Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the Jordan born terrorist, has instructed some terrorism cells to move their operations to Kuwait and attack US forces, their supply lines, and leading personalities of the Kuwaiti government, Al-Anba quoted MP Ali Al-Rashed as saying. Al-Rashed said the recent terrorist incidents have shaken the confidence of all segments of the Kuwaiti society, adding "we shouldn't remain content with criticizing the concerned authorities but should find solutions and suggest alternatives to end this dangerous crisis."
Describing terrorism as an "intellectual phenomenon," the MP said "clerics and religious scientists know the language of extremism in which terrorists deal. They can help us by talking to these terrorist groups and guiding them out of their misconceived ideologies." The state can play an important role by providing the required facilities and encouraging youth to spend their leisure time in productive activities such as sport and other social activities, at clubs and other facilities, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Describing terrorism as an âintellectual phenomenon,â the MP said âclerics and religious scientists know the language of extremism in which terrorists deal. They can help us by talking to these terrorist groups and guiding them out of their misconceived ideologies.â
The very clerics that would talk to them are probably the ones that brainwashed them in the first place in the Madarassas. These terrorists are a lost generation and will probably have to be rooted out and killed, thanks to these Clerics of Allan.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/14/2005 1:33 Comments ||
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MP Mohammed Al-Basseri says Kuwaiti security forces have been able to arrest the "largest possible number" of persons who are suspected to be centers of extremism. Kuwait needs more time to eradicate terrorism and threats to its security, he added. Speaking to media persons in Beirut on the sidelines of a conference being held by the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), Al-Basseri said extremism is "foreign" to Kuwait, especially since the Kuwaiti society has the freedom to voice its opinion in a peaceful manner through the Parliament, press, and Diwaniyas. Stressing terrorism be treated scientifically, the MP said "although we need security procedures they are alone not enough." "We should logically analyse and study terrorism to root out this menace. We should learn from Egypt, which has a successful experience in ending terrorism," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Seems like the Kuwaiti's are hammering the terrs.
A group of Islamists have asked for a meeting with Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to review the reasons behind the death of Amer Khlaif Al-Enezi in prison, a reliable source told Al-Qabas. Amer Khlaif's body was received by his family and buried in the new graveyard in Jahra, he added. Sources in the Criminal Evidences Department said "according to doctors at the Military Hospital Amer Khlaif's death was due to a combination of factors including mental stress and blood circulation problems."
Meanwhile, Amer's father said he received calls from many MPs and human rights activists reminding him of the importance of knowing the real reasons behind his son's death. Indicating he had rejected such calls which, he said, may create problems in the country, Amer's father said "I want to close this issue as my family needs a reprieve from the pressure we are facing. I will support any action the government is planning to take to ensure the security of Kuwait." A reliable source denied the wife of Amer Khlaif has been referred to the Hussein Makki Al- Juma Hospital, saying "she is still receiving medical attention at the Military Hospital."
This article starring:
KHLAIF AL ENEZI
Peninsula Lions
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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A MUSLIM leader appointed to help to run the recently reopened Finsbury Park mosque in north London is a former military commander of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organisation. Mohammed Kassem Sawalha is one of five trustees appointed to give the mosque a fresh start. The mosque was closed last year after becoming a centre of Islamic militancy under Abu Hamza al-Masri, the radical cleric facing charges in Britain and America.
Sawalha's link with Hamas emerged after he was named as a co-conspirator in an American court case involving racketeering and conspiracy. Last week the cleric, who arrived in Britain 15 years ago and has been given indefinite leave to remain, said that he still supported Hamas, notorious for its suicide attacks in Israel. However, he said he was committed to peace in Britain and would help to run the mosque in an open and inclusive way. "I am supported by the Muslim community and have been working ever since I arrived for that community," he said. Asked whether he supported the military activities of Hamas, he replied: "I have no comment on the question of military activity. I am working here to give a new direction to this mosque and break with the past."
According to US court documents, Sawalha was a leading militant in the early 1990s "in charge of Hamas terrorist operations within the West Bank". The documents, from the federal court in Chicago, claim he met two of the three "conspirators" accused of laundering millions of dollars to finance Hamas activities, including the purchase of weapons.
The purpose of the first meeting with the men was alleged to have been to discuss revitalising Hamas's operations. He met one of the men a second time in London in January 1993. Sawalha allegedly directed him "to provide money to various Hamas members and provided him with contact information". Although Sawalha is named as a co-conspirator, he has not been charged. Asked last week if he faced arrest in the United States, Sawalha said: "I have not tried to travel there."
Abu Hamza is in prison facing trial in Britain on 16 charges, including incitement to murder, intending to stir up racial hatred and being in possession of a document "likely to be useful" to someone plotting terrorism. He is also awaiting extradition hearings on a warrant issued by the US Department of Justice. Following his arrest a group of his supporters tried to take over the mosque, but after extensive discussion between the surviving trustees of the charity that runs the mosque including Mohammed Sarwar, the Labour MP, the police and the Charity Commission, which had closed it five new trustees were appointed.
Last night Sarwar, MP for Glasgow Govan, said he would remain a trustee despite being told of Sawalha's links to Hamas. He was happy with the way the mosque was being run by the new trustees: "The Muslim community is delighted that the Abu Hamza regime is gone and the mosque is open."
Barry Norman, the Metropolitan police chief superintendent who has been working closely with the trustees, said: "I am aware of the background, but if I took the view that I'm not working with this or that person I'd end up spending my whole life in my office."
This article starring:
ABU HAMZA AL MASRI
Finsbury Park mosque
MOHAMED KASEM SAWALHA
Hamas
Muslim Association of Britain
Muslim Brotherhood
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/14/2005 12:52:26 AM ||
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unreal. Time to take a close look at the bank accounts of anyone who touched this outrage.
The number of SAS troopers leaving for lucrative jobs in the security industry has prompted the regiment to write to all soldiers urging them to stay. A letter from the regiment's headquarters has told all the SAS's 300 front-line soldiers that "it would be in everyone's best interests" if they remained in service. An estimated 120 former Special Air Service and Special Boat Service troops have left, swapping a junior NCO's wage of about £2,000 a month for as much as £14,000 a month working as security co-ordinators in Iraq or Afghanistan. The letter is said to have told soldiers to consider their loyalty to the regiment and the kudos of being in the SAS.
"This has always been an issue," an SAS soldier said yesterday. "It is not the young ones that they are worried about but the senior NCOs who are so important. If they lose middle management they lose all that experience for the future and they are desperate to keep that experience there." One former 22 SAS soldier now working in security estimated that 120 former Special Forces men are working for security firms in Iraq. Some are earning £450 a day, or £14,000 a month, working for firms such as Kroll, Controlled Risks and Armour Security. The former soldier, who had just one week off in his last two years in the SAS, said: "They cannot stop people from leaving. The SAS lifestyle is extremely demanding and not really conducive to family life or long-term relationships. On the security circuit you have the potential to earn very high wages combined with an attractive working rotation, invariably one month on, one month off."
While wages, pensions and life insurance have been addressed in recent years, the SAS still has substantial commitments around the world. Workload cannot be addressed, said the former soldier, "because the men are deployed all over the place". The two SAS Territorial Army regiments are also experiencing manning problems and weekend training has been threatened due to lack of numbers. Some TA have been granted permission for up to a year's leave of absence but others have left for the private sector.
The United States Defence Department has offered its most experienced special forces a bonus of $150,000 (£80,000) to sign on for six years to stem an exodus to security jobs, it was announced last week. The British Government spent the equivalent of the annual salaries of 130 SAS junior NCOs on new comfortable chairs for MoD desk jockeys last year. And the MoD, ordered to save money by the Government (to fund more important projects such as its £9.6bn dismal failure anti-obesity campaign), managed to save a mighty £2.5m of an initially projected £90m from the multi-billion pound Eurofighter project by installing a gun which won't fire. Did they think the boots on the ground wouldn't notice?
Posted by: Bulldog ||
02/14/2005 5:14:00 AM ||
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You've nailed it BD. The problem is that the UK Govt biggies wank for themselves, but expect the little people to do their bit For God and Queen on a pittance. And make do with shoddy kit, in a war zone, no less.
Think the libs will get tossed out in the next cycle?
I hope The Telegraph shouts this sort of idiocy from the rooftops until that day comes.
#3
.com - I've totally lost patience with Blair's Labour government in just about every respect now. As you say, there's so much ammunition the Tories could and should be using in the upcoming election campaign but don't seem to be exploiting yet.
It doesn't help that Blair's going to withold officially announcing the date the of election unil one month beforehand (it's going to be May 5th - but they won't let on), whilst shamelessly campaigning himself already.
