Saturday, July 11, 2020
ISRAEL’S ATTACKS ON IRAN’S NUCLEAR SITES SIGNAL A NEW PHASE OF CONFLICT
https://popularresistance.org/israels-attacks-on-irans-nuclear-sites-signal-a-new-phase-of-conflict/
An Ongoing, Medium-Intensity Conflict Between Israel And Iran Strengthens Netanyahu’s Argument That He Is Best-Positioned To Protect His Country’s Interests.
Over the past week, mysterious explosions and fires have wracked key infrastructure connected to Iran’s nuclear programme at Natanz and Parchin, key facilities engaged in uranium enrichment and the production of rocket fuel for ballistic missiles.
The US and Israel have accused Iran of violating UN resolutions and the nuclear deal in testing new ballistic-missile technology. Although Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has repeatedly denied any intent to create nuclear weapons, even going so far as to issue a fatwa against it, Iran’s enemies are convinced it plans to “go nuclear”.
The recent attacks appear to be an attempt by a hostile state to degrade that programme and delay Iran’s ability to potentially send such weapons to targets outside of Iran. Tehran has said that a cyberattack could be behind the explosion at Natanz, which destroyed a building that allegedly housed an advanced centrifuge system that could increase the speed of enrichment by up to 50 times.
Risky Undertaking
According to the New York Times, a “Middle Eastern intelligence official with knowledge of the episode” said that Israel was responsible for the Natanz attack. “The blast was caused by an explosive device planted inside the facility,” the Times reported, citing information from an intelligence source. The explosion “destroyed much of the aboveground parts of the facility where new centrifuges – delicate devices that spin at supersonic speeds – are balanced before they are put into operation”.
Avigdor Lieberman, a rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has accused Mossad chief Yossi Cohen of being the source. In a radio interview, he said the leak was a deliberate attempt to embellish Cohen’s resume at the expense of Israeli national security, as he prepared to transition from the Mossad to a political career as Netanyahu’s possible successor as Likud leader.
According to the Times, “while investigators have considered the possibility that Natanz was hit … by a cruise missile or a drone, they view it as more likely that someone carried a bomb into the building”. An unidentified Revolutionary Guard member told the Times that while it was unclear how the explosives were snuck in, “the attack clearly demonstrated a hole in the facility’s security”.
This, together with the fact that a hitherto unknown anti-regime group, the Homeland Cheetahs, contacted BBC Persian hours before the bombing was made public to claim responsibility, points to the possible involvement of the anti-regime Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK). Israel is known to have executed joint assassination operations with MEK killers on the ground in the past.
According to the Kuwaiti media outlet al-Jarida, an Israeli F-35 stealth jet was used to bomb the Parchin complex. While this is possible, flying an aircraft from Israel to Iran for such an attack would be a technically complex and risky undertaking. Al-Jarida further reported that the fire at Natanz was the result of a cyberattack aimed at gas compression controls.
Stuxnet Attack
A decade ago, joint US-Israeli efforts resulted in the development of the Stuxnet worm, which infected Natanz and was inadvertently sent around the world. Stuxnet was reportedly delivered via a USB stick. It’s unclear what method might have been used this time, but presumably the attackers would have been looking to exploit any similar lapses of Iranian cybersecurity.
A possible motivator could have been a thwarted cyberattack on six Israeli water plants in April, intended to cause systems to malfunction. According to a report in the Times of Israel, which cited Channel 13 news, the attack “was viewed as a significant escalation by Iran and a crossing of a red line because it targeted civilian infrastructure”.
As such, the latest attacks against Iran could be, at least in part, Israeli retaliation and a warning of the price Iran will pay for such mischief. Yet, the sheer scale of the attacks indicates a massive escalation in hostilities. Iran would also assume, likely correctly, that Israel informed its closest military ally of its mission, and therefore view these acts as joint US-Israeli operations.
That could explain the latest missile attack on US diplomatic and military installations in Iraq. In an unprecedented move, Iraqi troops last month arrested a group of Iran-backed fighters allegedly plotting a new attack against the Green Zone in Baghdad. Washington has blamed pro-Iranian militias for rocket attacks targeting US troops across Iraq in recent months.
