Right over here.

The warrior in every dictator's paradise...

A year later, news organizations are still in the dark about certain details. If you read Nicholas Schmidle's piece in The New Yorker about the killing of bin Laden last August, you may think all the details have been nailed down, but CBS News believes (and has been hawking) a slightly different set of details.

According to Mark Follman, writing in Mother Jones: "You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to be still scratching your head about the end of Osama bin Laden."

BBC:

The head of the Israeli military has said he does not think Iran will develop nuclear weapons.

Chief of Staff Lt Gen Benny Gantz made the statement in an interview with the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz.

He said Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had not yet made the final decision whether to build a nuclear bomb.

...Gen Gantz says this pressure is beginning to bear fruit.

He added that Iran "is going step by step to the place where it will be able to decide whether to manufacture a nuclear bomb. It hasn't yet decided to go the extra mile".

And speaking of the supreme leader he continued: "I don't think he will want to go the extra mile. I think the Iranian leadership is composed of very rational people."

But these views appear to put him at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The chain of questions raised by the report: Will this relax the tension between the powers? If so, will gas prices go down? If so, will this help the US economy? If so, will this mean Obama is reelected?

Boulder's 4/20 campus smokeout is infamous, as anyone who attended CU can tell you. Each year for the last decade, a crowd of 10,000+ students, dedicated stoners, once-a-year indulgers, and other Boulder residents have converge on the campus's Ferrand Field to light up in unison on 4/20 at 4:20 pm.

But last week, school officials announced that they're snuffing out the celebration:

To that effect, CU-Boulder plans to bring in a swarm of police officers on Friday to surround the campus and set up checkpoints at key entrances. They intend to prevent unauthorized access to the campus by non-students, and the school said that officers will be issuing tickets for tresspassing that carry fines of $750 and up to six months in jail.

Problem is, marijuana protesters in Colorado are more amped up than ever this year, especially with full legalization on the state’s ballot this fall for the first time ever during a presidential election season. An added complication: Demonstrators have held an April 20 protest at CU-Boulder every year for the last decade with very little resistance from the administration.

Meanwhile, protesters say they're not staying home, a lawyer has filed a restraining order to block the university's police-enforced edict, and everyone's bracing for violence.

This tweet is not uncharacteristic:

You do everything you can to live a good and honest life. Only to have your heart end up inside Dick Cheney.

Iran held me hostage three decades ago. It shouldn’t hold America hostage today.

CNN:

A recent rash of killings of people perceived to be gay or emo in Iraq has stoked fear within those communities, which worry the government might be unwilling or unable to protect them.
At least 14 such victims were killed in Baghdad in the past three weeks, according to a senior Interior Ministry official, who was not authorized to talk to the media.
Rights activists claim the number is actually much higher, with some suggesting dozens or more than 100 have been killed since February.
The killings appear to target people perceived to be gay, or emo — shorthand in Iraq for an in-your-face style of Western dress that favors tight clothes, long hair and the color black.
Most of the killings have taken place in Shiite neighborhoods like Sadr City, Shulaa, Ameen and Tariq, activists said.

This is a superb analysis of the Iran/Israel situation as it stands:

Washington, DC - President Barack Obama has finally begun in recent months to signal to Israel that the United States would not get involved in a war started by Binyamin Netanyahu without US approval. If it is pursued firmly and consistently through 2012, the approach stands a very good chance of averting war altogether. If Obama falters, however, the temptation for Netanyahu to launch an attack on Iran, indulging in what one close Israeli observer calls his "messianism" toward the issue of Iran.

Netanyahu, like every previous Israeli prime minister, understands that an Israeli strike against Iran depends not only on US tolerance, but direct involvement against Iran, at least after the initial attack. In May 2008, his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, had requested the approval of George W Bush for an air attack on Iran, only to be refused by Bush.

Netanyahu apparently feels, however, that he can manipulate right-wing Israeli influence on American politics to make it impossible for Obama to stay out of an Israeli war on Iran. He has defied the Obama administration by refusing to assure Washington that he would consult them before making any decision on war with Iran.

The solution?

...[U]nless Obama warns Netanyahu publicly that an attack against US wishes would indeed mean he is on his own, the chances of deterring him and avoiding war with Iran will be sharply reduced.

Do not separate this...

The Israel Air Force may stop the production of the Iron Dome and David Sling missile interception systems in 2012 as a result of insufficient funds, a military budget breakdown revealed on Sunday.

Last month, the government backtracked on its intention to cut NIS 3 billion from the defense budget, meant to pay for social benefits in the wake of last summer's wave of protests according to the recommendations of the Trajtenberg committee.

The move was decided after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the Defense Ministry's stance, according to which such a dramatic cut would be unwise in the face of the political upheavals taking place across the Mideast. these, in turn, could increase terror threats against Israel.

However, despite succeeding in averting a drastic budget cut, the IDF's financial woes are far from over.

From this...

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of being behind twin attacks on Israeli targets in India and Georgia on Monday in a move likely to further escalate tensions between the two countries and increase international pressure on the Iranian regime.

WaPo:

The U.S. defense budget is about 43 percent of the world’s total military spending — more than the combined defense spending of the next 17 nations, many of which are U.S. allies. Are Republicans really going to warn voters that America will be imperiled if the defense budget is cut 8 percent from projections over the next decade? In 2017, defense spending would still be more than that of the next 10 countries combined.

Do Republicans think it is premature to withdraw as many as 7,000 troops from Europe two decades after the Soviet Union’s death? About 73,000 will remain, most of them in prosperous, pacific, largely unarmed and utterly unthreatened Germany. Why do so many remain?

Since 2001, the United States has waged war in three nations, and some Republicans appear ready to bring the total to five, adding Iran and Syria. (The Weekly Standard, of neoconservative bent, regrets that Obama “is reluctant to intervene to oust Iran’s closest ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.”) GOP critics say that Obama’s proposed defense cuts will limit America’s ability to engage in troop-intensive nation-building. Most Americans probably say: Good.

“I think this week’s outrage over the Komen decision should be a warning to the Republican party about how quickly there was a mass outrage over further and further attacks on general women’s health,” Kellie Ferguson, executive director of Republican Majority for choice... “You could see the same backlash on attacks on contraception.”

Al Jazeera:

A recent report noted that former senior White House official, Dennis Ross, who is known for his closeness to the Israelis, estimated an Israeli strike on Iran could come in the next nine months.

In about nine months, the US will hold a general election to decide who shall be its President and all the noise about striking Iran could have more to do with American domestic politics than any real or perceived threat to the Israelis.

It is no secret that the right-wing government in Israel led by Netanyahu would prefer a new US president in January 2013. This is not simply because Netanyahu had some tense moments with President Obama, but also because in a second term Obama would not face the type of electoral constraints he faces in his first term.

It is no secret that US Presidents who have engaged in Israeli-Palestinian peace-making have been most active in their second terms as Bill Clinton was at Camp David and George W Bush was in Annapolis. Those that were particularly active in first terms - Jimmy Carter and George HW Bush - were defeated. Netanyahu does not want an unrestrained Obama demanding he halt settlement expansion in 2013. He'd rather have Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich as they are more likely to be more susceptible to the pro-Israel pressures AIPAC is apt to apply.

Netanyahu also knows that if Israel went ahead and attacked Iran on its own before the election, he would put Obama in an extremely compromising position. Obama does not want to get into a war with Iran, nor should any American as it is completely against American interests, but Obama also knows that should Israel go it alone, he'd be obligated to participate lest he appear weak before the electorate and a Republican opponent who'd be more than happy to attack Obama on what would immediately become a major international crisis before the election.

Haaretz:

About 200,000 missiles are aimed at Israel at any given time, a top Israel Defense Forces officer said on Thursday, adding that Iran's ability to obtain nuclear weapons was solely dependent on the will of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

...The remarks by Military Intelligence Chief Major General Aviv Kochavi came after IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said on Wednesday that the threats facing Israel have increased and intensified in recent years due to regional instability.

...Referring to Israel's concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions, Kochavi presented a relatively tame estimation of a possible timeline en route to an Iranian atomic bomb, saying that the project depended more on the will of Iran's Supreme Leader than on any technological advancement.

"If Khamenei issues a command to achieve a first nuclear explosive device, we estimate it would take another year before that's achieved," the top IDF official said, adding that "if he asks to translate that ability to obtain a nuclear warhead, that would take another year or two."

CNN:

Iran on Saturday welcomed the rescue of 13 Iranian sailors by a U.S. Navy ship, calling it a "humanitarian act."

The sailors were on a fishing boat that had been hijacked by pirates in the Arabian Sea, near the Strait of Hormuz. According to the Navy, a helicopter from the destroyer USS Kidd spotted a suspect pirate boat alongside the Iranian vessel on Thursday. The destroyer is part of the USS John Stennis Strike Group, which moved into the Arabian Sea from the Persian Gulf last week.

As the helicopter spotted the suspect pirate ship, the Kidd received a distress call from the fishing boat's captain, saying pirates were holding him and his crew captive. A team from the Kidd boarded the vessel, took 15 suspected pirates into custody, and freed 13 Iranian hostages, the Navy said.

A spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast, had positive words about the rescue when he spoke Saturday to the Arabic news network Al-Alam.

edatpost:

#Obama to visit #Pentagon Thursday to discuss Defense Strategic Review (ie, the painful, long-feared defense budget cuts)