Blair's strategy seems to be an extraordinarily cynical 'I've been arrogant - now please forgive me'. WTF?!!! Safe to assume he's talking about Iraq - and this just as his single most admirable policy is being vindicated before the eyes of the idiotarian world with the elections, diminishing insurgency etc. Various "pledges" regarding how Labour will improve things and steal new Tory policies... Anything, in other words, to remain in power.
#4
Fred might want to have a look at the posting script... seems to have the RB URL insterted in front of the desired URL. This has happened before. Did you have to perform a restore from backup, Fred?
I just extracted the URL and stripped off the RB linkage, BD. No big deal, bro, heh.
#5
Well if I was an SAS NCO I would look at things as a realist. I can stay in and get nothing for my risk except pissed on and help keep a bunch of Transnational Socialist in power who will tax the hell out of the pittance I make. These same Transnational Socialists have no loyalty to me. The former SAS NCO can go to work at a multinational and bank most of their money tax free in a swiss account. Loyalty has nothing to do with it the MOD will phase any regiment out they can get away with. Labor will never properly fund the military. Many Labor supporters hate the military and are not afraid to say so. Bail while the bailing is good.
#6
Lol, BD. Seems McCain jumps onto the sinking E3 Iranian debacle just as Tony jumps off, lol! We have our morons, too, lol!
This statement made me do a double-take: "So all 232 of the RAF's Eurofighter/Typhoon aircraft will be fitted with the gun at a cost of £90 million - but in order to save what is now a mere £2.5 million they will have no rounds to fire."
Sheesh! "Penny wise, but pound foolish." is, after all, an English maxim, lol!
May this sort of management be banished to the back bench! It's hard to be sure what the UK Moonbat quotient is, since your elections don't seem to settle anything in an up or down fashion (lol!), ours is nothing to be happy about (51.x-48.x), but I hope you prevail so your domestic policies will make as much sense as some of the foreign policies (No to EU, Yes to WoT, etc), heh.
Hmmmm, maybe we can get the New York Times to appeal to some swing voter segment to keep Tony - and create a Tory-favoring backlash, lol!
#7
maybe we can get the New York Times to appeal to some swing voter segment to keep Tony - and create a Tory-favoring backlash, This is an excellent idea. It just has to appaer to come from the Dems. From your keyboard to Rove's ear.
#8
Lol, phil - I was joking, but you've got me intrigued, now, lol! Any ideas how we could do it? BD could identify the swing segment, some truly whacked-out moonbat Tranzis, I guess, and the portrayal could be that they're the "mainstream" - which should piss off a LOT of people, lol!
Anyone got good MSM contacts?
Karl, you listening, lol! Hey, I was just kidding about that other thing, Big Guy, don't have me whacked!
#9
Hmmmm, maybe we can get the New York Times to appeal to some swing voter segment to keep Tony - and create a Tory-favoring backlash, lol!
Sounds like a plan, .com! But I think getting Le Monde readers to do the same in the name of EU solidarity would be even more effective. Blair's attempt to jump off the Iraq bandwagon, now that it's effectively arrived at its destination and no more unpopular ME demands are likely to trouble him before the election is politically less necessary that six months ago, say - I think the elections there have done a lot to neutralise objections from the less idiotic members of the bone-headed Stopper community.
Labour are still projected to win, in spite of their many failures. You've got to hand it to them that Brown's management of the economy has been competent, especially compared to our EU neighbours (though who knows what could have been without such lead weights as EU red tape, raised taxes, our £0.5m per hour net tribute to Brussels, the dismantling of the British fishing industry to allow other nations to fish in our waters, etc.). But also the Left in the UK have successfully managed to demonise the Tories, through Pavlovian techniques (you've seen them at work against Bush in the US - unrelenting attack - and Blair himself has initiated very personal attacks on his Tory opponent already (some of which have been accused of being anti-Semitic)) effected by Left wing politicians and their media allies, and without crediting them, under Thatcher, for rescuing the UK from decades of economic failure. Tory policies regarding immigration, the military, foreign relations (particularly the EU) all beat Labour's (and the Lib Dems') into a hat when put to the test of public opinion. And perenially popular Labour causes such as the NHS are demonstrably inferior for anyone who cares to see how things are done better elsewhere... Where was I? Apologies for the rambling ranting.
#10
There is no question that Blair's greatest strength is the weakness of his Tory opposition, and thats's beign genreous. It is also not clear that all the things Tony is being derided for here are exactly the things the British people want him to do. You can only swim against the tide so long. No personal offence, BD, but I think the Brit general populace has gone Euro.
Posted by: Molson Ale ||
02/14/2005 8:11 Comments ||
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#11
Molson Ale - If you look at the opinion polls, the British public are becoming more eurosceptic, not less. Public opposition to the proposed EU Constitution in the UK runs at about 60%.
#16
I thought Howard - slimeball who sent people to work for Kerry's campaign -- would pull Britain out.
Nope. The Tories and the Lib Dems (the latter surprisingly, and IIRC) consistently argue in favour of more British troops in Iraq. Partly just to be contrary, I'm sure.
#18
[Moderator hat: ON]
I've noticed that you need to put in the complete URL (with http:// included.) If you just put in www., Fred's routine sticks on the rantburg stuff.
[Moderator hat: OFF]
I really want to like Tony (I could listen to his speeches all day), but his policies make it very very hard.
#19
someone - UKIP are a single-issue party. I'm not sure they even have an Iraq policy (though I'd like to imagine one). The Steyn link doesn't work for non-subscribers (and I receive the dead tree version - but I don't get access to online articles).
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Saturday that "terrorists" were entering Chechnya from Georgia and declared that Moscow reserved the right to launch preventive strikes against militants anywhere.
Ivanov's forceful comments at the Munich Security Conference in Germany came in direct response to a question from a Georgian minister. "We have killed so many foreigners in Chechnya carrying passports with a Georgian tourist visa in their pocketsâŠYou can't deny they are penetrating our territory through the territory of Georgia, that's a fact," Ivanov said.
"If⊠we know that some place in the world there are terrorists in hiding, plotting to carry out a terrorist act on Russian territory, should we wait and let them go, and then try to apprehend them? Or hit them straight away? I think the answer is clear," he added.
Russia has said before that it reserves the right to launch preventive strikes, which Ivanov — in a reference to U.S. policy in Afghanistan and Iraq — said were "not a Russian invention." But his remarks were especially pointed given that Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili had voiced her concern about Moscow's stance only minutes earlier. "I'm a bit worried by the accusations that terrorists were again crossing the border and the fact that you might use preventive strikes," she told Ivanov.
Russia has suggested Chechen separatists are in hiding in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, near the border with Chechnya. Georgia says the rebel fighters are no longer in the remote valley.
To Zurabishvili's further question as to why Russia retained two military bases in its former Soviet neighbor, Ivanov responded simply that there was no agreement so far on the status of the bases or how long they would remain.
Ivanov said Russian intelligence indicated between 150 and 200 fighters had been "posted by international terrorist organizations" to Chechnya.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/14/2005 12:19:30 AM ||
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Former Chechen rebel Vice President Vakha Arsanov was detained in Grozny last month, a Chechen rebel web site and Interfax confirmed Friday. The web site said he was being tortured in an unofficial prison run by Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov's security forces.
Kommersant, citing a senior FSB official in Chechnya, reported on Jan. 17 that Arsanov had been detained by Chechen OMON commandos. But the Chechen Interior Ministry, to which the OMON reports, denied any knowledge of it at the time, and the ministry's chief of staff described the newspaper report as "conjecture."
Rebel web site Kavkaz Center said Friday that Arsanov was detained in mid-January and transferred to the prison in the Kadyrov clan's home village of Tsentoroi. The web site said Arsanov is being tortured and being told to publicly denounce former rebel President Aslan Maskhadov and admit "the wrongness of the course of the Chechen people toward an independent state." Last week, Maskhadov called on Moscow to begin peace talks with the rebels.
Kavkaz Center said Arsanov's elder son went to Chechnya from Baku, Azerbaijan, in an attempt to assist his father and was also detained by Kadyrov's security force.
Interfax, citing "well-informed" Chechen law enforcement sources, said Arsanov was detained and that no arrest warrant had been issued for him beforehand. Chechnya's chief prosecutor, Vladimir Kravchenko, said his office was looking into the reports about the detention, Interfax reported. A spokesman for the federal troops in Chechnya, Major General Ilya Shabalkin, said he had no knowledge of the matter, while Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov and Chechen Security Council head Rudnik Dudayev declined to comment, Interfax reported.
Human rights groups said in late January that eight of Maskhadov's relatives who disappeared earlier in the month were being held at the Tsentoroi prison.
