WASHINGTON (The Blaze/AP) — Targeting Iran’s economy, the U.S. ordered tough new penalties Monday to further pinch the country’s financial system and encourage Israel to give sanctions more time before any military action against Iran’s nuclear program. The new, stricter sanctions, authorized in legislation that President Barack Obama signed in December, will be enforced under an order he signed only now. They give U.S. banks new powers to freeze assets linked to the Iranian government and close loopholes that officials say Iran has used to move money despite earlier restrictions imposed by the U.S. and Europe. The action against the Central Bank of Iran is more significant for its timing than its immediate effect. It comes as the United States and its allies are arguing that tough sanctions can still persuade Iran to back off what the West contends is a drive to build a nuclear bomb. The U.S. and Europe want to deprive Iran of the oil income it needs to run its government and pay for the nuclear program. But many experts believe Iran will be able to find other buyers outside Europe. The European Union announced last month it would ban the import of Iranian crude oil starting in July. The U.S. doesn’t buy Iranian oil, but last month it placed sanctions on Iran’s banks to make it harder for the nation to sell crude. The U.S., however, has delayed implementing those sanctions for at least six months because it is worried about sending oil prices higher at a time when the world economy is struggling. Iran exports about 3 percent of the world’s oil The faster and more painfully sanctions can be seen to work, the better the case to shelve any plan by Israel to bomb Iran, a pre-emptory move that could ignite a new Mideast war. Taking this initial step against the Central Bank, the first time the U.S. has directly gone after that major institution, is one way the Obama administration can show momentum now. Israel, meanwhile, has been increasingly open about its worry that Iran could be on the brink of a bomb by this summer and that this spring offers the last window to destroy bomb-related facilities. Many Israeli officials believe that sanctions only give time for Iran to move its nuclear program underground, out of reach of Israeli military strikes. White House spokesman Jay Carney denied that Monday’s unexpected announcement of new banking sanctions was a sign of heightened worry about an Israeli attack. “There has been a steady increase in our sanctions activity and this is part of that escalation,” he said. Carney said U.S. sanctions on Iran are already squeezing Iran’s economy and have exacerbated tensions within the Iranian leadership. “There is no question that the impact of the isolation on Iran and the economic sanctions on Iran have caused added turmoil within Iran,” he said. Iran is the world’s third-largest exporter of crude oil, giving its leaders financial resources and leverage to withstand outside pressure. Last year, Iran generated $100 billion in revenue from oil, up from $20 billion a decade ago, according to IHS CERA, an energy consulting firm. If Iranian oil is prevented from getting to market, other suppliers could make up the difference. The U.S. has been pressuring other Middle East and African nations to step up production for sale to Europe. Saudi Arabia has said it could increase production to make up for any lost Iranian crude. Iran’s disputed nuclear program became a global concern more than five years ago, when the extent of the country’s research and uranium enrichment began to be known. Since then a web of international economic and other sanctions have failed to stop Iran’s progress toward a point when it could build one or more nuclear devices. U.S. intelligence agencies say Iran is indeed close to that ability but has not yet decided to go ahead. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful and denounces sanctions as aggression. The new U.S. penalties were unexpected now. The sanctions were included as an amendment in the wide-ranging defense bill the president signed in late December, though when and how they were to be levied on Iran was unclear. The White House had previously said it would take months to evaluate the likely effect on the fragile global economy before taking the next large steps, including new penalties on the Central Bank. Now, U.S. institutions are required to seize Iranian state assets they come across, rather than rejecting the transaction involved. The value of Iranian assets affected by the new order was not clear. Iran does almost no direct business with the United States after three decades of enmity, but its money moves through the world financial system and its oil is sold in dollars. In a letter to Congress, Obama said more sanctions were warranted, “particularly in light of the deceptive practices of the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks.” He cited the hiding of transactions of people or institutions and other loopholes. In an interview Sunday with NBC, Obama said the U.S. has “a very good estimate” of when Iran could complete a nuclear weapon, and he spoke favorably of the effect of sanctions and diplomacy to resolve the impasse. Obama addressed the concern about Israel but suggested there is still time. “I don’t think Israel has made a decision on what they need to do,” Obama said. He did not answer a question about whether Israel has promised to notify the United States before any pre-emptory strike. Republican presidential candidates have accused Obama of being too timid in his dealings with Iran, and while U.S. officials reject that characterization they acknowledge they are stepping cautiously because of fear of upsetting the global economy.
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U.S. Imposes Tougher Sanctions on Iran, But Will it Ease Israeli Fears?
Coming off two consecutive lopsided losses, Newt Gingrich again pledged to take his campaign all the way to the Republican convention this summer.
