No problem. The US is already exporting gasoline so it wouldn't effect us. We could just keep it here rather than the oil companies selling to the highest bidder.

oldernell: No problem. The US is already exporting gasoline so it wouldn't effect us. We could just keep it here rather than the oil companies selling to the highest bidder.

And if I recall correctly, doesn't Iran import most of their gas, due to a lack of domestic refining capability? Seems like this threat of theirs could be a double-edged sword.

I don't think Iran can effectively "block" the Strait of Hormuz. They might make things dicey for a week, which will also give us enough time and a hell of a good opportunity to entirely destroy their nuclear program.

So.. go for it if that's what you want, farking crazies.

This is about sanctions.

NPR Dec 2011

The powerful pro-Israel lobby and a leading Jewish advocacy group on Wednesday endorsed tough sanctions on Iran's Central Bank as Congress wrestles with an Obama administration plea to ease the impact of the penalties to avoid driving up oil prices.

In a letter to lawmakers, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee said the sanctions would contribute to the U.S. effort to pressure Tehran economically and could dissuade Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon. Separately, the American Jewish Committee wrote to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta backing the penalties that would target foreign financial institutions that do business with the Central Bank.

Last week, the Senate voted 100-0 for an amendment by Sens. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., to add the sanctions to a broad defense bill. House and Senate negotiators are meeting this week to try to iron out the differences between their respective bills and produce a final version of the legislation for President Barack Obama's signature.

NJ Jewish News

Menendez said their opposition undermined a compromise he struck with Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) on legislation that was eventually passed in the Senate by a vote of 100-0.

The White House countered that the Kirk-Menendez amendment could actually help the Iranian economy if foreign banks resisted American unilateral efforts.

This week Menendez stood by his approach on sanctions, which he developed in consultation with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Repost

With AIPAC and Israel lobbying against accepting Iranian olive branches,and with no major political campaign in favor ofa U.S.-Iran rapprochement,changing course on Iran had no political downside.(Conoco's efforts to reverse the decision were hopelessly unsuccessful.) "From a political standpoint,nobody pays a price to be tough on Iran,"Ross commented. 188

(it should be noted how oil companies fought against it, unsuccessfully my point)

AIPAC launched a formidable lobbying campaign and managed to win extensive support for the bill-the Iran Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA)-on Capitol Hill. ILSA went beyond the executive orders that President Clinton had promulgated sixteen months earlier,because it targeted both American and non-American companies that invested $40 million or more in the Iranian oil and gas sector.The official aim ofthe bill was to deny Iran and Libya revenues that could be used to finance international terrorism and limit the flow ofresources necessary to obtain weapons ofmass destruction. The Clinton administration balked.Robert Pelletreau,assistant secretary ofstate at the time,testified in Congress against the bill, arguing that extraterritorial sanctions would be counterproductive by alienating countries whose cooperation the United States needed to cripple the Iranian regime."We want to isolate the Iranians,not become isolated ourselves,"he told the House International Relations Committee. But Clinton was no match for AIPAC's influence in Congress.The bill passed the House ofRepresentatives 415 votes to 0 and was reluctantly signed into law by the president in August 1996. 188

Though AIPAC's efforts had helped eliminate billions ofdollars worth of trade with Iran,the pro-Israel lobby felt that ILSA actually should be welcomed by American businesses because it primarily targeted foreign companies."We promulgated ILSA ...to level the playing field,"explained Weissman ofAIPAC."We wanted to show that we were not penalizing American business for foreign policy reasons....But nobody [in the busi- ness community] liked it.Maybe it was naïve ofus."Much ofcorporate America was infuriated by the bill.Even though the ILSA sanctions targeted foreign companies,they still posed a danger to American companies because ofthe potential threat ofcountersanctions by European and Asian governments.To make matters worse,even though it pressed for U.S.sanctions,Israel itselfcontinued to purchase Iranian goods through third countries."There were many times over the years that a few ofthe things Israel did vis-à-vis Iran admittedly allowed people to perceive that we [the United States] were harder-line than they [Israel] were,"Weissman admitted. 189

These contradictions aside,ILSA was a major success for AIPAC and Israel-not as a result offorcing a change in Iranian foreign policy,because it never did.In retrospect,Indyk admits that ILSA "was counterproductive to our efforts to try to change Iranian behavior because it split us from our allies,the Europeans." Rather,the success ofILSA lay in the almost irremovable political obstacle it created to any effort at improving U.S.-Iran relations-a critical objective ofIsrael as a result ofits fear that a dialogue between Washington and Tehran would come at the expense ofIsrael's strategic role."We were against it [U.S.-Iran dialogue] ...because the interest ofthe U.S.did not coincide with ours,"Israeli Deputy Defense minister Sneh admitted. 189

Grammar Nazi harping in 3...2...1...