In October, Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov suggested detaining terrorists' relatives as a way to prevent attacks in the wake of the Beslan tragedy. Kadyrov said Sunday that he would consider suing human rights groups that accuse him of abductions, Itar-Tass reported.
Arsanov, who was elected vice president on the same ticket as Maskhadov in 1997, has reportedly been providing political support and protection to Chechnya-based religious extremists, who are widely believed to have undermined Maskhadov's authority in the waning days of the republic's de facto independence in the late 1990s. Maskhadov fired Arsanov as vice president in January 2001 for refusing to fight federal troops when the second Chechnya campaign started in 1999, Kommersant said.
This article starring:
ASLAN MASKHADOV
Chechnya
VAKHA ARSANOV
Chechnya
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/14/2005 12:17:54 AM ||
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Vakha Arsanov ... was being tortured in an unofficial prison run by Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrovâs security forces. Well, Duh.
Other than the BGO he's being tortured...I'm totally confused.
And I didn't even send a card. Happy Birthday, you lunatic dwarf. Let's hope it's your last...
Pyongyang, February 14 (KCNA) -- The birthday of leader Kim Jong Il (February 16) is being celebrated as an auspicious holiday for the progressive people all over the world. Preparatory committees for celebrating February 16 have been formed in scores of countries including Russia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Syria, Guinea, Ecuador, Romania, India, Thailand, Czech Republic, Cambodia, Poland, Egypt and France. They have held meetings, film shows, lectures and other events in celebration of the holiday. I guess people all over the world have lots and lots of time on their hands.
Under the sponsorship of the preparatory committees for meetings of lauding the greatness of leader Kim Jong Il, gatherings have taken place in many countries. Mass media of many countries print portraits of Kim Jong Il and photographs showing his revolutionary activities, along with special write-ups introducing his immortal exploits performed for the Korean revolution and the independence of humankind. Ah, yes. The "immortal exploits".
The participants in the celebration events praise him, who guides the global cause of independence with Songun politics, as the lodestar of the 21st century, a great master of leadership, a great thinker and theoretician and a prominent political veteran of the world.
The chairman of the Youth Group for the Study of Juche Idea of Democratic Congo at a round-table talk extended warmest congratulations to Kim Jong Il on his birthday and said his birthday is the most auspicious holiday of not only the Korean people but also the world progressive people.
The Russian Social Committee for Celebrating the Birthday of Comrade Kim Jong Il was formed in Moscow on January 20 with famous political and public figures. It, in a statement, noted that Kim Jong Il has earned a high reputation as a world-famous genius, excellent strategist and brilliant commander and as the great leader of the heroic people who is successfully carrying into practice his far-sighted plan for building a great prosperous powerful socialist nation on the beautiful land of Korea. Would it be even more beautiful as a land of glowing green glass?
#1
OMG....can you imagine the culture shock those poor folks are in for when this wall comes down and they find out that their Kimmie-poo doesn't have the world fawning over him?
I'm sure SOME reality sneaks in, but, it can't begin to penetrate this, can it?
#2
You know, if all these international Kim-lovers were to suddenly go up in smoke the world's overall IQ would probably go up by several points.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
02/14/2005 14:28 Comments ||
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#3
Ooooh! Aaaah! 9.8!
Especially loved the "immortal exploits" and the "lodestar of the 21st century".
Obligatory Songun and Juche requirements met.
"France" last on the list -- I always like to see France at the end on the line.
And I'm sure that the chairman of the Youth Group for the Study of Juche Idea of Democratic Congo pretty much speaks for all of us.
Calling him a "lunatic dwarf" is an insult to both the Moon and the "little people". Unhappy birthday, you little dung pile!
Posted by: Tom ||
02/14/2005 14:37 Comments ||
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#8
But I really really want to be, it's just a missing gene thingy, I'd guess, heh. I felt really really bad after a rumble, once. I cut this guy for a solid 8 inches. Felt really bad cuz I just knew it caused his insurance rates to go up. I kept the gun he intended to shoot me with, too. heh. But yeah, I felt pretty bad. Does that count any? Lol!
In the months before North Korea announced that it possessed nuclear weapons, the Bush administration began developing new strategies to choke off its few remaining sources of income, based on techniques in use against Al Qaeda, intelligence officials and policy makers involved in the planning say.
The initial steps are contained in a classified "tool kit" of techniques to pressure North Korea that has been refined in recent weeks by the National Security Council. The new strategies would intensify and coordinate efforts to track and freeze financial transactions that officials say enable the government of Kim Jong Il to profit from counterfeiting, drug trafficking and the sale of missile and other weapons technology.
Some officials describe the steps as building blocks for what could turn into a broader quarantine if American allies in Asia - particularly China and South Korea - can be convinced that Mr. Kim's declaration on nuclear weapons last week means he must finally be forced to choose between disarmament and even deeper isolation. China and South Korea have been reluctant to impose penalties on the North.
To some degree the effort arises from Washington's lack of leverage over North Korea, and the absence of good military options, and it is far from clear that the administration's development of what one official calls "new instruments of pressure" will work. More than four decades of economic embargos of Cuba, tried by nine presidents, have failed, largely because European, Canadian and Latin American allies have not joined in. Nor have they succeeded against the Burmese, also a major source of drugs. The Secret Service has tried for years to halt North Korean counterfeiting dollars, and Australia and Japan have tried to end its sales of amphetamines and heroin.
In interviews over the past three weeks, administration officials have denied that the renewed effort is part of an unstated initiative to topple Mr. Kim. But several officials say North Korea has stepped up its illicit trafficking and counterfeiting in part to make up for lost missile sales and a crackdown on cash transfers from North Koreans living in Japan, some of which are illegal.
"We think they are desperate to put more money into the nuclear program and we're trying to cut that off," said one senior official.
Some officials acknowledge that undermining Mr. Kim's hold on power could be a side effect of the program, if it was successful. "That wasn't the intent in drafting it," said one senior official involved in the process. "Whether it could be one of the results is anyone's guess."
Several officials cautioned, however, that the new "tool kit" did not yet constitute a plan of action because the United States was only slowly trying to engage other nations in the strategy. They said some of the new techniques had already been carried out, but would not say which ones.
Details were described by officials in one intelligence agency and two other government agencies. One official of a foreign government who has been briefed on parts of it confirmed some of the elements. On Sunday evening, Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, cast the effort as "complementary to our continued diplomatic efforts," but insisted that some of the techniques had been used for some time.
"We have been working with our allies and partners for some time now to stop North Korea's illegal activities, especially in counterfeiting and narcotics," he said. "We have a responsibility to protect our citizens, our allies and our economies. North Korea cannot continue its involvement in illegal activities. It must make a strategic decision and eliminate its nuclear weapons program."
Other officials said that while different agencies had been pursuing the North, the new effort represented the first time the White House was coordinating and expanding the tactics to put more pressure on Mr. Kim.
Several officials confirmed that the most recent proposal was drafted by Robert Joseph, the counter-proliferation chief at the National Security Council, before he left the administration in November.
Mr. Joseph is widely expected to be nominated for the post of under secretary of state for arms control and international security.
Two American officials cited, as an example of new pressure tactics, a Japanese law that goes into effect on March 1 that requires all ships to carry liability insurance against spills and other accidents. Almost no North Korean vessel meets the requirement, so it could halt most shipping traffic with North Korea.
Although the nuts and bolts of the proposed measures are not clear, officials appear to be working from lists they have been collecting of banks and companies that the North Koreans have been using. Tracking North Korean financial transactions has long been difficult; it often deals in cash, and through shell companies and unregulated banking centers.
White House officials have declined to say what role President Bush has played in the new strategy. But his dislike for Mr. Kim is well known, and his involvement in strategies to deal with him was described by one former official as "a lot more intense than you might think."
Advisers, military officials and American and foreign diplomats who deal with Mr. Bush on North Korean issues say he frequently criticizes Mr. Kim's human rights abuses, referring to him as "immoral" and "a tyrant," according to one official who sat in on a recent meeting. In a meeting in December with President Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea, Mr. Bush spoke about how Mr. Kim lets his people starve.
"Roh said to him, 'Yeah, he's a bad guy, but we don't have to say it in public,' " said one official who has reviewed notes of the session. Mr. Roh's point was that turning the nuclear dispute into a personal confrontation, the way the Bush administration did with Saddam Hussein, could undercut any chance of diplomatic success in disarming North Korea.
Mr. Bush, the official recounted, responded, " 'Alright, I won't say it publicly,' or words to that effect, and so far he hasn't."
Officially, the Bush administration has never declared that "regime change" is its objective in North Korea, and Mr. Bush has expressed a willingness to offer a "security assurance" to North Korea pledging that the United States will not invade. Such an attack is considered nearly impossible, given North Korea's ability to destroy Seoul, South Korea's capital, about 40 miles from the border, and the fact that American intelligence does not know where the North's nuclear arms or all of its nuclear facilities are.
