http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=are+we+ready%3F Thu, 23 May 2013 14:32:54 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=are+we+ready%3F Wed, 22 May 2013 23:10:42 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8a9_1369278513 USMC_SRT The secret is getting out. If you haven't heard The Secret State yet, trust us, you will. The band was founded by an Army Iraq veteran and two Coast Guard midshipmen-turned-downrange contractors, and its single "The Biggest Mistake" has garnered 66 million views since it was first posted on YouTube in September. The song's official remix, featuring Akon and B.O.B., has tacked on an additional 26 million hits. This is from a band still polishing its debut album even while getting ready for a summer tour that will help raise money for wounded veterans. "It's all kind of crazy," says drummer Mike Marx-Gibbons, a sergeant in the Maryland Army National Guard, who describes the band's sound as "the ugly baby of Coldplay and Linkin Park." He joined the Army on Sept. 12, 2001, and spent 16 months in Iraq pulling convoy security duty as a medic just after the invasion. Guitarist Josh Jones and DJ Danny Espinosa were football players at the Coast Guard Academy. Although both dropped out before receiving their commissions, they ended up serving in other ways - as contractors in Afghanistan with special ops and counternarcotics units, operating mostly out of Kabul. Clearly, the band members' military backgrounds come out in their music. Check out their "Say It's Over" single on YouTube and you'll see a story of a fleshy spouse cheating on her soldier husband. Their latest song, "Fight or Flight," filmed at the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., promises more military action. While the song hasn't even been released yet, the track's behind-the-scenes, making-of sneak peek has gotten more than 8 million hits. For the "Fight or Flight" video, the band shot at multiple locations around Fort Irwin, including Painted Rocks, where every training rotation leaves its mark with unit patches painted on massive desert boulders. Combat scenes were shot at "Ertebat Shar," NTC's mock Afghanistan village. The soldiers featured in the video are members the National Training Center's 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. Set for release May 14, the "Fight or Flight" video was directed and produced by former Army reservist Karen Kraft and Alison Savitch, an award-winning visual effects supervisor and film producer whose credits include "Mortal Kombat," "The Abyss" and "Terminator 2." The two-day shoot at NTC was Marx-Gibbons' first time at Fort Irwin. "But I had heard the horror stories," he says. "So I showed up there to do the video a little on edge wondering if I'm going to get locked up by whatever NCO or officer walks by." Instead, he ended up partying with the troops and base brass like, well, a rock star. After the first day of shooting, "we all ended up at one of the base bars. Whenever you mix the Army and a rock band together at a bar, it's a bad situation," he says with a laugh. "We had a lot of fun. We were doing bear fights - drinking car bombs and J"ager bombs back-to-back, and then everyone growls like a bear and yells 'bear fight.' It got a little crazy." * The Secret State band members Hunter Schafer, bass and backup vocals; Dan Martiniano, lead vocals and piano; Mike Marx-Gibbons, drums and violin; Josh Jones, guitar and vocals; Danny Espinosa, digital performer. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8a9_1369278513 USMC_SRT Not so secret: Guard medic's band is gaining ground Army, Coast, Guard, Medic, Band Tue, 21 May 2013 07:11:50 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=aeb_1369134261 Nazel_Hut I will not give my personal opinion From: https://www.facebook.com/mujahid.syrie.1 I used google translate. These animals are not worthy to be manually translated. This text goes with the photo: Armor of a Mujahid from Netherlands - A Kalashnikov Russian model "saaroekh" (how do you mean rusted weapons!) With six additional warehouses - handgun model Makarov - Two handgranten, a defensive and an offensive model - A good knife - Casio watch Photo an hour before leaving for a battle in the vicinity of Homms will take place taken by one of the brothers from the Netherlands. The operation will consist of 150 brothers. The estimated numbers of the enemy is estimated to be above 400. Three days ago we had a battle in Idlib. With the help of Allah, we have killed 30 dogs Bashar us we had no Suahada (Martyrs), or 3 injured shore-hamdolilah. Do not forget us in your du3a. Soon Inshalah more news from Bilaad As-Shaam. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=aeb_1369134261 Nazel_Hut 'Dutch' Jihadis ready to go to Syria wtf Sat, 18 May 2013 15:19:32 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=04b_1368904397 Detroit Iron BEIRUT, Lebanon - President Bashar al-Assad of Syria , in a rare interview with a foreign newspaper, appeared to dismiss the possibility of serious progress arising from peace talks planned for next month, and to back away from earlier statements by Syrian officials that the government was willing to negotiate with its armed opponents."We do not believe that many Western countries really want a solution in Syria," Mr. Assad told Argentina's Clar'in newspaper in an interview published online on Saturday, blaming those countries for supporting "terrorists" fighting his government. "We support and applaud the efforts, but we must be realistic," he said, referring to efforts by the United States and Russia to broker talks in June. "There cannot be a unilateral solution in Syria; two parties are needed at least." Mr. Assad took a hard line throughout the interview, according to a transcript in English provided in advance to The New York Times. He declared that he would run for election as scheduled in 2014 and would accept election monitors only from friendly countries like Russia and China. He also accused Israel of directly aiding rebels by providing intelligence on sites to attack, refused to acknowledge any mistakes in his handling of the two-year-old crisis, and disputed United Nations estimates that more than 80,000 people had died in the conflict. All those contentions are likely to fuel what is already widespread pessimism about the potential talks. It is unclear who will talk to whom, and about what. The opposition in exile remains unable to unify fragmented rebel groups behind its political leadership, even those that nominally fall under the umbrella of the opposition's Free Syrian Army, let alone the growing cadres of extremist Islamist fighters who openly reject the opposition leadership and are a source of increasing concern in the West. Mr. Assad's supporters have long contended that his wide array of foreign foes, including the United States, Israel and Sunni-led Persian Gulf states, benefit less from a resolution than from a prolonged Syrian conflict that weakens Mr. Assad and his allies, Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group. That view is increasingly shared by some rebel leaders, increasingly frustrated with the West's unwillingness to give them untrammeled support. In meetings with his supporters ahead of the talks, Mr. Assad has projected confidence, suggesting that the United States would accept his remaining in power if American officials believed that he was militarily strong and could curb jihadists. He told a group of Lebanese politicians visiting Damascus, the capital, this month that his forces were carrying out offensives to retake rebel-held territory in Homs Province and the suburbs of Damascus to increase his leverage at the talks. "The battlefield will decide who is strong when they enter negotiations," he said, according to one of the visitors, Abdelrahim Mourad, a former Parliament member whose party is allied with Hezbollah. "America is pragmatic. If they found out they were defeated and the regime is the winner, the Americans will deal with the facts." Whether that view is realistic or not, Mr. Assad's opponents inside and outside Syria widely doubt that he is willing to make meaningful concessions - doubts he reinforced in the interview, refusing to recognize any element of the armed opposition as representing legitimate Syrian demands or even to talk to the rebels unless they disarm. "We are willing to talk to anyone who wants to talk, without exceptions," he said. "But that does not include terrorists; no state talks to terrorists. When they put down their arms and join the dialogue, then we will have no objections. Believing that a political conference will stop terrorism on the ground is unreal." Mr. Assad appeared to be backing off previous overtures by members of his government. On Feb. 25, Ali Haidar, the minister for national reconciliation, told Syria's Parliament that the government was ready to meet with armed opposition groups. "We, the government, and me, personally, will meet, without exceptions, with Syrian opposition groups inside and outside" the country, he said. "The president of the country has said that we will try with everyone that is against us politically. And even those who use arms - we must try with them." In continuing reports of violence, opposition activists in Syria said Saturday that government forces had killed and then incinerated at least 17 people in a two-day operation in an upscale neighborhood of northwest Homs, Syria's third-largest city and long a hotbed of the insurgency. Some died when government forces shelled the fields surrounding the neighborhood, Al Waer, starting Friday, and others were stabbed to death, said the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition news network with contacts in Syria. The bodies were later set on fire by soldiers and pro-government militias, the activists said. The activists' accounts could not be independently confirmed, but videos posted on YouTube and Facebook groups controlled