IAEA Inspectors Monitoring Iran 20 Percent Enrichment Attempt

By Steve Hynd

You're not going to see this in the mainstream U.S. media, which is currently partying like it's 2002 and they know an attack on a Middle-East nation is forthcoming.

International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors are at Iran’s nuclear facility in Natanz today checking the startup of production of highly-enriched uranium.

Iran says it has begun enriching uranium to 20 percent in 164 centrifuges, a laboratory rather than industrial scale of output for, it claims, research purposes in its reactor in Tehran.

Got that? 164 centrifuges, and the product will be under IAEA seal so it can't be diverted for weapons use without the balloon going up.

So can the many war-hypers in the Obama administration, Congress, neocon rags and the mainstream media now please STFU?

links at Newshoggers

Susan Smallheer | Vernon, VT | February 9

The Rutland Herald - The Department of Health said late Monday there appears to be "a very large area" at the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor contaminated with radioactive tritium, and contamination levels continue to rise.

Because the area is so big, according to William Irwin, radiological health chief, there are many potential sources of radioactive water at this particularly high concentration of tritium.

Geeta Pandey | Delhi | February 9

BBC - India has deferred the commercial cultivation of what would have been its first genetically modified (GM) vegetable crop due to safety concerns.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said more studies were needed to ensure genetically modified aubergines were safe for consumers and the environment.

Any writing I do about Central Asia tends to the more historical and runs away from the contemporary political. Mostly for the reason that the reporting out of the region--I'm not talking about Afghanistan, here--tends to be so bad, so mis- and ill-informed. Take Reuters for example:

Analysts say long-defunct groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan are regaining force in the impoverished region where ethnic tensions have long simmered under the surface.

"They (militants) are preparing the ground for a long, sustained military campaign in Central Asia," said Ahmed Rashid, a leading Pakistan-based expert on Afghanistan and Central Asia.

And then they go on to give this example or 'terrorism:'

First alarm bells rang in Central Asia last year when Uzbek, Tajik and Kyrgyz troops fought gangs they described as terrorist -- around the time when the security situation in northern Afghanistan deteriorated sharply.

"It does not matter who exactly was behind those attacks. It still means instability, that something's going on," said one Western diplomat. "It is certainly something we are watching."

Of course they cite the defunct IMU of Juma Namangani--he who was killed in late 2001 by a US missile. And they raise the phantom of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir, a millenialist and anti-secular group who aims to reestablish an Islamic Caliphate by peaceful means. HT has never engaged in any form of violence, which is probably why the authorities in the region dislike them so much.

Of course the writer of the story really buries the lede:

"It is the Central Asian regimes that continue terrorising their people," said Taji Mustafa, [the HT] representative in London. "Since the declaration of the West's so-called 'war on terror', Central Asian governments have used it as a convenient umbrella to pursue, arrest and torture their political opponents."

Maybe the media ought to look into that angle?

Cross posted from Nourishing the Planet.

Madyo Couto has a tough job. He works under the Mozambique Ministry of Tourism to help manage the country’s Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs). These areas were initially established to help conserve and protect wildlife, but they’re now evolving to include other uses of land that aren’t specifically for conservation.

David Jolly | Paris | February 9

NYT - Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank president, is returning early from a conference in Australia to take part in a summit meeting of European leaders this week, amid speculation over possible action to ease the debt crisis several countries are facing.

The E.C.B. president often participates in such summit meetings, which bring together the leaders of the 27 E.U. member states and the head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso. But this one is being held at an especially difficult time for the 16-country euro currency.

Investors have grown wary of the feeble public finances of a number of European countries — particularly Greece, Spain, Portugal and, to a lesser extent, Italy — raising the fear in some minds that the entire currency system could come under attack.

Edward Wong | Beijing | February 9

NYT - The sentencing of an outspoken literary editor to five years in prison for subversion showed that the Chinese government will not relent in its ongoing crackdown against critics and dissidents, supporters of the editor said Tuesday.

The editor, Tan Zuoren, was sentenced Tuesday morning by a court in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, for criticizing the Chinese Communist Party by writing and protesting recently against the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, when soldiers killed hundreds and perhaps thousands of civilians.

But Mr. Tan’s supporters said he had another black mark against him — he was assembling an independent report on the thousands of children killed when schools collapsed across Sichuan and nearby provinces during a devastating earthquake in May 2008.

BBC: China quake activist sentenced on subversion charges

At the center of the current fiscal troubles in Greece, Spain, Portugal and elsewhere in Europe are the promises made by governments to fund union salary increases and pension plans. Unions in Europe are much stronger than they are in North America, and in many of Europe’s less-wealthy countries, governments have chosen over the years to appease union demands even though it meant driving fiscal deficits well beyond the level tolerated by EU rules. Now that these governments are finding it impossible to continue to borrow on global markets without firm evidence that these deficits are going to be brought down, proposals to cut union pay or benefits are being met with strikes by firefighters, police, teachers, farmers, and others.

