The US Senate approved a massive $631 billion defense bill authorizing new funds for weapons, air and sea craft, and pay raises for military officials.

Of the money approved – in a sweeping vote of 98-0 – $526 will go to current defense programs, $17 billion to Energy Department defense projects, and $88 billion to the ongoing US war in Afghanistan.

The Senate also overwhelmingly voted for an investigation into the possibility of instituting a no-fly zone over civil war-torn Syria. The Obama administration has warned Syria not to use chemical or biological weapons against its citizens. The bill faces a possible veto by the president.

Last year, Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to a half a trillion dollars in defense cuts over the next decade. The bill also added new stringencies to sanctions against Iran, targeting the Islamic republic’s energy and shipping sectors. Though some sanctions are already in place, Iran has continued to work on developing its nuclear program.

The U.S. Senate, urged by AIPAC and over Obama administration objections, unanimously approved tightened Iran sanctions.

“In an effort to circumvent international sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran, some purchasers of Iranian oil and natural gas have been using gold and other precious metals to pay for petroleum products,” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee said in a letter Friday to Senators considering the legislation, first proposed by Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.).

“Iran in turn has used these precious metals to circumvent financial sanctions, using them to barter for goods,” said the AIPAC letter to senators. “The Menendez-Kirk-Lieberman amendment would close this loophole, without impacting humanitarian trade.”

The Obama administration made a last-minute effort to kill the amendment, a move first reported by The Cable, which reports on Congress for Foreign Policy magazine.

In meetings with sponsors, administration officials said the new sanctions would scare off efforts to enlist nations to cooperate with existing sanctions.

“As we focus with our partners on effectively implementing these efforts, we believe additional authorities now threaten to undercut these efforts,” Tommy Vietor, the national security spokesman, told The Cable. “We also have concerns with some of the formulations as currently drafted in the text and want to work through them with our congressional partners to make the law more effective and consistent with the current sanctions law to ensure we don’t undercut our success to date.”

The legislation, attached as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, passed later Friday unanimously, earning AIPAC’s praise.

“America must continue to lead the international effort to stop Iran’s illicit nuclear pursuit,” it said in a statement. “AIPAC urges the immediate implementation of the new sanctions.”

Should the House also pass the NDAA, the amendment must survive reconciliation of the House and Senate bills.

President Obama is likely in any case to sign the NDAA, considered to be a critical defense spending bill.

From the latest B’tselem attempt to protect terrorists:-

Additionally, the media – including those belonging directly to the parties to the conflict – are not legitimate military targets, even if they are used to disseminate propaganda.

I think that a terror group’s units – including its communications  networks – are very much a legitimate target for how else would they be able to direct their terror campaign, and that includes general programming because it is used to recruit and mobilize.

But B’tselem claims.

International law seems to claim otherwise:

Journalists are not protected against deliberate attacks if and for as long as they take a direct part in hostilities

and as to what the law refers to

the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (AP I) deals specifically with journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions in areas of armed conflict

“Professional” means not a terrorist.

As clarified:

As civilians, journalists and their crew must under no circumstances be the object of a direct attack. Parties to an armed conflict have the obligation to take all feasible precautions to ensure that attacks are only directed at military objectives.

Al-Aqsa TV and others are not civilians and are not professional journalists.

Here:

Ramallah- 21 November 2012: Israeli occupation forces committed a new crime against the Palestinian journalists when they killed Al-Aqsa TV cameramen Mahmoud Al-Komi (30 years) and Hossam Salameh (30) years at about six o’clock in this evening, after their car was targeted In Gaza City, by a Missile fired from an Israeli warplane, which led to their deaths immediately.

MADA lawyer Karem Nashwan said that Salamah and Al-Komi were travelling in Al-Aqsa TV car, with press sign, but the occupation forces targeted it. The crime took place in Alnaser (Victory) Street near alshifa Tower near Alshifa Hospital, and it seems they had intended to go to cover the martyrs and the wounded in the hospital, where occupation forces have escalated from its bombardment of the Gaza frantically through the last few hours, where about twenty martyrs fell. Al-Komi and Salamah were married and each of them has four children.

And by the way:

the French government instructed its broadcasting authority to take Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV off the air. The satellite channel was broadcast on Eutelsat, a French satellite company headquartered in Paris. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said that the instruction was given when France received a warning from the European Commission that the channel repeatedly violated European laws by showing programs which incited hatred or violence for reasons of religion or nationality, mostly against Israel and Judaism (AFP, June 7).

and

On March 18, 2010, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions against two Hamas-linked organizations in Gaza – Al-Aqsa TV and the Islamic National Bank (INB).  The actions, taken pursuant to Executive Order 13224, freeze any assets that Al-Aqsa TV or INB hold under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibit U.S. persons from engaging in any transactions with them.  The targets of the sanctions include terrorists and terrorist organizations, among others. The Treasury Department stated that Al-Aqsa TV is financed and controlled by Hamas, serving as a primary Hamas media outlet that airs programs “designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers upon reaching adulthood.”