Israel and Iran have played out their rivalry in Iraq before. Iran will undoubtedly seek to exact revenge on Israeli or US assets wherever it can find them. This is no longer a game of cat-and-mouse; it is only a matter of time before one or more of the parties accidentally or intentionally tips the situation into an outbreak of massive, unrestrained conflict.
Netanyahu’s Corruption Trial
The timing of these developments could prove extremely useful for Netanyahu, coming in the midst of his corruption trial. If convicted, Netanyahu could be forced to resign, possibly ending his political career. One of the wiliest of Israeli politicians, Netanyahu would not be above mounting attacks to buttress the notion that he is an indispensable leader protecting Israel’s security by eliminating grave threats, such as those posed by Iran.
Furthermore, Netanyahu’s grand plan to annex 30 percent of the occupied West Bank has incited a firestorm of opposition around the globe. Denunciations and warnings have come from political leaders, international diplomats and human rights groups. The Trump administration, thought to have offered full support for the plan, seems now at cross-purposes, with hardliners such as Ambassador David Friedman backing annexation and adviser Jared Kushner urging caution.
Former Israeli Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg even told an Italian newspaper that the US was responsible for halting annexation (for now). If he is correct, then the explosions in Iran would be just the ticket to distract public attention from yet another failure by Netanyahu to implement policies favoured by his ultra-nationalist constituency.
These attacks are also characteristic of Israel’s strategy to avoid comprehensive solutions to intractable issues and instead engage in half-measures, aptly known in Israeli idiom as “mowing the grass”.
Iran analysts and nuclear experts say these attacks do not fundamentally alter Iran’s trajectory if it is seeking nuclear capabilities; at best, they delay progress by a few months or a year. There is no way, short of regime change or armed invasion, that countries can deter rivals determined to obtain nuclear weapons.
Informed Israeli sources have repeatedly said Netanyahu never intended to attack Iran on the scale necessary to deal a massive blow to its nuclear programme. At best, these operations only delay the inevitable – and this may be exactly what Netanyahu wants. An ongoing, medium-intensity conflict between Israel and Iran strengthens his argument that he is the only figure who can protect Israeli interests.
The Public Sector’s Right to Strike Is Left Behind in Biden-Bernie Task Force Compromise
BY HAMILTON NOLAN
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/22653/bernie-biden-task-force-labor-public-sector-right-strike-nelson-saunders
Yesterday’s release of the recommendations of the “Unity Task Force” made up of delegates from both the Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden camps marked an unprecedented attempt to formally unite the centrist and progressive wings of the Democratic Party. But it also crystallized the depth of their ideological disagreement, including within the world of organized labor.
The task force, made up of 49 surrogates from both Sanders and Biden, produced a report of more than 100 pages, intended to influence both the Democratic Party’s platform and Biden’s own policy priorities. The eight members of the economy section of the task force included two labor leaders: Lee Saunders, head of the 1.6 million-member public sector union AFSCME, a Biden delegate; and Sara Nelson, head of the Association of Flight Attendants, a Sanders delegate. Their experiences crafting the labor policy recommendations are a microcosm of the larger divide between the more establishment and radical wings of American unions.
The task force’s labor and worker rights platform includes several items that are standard on most unions’ political wish list: a repeal of “right to work” laws that make it more difficult to organize; “card check” recognition that makes it easier to put new unions in place; a ban on anti-union “captive audience meetings” and harsher penalties for employers that violate labor laws; and passage of the PRO Act, a strong pro-labor bill that passed the House earlier this year.
Perhaps the most notable part of the platform, however, is an omission. It asks to “ensure that all private-sector workers' right to strike... is vigorously protected.” But for public sector workers, it asks only to “Provide a federal guarantee for public sector employees to bargain for better pay and benefits and the working conditions they deserve.” In other words, despite the fact that the public sector is much more heavily unionized than the private sector, and has been under legal attack from the right for decades, there is no demand that public sector workers be granted the right to strike—the single most potent weapon in any union’s toolbox.
