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Purveyor's JournalAbbas Meets With US Envoy Indyk As PA Officials Condemn New Settlement Plans
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met in Ramallah Sunday with US envoy Martin Indyk and discussed with him the latest developments surrounding the peace talks with Israel, which are expected to resume in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
A PA official said that Indyk affirmed the commitment of US President Barack Obama and his administration to the pursue efforts to support the peace talks.
The meeting came as Palestinian officials condemned plans by the Israeli government to build new housing units in West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem neighborhoods.
The officials warned that the plans would hamper US efforts to revive the peace talks.
"There is no need for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians because the Israelis are deliberately dealing one blow after the other to the international community and the US Administration," said PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi. She said that Israel alone bears responsibility for openly defying the the will of the international community and efforts to revive the peace process.
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http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Abbas-meets-with-US-envoy-Indyk-as-PA-officials-condemn-new-settlement-plans-322725
Egypt Police To Besiege Sit-Ins Within 24 Hours
Source: Associated Press
CAIRO (AP) -- Egyptian security officials say forces will besiege two protest camps in Cairo supporting the country's ousted president within 24 hours.
One official suggested action against the sit-ins by supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi could happen as early as daybreak Monday.
Officials, who spoke anonymously in line with regulations, told The Associated Press they are also preparing for possible clashes that might erupt.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_EGYPT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-08-11-12-59-07
US Angry Over Release Of Drug Lord After 28 Years In Prison For Killing Of US Agent
MEXICO CITY — U.S. law enforcement officials expressed outrage over the release from prison of Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero and vowed to continue efforts to bring to justice the man who ordered the killing of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent.
Caro Quintero was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the 1985 kidnapping and killing of DEA agent Enrique Camarena but a Mexican federal court ordered his release this week saying he had been improperly tried in a federal court for state crimes.
The 60-year-old walked out of a prison in the western state of Jalisco early Friday after serving 28 years of his sentence.
The U.S. Department of Justice said it found the court's decision "deeply troubling."
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/219083361.html
Snowden's Father Gets Visa To Visit Son In Russia
WASHINGTON (AP) -- National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden's father has secured documents to visit his son in Russia and plans to discuss how he could fight espionage charges, Lon Snowden and his attorney said Sunday.
Neither Lon Snowden nor his attorney Bruce Fein has spoken directly with the former NSA analyst since he fled the United States and received asylum in Russia, they said. But the father and lawyer also said they look forward to meeting with Edward Snowden to consider options for the leaker to return to the United States at some point.
"As a father, I want my son to come home if I believe that the justice system ... is going to be applied correctly," Lon Snowden said.
But the elder Snowden isn't convinced his son would get a fair hearing in court, given what he called "absolutely irresponsible" descriptions of his son's actions from President Barack Obama, his administration and top lawmakers from both parties.
"They have poisoned the well, so to speak, in terms of a potential jury pool," said Lon Snowden, of Allentown, Pa.
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NSA_SURVEILLANCE_SNOWDENS_FATHER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-08-11-10-18-44
Russia Challenges US in Tank Biathlon
MOSCOW, August 10 (RIA Novosti) – Blurring the line between sports and warfare, the Russian army premiered a new sport – tank biathlon – and invited US crews to compete.
“We’ve invited our American colleagues to participate…and our invitation was accepted by US Secretary of Defense [Chuck] Hagel,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Saturday.
Italy and Germany also agreed to send their teams to compete with Russian and US tank crews, Shoigu said, adding that the event will take place sometime next year.
Russia will host the world’s first ever tank biathlon championship next week. The country’s best tank crews will compete against each other at a firing range outside Moscow, the winners then taking on competitors from Armenia, Belorussia and Kazakhstan.
The new sport allows showcasing the quality of Russian tanks, comparing them against foreign analogues, Shoigu’s deputy Yury Borisov said Saturday.
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http://en.rian.ru/world/20130810/182693682/Russia-Challenges-US-in-Tank-Biathlon.html
RIA Novosti: Obama Calls For ‘Pause’ in US-Russia Ties
WASHINGTON, August 9 (RIA Novosti) – President Barack Obama on Friday called for “a pause” in US relations with Russia, even as both countries stressed that cooperation is crucial to their mutual interests and to the world despite sharp differences on a broad range of issues.
“It is probably appropriate for us to take a pause, reassess where it is that Russia is going, what our core interests are, and calibrate the relationship so that we’re doing things that are good for the United States and, hopefully, good for Russia as well,” Obama told a White House news conference Friday.
The comments came two days after the White House announced it had canceled Obama’s planned summit next month with Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing lack of prospects for progress in the bilateral agenda as well as Moscow’s harboring of accused US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.
But they also coincided with talks in Washington between top US and Russian officials that both sides took pains to describe as constructive while largely downplaying discord over issues such as missile defense, the ongoing civil war in Syria and Russia’s decision to grant temporary asylum to Snowden, who is wanted by the United States to face espionage charges at home.
In his most expansive public discussion of frayed US-Russian relations since his reelection last November, Obama told Friday’s news conference that Putin’s return to the Kremlin last year has coincided with “more rhetoric on the Russian side that was anti-American, that played into some of the old stereotypes about the Cold War contest between the United States and Russia.”