P.S.  I am beginning to wonder in whose service is B’tselem?

UPDATE: Have been alerted, from NGO-Monitor:

B’Tselem writes that its

…investigation indicates that several Al-Quds TV employees were present in their offices in Shawwa-Husari Building at the time of the attack, as they were under the assumption that the Israeli military would not bomb it.

They report that after the attack on the Shawwa- Husari Building, they removed some of their equipment from their building’s top floors, out of concern that the Israeli army would strike that building as well, because of the location of Al-Aqsa TV’s offices on its 15th floor.

In other words, B’tselem fail to mention the presence of the Islamic Jihad fighters in the Al Sharouk tower.

Visit My Right Word.

When Bibi Netanyahu addressed the U.N. and challenged the world to take a tough stance on Iran, his call to draw a red line met with comments on his artistic ability and mixed reviews on his political insights.

One can argue that the Europeans take the threat of Iran seriously. The European Union imposed its toughest sanctions on Iran to date with the hope that the economic effects of the sanctions will force the country’s Islamic government to give up its nuclear ambitions. However, without the backing of a threat of military action, the EU’s sanctions may not have much deterrence value against Iran.

America’s stance on Iran isn’t clearly drawn either. I recently spoke with Professor Alan Dershowitz, attorney and political commentator on the subject of Iran and its relationship with the West. Professor Dershowitz believes that, “President Obama means it when he says that he will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons, but he’s being undercut terribly by J. Street, which claims to be a pro-Israel organization.”

Furthermore, Professor Dershowitz does not think that sanctions, such as those adopted by Europe, are necessarily effective: “I think sanctions alone will never work, but sanctions combined with a credible military threat could work, but it has to be a credible military threat.”

However, this is not so simple either. In the interview, Professor Dershowitz adds, “The United States doesn’t want Israel to unilaterally attack Iran. It’s concerned about what the implications would be both for Israel and for the international community. I think it’s very clear the United States government doesn’t want Israel to attack Iran. Israel doesn’t want to attack Iran except as an absolute last resort. … I think Iran will stop its development of nuclear weapons only if it believes it will be attacked by the United States.”

So what’s the answer? How will the Iranian threat go away? Watch this video of my interview with Professor Alan Dershowitz to find out more.

President Obama on Friday renewed America’s 33-year-old state of emergency against Iran.

The status was instituted by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 following Iran’s Islamic revolution, and allows the President greater autonomy in imposing sanctions and dealing with “unusual and extraordinary threat[s] to the national security, foreign policy and economy”.

Obama’s announcement followed a Treasury Department decision to impose additional sanctions against Iranian officials and institutions oppressing and censoring Iranian citizens.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said sanctions against Iran were meant to keep Iran from cutting Iranians off from the world with an “electronic curtain”.

Officials being sanctioned include the Minister of Communication and Information Technology, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, and the Press Supervisory Board.

After the Europeans pulled the plug on Iranian satellite transmissions because of the sanctions against Iran, Iranian stations are back on the air.

The Iranians have reportedly transferred their transmissions over to a Russian satellite, once again bypassing the sanctions against them.

The Wall Street Journal reports that up until October 15, IRIB (Iran’s broadcast company) was using the services of Eutelsat Communications for broadcasting.

Rather ironically, just a week earlier, Iran was jamming the signal from the Eutelsat satellite when it showed Iranian citizens protesting.

Iran has been jamming many satellite transmissions as of late, including those of Voice of America -Persion service, and BBC Persian.

There’s no question Iran’s corrupt and abusive regime is feeling the bite of tough new sanctions. These sanctions are our only hope short of armed conflict of stopping Iran – the world’s number one sponsor of terror and single greatest threat to the state of Israel – from obtaining nuclear weapons.

The clock is ticking. If we’re going to apply the fullest economic pressure to stop Iran, we’ll need more than governments to do it. Consumers – that means you and me – have to assert their power as well.

We launched www.IranWatchList.com earlier this year to do just that. Together with Iran180 and United Against Nuclear Iran, my office has been mobilizing consumer pressure to force Western car companies to cut their Iranian ties.

Unscrupulous automakers have maintained, and in some cases expanded, their Iranian business by exploiting sanction loopholes. But they can’t evade their consumer base here in the U.S. so easily.

That is why this past week I stood with strong allies in my anti-nuclear Iran fight to shine light on two luxury car companies that have recently increased their business presence in Iran: Maserati and Lamborghini.