by rebels showed charred bodies and shattered limbs, wrapped in red cloths and carpets. "They were found dead and burned," said Abu Rami, an activist from Homs reached through Skype. "We could only recognize nine men, but the rest were like black logs." Other residents said 10 of the dead belonged to two families and included four women and two 11-year-old children. In other developments, the elderly father of Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, was abducted Saturday by a gunman in southern Dara'a Province, close to the Jordanian border, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a network based in Britain with contacts inside Syria. The government later arrested relatives suspected to be involved with the abduction, the observatory said, adding that rebels in the area had denied any responsibility. Mr. Mekdad's office confirmed the abduction, and residents in a neighboring village said that around 30 men, some carrying weapons, raided the family home and took the 80-year-old father, who was described by residents as "not an outspoken regime supporter and not a troublemaker." A spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army described the abduction as "unconvincing and strange," given that the father did not share his son's views and was seen as having good relations with the rebels around him. The Mekdad clan numbers in the thousands in Dara'a, where the uprising began, and includes government supporters and opponents. In the Clar'in interview, Mr. Assad also elaborated on his government's contention that the opposition was aligned with Syria's longtime foe, Israel, which has bombed Syrian territory three times this year in attacks believed to have targeted weapons being delivered to Hezbollah. "Israel is directly supporting the terrorist groups in two ways," he said. "Firstly it gives them logistical support" - a possible reference to medical aid Israel has given to Syrians wounded near the Syria-Israel border - "and it also tells them what sites to attack and how to attack them." Mr. Assad said that rebels had attacked a radar station instrumental to Syria's antiaircraft defenses against Israel, giving no further details. Mr. Assad said international monitoring of the 2014 elections would violate Syria's sovereignty. "We do not trust the West for this task," he said, proposing observers from "friendly countries such as Russia or China." "China?" the interviewer asked, presumably perplexed because China is not known for holding free elections. Mr. Assad was silent. The reporter then asked if Mr. Assad had any "self-criticisms." He replied: "It's illogical to carry out self-criticism before the events have been completed. If you go to watch a film you don't criticize it until it ends." He dismissed rebels' accusations that his forces had used chemical weapons, noting that such weapons "would mean killing thousands or tens of thousands of people in a matter of minutes. Who could hide something like that?" He disputed international estimates of the toll in the war, saying that it was unclear how many of the dead were Syrians and that "the terrorists often kill and bury their victims in mass graves" - an allegation that his opponents have leveled at his forces. Though foreign jihadists take part in the Syrian conflict, the vast majority of fighters are Syrians. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/world/middleeast/syria-developments.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=04b_1368904397 Detroit Iron Syria's Assad, in an Interview, Suggests Peace Talks Are Unlikely to Succeed President Bashar al-Assad of Syria Sat, 18 May 2013 09:47:56 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a9e_1368883530 SvenVonErick Love, or hate, Alex Jones does he have a point? If anyone actually cares, and see all that he sees all of his waking hours, there is no break from the anger and the real fear. In Louisiana, it is a law that you cannot sell a lawnmower, or any other item for cash at a tag sale. You can go to jail for that. Corporate Organized Crime and International Bankers want their cut of every transaction. So, who is really in charge? Are you represented for your taxation? International bankers and corporate organized crime finance and rig elections. They rig courts. Police protect international criminals, not US citizens complaining about being ripped off exercising Free Speech. Who was protected during Occupy Wall St in New York City, OWS? International bankers were protected. Citizens who organized were spied on police and arrested. So, are we under soft occupation, soon to go hard? Do you remember the Enron power scandal in California. Enron sold electricity outside the states so there would be blackouts in California. Rates went up 4x. Citizens who yelled and complained were arrested, some may have even got prison. The connected thieves, got rich, almost none went to prison. The Enron money put Arnold Schwarzenegger in as governor and George W. Bush in as President. Obama is a worse protector of the UN, bankers, and corporate organized crime. Connecticut US Senator Chris Dodd took bribes from international bankers and then sold all of American out as head of the Banking Committee. All Americans might owe criminal bankers $50,000 to $100,000 just because of the Dodd crimes. Dodd was never arrested. Steal a candy bar from a corner shop and you get arrested and some cases you get jail. Why should elite like Dodd who belong to secret societies be exempt from all the laws we the people have to obey. Do you know the Caesar crossing the Rubicon, about when the military is the government? Look it up. The enemies to the international take over are religion, independent minds, gun owners, families, the self-employed, small business owners, and especially family farmers. The military is now declared in charge. They now run US streets and anything and everything goes. Tanks and checkpoints are the new normal. Machine guns shooting Americans from open doors on military helicopters will go mainstream. Armed drones killing Americans in America is ready. What the CIA did to the continent of South America from the 1950's has now come home to roost in America. Have you heard of the United Fruit Company ]? This post breaks down their method ] of occupation. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a9e_1368883530 SvenVonErick CIA/Military/International Banker Final Stage Occupation US? UN, US, gun, confiscation, ban, OWS, NDAA, Connecticut, New York, City, police, State, brutality, Boston, bombing, Newtown, Sandyhook, Schoolyard, shooting, hoax Tue, 21 May 2013 16:18:27 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9fc_1369167223 Setright May 21, 2013 01:11 AM By Lauren Williams Supporters of Hezbollah and relatives of Hasan Faisal Sheker, an 18-year-old Hezbollah member, carry the coffin during his funeral in Nabi Sheet near Baalbeck May 20, 2013 BEIRUT: The defected Syrian General and head of the opposition Supreme Military Council has issued a stern warning to the Lebanese government to stop Hezbollah forces from entering Syria or risk bringing the Syrian war to its doorstep. In a broad-ranging interview via telephone from Jordan, where he is holding talks ahead of Thursday's "Friends of Syria" meeting, Gen. Salim Idriss lashed out at Hezbollah as religious extremists, while also claiming President Bashar Assad's government had lied about gains in the strategic city of Qusair over the weekend. "The devil's party is attacking Syrian territory, slaughtering the Syrian people to help the criminal Bashar's forces," he said, referring to Hezbollah. "They lied, they were not able to enter Qusair and the number of theirs killed was in the dozens," he said of fierce battles Sunday in the city, 40 km from the Lebanese border. "Their dead are lying on the streets." Idriss said the Free Syrian Army was well armed and being reinforced, determined to defend the city. "We respect Lebanon's sovereignty and we don't want to bring the battle to Lebanon, but our patience is running out," he said. "We want the Lebanese president to guarantee that Hezbollah will not enter our territory." It is unclear if Idriss' warning implies a further escalation or simply a continuation of the repeated shelling of Hermel and other Bekaa Valley areas by rebel groups over the past month. "These are religious extremists with no respect for the integrity of Lebanon, who have built a state under the state," he said of the party. The general, touted by the U.S. as the best chance for unifying disparate opposition groups on the ground, also said the role of the extremist Nusra Front, labeled a terrorist organization for their links with Al-Qaeda, was exaggerated. "There are no more than 5,000 fighters with Nusra,' Idriss said, "But there is an obsession in the Western media and a sophisticated propaganda campaign that overstates their role." He said the military council did not work with Nusra, adding that efforts to unite rebel brigades under the council's umbrella had made headway, with "around 90 percent" of rebel forces now under its command." The military council is appealing to the U.S. and other Arab backers of the opposition for more and heavier weapons to topple Assad. Concerns about the growing influence of extremists and a string of videos showing rebel human rights abuses have prompted concern among U.S. lawmakers that weapons could fall into the wrong hands. "We condemn their practices which are against our law and our traditions. We are exerting efforts to educate the FSA on lawful practices and telling them not to put anyone on trial until the regime has fallen," he said. He said there was evidence Nusra was infiltrated by the regime to legitimize fears of a Sunni extremist takeover, but admitted their methods, which have included extrajudicial killings, torture and suicide attacks, had tarnished the reputation of the opposition. "There are suspicions that they are not working with the revolution, but are serving