In a press conference held in Benghazi, Libyan rebel leaders said NATO air strikes were not enough, and that ground troops were needed, official to protect civilians.
The spokesman said that initially rebels were opposed to foreign ground troops, but under present conditions (meaning they are losing to government forces) they will now accept foreign ground troops. Remember when President Obama said the UN attacks against Libya would be over soon?
“We are ready to stage such war games jointly with those states on the Southern rims of the Persian Gulf in future.”-Brigadier General Hossein Salami, Islamic Revolution Guards Corps
Iran said that for the 2011-2012 year (Iranian year 1389) observers from other countries will be allowed to watch Iranian war games. It’s hoped that in the near future regional countries will also take part in the war games. The purpose is to build regional support for controling the Strait of Hormuz, and the Persian/Arabian Gulf.
“If Saudi Arabia had not made the historical mistake of deploying its forces on the Bahraini soil, today the conditions in the Middle-East would not be so difficult and complicated.”-Alaeddin Boroujerdi, Iranian National Security and Foreign Policy Commission
Boroujerdi made the comment while meeting with Kuwaiti officials. Kuwait’s National Assembly Speaker Jassem Mohammad al-Kharafi, also condemned the Saudi occupation of Bahrain. Weeks ago Kuwait was going to help with the Saudi and United Arab Emirates invasion of Bahrain, but backed out. Now Kuwait wants Saudi Arabia and the UAE out.
Even Saudi activists are condemning the Saudi Royal Family for the invasion, and gave a dire warning: “I believe that the fire of Bahrain’s revolution will spread to Saudi Arabia. Any free opinion poll in Saudi Arabia would reveal that at least 70% of the people want the overthrow of the Al Saud dynasty.”-Mohammad al-Mos’ari
What makes the situation more complicated is that Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
12 contractors have been freed, after being kidnapped in Afghanistan.
Iran officials will only say their diplomatic efforts worked to free the men. “After the news about the abduction of these individuals, we pursued the case through Kabul’s embassy in Tehran as well as Iran’s embassy in Kabul. We have made several contacts with the Afghan political officials and military forces.”-Ramin Mehman-Parast, Iranian Foreign Ministry
“The Iranian military’s Ground Forces will deploy its peacekeeping troops in any region of armed conflict upon foreign ministry’s recommendation.”-Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, Iranian Army’s Ground Forces Brigadier-General
The Iranian general told foreign military attachés that Iran’s Army is ready for “peacekeeping” duties, anywhere in the world. This is supposedly in accordance with Iran being a member of the Untied Nations, and being willing to help with UN peacekeeping missions.
In an earlier posting I warned that the Libyan situation could lead to World War 3. It’s all about not letting China have Libya’s oil.
Former U.S. Treasury official, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, admitted to Iranian media, that the so called rebellion in Libya was about oil, and not letting China have it: “In my opinion, what this is about is to eliminate China from the Mediterranean. China has extensive energy investments and construction investments in Libya.”
Roberts says the real reason the United States wants Gaddafi out, is because he refused to join the U.S. created United States African Command, which was created to counter China’s influence in the region: “The U.S. is countering this by organizing the United States African Command (USAC), which Qaddafi refused to join. So that’s the second reason for the Americans to want Qaddafi out.”
Roberts says if NATO succeeds in Libya, Syria and then Iran will be next: “If NATO, which is now the cover for the ‘world community,’ succeeds in overthrowing Qaddafi, the next target will be Syria. Iran is a major target because it is an independent state that is not a puppet of the Western colonialists.”
Roberts warned that this could lead to World War 3. He compared what the U.S. and U.K. did to Japan before World War 2: “In my opinion, what is going on is comparable to what the U.S. and Britain did to Japan in the 1930s. When they cut Japan off from oil, from rubber, from minerals; that was the origin of World War II in the pacific. And now the Americans and the British are doing the same thing to China.”
There is much more to the interview by Press TV
“Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right. I had a problem with the Saddam regime. I wanted to get rid of him and now I had this chance.”- Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed “Curveball”
The man that was the source for Bush Jr’s claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, codenamed Curveball, has admitted that he made the whole thing up.
Curveball was interviewed by the U.K. newspaper, The Guardian. Colin Powell was made a fool when he went before the United Nations, with a speech based on Curveball’s lies. Curveball says he was shocked to see that the U.S. actually believed his lies.
Curveball (Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi) made up the story about mobile WMD labs. He claimed he actually worked in one. Now he says it was all lies. As of today, April 21, 2011, no WMDs have been found in Iraq.
According to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey at least 4,330 foreign students have left Japan. The survey covers only those students actually enrolled in a Japanese school, not those that were planning on attending but hadn’t enrolled.
Most of the students were concerned with the nuclear disaster, and more aftershocks. The schools are worried their budgets will be adversely affected. Japan was hoping to attract 300,000 foreign students.
Radioactive iodine has been found in the breast milk of four women living in Japan.
One woman, living in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, contained 36.3 becquerels of radioactive iodine per kilogram. Milk from two women in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, contained 8.7 and 6.4 becquerels.
A citizens group paid for the analysts of the breast milk. Currently there is no official limits for radiation levels in breast milk, in Japan.
British Petroleum is suing Transocean for at least $40 billion in damages. BP claims the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history was caused by the failure of every safety system on the Deepwater Horizon rig.
BP is also suing Cameron International, claiming they provided a faulty blowout preventer.
Transocean, and Cameron International are suing BP, saying British Petroleum caused the problems, by making decisions based on cost savings, not safety.
Transocean is also suing Cameron International, and Halliburton, as well.