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Gingrich Says He’ll Battle On
Israel’s diplomatic and military correspondents got quite the surprise watching the live feed of the Senate Intelligence Committee when Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) revealed the head of the Mossad had made a secret visit to Washington earlier this week to hold talks with senior U.S. officials. The item led the “Mabat” main newscast on Israel’s government-run network IBA on Tuesday evening and was the headline on Ha’aretz newspaper’s website. The travels of Mossad Director Tamir Pardo are usually kept secret and in fact, the name of the head of the Mossad and Shin Bet [Israel’s version of the FBI] were up until a few years ago kept secret from the public. Ha’aretz reports: The clandestine Washington visit was exposed during a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which was participated by CIA Director David Petraeus, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate panel. During the meeting, Feinstein asked Clapper whether or not Israel intended to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, with the top U.S. intelligence official answering that he would rather discuss the issue behind closed doors. Feinstein then indicated that she had met Mossad chief Pardo earlier in the week in Washington, with Petraeus adding that he too met Pardo and cited what he called Israel’s growing concern over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The CIA chief also said that it was important to note that Israel considered a nuclear Iran as an existential threat. In Sen. Feinstein’s defense, the travels of the head of the CIA to close allies is not as closely guarded, and she might not have known Israel’s modus operandi on the matter. On the other hand, as head of the Intelligence Committee, the senior Senator from California might have considered that with tensions running so high, some meetings are best held close to the vest. The question also remains: why did CIA Director Petraeus also publicly confirm the meetings? He called it “part of an ongoing dialogue.” The entire exchange can be seen here on C-SPAN – Feinstein makes the Mossad comment at 34:30. Reflecting the heightened tensions, Israeli President Shimon Peres said Tuesday Iran’s “evil” leaders must not be allowed to get nuclear weapons, and he called Iran’s nuclear program the world’s “central problem.” Peres’ remarks opened the prestigious Herzliya Conference . Ha’aretz reported : “Nuclear weapons mustn’t be allowed to fall into the hands of Iran’s Ayatollah regime,” Peres said, calling Iran’s religious leadership the “most morally corrupt regime in the world.” Hinting at the possibility of a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the president reiterated the Israeli stance, according to which “no option should be ruled out in our dealing with the Iranian danger. This is an existential threat.” “It is the duty of the international community to prevent evil and nuclear [weapons] from coming together. That is the obligations of most of the leaders of the free world, one which they must meet,” Peres said. On what he called “the moral significance of this battle,” the president spoke of an Iranian regime which “executes people for their views. It funds, trains, and guides terrorists to spread terror and murder across the globe.” The AP reports that Israeli officials believe if a military strike on Iran’s nuclear installations is going to be effective, it must take place by this summer, due to Iran moving facilities underground. Additionally, over the weekend, veteran Israeli intelligence reporter Ronen Bergman wrote in the New York Times Magazine that he agrees this year is key: “After speaking with many senior Israeli leaders and chiefs of the military and the intelligence, I have come to believe that Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012. Perhaps in the small and ever-diminishing window that is left, the United States will choose to intervene after all, but here, from the Israeli perspective, there is not much hope for that. Instead there is that peculiar Israeli mixture of fear — rooted in the sense that Israel is dependent on the tacit support of other nations to survive — and tenacity, the fierce conviction, right or wrong, that only the Israelis can ultimately defend themselves.” Clapper told the Senate panel he believes Iran has advanced technically on uranium enrichment and that its political decision on if to construct a nuclear device is the central issue: “These advancements contribute to our judgment that Iran is technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon, if it so chooses,” Clapper added, saying that the U.S. judged “Iran would likely choose missile delivery as its preferred method of delivering a nuclear weapon.” See Buck Sexton’s coverage of the hearing here , including what the Iranians might have in mind for the U.S.
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Did Sen. Dianne Feinstein Reveal…Mossad Chief’s Secret Visit?
Students who struggle with spelling at Marta Valle High School on New York City’s Lower East Side may have trouble finding positive reinforcement just outside their school property. The New York Post reports that a humiliating spelling error — “SHCOOL X-NG”– has been plastered on the street outside the high school for months: “It’s embarrassing for the city!” Luis Maldonado, a 50-year-old maintenance worker in the area, told the Post. “Teaching kids to read and write correctly is very important!” Residents in the area said construction crews worked on the street over the summer, and a city official told the Post that when utilities or contractors are done working on a city street they are required to restore it correctly and reinstall all marks. To add insult to injury, it appears that no officials have noticed, let alone reported, the error for months. “Nothing surprises me anymore at this school,” the school’s PTA President Linda Surles told the Post. “What’s ironic is that the principal has probably painted the lunchroom and rooms inside over about five times since 2010.” A Department of Transportation spokesman told the Post that they were making arrangements to correct the error promptly, but insisted that the spelling mistake was made by a utility provider not the city or any of its contractors. ABC News reports on the embarrassing error: video platform video management video solutions video player Editor’s note: we realize that “school” is spelled wrong in the title. That’s the point.
