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$16.50
by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge $18.45
$22
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 Mark Rain (CC-BY)
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The Iranian president has offered to negotiate personally with the United States over his country’s nuclear program—with one proviso.
Posted on Feb 10, 2013
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 AP/John Beale
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The NCAA, college football’s governing body, hit Penn State with unprecedented penalties on Monday for not taking action after discovering that former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was molesting young boys.
Posted on Jul 23, 2012
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 bbc.co.uk
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She’s attracted international attention to her cause, and now she’s bringing change to her native Burma, as pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi led her political party, the National League for Democracy, to claim 40 of 45 parliamentary seats up for the vote in last weekend’s by-elections.
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 AP / Hasan Sarbakhshian
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On Friday, President Obama prepared to put the squeeze on Iran’s international oil business as an oblique, but not ambiguous, means of pressuring Tehran about its nuclear program by laying the groundwork for more sanctions.
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 AP / Local Coordination Committees in Syria
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As the crisis in Syria reached new levels of urgency Friday, the United Nations Security Council met to work up a resolution pressuring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. The U.N. group faced a formidable challenge, however, from a prominent and permanent member, according to the BBC.
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 undergroundbastard (CC-BY)
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By Pepe Escobar, TomDispatch —
Once upon a time, the “red line” for Washington on Iran was the “enrichment” of uranium. Now, it’s an actual nuclear weapon that could be brandished. But what if the red line is really the petrodollar line?
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 bbc.co.uk
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Iran is evidently not the safest of places to be a nuclear scientist, as another from among their ranks, 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, was killed Wednesday in Tehran by what the city’s deputy governor characterized as both a magnetic car bomb and the work of Zionist operatives.
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 U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. Michael Holzworth
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By Barry Lando — Better to let Iraq blow itself apart than inflict the kind of policies that have, as most commentators refuse to acknowledge, plagued the country’s entire, sorry history.
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 Wikimedia Commons / U.S. House of Representatives
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As the year draws to a close, the U.S. government risks repeating the costly mistakes of the recent past by ratcheting up tensions with Iran, emphasizing risky sanctions over diplomatic negotiations and making fact-challenged claims about Iran’s nuclear program. Good thing Rep. Dennis Kucinich is on Capitol Hill to call Congress on its deadly war addiction.
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 bbc.co.uk
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The Union Jack burned outside the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday as angry Iranian protesters charged the compound, smashed windows and demonstrated their displeasure with the British government’s newly imposed sanctions in reaction to Iran’s purported plans to develop nuclear weapons.
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 Flickr / World Economic Forum (CC-BY-SA)
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Turkey added fuel to its smoldering relationship with Israel on Tuesday when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that his nation would impose additional sanctions against its once-close ally.
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 Flickr / infomatique (CC-BY-SA)
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The European Union announced Saturday that it is banning purchases of Syrian oil, a first for Europe, which had thus far avoided targeting Syrian industry as a method to stem the government violence there. (more)
Posted on Sep 3, 2011
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In this speech from the White House on Friday, President Obama laid out what Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi must do in order to avoid “consequences,” thus far in the form of a no-fly zone, from the international community. Obama also spelled out what the U.S. would not ...
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 Wikimedia Commons / DefenseImagery.mil
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With calls from abroad, including from the U.S., for him to resign and a situation closely resembling civil war raging within his nation’s borders, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s insistence that his people “love” him might run up against some strong evidence to the contrary.
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 AP / Vahid Salemi
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Like a piece of Swiss cheese, U.S. sanction policy is riddled with holes, according to reports. A former Treasury official claims licenses to trade with blacklisted countries such as Iran have been doled out to the tune of billions of dollars in profits, all at the behest of lobbying groups.
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 AP / Vahid Salemi
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When it comes to registering disapproval for Iran’s nuclear program, certain key members of the international community keep pushing the same button—that would be the one marked sanctions. But is this becoming more of a rote reflex than an effective strategy?
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 AP / Hasan Sarbakhshian
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The Iranian government is apparently of the opinion that sanctions are not “an effective tool,” particularly when those sanctions are imposed against Iran from elsewhere in the world, such as the more stringent ones that the European Union just adopted, for example.