the regime interests." Idriss appealed for all foreign fighters in Syria to leave, and pointed to the role of Hezbollah as "religious extremists' and a "foreign militia" to counter the regime's claims that the uprising was backed by foreign extremists. "What is more dangerous: Hezbollah or Nusra?" he asked. Idriss was doubtful the peace conference proposed by the U.S. and Russia: "The only discussion point is when and how Assad will leave and when the commanders of the criminal armed forces will be brought to trial." Referring to an interview Assad gave with an Argentinian newspaper this week in which he said he would "not stand down," Idriss said a political solution appeared unlikely. "The majority of Syrians don't want violence, but they don't want Assad. Unfortunately it seems the only way to unseat him is militarily." "The fighters on the ground, the martyrs, who have spilled their blood, are ready to fight for another 100 years." http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9fc_1369167223 Setright Syria's Idriss warns Lebanon to restrain Hezbollah WORLD NEWS, MIDDLE EAST, SYRIA Tue, 21 May 2013 11:39:20 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d5b_1369149417 Detroit Iron 10:27 AM XAVIANT HAZE Miami is a world famous Mecca of sun, sand, sex and fun outlandish decadence. It's also a very dark town, haunted by real life zombies , third world-esque poverty and a long history of racial segregation and violence . Because of this entropic mix Miami boasts an impressive musical resume, birthing a mix of pirates, tropical wanderers and wayward sons that over the decades have created some of the most groundbreaking, influential and varying musical styles. With a long history of music innovation and violence, it's no wonder that Miami shows up as the spark that helped create Rock n' Roll - in the form of a Suicide note. Late one night in some neon faded Art Deco beach hotel, an anonymous man killed himself leaving behind only a crumbled note in one of his jean pockets. On the note where the words "I walk a lonely street" his last ode to a cruel world. Little did he know his sacrificial death would soon give birth to a whole new generation of music lovers. His unidentified corpse was shown on the cover of the Miami Herald with the headline asking, "Do You Know This Man?" When exactly this suicide happened can't be confirmed and a search of the Miami Herald Digital Archives hasn't provided any help. We know that it was sometime in 1955 when Steel-guitar player, singer-songwriter and failed dishwasher repairman Tommy Durden read the Herald suicide article while working a gig in Jacksonville, Florida. Durden believed the suicide note's line had a dark blues quality and scribbled it down as a future song lyric. He showed the article and the lyric to his friend Mae Boren Axton, herself a songwriter, TV personality, radio host and publicist. Mae immediately was drawn to the lyric, deciding that naturally at the end of a lonely street one would find a "Heartbreak Hotel" and with that verse, a light bulb of creativity exploded in the warm Florida air. Mae wrote the rest of the lyrics while Durden worked out the melodies on his guitar. Within an hour the duo had composed one of the most important songs in the history of music. But Mae was more than just a schoolteacher and part-time songwriter; she was a visionary who saw the 'big picture' before anybody else. That 'big picture' was Elvis Presley and way before the Colonel turned him into a money making machine, Mae Axton was convinced that Elvis was going to be the biggest thing to hit America since the Model-T Ford. Mae first encountered Elvis during a tour she helped set up in Jacksonville, Florida when the relatively unknown Memphis singer was a last minute replacement booked to open for country recording star Hank Snow. As Elvis began his set, Mae Quietly blended in with the crowd at the Gator Bowl, and watched in awe as twenty-year old Elvis completely blew the audience away with his mix of hillbilly swag, bluesy crooning and pelvic shaking lunacy. After his performance, teenage girls chased Elvis back to the dressing room while managing to completely tear off the young stud's shirt. The forty-year old Mae had never seen anything like that in her entire life. Nobody had. She quickly helped get Elvis booked for a return show on July 28, 1955, which caused excessive lines of teenage girls waiting to get inside and irate local preachers screaming about the dangers of Elvis's shaking hips. After another smashing performance Mae interviewed Elvis for a local radio station. She was influential in helping get Elvis's first record "That's alright Mamma" radio airplay in Florida and during the interview the 'King' gratefully acknowledges this fact... "Well, thank you very much, Mae, and I'd like to personally thank you for really promoting my record, because you really have done a wonderful job, and I really do appreciate it because if you don't have people backing you, people pushing you, well you might as well quit." After the interview Mae boldly declared to Elvis that she would write his first number one hit. After concluding the "Heartbreak" writing session with Durden, a local Country singer named Glenn Reeves stopped by for a visit and was immediately put to work by Mae. She asked Reeves to record a demo of the song with her tape recorder in the style of Elvis Presley, Reeves wasn't a fan but being a good friend did the song anyways. The fact that Reeves even knew who Elvis was, is a testament to how much buzz the 'King' had created for himself in the South. After finishing the song, Reeves thought "Heartbreak Hotel" was weird and that Elvis "wouldn't go far" and declined any credit or association with the song. Mae had no intention of ever using Reeves anyways; she just wanted something to show Elvis in the hopes that he would record the song. She approached the popular country duo The Wilburn Brothers and offered them a chance to record a better quality version of "Heartbreak Hotel" but the duo declined, calling the song "Strange and almost Morbid". With no choice but to hunt down the kid on her own, she headed to Nashville where Elvis was being honored as the most promising male country star of 1955 at the annual Country Music Disc Jockey Convention. By this time the Colonel Tom Parker had weaseled his way to becoming Elvis's manager, and shortly after Thanksgiving of 1955 secured for Elvis a record deal at RCA. Since Mae had worked with Tom before as a publicist in the early 50's she was on familiar terms with the Memphis slickster. It's even rumored that Mae is the only person in the world that the notorious Colonel Tom Parker has ever apologized to. After talking with Tom about a song she wanted Elvis to record she was told where to find the kid, and headed out in the rain towards the Andrew Jackson Hotel. Elvis was relaxing in his room and in a jovial mood when Mae showed up with her tape-recorded demo. Upon hearing the rough sounding tape Elvis shouted, "Hot dog, Mae! Play it again!" mesmerized as he played the track about ten times in a row. Elvis said the song reminded him of Roy Brown's " Hard Luck Blues " and agreed to record a version. Mae was delighted and the next day they sat down with the Colonel to hammer out a deal. Though the team of Mae and Durden are responsible for penning the song, Elvis's name appears on the finished record as a third writer. It's common knowledge that the Colonel often insisted his boy get co-writing credits in exchange for cutting a song. Always securing a steady stream of publishing checks for the two of them. However this wasn't the case, Mae was so confident that "Heartbreak" would help establish Elvis as a star she insisted on a shared credit in order to help Elvis buy a house for his mother in Florida. With formalities out of the way Elvis began to rehearse the song and added it his live repertoire, changing one line of the lyric, from "they pray to die" to "they could die" while performing the song for the first time in Swifton, Arkansas on December 9. The small club was packed with over 200 people and Elvis oozing with confidence after singing with RCA rocked the club to the floor. The club's owner and everyone there could sense that something fresh was happening. The 20-year-old Elvis was already a regional star but he had yet to appear on national television. That night in the Arkansas club, Elvis burned through some tracks he'd recorded for Sun, a few covers, and then introduced his new song in that familiar Southern drawl, "I"ve got this brand new song and it's gonna be my first hit." His words were prophetic. A month later Elvis entered the recording studios at RCA, where he was scheduled to record five songs in two days. The studio at 1525 McGavock Street was RCA's first permanent recording facility in Nashville, a town still years away from becoming the recording center of the musical universe. Surprisingly, up to then there were only a handful of studios in town. It wasJanuary 10th, 1956 and Elvis Presley who two days prior just turned 21 was ready to begin recording his debut single for RCA. Mae was also present during the session; interested in watching Elvis record live and curious to how her song would end up sounding. At Sun Records, Elvis had been backed by Sentry Moore on guitar and Bill Black on bass. Later a drummer was added -- a position eventually filled by D.J. Fontana on a permanent basis. At RCA, the Elvis combo was joined by legendary Nashville guitarist Chet Atkins on rhythm guitar and future Grammy winner Floyd Cramer on piano, along with a gospel trio consisting of Ben and Brock Speer of the Speer Family and Gordon Stoker of the Jordanaires. They recorded on monaural equipment (single track) and the studio was somewhat of a live room with a curved ceiling that created low frequency problems causing bass notes to be boomy and roll around for a long time. They were always in search of a dead spot for the bass. They also