Sensitive information about President Obama’s helicopter (Marine 1) was found on a hard drive in Tehran. Evidently, someone at “a defense contractor in Bethesda, Maryland” installed a file sharing program that comprised their hard drive.

Oh, the games we play. Some poor smuck wanted a Britney Spears song and ends up getting himself fired, maybe bringing his company down and possibly endangered the President.

Before we rush to judgement, a few more details would be nice.  For instance, what company was breached and what else was on that hard drive?  And how about the owner of the hard drive in Tehran? Did it belong to Khameni or some sixteen year old kid in that Internet savvy country?

Answers to those questions will help us decide on the level of this like particular breach, but it reminds us all how easily – and seriously – our systems can be corrupted.

Elliot Abrams, Deputy National Security Advisor for the Bush Administration, suggested in the Weekly Standard that the US follow the Bush Administration’s 2002 plan to create a two state solution to the Palestine – Israel struggle.

He calls the plan “realistic” – and proceeds to let Israel off the hook for every act of aggression they have unleashed upon Palestine. The plan called for Palestinians to give up terrorism without asking anything of Israel. Israel didn’t have to take down road blocks, move settlements or stop rolling tanks through the West Bank.

Mr. Abrams says the Bush Administration’s late push for a two state solution caused the plan to fail. But the plan was doomed from the start  because it did not treat the Palestinian and Israeli peoples as equal.

Whatever chance it may have had died when the Bush Administration pushed for elections and then rejected the results.  What Palestinian would trust anything they said after that?  The President could have pushed for a two solution or free ice cream and no one would listen.

The Bush Administration remained firmly entrenched on one side of the war and was unable to live up to their much touted democratic ideals – that is what doomed Mr. Abram’s realistic plan.

A policy built on workable realism would insist BOTH sides refrain from violence and also have the guts to live up to its own ideals.

The storming of the US embassy in Tehran effectively severed diplomatic relations with Iran.  Contrary to harmful campaign noise, US presidents since that fateful 1979 day have tried to negotiate with Iran.  Here is a short list from the Brookings Institute’s recent report on the future of US policy in the Middle East:

• Jimmy Carter did not close he Iranian Embassy in Washington until a full five months into the hostage crisis.
• Ronald Regan pressed for the revival of direct communications even in the wake of the political damage wrought by the Iran-contra arms sales.
• George H. Bush appealed publicly for talks with Tehran and went so far as to take a phone call for an impostor posing as Iran’s President at the time, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
• Bill Clinton attempted to open a private, back-channel dialogue with President Khatami
• George W. Bush, who has denounced engagement with radicals as appeasement, sanctioned unconditional engagement with Iran for eighteen months following 9/11.

Of course George W. Bush then shut off all talks famously refusing to even listen to their 2003 peace offer.  He has since begun exploring discussions again.  The point is that every President since 1979 has been willing to talk to the Iranians.

Sallai Meridor’s comments are intended to fuel our march to war against Iran. It is awful to have to stomach the offensive bile pouring out of Ahmadinejad and no one wants Iran to possess the bomb.

But we must consider the best way to stop them from attaining it. First, they may only need the “Japanese” option or the ability to produce one if necessary. This carries a significant deterrence without sparking a local arms race.

The West has the ability to rejuvenate Iran’s crumbled economy which is a strong enticement to peace. Iran has helped the US in Afghanistan and rhetoric aside, helped the US in Iraq, yet Iran and the US continue to escalate tensions without considering the outcomes of confrontation.

The people of the US need to realize that name calling statements like Meridor are part of the problem, not the solution.

Once again our government draws on the James Baker III to help see us through a difficult situation. This time by leading a study group on the future of Iraq. TSN! acknowledges Mr. Baker’s many years of service to this country, yet we are deeply concerned about the media’s reporting of these events. When discussing Mr. Baker’s role, all the major organs of public information remind the country of his service to our government but none of the mention his present corporate commitments.

