Video: Obama's 'Hot mic' incident with Russia's Medvedev

While in South Korea, President Barack Obama was caught on a 'hot mic' asking outgoing Russian President Dimitri Medvedev to give him some "space" until after the "election," that he'll have "more flexibility" then. In this CBS news report, Bill Plante says the administration had to concede that Obama said what he said. That may actually be the most surprising aspect to all of this, especially considering Jay Carney's incessant attempts to spin other obvious facts.



Here is video from Obama from 2008 in which he pledged a world "without nuclear weapons." Of course, there is no possible way he is naive enough to believe that if the United States disarms, everyone else will too. Assuming he's not that naive, why would he disarm the United States while other nations continue to build more?

After all, Russia has a storied history of being honest, right?



Of course, I continue to get back to Mitt Romney's electability. As I have maintained for some time now, the liberal media WANTS Romney to be the Republican nominee for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is his religion.

The Republican Party candidates in 2012 have all been thoroughly vetted from practically every angle with one exception. Romney's religion has gotten a pass. That is not by accident. If he is the nominee, the media will destroy him over it and the inability for Republicans who support him to see it boggles the mind. The mainstream media is chomping at the bit to do to Romney what it did not do to Obama over the latter's ties to Jeremiah Wright - and it will probably work.

Video: Muslim Congressman channels John Belushi

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) was on the O'Reilly Factor to discuss the situation with Iran possibly getting nuclear weapons. When O'Reilly tried to explain to Ellison that our mindset is reminiscent of the same mindset we had about Hitler before Nazi Germany came to power, Ellison responded by making reference to the attack on Pearl Harbor. O'Reilly's reaction to Ellison at that point was almost as funny as the faux pas itself.

Via Breitbart:



Perhaps Ellison watched Animal House too many times...

Iran: U.S. Behind Assassination; Federal U.S. Court: Iran Behind 9/11

Well, well, well. Iran says it has evidence that the United States was behind the assassination of the nuclear scientist earlier this week. The United States has evidence Iran was behind 9/11 and an assortment of other terror attacks in the 1990's so we're nowhere close to being even.

Via Reuters:

Iranian state television said on Saturday Tehran had evidence Washington was behind the latest assassination of one of its nuclear scientists.

In the fifth attack of its kind in two years, a magnetic bomb was attached to the door of 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan's car during the Wednesday morning rush-hour in the capital. His driver was also killed.

The United States has denied involvement in the killing and condemned it. Israel has declined to comment.

"We have reliable documents and evidence that this terrorist act was planned, guided and supported by the CIA," the Iranian foreign ministry said in a letter handed to the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, state TV reported.

"The documents clearly show that this terrorist act was carried out with the direct involvement of CIA-linked agents."

Meanwhile, less than one month ago, a federal judge ruled in a U.S. district court in Manhattan that Iran was behind the 9/11 attacks. The plaintiffs didn't just produce a smoking gun; they produced a "blazing cannon."

Among the findings:

A May 14, 2001 memorandum from inside the Iranian government demonstrating that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, was aware of the impending attacks and instructing intelligence operatives to restrict communications to existing contacts with al Qaeda's Ayman al Zawahiri and Hizballah's Imad Mughniyah. - Documents obtained from German federal prosecutors showing that 9/11 coordinator Ramzi Binalshihb traveled to Iran in January 2001 on his way to Afghanistan to brief Osama bin Laden on the plot's progress. - Evidence from the 9/11 Commission Report that a "senior Hezbollah operative," which the Havlish evidence identifies as Hezbollah terrorist chief Imad Mughniyah, coordinated activities in Saudi Arabia and was present (or his associate) on flights the hijackers took to and from Beirut and Iran. 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT at pp. 240-41. Mughniyah, a longtime agent of Iran, orchestrated a string of terror operations against the U.S. and Israel during the 1980s and 1990s. He was assassinated in Syria in February of 2008.

Attorneys emphasized that it is important to understand that Iran, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda formed a terror alliance in the early 1990s. The attorneys cited their national security and intelligence experts, including Dr. Patrick Clawson, Dr. Bruce Tefft, Clare Lopez, Kenneth Timmerman, Dr. Ronen Bergman, Edgar Adamson, and 9/11 Commission staff members Dietrich Snell, Dr. Daniel Byman, and Janice Kephart, as well as the published writings of Robert Baer, to explain how the pragmatic terror leaders overcame the Sunni-Shi'a divide in order to confront the U.S. (the "Great Satan") and Israel (the "Lesser Satan"). Iran and Hezbollah then provided training to members of al Qaeda in, among other things, the use of explosives to destroy large buildings. The Iran-Hezbollah-al Qaeda alliance led to terror strikes against the U.S. at Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia (1996), the simultaneous U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania (1998), and the USS Cole (2000). Shortly after the Cole attack, Iran was facilitating the international travel of the 9/11 hijackers.

