Labels

Abubakar Siddique (1) Afganistan (2) Afghan government (1) Afghanistan (9) Africa (3) Al Jazeera English (1) Al Qaeda (1) al-Qaeda (4) Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (1) Alex Jones (1) Ali Asghar Soltanieh (1) Aljazeera (3) American Independent Party (1) Anderson Cooper (1) Arab people (1) Arab World (2) Asia (1) Asian NATO (1) Associated Press (2) Baghdad (1) Bank (1) Barack Obama (6) Ben Ali (1) Ben Wedeman (1) Benghazi (1) Benjamin Netanyahu (1) BlackBerry Messenger (1) Blog (1) Bushehr (1) Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (1) Cairo (6) Catherine Ashton (1) CBS News (1) Central Intelligence Agency (1) CNN (6) Council of Europe (1) Day of Ashura (1) Defenders of Human Rights Center (1) Director of National Intelligence (1) Doha (1) Egypt (14) Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (1) Egyptians (5) Elections in Iraq (1) Enriched uranium (1) Fatah (1) French people (1) Gabrielle Giffords (1) George Wallace (1) Google (1) Government (3) Government of Spain (1) Greek mythology (1) Hamid Karzai (1) Hillary Rodham Clinton (1) History (1) Hosni Mubarak (11) Human rights (1) Human Rights Watch (1) India (1) Indigenous People (1) International Atomic Energy Agency (1) International Security Assistance Force (1) Iran (12) Iranian Revolution (1) Iraq (6) Iraq War (3) Islam (1) Islamabad (2) Islamism (2) Israel (7) James R. Clapper (1) Japan (1) Japanese domestic market (1) Joe Biden (3) Kabul (2) Kabul Bank (1) Kandahar (1) Kings of Brega (1) Kuwait (1) Lahore (1) Law Society (1) Lebenon (1) Libya (1) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2) Mediterranean Sea (1) middle east (14) Military (2) Mitsubishi (1) Mohamed Ghannouchi (1) Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1) Monzer al-Kassar (1) Muammar al-Gaddafi (1) Mubarak (1) Murder (1) Muslim (1) Muslim Brotherhood (2) National Defense University (1) National security (1) New York Times (3) Nicolas Sarkozy (1) Nissan (1) Nissan Motors (1) Noam Chomsky (1) Nobel Peace Prize (1) Non-governmental organization (1) Nuclear (1) Nuclear power (1) Nuclear program of Iran (3) Obama (1) Oil (1) Omar Suleiman (3) Omar Zakhilwal (1) Osama Bin Laden (2) Pakistan (10) Parliament (1) Poker (1) Police (1) Politician (1) President (1) President of Afghanistan (1) President of Egypt (1) Prime Ministers (1) Protest (4) Provisional government (1) Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (1) Saeed Jalili (1) Salam Fayyad (1) Saleh Muhamed al-Mutlaq (1) Saudi Arabia (1) Shia Islam (1) Shirin Ebadi (1) Social Sciences (1) Spain (1) Sport utility vehicle (1) Steve Watson (1) Stuxnet (1) Suez Canal (1) Suicide attack (1) Taliban (6) tea party (1) Tehran (3) Thailand (1) The Guardian (1) The Washington Post (1) Tony Blair (1) Tucson Arizona (1) Tunisia (4) Twitter (1) United Nations (3) United States (22) United States Air Force (2) United States armed forces (2) United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (1) United States Intelligence Community (1) United States Navy SEALs (1) Unmanned aerial vehicle (1) Video camera (1) War Crimes (1) War on Terror (1) White House (3) Wikileaks (1) Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (2)

Video Report from Afghanistan: How the U.S. Counterinsurgency Campaign Is Failing

Bn

At a conference in Portugal over the weekend, NATO countries agreed to hand over responsibility for Afghanistan’s security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014. In his speech, President Obama claimed there has been significant progress in the fight against the Taliban. But reports from the ground in Afghanistan question these upbeat claims about the ongoing NATO operation. Last spring, NATO launched a major operation in the Taliban-held town of Marjah. The offensive was supposed to showcase America’s new counterinsurgency campaign and demonstrate that victory is still possible. Independent filmmaker Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films recently traveled to Marjah and discovered the counterinsurgency campaign in crisis. [includes rush transcript]

