When Belligerent Push Comes to Dangerous Shove

When Belligerent Push Comes to Dangerous Shove

"There will be confrontation, this will be the next step, [previously banned weapons] will appear from our side. They don't exist now, we have a unilateral moratorium."

“They believe they can act as they need, to their advantage, and we simply have to swallow all this and deal with it. This is not going to continue.  Our response will be military."

"If NATO sticks with the position not to negotiate about a deal, then we will certainly see Russia deploy the Screwdriver missile at its very western border."

"Currently, [these banned weapons] do not exist; we have a unilateral moratorium. We call on NATO and the United States to join this moratorium. They just don’t respond to our proposals."

"There’s basically no trust in NATO. Therefore, we’re no longer playing this kind of game and don’t believe NATO’s assurances."

Sergei Ryabkov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister

"We are convinced that Russia is actually preparing for an all out war against Ukraine. It's an unprecedented event probably since the Second World War."

Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuanian Foreign Minister

IMAGE SOURCE: AFP

Russian defence officials show off the 9M729 cruise missile in Moscow.

To state that matters between the West and Russia are growing increasingly tense is to understate the situation. Moscow feels it has been pushed too far, and it is not -- and never will be -- in the mood to be pushed around and meekly assent to directions and determinations made elsewhere than in the Kremlin; certainly not any order issued through NATO directed by the United States. And while it denies strenuously that there is any intention of invading Ukraine to achieve reunification with Russia, it also portrays itself as a misunderstood victim of U.S.-led machinations.

Moscow doesn't like being pushed around and it just isn't going to take it any more. The discussions that took place between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, frank though they may have been without unleashing dire threats to claims and counter claims left Mr. Putin unsettled at the arrogance of the West presuming they could dictate to Russia whom it could intimidate and enfold into the Russian Federation; a temporarily-strayed geographic satellite obsessed with U.S.-directed visions of sovereignty.

But the nerve of NATO's actions on Russia's near-abroad rankled and festered and grew to a warning that enough was enough, for Moscow. Warning NATO that it would never countenance the placing of missiles on east European soil facing Russia as a threat to its own stability and future plans for imperial Russian rebirth, Russia which recently boasted that its stable of advanced technological hypersonic weaponry is unmatched by any other country now advises its intentions to employ missiles facing Europe.

Intermediate-range nuclear missiles with a top range of over 3,000 miles, feasibly capable of striking European capitals. This, in response to NATO should it refuse to pledge to Moscow's satisfaction that it would never make use of its nuclear weapons. These are the same missiles banned in a treaty signed in 1987 between Russia and the US, which Washington's Trump administration chose to leave the agreement in 2019, claiming Russia had breached the treaty.

And no, Russia is definitely not in the planning stages of an invasion against Ukraine. It has the sovereign right, after all, as Mr. Putin pointed out archly, to move its troops anywhere it chooses on Russian soil. But Moscow is prepared to "respond militarily" should NATO continue its eastward expansion; above all offering to admit Ukraine as a member of the military alliance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Which should remain focused on North Atlantic nations of the west, its original intent. 

NATO's military allies on the other hand are growing increasingly fearful of Russia's intentions to send the troops it is continuing to mass on its border with Ukraine, in a massive invasion with the purpose to repeat the 2014 annexation of Crimea. Leading U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson to state once again with EU chiefs that Moscow would face "serious consequences" should it encroach further within territory clearly part of Ukraine's sovereignty.

 

What Moscow is engaging in is an entitlement game that has led EU foreign ministers to agree to sanction targets linked to the Wagner Group, the private Russian military firm, now hit with punishing sanctions in response to destabilizing Ukraine and parts of Africa. Founder Dimitry Utkin, a former Russian special forces commander, along with a handful of others with ties to the mercenaries have asset freezes and travel bans imposed on them.