Do not for a moment think that these problems are not to be found in the United States. The difference here is that the “appeasement”, such as it is, has been concentrated at the state and local level, though the federal government has its share of unfunded promises to workers. The 50 states last year ran up a combined deficit of around $180 billion – coincidentally about the same amount that the US has spent bailing out AIG. The federal government has also helped out the states during this fiscal crisis, by lending them money to continue paying normal as well as emergency employment benefits to laid off citizens. This has averted a real crisis, since states are constitutionally required to plug any annual deficits. The real problems will show up later this year and next when the federal loans run out.

THE DEPROLIFERATOR --

"Nuclear war must be the most carefully avoided topic of general significance in the contemporary world. People are not curious about the details. … almost everyone seems to feel adequately informed by reading one book about nuclear war."
-- Paul Brians, chronicler of nuclear imagery in literature and pop culture

Some of us are oblivious to the threat of nuclear war; others shrink from it in fear. Many operate under the assumption that there's no longer anything to worry about because we survived the Cold War intact. Besides, there's always deterrence. Like a trusty old shotgun in the corner, we try to reassure ourselves, it's served us well for 50 years.

Martin Fackler | Tokyo | Feb 9

NYT - They were Tokyo’s worst-kept diplomatic secrets: clandestine cold war era agreements with Washington that obligated Japan to shoulder the costs of United States bases and allow nuclear-armed American ships to sail into Japanese ports.

For decades, Japanese leaders have gone to great lengths to deny the pacts’ existence, despite mounting proof to the contrary from the testimony of former diplomats and declassified documents in the United States. The most sensational instance came in 1972, when a reporter who unearthed evidence of one of the treaties was arrested on charges of obtaining state secrets, reportedly by means of an adulterous affair.

Now, the so-called secret treaties are causing problems again, this time in how Japan is handling its suddenly rocky relationship with the United States.

The new administration in Tokyo, whose election last summer ended a half-century of nearly unbroken control by the Liberal Democrats, wants to expose the treaties as a showcase of its determination to sweep aside the nation’s secretive, bureaucrat-dominated postwar order. Last fall, the foreign minister appointed a team of scholars to scour Japanese diplomatic archives for evidence of the treaties. Its findings are due this month.

The problem is that the inquiry is coming at a delicate moment in Japan’s ties with its longtime patron, the United States. The administrations of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama of Japan and President Obama are already divided over the relocation of an American air base in Okinawa. By exposing some of the less savory aspects of Japan’s military reliance on the United States, the investigation has drawn criticism, particularly from conservatives in both nations, as an effort by the left-leaning Hatoyama government to pull away from Washington.

CSM....inflation hit Monopoly-ville. As you pass Go, you do not collect $200. Instead, you earn $2 million.

Feb 9

BBC - Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc has said it will contest in court the conduct of the Ukrainian presidential election she appears to have narrowly lost.

Deputy leader Elena Shustik said the bloc would contest results at some polling stations and ask for a recount, Russia's Interfax news agency reports.

Another bloc official accused Viktor Yanukovych's party of "falsification", Reuters news agency says.

However, foreign monitors have praised the conduct of the election.

With more than 99% of votes counted after Sunday's poll, Mr Yanukovych was estimated to be ahead on some 48.83% of the vote, while Mrs Tymoshenko had around 45.59%.

Ms Shustik was quoted as saying that the bloc would "challenge the results at certain polling-stations and seek a recount".

The bloc had not yet decided, she added, whether it would pursue a third round of voting.

In Ukraine's parliament, bloc member Serhiy Sobolev told MPs: "Voting day displayed a cynical violation of Ukrainian law by the teams of Yanukovych, pressure on the electors and a broad arsenal of falsification by the Regions Party [of Viktor Yanukovych].

"Consequently, the Tymoshenko bloc announces that we will defend in the courts our right, and the rights of our citizens, to honest and transparent elections."

Bill Tremblay | Trenton | Feb 9

Northumberland news - The military community is in shock following the arrest of 8 Wing Trenton Commander Colonel Russ Williams.

Col. Williams, 46, has been charged with the first-degree murders of Brighton resident Marie Comeau and Belleville resident Jessica Lloyd. He also faces two counts of forcible confinement, two counts of break and enter and two counts of sexual assault in connection with two home invasions in the Tweed area last September.