had several large curtains hanging on the walls to help "deaden" the room. They employed the use of movable "wall-like" baffles to isolate instruments to minimize sound bleeding into other mics. During that first session RCA was anxious to recreate the "slapback" echo effect that Sam Phillips had created at Sun. To add them to Elvis's vocals Chet and engineer Bob Farris created a psuedo "echo chamber" by setting up a speaker at one end of a long hallway and a microphone at the other end and recording the echo live. It sounded strange to hear it as they were recording live because at Sun studios Sam used to add the effect afterwards. This technique failed to add anything special to the first two songs they recorded " I got a Woman " and " Money Honey " but as soon as they tried it out on "Heartbreak Hotel" goose pimples suddenly appeared on everybody's skin. The heavy overdubbing of echo and the drummer's rim shots created a powerful atmosphere of upbeat despair that effortlessly matched Elvis's heart-rending vocal. It was a perfect blend of haunting lyrics and ghostly music set to the penetrating crooning of a man destined for greatness. During the opening lines to each verse when Elvis sings acapella, his voice is penetrating, dejected, and completely captures the alienation of disaffected youth. The dark track sounded like it belonged more on a Doors album than a lead single for RCA in 1956. The gloomy song was markedly different from anything Elvis had done previously at Sun Records and when his former label boss Sam Phillips heard an acetate from the Nashville session, he pronounced "Heartbreak Hotel" a "morbid mess." Biographer Donald Clarke writes: The sound quality of that first session was not good, and 'Heartbreak Hotel' is the worst of them all. Chet Atkins played rhythm guitar and Floyd Cramer was added on piano, together with an entirely unnecessary vocal trio led by Gordon Stoker, lead singer of the Jordanaires. Scotty Moore's guitar sounds exceptionally, irritatingly tinny, Cramer is too prominent and the whole track sounds like it was made underwater in a breadbox. It was a disgraceful recording for 1956 but a good song for Presley. On hearing the new songs, the RCA executives in New York freaked out and wanted to scrap the sessions. They told producer Steve Sholes to turn around and head straight back to Nashville to re-record the tracks. Sholes later stated, "They all told me it didn't sound like anything, it didn't sound like his other records and I'd better not release it, better go back and record it again" But Elvis was unfazed and begged the grey-haired executives to trust his instincts and release "Heartbreak Hotel" as a single. Promising that if it sank he would be at their mercy for any song they wanted out of him. Elvis had that Southern charm, and he had it in spades. The RCA 'brass' relented and pressed ahead with the release, albeit with sizeable suspicions. Elvis clearly believed in it, certain that the song was the right one to catapult him into the big time. It was properly mastered and released as a 45 single with the B-side " I was the One " on January 27, 1956 and went nowhere despite Elvis making his network television debut on the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show. For the first month of its release "Heartbreak Hotel" barely registered on the pop charts and seemed to prove that the RCA executives were right. But that all changed when Elvis finally had the chance to perform the song on the popular Milton Berle Show. This performance from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hancock in San Diego California, rocketed Elvis to superstardom. His good looks, unique voice and swiveling hips sent the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Californian girls into a frenzy of screams, faints and tears. The men had never seen anything like it and the San Diego Police Chief announced that if Elvis ever returned to his city and performed in the way that he did he would be jailed for disorderly conduct. Like a meteor blast Elvis had hit the mainstream. The fateful string oftelevision exposure (a new medium) undoubtedly helped propel "Heartbreak Hotel" to the number-one spot on Billboard's best-seller list 45 days after its release, where it stayed #1 for eight weeks. The song also reached number one on the country chart and number three on the R&B chart. It became Elvis Presley's first Gold record selling more than a million copies just as Mae Axton had predicted. Considering this is the song that really introduced rock to the mainstream (white public) it's amazing how dark the lyrics really are... Well, since my baby left me, I found a new place to dwell It's down at the end of lonely street at Heartbreak Hotel You make me so lonely baby, I get so lonely, I get so lonely I could die And although it's always crowded, you still can find some room Where broken hearted lovers do cry away their gloom You make me so lonely baby, I get so lonely, I get so lonely I could die Well, the Bell hop's tears keep flowin', and the desk clerk's dressed in black Well they been so long on lonely street They ain't ever gonna look back You make me so lonely baby, I get so lonely, I get so lonely I could die Hey now, if your baby leaves you, and you got a tale to tell Just take a walk down lonely street to Heartbreak Hotel "Heartbreak Hotel" put Elvis on the map, and helped forever alter the landscape of Popular Culture. He would perform the song during most of his live shows between 1956 and 1977, including a blistering rendition on his 1968 comeback special. Elvis performed it for the last time on May 29, 1977 at the Civic Center inBaltimore, Maryland. The song and alternative takes have been released on almost every Presley compilation album since the 60's. In 1979, following Presley's death, author Robert Matthew-Walker wrote, "Heartbreak Hotel became one of the legendary rock performances. For many people it is Elvis Presley, and it continues to excite and fascinate listeners. Heartbreak Hotel is a classic performance, yet when it is analyzed it appears so simple that one cannot recall a time when one did not know it." "Heartbreak Hotel" is one of the most influential songs of all time. It single handedly ushered in the era of Rock n' Roll and influenced every key rock artist in its wake. In a 1975 interview, John Lennon recalled his friend Don Beatty introducing him to Presley's music. Lennon said that his family rarely had the radio on, unlike other members of The Beatles who grew up under its influence. Beatty showed Lennon a picture of Presley that appeared along with the charts on the New Musical Express magazine, and Lennon later heard "Heartbreak Hotel" on Radio Luxembourg. Lennon said: When I first heard "Heartbreak Hotel", I could hardly make out what was being said. It was just the experience of hearing it and having my hair stand on end. We'd never heard American voices singing like that. They always sung like Sinatra or enunciate very well. Suddenly, there's this hillbilly hiccuping on tape echo and all this bluesy stuff going on. And we didn't know what Elvis was singing about... It took us a long time to work what was going on. To us, it just sounded as a noise that was great. George Harrison credits "Heartbreak Hotel" with handing him a "rock n roll epiphany" when in 1956, at age 13, he overheard it being played at a neighbor's house while riding his bike. Thus, it was "Heartbreak Hotel" that turned Harrison from a relatively well-mannered schoolboy into a guitar-crazed truant who would audition for John Lennon's Quarrymen the following year. The Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards stated in his 2010 autobiography,Life, that "Heartbreak Hotel" was one of the first rock and roll influences he had. Apart from Presley's impact on him, Richards was even more impressed by Scotty Moore's guitar playing, as well as the rest of the band. Richards says: Good records just get better with age. But the one that really turned me on, like an explosion one night, listening to Radio Luxembourg on my little radio when I was supposed to be in bed and asleep, was "Heartbreak Hotel." That was the stunner. I'd never heard it before, or anything like it. I'd never heard of Elvis before. It was almost as if I'd been waiting for it to happen. When I woke up the next day I was a different guy. Led Zeppelin's lead singer Robert Plant stated that the song "changed his life". He recalled hearing it for the first time when he was eight years old: It was so animal, so sexual, the first musical arousal I ever had. You could see a twitch in everybody my age. All we knew about the guy was that he was cool, handsome and looked wild. Critic Robert Cantwell wrote in his unpublished memoir Twigs of Folly: The opening strains of "Heartbreak Hotel", which catapulted Presley's regional popularity into national hysteria, opened a fissure in the massive mile-thick wall of post-war regimentation, standardization, bureaucratization, and commercialization in American society and let come rushing through the rift a cataract from the immense waters of sheer, human pain and frustration that have been building up for ten decades behind it. Paul McCartney says, "It's the way Elvis sings it as if he is singing from the depths of hell. His phrasing, use of echo, it's all so beautiful. Musically, it's perfect." With "Heartbreak Hotel" a certifiable smash Elvis Presley was on his way to superstardom. Over the years he begged Mae to write another song for him, but feeling she could never top "Heartbreak" Mae declined, content that her initial hunch about Elvis was right. Mae continued to write other minor hits through the 60s and 70s while maintaining a career as a schoolteacher and community activist. Proud to have set Elvis on his way but completely nonchalant about writing one of the most groundbreaking songs ever. In a 1982 interview, the song's co-writer Tommy Durden said the song, "has paid the rent for more than 20 years." Citing its cultural significance the Grammy's inducted the song into their Hall of Fameand when then presidential candidate Bill Clinton (the first black president) made his famous appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1992, he chose "Heartbreak Hotel" to play on his sax. He killed it, got the crowd hyped and secured the gig for the presidency... And to the deserted soul who took his own life in Miami, never knowing that his suicide note "I walk a lonely street" would forever change the world by helping to shape & create the phenomena of Rock n' Roll - Thank You. Sadly, your loss was our gain. C'est la vie... http://xavianthaze.