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 AP / Vahid Salemi
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The powers that be in Tehran felt the sting of recently imposed U.N. sanctions Friday when Russia decided to halt the planned sale of air defense missiles to Iran as part of ... (continued)
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 AP / Hasan Sarbakhshian
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Here’s President Barack Obama’s take on the stringent new sanctions the U.N. Security Council voted Wednesday to impose on Iran: They’re “the toughest sanctions ever faced by Iran.” Right, now here’s Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the same topic ... (continued)
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 U.S. Coast Guard / CPO John Kepsimelis
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By Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica —
Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency are considering whether to bar BP from receiving government contracts, a move that would ultimately cost the company billions in revenue and could end its drilling in federally controlled oil fields.
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 AP / Yonhap, Jin Sung-chul
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In a move that predictably provoked the North Korean government, the Pentagon acknowledged that U.S. forces would be conducting naval exercises with their South Korean counterparts as a show of solidarity with Seoul following the sinking of the warship Cheonan in March.
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 AP / Hasan Sarbakhshian
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On Thursday, President Barack Obama made his case for a fourth round of sanctions
against Iran to send a strong message to Tehran about its nuclear program, but some other global powers aren’t on board with that plan just yet—namely, China and Russia.
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 Wikimedia Commons
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The U.S. State Department has defended a proposed deal to sell $6.4 billion in weapons to Taiwan, claiming the exchange would aid “security and stability” between the island and its mainland big brother, China.
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 payvand.com
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President Barack Obama has signaled an escalation in the ongoing nuclear dispute with Iran, warning that punitive measures could come soon after Tehran rejected a proposal to send its enriched uranium to Russia or France for further processing.
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By William Pfaff — John Kenneth Galbraith once warned that U.S. foreign policy suffers from institutional rigidity with a “strong commitment to error.” What better proof than the planned surge in Afghanistan?
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 Flickr / DavidDennis
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The Bush administration continued efforts to resurrect the Cold War this week by demanding that European governments back sanctions against Russia. So far, America’s allies in NATO are showing relative restraint in the face of a transatlantic temper tantrum.
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 AP photo / Ariel Schalit
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Israel and Iran appear to be locked in a dangerous round of ¿Quién es más macho? On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak responded to Iran’s new displays of military prowess—this week’s missile tests—by declaring that Israel is ready for action should Iran push the direct-threat level any higher.
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 Flickr / throwthedamnthing
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Taking a move from the McCain playbook and latching on to the bogeyman that is Iran, Barack Obama responded to Tehran’s long-range weapons tests Wednesday with calls for tougher economic sanctions against the country, whose missiles are now deemed capable of hitting American bases in the region.
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 AP photo / Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi
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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has fought tooth and nail to maintain his position of power during the three months since his authority was threatened by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, widely recognized (but not by Mugabe) as the winner of last March’s election, and now it looks like all that hard work and abject brutality has paid off.
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 Flickr / Sami Keinanen
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As a symbolic gesture, the European Union has lifted sanctions against Cuba. The United States was irked by the decision, which had no practical effect since the sanctions have been suspended for years.
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In this installment of Link TV’s “Mosaic Intelligence Report,” host Jamal Dajani looks closely at the true meaning of President Bush’s pronouncement on the U.S. stance vis-à-vis Iran, that “all options are on the table.” Could it mean he intends to follow U.N. protocol? Well, no—not from the Middle Eastern perspective, at least.
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By Eugene Robinson — Other than providing Fidel Castro with a convenient antagonist to help him whip up nationalist fervor—and thus prolong his rule—the U.S. trade embargo and other sanctions have accomplished precisely nothing.
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 AP photo / Hadi Mizban
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By Patrick Cockburn — Ahmadinejad’s unprecedented trip to Baghdad demonstrates his nation’s influence on its neighbor since the fall of Saddam.