Of course, Mr. Baker has every right to make a living but the America people should know who the people we entrust to plan our foreign policy work for. The fact that Mr. Baker is involved with an investment group that owns or invests heavily in defense, security, energy and developing world’s health care companies puts his advice in a very different light. He is not just working for the people of the United States but also the members of this private investment company.

His advice can, and has, resulted in huge contracts for firms that he represents.

The media knows this open secret very well yet plays along as if politics are divorced from economics. Mr. Baker works for the government and his corporation. In fact, his government connections and occasional responsibilities are exactly what we make him so valuable to the corporation. The media knows this open secret very well yet plays along as if politics are divorced from economics.

Our nation’s future is entwined with the Middle East for the foreseeable future and the American People will never be able to properly judge the wisdom or our communal decisions until we are given the full story about who is making our decisions and why.

People’s financial investments have a huge impact on their view of a situation and their likely recommendations for what should be done. Mr. Baker stands to help his company make huge profits in Iraq and any and everything he says about the country must take his personal investment into account. We need to know his other commitments and it is the media that must be begin to tell us.

TSN! applauds Time Magazine for covering a story that no one wants to hear but we all must. We can not prevail if we cover up these actions in Iraq. You can not win ‘hearts and minds’ when our soldiers shoot Iraqi civilians by the dozen. TSN! does not wish to condemn the soldiers out of hand for clearly their jobs are incredibly difficult. The tensions must be unimaginable and when uncoiled under attack, their response must be fierce.

An investigation must take place to both determine the soldier’s responsibility and to demonstrate our sense of justice to the Iraqi people. TSN! applauds the media for taking this story seriously and not simply repeating simple denunciation of Human Rights Watch reports as ‘politically motivated.’

Ducking the actions will only separate us from the people of Iraq. Peace depends on trust and right now, our relationship with many Iraqis suffers from a deep lack of trust. The United States Military must get to the bottom of this issue and apology for any mistakes made. Justice must be served if crimes were committed. We can not and will not help Iraq build a just society if we do not act as one.

TSN! has heard the media repeat and repeating the charge that the UN run Oil-for-Food program was the biggest financial scandal in the history of the world! But they were wrong. And it was easy to know.

Then the Volker report comes out and says:

“The UN Secretariat’s use of funds to administer the Oil-for-Food Programme was generally disciplined and the accounting of funds appears to have been appropriately carried out. In fact, the UN used $327 million or 27 percent less than it was given for program administration; these funds were instead used for the direct benefit of the Iraqi people.”

The report acknowledged some irregularities but they were relatively isolated and have been corrected. The report goes on to say”

“It is important to recognize that the Oil-for-Food Programme succeeded in meeting its goals:

*It maintained support for sanctions, which kept Saddam from acquiring weapons of mass destruction;

*It fed 27 million Iraqi residents;

*It provided dependable access to electricity and clean water for the people of Iraq; and

*A portion of the proceeds went to the UN weapons inspection program in Iraq, which was crucial to destroying Saddam’s weapons and preventing him from developing new programs.”

TSN! can only conclude from this that Oil-For-Food program was a success and actually did a better job of feeding the Iraqi people that we are. This information has been available for months but how many journalists have bothered to say they were wrong? How many stories have been written about the ‘misinformed’ politicians who banged tables with concern?

TSN! has a few simple suggestions for journalist covering stories generated by American politicians.

1. Know the facts. It was easy to know that over 80% of the $10 billon dollars came from oil sales to Jordan and Turkey and the United States knew about it. It was not stolen or kicked back and a high school journalist could have easily found this out. Every time a politician shouted the inaccurate $10 billion they should have questioned them in person and in print.

2. Admit when you are wrong. Kofi Anon’s was kicked around in the press for over a year and they were wrong. They should spend a few minutes admitting it for Mr. Anon did not let any one steal from the program or cover up any of the stealing. In fact, Mr. Anon’s behavior since the scandals shames every one of the numerous American leaders who are under investigation. He looked into occurrences and immediately began making changes to correct the problems.