Party Boy: Repost

Bleh.

2011-12-04 08:53:02 PM
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TFA
"I don't think anybody thinks we can contravene the laws of supply and demand any more than we can contravene the laws of gravity," said David S. Cohen, who, as treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, oversees the administration of the sanctions.

David S. Cohen. From his member page on group established by AIPAC in the 1980's, WINEP:

is the assistant treasury secretary for terrorist financing. In this role, he is responsible for formulating and coordinating the Treasury Department's counterterrorism financing and anti-money-laundering efforts.

Cohen chummy with other senior fellows at winep

He succeeded his former law partner, Stuart Levey

Levey on setting the trap for Iran

Levey speaking at AIPAC on Iran

Stuart Levey's War

"Stuart Levey's war is like 'Charlie Wilson's War,' " a U.S. official said over coffee in the State Department cafeteria, referring to a former Texas congressman's campaign to change policy on Afghanistan, a saga made into a movie. "It's the most direct and aggressive stuff we've got going. It delivers."

"Heheheh. Why doesn't anyone ask me for the "real' story" Heheheh"

Didn't the judean suicide squad already pull this off?

Is it 1987 again? I'm going to be late for class.

Get Lost: Ya know if we invaded Israel and took away their nukes, we'd be able to make friends with Iran. Have a few beers on the back lawn of the White House. Even offering up some Alabamaians to marry unwed Iranian women to seal the deal.

Plus they had more badass ancestors. The Persians kicked ass.

Actually, the real problem is land-launched Silkworm missiles. We can patrol the sea and declare an exclusion zone in which anything not positively identified as acceptable goes to the bottom but we can't find all the missiles hiding on land.

We can find all their ports, since they are big and immobile, and we can flatten them, and their major oil pipelines too.

video man: Ya know if we invaded Israel and took away their nukes, we'd be able to make friends with Iran.

SnakeMan: video man: Ya know if we invaded Israel and took away their nukes, we'd be able to make friends with Iran.

[troll.me image 552x414]

SnakeMan: video man: Ya know if we invaded Israel and took away their nukes, we'd be able to make friends with Iran.

[troll.me image 552x414]



Come at me, bro!

video man: SnakeMan: video man: Ya know if we invaded Israel and took away their nukes, we'd be able to make friends with Iran.

[troll.me image 552x414]

SnakeMan: video man: Ya know if we invaded Israel and took away their nukes, we'd be able to make friends with Iran.

[troll.me image 552x414]

[www.oocities.org image 400x324]

Come at me, bro!

Oops, quoted the wrong guy.

SnakeMan: video man: SnakeMan: video man: Ya know if we invaded Israel and took away their nukes, we'd be able to make friends with Iran.

[troll.me image 552x414]

SnakeMan: video man: Ya know if we invaded Israel and took away their nukes, we'd be able to make friends with Iran.

[troll.me image 552x414]

[www.oocities.org image 400x324]

Come at me, bro!

Oops, quoted the wrong guy.

I don't care. Your town center is farking toast.

NEDM: FTFA: Iran threatens to close the Straits of Hormuz

Go ahead. I'm sure that screwing over everyone in the world who has trade in the Persian Gulf will work out GREAT for you, and not have the utterly opposite reaction than what you wanted.

It will accomplish exactly what it's intended to, which is to give an attention whore attention. Cf. North Korea under Kim Jong-il, Iraq under Saddam, etc. If these dictatorships don't act like they're such badasses every now and again then no one will take them seriously. Iran is a fading civilization. Check the birth rates of those who haven't already escaped it. The leadership knows the country is not long for this world.

Ned Stark: invading their airspace with drones.
overthrowing sovereign nations whenever it seems fun.
"no options are off the table"
actively enforcing sanctions to destroy their economy
funding a nuclear powered ethnocentric colonial state in the region.
"Axis of Evil!"



yes, Iran sure is insane for wanting nuclear weapons. There is absolutely no legitimate reason they could possibly want them.

Iran is threatened by Israel? Funny, I thought it was the other way around.