Talansky in Court for Olmert Case

US millionaire financier Morris Talansky walks into court on 27 May 2008 in Jerusalem.

Talansky, chief witness in the investigation of alleged corruption by Jewish Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, will be questioned under oath before a judge.

Prosecutors are trying to establish whether Olmert dispensed any favors in exchange for large sums of cash he allegedly received illegally from Talansky during the 13 years before he became prime minister in 2006.

Talansky is one of two pivotal witnesses in the investigation that alleges that Olmert unlawfully received millions of shekels in illegal campaign funding over a period of 15 years.

Talansky is believed to be a heavy influence in both Israeli internal politics, and on U.S. foreign policy towards Israel. Over the years, he has made contributions to political heavyweights such as Rudi Giuliani and Bill Clinton.

It still must be said that this whole legal situation came at a time that is highly questionable for its actual motive, which is something completely different then what is being presented to not only the Jewish court, but also the global community.

Giuliani Resembles Bush on Terror War

28 October 2007

WASHINGTON - Rudy Giuliani, to quote a Democratic rival, would be like President Bush on steroids in the way he would go about protecting the U.S. from terrorists. In reality, Giuliani doesn't seem very different from Bush on the issue.

The former New York mayor says the government shouldn't be shy about eavesdropping on citizens. He is prepared to use military force to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons and root out terrorists in Pakistan. And he opposes a U.S. pullout from Iraq.

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh, a Giuliani friend and adviser on homeland security issues, said in an interview: "I would say they're very much joined at the hip on these policies, and particularly the mind-set and commitment of both the president and Mayor Giuliani to stay on offense."

Giuliani sounds more muscular.

Bush talks about terrorism, while Giuliani doggedly refers to "the terrorists' war on us." It is the first item on a little card he carries with him listing 12 things he would do as president: "I will keep America on offense in the terrorists' war on us." He constantly accuses Democrats of being afraid to use the term "Islamic terrorists."

His tough talk prompted Democrat John Edwards to quip that Giuliani would be George Bush on steroids.

Many Republicans like that idea, although the party's libertarians find it alarming that a GOP president would vigorously pursue expanded government power.

Giuliani's message is, "'I'm a tough SOB; you give me the power, and I'll protect you,'" David Keene, who heads the American Conservative Union, said of the former New York mayor. "I'm not overly pleased with Bush, but I get the impression Rudy would be far more enthusiastic about it than some in the Bush administration."

"They might argue that it's necessary," Keene said. "He might argue that it's fun."

Keene acknowledges he is in the minority among Republicans. Most, he says, are willing to give the government more power in times of war.

That is an argument made by retired federal judge Michael Mukasey, a longtime friend of Giuliani's who was advising the campaign until Bush picked him to serve as attorney general.

Both Mukasey and Giuliani back the Patriot Act, which expanded law enforcement's access to private telephone, e-mail, financial and other records, among many other provisions.

Giuliani also argues against limits on domestic spying and what he calls legal interrogation, although he hasn't said just how far he thinks CIA interrogation tactics should go before they are considered to be torture.

He said Wednesday he wasn't sure if waterboarding, which simulates drowning, is actually torture.

"It depends on how it's done. It depends on the circumstances. It depends on who does it," he said, adding that he didn't know if "liberal media" had accurately described the technique.

"Americans should never be for torture, he said. But "we can't abandon aggressive questioning of people who are intent on coming here to kill us or killing us overseas," he said.

Giuliani has surrounded himself with foreign policy advisers who, like several Bush advisers, are neoconservatives — less skeptical of government than traditional conservatives and more interested in foreign intervention and spreading U.S. values abroad.

Among them is author Norman Podhoretz, who argues for bombing Iran to stop it from building a nuclear arsenal. Podhoretz says Iran, like Iraq and Afghanistan, is another front in the same war sparked by the Sept. 11 attacks. He calls this World War IV, the Cold War being World War III.

Fear of terrorism among GOP voters is an advantage for Giuliani, who is seen as the calm, decisive leader who guided a New York devastated by the Sept. 11 attacks.

The image has helped Giuliani stay ahead, or close to the top, in polls, both nationally and in some early primary states, despite a record on social issues that might otherwise alienate social conservatives.

"I probably have one of the strongest arguments to make about executive experience and handling crisis and getting results," he said in an interview last month with The Associated Press. "So in an era in which we're concerned about terrorism, I would think that would give me a strong argument to make."

Among Republicans who care most about terrorism, rating it "very" or "extremely" important, Giuliani gets the most support — 26 percent to Fred Thompson's 18 percent and John McCain's 17 percent — according to an AP-Ipsos poll conducted in June.

Yet Sept. 11 also provokes heated criticism of Giuliani.

Some firefighter unions and family members of those killed are campaigning against him, distributing an anti-Giuliani video and holding protests outside Giuliani events.

Those critics say that he should never have put the city's emergency command center inside the World Trade Center when the complex was already a potential target for terrorists, and that he failed to make sure firefighters had working radios, making it impossible to learn the complex's towers were about to collapse.

"Virtually the whole thing goes back to him with the radios," Jim Riches, a deputy fire chief whose son was killed on Sept. 11, says in the video. "And my son is dead because of it."

Critics also say Freeh is a poor choice for an adviser since the FBI under his leadership was faulted by the Sept. 11 commission for being ill-prepared for the terror attacks.

And foes say Giuliani is exaggerating when he claims, as he often does, to have studied Islamic terrorism for 30 years, because as a federal prosecutor, Justice Department official and mayor, Giuliani's primary focus was crime.