But Mr. Bush has never made any such assurances about attacking North Korea's economic lifelines. On Sunday, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who served under Mr. Bush's father when North Korea was making what the C.I.A. later concluded were its first two nuclear bombs, raised the possibility of a broad economic crackdown.
Appearing on the ABC News program "This Week," Mr. Baker told the host, George Stephanopoulos, that "there's a big gap" between abandoning the six-nation negotiations that had been sporadically under way for the past 18 months "and going to military force."
"There are many things we can do," Mr. Baker added.
"Quarantine?" Mr. Stephanopoulos asked.
"Quarantine is one," Mr. Baker said. "And perhaps the best one, of course, is sanctions by the United Nations Security Council for North Korea's violation of her promises to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the global community."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/14/2005 12:06:04 AM ||
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More than four decades of economic embargos of Cuba, tried by nine presidents, have failed, largely because European, Canadian and Latin American allies have not joined in.
How did that little BGO nugget slip through the editors at Time?
Amid a general chorus of U.S. approval for the Iraqi election results yesterday, Rep. Charles B. Rangel called the vote "a success by Republican standards" and said Americans "don't want their children to die for other people's freedom."
"I don't believe that the American people think that it was worth the lives of 1,200 Americans and 25,000 men and women in the armed services wounded, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Iraqis dead," the New York Democrat said.
Mr. Rangel, a Korean War veteran, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the war in Iraq is a "fraud" and that the United States cannot and will not bear the price of its children's blood to spread democracy abroad.
"We cannot afford to free people all over the world. We don't have that many lives to give up," Mr. Rangel said...
Mr. Rangel, who mentioned his Korean War service in yesterday's appearance, responded that Americans "don't want their children to die for other people's freedom."
"I'm telling you, we went into Iraq not for elections. We went there to knock off Saddam Hussein, but the American people thought it was connected with 9/11, there was weapons of mass destruction, there were connections with al Qaeda. It was all a fraud," Mr. Rangel said.
"We're fighting this war with other people's kids," Mr. Rangel said.
The results of the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq announced yesterday show a cleric-backed Shi'ite coalition leading with 48 percent of the vote, followed by the Kurdish alliance with 25 percent, which some U.S. leaders predicted would prompt the Kurds to form a governing coalition with other minority groups.
More than 8 million Iraqis, nearly 60 percent of eligible voters, turned out to cast ballots despite repeated threats of violence by insurgents... More quotable quotes from the man who truly says what the Democrat party thinks.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
02/14/2005 9:50:35 AM ||
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#1
More quotable quotes from the man who truly says what the Democrat party thinks.
#6
nope, but the loony wing A. makes up almost half the party B. has long been the source of disproportionate numbers of activists. C. prior to '94, and to some extent for the rest fof the CLinton years, the moderates and the establishment had the lock on money - dems as incumbents got lots of big money - with loss of capital hill, and GOP puttingsqueeze on to "defund the "left"" this dried up = for a while silicon valley money was a substiute, and offset to Hollywood money. The dot com bust, mccain feingold, the loss of the WH, have all hurt that source. This leave internet fundraising, Soros, Hollywood, all sources that favor the left. And the establishment (reid, pelosi, the DNC, etc) lack the Cojones to take on the left in these circumstance.
#8
Not to overstate the case, but there is a substantial minority in the Democratic party that does think like this, and that segment is heavily represented in the activist and fund-raising wings these days. Dean, Pelosi, etc. are the beneficiaries of their power.
The actual voters are another story, but the people they will get a chance to vote for will be disproportionately selected by the first group.
#9
There's the Dem voter, and then there's the Dem party establishment. By their own pronunciations, the party establishment is squarely on the side of Rangle on this issue. The election of Howlin' Howard to head the DNC is proof positive. The Dem Party is learching hard left.....can their own constituency take it back to the middle? ..or will they look elsewhere?
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/14/2005 14:09 Comments ||
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#10
"Americans donât want their children to die for other peopleâs freedom." I wonder what he said about any other conflict that Amercian has fought for the freedon of others. Doesn't that pretty much sum up our 230 years of foriegn policy? Just about every conflict we have been involved in has been to spread freedom. yes we expanded out territories, but we have freed 100 times that acerage. Rangel is losing touch with reality.
#11
the clintons, reid and maybe Pelosi tried to beat Dean for DNC chief. The state chairs supported him, cause he charmed em, and promised bagloads of money for state parties. State party chairs are much more cognizant of empty party coffers than of national spokespeople.
#12
LH -- If Rangel (et. al.) don't speak for your party, exclude him from the caucus and don't give him any more campaign cash.
As for Rangel:
Mr. Rangel, who mentioned his Korean War service in yesterdayâs appearance, responded that Americans "donât want their children to die for other peopleâs freedom."
I give you, ladies and gentlemen, lyrics from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic":
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/14/2005 14:42 Comments ||
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#14
i dont think Rangel needs any campaign cash from the DNC to win. If the House Campaign comm is giving $ to a dem to win a district that covers the Upper West Side and Harlem, when swing districts go begging, somebody in the establishment needs a brain transplant.
As for removing him from the party, that doesnt happen in either party. Does Ron Paul speak for the GOP? Or even Trent Lott? No. Rangel doesnt speak FOR the party, much less for the establishment, but he speaks for SOME in the party, a force that cant be drumrolled out, im afraid.
#15
Rangel's devotion to the military was demonstrated when he proposed reincorporating the Draft, not to make the military strong but to damage the military and score political points. He's a political hack, an anti-American (IMHO) asshole and a Democrat. But I repeat myself
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2005 14:56 Comments ||
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#16
Ah namecalling (implying all dems are hacks), isnt it a wonderful technique?
#17
Let's see, by his own math if Mr. Rangel is right:
"I donât believe that the American people think that it was worth the lives of 1,200 Americans and 25,000 men and women in the armed services wounded, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Iraqis dead," the New York Democrat said. ....
"We cannot afford to free people all over the world. We donât have that many lives to give up," Mr. Rangel said...
Not to make light of the 1,200 dead from Iraq, God bless their souls, they are missed by each and every one of us, but his own numbers show the hypocrisy of his statement. Let's say there's 4-6 countries we need to "free" to protect ourselves (think: Iran, N. Korea, Syria, Saudi, heck, let's throw in Somalia and Sudan-Darfur (for human rights), and finally, Zimbabwe-just for Bob alone). I would argue that most of these (with probably the exceptions of N. Korea, Saudi and maybe Iran, if the internal young/pro-US don't rise up) would be easier to "free" than even Iraq was. Therefore, 6 countries x 1,200 (assumed) dead per country leads us to 7,200! Granted, every one of those deaths would suck, but considering we lost 3,000 innocents in 1 attack, I'd argue that would be worth it to prevent future attacks. We could even cut out Zimbabwe and Sudan and lower the number to 4,800. Granted, this is simple math, but shows the ridiculousness of the "1,200 dead isn't worth our future" groups, when we lost 2.5x that many on 9/11. Logistics, obviously argues against "freeing" this many countries (at least not all at once), but again, I'm just trying to show how ridiculous Rangel's appeasement is. Of course, I just noticed that he predicated his statement on "I don't believe that the American people think that it was worth 1,200...." If maybe the MSM would show those planes flying in to the WTC every once in a while (or even the train bombing in Spain, etc.) to remind the average American what we're up against, this would be a whole different story.
Posted by: BA ||
02/14/2005 15:08 Comments ||
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#18
apologies for the over-the-top, LH, but any party containing Rangel, Boxer, Dodd, Kennedy, et al deserves rebuke in my book
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2005 15:13 Comments ||
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#19
and no, I don't support every Rep, and I make clear that McCain, Snowe, Specter, and other RINO's don't speak for me
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2005 15:17 Comments ||
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#20
BA.. your math leaves out Afghanistan. I believe some number of Jihadis would have ended up there instead Iraq, so it's at least somewhat reasonable to include that in the average.
As for Rangel, "donât want their children to die for other peopleâs freedom." So our troops are not adults? IIRC the oldest enlisted casualty in Iraq was 51 or 53. That's "someone's child"? If having parents is the test for being a child, then I presume Rangel is a child himself.