 

Russia's Federal Security Service, the successor to the dreaded KGB, of which Vladimir Putin was once an intelligence operative, claimed to have arrested 105 supporters of a Ukrainian neo-Nazi youth group which it asserts planned attacks and mass murders, along with proposed attacks on educational institutions. All of which Ukraine labels as information warfare. It is when violent words migrate toward violet action that the world should shudder.

 

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, center, and his defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, second from left, last year at the National Defense Control Center in Moscow.Credit...Pool photo by Michael Klimentyev

 

The Powerful New Bellicose China

Ambassador Cong Peiwu  Blair Gable/Reuters

"We strongly urge the Canadian side not to grant so-called political asylum to those violent criminals in Hong Kong, because it is interference in China’s domestic affairs, and certainly it will embolden those violent criminals."

"If the Canadian side really cares about the stability and the prosperity in Hong Kong, and really cares about the good health and safety of those 300,000 Canadian passport holders in Hong Kong and the large number of Canadian companies operating in Hong Kong … you should support those efforts to fight violent crimes."

"I want to make clear that a stable and prosperous Hong Kong … is not only in the interest of the vast majority of Hong Kong residents, but it is also conducive to the majority of those … law-abiding foreigners and enterprises in Hong Kong."

"[Beijing would have a] strong reaction [if Canada's Parliament were to pass any resolution that condemned China’s treatment of its Muslim Uyghur minority as] genocide [referring to the over one million Uyghurs in detention camps in Xinjiang province, facilities for] vocational and education training."

"We will take resolute measures to safeguard our sovereignty and national security. [The Uyghurs] live in harmony … and [China’s] human-rights record is the best in history."

"There is no coercive diplomacy on the Chinese side. The Hong Kong issue and the Xinjiang-related issue are not about the issue of human rights. They are purely about internal affairs of China, which brooks no interference from the outside."

China's ambassador to Canada, Ambassador Cong Peiwu

China has the temerity to have its envoy to Canada lecture the government of Canada on how it may and may not represent China, based on fairly universal knowledge and agreement of China's human rights situation in reference to its treatment of minority populations within the country, its belligerent attitude toward 'splittism' and demand for 'harmony', refusing to honour its commitment to Hong Kong's democratic authority as a semi-autonomous enclave, and its determination to ensure that Shanghai be returned to Chinese authority, through military means if necessary.

China's boastful self-praise over its human rights and respect for the rule of law evinces itself in other ways, as for example the arrest of two innocent Canadians in China, held virtually incommunicado, with no access to lawyers, and charged with espionage. This, in retaliation for Canada holding the CFO of China's Huawei telecommunications giant on an extradition warrant from the United States on a charge of illegally supplying Iran with communications equipment in defiance of UN/US-imposed sanctions. The implied threats in Ambassador Cong's statement are evident and reflect the Politboro sentiments.

 President Xi Jinping Photo Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty

"You should focus your minds and energy on preparing to go to war, and stay highly vigilant", a report in the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper, quoted China's President Xi Jinping, as lecturing to marine corps at a military base in Guangdong province, at a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. Priming his military apparatus for action, at a time when the mood in China is decidedly nationalist, fed by this government which has gone out of its way to alienate its neighbours through regional aggression.

 

The Peoples Republic has spent time, energy, and treasury in making friends and influencing people in some parts of the world, happy to be noticed by China, delighted at its investment in upgrading their infrastructure (for its own trade benefit alongside delivering of other countries' natural resources to feed China's rapacious appetite for energy and raw materials), while leaving those dependent countries with debts through infrastructure loans that will ensure they remain vassals-in-debt for the long-range future.

 

Elsewhere in the developed world, Xi and Beijing have soured international relations, while claiming entitlements and ownership of disputed regions it plans to swallow, to China's territorial advantage. China insists it will have jurisdiction over the island democracy of Taiwan off its southeastern coast, sending Chinese warplanes and navy vessels to harass Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait. "The fact that Taiwan is a separate country, democratically elected, they should be seeing Taiwan as a neighbour, not as a point of conquest", pointed out Margaret McCuaig-Johnson, senior fellow, Institute of Science, Society and Policy, University of Ottawa.

