September 29, 2013

Haiti, Grenada recognize Palestinian State

Source: UPI

Grenada and Haiti recognized the State of Palestine in a ceremony at U.N. headquarters in New York, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said.

Maliki said he signed separate agreements to establish diplomatic relations with both countries Friday, a move that will lead to an exchange of ambassadors, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported.

"This recognition highlights the collective international approval of Palestinian rights. It is a new success for Palestinian diplomacy," he said.

Grenada and Haiti join more than 130 countries that officially recognize the State of Palestine, the agency said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/09/29/Haiti-Grenada-recognize-Palestinian-State/UPI-54541380457240/

September 29, 2013

Israel’s Netanyahu heads for the US with a warning to the White House: Don’t be fooled by Iran

Mortified that the world may be warming up to Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is taking an unpopular message to the White House and the United Nations this week: Don’t be fooled by Tehran’s new leadership.

Netanyahu contends Iran is using conciliatory gestures as a smoke screen to conceal an unabated march toward a nuclear bomb.

He will deliver those strong words of caution — and fresh intelligence — in an attempt to persuade the U.S. to maintain tough economic sanctions and not allow the Islamic republic to develop a bomb or even move closer to becoming a nuclear threshold state.

With the White House cautiously optimistic about its dialogue with Iran, Monday’s meeting between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama could be tense.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israels-netanyahu-heads-for-the-us-with-a-warning-to-the-white-house-dont-be-fooled-by-iran/2013/09/29/0ce25558-293c-11e3-b141-298f46539716_story.html

September 29, 2013

Israel starts campaign to boost U.S. military aid

Israel's military chiefs are pushing for a bump in the $3.1 billion a year the Jewish state receives in U.S. military aid even though the 10-year agreement doesn't expire until 2017 and America is struggling with domestic economic issues.

Among other things, the Israelis are citing a 2008 U.S. law that for the first time legally committed Washington to maintain the Jewish state's technological superiority -- its Qualitative Military Edge, or QME, in military terminology -- over its regional adversaries, particularly Iran, which has been pursuing nuclear technology.

The QME, the cornerstone of the strategic alliance between the United States and Israel for the past few decades, was long viewed as a negotiating principle between the two allies, but was made law under the Naval Vessel Transfer Act of 2008. The act requires U.S. military aid at all times ensures Israel is technologically capable of countering any array of hostile states and non-state combatants such as Lebanon's Hezbollah.

The $3.1 billion a year in military aid is by far the largest single package of its kind provided by the United States but the Israelis argue a new set of security threats in the Middle East -- such as the Syrian civil war, the turmoil in Iraq and Egypt, and the increased danger from al-Qaida now operating in Syria and Egypt-- justify an increase in foreign military finance, or FMF, grants.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2013/09/27/Israel-starts-campaign-to-boost-US-military-aid/UPI-52461380301963/

September 29, 2013

Netanyahu to Rebut Iran ‘Sweet-Talk’ in Speech to UN

Source: Bloomberg

Israel’s prime minister and the heads of two major Knesset committees expressed concern that a conversation between U.S. and Iranian leaders may signal that efforts to halt the country’s nuclear program will stall.

“I will tell the truth in the face of the sweet-talk and onslaught of smiles,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters as he boarded his plane for the U.S., where he will meet President Barack Obama and speak before the United Nations.

The Israeli leaders spoke after a historic phone call between Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and Obama, the highest-level U.S.-Iranian encounter since before Iran’s Islamic revolution of 1979. Netanyahu has in the past expressed skepticism about the motives behind Rouhani’s initiative and suggested Iran is trying to buy time to develop the capability to make a nuclear weapon. Iran says its nuclear program is aimed at electricity production and other civilian needs.

“Every attempt to enforce UN resolutions on Iran to show transparency and offer proof that they have no plans for a nuclear arms program has failed until now,” said Tzachi Hanegbi, head of parliament’s House committee and a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party.


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-29/israelis-raise-iran-concerns-as-netanyahu-heads-to-u-s-.html

September 28, 2013

Folsom Street Fair less kinky, more corporate

San Francisco's Folsom Street Fair, the sexually explicit celebration of bondage and leather now in its 30th year, has shaken off its kinky image, attracting mainstream corporate sponsorship from the likes of Marriott Marquis Hotel and American Airlines.

"It's a great, local, San Francisco-based homegrown event, so it's exciting for the San Francisco Marriott Marquis to be part of it," said Frank Manchen, director of sales and marketing for the hotel.

The LGBT market is "a diverse community with many different options" when it comes to travel, he said. "I don't think it's anything new that corporate America is figuring out how to woo those dollars."

Still, the role of the Marriott chain in San Francisco's most graphic public festival, set for South of Market on Sunday, raises eyebrows of some longtime political observers.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Folsom-Street-Fair-less-kinky-more-corporate-4851461.php

x-post from gd

September 28, 2013

Folsom Street Fair less kinky, more corporate

San Francisco's Folsom Street Fair, the sexually explicit celebration of bondage and leather now in its 30th year, has shaken off its kinky image, attracting mainstream corporate sponsorship from the likes of Marriott Marquis Hotel and American Airlines.

"It's a great, local, San Francisco-based homegrown event, so it's exciting for the San Francisco Marriott Marquis to be part of it," said Frank Manchen, director of sales and marketing for the hotel.

The LGBT market is "a diverse community with many different options" when it comes to travel, he said. "I don't think it's anything new that corporate America is figuring out how to woo those dollars."

Still, the role of the Marriott chain in San Francisco's most graphic public festival, set for South of Market on Sunday, raises eyebrows of some longtime political observers.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Folsom-Street-Fair-less-kinky-more-corporate-4851461.php

September 27, 2013

Obama, Iran's Rouhani hold historic phone call

Source: Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama and new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani held a historic phone call on Friday, in the highest level conversation between the estranged nations in more than three decades.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Obama said both men had directed their teams to work expeditiously toward an agreement on Iran's nuclear program. He said this was a unique opportunity to make progress with Tehran over an issue that has isolated it from the West.

"While there will surely be important obstacles to moving forward and success is by no means guaranteed, I believe we can reach a comprehensive solution," Obama said.

Rouhani, in a Twitter account believed to be genuine, said that in the conversation he told Obama "Have a Nice Day!" and Obama responded with "Thank you. Khodahafez (goodbye)." He added that the two men "expressed their mutual political will to rapidly solve the nuclear issue."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/27/us-un-assembly-iran-idUSBRE98Q16S20130927

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Go peace!

September 27, 2013

Wyden Opening Remarks at Q&A at Hearing on Surveillance Reform

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) pressed top intelligence officials on the problems of building "an intelligence collection system that repeatedly deceived the American people" during an open hearing held by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

September 26, 2013

Wyden Opening Remarks Answers in Surveillance Reform Press Conference

September 26, 2013

The NSA Used to Spy on MLK — and the Senator Who Forced It to Reform

For those inclined to be sympathetic toward the public appeal made by NSA chief Keith Alexander on Wednesday — that the NSA stops terror attacks like the one in Nairobi — there's a declassified document that outlines the agency's unsympathetic past, which includes spying on politicians, reporters, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

That spying took place more than four decades ago, years before the Church Committee reforms of the late 1970s that revised the agency's role, and before the clear delineation that the National Security Agency was prohibited from surveilling people in the United States. At that time, the NSA apparently had few qualms about keeping an eye on those the government considered "domestic terrorist and foreign radical" threats. George Washington University's National Security Archive obtained the documents and provides an overview.



http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/09/nsa-used-spy-mlk-and-senator-forced-it-reform/69876/