours. After all, how long does it take to confirm something so incredibly frightening?

Reporting
that the Simon Weisenthal Center confirmed the story made it around the web
and beyond, as did subsequent
posts and follow
ups. Because when an organization like that confirms something as alarming as the Iranian government passing a law to identify Jews and non-Muslims, it rightly causes four alarm Holocaust revisited hysteria. That was the intention.

After the story was thoroughly debunked,
I put in another call to Breitbart late on Friday, then called back again today. I wanted to get a comment from him about the discrediting of the story and see if I could ascertain why the Simon Wiesenthal Center would unabashedly back such an outrageous falsehood. He still hasn't answered his phone or returned my calls. I was eventually transferred to Avra Shapiro, Director of Public Relations, who said someone would get back to me. They have not.

A conversation earlier today inspired me to look closer at the facsimile, including times and dates. There is not only a cc to Ms. Shapiro, but also a Michele Alkin, the Director of Communications for the Simon Wiesenthal Center. I've forwarded the fax to someone I hope can take it further. We shall see. The names at the top are above the main text, which looks like it has been cut off and was originally sent to the Rabbi Marvin Hier. This is what appears next.

Subject: Taheri on Iran

Rabbi Cooper,

As per our conversation, I'm looking at running this but I have not been able to confirm its veracity. Particularly, I want to make sure that the part saying Jews will have to wear a yellow stripe and Christians a red stripe
is in fact true. Now the law has not yet come into effect, but it
is moving closer to becoming law and I think we need to draw attention
and much of it to this right now.

Any assistance you can give us in confirming this info would be much appreciated.

Best,

jte

The initials refer to John Turley-Ewert of the National Post, which used to
be owned by Conrad Black, but is now controlled by two brothers of the Asper
family that I've been told are actively involved with Israel's Likud party.
The National Post has an editorial policy similar to Brit Hume's at Fox “News.”
They are interchangeable and far leaning to the right. But the above section
I emphasized seems to show that not only is Turley-Ewert asking for confirmation
of the Iranian badge story, but a sort of collaboration on promoting the story.
Someone I spoke to today confirmed that was indeed their assessment, too.

But who got the Simon Wiesenthal Center to stick their necks out on this bogus
Iranian badge story, risking their very reputation and funding credibility,
and who had what to gain by doing so?

Could this story have something to do with Douglas Feith's Office
of Strategic Influence PSYOPS plan to plant false stories in foreign press?
Sure, that was supposed to be shut down, but was it? After all, Canada is foreign
press and once a story gets printed it's all stops out for spreading the propaganda.


''Our inability to seize the initiative in the 'War of Ideas' with Al Qaeda
is perhaps our most significant shortcoming so far in the war against terrorism,''
said the document, dated Sept. 17, 2003. ''We do not fully understand Al Qaeda
and its relationship to supportive communities in the Islamic world, and so
are not yet able to develop an effective strategy for countering its propaganda
in those communities, let alone for winning the information campaign in the
war against terrorism.''

The document said one goal was to establish a ''road map for creating an
effective D.O.D. capability to design and conduct effective strategic influence
and operational and tactical perception-management campaigns.''

Pentagon
and Bogus News: All Is Denied (Times Select, dated 12.5.03)

In the aftermath of the Iraq war, it's important to find out the facts regarding the obvious drumbeat for a strike against Iran. Asking important questions is a good place to start.

Read full story · Comments are closed

More on the Debunked Iranian Badge Story

By on 22 May 2006

Matthew Yglesias, filling in for Josh Marshall, asked a good question this morning: Did somebody hire Benador to push this story?

As I chronicled when the story broke last week, Amir Taheri is associated with Benador Associates, which is filled with neocons that have acted as the propaganda wing of the Bush administration's preemptive war division. It's a flat out pr firm.

As regular readers know, I spoke with Aaron Breitbart of the Simon Wiesenthal Center early on Friday, who confirmed the Iranian badge story as being true. That post of mine blasted across the web and is still going strong. I tried to reach Breitbart again late Friday after it had been thoroughly debunked, to no avail. I left him a message today as well. I also spoke with a woman named Avra who answered the phone in the public relations department at the Center, which is where I was forwarded when Breitbart wasn't available. I explained why I was calling and she took my name and number, saying someone would get back to me. I've not heard back from the Center yet. You want to bet if I will?

Considering the developments since this story started, along with the questions that have arisen out of it, it seems pertinent to now offer another part of the fax I received from Breitbart on Friday, which I've not revealed yet. Offering it now just might advance the story a bit, if only
to yield more questions.

The original fax Breitbart forwarded to me was from “Turley-Ewart, John (National Post)” to a Rabbi Cooper. Here is what it says as an introduction
to the subject that followed, with emphasis added.