 

China's state television recently released a video of military drills with amphibious landing craft, attack helicopters and missile systems. The unsubtle warning is that China could attack should Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen who has repeatedly attempted to placate China, continue maintaining Taiwanese independence, not recognize Taiwan as part of China. "I believe that regional tension can surely be resolved", she responded. China is enraged that the U.S. is considering an arms deal with Taipei with whom the U.S. is establishing a growing relationship. China warns against any such deal.

According to Reuters seven "major weapons systems" were undergoing an export process with a mind to equipping Taiwan with advanced weaponry. Lijian Zhao, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, warns that China will retaliate: "The United States should immediately cancel the planned weapon sales to Taiwan, stop any arms deals and cut off their military ties." Gordon Houlden, director of the China Institute at University of Alberta emphasizes that Xi is satisfying China's growing nationalist sentiment.

 

"Taiwan is a special case. No Chinese president, in my view, would survive a week if he .. abandoned the goal of reunification. The biggest risk for China is the intervention of the United States. The language is always alarming and we should not ignore it, but I don't think there should be panic about it ... it's not the first time and it shouldn't be surprising. But also, it's a warning, perhaps to the international community and to Taiwan that this [unification] is still a Chinese goal, which they still take seriously and which they intend to complete." 

 

Chinese warships, including an aircraft carrier, in formation during drills in the South China Sea, January 2, 2017. Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images

 

 

 

China's Global Power Journey

"The Chinese Communist Party's political persecution and arbitrary detainment of these two Canadian citizens [Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor], while Canada continues to uphold the rule of law in the case of Meng Wanzhou, only reinforces the international community's concerns about the CCP's complete disregard for individual rights and the fair and just application of the law."
"[China must] immediately release and drop all charges] against the two, arbitrarily detained for over 550 days on spurious charges of espionage]. [Their] arbitrary detention and confinement in inhumane conditions is deeply troubling."
U.S. Senators from Idaho, New Jersey, Colorado, Delaware

"What I learned also is that China doesn't adhere to the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners. And so I'm not surprised to hear also that just from watching the news that maybe the two Michaels are not getting that sort of attention as well."
"My husband wouldn't have had consular assistance because he was a Chinese citizen. However, the Stephen Harper government was very good. They received the campaign letters that were being sent to them and then his office would forward them to the office of the ambassador to China from Canada at the time, which [sic] was David Mulroney. And he was amazing."
Karen Patterson, ex-wife of previous Chinese detainee

People hold signs calling for China to release Canadian detainees Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig during an extradition hearing for Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou at the B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver March 6, 2019. (Lindsey Wasson/Reuters)

Seized by Chinese authorities in December 2018, in response to the arrest of Huawei chief financial officer and daughter of the technology giant's founder on a U.S. extradition warrant in a clear act of political retaliation in a matter of law and justice, the two Canadian men are being kept incommunicado, unable to contact their families, denied access to lawyers and consular services as well, while being subjected to psychological torture. While Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, on bail, lives in either of her two Vancouver mansions, awaiting eventual extradition.

The Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been tripping over eggshells ever since the two men's arrest and the death sentences meted out to two other Canadians accused of drug smuggling, Beijing's pressure tactics, along with the halting of imports of Canadian Canola products into China, and the imposition of onerous duties on other agricultural products, punishment for Canada's insubordination to China's entitlements. Canada's Prime Minister expressed his "disappointment" last Friday in the wake of official espionage charges laid by Beijing.

Rather than imposing counter-measures to counteract China's bullying, the Trudeau government has trod lightly, fearful of provoking Beijing into ever more egregious offensives. "It has been obvious from the beginning that this was a political decision made by the Chinese government, and we deplore it and have from the very beginning", Trudeau finally stated. Yet no measures were even taken to match those of Beijing in punishing Canada for honouring its extradition agreement with the United States.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson in Beijing, Zhao Lijian, responded to Justin Trudeau's milquetoast demeanor: "China urges the relevant Canadian leader to earnestly respect the spirit of the rule of law, respect China's judicial sovereignty and stop making irresponsible remarks"; righteously insulting scolds that Beijing is so clumsily addicted to, in its sanctimonious belief that the entire world owes it obeisance, and should apologize for all the underhanded mischief that Beijing imposes on the world order.

