AO Weekly News Round Up 5-25-9
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The A-O Report
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Weekly News Round Up
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For 5-25-9
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Obama Gives Iran Deadline For Progress
U.S. President Barack Obama set a rough timetable for his diplomatic outreach to arch-foe Iran for the first time on Monday, saying he wanted to see serious progress by the end of the year.
He also held out the prospect of tougher sanctions against Tehran "to ensure that Iran understands we are serious."
Obama's comments came after talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which the new Israeli leader was expected to stress Israel's concerns about Iran's nuclear program. Israel believes it is a cover to build atomic weapons.
With many Israelis skeptical about his efforts to engage Iran diplomatically, Obama stressed that attempts by the previous Bush administration to isolate Iran had failed, "so what we are going to try to do is do something different."
Sitting next to Netanyahu in the Oval Office, Obama said he hoped to begin negotiations with Tehran soon, after Iran holds elections next month. Iran's leaders have so far rebuffed his efforts to reach out to them and toughened their rhetoric. More details, LINK HERE.
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Obama Tells Israel
To Halt Expansion
President Obama yesterday embarked on his most daunting diplomatic challenge yet by telling Israel to take “difficult steps” towards peace, allow a Palestinian state and halt settlement expansion on occupied land.
His talks with Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s hardline Prime Minister, marked the start of an intensive focus on the Middle East. Mr Obama hopes to re-start a peace process that has stalled under a succession of US presidents.
After more than two hours of discussions at the White House Mr Obama said that it was in the interests of every country, including the US, to “achieve a two-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians are living side by side in peace and security”.
He added: “I suggested to the Prime Minister that he has an historic opportunity to get a serious movement on this issue during his tenure. That means that all the parties involved have to take seriously obligations that they have previously agreed to.”
Mr Netanyahu has so far refused to endorse full Palestinian statehood. He has suggested that settlements needed to be allowed to grow naturally, insisting that the priority should be to deal with the “existential threat” to Israel posed by a nuclear Iran.
At the White House he again pointedly sidestepped the issue of Palestinian sovereignty, indicating that he favoured a more limited form of self-government for Palestinians. While promising to resume peace talks immediately he said that any deal depended on the acceptance across the Arab world of Israel’s right to exist.
At their joint press appearance Mr Netanyahu had little to say about Palestinians but a great deal about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions: “We want to move simultaneously and in parallel on two fronts: the front of peace and the front of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear capability.” More details, LINK HERE.
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Netanyahu Aide Blasts
2-State Solution Idea
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3/4's of Senate Warns Obama:
Israel At Risk!
76 Senators sent a letter to the White House, warning the president that Israel is at risk. More details, LINK HERE.
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Iran Tests Advanced Missile
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Israel Holds War-Games Exercises
Israel's military forces are conducting large scale war-games exercises, simulating a war on several fronts simultaneously with enemies including Iran.
The war-games include the entire Israeli Air Force and is believed to be preparations for an all-out war, including missile attacks aimed against Israeli cities, according to Israeli officials. The Israeli war games began the same day the Israel's Prime Minister met with President Obama at the White House.
The exercises were a signal to the Obama Administration that Israel is prepared to take on Iran without Washington's approval, if necessary. For more details, LINK HERE and see our latest A-O Digest edition this weekend for more analysis of the situation. For additional details on this story, FOX News has the basic coverage, LINK HERE.
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Obama Tells Pentagon To
Update Iran War Plans
Secretary of Defense Gates told the newsmedia this past week that the President ordered a review of the Bush-era plans to engage in military action with Iran and update the plans as needed.
The Secretary termed the review as a "refreshing" of prior plans and options developed in the past two years for possible military action against Iran's nuclear facilities. The Defense secretary stressed that this is a routine review that all newly incoming presidents conduct on various potential Pentagon plans The timing of this order comes in advance of public, formal talks between the US and Iran, which are expected to begin sometime late next month or early July and perhaps run for 6 months.
For more details on this development, LINK HERE.
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Pentagon Chief Warns on Iran Threat
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned over the weekend that a nuclear-armed Iran would be calamitous. Admiral Mike Mullen warned the US Senate during hearings held by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Admiral stated:
“I’m one who believes that Iran getting a nuclear weapon is calamitous for the region and for the world,”
a nuclear-armed Tehran would likely trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, as its neighbors would feel “exposed” and “deficient”, reports Reuters. Such an arms buildup could be “absolutely disastrous”, Mullen warned.
Mullen spoke a day after Iran announced that it had test-fired a new medium-range surface-to-surface missile, which analysts say could hit Israel and US bases in the region. For more details, LINK HERE.
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Iran to Host Afghanistan Summit
In yet another sign of Iran's growing power, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is hosting a summit for the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan as part of an effort for Iran to play an expanding role as the region's super-power. Details on the summit, LINK HERE.
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Iranian General Says
Iran Could Stop Israel in 1 Strike
A former Iranian Guards General, Mohsen Rezai who is running for the Presidency of Iran boasted over the weekend that he could stop Israel with "one strike." He also indicated that if her were president, Israel would not dare to threaten Iran. Rezai is in an election race fiwth the curent Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who is running for re-election as President of Iran. For more details on statements made by the former Iranian general regarding Israel, LINK HERE.
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Netanyahu Defies Obama
On Settlements Issue
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Half Of Israel Backs
Immediate Strike on Iran
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US Top Pentagon Official:
Iran Wants Nukes
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Iran Navy Ships Sail
Into International Waters
Iran says it has dispatched 6 warships into international waters as a "show of force" to prove to the world that is can confront any foreign threats.
