Especially with neighbor Israel in an undeclared legal domain around their 100-200 nukes, and india and Pakistan as not interested in the NPT partially because of their feud, it is fair to talk about whether it is "fair" to Iranian sovereignty for them to not develop a nuke.

We can talk about the fairness in all this, but technically Iran's commitment to the NPT while securing their internationally-accepted (w/ attempts from the West to undermine) right to Nuclear power (and we can talk about the wisdom (or lack thereof) of the nuclear energy route for all of us) commits them to not building nuclear weapons. And this is why they say this themselves.

But part of defeating Islamphobia, is to make sure that we don't allow ourselves to swing from extreme cartooned caricature to extreme cartoon cariacature, i.e. from "behind every Muslim there is a terrorist" to "behind every muslim extremist there is an innocent victim or pawn of Western Imperialism."

We must allow for the full and nuanced personhood of the humans of the Muslim world. Meaning, just as there are clear problems with Judeo-extremists (Zionist Supremacists) and Christian extremists (Christo-fascists), there are also challenges from extremism in the Muslim world. Yes, there has been alot of Western manipulation and meddling for Imperial ends, but just as I believe Judeo/christian extremism is a threat to Western civilization and clearly to Muslim civilization, I also believe that Muslim extremism can be a threat to Western civilization, and certainly to Muslim civilization.

This nuanced attempt to think with "thickness" about Muslims is what it will take to turn away from a "Clash of Civilizations" to unique civilizations dealing with their own problems in relationship to each other in a highly inter-connected world.

And Kevin, if you think Hamas are "heroes," I would go deeper into the Mossad machinations behind the set-up. And how killing Israeli civilians is really the good and just way to dismantle Israeli apartheid. Similar situation to South Africa-the killing of civilian white South Africans was going to get the liberationist nowhere and wouldn't have gained the international pressure necessary to bring aartheid to its knees. Zionist Supremacist Extremists can only hold power in a situation of mutual terrorism. And while I would never deny any human their right to defend themselves, their family and their people, has Hamas really done a good job of defending the interests of the Palestinian people in terms of developing a Gandhian type resistance against apartheid that would gain the world's support and consensus?

“Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught in falsehoods school. And the one man that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool.” –Plato

"We must speak the truth about terror." --George W. Bush

I'm glad Iran is a party to the NPT. My point is that they have agreed not to develop nuclear weapons, and should not for that reason. That's fair.

The International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion that the use or threatened use of nuclear weapons violates international law, so I was wrong to argue that Iran has the right to develop them. Rather, they have as much right as any other nation.

I agree with you that religious extremists of all types are a concern. I've been reading your nuanced comment (and Danse's) about possible Israeli involvement in 9/11, and have long thought what you said here:

http://911blogger.com/node/13481#comment-175193

"I think to imply that the 'real' traitors are all about Israel represents a similar psychological block to those who think the 'Ayrabs' did it. It measn you don't have to face some of the other, very well embedded sources of treason and tyranny deep within our own society."

The problem I have with Alten's book is that we have been presented no reliable evidence that Islamic extremists are responsible for 9/11, and without 9/11, Islamic extremism would not be viewed as an existential threat. Alten thus promotes an unproven premise about 9/11, a premise that has resulted in much death and destruction. I don't see how promoting that can be good.

In terms of understanding 9-11 as a singular event, I think it is clear by now that any aspects of the "Muslim" involvement is at most the patsy cover-story being set-up. Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda does still exist, even if it is primarily an asset of Western Intelligence agencies. And it is also very true, that the amount of energy that has been pushed into the "Muslim" official cover story is met by a startling small amount of energy that attempts to reveal the deeper terrorist networks maintained by the Axis of "Good", US, Israel and the UK.

Having not read the book, I can't really speak to how "The Shell Game" deals with, or does not deal with this aspect of Jihadi terrorist networks as cultivated , combed and well-directed by Western intelligence agencies. I'm glad someone's doing it though.

Wow, here's Steve Alten's response to Wendy:

"I seriously doubt Mossad agents allowed themselves to be filmed high fiving. And news footage from Israel showed the population WEEPING after the WTC went down…as opposed to high fiving Palestinians. I would categorize your views as anti-semetic. I would also say your views are what kills credibility in the 9/11 movement."

He reminds me of Ron Paul -- another false 9/11 truth hero being pushed on us who doesn't even know the alternative views on what happened or what the popular alternative opinions are.

I think Wendy C's positions can be over the top and I know some people who have criticized her as anti-semitic, but on a lot of the stuff she talks about, she is correct.

Wow, what a narrow view Alten has. The Israelis reportedly told the FBI they were cheering because they thought the attacks would be good for Israel.

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/2/8/cheering_movers_and_art_student_spi...

Assuming that is true, how is that less despicable than Palestinians cheering?

Alten doesn't impute their actions to the entire population of Israel, yet he compares news footage showing Israel's "population WEEPING" with footage of a small number of Palestinians.

Is that representative?

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article512.shtml

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article468.shtml

Is it even true?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p1efINNrLU&

Even if it is true, look how it was used:

The footage was shown on this station in New York State, before interviews with local Arab-Americans. At the beginning, the talking head states: "Leaders in the local Arab community are cautioning people not to jump to conclusions," followed immediately by this footage of Palestinians dancing. How grotesque and irresponsible to frame the story that way, even if the footage really had showed Palestinians dancing in response to 9/11.

http://www.livevideo.com/video/7663AB87FB284079AD0201894019093D/911-even...

The LA Times reported that the Palestinian authorities confiscated pictures from Western journalists, but the article is not properly sourced. Have any journalists written about this?

http://web.archive.org/web/20011110144350/http:/www.latimes.com/news/pri...

>>Wow, what a narrow view Alten has.

You have to wonder where he's been to not know these basics. It suggests that although he may have read Ruppert and Griffin, he apparently only knows of MSM news on the Middle East, which is pretty sad. How could someone have awareness of peak oil but be completely offbase on Israel/Palestine?

Someone in Gaza the other day said that now, more and more, the Israelis are using drones to kill them.