Calling for Canada's justice minister to intervene in the case, saying that "discretion" is "expressly codified" in the Extradition Act, a Toronto lawyer retained by Michael Kovrig's wife urges Ottawa to release Meng Wanzhou to have the two Michaels freed thus acceding to Beijing's demands: "This shows that the Canadian government can actually handle this incident in a just manner according to Canadian law. Once again we urge the Canadian side to earnestly respect the spirit of rule of law, treat China’s solemn position and concerns seriously, stop political manipulation, immediately release Ms. Meng and ensure her safe return to China", Zhao iterated.


India is currently facing another kind of challenge that China regularly imposes on its neighbours in its never-ending focus on expanding its territorial imperatives to seize land, water and airspace that is shared by neighbouring countries or actually within the sovereign territory of other nations. From the South China Sea to the Himalaya, Beijing extends its malevolent reach, threatening, and bullying while making unsubstantiated claims to ownership of areas not their own. Indian border guards came under attack by their Chinese counterparts last week in the disputed Galwan Valley.

The video, published first by ThePrint, shows troops first engaging in a close quarter fist-fight and then hurling stones at each other.

Twenty-three Indian soldiers were killed, and one captain was hurled to his death down the mountainside in a deadly skirmish when the Indian military made an effort to protect its territory from the encroachment of China. Chinese troops annexed 60 square kilometres of land in early May in Ladakh, the cause of the hand-to-hand combat by troops using improvised weaponry, having been disarmed to prevent just such a violent event, through mutual agreement by both nations.

"There is a lot of land which has been annexed by China, not only this time in the Galwan Valley but all along the LAC [Line of Actual Control]. I have been raising my voice, and even meeting with the local administration. They know about it, but neither the government nor the media have raised their voices about it", maintained Urgain Chodon, a councillor for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Ladakh. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is left little leeway for action; a military response being interpreted as a battle cry, with the prospect of the two most populous nuclear-armed nations on earth at war.

China prepares itself for all such scenarios. In its bid to match the Global Positioning System of the United States, it has now completed its BeiDou satellite navigation system. Should the U.S. and China ever enter a conflict, the U.S. would now not be able to disable Chinese military systems by blocking access to GPS, since it now has its own. "We are moving from being a major nation in the field of space to becoming a true space power", boasted Yang Changfeng, chief designer of China's $10 billion 3D satellite network.

China has successfully put into orbit the final satellite in its BeiDou-3 navigation system, further advancing the country as a major power in space    Getty Images

Free Pass, Go Directly to the Mayor's Office

"I was born with this disease, I'm going to die with this disease. I know I didn't drink yesterday. I didn't take a drink today. I am taking it one day at a time."
"Regardless of my alcoholism and my substance-abuse problem, this is handled through my lawyer, Dennis Morris. I think anybody in my position would get legal advice and that's exactly what I've done. Obviously, it's before the courts."
"I can't imagine using (that) terminology [Ford's repeated use of racist, homophobic and sexist slurs]. When you have this disease, you do things, say things that just aren't you. I take full responsibility. All I can do is apologize and deal with this disease."
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, CBC interview

The CBC's Dwight Drummond spoke to Mayor Rob Ford on Wednesday, asking the city's chief magistrate questions about the drug and alcohol use that led him to rehab. (Dave Seglins/CBC)

Take full responsibility? If that were the case, he would remove himself voluntarily from public office. Apologize and deal with his "disease"? It's Torontonians who find themselves dealing with this man's spurious disease. Disease? He's a self-indulgent, self-entitled blow-hard who discovered early in life that bellowing threats, exuding nastiness and forging full-steam ahead into criminal connections and behaviour leaves the impression among the gullible that this represents the power of persuasion and intelligent action.

