bloggie

Then there's this interesting article (via monkeyweather, to whom cognac)

Credit for the correction goes to lady redhawk.

Wow. A joined Israeli-American action. That's as it should be.

A recent statement by the Israeli military chief of intelligence, General Aharon ZeeviFarkash, indicated that Israel had set a March 1 time limit for diplomatic means to deter Iran's plans.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the Security Council talks (if Iran is referred to the UNSC it would be in the beginning of February and this sounds like it would happen immediately after.)

I've edited the article down to the parts that I thought were important, so do click over and read the whole thing if you want.

A recent statement by the Israeli military chief of intelligence, General Aharon ZeeviFarkash, indicated that Israel had set a March 1 time limit for diplomatic means to deter Iran's plans

That date is quickly approaching. The Turks are training with the Israelis, and the U.S. is moving a massive amount of air power.

Buckle up.

ev, you've done a good job covering the Iran issue and the deployments. Thanks.

Yes ev, thanks for keeping abreast of this.

I just read the article that was linked in #1. It was chilling.

Olmert was rattling his saber earlier today.

Thx., ev, for the timely posts.

That's as it should be.

True!
But why did the words "Custer's last stand" just pop into my head?
Well - here's hoping the US backs its ALLY Israel more honestly in coming days, huh? They'll need it.
Who knows what will happen once this thing is launched. At a guess, Israel is gonna have some problems with a few of its less-than-neighborly neighbors.

Olmert was rattling his saber earlier today.

Olemrt has a saber? WHo knew. WHat's it made outta? Spaghetti?

Ooooh - I got a cognac! How kewl! ;O)

A joined Israeli-American action. That's as it should be.

I would agree with that.

But no matter how tough the talk leading up to it, as soon as we/they/us take out the damn threat the rest of the world (rather than being grateful) will be up in verbal arms (because they wouldn't DARE the real thing) over our "rush to war" and evil racebaiting, and "murdering innocent women and children who were living the traditional Persian life" on top of whatever it is we shoot down.

Maybe we'll see a few more baby formula signs in English, too.

As an aside... I had to buy some more scrub last weekend, and when I saw a booth in the mall for Dead Sea scrub (Israeli owned and the franchise was owned by an Israeli living in the US also) I bought there.

Good stuff.

But it left me feeling vaguely uncomfortable (the proprietor and I talked for about 45 minutes - and haggled, which he seemed inordinately pleased to do but I got 10$ off)to be more hawkish than the Israeli I was buying my products from.

lady redhawk
Buckle Up

Yep I've been trying to tell my lib friends(I am surprised I still have them) that they need to develop a stronger stomach.

Arab countries HATE Turkey with a passion, just wait untill they are with us in the war against Iran and the mad mullahs.

I see that George W. is finally waking up and is preparing the logistics he desperately tried to avoid for the last 8 months. This probably means he is fairly convinced. Better late than never, George. Just let the things coming. And Israel, is already prepared.

Please get your protective mask and read the instructions on what to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent.

This is really sickening:

Iran TV Discussion on the Myth of the Gas Chambers and the Truth of Protocols of the Elders of Zion; "The Only Solution for This Cancerous Tumor [Israel] is Surgery"

So then -- it looks like the world will end in March....

#16 Yes Zork, it's very sick. A little bit further in the history, Khomeini was the first one who called Israel a "cancerous tumour"[sic] in the 1950's. Long before he came to power, and long before any world leader had to rethink his/her strategies to battle with islamic jihadists inside their countries, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was coping with the serious problems that was bound to threat the whole world in about 3 decades later and in a time that Shah needed support against these mullahs, the world closed his eyes and abandoned Shah. Then when Iranian people revolted serveral times and asked for world's support and attention, the world closed his eyes and abandoned them again. And this is more or less how we got here.

NUCLEAR: IRAN CLOSER TO THE BOMB THAN THOUGHT. And we have Musharraf to thank for that.

The location is Islamabad, the date 11 February 1999, the 20th anniversary of the Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Khomenini in Iran. Pervez Musharraf, head of the armed forces but not yet president [the coup which toppled the government of Nawaz Sharif was still six months away] pays a visit to the Iranian embassy.