#22
Dishman, I was just going off Rangel's numbers, which I assumed were for Iraq only. Even Rangel (AFAIK) hasn't spoken against Afghanistan. So, I was just saying if we average (and again, I don't mean to make light of the numbers...each and every loss we incur sucks) 1,200 dead per country "freed", then we get 7,200 dead freeing the 6 remaining countries I threw up for discussion (heck, I even argue dropping 2 of them). I would bet even the grunts would say 7,200 (or 4,800 if we drop Zimbabwe & Sudan) is worth it, if it keeps us from another attack (which, presumably would be worse than 3,000 dead, like 9/11). Obviously, like I stated, logistics/training/equipment would keep us from taking them all on at once, and many have argued here to save the best (Saudi) for last, so I'm open to other arguments. Was just trying to show how HIS OWN NUMBERS don't add up to it "not being worth the cost" argument, when the next attack would probably be well over 3,000.
Posted by: BA ||
02/14/2005 15:25 Comments ||
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#23
.com, I'd agree.
Posted by: BA ||
02/14/2005 15:26 Comments ||
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#24
Liberal Hawk...give it up. Note from another thread this comment:
The speech was a collaborative effort. Mrs. Clinton sought input from a number of Americans in the forum, among others Richard C. Holbrooke, who served as her husbandâs ambassador to the United Nations and to Germany; Samuel R. Berger, her husbandâs national security adviser; Jeffrey H. Smith, the former general counsel at the C.I.A. when her husband was president; and Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser for the first President Bush
What a freak'n bunch of losers....no wait...not losers, but conniving power junkies who disdain good people like you, as tools to be manipulated for their political own use.
Face it. There is no good left in your party. You are better off to join the right, and attempt to moderate it's wing-nut influences than you are to attempt to breath life into the hollow, rotted out corpse that represents the remains of the left that you once knew.
#26
Rangle doesn't speak for the party, but he does speak the party line. Nothing he is quoted as saying here differs significanlty from what we've heard form Kennedy, Pelosi, Boxer, Kucinich, Kerry, Dean, Reid.... these are not the Ron Pauls of the Democrat Party - they are the standard bearers and they are destroying the
Democrat Party. But....maybe that's the plan in order to bring on Sir Hillary as the Grand Savior.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/14/2005 15:43 Comments ||
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I guess TGA's right, I'm just not a romantic. Sigh. I try, I really do, but I have this pain, right here, where I got stabbed with an icepick. And it kinda twinges when there's rain coming. And when it gets cold and the wind whips over me, it whistles, softly, a sad tune. And I can't go swimmin' anymore, cuz it just blub-blub-blubs away and I sink like a rock. Sad. Real sad.
#32
Dodd was also an architect of Sandinista power in Nicaragua, correct? Also a major proponent of the Boland Amendment restricting aide to Contras and El Salvador. That WAS the Dem party line. Repudiating Jordan was nice, but doesn't erase a lifetime of restrictions on America while aiding our opponents.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2005 16:24 Comments ||
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#33
True enough LH, but up until now those 2 have been pretty much invisible on Iraq - at least to the casual viewer of which I prolly have more in common with than most folk here at the U of Rantburg. If that's not the party line - then what is? Does one even exist? I certainly hope it's not the "I hate the Republicans, and all they stand for" plank, which for now it seems to be.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/14/2005 16:27 Comments ||
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#34
Oh Please! While Frank indeed deserves some credit for not shrinking into the wallpaper, it was from another blogger that this story broke. And it's not like Dodd wanted to go public. After phone calls were made and teeth were pulled, he provided a measured response that didn't dodge the truth. Whoopie.
Go look again at who Hillary is surrounding herself with and tell me that this is a party that you are proud to identify with. But then, hey, what's a few top secret documents among National Archive friends?
Stop living in the past. Your party stinks with the hundreds of millions of dead that fell victim to it's failed ideas. Show some dignity, and move on.
#35
Frank - opposing US aid to the contras does make one a traitor, or a fan of terrorists. (time to reexamine the contras own take on the rules of war, I suggest) The contras were NOT democracy promoters, thank you very much. Nor was Somoza.
RM - there is no line, really. Iraq splits the Dems, Im afraid, and theres NO coherent line that they can all agree on.
#36
Communism supporters are not my cup of tea - where does the "mainstream" of the Donks stand on Cuba, eh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2005 16:35 Comments ||
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#37
Repudiating Jordan was nice, but doesn't erase a lifetime of restrictions on America
a restriction on the executive =s a restriction on America? Geez, James Madison, John Jay, and that gang in Philly in 1787 was sure a bunch of traitors, huh?
#38
It is the Dem party line. Love it or leave it.
Posted by: Rock ||
02/14/2005 16:36 Comments ||
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#39
opposing Somoza and the contras does not equal supporting the communists. The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend, and not always someone I should support.
#40
Isn't this the point where Popeye Doyle would begin asking the perp if he picked his feet in Poughkeepsie? There was no right answer, of course. No matter what the guy said, Popeye would whack 'im.
"Proclaiming a new spirit of cooperation between the United States and Mexico, visiting U.S. senators said Tuesday that the two countries are gradually finding common ground on divisive issues such as immigration, drugs and Cuba.
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Mexico pledged to recognize human rights abuses in Cuba during a U.N. vote Wednesday in Geneva, although it would continue its policy of abstaining from the vote.
Led by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C. - who has pushed countries to condemn Cuban practices before the U.N. Human Rights Commission - Biden and three others from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are on an unprecedented three-day trip to Mexico City.
"
#45
LH: if Iraq does have the Dems split - I wish I could hear more of that split coming out from someone other than Lieberman and Miller. Even then, they would have to get it past the MSM - tough to do. It might not be the party line - but I'm afraid that's the image that has gotten out. It's the perception = reality thingy.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/14/2005 16:54 Comments ||
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#46
or just maybe it could be reality = perception.
#47
It ain't an image problem. It is who they are and what they believe. Rangel is a perfect spokesman. Is there a ear shattering roar from the Dems to correct what Rangel and his ilk have been saying for the last two years? That's their party, and they's mostly proud of it.
Posted by: Rock ||
02/14/2005 17:01 Comments ||
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#48
Rangel belittles âsuccessâ of Iraq vote
Obviously his complaint is that unlike his election where he got a Saddahmesque 90%+, the top vote getter in Iraq was the Sistani alliance with 48%.... Not 2/3, not even an absolute majority.
I can understand why Charley belittles the vote...
#49
As for removing him from the party, that doesnt happen in either party.
Bull. David Duke tried to run as a Republican. The party refused to give him any campaign dollars and endorsed his Democrat opponent.
Do you have an example of the Democrats doing the same? The closest is Cynthia McKinney, except that once attention was off of her, she's back in. I'm 99% sure she's a Democrat again.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/14/2005 19:00 Comments ||
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#50
WikiPedia on Charles B Rangel
I would like to point out to Rantburg readers that anybody can make/modify wikipedia entries....
Lots of people discussed here are not there and creators of an entry tend to get more editing clout on the entry.
Just something to think about...
#51
Three years ago, Fred said that he didn't want Rantburg to degenerate into an "opinion" website. I find a direct correlation between gas-baggery and omission to post articles.
Check this out, funky soul brothers:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_15-2-2005_pg3_2
Placed on pg 1 because it does relate to the WOT.
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a controversial new law that would toughen regulations regarding the issuing of drivers' licenses, and make it easier for judges to deport illegal immigrants suspected of links with terrorism. Yahoo! (I hope..)
With a vote of 261 to 161, the House approved the Real ID Act, taking what the bill's Republican sponsors describe as an important step in safeguarding Americans against future terrorist attacks.
Last year's report of the independent commission that investigated security and other lapses before the September 11, 2001 al-Qaida attacks said terrorists were able to take advantage of system loopholes and travel documents, especially drivers' licenses.
The Real ID Act, which still must be taken up by the Senate, directs states to ensure that applicants for licenses are U.S. citizens or are in the country legally.
Judges would get more power in deciding on deportation, and applicants for asylum would have to show clearly that a central reason for their request was persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Good, the Asylum laws have often been misused by illegals.
The Department of Homeland Security would get new powers to tighten border security and track illegal immigrants.
In debate on the floor of the House of Representatives, Republicans such as Congressman J. D. Hayworth, argued that the attacks of September 11, 2001 provided indisputable reasons for passing the legislation.
"In the wake of September 11, in the wake of clear and demonstrable evidence that there are those who come to this nation with the intent of harming and killing Americans, who are bent on the destruction of our nation, and our system of government, at long last this body should take the steps necessary to preserve our security and our liberty," he said.
Democrats contended that the legislation would have a chilling effect on civil liberties and the ability of people seeking to immigrate for legitimate reasons. Note the term 'legitimate reasons' and not 'legally'. The Dims are upset because it has a chilling effect on the illegal aliens. There is a legal and proper process to seek immigration into this country.