His disease is that of the pathology of self-idolization. And he need explain nothing, since everything is "before the courts". Aided most significantly by his older brother who insists that a runner who just happened to come across then confront the mayor at a Canada Day parade used "racial slurs", in accosting his brother and accusing him of being a lying racist. Joe Killoran, a teacher by profession who happened to be out running on July 1st, when he came across the intellectual behemoth that is Toronto's mayor, couldn't resist expressing his disgust with the man.

And Rob Ford's brother characterizes Mr. Killoran as a "left-wing lunatic", using "racist" slurs against his innocent brother. "You can be racist against people who have a drinking problem", explained Councillor Ford. "You can be racist against people that eat little red apples". This is so, it is a reality because Councillor Ford proclaims it to be so. And why not? After all, the medical community solemnly designates alcoholism and drug addiction as "diseases", arming Ford Nation amply in its compassion for their hero who must fight his "disease" on behalf of Torontonians.

The position of mayor, however, insists Rob Ford, does not trigger his substance abuse. Although self-indulgence does and monumental arrogance in passing it off as a lifetime disease he must bravely struggle with, he will soldier on, and will do so as continuing mayor of the hapless City of Toronto. "This is what I love to do, I had this disease before this office", he declared. Intoxication is wholly responsible for his shameful behaviour. But it's the alcohol that is at fault, not His Honour.

It has become human-rights-fashionable to give a free pass to "celebrities" acting out in poor public displays of dissolute or immoral acts that would shame anyone with a half-wit's worth of brains. Shame? That's for people who take their adult responsibilities seriously and who recognize they act with free will when they make decisions that will come back to haunt them. None of Rob Ford's decisions and acts of shameful behaviour haunt him; they're part and parcel of his celebrity. And his celebrity reflects his personality and character.

All of which presents as a sad commentary on the Toronto electorate.

Russia to back Iran in nuclear talks - Moscow’s “April surprise” for Western sanctions over Ukraine

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 4, 2014, 10:29 AM (IST)

Tags:  Iran nuclear,  Ukraine,  nuclear negotiations,  Russia-Iran,  sanctions,  Arak,

Arak heavy water-plutonium reactor

As the Six Power group and Iran prepared for their third round of nuclear talks in Vienna next week (Tuesday-Wednesday, April 8-9) Tehran frankly admitted to exploiting the holes in the six-month interim deal they forged in Geneva last November. And Moscow looks like making good on its threat to back the Iranian case, in retaliation for Western penalties for its annexation of Crimea.

In a closed meeting in Tehran Wednesday, April 3, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Nuclear Energy Commission said: “We have 19,000 centrifuges of which 9,000 are in operation [for enriching uranium]. Our advice is not to discuss the number of centrifuges, rather to discuss the unit’s isolation power." He explained there are different types of centrifuge.

This was a candid admission that Iran had found a way to get around its commitment under the interim deal - which US Secretary of State John Kerry held up as his greatest diplomatic achievement - not to build or activate its most advanced centrifuges for speeding up enrichment.

Salehi had no qualms about pointing to the holes in that deal, as the six foreign ministers prepared to face Iran in Vienna for the next round of negotiations on a comprehensive agreement for Iran’s nuclear program.

That forum will provide Moscow with its first opportunity to confront the West over Iran (and likely Syria too) for the sanctions and bans NATO meted out over Russia's Ukraine policy.

The architect of Russian policy on both issues, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, gave due warning last week, when he said: “Russia wouldn’t like to use their [nuclear] talks as an element of the game of raising the stakes between Moscow and the West,” he said. “But if Russia feels forced, it would take retaliatory measures here as well.”

On the day the Iranian nuclear czar talked about Iran’s centrifuge capacity, sources in Moscow and Tehran reported that the two governments, both targets of Western sanctions, were close to a mammoth barter transaction: For 500,000 barrels of Iranian oil per day, Russia will supply goods of equivalent value including foodstuffs.