The international community is watching Pakistan with concern and consternation. The previous year it had carried out its first nuclear tests in the remote areas of Baluchistan, the nuclear trafficking activities of Dr A.Q. Khan were already known in part to the US intelligence establishment and suspicion was mounting that Pakistan may have lent a hand to other countries in the race for nuclear weapons.

The attitude of the Islamabad government at the time was dismissive, reflecting ithe words of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s president from 1971 to 1973, when Pakistan’s nuclear programme was just getting off the ground. “There is a Christian Bomb, a Jewish Bomb and a Hindu Bomb. There must be an Islamic Bomb!"

On his way out from meeting the Iranian ambassador, Musharraf is greeted by a small group of Pakistani journalists. One of them asks whether it is true that Pakistan is helping Tehran in building a nuclear weapon. With a knowing wink at the ambassador Musharraf smiles. “It's natural that friends help one another�? he says.

That episode was never reported in the media because agents of the powerful ISI intelligence apparatus approached the journalists and “asked�? them not to write even a line on what they had heard.

Thanks for this post ev, and for all your other posts on this subject. It's easier to make sense of it all when all the articles are gathered together in one place like you've done.

I read Monkeyweather's link in #1 and it took me half way through the article before I realised they're an "anti-war" site. (OK, I'm only on my first coffee of the day, that's my excuse.) I can hardly beleive people can be such idiots. Do they think the Iranians will spare them if, Heaven forfend, they win the nuclear war?

They are so twisted in their anti-Americanism they can't see beyond the end of their own noses.

As to the rest of the post, I sincerely hope all these different nations can coordinate properly. Last time Israel held military exercises with the Americans, they won by mistake :-D They finished the whole war game before the Americans had got off the ground. That tends to happen in real time too with the Israelis, so I hope there's a "conductor" in place who'll know how to keep everyone in tune.

Hey--not wanting to rain on anyone's parade but the AF is sort of in a normal rotation cycle. And the squadrons that are deploying are replacing others that are returning home. I'm sitting in the middle of the 4th Fighter Wing (mighty Strike Eagles) and can tell you for sure that the whole wing is NOT gone. It's a pretty normal AEF rotation that's been on the books for awhile--no surprises or short notice orders for the folks who are going (or those of us waving good-bye).

OPSEC is everyone's responsibility.

My best to your husband and the forces in which he serves. Many of us forget just why it is we are at liberty in the first place.

#19 zork

Interesting. Confirms yet-again that Sunni Deobandists readily make common cause with mahdaviat Shi'ites against the Great/Little Satans.

pilots wife-well, my uninformed and irresponsible speculation was fun while it lasted :-D

ev, are you up early or up late?

Somebody, please take care of Meshuganah Max. He is looking more dangerous than all these aircraft listed.

Late, cba :-) My office computer rebooted itself without warning about six times while I was trying to write code, and since it's the computer I make my living on and my whole work environment is there I stayed up all night fixing it. Windows is so damn brittle :-( I made absolutely no changes to the damn thing (I'm very conservative about installing stuff on it), but it just started going up and down like a fucking yoyo and then the sixth time it refused to boot at all. So I tried a "dirty install" (so-called "repair install" or "in-place upgrade"), which stalled, then I did a chkdsk, which took an entire two hours (I guess all that crashing and rebooting wasn't too kind to my hard drive) and finally another attempt at a dirty install which also failed. Eventually I just decided to install another copy of Windows in parallel on the same drive and recreate my whole work environment. The new Windows install took 45 minutes, and for the rest of the night (since 4 AM) I've been reinstalling all the software that I use. Luckily my source code is in an offsite repository that I commit my changes to daily, so even if my hard drive had crashed I would still be only out a day's worth of coding, but still, what a royal pain in the ass. Anyway I just finished 20 minutes ago. I've still drinking beer, I haven't adjusted to it being morning yet :-)

Snoopy, har.

evariste, that sucks.

Sorry to hear it. Hope the day goes better from now on.

It will, you can't keep a bastard like me down :-)

I'm omitting that Windows helpfully saved 5 of the crash dumps for me, each of which, in kd (a windows kernel debugger), tattled on a different culprit. I think I must have a bad stick of RAM, because I'm pretty sure each of the drivers Windows is claiming to be bad is pretty good, and they certainly can't all be bad. I tried swapping in different sticks of RAM in various orders to isolate the bad one but couldn't, so it might be my motherboard or CPU. *still scratching my head over why a computer that's been rock-solid for ages has presently turned into shit*

Anyway, I'm simultaneously wired and exhausted. Kind of that "stayed up all night smoking crack" feeling.