These expensive cars are purchased by the elite and powerful members of the Iranian regime, who are the main targets of sanctions. The average Maserati sells for $300,000—roughly 1,000 times more than the average Iranian household makes in a month. These companies are also propping up the Iranian regime by allowing them to project signs of strength and prosperity to potential investors and Iranians living abroad.

We need to ensure that companies like this know doing business in Iran will cost them valuable business here in the United States.

On October 5, following months of reports that Maserati was planning on opening a dealership in Tehran,Maserati Center for Iran announced on its Facebook page that its new glitzy dealership had opened for business at 472 Mirdamad Boulevard – Tehran’s Fifth Avenue.

I joined with our former UN ambassador Mark Wallace earlier this month to give the two luxury automakers a chance to renounce their Iranian dealings. Neither said a word. Last week, we added both companies to our Watch List, ensuring that consumers looking to take a test drive would know their purchase could help fuel a nuclear Iran.

This is how we’re going to cut the Iranian regime’s economic lifeline. Maserati’s and Lamborghini’s actions are all legal. The car companies make use of non-sanctioned banks to handle all the sales transactions, and they are trying to cash in on their competitors’ exit from the Iranian market because of sanctions. But threatening their U.S. market makes them think twice. Almost half of the 6,200 Maseratis sold every year are sold in the United States.

Since the launch of our campaign we have successfully pressured four car companies – Volvo, Porsche, Hyundai and Fiat – to pull out of Iran. This is making a huge difference. The car industry is the second-biggest sector of Iran’s economy after oil and gas. Consumer pressure and tightened sanctions have led to a 42 percent drop in Iran’s car production so far this year.

The stakes could not be higher. We cannot allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. This is a government that abuses and murders its own citizens. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a rabid Holocaust denier. He has threatened to wipe Israel off the map. With a nuclear bomb, he could hold the whole Middle East hostage.

And the threat to New Yorkers is just as clear. Iran’s agents have surveyed New York City for potential targets in the past year. As the number one target of terrorists in America, our city would be in profound danger if the world’s number one sponsor of terror acquired a nuclear bomb.

You can help. Visit www.IranWatchList.com and share it with your neighbors. They deserve to know if the car they are purchasing is sold by a company that is irresponsibly backing Iran’s dangerous regime.

Let’s send a message to companies around the world. You can do business with the regime in Tehran – or with the American people. The days of doing both are over.

According to reports in the Austrian news magazine “Profil” and the British “Telegraph,” the Iranian regime uses Austrian banks to launder money in order to circumvent the sanctions and to provide technology for its nuclear program. A representative of the Iranian Center for Innovation and Technology Cooperation (CITC) has been in Vienna as recently as September. CITC is closely related to the office of President Ahmadinejad and has been sanctioned by the US due to its direct involvement in Iran’s nuclear and missile program.

Stop the Bomb, a European coalition which works towards the enactment of economic and political sanctions against the Iranian Islamist regime, has criticized the lack of action by the Austrian authorities: “Apparently, the authorities knew about the years of excessive traveling of a representative of the CITC, without taking an interest,” says Simone Dinah Hartmann, STB’s spokesperson. “We demand that this case and the general involvement of Austrian banks be fully investigated and conclusions be drawn. The latest reports prove that only a solid EU travel ban for all representatives of the Iranian regime can prevent Iran from continuing to procure critical components for its nuclear program and laundering money in Europe,” Hartmann added.

STB points out that the laxity of the Austrian authorities as well as the suspected involvement of Austrian banks in the circumvention of the sanctions stand in the tradition of Austria’s previous policy towards Iran. Back in 2006, the president of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Ali-Naqi Khamoushi, named Austria the “gateway to the European Union” for Iran. STB states that the recently passed EU sanctions that were supported by Austria, in particular the prohibition of the import Iranian natural gas, are steps in the right direction. However, these sanctions are hardly enough to stop the regime in Tehran from continuing its nuclear weapons program and the brutal repression of the Iranian people. Austrian companies, in spite of all previous sanctions resolutions, are continuing to do business with Iran in the extent of hundreds of millions, STB reports. While exports are declining slightly, imports have exploded in the first half of 2012 and several hundred of Austrian companies are still active in Iran.

Despite of the massive criticism, which has been voiced by STOP THE BOMB and numerous Members of the European parliament, including its Vice-president, as well as two democratic members of the US senate, the Austrian MEP Josef Weidenholzer (SPÖ) will still partake in a trip to Iran planned by the “Delegation for relations with Iran” of the European Parliament. Simone Dinah Hartmann stated: “We continue to call for the cancellation of this courting of the Iranian regime. Dialogue, as being preached by politicians like Weidenholzer, only buys the Iranian regime more time to work on its nuclear program and undermine the efforts of the Iranian opposition. Weidenholzer should follow the example set by Belgian social democrat Kathleen van Bremt who has withdrawn her participation from the Iran trip publicly.”