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Can You Spot What‘s Wrong with This ’Shcool’ Sign?
It may seem that a different politician tarnishes his career almost every other week thanks to social media, but rarely do you hear about schools punishing students for opinions made on their personal Facebook pages. Syracuse University’s School of Education has now effectively expelled a graduate student from its teaching program after he expressed resentment in his Facebook status for a community leader’s complaint that student teachers were coming from Syracuse rather than historically black colleges. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) reports: “On July 20, 2011, Werenczak was student teaching with Danforth Middle School when he was introduced to a member of the city’s Concerned Citizens Action Program (CCAP). Shortly afterward, in the presence of Werenczak and one other white student teacher, the CCAP member, who is black, said that he thought that the city schools should hire more teachers from historically black colleges. Werenczak later discussed the remark on Facebook , saying, ‘Just making sure we’re okay with racism. It’s not enough I’m … tutoring in the worst school in the city, I suppose I oughta be black or stay in my own side of town.’ Werenczak further wrote that ‘it kind of offends me that I’m basically volunteering the summer at Danforth, getting up at 630, with no AC, to help tutor kids and that’s not enough.’ While Werenczak was summoned to a meeting with administrators shortly before the school year began, he was not charged with any infraction of Syracuse’s rules and never received a disciplinary hearing. On September 7, however, Social Studies Education Coordinator Jeffery A. Mangram sent Werenczak a letter stating that the School of Education (SOE) was effectively expelling Werenczak because he had ‘posted on [his] Facebook page comments the SOE finds unprofessional, offensive, and insensitive not only to the Danforth School but also to the SOE and Syracuse University.’” For his actions, Werenczak would be expelled, had the option to voluntarily withdraw, or could gain a chance of “ad-admittance” by taking part in a special course of diversity training, attend counseling for “anger management,” and write a “a reflective paper that demonstrates the progress and growth you have made in relation to issues regarding cultural diversity as well as your own personal growth.” To stay in school, Werenczak complied with all three conditions by December 14. However, FIRE reports that on January 3 the School of Education(SOE) had not even yet formed a committee to review the case. On January 4, Werenczak was warned that if he took action to push SOE to act, it would “further delay the process.” “FIRE wrote Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor on January 10, pointing out that SOE’s action ‘profoundly violates Syracuse’s express promises of freedom of speech.’ Syracuse promises in its Student Handbook that ‘[s]tudents have the right to express themselves freely on any subject’ and that ‘Syracuse University … welcomes and encourages the expression of dissent.’ Syracuse has failed to respond, leaving Werenczak’s future in limbo.” The nonprofit educational foundation notes that this is not the first time Syracuse has punished a student for online speech: “In the fall of 2010, Syracuse University College of Law student Len Audaer was threatened with expulsion and faced a months-long investigation for his role in a fake-news parody blog about life in law school. In January 2011, FIRE named Syracuse one of the worst universities in the nation for free speech in The Huffington Post . Syracuse dropped all charges against Audaer in February 2011.” Syracuse responded in January 2011 to the article by FIRE in regards to the fake-news blog parody and the Huffington Post list. “The content of the website was not as harmless and carefree as some public commentators have suggested,” writes Syracuse University Vice Chancellor Eric F. Spina. “In fact, the blog contained false, mean spirited attacks, by name, against uninvolved, innocent, private individuals. ” “Syracuse University places a high value on free speech and due process, but also places a high value on the rights of all of its students to study and learn in an environment free from harassment, intimidation and ridicule,” Spina concluded. Between what happened at the law school last year and Werenczak’s current case, FIRE Vice President of Programs Adam Kissel does not take much stock in the university’s assurances. “Syracuse’s promises of free speech and due process are rapidly becoming some of the biggest jokes in higher education,” said Kissel. “I can see why Werenczak might be disturbed about his job prospects after hearing a remark that implicated his race. But it’s impossible to see how any reasonable person in the School of Education could use such a mild, off-campus expression of offense to destroy a student’s career.”
