The U.S. military announced today that instead of keeping mulitple aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, only one would be kept there. The reason offered? Uncertainty surrounding budget cuts.
"The secretary of defense has delayed the deployment of the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) and the USS Gettysburg (CG-64), which were scheduled to depart Norfolk, Va., later this week for the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility," says the Pentagon in a press release announcing the big move.
Yesterday the Bulgarian government announced the results of its investigation into the July 18, 2012 bus bombing that killed 5 Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver in the city of Burgas. At least two members of what appears to have been a three-man team belong to Hezbollah. More specifically, explained Bulgaria’s interior minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, they were part of Hezbollah’s “military wing”—a peculiar turn of phrase that hints at the political implications of the Bulgarian investigation, which may have a major impact on European Union foreign policy as well as Hezbollah’s ability to operate on the continent. And yet the most serious repercussions may be felt inside Lebanon, where Hezbollah is already feeling the pressure.
Douglas Murray, writing in the Wall Street Journal:
Anyone paying attention to the words and actions emanating from Tehran over the last few years should be easily convinced that anything and everything must be done to stop the Iranian regime from acquiring a nuclear bomb.
The Emergency Committee for Israel has released a new ad called "confusion," which highlights Chuck Hagel's rocky performance in last week's Senate hearing:
"Today the Emergency Committee for Israel released "Confusion," a web ad highlighting Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel's confused response at last week's hearing to questions about the Obama administration's Iran policy," says ECI in a press release.
Senator Dan Coats delivered these remarks on the floor of the Senate in opposition to Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense:
I have reviewed the 130 pages of answers submitted by Senator Hagel in response to policy questions presented by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
An advisor to President Obama describes Chuck Hagel's hearing as, "somewhere between baffling and incomprehensible." The advisor made the comment to the New York Times.
With Chuck Hagel's Senate confirmation hearing scheduled for later today, it's worth reviewing a small sampling of the greatest hits of President Obama's defense secretary nominee:
Informed sources are confirming reports that there was a major explosion at a uranium enrichment plant at an Iranian nuclear facility in Fordow last week. However, the White House believes the reports are not credible and Iran denies that anything is amiss, but a variety of news items coming out of Israel and Iran point to the likelihood that something significant is happening in the region.
On its website, the Iranian propaganda outlet Press TV has an article titled, "Journalism is dead and buried in West." The propaganda reads:
Over the past six weeks, we have had hundreds of new bloggers and “media pundits,” most anonymous, none with qualification, none with verifiable bios, almost all with childishly obvious agendas that carry clear signs of “handlers.” None, however, have attributable sources, real access to inside information.
In a sharply worded letter to Chuck Hagel, President Obama's nominee to be the next secretary of defense, Senator David Vitter of Louisiana takes issue with Hagel's past statement that “The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here…. I’m not an Israeli senator. I’m a United States senator.” Hagel made that statement in a 2006 interview.
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