Iran should be thanking us for not having done more to them, if indeed, we had anything to do with the nuclear scientist's death. By the way, if Iran was behind the Khobar Towers bombing, someone still needs to explain why Hadi al-Ameri was given the red carpet treatment by the Oval office just last month.

More HERE.

Iran Hit with a Second Computer Virus - Stars

Back in July, it was learned that an extremely destructive virus, named Stuxnet, penetrated the computers that manage Iran's nuclear program. It set the program back significantly. Now it's learned that a second virus has attacked Iran. This one is named Stars and either the Iranians appear perplexed at its intent. As Stuxnet may still be inflicting serious damage to Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor, Stars may just be at the beginning of what it's intended to do. Stuxnet is thought to have set Iran's push for nukes back significantly.

Via Jerusalem Post:

Iran has been targeted by a second computer virus in a "cyber war" waged by its enemies, its commander of civil defense said on Monday.

Gholamreza Jalali told the semi-official Mehr news agency that the new virus, called "Stars", was being investigated by experts. Last year, Iran revealed that its computers were attacked by the Stuxnet worm, which attack the Bushehr nuclear reactor.

"Fortunately, our young experts have been able to discover this virus and the Stars virus is now in the laboratory for more investigations," Jalali was quoted as saying. He did not specify the target of Stars or its intended impact.

"The particular characteristics of the Stars virus have been discovered," Jalali said. "The virus is congruous and harmonious with the [computer] system and in the initial phase it does minor damage and might be mistaken for some executive files of government organizations."

For obvious reasons, Iran is going to downplay the effectiveness of both Stuxnet and Stars. It sounds like the latter has them a bit flummoxed, which would play right into the hands of whoever is responsible. Can't you picture Ahmadinejad cussing right now?

h/t Yid with Lid

Ruh Roh: Is Iran in Danger of Chernobyl-like Disaster?

Last year, it was learned that a computer worm with the moniker 'Stuxnet' had penetrated Iran's nuclear control system computers. At the time, it was dubbed a stroke of genius because it appeared Israel had found a way to delay Iran's nuclear program, putting it back a few months. As time has passed, it looks like Stuxnet may have been far more strategically brilliant than initially thought. It may have the capability of inflicting a Chernobyl-like disaster inside Iran before Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs decide to launch their first salvo.

Via the Daily Caller:

The virus, known as Stuxnet, has the ability to send centrifuges spinning out of control and temporarily crippled Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Some computer experts believe Stuxnet was work of Israel or the United States, two nations convinced that Iran wants to turn nuclear fuel into weapons-grade uranium.

Iran has acknowledged that the malware — malicious software designed to infiltrate computer systems — hit the laptops of technicians working at Bushehr, but has denied that the plant was affected or that Stuxnet was responsible for delays in the startup of the Russian-built reactor.

The Islamic Republic is reluctant to acknowledge setbacks to its nuclear activities, which it says are aimed at generating energy but are under U.N. sanctions because of concerns they could be channeled toward making weapons. Only after outside revelations that its enrichment program was temporarily disrupted late last year by the mysterious virus did Iranian officials acknowledge the incident.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s chief representative to the IAEA, cut short attempts by AP to seek comment on possible damage by Stuxnet at Bushehr.

But Rogozin, the Russian envoy, described how engineers at Bushehr “saw on their screens that the systems were functioning normally, when in fact they were running out of control,” conjuring up a frightening dimension to the potential fallout from the virus.

“The virus which is very toxic, very dangerous, could have had very serious implications,” Rogozin told reporters, adding it “could have led to a new Chernobyl.”

The threat of Stuxnet is being downplayed by its victims and those with a stake in furthering Iran's nuclear program. They may be right but if Israel is responsible for the virus and has demonstrated that it can not only disrupt Iran's computer systems, who's to say there won't be a far more effective Stuxnet II in the near future?