More remarkable is the fact that Lee Saunders, one of America’s most powerful public sector union leaders and an Obama confidante, represents the faction that was not seeking to give his own members the right to strike. “In the public sector, AFSCME has taken the position that… in order to come to a conclusion if there are difficult negotiations, we should have binding arbitration in place of the right to strike,” Saunders told In These Times. “Public sector unions believe binding arbitration is better because we provide valuable public services.”
Saunders acknowledged that the issue of the public sector’s right to strike was discussed in the task force’s negotiations, but his view, unsurprisingly, carried the day. Sara Nelson, a leftist in the labor movement who is often mentioned as a future candidate to lead the AFL-CIO, pushed unsuccessfully for public workers to have the same right to strike as their counterparts in the private sector. “My mind wasn't changed during this process on any issue we brought forward. I fundamentally believe in the right to strike. The strike is a necessary component of collective bargaining,” she told In These Times. “If federal workers had the right to strike, there would never be a government shutdown ever again.”
There is no question that the function of the task force was to pull Biden to the left. It was meant to function as a consolation prize for the Sanders wing of the party—which, to be fair, is more than most losing primary candidates get. How successful it was in that task is a matter of perspective. Saunders emphasizes the unity aspect of the process, and believes that its platform should help all of organized labor feel satisfied that Biden is a candidate who will genuinely pursue their agenda. “The importance of unions was front and center throughout the entire discussions,” he said. “He understands the importance of workers… it will be a priority for him, I’m convinced of that.”
For Nelson, the benefits of the task force are more nuanced. She noted significant policy wins, like a $15 per hour minimum wage and union neutrality requirement for all federal contractors. More broadly, she says, implementation of the entire platform would revolutionize American labor law for the better. On a practical level, she thinks that the personal relationships forged between members of the task force will help open doors for more left wing policy experts in a Biden administration. But she acknowledged that progressives did not get everything they wanted in the platform, pointing in particular to the lack of a jobs guarantee.
“What’s missing is the approach to the economy that all work is essential, and that it is cruel and dishonest that we would center it around the idea that a certain percentage of people who want to work should remain unemployed to stave off inflation. That’s absurd,” she said. “That approach undermines labor’s place at the table, and labor’s place in our democracy.”
Just as it lacked a jobs guarantee, the task force’s recommendations did not include Medicare for All or the Green New Deal. These omissions were probably inevitable, given the fact that Biden and not Sanders is the nominee. The left wing of the labor movement can take heart in the existence of the task force, and in some moderate wins at the negotiating table. Its outcome, however, is also proof that progress towards radical reforms is made outside, not inside, of the rooms where the power players huddle.
“We can't look at this as an election. We have to organize every single day to build our power. We have to be willing to strike for these issues. We have to be willing to move to a general strike for these issues,” Nelson said. When the left makes policy demands, “we have to back that up with what we do in the streets.”
'An Absolute Outrage': Sanders Rips 'Wealthy Tax Cheats' as CBO Estimates $381 Billion in Annual Unpaid Taxes
"The richest 1% is responsible for 70% of all unpaid taxes... Congress is leaving hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes uncollected from the wealthy."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/09/absolute-outrage-sanders-rips-wealthy-tax-cheats-cbo-estimates-381-billion-annual
A Congressional Budget Office report commissioned by Sen. Bernie Sanders and published Wednesday found the amount of unpaid taxes from 2011 to 2013 averaged around $381 billion per year, a revenue shortfall the Vermont senator called an "absolute outrage" that is largely the result of big corporations and "wealthy tax cheats" dodging their obligations.
"The richest 1% is responsible for 70% of all unpaid taxes," Sanders said in a statement late Wednesday, pointing to a separate study of the so-called "tax gap" published last November.
"Enforcement activity for many high-income nonfilers has been reduced to a series of notices," the report says. The CBO's findings bolster reporting by ProPublica last year that found the IRS "now audits poor Americans at about the same rate as the top 1%" due in part to the high costs of examining the tax returns of the rich.The CBO analysis (pdf) out Wednesday found that massive Internal Revenue Service budget cuts and staff reductions over the past decade have resulted in a sharp decline in examination and enforcement of tax underpayment and avoidance.
"The IRS examination rate for the largest corporations, those with $20 billion or more in assets, dropped by about half from 2010 to 2018," Sanders' office noted. "The wealthiest taxpayers, with more than $1 million in income, saw their audit rate cut by 63% during the same time period."