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-suicide-in-miami-gave-birth-to.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d5b_1369149417 Detroit Iron HOW A SUICIDE IN MIAMI GAVE BIRTH TO "HEARTBREAK HOTEL" AND THE RISE OF ROCK N' ROLL Elvis, Heartbreak Hotel Mon, 20 May 2013 19:57:45 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ff5_1369094055 Detroit Iron Jason Chaffetz raises the prospect. By Robert Costa Representative Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, says President Barack Obama may face impeachment over his administration's response to the Benghazi attack. "They purposefully and willfully misled the American people, and that's unacceptable," Chaffetz tells me. "It's part of a pattern of deception." Behind the scenes, he says, House Republicans are frustrated by the White House's evasiveness, and the calls for impeachment will likely increase. Chaffetz acknowledges that House speaker John Boehner is wary of moving too swiftly against the president, but the brash, 46-year-old conservative is tired of waiting for answers. He's ready to issue subpoenas and schedule more hearings. His chief concern is that the White House, which he says is staffed by "self-preservationists," seems to be hiding documents related to the attack and the president's decisions, in order to protect the administration from scrutiny. "They've released 100 emails, but there are thousands of documents that we still need to see," he says. "The truth gets colder as time goes on, so we need to stay vigilant." "Now, the speaker has more patience than I do," Chaffetz says. "He has told me to be patient, that the truth will eventually surface. But I'm not a patient person, and if this administration makes us do this the hard way, that's what we'll do." Chaffetz's tension with the White House has been building for months, ever since he took a fact-finding trip to Libya last October, less than a month after the terrorist attack. During that visit, he huddled with several U.S. diplomats, including Gregory Hicks, a former deputy chief of the Libya mission. But the heavy-handed tactics of the president's advisers, he complains, sullied his investigation from the start. He worries that allies of Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton have inappropriately pressured his sources - and restricted his access. "They've obstructed me from doing my congressional duty," he says. "When I went over there, a State Department babysitter intimidated me and many others." "The State Department had people watching my every move," he recalls. "But even as they watched me like a hawk, I was able to see how ill-prepared the embassy was for an attack. There were walls that weren't very tall, and trees that could be climbed. One of the walls was so low that some people were able to prop up a ladder to dump trash on our embassy's grounds. I asked one of my guides why that was allowed, and he shook his head and said, 'Well, I guess we just didn't want to offend the neighbors.'" But the worst part of the journey, Chaffetz says, was having State Department lawyer Jeremy Freeman along, shadowing him through every meeting. Hicks and other U.S. diplomats, he says, were effectively muzzled by his presence. "And at one point, Hicks had to leave a meeting, only to be chastised over the phone by Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton's top adviser," he says. "It was unsettling - to see, up close, the depths to which Secretary Clinton was willing to go to manipulate the process." Chaffetz says he has relayed these stories to his Republican colleagues, especially after Hicks testified before the House oversight committee earlier this month. Chaffetz says the conversations about his experiences have stirred unease, and he expects members to press the White House for details on how officials may have obstructed Congress. "The White House likes to say that our questions are a political sideshow, but it seems like it was their politics that caused a lot of the problems," Chaffetz says. "Hicks testified about being suppressed from saying much to me during my trip, so it's not like we're running roughshod." Over the weekend, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer appeared on the Sunday talk shows and defended the administration. When asked about the editing of national-security talking points and the president's conduct on the night of the attack, Pfeiffer argued that the administration was engaged and acted responsibility. Chaffetz doesn't buy it. "This is an administration embroiled in a scandal that they created," he says. "It's a cover-up. I'm not saying impeachment is the end game, but it's a possibility, especially if they keep doing little to help us learn more." Look for Chaffetz, the chairman of the oversight committee's subcommittee on national security, to lead the fight for accountability as the controversy - and talk of impeachment proceedings - escalates. In the meantime, he's trying to get back to Libya. "Unless you go out there and kick the tires, you'll never really get the proper perspective," he says. "I've been kicking them for a while, but this is only the beginning. I'm going to spend months finding out the truth, and do whatever it takes." - Robert Costa is National Review 's Washington editor. http://www.nationalreview.com/node/348752 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ff5_1369094055 Detroit Iron The Impeachment Option Jason Chaffetz, (R, Utah), President Barack Obama, Benghazi Mon, 20 May 2013 11:12:51 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d13_1369061584 m16carbine How do you say 'Quagmire' in Farsi? By THANASSIS CAMBANIS, May 2013, Foreign Policy Magazine ARSAL, Lebanon - For more than a year, leaders in Lebanon have anxiously eyed the murderous civil war in Syria, wondering whether it would leap across the border and engulf the small, fractious country. And yet, it is Lebanon that now has jumped decisively into the fray, with Hezbollah's help apparently crucial to the Syrian regime 's strategy and survival. Uniformed Hezbollah fighters openly patrol the northern reaches of Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, fighting on either side of the increasingly porous border with Syria. Rocket and mortar teams target Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters a few miles away, and Lebanese Hezbollah infantry fighters crisscross the "Shiite villages" surrounding the city of Qusayr just across the border in Syria, which now forms one of the pivot points of the conflict. The fighting around Qusayr has brought into the open the parlor game over whether Iran and Hezbollah are active combatants in Syria's war. In an April 30 speech, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah hinted at greater involvement from the Lebanese paramilitary group in Syria, warning that the regime had "real friends" who would prevent Syria from "fall into the hands" of the United States and Israel. The thunder of artillery fire in the mountains flanking the Beqaa Valley, like the spate of no-longer-hidden Hezbollah funerals , make clear that Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors have crossed a Rubicon. They are now fully vested factions in the Syrian civil war, and they're committed to an open and escalating fight. Not 20 miles from Hezbollah's position as the crow flies, FSA fighters flee across the border to the Sunni village of Arsal, nestled north in the Beqaa Valley in the mountains separating Lebanon and Syria. They make no distinction between the Syrian army, Hezbollah, and Iran -- because, they say, they get shot at by all three. "We could have common interests with Hezbollah, but they're attacking us. Now there are grudges, which we will have to settle after the war," said Shehadeh Ahmed Sheikh, 24, a self-described mortar man in the FSA. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor of an unfinished home in Arsal. Sheikh had brought with him 16 members of his extended family after their house in Qusayr had been destroyed earlier that week; as we talked, they squatted around him in the dwelling, which they had been assigned to by Arsal's mayor. Like many Sunnis in the area, he referred to Hezbollah, whose name means "the Party of God" in Arabic, as Hezb al-Shaitan -- "the Party of Satan." By supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the hilt, Hezbollah and Iran are risking their hard-won reputation as stewards of an anti-Israel and anti-U.S. alliance that transcends sect and nationality. Syrian combatants increasingly understand the war in sectarian terms: On one side there is the Sunni majority; on the other side, other sects and a small group of Sunnis that have made common cause with the Alawite regime. Western diplomats estimate that a few thousand Hezbollah fighters are involved in the Syrian fighting. Close observers of the group, which carefully guards its operational structure, say that they mistrust any precise numbers. But if Hezbollah has sent hundreds, or even a few thousand, of its best-trained fighters to Syria, that deployment certainly represents a significant percentage of its fighting force. During its 2006 war with Israel, the highest estimate of Hezbollah fighters killed was about 700, with the group's own official death toll closer to 300. Sunnis are increasingly framing the conflict as a sectarian jihad. The influential Lebanese Salafi cleric Ahmad Al-Assir has set up his own militia , suggesting his fighters would be just as willing to confront Hezbollah in Lebanon as they already are to travel to Syria to fight alongside the rebels there. Supporters of the regime and Hezbollah point out that the rebellion tolerates Sunni fundamentalist extremists whereas Assad and Hezbollah rely on a time-tested alliance of minorities, including Alawites, Christians, Druze, and Shiite Muslims. The propaganda of both sides has sharpened a narrative of the Syrian conflict as a struggle between Sunni extremists and old-style authoritarians, who at least protect the minorities they exploit. Deadly identity politics have taken root, and people on both sides of the conflict see it more and more as a matter of survival. Sheikh, the young Sunni fighter, planned to return to battle as soon as he settled his family: "We cannot go back to the way things were before" On the eve of the uprisings just three short years ago, many Arab analysts observed half-jokingly that the most influential state in the Arab world wasn't Arab at all -- it was Iran, awash in oil revenues and ready to lavish cash on a region in the throes of an increasingly hot Sunni-Shiite cold war. Sunni monarchs and dictators fretted about a "Shiite Crescent" linking Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Hezbollah. Tehran, for its part, strutted triumphantly across the Arab stage, bragging about an unstoppable "Axis of Resistance" oiled with ideological fervor and the supreme leader's bank account. What a difference a few uprisings can make. Today, Iran's involvement in Syria has all the makings of a quagmire, and certainly represents the Islamic Republic's biggest strategic setback in the region since its war with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ended in 1988. Syria's conflict has begun to attract so much attention and resources that it threatens to end the era when Iran could nimbly outmaneuver the slow-moving American behemoth in the Middle East. Iran -- already reeling from sanctions -- is spending hundreds of millions of dollars propping up Bashar al-Assad's regime. In the murky arena of sub rosa foreign intervention, it's impossible to keep a detailed count of the dollars, guns, and operatives the Islamic Republic has dispatched to Syria. Westerners and Arab officials who have met in recent months with Syrian government ministers say that Iranian advisers are retooling key ministries to provide copious military training, including to the newly established citizen militias in regime-controlled areas of Syria. "We back Syria," Iranian General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan reiterated on May 5. "If there is need for training we will provide them with the training." In private meetings, Iranian diplomats in the region project insouciance, suggesting that the Islamic Republic can indefinitely sustain its military and financial aid to the Assad regime. To be sure, its burden today is probably bearable. But as sanctions squeeze Iran and it comes under increasing pressure over its nuclear program, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) might find the investment harder to sustain. The conflict shows no signs of ending, and as foreign aid to the rebels escalates, Iran will have to pour in more and more resources simply to maintain a stalemate. If this is Iran's Vietnam, we're only beginning year three. The cost of Tehran's support of Assad can't entirely be measured in dollars. Iran has had to sacrifice most of its other Arab allies on the Syrian altar. As the violence worsened, Hamas gave up its home in Damascus and its warm relationship with Tehran. Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government has also adopted a scolding tone toward Iran on Syria. On Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy's first visit to Tehran, he took the opportunity to blast the "oppressive regime" in Damascus, saying it was an "ethical duty" to support the opposition. Gone are the days when Iran held the mantle of popular resistance. Popular Arab movements, including Syria's own rebels, now have the momentum and air of authenticity. Iran's mullahs finally look to the Arab near-abroad as they long have appeared at home -- repressive, authoritarian, and fierce defenders of the status quo." Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Iran's commitment to Assad has put the crown jewel of its assets in the Arab world, Hezbollah, in danger. Just a few years ago, a survey found that Nasrallah was the most popular leader in the Arab world. Along with other members of the "resistance axis," Hezbollah mocked the rest of the Arab world's political movements as toadies and collaborators, happy to submit to American-Israeli hegemony. Today, however, it has sacrificed this popular support and enraged Sunnis across the Arab world by siding with a merciless dictator. Hezbollah used to try to cultivate allies from all sects, so that it wouldn't seem to be pursuing a purely Shiite agenda, but it now appears in the eyes of the Arab world to have cast its lot -- hook, line, and sinker -- with a brutal minority regime in Syria over a popular, largely Islamist movement. A Pew survey last year found that the group's popularity was declining in predominantly Sunni countries such as Egypt and Jordan, while Lebanese Sunnis and Christians also increasingly soured on the party. In the border town of Hermel, usually secretive Hezbollah fighters have openly mobilized. They fight on both sides of the border, protecting a ring of Shiite villages in Syria that connect Damascus to the Alawite heartland. An untold number of Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Syria -- so many that the movement has stopped keeping the funerals secret and has even released videos of some of the martyrs. "We bury our martyrs in the open," Nasrallah said in his recent speech. "We are not ashamed of them." Hezbollah positions in Hermel were shelled on May 12, and the Sunni jihadist Nusra Front reportedly claimed responsibility . In their rhetoric, Lebanese politicians have sought to downplay the sectarian nature of the fight in Syria, and there are plenty of individuals who say they have chosen sides out of interest or ideology, rather than sect. Yet to most of its participants, the conflict has taken on an undeniably sectarian hue: an almost entirely Sunni rebellion, against a regime supported by the majority of Syria's other sects. "There's no difference between Hezbollah, the army, and the Syrian regime," scoffed Mustafa Ezzedine, a driver in Arsal who was recently dragged into the conflict as a literal hostage, kidnapped because he was a Sunni Muslim by a Shiite clan that wanted one of its own kidnapped members released. It doesn't matter that among his guests at a recent, lazy hashish-fueled afternoon tea was a member of that same rival clan: sectarian politics have little regard for personal views. For residents of the Beqaa Valley, the war in Syria has already drifted across the border, and they fear it could get worse quickly. The regional stakes are high as well. On at least one occasion, the Syrian conflict has cost an Iranian military commander his life. In mid-February, a shadowy IRGC officer responsible for overseeing Iranian reconstruction projects in Lebanon who went by the names Hessam Khoshnevis and Hassan Shateri was killed on the road from Damascus to Beirut. Iran put out the story that Israel assassinated their man, but Western and Arab officials told me they had seen reliable intelligence reports that it was a Syrian rebel ambush. A who's who of Lebanese politicians paid condolences at the Iranian embassy, and Hezbollah's number two, Naim Qassem, delivered a long tribute to the fallen IRGC offer at a memorial service in an underground theater in Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs. It was the latest sign that Hezbollah is willing to risk everything in supporting the Syrian dictator -- and that Iran just may ask its Lebanese ally to fight to the end, or go down with the ship. "We would be nothing without Iran!" Qassem thundered in his tribute. "Others hide the foreign funds they receive. We proudly open our hands to Iran's gifts. What the resistance needs, they provide." http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d13_1369061584 m16carbine How Do You Say 'Quagmire' in Farsi? hezbollah, fsa, saa, syria, syria civil war, iran Thu, 16 May 2013 18:38:15 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=396_1368743794 omniradar Take It From the Rabbi's Mouth Take It From the Rabbi's Mouth Introduction by Gilad Atzmon Every so often we come across a secular Jewish 'anti' Zionist' who argues that Zionism is not Judaism and vice versa. Interestingly enough, I have just come across an invaluable text that illuminates this question from a rabbinical perspective. Apparently back in 1942, 757 American Rabbis added their names to a public pronouncement titled 'Zionism an Affirmation of Judaism'. This Rabbinical rally for Zionism was declared at the time "the largest public pronouncement in all Jewish history." Today, we tend to believe that world Jewry's transition towards support for Israel followed the 1967 war though some might argue that already in 1948, American Jews manifested a growing support for Zionism. However, this rabbinical pronouncement proves that as early as 1942, the American Jewish religious establishment was already deeply Zionist. And if this is not enough, the rabbis also regarded Zionism as the 'implementation' of Judaism. Seemingly, already then, the peak of World War two, the overwhelming majority of American Rabbis regarded Zionism, not only as fully consistent with Judaism, but as a "logical expression and implementation of it." In spite of the fact that early Zionist leaders were largely secular and the East European Jewish settler waves were driven by Jewish