Congressman Howard Berman called the asylum provisions of the legislation flawed. "If Section 101 (referring to asylum) becomes law, people with a well-founded fear of persecution as a result of these changes will be denied asylum," he said. "There will be no effort whatsoever to enhance our effort to protect this country against terrorism, The asylum laws have often been misused by terrorists and illegal aliens.
but we will have struck a fundamental blow against a tradition which I think is very important to maintain in this country and that is that we are a haven for refugees from persecution, for political, ethnic, religious (and) gender reasons."
Republicans also pointed to the September 11 attacks in promoting a key provision of the bill, which directs that a drivers' license in the hands of someone with a temporary visa would expire at the same time the visa expires. DOH!
Republican Congressman Pete Sessions offered an amendment aimed at ensuring that once someone is ordered deported, they are speedily returned to their home country. "Sadly, according to our government's best statistics, only 13 percent of the aliens arrested entering the country illegally and ordered deported, are actually removed," he said. "As a result, people entering the country illegally and with criminal or terrorist intent have quickly learned that if arrested they can be quickly released on their own word, and that they can be confident in the knowledge they do not have to show up for their hearing knowing they will likely never be deported."
The bill was opposed by many civil liberties groups and organizations working to protect illegal alien immigrant rights, and by state governors and motor vehicle departments who said it would impose unnecessary burdens on the driver's license approvals. Oh My! Someone call a WAHumblance quick!
President Bush this week announced his support for the legislation, which Republican lawmakers had wanted to place in a much larger bill approved last year reforming the U.S. intelligence system.
The Senate would have to pass its own version of the legislation, and the two congressional chambers would have to work out differences, before the law could go to President Bush for signature. I hope most of the measures survive.
I think I also heard that this is volentary in that states can elect not to comform, but then they lose lots of federal money and their people may not be able to take trains, or planes, etc....
Posted by: CrazyFool ||
02/14/2005 9:36:57 AM ||
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#1
And the illegals keep pouring into "my" state California, from Asia and Mexico.
Posted by: home on the range ||
02/14/2005 10:38 Comments ||
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#2
The Dims are probably also upset about the "chilling effect" that Bank Guards have on holdup men who are in the bank to conduct "financial transactions".
#3
It is voluntary. If you choose to continue issuing licenses to illegals, our State DL's will no longer qualify as adequate ID to board planes, drive in other states, etc... :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2005 11:22 Comments ||
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#4
About bloody time. Now all they have to do is add a biometric component to the driver's license, say a thumbprint (to be searched in the FBI/CIA files before the DL is issued), and I will be happy.
#5
The Democrats are upset about the link to Motor-Voter and the corresponding reduction in new Democrat voters that enforcement of this bill would have. Hopefully Bill Frist has the juice to get this through the Senate in spite of Ted Kennedy, et. al.
#6
This "Real ID" driver's license component of the bill should be a deal-killer because this is just a back door way of instituting a national ID card. These enhanced driver's licenses can then be used as a sneaky way of instituting gun registration, keeping databases about the habits of law-abiding citizens, and otherwise abusing our privacy. As much as it pains me to say it, I'm with the ACLU on this one.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
02/14/2005 12:49 Comments ||
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#7
The issue of legality should be the top talking point in Senate debate. Almost every American I know, no matter his politics, appreciates the argument that people who come here illegally are first law-breakers, and second are individuals diverting public monies, bureaucratic energies and economic opportunities away from legal residents. Illegal immigration attacks our basic notions of fairness and justice.
Time to develop a strategy for how to counter accusations of racism, which is NOT the basis of American resentment of illegal aliens but IS what we will be hearing from folks against the legislation. Our largest group of illegal aliens, Mexicans, fit well into our country/culture. It's the law-breaking and the two sets of rules for immigration (one for Mexicans and the other for everybody else) that upsets Americans.
#10
When's the last time you used your Passport to cash a check? How about anywhere else that the product or service wasn't travel-related?
The driver's license is the defacto National Id - so that's where the goddamned effort must be placed. All this Big Brother fear-mongering. You guys scofflaws? You got something to hide?
Bitch about security, keeping illegals out, enforcing immigration laws, but flinch like little girls firing a shotgun for the first time when the Pres and the Pubs try to put teeth into the key bit - the identification.
Can't have it both ways, folks. Either you put teeth into the law and focus it where society looks - the driver's license - or quit bitchin' and whinin' about all the tax dollars and dangers.
Go ahead, let your fantasy fears overcome good sense. Don't care more for your family and your neighbors safety more than your imagined right to be anonymous unless you say otherwise. Yeah, baby, that's the ticket.
Sheesh. Go overseas to some truly unsafe place for a few years, see how it works, then tell me how bad this proposed law is, lol!
#14
There are some other little provisions tucked into this bill. One concerns a section of the security fence along the California/Mexico border. It has been blocked for years over environmental lawsuits. This bill says that any previous laws (e.g. ESA) may not be used to obstruct this wall, and that the courts have no jurisdiction over it.
#15
nor does the California Coastal Commission. The enviros were up in arms today
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2005 16:34 Comments ||
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#16
Frank, the enviros have become predictable to the point of self-parody. Do you think anyone listens anymore?
I still think that the political opposition to stemming the tide of illegal immigration is rooted in motor-voter, absentee ballots, and the feeling of entitlement among certain groups to commit vote fraud.
#17
Tough, my ass. I can tell without reading it it's not really tough if either house of Congress passed it.
They can't handle tough.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/14/2005 17:47 Comments ||
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#18
.com:
I'm with Johnathan. I've never really been a big believer in the comming Mexican apocalypse that people like Micheal Savage keep telling us about. In a generation or two Mexican's become Americans, save for better cuisine and a few words of Spanish. I have seen evidence of this in my own family, who are Redneck-Italian-Irish-Philipino-Mexican's. Mongrels, like any good bunch of Americans.
Frankly, I am a resident of California who owns guns, speaks his mind, and runs a business. In other words, an enemy of the Donk state. As are most of the other California posters at this site. I do not trust the government on privacy issues and civil rights for a moment, not after what I have experienced here.
Find another way to solve this problem. I don't want president Hillary Clinton tracking me at some point in the future.
#19
Now make it so legal immigrants have to register at the police station, so everyone knows where they live. I've had to do that in every foreign country that I've lived in. Had to show a copy of the lease, my passport, etc. They tracked down the building I lived in on the map and made sure it existed. Overstay your visa, and sooner or later someone will arrive to knock on your door.
My foreign friends never believe me when I tell them how easy it is for them in the United States. Get this, they're actually afraid that INS will come after them!
Mohamed al-Anssi, 52, who set himself ablaze in November 2004 outside a White House, will be testifying in the case of Sheikh Al-Moyoad. At the time, Al-anssi, who reportedly worked as an FBI informant, suffered injuries that weren't life threatening. REUTERS An FBI informant who set himself on fire in front of the White House last December will be called as a witness for the defense of Yemeni Sheikh Al-Moayad, who was accused of aiding Hamas and al-Qaida.
Lawyers for Sheikh Mohammed Ali Hasan Al-Moayad and his assistant said they have subpoenaed Mohamed al-Anssi, who helped build the FBI's case by posing as the go-between for Al-Moayad and another informant playing an American Muslim who wanted help funneling millions of dollars to terrorists. Al-Anssi appeared in headlines of major US newspaper and on TV screens in the US and throughout the world for trying to commit suicide for allegedly not receiving the promised money from the FBI, who he also said did not return him his passports. He has never appeared at the trial, but has nevertheless been a central figure because he was the prosecution's main informer, helping F.B.I set up a sting to ensnare the Sheikh Al-Moayad.
Al-Anssi is the sole source of some of the government's most dramatic claims about Al-Moayad, including the allegation that the Sheikh said he personally handed $20 million to Osama bin Laden. Defense lawyers said they would request the unsealing of a bank fraud case filed against Al-Anssi in Brooklyn federal court last year. If al-Anssi does appear as a witness, that and other information he gave prosecutors could be heard by the jury. But the defense is expected to attack him as an opportunist and a liar who fed the F.B.I. false information in exchange for lucrative payments. Al-Anssi , who has been subpoenaed by the defense, could testify next week, lawyers said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Yes, it's a sword and, no, I am not glad to see you...
Posted by: Mohammed Ali Hasan Al-Moayad ||
02/14/2005 9:47 Comments ||
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#3
I don't know, I suppose this is a better situation for the defense than if he just appeared as a prosecution witness without all of the baggage, but I would think that, no matter which side calls him, putting him on the stand is a huge problem for the defense - as it allows him to be cross examined and allows the prosecution to fully lay out their case.
The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has called on the US and the EU to do more for the world's long-term collective security.
Speaking at a security conference in Munich on Sunday (13 February), the UN chief praised co-operation between American and European allies in post-war Iraq, but suggested that they should "do something more this year: to think ahead, and to help plant the seeds of long term collective security".