Subject: Taheri on Iran

Rabbi Cooper,

As per our conversation, I'm looking at running this but I have not been able to confirm its veracity. Particularly, I want to make sure that the part saying Jews will have to wear a yellow stripe and Christians a red stripe
is in fact true. Now the law has not yet come into effect, but it is moving closer to becoming law and I think we need to draw attention and much of it to this right now.

Any assistance you can give us in confirming this info would be much appreciated.

Best,

jte

I've omitted the email addresses, including cc's, in the text above, but all else is verbatim. What appeared below “jte's” missive to Rabbi Cooper was the entire article by Amir Taheri. I've also tried to reach John Turley-Ewart, but today is Victoria Day in Canada and the National Post is closed.

As Iglesias suggests today, and I obviously agree, it's important to understand the connection between Amir Taheri and Benador, as well as what that connection means to the trumpeting of the Iranian badge story. When you put in the context of Seymour Hersh's article, as well as Steve Soto's Iran piece this weekend, the picture gets even clearer, the intent more ominous.

It's obvious that Turley-Ewart wanted the Simon Wiesenthal Center to confirm and help him push the story forward, which he had an obvious interest in doing personally. That the New York Post ended up trumpeting the story over the weekend, after it was discredited says so much. That Aaron Breitbart confirmed the badge story, without reservation, to me on Friday, seems logical to assume he did the same for Turley-Ewart.

So, again, did somebody hire Benador to push this story, and if so,
why? We can all make an educated guess on that one, but it would be nice to actually know the truth.

Read full story · Comments are closed

Has Bush’s Iran War Propaganda Begun?

By on 19 May 2006

UPDATE II: Thanks to Juan Cole, who is an expert on Middle Eastern matters, for linking to this post. It helps people understand that on this side at least, we're after the truth and not just pumping up war propaganda, which seems all the wingnut war-o-sphere is all about (see note below for more).

NOTE: Also see IMPORTANT UPDATE to this story, which includes New York Post links on “Fourth Reich.”

Here we go again?


Bush and the neocons want war in Iran, this is not news. Bush is weak, so war would rouse his base. Got it. So, obviously, the Iranian badge story plays right into their hands. So, we all have to take this story in our stride. Right now, it's my belief that we've got a p.r. campaign going to pump up the volume for war with Iran, because there is plenty of information out there that Bush is already planning to strike Iran. That said, the Iranian badge story could also be true, because the Simon Wiesenthal Center confirmed it to me today. Either that or their lying to anyone asking to aid the cause: a strike against Iran. We'll have to wait and see. But here's the letter they sent to Kofi Annan.

Via Raw Story, we get the following out of Canada, which says the story is
bunk.

But independent reporter Meir Javedanfar, an Israeli Middle East expert who was born and raised in Tehran, says the report is false.
“It's absolutely factually incorrect,” he told The New 940 Montreal.

“Nowhere in the law is there any talk of Jews and Christians having to wear different colours. I've checked it with sources both inside Iran and outside.”
“The Iranian people would never stand for it. The Iranian government
wouldn't be stupid enough to do it.”

Iran report of Holocaust-style badges questioned

Sounds firm to me.

As I said, I spoke with Aaron Breitbart right before noon, a senior researcher for the Simon Weisenthal Center. Aaron said the story shooting across the web about Iranian badges is “absolutely true.” According to Aaron, Rabbi Hier has been on the phone for over four hours confirming the story, which they have now done. They consider this new Iranian law a “throwback” to
the bad old days of Hitler, which is an understandable reaction, given what they do at the Center. In confirming the story, Aaron said it's “very true” and “very scary.” He went further to say that Rabbi Hier has talked to experts in Iran who've confirmed his worst fears. No names were provided. Aaron also offered that “Iranian diplomats” who have been contacted about the story refuse to answer any questions at all. Obviously that's very vague and nothing further was given, so I have no way of helping you decipher if this is worth anything at all. However, Aaron said something else: “It's on Drudge.”

Stop everything.

I just received a fax from Aaron, which contained the original article that
was written by Iranian author and journalist Amir Taheri. It's a fax also asking a Rabbi Cooper for some information on the Iranian law, which has not gone into effect yet, but is definitely headed in that direction, according to them. Now let's talk about Amir Taheri for just a second. It didn't take long to find out he's part of Benador Associates. Guess who's also part of Benador? Charles Krauthammer and many other neocons.

Are you getting that feeling yet?

It's obvious from my conversation with Aaron Breitbart that the Simon Weisenthal Center takes this seriously. That's their business.

But you simply cannot come to this story without a sense of the politics involved either, to do so would be mingling naiveté with rank stupidity. So, I remind everyone of what you're likely aware: Iran and Israel are enemies; the U.S. and Israel are allied; plus the fact that Ahmadinejad and George W. Bush have opposing interests and similar solutions: war.

If you mix in this a very toxic political situation at home, with Bush on the ropes, you've got to wonder who's being played, or if war propaganda has just been started in earnest. I'll give you two guesses. But trust your first instincts on this, which will likely lead you back to Iraq.

Read full story · Comments are closed