socialist ideology, the rabbis contend that "Zionism is not a secularist movement. It has its origins and roots in the authoritative religious texts of Judaism. Those rabbis were not a bunch of ignoramuses. They were patriotic and nationalistic and they grasped that "universalism is not a contradiction of nationalism." The rabbis tried to differentiate between contemporaneous German Nationalism and other national movements and they definitely wanted to believe that Zionism was categorically different to Nazism. "Nationalism as such, whether it be English, French, American or Jewish, is not in itself evil. It is only militaristic and chauvinistic nationalism, that nationalism which shamelessly flouts all mandates of international morality, which is evil." But as we know, just three years after the liberation of Auschwitz the new Jewish State launched a devastating racially driven ethnic-cleansing campaign. Zionism has proven to be militaristic and chauvinistic. Shockingly enough, back in 1942 as many as 757 American rabbis were able to predict the outcome of the war and they realised that the suffering of European Jewry would be translated into a Jewish State . "We are not so bold as to predict the nature of the international order which will emerge from the present war. It is altogether likely, and indeed it may be desirable, that all sovereign states shall under the coming peace surrender some of their sovereignty to achieve a just and peaceful world society (a Jewish State)." Some American patriots today are concerned with Israeli-American dual nationality and the dual aspirations of American Jews. Apparently our rabbis addressed this topic too. According to them, there is no such conflict whatsoever. All American Jews are American patriots and all American decision makers are Zionists. "Every fair-minded American knows that American Jews have only one political allegiance-and that is to America. There is nothing in Zionism to impair this loyalty. Zionism has been endorsed in our generation by every President from Woodrow Wilson to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and has been approved by the Congress of the United States. The noblest spirits in American life, statesmen, scholars, writers, ministers and leaders of labor and industry, have lent their sympathy and encouragement to the movement." Back in 1942 our American rabbis were bold enough to state that defeating Hitler was far from sufficient. For them, a full solution of the Jewish question could only take place in Palestine. "Jews, and all non-Jews who are sympathetically interested in the plight of Jewry, should bear in mind that the defeat of Hitler will not of itself normalize Jewish life in Europe. " But there was one thing the American rabbis failed to mention - the Palestinian people. For some reason, those rabbis who knew much about 'universalism' and in particular Jewish 'universalism' showed very little concern to the people of the land. I guess that after all, chosennss is a form of blindness and rabbis probably know more about this than anyone else. Zionism: An Affirmation of Judaism http://zionistsout.blogspot.com/2008/03/zionism-affirmation-of-judaism.html ZIONISM http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=396_1368743794 omniradar Take It From the Rabbi's Mouth Jewish anti-zionist Rabbi Thu, 16 May 2013 17:09:45 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=28a_1368738408 SunniLebanese Syria crisis threatens Palestinian refugeesPro- and anti-Assad factions seek support of Palestinians in Lebanon's refugee camps as tensions there rise over Syria. Zak Brophy Last Modified: 16 May 2013 10:49 The Palestinian community in Lebanon is socially vulnerable and politically divided Beirut, Lebanon - The Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila is perilously wedged along one of Lebanon's many sectarian fault lines. Black Islamic flags adorn the lampposts when approaching this small slum from Sunni strongholds to the north, while expansive Shia ghettoes border the camp immediately to the south. In recent months, an increasing number of clashes have erupted in and around Shatila, as rival Lebanese factions fight for the loyalty of the socially vulnerable and politically divided Palestinian camps. The Syrian civil war and rising Shia-Sunni discord in Lebanon are exacerbating the pressure. "These are concerted efforts to provoke a response," explained Fathi Abou al-Ardat, secretary for the Fatah movement and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Lebanon. On May 12, clashes - described by local residents as the most intense fighting yet - erupted between groups inside Shatila and neighbouring Shia communities. Volleys of gunfire were exchanged for several hours, and the army encircled the camp with armoured personnel carriers. "We know the Palestinians are divided and some groups are exploiting that to stir things up here. We are not taking the bait, but these groups have to know that if they push too hard we will run all over them like we did in 2008," said Abu Ali, a resident of the Rihaab district, a predominantly Shia neighbourhood on the edge of Shatila. Palestinian refugees struggle in Lebanon Although Shatila was founded as a Palestinian refugee camp, many non-Palestinians now live there as well. Ahmad, a 20-year-old Shatila resident with little education and scant work prospects, reasoned: "Us Sunna reacted strongly and started to boil over when we saw the killing in Syria. This caused clashes with Shia because they are helping with the slaughter of our people there." Losing faith Syrian President Bashar al-Assad comes from the Alawite sect - an offshoot of Shia Islam - and the powerful Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah supports Assad. Like many of his peers, Ahmad has lost faith in the traditional Sunni leadership and places his trust instead with more religiously conservative and combative leaders such as Sheikh Ahmad Assir, who have been trying to garner support from predominantly Sunni Palestinians. "There are more and more of us prepared to follow Assir," said Ahmad. "More and more people are becoming increasingly religious. Everyone is preparing himself for what may come." The Palestinian camps in Lebanon consist of basic, overcrowded homes, their people victims of decades of war, neglect and abuse. In Shatila, the buildings are so cramped that sunlight is a rare commodity. The smells of garbage and sewage foul the air and unemployed youth fill the cramped alleys. "We are seeing increased efforts to recruit from our youth. There is desperation and anger here, so whatever they pay they will find people to say 'yes'. They think we are cheap," said Ayman Zaher, a youth worker in Shatila. All of the major Palestinian political parties have adopted, and until now managed to maintain, a policy of neutrality in Lebanon regardless of their stance on the conflict in Syria. However, in Ein el-Helweh, the largest and most populous camp in Lebanon, armed groups such as Jund al-Sham, Jabhat al-Nusra and Asbat al-Ansar have found a safe haven under the protective wing of powerful local families. Their number of followers may not be huge, but their hard-line ideology and links to like-minded movements in Lebanon and Syria make Ein el-Helweh a particularly worrying flashpoint for Palestinians and Lebanese alike. "There is so much pressure on the camps and they are ready to explode, especially Ein el-Helweh, which could go off before there is a wider conflict in Lebanon. There is so much provocation from the Islamist groups there and I'm not sure if the PLO can keep a lid on it," warned Mutuwalli Abu Naser, a Palestinian journalist and playwright from Yarmouk camp in Damascus, who now lives in Lebanon. SpotlightIn-depth coverage of escalating violence across Syria Syrian influence On the other side, Hezbollah and its allies have also been working to secure the allegiance of Palestinians in Lebanon. Until withdrawing its troops from Lebanon in 2005, the Syrian government was influential in many of the camps through various Palestinian allies. Since the Syrian withdrawal, Hezbollah has by-and-large maintained Syria's leverage in the camps, even though the stance of several Palestinian groups has shifted since the start of the Syrian uprising. "Hezbollah works by a very low profile without making noise, because they work with the Palestinians from a security background, not a political one," explained Edward Kattoura, a political analyst at Pursue, a Palestinian think-tank. Many of the Palestinian camps are located in Hezbollah-dominated areas, especially in Beirut, South Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. Recently, Shaker Berjawi - a Sunni "strongman" in Beirut who earned his battlefield stripes in the Lebanese civil war - decided to move the headquarters of his pro-Syrian Arab Movement Party to the edge of Shatila, indicating the importance of the camp's support. While maintaining a local influence over the years, he has switched political allegiances numerous times, and he is now aligned with the Hezbollah-led camp. "It seems people use us as mercenaries, whether it be for one side or the other. When he opens up his office at the entrance to the camps, he is sending a message that the camps are part of his fight," said Kattoura. 