Admiral Habbollah Sayyari was quoted by the ISNA News Agency as saying that it sent two warships into the Gulf of Aden to protect oil tankers against pirates. The Admiral's remarks noted that the naval move was unprecedented in Iranian naval history. The move is described as an effort to protect Iran's territorial integrity in it's southern waters. It is not known what kind of warships the Admiral is referring to but Iran's navy consists primarily of small patrol craft.
Iran does have 3 old Soviet Union era diesel-powered submarines and some small two-man submarines. It also has 4 frigates and 2 corvettes and about 50 PT patrol boats for shore line duty. For more details on the Iranian naval deployment, LINK HERE.
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Iran Rejects Nuke Freeze
Iran has again rejected western proposals to "freeze" its nuclear enrichment program in exchange for no new UN economic sanctions. Details, LINK HERE.
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Israel Claims...
Venezuela Sends Uranium to Iran
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Netanyahu Reaffirms Vow
Won't Give Up Jerusalem
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1 in 4 Israelis Would Flee
Israel If Iran Gets Nukes
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Netanyahu:
Israel Ready For Talks With Syria
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Netanyahu Seeks Congressional Support
While Israel's Prime Minister visited in Washington, he met with key Congressional leaders seeking their support for Israel, with the hope of using US lawmakers to pressure and override the President for his flagging support to Israel. More details, LINK HERE to BBC report.
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We told you so... Intel Digest
Pakistan Expanding Nuke Program
As we told you in our recent A-O Intelligence Digest edition, intelligence reports surfaced that the Pakistani government had greatly expanded its nuclear weapons development program. Now that news is hitting the mainstream media. LINK HERE for MSM coverage. LINK 2 -- LINK 3.
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CIA Chief Admits
US Doesn't Know All Locations
Of Pakistan Nuclear Weapons
Mainstream media once again confirming what the A-O Intelligence Digest reported earlier. LINK.
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Taliban & Pak Army Near Standstill
The Pakistani government and the military have described fighting between the Army and the Taliban as fierce and ongoing with more than a thousand Taliban fighters being killed during the month-long offensive. They also claim to have taken back much of the land that Taliban had recently conquered. This is of course, all for public consumption and mainstream news media outlets are generally swallowing the claims except for perhaps the killing statistics.
Instead, the real story is one of sporadic, low-level fighting, with far fewer troops participating than what the government claims. The Washington Post gives a hint of these kinds of problems in a weekend article, but The A-O Intelligence Digest (available in the A-O Donor's Section) is providing a different story of the situation based upon various intelligence reports from that nation and region along with assessments by various experts. For the Washington Post article, LINK HERE.
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North Korea Tests Nuke
On Par With Hiroshima
North Korea turned the world on its head over the weekend as it conducted an underground nuclear test which was powerful enough to register more than 4.0 on the earthquake Richter scale. The underground bomb blast is estimated to be about half the size of the Hiroshima bomb that was dropped in 1945 on Japan to end WW2. For more details on the test blast - LINK HERE. LINK 2.
Also Tests Missile
Japan: "Test Unacceptable"
US: "Gravely Concerned"
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Asian Markets Rattled
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NWO Billionaire Club Meets
To Seek Population Control
Some of the richest elites in the New World met recently in New York to discuss what they perceive to be the world's most pressing problems. The attendees included such notables as:
Microsoft's Bill Gates
Banker David Rockefeller
CNN's Ted Turner
TV Talk Host Oprah Winfrey
Investor: Warren Buffet
Investor: George Soros
NYC Mayor: Michael Bloomberg (also of Bloomberg News)
According to the London Times newspaper, the group recently met at the home of Sir Paul Nurse, a British Nobel-prize winnning biochemist who is now the president of the Rockefeller University. The meeting was held at the suggestion of Gates on May 5, unnoticed by the news media amid tight security.
Earlier this year, Bill Gates had outlined a plan to cap the world's population at 8.3 Billion people about one billion fewer than currently projected.
A guest at the meeting told the Times population growth would be addressed as a potentially disastrous environmental, social and industrial threat.
"This is something so nightmarish that everyone in this group agreed it needs big-brain answers," said the guest. "They need to be independent of government agencies, which are unable to head off the disaster we all see looming."
As to secrecy, the guest said, "They wanted to speak rich to rich without worrying anything they said would end up in the newspapers, painting them as an alternative world government." Full Story, LINK HERE.
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NYC Synagogue Terror Plot Exposed
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Stinger Missiles Involved
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Revenge For US War in Afghanistan
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Swine Flu in Tokyo
From NYC
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New York Imposes Obesity Tax
Penny per Soda
"We Told Ya So"
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The Global Food Crisis
The End of Plenty
Nat'l Geographic Report
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WHO Chief Says:
World Should Prepare For
Severe Flu Pandemic
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Muslims Riot In Greece
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The US Gov't Has Become
Anti-Christian
Editorial by Pastor Chuck Baldwin
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Democrats Defy Obama on Gitmo
Congress Refuses to Fund Prison Closure
Congressional Democrats have defied the President's plans to close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo, Cuba by the end of the year. Congressional Democrats voted to witholding money for closing down the prison and also stipulated that no terrorist prisoners be released onto American soil. There reasoning was based upon the fact that the White House has not come up with a plan yet for how to close the prison nor a plan on what to do with the prisoners;
Democrats were responding on the issue primarily due to widespread public opinion bordering on outrage, combined with the fear that another terror strike could be used by the GOP to destroy Democrats in a follow up election. In other words, if the party appeared to be a willing accomplice to a terror strike on the basis of leniency to imprisoned terrorists, it could demolish the ability of Democrat candidates from being elected to office. More details, LINK HERE.
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Separate Page for Economic News of the Week.
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