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Syracuse May Expel Student for Complaining on Facebook About Community Leader’s Controversial Race Comment
You gotta see it to believe it, jeez. These idiots go after Pamela Geller as well. At the Soros-backed hate-site . Gateway Pundit has the front-page screen-cap from the Media Matter hate hole, ” Today’s American Hero Spotlight Goes to Dana Loesch: “I’d Drop Trou and Do it Too” .” (Via Memeorandum .) And Pamela develops the story, digging down the the motives for leaking that video: ” Tinkle Timing “:
The Christian Science Monitor – Uncle Sam used to reach into his deep pockets to pay for programs to keep teens off the streets in the summer and instead get some work experience.
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Obama plan to boost teen employment could be an uphill battle
(The Christian Science Monitor)
Pamela posted the original essay at the center of the controversy, ” DR. SUBRAMANIAM SWAMY: ‘HOW TO WIPE OUT ISLAMIC TERROR’ .” ‘ And now at Boston Globe , ” Pushed out of Harvard, professor returns fire: Dismissal stirs debate over free speech “: Subramanian Swamy is an outspoken man. That is what got him into trouble last July. While teaching economics at the Harvard University summer school, he penned a sharply worded column for a newspaper in India, where he is a prominent right-wing politician. Many readers thought his proposals would deny Muslims basic rights and incite riots. Some 40 Harvard professors called for his dismissal. But the furor died down, or appeared to, after Harvard’s president, Drew Faust, defended Swamy’s right to free speech as “central to the mission of a university.’’ The economics department invited him back for another summer. Swamy heard nothing else from Harvard. Then, a few weeks ago, he checked his e-mail and learned – from a Google Alert for his name – that his colleagues had fired him anyway. Encouraged by a private note from the summer school’s dean, professors who opposed Swamy came to a faculty meeting where summer classes were to be approved. The process is usually a rubber-stamp affair, but the professors argued so passionately that Swamy’s courses were voted off the slate. No one told Swamy about the meeting. Now, the case has devolved into an imbroglio about hate speech and academic freedom. The professors who led the charge against Swamy are buried in angry e-mails from his supporters in India. Others are torn, despising both Swamy’s column and the way he was relieved of his duties. Faust is in an awkward spot: She is scheduled to visit India in January. And the usually outspoken Swamy – who has made few public comments on the issue, save a few Twitter postings – is finally firing back. “I was surprised Harvard would do this, given that the president’s office said free speech was sacred,’’ he said in an interview. “The people who cut me out are leftists who have nothing to do with economics. There’s no allegation that in my class I said anything offensive. There’s no allegation that it has affected my research. It’s almost like the Spanish Inquisition – they didn’t give me a chance.’’ The professor may indeed be controversial, but the reaction by the Harvard faculty is totalitarian. But read the whole thing, at the link .
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Subramanian Swamy Hits Back at Terror-Coddling Harvard Professors Who Got Him Fired
Counting on a strong finish in Iowa, the Associated Press reports that Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann is increasingly stressing her gender as a distinction in the crowded Republican presidential field. “She’s made the gender card central to her closing argument. She’s urging voters to embrace the idea of a ‘strong woman in the White House’ and is molding herself as ‘America’s Iron Lady’ in the vein of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.” Iowa has never elected a woman as governor or to its congressional delegation, and some have speculated that her closing strategy may cost her some conservatives who have more traditional views about gender roles. Bachmann rarely drew attention to her gender early in the campaign, but AP notes she’s been hitting the theme hard as Tuesday’s caucuses near. “I’m an Iowa girl. And one thing I remember about Iowa is we are a state of strong women,” Bachmann told the lunch crowd at a 50s-themed burger joint in Mount Ayr. “We need a strong woman to turn this country around, right?” Bachmann was born in Iowa, and rose to prominence in the Republican presidential primary campaign after winning the state’s Ames straw poll over the summer, in turn ending the campaign of former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. The Minnesota congresswoman’s presidential campaign has lost some steam in the state since then , finishing sixth with only 7 percent support in the final Des Moines Register poll before the January 3 Iowa Caucus released Saturday. Bachmann spoke from the pulpit of Jubilee Family Church in Oskaloosa, Iowa Sunday morning, where the Los Angeles Times reports she preached for half an hour not on politics, but her own personal story of salvation. On the sidewalk outside the church following the service, Bachmann said she was not worried about evangelical voters deserting her for outspoken social conservative and surging former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. The New York Times notes that Bachmann has said she expects “astounding results” that are nothing short of miraculous in Tuesday’s caucuses. The Times reports that outside the church the Minnesota congresswoman stressed that she would continue to fight for “faith, marriage and the protection of life from conception to natural death” because “it matters what’s true. It matters what’s right.”
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America’s Iron Lady? Bachmann Campaign Turns to Gender Card
