It’s Me Against The World

October 30, 2006 in the wee hours

Since I lately have been attacked by most sects and parties, maybe I should add another one ;)

My cousin emailed me the following image.

image012.gif

31 Comments »

  1. apokraphyte says

    If neither the Israeli or American defense and security establishments believe that Hizbullah acts under orders from Iran or Syria nor receive the majority of its funding or arms from Iran or Syria, why do you or other Lebanese parties? If we really added up non-Lebanese sources of funding for political parties and factions in Lebanon, do you really think Iran would make the top 10? I am always confused by this … I know it makes for good propaganda, so if some Lebanese oppose Hizbullah, I say why not — all’s fair in love and war, and politics — But I just vainly hope that those who do make such arguments are not doubly burdened by actually believing them …

    October 30th, 2006 | #

  2. xyz says

    apokraphyte,
    Of course the Israeli and American intelligence agencies believe HA gets most of its arms from Syria or Iran. Who else supplies these arms? The russian anti-tank rockets were sold to Syria and that is how they ended up with HA. The 120 mm rockets had made in Syria marks on them. Most of the wepaons came through the Syrian border. Name me another country you think sold them the weapons.
    I guess you will only believe that HA gets most of its money from Iran when the latter stops giving them money and they go bankrupt. Otherwise you will believe the stories that they raise billions from Shia all over the world. This theory makes the Shia look real stupid. Instead of helping themselves get out of poverty they are buying rockets and arms to help Iran strategically.

    October 30th, 2006 | #

  3. apokraphyte says

    I stand by my statement. Those rockets, esp. the 122mm’s, are readily available on the black market for about $1K a pop (if Hizbullah has 20,000 — their whole arsenal would not cost more than 20 million dollars). For good measure, I would add another 80 million for the ATMs and other weapons and equipment and so we have about 100 million for organization that has been around for 20 years and that makes for about 5 million a year, but let’s quadruple that and say 20 million a year in military procurement, maintenance, and training — or about the cost of one Saudi, Israeli, Egyptian or American fighter jet.

    And now let me ask this, how much did the last Lebanese parliamentary election cost the House of Saud? Is 20 million too low?

    Sure, some of rockets are Syrian-made, even more may pass through Syria via land, but if you know the first thing about smuggling in Lebanon/Syria and the rest of the ME, well …

    October 30th, 2006 | #

  4. Zvi says

    LMAO great cartoon.

    apok: Hizballah receives weapons and training from Iran and Syria, and large sums of money from Iran.

    Regarding the weapons, here is an example:

    http://mosnews.com/news/2006/10/20/foundweapons.shtml

    Unlike older weapons, Russia supposedly forbade reshipment of kornets to third parties. This type of rocket is only about 12 years old, and has only been in Syria’s arsenal since 1999. Kornets are not available “on the street.”

    http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2001/issue1/jv5n1a3.html

    Regarding the money from Iran, surely you aren’t naive enough to claim that Hizballah paid for 12,000 katyusha rockets (or 20,000 or whatever), Fahr rockets (which are Iranian made in the 1st place), tons of other weapons, a television station, maintenance of a state within a state (which involves paying a lot of people), financial and military support for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, etc. all by taxing Lebanese Shiites & getting donations from Lebanese abroad! ;-) But anyway, Iran makes no secret of its support for Hizballah, so you’d have to be wilfully blind not to see the links.

    Hizballah does also raise money of its own, using the same techniques that non-religious mafias do: protection rackets, counterfeiting, drug smuggling, and various other means. It also raises money in more legitimate ways, through uncoerced donations.

    Regarding its strong-arm tactics, here is an example. Hizballah coerces Lebanese emigres in South America to donate money, essentially by threatening their relatives back home:

    “A dollar amount would be written on each certificate—a South American investigator showed me one with the figure ten thousand dollars—and the shop owner would be expected to pay that sum. After that, the certificate would be put in his shopwindow—and no more “donations” would be sought for the remainder of the month. Otherwise, the shop owner would be warned, and then his relatives in Lebanon would be warned, that if they didn’t comply Hezbollah would spread rumors about them. “People would be told that they are spies for Israel,” one South American investigator told me. Some were beaten. “It’s a very effective system,” the investigator said.”

    (http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/021028fa_fact2)

    Thanks for listening.