Doh! That totally sucks ev. I was just checking bloggie and was wondering why you were up so early.

Anyhow, thanks for keeping on top of the Iran stories.

Am I the only one who didn't do drugs as a youngster?

Yes, I led a sheltered life...

Heh, Stormi, that's the one :-)

Not as an oldster either.

My friends who are a bit older than me and used to smoke pot tell me their bodies feel the bad parts more than the good parts now, plus it's embarrassing* to be an old dude trying to score some weed. So I'm gonna enjoy it while I still can. Which, I can't really, since I haven't had a steady supply of pot in months. Boo hoo hoo.
*old hippies are exempt, since they lack all sense of shame

ev, I guess I missed your #39.

When hubby and I were discussing the kids' plan I said, Wouldn't it be a hoot if they just baked some regular brownes, told me they were regular brownies but were laughing their heads off to make me think they were "special," and then stood back to see if I'd have a psychosomatic reaction.

Heh. That reminds me of the first (of several) times that I unsuccessfully took LSD. It was really late, like 3 AM, and I was already drunk and tired, and my friend Matt put a few drops on my tongue, and him and Heather did the same. They tripped balls. I kept thinking I was perhaps finally starting to trip, and realizing that I was just delirious and tired. It was to be the first of many disappointments for me with acid.

Damn it, her name wasn't Heather, it was H-something.

Helen! That was it.

They're married now, it's really cute :-) At the time he had a crush on her but they were just friends.

Well, I am bloggie's foremost threadkiller.

Watch the master and learn. G'night bloggie :-)

'Night ev, get some sleep.

LOL RIPF. Lates :-) My eyes are closing.

I never did any drugs either, neither as a youngster nor as a not-so-young-anymorester.

I smoked one cigarette one time, and I didn't inhale it, and I burned a hole in the carpet and almost set the house on fire and my mom beat my ass. Good times.

I'm outta here. Going home. See y'all later.

G'night ev (I'm sure it's night-time somewhere..)

I remember one time in high school we all shared a funny cigarette. I remember thinking AHAHHHA now I have figured out how Paul Simon wrote all the songs in the Graceland album. A pretty lame reaction-don't you think?

That was all that it ever did for me. I like real life-sober, warts and all.

I don't smoke dope but I drink a lot of coffee...

Me too. The second part.

ev, Confederate Yankee is also tracking military deployments - it looks like the Ronald Reagan is being moved into position.

CY reads, in part:

"It perhaps then, no accident that the nation's newest and largest aircraft carrier, CVN 76 Ronald Reagan has deployed to the western Pacific, where it could reposition to the Persian Gulf region relatively quickly. We also know that the 122nd Fighter Wing of the Indiana ANG is deploying up to 72 F-16s to "southwest Asia" in their largest deployment since the Berlin Crisis in 1961."

Pot was nice. Unlike alcohol, I actually prefered it in moderation. I haven't had it in almost 26 years now.

I had coke twice in high school - it seemed nice, but not worth the price, so I didn't touch it again until my Bolivia trip. Since I got it for free this time, I thought it was nice - more mellowing than stimulating. I wanted to listen to Stairway to Heaven (which just happened to be inspired by Andean music).

I tried speed twice - the first time it made me jittery and sick and I hated it, the second time I had it after a few beers and that took the rough edge off and it was cool, but I never used it again.

Never had acid, but I wouldn't mind having it once (and only once).

We both think they are headed to the ME.

I had a funny dream that I decided to share :-)

I was present at a formal social function, and President Bush walked up to me, grabbed my arm, and walked me aside and said in a low voice that I should take it easy with the blog posts putting together the pieces about which US military assets were headed to Iran. I said yes, mister President, and he squeezed my arm and walked off.

I should take it easy with the blog posts putting together the pieces about which US military assets were headed to Iran

ev, it might have been your dream, but it was my thought.

Until I realised that, genius though you be, if you can put two and two together, probably so can one or two others.