Iran's public stance that Stuxnet was a nothing more than a minor inconvenient blip is akin to a football player who knows he needs to bounce up off the turf quickly after a vicious hit in order to save face. The truth likely lies somewhere in the middle but I think it's safe to say that this virus did significant damage and you can bet that whoever was responsible is taking a hard look at how to improve it.

Read it all.

LATEST PIECE AT BIG PEACE: WIKILEAKS CABLES

After the latest round of Wikileaks cables were released this past weekend, we saw what many are calling the 'unvarnished truth.' The latest batch of documents are certainly the most revealing. There were two things in particular that caught my attention. One was Saudi Arabia's pleading with the United States to attack Iran and the other was the concern on the part of U.S. diplomats that Islamism in the Turkish government is on the rise. Such a reality would indeed be dangerous because of the potential resurrection of the Ottoman Empire.

I began thinking of the predictions of former Muslim terrorist and PLO / Muslim Brotherhood member, Walid Shoebat. He has been sounding alarms and making predictions for years and the Wikileaks cables bolster them.

Posted at Big Peace:

WIKILEAKS: SAUDI ARABIA IN NUCLEAR CROSSHAIRS

For years now, conventional wisdom has been that when Iran gains access to nuclear weapons, Israel will be in the gravest danger. With the latest Wikileaks document dump, that conventional wisdom may prove as useful as conventional weapons in a nuclear world.

While Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been threatening to wipe Israel off the map and denying the holocaust, Saudi King Abdullah was aggressively lobbying the United States to strike Iran while exhorting Americans to “cut off the head of the snake” according to leaked documents.

Why would Saudi Arabia want to prevent Iran from attacking Israel? The answer is that it doesn’t. It wants to prevent Iran from attacking Saudi Arabia. The rarely discussed reality is that Iran may just loathe the House of Saud for its historically cozy oil dealings with the west and its treatment of Shiite Muslims more than it hates Israel. In their eyes, Saudi Arabia is committing national apostasy and in Islam, being an apostate is worse than being an infidel or non-believer.

Another piece to the Islamic jigsaw puzzle involves Turkey, which has been aligning with Iran in recent years. The Wikileaks cables show American diplomats’ high level of concern over Turkey’s trend toward Islamist rule and even the neo-Ottoman visions of its Foreign Minister. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan heads the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) which advocates Islamist governance. Turkey is also ground zero for the Ottoman Empire, an Islamic Caliphate that was disbanded in 1924, after World War I.....

Read it all.

DID ISRAEL ALREADY ATTACK IRAN?

It looks like it's appearing more and more likely that the computer virus which has infected Windows PCs used by workers at their Bushehr Nuclear plant may have been some sort of pre-emptive attack by either Israel or another western source. Known as the 'Stuxnet' worm, Iran is now at least blaming its adversaries for the attack. Then again, Ahmadinejad denies the holocaust and thinks 9/11 was an inside job.

Nonetheless, via Computer World:

Iran today made its strongest statement yet that it believes a Western plot is behind the Stuxnet worm that has infected tens of thousands of computers in the country, including some at its sole nuclear power plant.

In a Tuesday press briefing, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, blamed unnamed Western countries for creating and distributing the worm.

"It is hard for the Western states to tolerate the progress of Iran's peaceful nuclear program," said Mehmanparast in a summary of the briefing posted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Web site.

"Western states are trying to stop Iran's (nuclear) activities by embarking on psychological warfare and aggrandizing, but Iran would by no means give up its rights by such measures," Mehmanparast said, reacting to reports that Stuxnet had caused delays at the Bushehr nuclear reactor.

"Nothing would cause a delay in Iran's nuclear activities," Mehmanparast added.

As Israel finds itself increasingly isolated lately, a strategy of setting Iran's nuclear program back at least a few months without firing a shot is ingenious.

We also know how enraging it is to be hit with a virus. Mahmoud has got to be steaming.

Read it all.

EXPLOSIVE: THIS IS WHY SPY SCANDAL IS IMPORTANT

With countless stories in the news these days, the Russian spy scandal never really got much of my attention. It was played down in the media and made to look like these were low level players that didn't rise to the level necessary to warrant national concern. However, Cliff Kincaid of America's Survival has been writing about some very interesting aspects to the story that most don't know about. There's of course the matter of the United States coughing up 10 captured spies in return for 4 but what about how quickly the whole story - and spies - virtually disappeared?