    October 30th, 2006 | #

  5. Herbert Kaine says

    Lebanon is a province of Syria. Syria is a province of Iran. Its that simple. Neither Lahoud nor Assad can wipe their butts without permission from Khamenei. The only purpose of Lebanon is to serve as a springboard for the liberation of Palestine. even children know this basic fact

    October 30th, 2006 | #

  6. xyz says

    apokraphyte,
    Your estimates of weapons cost are too low but you don’t take into account many other things:
    1) Cost of approximately 20,000 salaries for HA organization workers and fighters. At $50,000 per salary per year that amounts to $1B. If the salary is half of that then $500 million. This is per year.
    2) Cost of building and maintaining the bunker systems in the south and in Beirut. Several hundred million?
    3) General social payments to the Shia population each year. How much do you estimate this? It could easily be $100M per year or more.

    You still didn’t answer the question: Who other than Iran and Syria gave/sold HA the weapons?

    October 30th, 2006 | #

  7. apokraphyte says

    I would put HA’s annual military spending between $20-50 million a year (I am closer to the 20 figure). As for non-military spending, I would go somewhere between 150-200 million.

    As for your second question, HA’s weapons are readily available on the black market. I am not denying that Iran and Syria supply and/or sell, but these are not sophisticated weapons systems or the kind of advanced technology that would only be availabe through state-transfer.

    October 30th, 2006 | #

  8. Maze says

    Nice ones….i posted these before on my blog…

    October 31st, 2006 | #

  9. Mayo Clinic says

    Mayo Clinic Checkup / November 2006 (Vol. 13, No. 6)

    From bench to bedside

    Researcher transforms lab discoveries into hope for patients

    Dr. Elliott Richelson in the lab.

    In more than two decades of research to develop new drugs, Dr. Elliott Richelson, a psychiatrist and scientist at Jacksonville’s Mayo Clinic, has compiled a list of achievements that would be the envy of most researchers. It includes everything from large federal research grants to noteworthy awards and a number of patents. But despite all these accomplishments, he has yet to achieve his ultimate ambition: creating a safe, effective drug that is used in people.

    “I’ve lost count of the number of patents I have,” he says with a laugh. “To be honest, they don’t matter. After 20 years, it would just be nice to get something into the clinic to help patients.”

    He may soon reach that goal. Recently Mayo Clinic licensed one of Richelson’s discoveries to a start-up company. The company will perform all of the remaining testing, production and government filings necessary to launch the first clinical trial of the drug, which will be tested first for its potential as an anti-pain drug.

    “We would like to test it first in the postoperative setting, for patients coming out of surgery,” says Richelson. “Our studies show it has a potent pain-relieving effect — more so than morphine — and it will likely have a much more favorable side effect profile.”

    If all goes well, the first clinical study could begin in about a year. And that may just be the beginning of what is possible for the drug, which is itself an interesting story and compelling example of Mayo’s strengths in medical research.

    The drug is based on a naturally occurring substance in the brain called neurotensin, which has a powerful role in certain brain functions. For example, animal studies have shown that, in addition to its anti-pain properties, neurotensin has potential as a possible treatment for schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease and as a tool to help wean people from addictions. But these possibilities have been difficult to pursue because scientists had been unable to develop a practical way to deliver neurotensin treatments. Mayo’s tradition of collaboration, which is prominent not just in patient care but also in research, helped Richelson solve this problem. Wo neurotensin with a synthetic molecule. The resulting compound can be administered like other treatments and still pass through the brain’s security system — the blood-brain barrier — to reach its therapeutic targets.

    The collaborative environment at Mayo also led Richelson and his staff to pursue studies of the drug as a possible tool to help people quit smoking. Dr. Paul Fredrickson, a psychiatrist at the Jacksonville campus and director of the Nicotine Dependence Center helped launch this research. Dr. Mona Boules, a member of Richelson’s lab, has since received a large grant from the state of Florida to study the idea further, and so far, her results have been exciting. In laboratory rats that were conditioned to self-infuse nicotine through a tube inserted into a vein, the neurotensin compound completely removed their urge for nicotine.

    If the drug produces a similar result with equal safety in smokers, it will help address a major public health concern, says Fredrickson, who believes the research also serves as an important example of another Mayo specialty: translational research.

    Highly dependent on the ability of scientists and physicians to work together, translational research focuses on transforming scientific discoveries into practical applications that directly benefit patients.

    Even if all goes well with the testing, it will still be years before the neurotensin compound is evaluated in people as a therapy for schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease, two of its most exciting possibilities. The drug has the potential for offering more favorable side effects compared to existing treatments for these disorders.

    In the meantime, Richelson says, he won’t spend a lot of time worrying about a negative laboratory test result stopping the drug from going forward. One of the benefits of studying something for 20 years? Time to develop a back-up plan. “You do worry a little bit about a test result killing the whole thing, but if that happens, we have other compounds we can test,” Richelson says

    November 1st, 2006 | #

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