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http://en.rian.ru/world/20130810/182682782/Obama-Calls-For-Pause-in-US-Russia-Ties.html
Lawmakers Say Obstacles Limited Oversight Of NSA’s Telephone Surveillance Program
Source: Washington Post
The Obama administration points to checks and balances from Congress as a key rationale for supporting bulk collection of Americans’ telephone communications data, but several lawmakers responsible for overseeing the program in recent years say that they felt limited in their ability to challenge its scope and legality.
The administration argued Friday that lawmakers were fully informed of the surveillance program and voted to keep it in place as recently as 2011. Officials say they have taken unusual steps to make information available to Congress, and committee leaders say they have carefully examined the National Security Agency’s data collection.
Yet some other members of the intelligence and judiciary committees paint a different picture.
They describe regular classified briefings in which intelligence officials would not volunteer details if questions were not asked with absolute precision.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2013/08/10/bee87394-004d-11e3-9a3e-916de805f65d_story.html
What Does The Peace Process Have To Do With Iran?
There were at least three articles in the Hebrew media this week speculating on the option of an Israeli strike on Iran. All pieces linked those scenarios to the peace process, and to the Wall Street Journal‘s report on reactor in Arak, which is due to become operational in the coming months and could be used for the creation of a plutonium bomb (those reports were already disputed, even in Israel)
Writing for Al-Monitor, Ben Caspit (who opposes the idea of an Israeli attack), speculates:
A week ago [July 30], after the painful decision to release more than 100 Palestinian prisoners, some of whom are “heavyweight” murderers, to resume negotiations with the Palestinians, Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon had something very interesting to say: Underlying the decision to release prisoners — he stated — “were strategic considerations, which might be revealed in the future.” (…) What will we understand in the future? In light of the intimations, the signals and the whispers, we are able to figure out the quiet deal that was cut between Israel and the United States: Israel will do whatever is necessary to start negotiations with the Palestinians, maybe even reach a type of an interim arrangement ahead of the final status arrangement. America will give Israel a green light to bomb Iran after having fully verified that the Iranians are really poised to make the final “charge” toward the bomb.
At Haaretz, Sefi Rachlevsky and Alon Ben David raised the same idea – that the real reason Netanyahu entered the peace process is his desire to legitimize an attack on the Iranian nuclear facilities. Rechlevsky is an author and doesn’t have good sources (his article is not as much of a report as an analysis of Netanyahu’s character) but Alon Ben David is a veteran military correspondent. In previous weeks others have made similar suggestions (see Ynet’s military correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai).
There is also speculation that the nature of the understanding on this issue between the American administration and Israel has changed. Former head of military intelligence Amos Yadlin told Israel’s Army Radio this week that the administration’s position has “moved from a red light to yellow.”
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http://972mag.com/what-does-the-peace-process-have-to-do-with-iran/77096/
With Egypt Strike, Israel Violates Two Borders In Three Days
Sovereignty is a funny thing. Some countries claim more of it than they really have, some don’t have full control over their sovereign territory or airspace, and others willingly cede some of their sovereignty for a number of reasons.
Two cases of Israel violating the sovereignty of its neighbors made headlines in the past few days. The first incident involved Israeli combat soldiers infiltrating Lebanon’s borders on Wednesday.
Israeli violations of Lebanon’s airspace, maritime and land borders are, of course, nothing new. Overflights sometimes reaching as far north as Beirut take place on a near-daily basis. This case only even made headlines because four Israeli soldiers were injured inside Lebanese territory.
Israel doesn’t even deny its incursions into Lebanon and the areas under its control. When Jerusalem sometimes acknowledges the violations, it describes overflights as necessary and defensive. Following the most recent incident, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded simply, “We will continue to act responsibly in order to defend Israel’s borders.”
Nothing to see here; move along.
The violations of Lebanese sovereignty are a case of one country boldly and arrogantly acting with the knowledge that its superior power allows it to do so. Such acts of military aggression run the risk of escalating into a wider conflict, as occurred in 2006, but as Israel’s repeated airstrikes against targets in Syria show, decision makers in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv believe the risk to be minimal. In short, they know they can get away with it.
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http://972mag.com/with-egypt-strike-israel-violates-two-borders-in-three-days/77202/
Netanyahu Tells U.S. Mediator Palestinians Inciting Against Israel
JERUSALEM | Sat Aug 10, 2013 3:38pm EDT
(Reuters) - Israel has complained to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry about statements by the Palestinians which it said undermined nascent peace talks, an Israeli official said on Saturday.
"Incitement and peace cannot coexist," the official quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as telling Kerry, the negotiations' sponsor, in a letter sent over the weekend.
The complaint underscored the recrimination and distrust on both sides that threaten the talks, even as Israel prepares to free scores of Palestinian prisoners ahead of a second round of discussions next week.
According to the official, Netanyahu's letter referred to an assertion Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made on July 29 that a future Palestinian state "would not see the presence of a single Israeli - civilian or soldier".
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/10/us-palestinians-israel-idUSBRE97908M20130810
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