** 'In the company of the devil': Victim

Amal Jayasinghe | Colombo | Feb 9

AFP - Sri Lanka's former army chief and defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka is to be court-martialled, officials said Tuesday, a day after he was hauled away from his office by armed troops.

Hours before his dramatic arrest, Fonseka told reporters that he was willing to face any international probe into alleged war crimes committed by Sri Lankan troops in last year's final stages of conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Fonseka has been moved to an undisclosed military establishment ahead of disciplinary proceedings, a military official said.

"He will face a court martial even though he is not a serving officer," said the official, who declined to be named. "Military law applies up to six months from the date of retirement of any officer."

Fonseka, 59, the only four-star general in the army, quit in November after falling out with his commander-in-chief, President Mahinda Rajapakse.

In a brief statement posted on its website, the defence ministry said Fonseka would be charged with "certain fraudulent acts and other military offences".

Just prior to his arrest, Fonseka had said: "I am not prepared to protect anyone, if they have committed war crimes."

The government has resisted international calls for an investigation amid charges that a senior defence official ordered the killing of surrendering rebel leaders.

The United Nations says 7,000 civilians died during the final stages of fighting.

Here is one by Peter Spiro:

Cause and Effect

Cause you are poor
You go to public school.
Cause public school is free
You get a lousy education.
Cause you get a lousy education
You are uneducated.
Cause you are uneducated
You are treated with contempt.
Cause you are treated with contempt
You are contemptuous of others.
Cause you are contemptuous of others
You do not abide by the rules.
Cause you do not abide by the rules
You do not have a job.
Cause you do not have a job
You steal.
Cause you steal
You go to prison.
Cause you go to prison
Your life is wasted.
Cause your life is wasted
You are angry.
Cause you are angry
You are dangerous.
Cause you are dangerous
You are a bad effect.

And you are destroyed.

Cause you were a bad effect
Cause you were dangerous
Cause you were angry
Cause your life was wasted
Cause you went to prison
Cause you stole
Cause you didn’t have a job
Cause you did not abide by the rules
Cause you were contemptuous of others
Cause you were treated with contempt
Cause you were uneducated
Cause you got a lousy education
Cause you went to public school
Cause you were poor.

- Peter Spiro

Mohammed A. Salih | Washington, DC | February 8

IPS - If there were any doubts about what exactly U.S. President Barack Obama meant when he warned Iran of "growing consequences" during his State of the Union address last month, they seem to be dispelled by recent statements from top administration officials, who are beating the sanctions drum loud and clear...

Talk of sanctions does not hurt in Washington and to a lesser degree in Western European capitals, where many are weary of what they see as Iran's mind games and perceived intransigence. In fact, as Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an Iran expert at New York's Syracuse University, says, it has become "a popular sport in Washington" to bash Iran...

In fact, many experts are deeply sceptical about the effectiveness of sanctions and consider them a failure in general. Although the U.S. and its allies have spoken of "smart sanctions" mostly aimed at Iran's military institutions, such as the Revolutionary Guards and its affiliate businesses, there is a lot of doubt as to whether a sanctions policy can bring an end to Iran's nuclear programme...

As a deal between Iran and the West appears far-fetched at this point, calls for regime change and use of force against Iran are on the rise. Richard Haas, head of the Council on Foreign Relations, in an article entitled "Enough is Enough" , called on Obama administration to work for regime change in Iran, a policy former President George W. Bush unsuccessfully pursued for years.

My son and I watched the landing of the Boeing 747-8 this afternoon at Paine Field, Everett, WA. The 747-8 is the latest Boeing product in the long line of 747 airframes. The first flight today was the freighter version.

Notice the new Boeing House Colors - the curved cheat line down the fuselage. It was surprisingly quiet as well.

The 747-8 can be configured for passenger service with 467 seats in a three cabin configuration. The plane has a range of 14,815 km (Intercontinental) and 8,130 km (Freighter). The plane is more efficient than the prior 747-400 and the only plane in the 400-500 seat market that fits existing airport infrastructure - unlike the Airbus A380.

February 9

BBC - China has closed down what is believed to be the country's biggest training website for hackers, state media has reported. They say the site, Black Hawk Safety Net, gave lessons in hacking and sold downloads of malicious software.

The hacker training operation openly recruited thousands of members online and provided them with cyber attack lessons and Trojan software, the China Daily and the Wuhan Evening News said.

Black Hawk Safety Net recruited more than 12,000 paying subscribers and collected more than seven million yuan ($1m: £650,000) in membership fees, while another 170,000 people had signed up for free membership.
 