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 payvand.com
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A new report released by American intelligence officials profoundly contradicts President Bush’s claims on the Iran nuclear threat and casts his “World War III” fear-mongering in a dubious light. The National Intelligence Estimate’s declassified assessment, compiled from 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, says Iran actually halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 “in response to international pressure.”
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 AP photo / Vahid Salemi
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The good news, according to the U.N.‘s nuclear agency, is that Iran earlier was forthcoming with information about its nuclear program. The bad news is that Iran is not now offering the same level of transparency, is reportedly still enriching uranium in defiance of the Security Council and may be, according to the BBC, cooperating just enough to avoid additional sanctions. Above, Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili.
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This week’s Mosaic Intelligence Report looks at the U.S.‘s newly imposed sanctions against Iran’s military—the first time, the Link TV report points out, that the U.S. has sought to punish another country’s military this way. Could America’s latest move constitute a prelude to war? Iranian officials have reacted angrily, saying the sanction strategy is “doomed to failure.”
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 bernama.com
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Burma’s top military general has agreed to meet with imprisoned opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, provided she drops her “attitude” and meets other conditions. Meanwhile, the government says it has arrested 2,093 protesters and bystanders (Burmese law prohibits gatherings of five or more), while the BBC puts the figure closer to 10,000.
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By Amy Goodman — The barbarous military regime depends on revenue from the nation’s gas reserves and partners such as Chevron to buy bullets for the guns it points at monks, a detail conveniently ignored by the Bush administration.
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 worldisround.com
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The Iranian parliament has taken the I’m rubber, you’re glue approach to dealing with the U.S., labeling the United States Army and the CIA terrorist organizations, just days after Congress suggested the same designation for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
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 news.bbc.co.uk
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President Bush has weighed in on the massive protests in Burma (Myanmar), saying he will boost sanctions against the country’s abusive military government. Meanwhile, thousands of Buddhist monks have defied government warnings and continue to demonstrate.
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 AP Photo / Keystone, Salvatore Di Nolfi
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If the Bush administration is now in peacenik mode with North Korea, why not more aggressively follow the diplomatic track with Iran? As a result of a startling turnabout by an administration committed to wage war against “rogue nations,” it turns out offers of aid and diplomatic recognition might work wonders in stemming the spread of the nuclear threat.
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Bush administration members and other Capitol Hill denizens are puzzling over how to approach Iran—one currently circulating (so Cold War retro!) keyword is “containment,” says the BBC—and finding the situation to be increasingly perplexing in light of U.S. relationships with Iraq and other Mideast nations.
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The Iranian foreign minister has said 15 Royal Navy sailors and marines detained on Friday could be charged with violating Iran’s territory, although Britain insists the personnel were in Iraqi waters. Iran has also accused the sailors of spying. News of their capture came as the U.N. Security Council toughened sanctions against Iran.
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that his nation is willing to shut down its nuclear enrichment program in order to hold talks, but first the West must do likewise: “We say how is it that your [nuclear fuel] production facilities work 24 hours a day, but you feel threatened by our newly established complex and we need to shut it down for talks?”
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In response to North Korea’s nuclear test last year, the U.S. has banned the export of luxury goods including iPods, jet skis and cognac. That’ll teach ‘em.
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This disturbing documentary by former “60 Minutes” producer Barry Lando chronicles the horror that 13 years of U.S.-backed sanctions wrought on Iraq, including the deaths of hundreds of thousands—many of them children.
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A defiant Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that U.N. sanctions would have no effect on his nation’s nuclear policy or economy: “The [U.N.] resolution was born dead and even if they issue 10 more of such resolutions it will not affect Iran’s economy and policies.”
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 news.bbc.co.uk
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Iran responded defiantly Sunday to U.N. Security Council sanctions by announcing it would press ahead with nuclear enrichment. “Previously we said repeatedly that if the Westerners wanted to exploit the UN Security Council it will not only have no influence but make us more determined to pursue our nuclear goals even faster,” said Iran’s top nuclear negotiator.
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 ticketsofrussia.com
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During a nationally broadcast town hall-style address, Russian President Vladimir Putin pitched a more open stance in dealing with North Korea: “You must never push one of the participants in talks into a corner.”
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