Interestingly, there were apparently rather lucrative business deals in the works between the U.S. and Russia as well as individuals within the Obama administration who were targets of the espionage: Via USA Survival:

It is certainly the case that a continuing spy scandal threatened to undermine U.S.-Russia business “opportunities” and “cooperation.” It is also true that there is evidence that the Russian agents targeted the Obama Administration and former Clinton Administration officials.

Getting practically zero mention in the media has been the intent of the spies that were captured here in the United States and what they were actually doing. It turns out that nuclear weapons programs were of great interest:

Documents in the scandal demonstrate, as we have reported, that the Russian intelligence service, the SVR, was interested in penetrating “think tanks” with influence over U.S. foreign policy The SVR, the successor to the KGB, was especially interested in nuclear weapons-related information.

What we do know, based on public reports, is that one Russian agent had a job at Microsoft, another had been trying to cultivate a fundraiser for and friend of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and another had claimed contacts with a Clinton Administration official by the name of Leon Fuerth, who had been Vice President Al Gore’s top national security aide.

So we quickly found out that top Obama and Democratic Party officials had been targeted in this intelligence operation. Is this why the scandal had to go away?

The real meat of the story may just involve a delegation led by Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) in 2005. Bellona reported at the time that members of Lugar's delegation were detained in Russia for three hours before their plane was allowed to depart for the Ukraine. Permission to take off was only granted after every member showed their passports. One of the people in Lugar's delegation?

Barack Hussein Obama. This could actually mean that Russian authorities may be more familiar with Obama's passport than are U.S. Authorities. If there is anything untoward about the president's passport, it would seem the Russians would have a degree of leverage to get what they wanted - say, a 10-4 swap?

On a related note, Kincaid has been suspicious of political shock radio talker, Alex Jones for some time as have I but the facts continue to point to him being someone other than who he claims to be. Click HERE to see how Alex Jones responded to the spy scandal.

Read all of Kincaid's report.

SAUDI ARABIA TO HELP ISRAEL?

It's really not all that difficult to understand why Saudi Arabia would allow Israeli jets to cross its airspace in an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Although, at first glance, it would probably warrant a cocked eyebrow. It has nothing to do with Saudi Arabia suddenly liking Israel but it has a lot to do with Saudi Arabia fearing Iran going nuclear.

Times Online reports:

Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal.

In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran.

A little later in the article, a former member of Israeli intelligence was quoted:

Questioned on the option of a Saudi flight path for Israeli bombers, Aharaon Zeevi Farkash, who headed military intelligence until 2006 and has been involved in war games simulating a strike on Iran, said: “I know that Saudi Arabia is even more afraid than Israel of an Iranian nuclear capacity.”

In addition to Saudi Arabia being ruled by the Sunni sect of Islam and Iran's mullah's being of the Shiite persuasion, Iran has long viewed Saudi Arabia as a sellout to the west. Isn't it something that nations who have utter contempt for Jews don't seem to have a problem asking for their help when necessary?

Wars are full of surprises. It's possible that one of those surprises might include Iran placing Saudi Arabia #1 on its hit list above Israel, a projection that former Muslim terrorist Walid Shoebat has been putting forth for quite some time.

President Barack Obama's ties to Islam are with the Sunni Muslims. That is likely a contributing factor to his bowing to the Saudi prince. If Saudi Arabia is willing to help Israel in its fight with Iran, wouldn't one think Obama might be as well?

Curiously though, the Weekly Standard is reporting that the Obama Administration is backing a U.N. investigation of Israel over the Memorial Day flotilla incident involving Hamas, Free Gaza Movement, the IHH, and Turkey.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that senior Obama administration officials have been telling foreign governments that the administration intends to support an effort next week at the United Nations to set up an independent commission, under UN auspices, to investigate Israel's behavior in the Gaza flotilla incident.

Israel is already a tiny country facing long odds, surrounded by countries that want it extinguished. The last thing it needs is more international pressure applied to it. Saudi Arabia wants to help them - presumably, so would the Obama administration - in a possible confrontation with Iran. If so, why would Obama want to put even more pressure on Israel in its defense of groups and entities that have the sympathy and endorsement of Iran?

Turkey and Iran appear to be aligning; Iran has been helping Hamas for years; one would think the White House would be laying off of Israel over this one because of the situation with Iran.

h/t to Drudge for both links

ANOTHER U.S. ALLY SNUBBED BY OBAMA

In the summer of 2008, Russia invaded Georgia, a pro-western ally of the United States. Obama's response was controversial and not what one might call unambiguous. It was challenged by Obama's opponent at the time, John McCain and came up during one of their debates. Many believed that Obama was less than forceful with his rhetoric because he didn't want to appear confrontational with Russia - similar behavior was observed during the uprisings in Iran.