This transaction when it goes into effect will more or less scuttle the sanctions regime against Iran, including the oil embargo.

Salehi was accordingly not afraid to boast: “Enrichment activities have not ceased.”

The interim accord did not ban low-grade uranium enrichment, and that was another hole in the deal, because it allowed Iran to press forward and stockpile large quantities of the low grade material despite the fact that it can be refined to weapons grade in short order.

As for the heavy water-plutonium reactor under construction in Arak, Salehi commented: “Under normal circumstances, we would have needed at least two to three years to advance this project.” He went on to reveal: “Under the Geneva accord we undertook not to install certain major equipment for six months. So instead we worked on equipment quality.”

Referring to US President Barack Obama’s public statement last November that Iran had agreed to halt the Arak reactor project, Saleh pointed out: “The Arak reactor was never in operation for it to cease.”

However, Iran did not let the grass grow. Now that the six months of the interim accord is up, the improved equipment can be installed without further delay.

He also noted that a cessation of heavy water reactor operations was not covered in the Geneva Accord. “[The West] manipulated public opinion to persuade people that those operations must be stopped.”

This confirmed Israel’s complaint to Washington that the interim deal of last November and subsequent discussions between the big powers and Iran omitted to address the Arak project and its capacity for producing plutonium, as an alternative weapons fuel to enriched uranium.

The Iranian official made no secret of his government’s intentions. “Currently, we are not after establishing reprocessing facilities [for high grade enriched uranium and/or plutonium]. Of course, this does not mean that we renounce this right for ever.”

Displaying Bigotry -- Paying the Price

"[Cruise staff] were very elusive. They said they got an email from the immigration department in Tunisia stating Israelis were not allowed to get off the ship. They were not given any reason why Israelis were not allowed off the ship -- they indicated that in previous months when they had been to Tunisia, Israelis were allowed to get off -- and that they didn't know why this was happening."
Canadian Ed Glina, Norwegian Jade cruise ship passenger

norwegian cruise lines

Mr. Glina, a Canadian citizen, was incensed enough over the incident that he chose to remain behind, on board the cruise ship in company with the dozen Israelis refused permission to enter the Muslim country. In so doing he was expressing his humanity, and exhibiting in fine fashion the stance his country takes in facing religious bigotry, and in particular that very special bigotry called anti-Semitism, that blights human relations.

Tunisia was, before its 'Arab Spring' revolution -- the North African country that was the first to be subjected to mass protests succeeding in bringing down its former corrupt government -- a socially free and cosmopolitan society. Where a small number of Tunisian Jews still live, but became extremely concerned when the old government fell and the new one entered; 'moderately' Islamist, the media gushes. But one that imposes new 'values' on its society.

It is a country where Jews once lived in abundance, where they had lived for over a thousand years, under Muslim rule and where tolerance evaporated once the State of Israel became a reality, when Tunisian Jews, like those from countries all over North Africa and the Middle East were banished, their properties appropriated by the state without recompense. Jews are accustomed to living on tenterhooks. But, like any other individuals, they too seek out holiday opportunities.

Cruise officials on the Norwegian Jade left voice mails for Israeli passengers giving warning against disembarking at the port in Tunis. When they complained to the captain, they were advised that there was nothing that could be done about the situation. The Norwegian cruise company spoke to Tunisian officials but nothing came of their overtures.

"The singling out of Israeli citizens in this manner is concerning and inconsistent with principles of openness, tolerance and religious freedom that are enshrined in Tunisia's new progressive constitution", Adam Hodge, press secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird wrote, in a statement.

"The Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development is working closely with Canada's embassy in Tunisia to determine the reason for this refusal. Canada's ambassador in Tunisia has registered Canada's concerns about this incident to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with the Interior Ministry. Neither ministry was aware of any new Tunisian policy concerning Israeli tourists seeking to enter Tunisia."