The request was related to Mr Annan's own blueprint for "the most far-reaching reform of the international security system since the establishment of the United Nations in 1945".
The changes should match a transformed security environment in the world and make the UN more capable in tackling new global threats. Mr Annan suggested that given the cross-border and instant character of the current dangers, the participating states should realise their mutual vulnerability.
"So, in this era of interdependence, let us banish from our minds the thought that some threats affect only some of us. We all share a responsibility for each other's security, and we must work together to build a safer world. Indeed, in strengthening the security of others, we protect the security of our own".
New UN strategy against terrorism
The UN chief proposed action in strengthening world collective defences — mainly in relation to nuclear proliferation, where the plan is to introduce tougher inspection rules and other concrete steps on disarmament.
He is also set to present a new UN strategy against terrorism, including a proposal to set up a trust fund for member states to meet their anti-terrorism obligations and a new globally accepted definition of terrorism.
Mr Annan is planning to introduce the strategy in March in Madrid, a year after the deadly terrorist attacks in the city.
The UN reforms will also include proposals for new collective tools to "win peace" in post-conflict areas and improve the body's capability of peacekeeping.
A serious situation in Sudan was singled out as on the highest alert for the international community.
"Those organizations with real capacity — and NATO as well as the EU are well represented in this room — must give serious consideration to what — in practical terms — they can do to help end this tragedy", said Mr Annan.
The annual security conference in Munich was dominated by the relationship between the United States and Europe, with a focus upon future links between NATO and the EU's developing security capability.
Posted by: tipper ||
02/14/2005 9:57:40 AM ||
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#1
I think the best reform we could do is throw all the foggybottomed UN'ocrats out of our country and level the UN building and put something useful there.
#2
He is also set to present a new UN strategy against terrorism, including a proposal to set up a trust fund for member states to meet their anti-terrorism obligations and a new globally accepted definition of terrorism.
Maybe they'll call it the Terrorism for Food program? I'm sure it'll work out just great...especially if someone else pays for it.
#3
86 the plane Kofi flys out in would be a start.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/14/2005 13:39 Comments ||
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#4
The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has called on the US and the EU to do more for the worldâs long-term collective security.
Fer shur, 'cuz we're not doing enough already. /sarc Can somebody tell me who died and left this two-bit socialist douchebag from frickin' Ghana the leader of the world?
#5
How is the UN going to fight terrorism when the body cannot agree on the definition of terrorism? Then, how are we going to do anything as a world body when a very sizeable portion of the UN members are dictatorships, kleptocracies, or just plain corrupt hellholes?
Set up a trust fund? With who's money? Always someone else's resources. Kofi can have Sonny take care of that. He and his friends have Sammy's Oil for Palaces money, if they did not blow it all yet.
FOAD, and the horse he rode in on.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/14/2005 14:13 Comments ||
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#6
How is the UN going to fight terrorism when the body cannot agree on the definition of terrorism?
A side note: they can't recognize genocide, either.
MAMDOUH Habib and Maher Arar have much in common. Both were born in the Middle East but live in the West, both were detained by the US as suspected terrorists, and both claim to have been tortured under the CIA's top secret "extraordinary renditions" program.
Few details are known of the renditions program. And the US Government intends keeping it that way: in a New York lawsuit begun by Arar, a Canadian citizen, the US is claiming "state secrets privilege" to avoid any discussion of the case.
With virtually nothing officially acknowledged, details of the rules, scope and size of the program are sketchy at best.
But former CIA officials say it does exist and, with the post-September 11 premium on the speedy acquisition of information on terrorism, appears to have expanded.
Some lawyers believe more than 100 people have been "rendered" secretly to foreign governments. According to media reports, the CIA is using a white GulfstreamV jet to shift people around. One such jet has been logged on numerous trips from Washington to restricted-access US military bases and countries such as Egypt.
There have also been the shocking allegations from people such as Habib and Arar - men the US insists are terrorist-linked and therefore not credible.
Habib, 49, an Australian-Egyptian released last month from Guantanamo Bay, says he was kidnapped by Americans and sent to Egypt for six months of torture shortly after being arrested in Pakistan in October 2001. (He says an Australian official witnessed the transfer; Australia denies this.)
Arar, 34, says the US grabbed him at a New York airport in September 2002 as he was returning to Canada after a holiday in Tunisia. He claims he was flown to Jordan by American pilots and then taken to Syria - where he was born - and tortured for nearly a year.
In an interview with The New Yorker magazine published last week, Arar says the pilots identified themselves on the radio as "the special removal unit".
Once in Syria, he claims, he was whipped with electrical cables, kept in a grave-like cell, and eventually confessed to anything he was asked. Only when the Canadian Government sought his release did Syria hand him back.
"They are outsourcing torture because they know it's illegal," Arar says in The New Yorker of the CIA program.
In Habib's case, he claims in a US court document that he was flown by Americans on a plane from Pakistan to Egypt.
The New Yorker says flight logs of a GulfstreamV jet suspected of being used in renditions show it left Dulles airport outside Washington on April 9 for Cairo, about the time Habib says he was released and sent by the US to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. From there he went to Guantanamo Bay.
Can any of this be true? Yes, says the man who helped set up the renditions program, former CIA officer and Islamic terrorist specialist Michael Scheuer.
Scheuer, who spoke to The Australian, is wary of claims that Habib was tortured, but does not discount it.
But he confirms the existence of the program itself - and says it would have made sense not only for Habib to be sent to Egypt, but for the US to have informed Australia of it.
"In the times I was responsible for these kinds of operations, we only had one that I recall that was a dual-citizen of another country," he recalls.
"And we did, indeed, inform that country of our intention to arrest and take this person to - I can't remember if it was Egypt - but the country was a traditional ally, and we did inform them beforehand and had their acquiescence."
Australia denies that it was ever officially told that Habib was sent to Egypt. But the Howard Government says it believes Habib was in Egypt - it just won't say how it knows that.
Scheuer says the renditions program was a response to a realisation at the CIA in 1996-97 that al-Qaeda and allies such as the Egyptian group Islamic Jihad posed a serious threat.
When the intelligence was shown to the National Security Council of former US president Bill Clinton administration, "it clearly got their interest" and the agency was asked to dismantle and disrupt the network, and detain Islamic terrorists.
"We said, 'Fine, OK, what do you want us to do with these people?' And basically, the response from the NSC was 'you figure that out'," Scheuer says.
The plan the CIA produced was to focus on individuals who were wanted in a third country, and during Scheuer's tenure he worked most closely and frequently with Egypt.
The idea was not to grab any terrorist and send them to a friendly Middle Eastern intelligence agency so they could be tortured, he stresses.
Instead, the CIA would hunt down the terror suspect, and if they were wanted or had been convicted in absentia in their home country, they would be delivered back to them.
The purpose was twofold - "to get them off the street and to find out if they knew anything pertinent to the protection of the US". The CIA would provide many of the questions for the interrogations.
"I can't answer the case of Habib - what I can tell you is I was never involved in one of these operations where we did not supply areas of interest or specific questions we wanted answers to," he says. "That's Intelligence 101."
Could ASIO material have been used by the Egyptians? Yes, but Scheuer says the CIA would only have passed on information drawn from Australian intelligence material with the permission of Australia.
"If it was something that would help us form a better question, we would want to do it. But we would not do it without the permission of the originating service," he says.
Why would the Egyptians be better at finding out than the CIA? They wouldn't, says Scheuer. "We simply had nowhere to take them and talk to them over a period of time," he says, while refusing to comment on claims that since the September 11 attacks the agency has acquired such foreign interrogation bases.
"The policy was never thought through in terms of 'where do we take these people?"'.
Scheuer says the FBI and Clinton administration did not want them in the US, where the legal process was too rigid, "and so the agency had to find a way to find the people, find a way to capture them, and then take them somewhere where some legal process would be undertaken against them".
Egypt was a favourite, because there were many Egyptians associated with al-Qaeda, and the Egyptians - well known to the CIA for decades - were willing to help. But the Egyptians would also have to say that they would treat the prisoner in accordance with their laws.
In every case, he says, CIA lawyers had to approve the rendition, and guarantees had to be obtained that the prisoner would be treated according to the country's legal system.
But while he gives some credence to Habib's claim to be caught up in this program, he is not so sure about the claims of torture.
"The view of the Egyptians as wanton torturers is Hollywood stuff," he says.
"They're much more professional and effective than that. But I can imagine them using much more physical methods of persuasion than Americans would ever use."
He says he has never heard of rooms filling with water that Habib claims to have been tortured in. "Certainly no one has ever said that to us," Scheuer says. "And frankly, it's not a question I'm going to look at very closely."