CNN.com - WORLD/Middle East

Middle East : a NewsXS service feed

JPost.com - Middle East News

BBC News - Middle East

JPost.com - Israel News

Afghanistan News

Iraq News

Israel and Palestine

Total Pageviews

Blog Archive

Delicious

Search This Blog

Powered By Blogger

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Poker with Ahmadinejad - Israel Opinion, Ynetnews

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of IranImage via WikipediaPoker with Ahmadinejad - Israel Opinion, Ynetnews

Poker with Ahmadinejad

Op-ed: After delivering on pledge to stop Iran, Obama to press Israel, Arabs to make peace
Orly Azoulay
Published: 01.20.11, 13:55 / Israel Opinion

When Barack Obama was a college student, he made a reputation for himself mostly as a distinguished poker player. He gained his expertise while being a beach boy in Honolulu, playing cards and drinking at pubs instead of going to school. This experience, which he acquired in his distant past, assists Obama on occasion while managing US foreign policy from the White House. This week it turned out that his most meaningful poker game thus far was played against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Quietly, through a secret channel, the American president hurled numerous powerful bombs on Iran’s nuke site, with Israel’s help - according to the New York Times. The bombs dropped by Obama did not raze home and citizens, did not kill women and children, and were not photographed by foreign correspondents.
Persian Admiration
Cable: Iranians love President Obama / Yuval Mann
New cables reveal rise of ayatollah influence; who you need to know to be successful businessman in Tehran
Full story
Obama’s bombs came in the form of computer viruses that silently managed to destroy the core of the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, in an inspiring operation executed in the framework of an Israeli-American plan to sabotage Iran’s nuke program. Nuclear experts characterized this bombardment as the most sophisticated and imaginative computer weapon that had been invented and implemented to this day.
When Obama ordered the computer attack on Iran, he continued at the same time to reach out to Ahmadinejad and urged him to sit at the negotiating table. Ahmadinejad replied elusively and equivocally, thinking that he is able to fool the whole world. He did not imagine that Obama is playing against him like a professional who learned his trade on the streets, while keeping his cards close to his chest. The world did not know that Obama was in the midst of a war against Iran which he managed through subterfuge.

Obama naïve?

Even before he was sworn-in, Obama received a classified briefing from top US intelligence officials. They told him about the secret plan to strike Iran’s atomic sites with computer viruses .President Bush, towards the end of his term, approved the plan, and Obama was captivated by it and ordered to accelerate it. According to the reports, America, just like Israel, kept the plan a closely guarded secret.
Those who were not parties to the secret were sure that Obama is too naïve and inexperienced. When Obama declared that he will not allow Iran to produce nuclear weapons, few believed him. The skepticism towards him was said to be prevalent especially in Israel, among those who were not aware of what was going on in Dimona and the US national nuke labs in Idaho.
Idaho brought the information to the project, and Israel used its atomic reactor in Dimona to test the virus. The New York Times, which looked into the story for almost three months and held interviews worldwide in order to elicit information, revealed that the mission had been completed: One fifth of the production power of the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz was destroyed. Even the smartest bombs, had they been hurled by the US or Israeli Air force, would not paralyze the site to such extent.
Obama did not destroy Iran’s nuclear program, but he managed to significantly delay it. With this achievement he now plans to press both Israel and Arab states to secure a peace treaty. The White House always suspected that Israel is using Iran as an excuse not to make peace. Now this excuse had evaporated, at least partly, and Saudi Arabia which feared a nuclear Iran no less than Israel will also be called upon by the White House to roll up its sleeves and enlist for the cause of the peace process.
Now that the story had been publicized, Obama would be able to address both sides and tell them that he promised to stop Iran and delivered. Now, he will demand that they do what is required of them.
Enhanced by Zemanta

5 comments: