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 IRAN NEGOTIATIONS DEADLINE NEARS

 

TELL CONGRESS:  ” Support a good agreement with Iran”

Ask members of Congress: to speak favorably and publicly for diplomacy about the opportunity for reaching an agreement with Iran on their nuclear program.  This is a critical moment in time for citizens of the United States, who believe such an agreement is in the best interest of our country and our world.  some members of Congress are threatening to scuttle the negotiations before they are finished by promoting more sanctions. Effective diplomacy that requires all parties to give something is preferable to the hostilities and threats of war that have dominated US/Iran relations for more than 30 years.

 

How Close is Close on Iran Negotiations?

Some P5+1 negotiators say the deal is 95 percent done – but the remaining five percent is the most difficult details. For both sides, the costs of failure are likely catastrophic. Precisely because the stakes have never been higher, it is important to nail down the sticking points and major obstacles that must be overcome… The P5+1 insists on cutting that number significantly – between 2,000 and 4,000. The sticking point is domestic politics, not science. Iran is insisting upon immediate-term enrichment levels that surpass its current needs. The P5+1 is pushing for immediate limitations that prevent Iran from enrichment levels that it does not have the technical capability to achieve. Unless both sides make the political decision to absorb and sell compromise – 5,000 to 6,000 centrifuges – the last best chance to resolve this conflict will be lost… An extension is a possibility, should the two sides not be able to close the gaps, but it carries its own risks. Hardliners in Congress and within Iran will have more time to throw up obstacles and wreak political havoc on the forces in both the US and Iranian administrations seeking to finalize a deal. While the gaps are few, they are significant, but the mood here in Vienna is determined.   More

 

Two Different American Futures: With an Iran Deal & Without

But no deal — either by November 24 or after an extended deadline — could bring renewed talk of bombing Iran's nuclear facilities and the risk of sparking a still greater crisis in the region than exists today… Any final failure to reach a deal would not only leave the nuclear crisis unsolved, it would almost certainly strengthen opinion in both Tehran and Washington that each must take a still-tougher approach toward the other… Where an ever-tighter sanctions regime might eventually lead is an open question. Proponents would argue it might eventually force regime change while skeptics would argue that Iran's theocracy would be able to benefit from nationalist feeling in the population and survive the pressure. However, one certainty is that the situation would only add more volatility to a region of the world that is already engulfed in crisis.   More

 

Progressive Caucus:

CONGRESS SHOULD LET DIPLOMACY WORK

(after House Passes Resolution Condemning Human Rights Violations in Iran)

Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) along with CPC Peace and Security Task Force Chair Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), released the following statements today urging Congress to let diplomacy work in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program between the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, Russia (P5+1) and Iran after the House passed a resolution condemning human rights violations in Iran… “The expansion of human rights for all Iranians is more likely to happen if current negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program are successful. Diplomacy with Iran empowers human rights leaders in Tehran because it weakens the claim that Iran is under constant threat which justifies the police state,” Rep. Ellison said. “Diplomacy empowers advocates to push for rights like freedom of speech and religion. If Congress wants to help improve human rights in Iran, we must engage and support the P5+1 nuclear talks.”    More

 

(There is plenty to criticize about human rights in Iran, but when was the last time Congress passed a resolution calling for democratic elections in Saudi Arabia or other much more repressive US allies in the Middle East?)

 

Top Foreign Policy Experts Endorse Iran Nuclear Deal

While advocates from both sides made their arguments on Capitol Hill this week, two distinguished former US ambassadors told an audience here Wednesday that a deal between world powers and Iran over its nuclear program offers “huge advantages” and that the chances of a “complete breakdown” in the talks at this stage are low, even if the prospect of a comprehensive accord being signed before the looming deadline is also unlikely… Thomas Pickering, who served as Washington’s chief envoy in virtually every hot spot—from Moscow to San Salvador and from Lagos and Tel Aviv to Turtle Bay (in the run-up to and during the first Gulf War)—meanwhile explained why a negotiated settlement to Iran’s nuclear program is highly preferable to the “military option.” … On the American side, the “unreasoned opposition” Pickering referred to is rooted in Congress, where key members of the House and Senate advocate the Israeli government’s position that any deal should completely or almost completely dismantle Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, which would be a non-starter for the Islamic Republic.    More

 

BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS:

Israeli nuclear weapons, 2014

In our assessment, based on analysis of available sources and examination of commercial satellite imagery, we estimate that Israel has a stockpile of approximately 80 nuclear warheads for delivery by two dozen mobile Jericho missiles, a couple of squadrons of aircraft, and perhaps a small inventory of sea-launched cruise missiles. Much uncertainty remains, however, about the structure and diversity of Israel’s nuclear arsenal because of Israel’s policy of keeping its nuclear capability ambiguous and because other countries don’t reveal some of what their intelligence communities know.  Despite Israel’s stated policy that it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East, there is little doubt that Israel has already introduced nuclear weapons in the region and that only a deception based on a narrow interpretation of what constitutes “introduction” keeps Israel from officially being a nuclear weapon state.   More

 

Is Israel Losing the Battle to Wage War on Iran?