That criticism is "both revisionist history and just not true," said Joe Lhota, a former deputy mayor and a Giuliani adviser. "His terrorism credentials go back to the '70s during the Ford Administration, when he was on then-President Ford's task force on counterterrorism."

Lhota said the World Trade Center offered several advantages over other potential emergency command center sites, and he points out the Secret Service and CIA had facilities there.

Giuliani allies say much of the criticism is political, pointing to the firefighters unions' endorsement of Democrats.

"He's not somebody new coming into this game. Rudy Giuliani did not wake up to terrorism on 9/11," Lhota said. "He's lived through it. His experience is hands-on experience."

Giuliani Gets Exposed As Fraud by New York Firefighters

United States Presidential Platform Uses Islamophobic Tactics

Nine Republican candidates took part in the debate [AFP]

Thompson warns of 'Islamic fascism'

10 October 2007

Fred Thompson, the actor and ex-senator who has joined the Republican race for the US presidency, has vowed to halt the spread of "Islamic fascism" during a televised debate with his party rivals.

Thompson said "It is a global war - Islamic fascism has declared it upon us," during the debate with his eight rivals in Michigan on Tuesday.

"They play by no rules and they are intent on bringing down Western civilisation and the United States of America," said Thompson, famous for his role in the Law & Order television series.

Mitt Romney, a frontrunner, said Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, was a "rogue and a buffoon".

Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, is the currently leading the race to become the Republican candidate, which will be decided during elections early next year.

He is respected for his leadership role after the September 11 attacks in 2001, but is battling to win over conservatives.

Iranian 'threat'

Thompson also said it was important to keep US troops in Iraq "to stabilise that place and not have to leave with our tail between our legs."

Ron Paul, an anti-war libertarian and Texas congressman who stunned his rivals by raising $5m for the campaign in the last three months, said he was not prepared to pledge his support for the nominee of the party.

"Not unless they're willing to end the war," he said.

When asked whether a US president should request authorisation from the US congress before launching a military strike at any future Iran nuclear weapons plant, Romney said:

"You sit down with your attorneys and tell you want you have to do," he said, before adding the president always had to act in the best interest of the United States.

Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, said he would attack Iran in a "heartbeat" if it was an immediate threat, while Ron Paul said the notion that Iran endangered the US mainland was "preposterous."

Senator John McCain pledged to consult Congress before any attack on Iran which he said "is, maybe, closer to reality than we are discussing tonight".

Iran has denied all accusations that it intends to develop nuclear weapons.

Tax or spend

The candidates also clashed on tax and spending issues with Giuliani accusing Romney of increasing taxes during his time as Massachusetts governor.

"The point is, you've got to control taxes. But I did it. He didn't," Giuliani said.

Romney shot back: "It's baloney. Mayor, you've got to check your facts. I did not increase taxes in Massachusetts. I lowered taxes."

Thompson and other Republicans criticised the explosion of federal spending in recent years and said rising budgets and deficits under George Bush, the US president, had to be brought under control.

McCain pointed to his own Republican party as the culprit. "We have to get spending under control," he said.

"We Republicans who came to power in 1994 to change government - government changed us."

Israeli Card

Editorial

18 August 2007

REPUBLICAN presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani has just announced that the Palestinians should not have a state of their own and that the United States must continue to support the state of Israel.

The former New York mayor’s close affinity to the Israel lobby is no secret. According to Giuliani, it is not in America’s interests to help create a state “which will support terrorism”. He added that Washington’s protection and support of Israel must be a “permanent” feature of its foreign policy. When he plays the Israeli card, he is doing the anticipated. In one respect it is good that Giuliani has nailed his colors to this mast so soon in the campaign. Effectively he has indicated that he too, like so many previous actual incumbents of the White House, is ready to sacrifice the direction of US Middle East policy to the dictates of an ungrateful “ally” that has been prepared to have its spies steal those few weapons secrets that the United States has been unwilling to supply for free.

Yet by abandoning the basic Bush stand —however feeble it may have been in execution — that the Palestinians should have their own independent state, is Giuliani perhaps representing the covert beliefs of the Republican political establishment? Can it be that the official statement of US principle, which even leading Israeli politicians have accepted in outline, is in fact so much hokum served up merely to assuage the widespread anger at Washington’s consistent partiality toward the state of Israel?

Polls indicate that even if he wins the Republican nomination, Giuliani is unlikely to make it to the Oval Office. After all, it’s unthinkable that the Republican conservative religious base that got the current president into office would vote for a man who is pro-choice and has expressed support for gay civil unions — a stance he only recanted earlier this year for obvious political reasons. Unfortunately whether the Democrats’ eventual candidate is Clinton or Obama, it will be harder to sell the idea of dialogue than military force. The only true anti-war candidate in the mix is the much-ignored presidential contender Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

If American voters felt they could somehow hit back and expunge the shame of defeat in Iraq brought on by the bungling Bush, they might support a tough-talking candidate like Giuliani. And the former New York mayor has one big card yet to play — his city leadership at the time of the 9/11 attacks, which he will doubtless claim brought him right into the front line of the US war on international terror. (Critics will no doubt point to firefighters suffering from health issues related to Giuliani’s handling of the 9/11 cleanups, but at a national level he is still “America’s Mayor”).

Justice for Palestinians and US Middle Eastern double standard count for nothing when a man is aiming to become the most powerful man on the planet.