If the federal government collected the hundreds of billions in unpaid taxes owed mostly by the richest Americans, Sanders pointed out, "we could fund tuition-free college for all, eliminate child hunger, ensure clean drinking water for every American household, build half a million affordable housing units, provide masks to all, produce the protective gear and medical supplies our health workers need to combat this pandemic, and fully fund the U.S. Postal Service."
"That is an absolute outrage, and this report should make us take a long, hard look at what our national priorities are all about," said Sanders. "Congress is leaving hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes uncollected from the wealthy."
The CBO found that boosting the IRS budget for audits and collections by $20 billion over the next decade would increase federal tax revenue by $61 billion—and, as a result, reduce the federal budget deficit by $40 billion.
"For every dollar we invest in getting the IRS the staffing and resources it needs, we get three dollars back in unpaid taxes. Make no mistake: the primary beneficiaries of IRS funding cuts are wealthy tax cheats and large corporations," said Sanders. "Do not think for one second that the wealthiest country on Earth is unable to make critical investments to meet people's basic needs in terms of healthcare, food security, education, and unemployment."
'Connect the Dots': Tulsa Health Official Points to Trump Rally as 'Likely' Source of Covid-19 Spike
"May this stand as wakeup call against future mass gatherings/rallies, especially without masks."
by
Eoin Higgins, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/09/connect-dots-tulsa-health-official-points-trump-rally-likely-source-covid-19-spike
President Donald Trump's rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 20 is the "likely" source of an outbreak of Covid-19 cases in the area, the city's top health official said Wednesday, a warning to other cities planning on holding political gatherings for unmasked attendees collected indoors in the coming months leading up to November's general election.
"The past two days we've had almost 500 cases, and we know we had several large events a little over two weeks ago, which is about right," said Dr. Bruce Dart, the director of the Tulsa Health Department, in a press conference on the city's outbreak. "So I guess we just connect the dots."
The rally appears to have had an effect on the region's number of cases.
The Associated Press broke down the numbers:
Tulsa County reported 261 confirmed new cases on Monday, a one-day record high, and another 206 cases on Tuesday. By comparison, during the week before the June 20 Trump rally, there were 76 cases on Monday and 96 on Tuesday.
Trump's insistence on holding a rally in Tulsa despite warnings from health officals of the danger to public health was widely criticized . Masks were not required at the rally and the few thousand people that did show up for the most part were packed into an area in front of the stage.
As the New York Times reported, officials are still struggling to track the disease's progression after the event:
Karen Keith, a county commissioner in Tulsa who oversees the area where the rally occurred, said in an interview on Wednesday that contact tracers were struggling to persuade people to reveal where they had been, frustrating local officials.
She added that a surge in cases in rural parts of the state was most likely another indication that the rally could be responsible for the most recent outbreaks. Dr. Dart told The Tulsa World newspaper that he had examined Google mobility data for rally attendees, which offered a "ballpark" idea of where they had settled after the event.
While the Trump administration has downplayed the role of the rally itself in the outbreak—press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters at a briefing Wednesday she had seen "no data" to indicate the event was responsible for the disease's spread—health experts are sounding the alarm.
"It is just so frustrating and sad to see needless infections," tweeted Harvard scientist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding. "May this stand as wakeup call against future mass gatherings/rallies, especially without masks. Please."
Republican and Democratic city officials in Jacksonville, Florida, where the Republican Party is scheduled to hold its convention in August, are increasingly worried about the event, they told the Daily Beast Thursday.
"In a normal situation, I would be glad for the RNC to come here, I would be the first one to be there," said city council vice president Sam Newby, a Republican who contracted the disease in March. "But with the spike of it, and I know what it can do, that's why I'm concerned about it coming to Jacksonville."
Those concerns were echoed by the council's Democratic president, Tommy Hazouri, who said that the party has not communicated its plans to the city with less than two months to go before the convention.
"They're not communicating with us about what they're doing," said Hazouri. "And I don't think it's particularly something that they're hiding. I think it's more that they don't know themselves what the RNC is doing."
Trump on Friday will hold an outdoor rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Masks will not be required.
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