China Daily: 'Biggest hacker training site shut down'

QOTD:

This brings me to the second telling event of last week when President Obama said, kind of off-hand, apropos of the US economic situation, "You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college. You prioritize. You make tough choices." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (of Nevada) was all over Mr. Obama like a cheap suit for that. I'm sorry that the President didn't slam back the craven Mr. Reid and pull his upper lip over the top of his head. Fuck Las Vegas and fuck Nevada, and fuck all the casino operators in every pulsating gambling venue around this country. The last thing we need is to continue believing that it is possible to get something for nothing, or an industry based on that false principle. I'd go a lot further and shut down legalized gambling all over the USA, send it back to the margins, to the alleys, to the berm between the WalMart and the Target Store, to the basement boiler rooms, to the public bathrooms, to wherever it will be identified as indecent, shameful, and not healthy.

I've never been a gambler and opposed the legalization of gambling across the country for one key reason: it is a regressive tax. Those who can least afford it end up paying for it. So, if you want the lottery to fund your schools, as we did in Texas--and seriously, what the hell kind of mixed message do you we send out kids? Then you make the poor pay for it via lottery tickets.

Why bother getting everyone to pay for it fairly?

It's immoral and shameful.

Mexico is currently the #2 supplier of crude to the United States and Venezuela #3. But not for long.

Read and weep.

Like I said, the polarization continues. War will follow. It's just a matter of time.

Chad Pergram | Arlington, VA | February 8

FOXNews - Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. John Murtha, the first veteran of the Vietnam war and one of the most powerful lawmakers in Congress, died Wednesday morning at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, VA, after complications from gallbladder surgery. Murtha was 77.

A native of New Martinsville, W.Va., voters elected first elected Murtha to Congress in a 1974 special election that spelled impending doom for President Nixon and congressional Republicans. That fall, Democrats wrestled away 49 House seats from the GOP, reeling from the scourge of Watergate and a presidency in shambles.

All this gnashing of teeth about the Czar's inner circle is such old news. I wrote about this months ago. But it's certainly easier for Americans to blame the evil advisers of the Czar than accept the fact that the Czar shares their assumptions and ideas.

As I wrote then: "Seriously, this is a narrative trope straight out of Czarist Russia, when the peasants, long oppressed and over-taxed bemoan the fact that their Czar loves them, but is surrounded by evil ministers."

Occam's Razor, the Goodness of Fit, whatever you test you want to use, the bottom line is that Obama's advisers are a reflection of the man. Not the other way around.

Excellent piece by Ed Vulliamy in the Guardian UK. He's writing a book about Juarez and the Drug War there and tries to sum it all up:

... certain themes are inescapable: this brutality defines a war very much of its time, the first 21st-century war, because it is, in the end, about nothing. We have lived in a world where Arabs fight Jews, Hutus fight Tutsis, communists fight fascists, Serbs fight Croats, and British and American troops fight Islamist fundamentalists. They do so for a cause, faith or deeply etched tribal identity, however crazy.

But Mexico's war (some do not like calling it a war) has no such purpose. Mexicans are mutilating, decapitating, torturing and killing each other, ostensibly over money and the drug smuggling routes that provide it. But most of the ­violence revolves around the smaller profits of the domestic market and street corner. It is meted out for its own sake. Yes, there are regional and clan allegiances to the states of Tamaulipas, Michoacán or Sinaloa, but they are fluid and subject to far too many whimsical alliances and betrayals for the war to be compared to, say, tribal conflict in Rwanda.

The utter nihilism at the heart of Mexico's Drug War is shared by many young Americans today. Only our wealth and the insulation that our incredibly vigorous police state provide keep the lid on madness. And we can't afford to keep the clampdown on forever. Nor can we afford to provide gainful, meaningful employment to our young men.

And since the shared vision of our culture -- the "American Dream" of individual wealth with no responsibility to the larger community -- is utterly morally bankrupt, there is no mental barrier hold back evil. The Banksters who rule our society by shamelessly defrauding us all and then squandering the obscene profits on helicopters and high class prostitutes are just more polite versions of the killers in Juarez. They are in fact closer to the heart of the system that is producing the mega-violence in Mexico and profit from it via money laundering far more than any drug kingpin. When the "Masters of the Universe" of Wall Street are our highest vision of success it's just a matter of peeling back the mask to reveal the Death's Head behind the plastic surgery.

With no valid moral guidepost that is compatible with what we know to be true in 2010, we can expect nothing other than hedonism and selfishness, lust and greed and power and sexual violence to consume us all.

Another wise voice is that of the writer Cecilia Ballí, whose ancestors were once great ranchers around Matamoros and what is now Brownsville, Texas. "People say this is all about money," she says, "but it's about money and something beyond money; it's a social performance, a performance of power, of very male power. It's about being someone, a performance in a place and a country where that was not supposed to be possible."

The clock is ticking. Our turn is coming.