You have an Obama administration who, just recently, expended a chunk of political capital on releasing oil from the strategic oil reserves to drive down prices to help boost the economy. In come the AIPAC sanctions, and Obama pleads to ease the impact of the penalties to avoid driving up oil prices. He loses. Oil prices go up over the nonsense that occurs afterwards, negatively affecting the US economy. Bonus? China Gets Cheaper Iran Oil as U.S. Pays for Hormuz Patrols. A varied group of other people, with the run up to the Iraq war fresh on their minds, arent too happy with this and with the televison media coverage. One example of this is from Robert Baer and Engel on Matthews. Baer is one of the very respected experts in the area. Another is from U.S. defense leaders that are increasingly concerned that Israel is preparing to take military action against Iran, over U.S. objections, and have stepped up contingency planning to safeguard U.S. facilities in the region in case of a conflict (fark doesn't like WSJ links, just google that sentence).
J Street has a dependable cadre of 40-50 members of the U.S. House of Representatives ready to heed its voting recommendations. Congressional insiders say J Street's green light in December for Iran sanctions nudged the bill from the super majority that traditional lobbying by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee usually turns out to officially "overwhelming": 412-12. That sent the Obama administration a clear message to hurry it on up, the insiders say.
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.
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.
i feel bad posting about what is going on, because the usual suspects are bleating away about israel and it might distract from their agenda, but still:
Lock down on internet sites in IranFebruary 21 2012 at 04:00pmBy ReutersComment on this storyiol scitech jan 19 google iran pic afpAFPIranians faced a second and more extensive disruption of Internet access, just a week after email and social networking sites were blocked.Tehran - Iranians faced a second and more extensive disruption of Internet access on Monday, just a week after email and social networking sites were blocked, raising concerns about state censorship ahead of parliamentary elections.The latest Internet blockade affected the most common form of secure connections, including all encrypted international websites outside of Iran that depend on the Secure Sockets Layer protocol, which display addresses beginning with "https"."Email, proxies and all the secure channels that start with 'https' are not available," said a Tehran-based technology expert who declined to be identified."The situation regarding accessing these websites is even worse than last week because the VPNs are not working."Many Iranians use virtual private network, or VPN, software to get around the extensive government Internet filter which aims to prevent access to a wide range of websites including many foreign news sites and social networks like Facebook.Last week, millions of Iranians suffered serious disruption in accessing email and social networking sites amid concerns the government is extending its surveillance on ordinary citizens.Iranians have grappled with increased obstacles to using the Internet since opposition supporters used social networking to organise protests after the disputed 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.The government denied any fraud in the vote which ignited large-scale street protests that were crushed by security services after eight months.Iran is preparing to hold parliamentary elections on March 2, the first national election since 2009. - Reuters
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