Over a dozen Middle East and North African countries will not permit entry to Israeli citizens, while a handful refuse entry to any tourists of any nationality who may have an Israeli stamp on their travel documents. Prior to the Arab Spring event Israelis often went off on holidays to Tunisia. That was the old Tunisia; this is the new, liberated Tunisia.

"For me, it was a surprise because we were coming here because we wanted to be in Tunis", said Yaacov Zacharia, 67, one of the Israeli passengers. He had never before found himself in such a situation. He found the ship's staff polite. The passengers had met with the captain, and he too was kind, but no solutions were to be found.

Mr. Glina gave his opinion that the ship's captain should have chosen a friendlier port. Alternatively the captain could have made a general announcement to the entire passenger list. "We understand that there are a lot of politics involved but our position with the captain was that he was colluding with a selection process that was unacceptable."

Evidently the cruise ship line may think so too.  They have cancelled all visits to Tunis. Norwegian Cruise Lines announced the cancellation of all future visits to the North African port, and have asserted they have no intention of returning. "We want to send a strong message to Tunisia, and ports around the world that we will not tolerate such random acts of discrimination against our guests", announced Kevin Sheehan, Norwegian Cruise Line's CEO.

"We are outraged by this act and the fact that we were not notified in advance of this practise." A day before the ship's scheduled arrival in La Goulette, Tunis on Sunday they were informed that no Israeli passengers would be permitted to disembark.

Bravo, Norwegian Cruise Line.

Former CIA, AMAN chiefs: Iran is a nuclear threshold state and can no longer be stopped

DEBKAfile Special Report December 2, 2013, 10:05 AM (IDT)

Tags:  Israel,  Iran nuclear,  Intelligence,

Binyamin Netanyahu's nuclear depiction caricatured

The former heads of two of the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world, speaking Sunday, Dec. 1, in different parts of the world, were of the same opinion: Iran has reached the point of a nuclear threshold state and can build several nuclear bombs in a matter of weeks. By this diagnosis, Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and NSA, and ex-general Amos Yadlin, ex-chief of AMAN, Israeli military intelligence indicted their respective governments of the US and Israeli for their failure to stop this happening. 

Asked in a FoxNews interview in New York about the interim accord the six powers reached with Iran in Geneva, Gen. Hayden was terse: “Iran is a nuclear threshold nation and we can’t stop this,” he said. America has moved its red lines and “all but conceded Iran has the right to enrich uranium.” He went on to voice the hope that “We have hit the pause button. Now we’ve got to negotiate hitting the delete button.”

Yadlin, who heads a national security think tank, had this to say: "Iran is approaching breakout point to a nuclear bomb.” On the Geneva accord, he commented: “… this is only a first step, not a final agreement, although it contains elements which predetermine the final accord.”

Speaking in Tel Aviv, Yadlin said: “The fact that Iran is a nuclear threshold state is not the fault of this agreement. Iran spent many years developing this capability and no one managed to stop it. Iran is a step before breakout to a bomb.  This is unfortunate but true.”

It was the first time that a former high-ranking Israeli intelligence officer had admitted the responsibility of successive Israeli governments, defense ministers and heads of its various intelligence agencies for the failure to pre-empt Iran’s drive for a nuclear weapon.

MK Tzahi Hanegbi , a senior lawmaker who has the ear of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, expressed concern that the interim deal with Iran would be left standing as the final accord, and so leave the Islamic Republic in place as a nuclear threshold state with the capability to assemble a bomb within six to seven weeks.

In Rome, Netanyahu was heard to say for the umpteenth time that Israel would not allow Iran to attain a nuclear bomb. He seemed to have forgotten the diagram he exhibited to the UN General Assembly in September 2012 accompanied by a resounding pledge not to let Iran accumulate enough enriched uranium for a weapon.

Hanegbi, in his comments Sunday, put the record straight: Iran has built a uranium stockpile of 7.2 tons, enough for several bombs.”

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, after criticizing his successor for daring to argue with US President Obama, was of the opinion that Israel would not attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. He was saying that Israel has decided to accept a nuclear-armed Iran.