Part II of Obama's treatment of Georgia appeared to take place this week when the U.S. president refused to meet with Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili.

Via Jackson Diehl at Washington Post:

One of those left out was Mikheil Saakashvili, president of Georgia, who got a phone call from Obama last week instead of a meeting in Washington. His exclusion must have prompted broad smiles in Moscow, where Saakashvili is considered public enemy no. 1 -- a leader whom Russia tried to topple by force in the summer of 2008. After all, Obama met with Viktor Yanukovych, the president of Ukraine and a friend of the Kremlin. And he is also meeting with the leaders of two of Georgia’s neighbors -- Armenia and Turkey, both of which enjoy excellent relations with Russia.

Making this snub even more peculiar - h/t to Hot Air - is the recent revelation that Georgia had uncovered a plot to sell weapons-grade uranium on the black market. Since the securing of nuclear weapons all around the world was supposed to be a central theme at the Nuclear Summit, wouldn't such a discovery put Saakashvili at the front of the line for bi-lateral talks with Obama?

VIa the Guardian:

Georgian security forces have foiled a criminal plot to sell weapons-grade uranium on the black market, the country's president told a gathering of world leaders yesterday.

The revelation brought a sense of urgency to the Washington summit on nuclear security, where Barack Obama called on the rest of the world "not simply to talk, but to act" to destroy vulnerable stockpiles of nuclear material, or to safeguard them against theft by terrorists.

It would appear in this example that Obama's domestic policy of punishing success via higher taxes for the top producers in some cases translates to foreign policy. Think about this for a second. At a Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), the intent of which is to ascertain ways to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists, one country announces that it was successful in foiling a plot that would have led to nuclear weapons being in the hands of terrorists. Instead of the leader of that country being recognized for his country's success, he is snubbed by Barack Obama. The excuse? Too many leaders to see and schedule too limited. Uh, pardon me but I believe Georgia was the only country to announce such a huge victory on the eve of the NSS.

Here is video of an exchange between Fox's Neil Cavuto and Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili in which the former asks the latter about the snub. Saakashvili predictably took the high road but it's obvious to anyone this was a big presidential snub, presumably for the same reason Obama wasn't more forceful with Russia after the invasion - he didn't want to upset them.



One last thing on this. In an earlier post, I referenced the first paragraph of an AP story about the goals of this summit. Here is that paragraph:

In full accord on a global threat, world leaders Tuesday endorsed President Barack Obama's call for securing all nuclear materials around the globe within four years to keep them out of the grasp of terrorists. They offered few specifics for achieving that goal, but Obama declared "the American people will be safer and the world will be more secure" as a result.

Uh, maybe if more attention was given to the country that produced an ACTUAL RESULT, it would lead to MORE SPECIFICS on how to deal with the problem.

h/t to Hot Air

VIDEO: OBAMA SPANKS UNCLE SAM AGAIN

Struck me as another "Joe the Plumber" slip up, only this time he was talking at the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS). The excerpt from this 20 second clip that will raise eyebrows is when Obama says, "Whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military super power..." His handlers and apologists are sure to say his words were taken out of context.

Their argument will certainly be to look at the larger point - reducing the number of conflicts in the world is in America's best interest because we always end up being involved. That still doesn't explain the, "whether we like it or not" comment. When you couple that with Obama's actions, which seem to be more indicative of him NOT liking the U.S. being a dominant military power, it takes on added importance.



Moreover, In writing about the Summit, the AP - unwittingly or otherwise - seemed to encapsulate another problem consistent with Barack Obama's reality paradigm. Note the very first paragraph:

In full accord on a global threat, world leaders Tuesday endorsed President Barack Obama's call for securing all nuclear materials around the globe within four years to keep them out of the grasp of terrorists. They offered few specifics for achieving that goal, but Obama declared "the American people will be safer and the world will be more secure" as a result.

Few specifics, indeed. That tends to happen when academics are leading the discussion, one of which - Obama - seems to be chastising his own country for being too strong when nefarious nations not at the Summit - Iran and North Korea - are on the brink of obtaining nuclear weapons.

h/t to Free Republic