Starting in the early 1990s Israel not only joined the US in its massive campaign against Iran, but it actually took over the sanctions policy of the US. With the help of its lobby groups, Israel pushed through the US Congress one set of sanctions after another, hoping that ultimately the US would attack Iran, as it had done in the case of Iraq… The policy of “tough diplomacy” pursued by the Israeli lobbyists did not produce the desired result. The harsh sanctions imposed did enormous damage to Iran’s economy. But…there were no “riots on the streets” and no “threat to the survival of the regime.” … But has Israel lost the war to wage war on Iran? The newly configured US Senate is already seeking a vote on another Israeli sponsored war bill called “Iran Nuclear Negotiations Act of 2014.”   More

 

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The Wars Abroad, the Wars at Home

Martin Luther King: “The bombs that are falling [overseas] are exploding in our cities”

“Down Outright Murder” A Guide to the Shooting of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson The nation is on edge, awaiting a grand jury decision in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown — an unarmed African American teen in Ferguson, Missouri — by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson more than three months ago. The decision is expected any day and there is widespread belief, based on weeks of leaks to the media and laws that historically favor police officers in lethal force cases, that Wilson will not be indicted. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has preemptively declared a state of emergency in anticipation of protests. Brown’s killing, the culmination of an incident that the St. Louis Post Dispatch would later report lasted no more than 90 seconds, devastated a family with high hopes for their college-bound son and sparked some of the most significant civil rights demonstrations in a generation — casting a harsh light on the disproportionate number of black men killed by police, on St. Louis County’s exploitative and racially discriminatory municipal court system, and on the militarization of law enforcement.   More   Petition – “END RACIALLY DISCRIMINATORY POLICE PRACTICES IN BOSTON”  Many of you have already signed the ACLU petition to the BPD calling for three key reforms. The petition is now online here: End Racially Discriminatory Police Practices in Boston (for residents of Boston) and Support the Movement to End Racially Discriminatory Police Practices in Boston (for people who aren’t residents of Boston).  Please share widely among friends and supporters!

 

How Police Use Military Tactics to Quash Dissent

Armored trucks in the street and a fear of mayhem are more common abroad but Ferguson shows they now have a place in the suburbs of America. Police have militarized from to boots to brainstem… What's happening in Ferguson and St. Louis is more than counterintelligence, it's counterinsurgency. Secretive intelligence-gathering is just one tactic that, alongside cops in Desert Storm camouflage, no-fly zones, curfews and military checkpoints form the basis of a unified and militarized suppression of dissent. Police use of counterinsurgency strategy in Missouri and beyond is a critical component of the militarization of the police.  More

 

Two Detroits, Separate and Unequal

On November 7th, a federal judge approved the city of Detroit’s plan to exit the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. That bankruptcy, the need for which was hotly contested by residents and leading economists, was only the latest in a series of controversial steps that included Governor Rick Snyder’s imposition of an unelected emergency manager to oversee the city’s finances… Detroit has become a blueprint for the creation of a “self-acknowledged, self-defined second-class city,” one where the state guarantees only the most basic services to most of its inhabitants: “some police,” “some fire protection,” and “a bulldozer department” to raze abandoned houses, while the remaining essential services will be available only on a private basis for those who can pay… As the city government has receded, a lack of services has made parts of Detroit all but uninhabitable.   More

 

Inequality, Unbelievably, Gets Worse

To only modest notice, during the campaign the Federal Reserve put forth more sobering news about income inequality: Inflation-adjusted earnings of the bottom 90 percent of Americans fell between 2010 and 2013, with those near the bottom dropping the most. Meanwhile, incomes in the top decile rose… And income taxes for the highest-earning Americans have fallen sharply, contributing meaningfully to the income inequality problem. In 1995, the 400 taxpayers with the biggest incomes paid an average of 30 percent in taxes; by 2009, the tax rate of those Americans had dropped to 20 percent… Critics from the right argue that doing more to level the income pyramid would hurt growth. In a recent paper, the International Monetary Fund dismissed that concern and suggested that a more equal distribution of income could instead raise the growth rate because of the added access to education, health care and other opportunities.  More

 

US Corporate Giants Pay More to CEOs than in Federal Taxes

While Congress is set to renew a slew of corporate tax breaks, new research published Tuesday found some of United States' biggest companies pay their CEOs more than they give up in federal taxes… The companies included in the study were oil corporation Chevron, communications company Verizon, financial giants JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup and manufacturers Ford, General Motor and Boeing.  Scott Klinger, from the Center for Effective Government told CBS those billions in tax refunds and corporate profits aren't going towards creating U.S. jobs. Instead, he argued most big corporations are using free cash to reward stockholders with dividends and stock buybacks.  More