'Sacrificial lamb' But many Palestinians in Lebanon are driven by nationalist rather than sectarian sensibilities, and the camps may be able to stay out of internal Lebanese conflict. "Most of Lebanese have a view of the camps as a source of militia fighters and criminals. There is destitution and desperation, it is true, but in fact they are much less sectarian than most of Lebanese society," said Moe Ali Nayel, a Lebanese writer and activist who regularly works in the camps. "The Palestinians are used like a sacrificial lamb in Lebanon. Lebanese groups like to have Palestinians up front and then the blame can be put on us. " - Marwan Abdulal, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine And the Palestinians' time in Lebanon has cruelly taught them while their loyalty is dear, their blood is cheap, whether it be the massacre at Sabra and Shatila at the hands of Christian militias in 1982, the "War of the Camps" from 1985-87 between the Shia Amal Movement and Palestinian refugees, or the bombardment of Nahr Bared camp by the Lebanese army in 2007. "The Palestinians are used like a sacrificial lamb in Lebanon. Lebanese groups like to have Palestinians up front and then the blame can be put on us," said Marwan Abdulal, member of the political bureau for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The Palestinian camps can hope to stay detached from the conflict in Lebanon as long as the fighting is constrained to the prevailing pattern of intermittent local clashes and firebrand speeches. However, should the situation escalate, residents will be hard pressed not to get dragged into the affray. "It will be very difficult for the camps to stay aside if this descends into a serious fitna ," warned the PLO's Fathi Abou al-Ardat. "The general atmosphere, the speeches, all of it is setting the stage for a fitna . In reality, it is already here." http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/05/20135791049958517.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=28a_1368738408 SunniLebanese Syria vis a vis the Palestinians in Lebanon in case you were wondering Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Palestinians, FSA, SAA, Hezbollah Sun, 12 May 2013 18:58:14 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ccd_1368399130 plokiju Spy photos and animated video of LiJian (Sharp Sword) A pair of grainy photos shot at long distance could be the best evidence yet of Beijing's first jet-powered and presumably armed drone warplane. The images, one of which was cropped and enhanced by Internet users and has been reproduced here, first appeared to the wider English-speaking world on Thursday afternoon on the Secretprojects.co.uk web forum. The pics follow close behind the equally ambiguous photo debuts of China's two stealth fighter prototypes (in 2010 and 2012) and its homegrown heavy transport plane (this year). A far blurrier and even more ambiguous photo possibly depicting the new drone appeared on a Russian Website in March. "What's Chinese for, 'Here we go again?'" Aviation Week reporter Bill Sweetman quipped upon seeing the purported killer drone images. Consensus among China watchers is that the vehicle depicted in the photos is the Lijian, or "Sharp Sword," Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle, a collaboration between Chinese aerospace firms Shenyang and Hongdu. Powered by a single jet engine and resting on tricycle landing gear, the Sharp Sword UCAV seems to sport the flying-wing shape shared by several U.S.-made killer drones prototypes. The flying wing platform, also used by the U.S. B-2 stealth bomber, is ideal for radar-evading designs. Beyond its basic shape and possible radar-evading qualities, not much is known about the apparent new drone. But that doesn't mean the robot's appearance is unexpected. China has already unveiled a rudimentary prop-driven armed drone. And the latest edition of the Pentagon's annual report (.pdf) on Chinese military capabilities, released earlier this week, predicted a more sophisticated Chinese UCAV would soon make an appearance. "The acquisition and development of longer-range Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ... and Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles, will increase China's ability to conduct long-range reconnaissance and strike operations," the report stated. It's worth noting that China is the last major aerospace power to debut a jet-powered, low-radar-signature killer drone prototype. The U.S. has led the pack, test-flying no fewer than five UCAVs since the late 1990s and even bringing one unarmed variant, the RQ-170, into frontline service. Europe has the Neuron and Taranis models in development and Russia is working on a version of the MiG Skat. As drone developers all over the world have discovered, airframes are often the easiest part of the system to create. What's hard are the software, datalinks, control systems and payloads that transform what are in essence large model airplanes into effective robotic weapons. And it's with these key subsystems that China will likely have the most trouble. The Pentagon China report specifically lists "solid-state electronics and micro processors guidance and control systems" as technologies Beijing finds it easier to buy or steal from the U.S., Europe and Russia than to develop on its own. U.S. experts worried that China might gain access to some American drone technology via an RQ-170 that crashed in Iran in 2011. So far the Sharp Sword has apparently only been spotted taxiing along a runway on ground tests. It's not clear when its developers might attempt a first flight. Even less clear is whether, and how soon, the Chinese killer drone might enter frontline use. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/05/china-first-killer-drone/ Lijian's combat radius covers the Western Pacific: analyst Following the release of internet photos of the Lijian, China's first stealth combat drone, Peng Tinghua, a military analyst, stressed on his mircroblog that this unmanned aerial vehicle will be able to attack all potential targets within the Western Pacific region. The Lijian is China's response to the push of most advanced countries to roll out unmanned aerial vehicles. The design of the aircraft relied heavily on Northrop Grumman's Dassault-designed X-47B, by the looks of the official photos released by the PLA Daily, the Hong Kong-based Wenweipo said. Peng stated that the range of the Lijian is about 8,000km, according to China Aviation News. It is not able to compare with the Global Hawk, another unmanned aerial vehicle designed by Northrop Grumman with a range of 14,001 kilometers, but the Lijian is still able to attack all potential target within the Western Pacific with a combat radius of 4,000 kilometers. "Since it will not be necessary for China to attack any targets within Europe or the continental United States," said Peng, "the Lijian will be enough for us to face potential threats over the Taiwan Strait, South China Sea and Western Pacific." Like the X-47B, the Lijian and other types of stealth combat drones can also be operated from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Under the direction of Beidou Navigation System, precision attacks can also be launched by Chinese unmanned aerial vehicles in the future. With enough confidence in China's defense industries, Peng stated that the PLA will eventually surpass the United States and operate its own Global Hawk around the world. http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20130512000097&cid=1101 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ccd_1368399130 plokiju China's stealth UCAV ready for flight testing China, stealth, UCAV, ready, for, flight, testing, LiJian, Sharp Sword Thu, 09 May 2013 16:45:47 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ebe_1368132137 The Prodigy Syria will "respond immediately" to any new Israeli attack against its territory, its deputy foreign minister told Agence France Presse on Thursday, after two reported Israeli strikes on military targets last week. "The instruction has been made to respond immediately to any new Israeli attack without (additional) instruction from any higher leadership, and our retaliation will be strong and will be painful against Israel," Faisal Muqdad said. He spoke in an interview with AFP in the Syrian capital. Senior Israeli sources said the strikes targeted weapons bound for the Hizbullah, a close ally of Damascus. Muqdad denied that. "They absolutely did not achieve their objective and they lied when they said they are targeting Hizbullah," he said. There is "no way Syria will allow this to happen again," he added. Israel reportedly targeted military sites near the capital Damascus early on Friday morning and again early on Sunday morning, with at least 42 soldiers reported dead in the second strike. The Jewish state has repeatedly warned it will intervene to prevent the transfer of advanced weaponry to Hizbullah, with which it fought a devastating 2006 war. The strikes last week were the third time Israel is thought to have hit sites inside Syria since the beginning of an uprising against the regime of President Bashar Assad in March 2011. That first was in January of this year. Meanwhile, Muqdad also announced that Syria is ready to receive a U.N. team to investigate claims of the use of chemical weapons in the country's conflict. "We were ready and we are always ready, right now, to receive the delegation that was set up by (U.N. chief) Ban Ki-moon to investigate what happened in Khan al-Assal," he said. Syria first asked for the inquiry shortly after accusing opposition rebels of using chemical weapons at Khan al-Assal near Aleppo on March 23 in an attack in which authorities say more than 30 people died. Syria is under mounting international pressure over the possible use of banned arms. The United States said in April it believed the Syrian government has used chemical weapons but was awaiting definitive proof. The country's uprising, which began with peaceful protests, has devolved into a bloody conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people, according to the U.N., and displaced millions of Syrians. http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/82502-muqdad-says-syria-ready-for-chemical-arms-investigation-we-ll-respond-immediately-to-any-new-israeli-strike Meanwhile Turkish PM Erdogan, just claimed Assad has crossed the 'redline'. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ebe_1368132137 The Prodigy Muqdad Says Syria Ready for Chemical Arms Investigation: We'll 'Respond Immediately' to Any New Israeli Strike Syria,un,chemical weapons, erdogan