Why not? "If I have authority to deal with a foreign service and the lawyers have cleared it, then my responsibility is to do my best to protect America using that relationship, and I'm not going to look very hard for something that would destroy one potential avenue of protecting American interests."
And while Habib's allegations of Egyptian torture sound bizarre - he was allegedly electrocuted and hung on hooks, as well as shackled in rooms of rising water so he feared he would drown - that does not mean they are false.
When Habib's lawyers claimed in January that he had been held down so a prostitute could smear him with menstrual blood at Guantanamo Bay, the allegation was so nightmarish it seemed he had lost his mind or was lying.
Then, within a few days, a former US military translator at the base revealed in a draft from a book that such techniques had been used to try to shock the Muslim men into co-operating with their interrogators.
And in the past few days, The Washington Post reported that a US military inquiry has learned of several more cases where women soldiers used sexually provocative tactics - and sometimes smeared prisoners with red ink as mock menstrual blood - to try to break the religiously devout inmates.
The fake-blood claim underscores two important points now that Habib is back in Australia. It means that even the most repulsive and unlikely allegations about the treatment of terror suspects ought not be rejected out of hand.
And, whatever the truth of Habib's terrorist links, it adds some credibility to his claims.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/14/2005 12:13:09 AM ||
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#2
The article doesn't say anything about these people being innocent of the crimes of which they are accused in their home country, just that the CIA delivered them there. We have a duty to try to protect the innocent, inasmuch as we can, but certainly not to protect the guilty.
#3
Um... were they members of AQ? Were they captured in uniform? If not, then they are owed nothing except a bullet in the brain. Offending someones' sensibilities is not torture. Moreover, nor is simply executing someone. (Mock executions are torture.) Notwithstanding that, if we don't enagage in torture of these individuals (effectively captured spies), it is merely because it is unseemly and ineffective, but these prisoners are due none of the courtesy we give to members of military organizations. And if the left doesn't like torture in principle, let 'em try and ban it in those countries who practice it as a matter of policy through their ineffectual protests (which never seem to happen). I can hear the crickets chirping...
Posted by: Mark E. ||
02/14/2005 12:22 Comments ||
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Now picture the UN drawing up how the world should cooperate on security issues. Imagine, for a moment, what measures the UN Krowd would recommend? Ever the opportunist seeking to save his own ass, Kofi jumps on a Rumsfeld statement...
MUNICH, Germany (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed Sunday for Europe and the United States to back a major overhaul of global security measures to combat terrorism, keep weapons of mass destruction from spreading and quell regional conflicts.
The U.N. plans call for tougher inspection rules for nuclear installations, a trust fund to help poorer nations fight terrorism, a drive to strengthen public health defenses against germ warfare and quicker action against potential threats.
"We must strengthen our collective defenses," Annan told an international conference of top security officials as he lobbied for approval of the new steps following the deep divisions that plagued the United Nations over the Iraq war in 2003.
"If New York or London or Paris or Berlin were hit by a nuclear terrorist attack, it might not only kill hundreds of thousands in an instant," he said. "It could also devastate the global economy, thereby plunging millions into poverty in developing nations."
Annan suggested incentives for nations to stop uranium enrichment that could be used to make nuclear bombs. He also said U.N. nations should adopt a common definition of terrorism and draft an anti-terrorism convention, which should include financial help for nations to meet counterterrorism commitments.
"The United Nations must show zero tolerance of terrorism of any kind, for any reason," Annan said.
Annan has invited world leaders to a summit at U.N. headquarters in September to approve the plans.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer broadly backed Annan's security reform plans and urged the United States, as the world's most powerful nation, to play a leading role.
But Fischer, whose government vehemently opposed the Iraq war, rejected calls for NATO to play a security role in Iraq by offering to protect U.N. operations there.
"I don't see any added value for NATO in Iraq," he said, replying to a suggestion by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., who was at the conference.
Fischer also called on Washington to play a more active role in European-led diplomatic efforts to ensure Iran does not develop nuclear weapons. "If the United States were to engage positively, and I'm aware of how difficult that is, it would substantially strengthen the European drive," he said.
Annan's call for greater collective security came after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged Saturday that even the United States cannot battle terrorism and other world threats on its own.
"One nation cannot defeat the extremists alone," Rumsfeld said. "It will take the cooperation of many nations to stop the proliferation of dangerous weapons." The UN couldn't agree on a definition of terrorism if its very existence depended upon it, and it does, for the UN gives full rights to the terrorist states and empowers them with Chairmanships which make it a laughingstock. NATO seems to have become irrelevant, as well, per Fischer's statements. So what / who does that leave to actually do something? A coalition of those willing to put troops and treasure behind their ideals and values, not a pointless debating society. And thank you so very much, Fischer, for ending the debate about whether NATO is of substantial value - or just another of those political forums for endless and pointless grandstanding.
Posted by: .com ||
02/14/2005 6:34:10 AM ||
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So toss Phrawance out on it's ear - they bring nothing to the NATO table. It needen't even be for being overly outspoken assholes, either. Tell the cheese-gobbling bastards they obviously "aren't serious" with their laughably weak military.
#2
"If New York or London or Paris or Berlin were hit by a nuclear terrorist attack, it might not only kill hundreds of thousands in an instant," he said. "It could also devastate the global economy, thereby plunging millions into poverty in developing nations."
It would also devastate the UN economy. I am reduced to takeout at Wendy's for lunch?! This must be stopped!
Posted by: Kofi A. ||
02/14/2005 16:18 Comments ||
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UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned on Sunday of the danger of a "cascade" of nuclear proliferation unless new steps are taken to prevent it and called for help to stop the killings in Darfur. Annan told a conference of defence ministers and security experts "the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has helped prevent a cascade of nuclear proliferation. "But unless new steps are taken now, we might face such a cascade very soon," he said. Annan said a high-level panel which has proposed far-reaching reforms of the United Nations has also made "many forward-looking recommendations" to beef up the system to prevent states from developing nuclear weapons. Without making direct reference to the current nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea, Annan said: "Member states must summon the will to act to strengthen the non-proliferation regime."
On Darfur, Annan called on NATO and the European Union to take action in the western Sudanese region to end violence between ethnic minority rebels and government-backed forces. A UN panel found that the civilian population in Darfur "has been brutalised by war crimes, which may well amount to crimes against humanity," Annan said. "People are dying, every single day, while we fail to protect them. Additional measures are urgently required. Those organisations with real capacity - and NATO as well as the EU are well represented in this room - must give serious consideration to what, in practical terms, they can do to help end this tragedy," Annan said. "Remember this: our current collective shortcomings are measured in lives lost," he added. Annan saluted the work of the 1,850 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, but said other international bodies must act as quickly as possible in a region where tens of thousands have died and 1.6 million have been displaced.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Annan said a high-level panel which has proposed far-reaching reforms of the United Nations has also made âmany forward-looking recommendationsâ to beef up the system to prevent states from developing nuclear weapons.
Without any threat of punitive measures against violators, few of those "recommendations" are likely to be worth the paper they're printed on. Goo-fi is just flapping his lips. Again.
On Darfur, Annan called on NATO and the European Union to take action in the western Sudanese region to end violence between ethnic minority rebels and government-backed forces.
Why the need to get involved if, according to the UN, the situation in Sudan isn't genocide?
#3
His Royal Muslim Highness Kofi, in spite his Muslim IAEA jester, has finally noted that Muslim Pakistan has The Bomb, Muslim Iran is working on The Bomb, and traces of radioactivity are showing up in Muslim Egypt. Time to get the Insecurity Council to reprimand Khan and Kimmie and fine them each $5 before America wakes up and goes pre-emptive again.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/14/2005 8:28 Comments ||
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#4
A high-level panel which has proposed far-reaching reforms. Many forward-looking recommendations. Throw in a seven day conference at some world renowned five star resort, a request for millions (or billions) of dollars, and you've got the UN at it's finest
#5
Hey Annan.... you're effin' useless. A bunch of grifters, pedophiles, inept thieves and gangster wanna-bes. RICO the lot of em....see how they like the federal pen. It won't be Camp Cupcake, I assure you.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
02/14/2005 12:31 Comments ||
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#6
tu3031
actually, "A high-level panel which has proposed far-reaching reforms with many forward-looking recommendations" is the F4 macro on Kofi's computer.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra ordered security forces on Monday to become more pro-active in their efforts to restore peace in the largely Muslim south, where more than 500 people were killed last year.
Thaksin, who won a second term in a landslide last week but not one seat in the far south, also said he wanted government agencies to improve cooperation and accelerate efforts to bring peace and prosperity to the relatively poor region. "Our policy on the region won't be changed, but I just want them to tighten up and speed up their work and strengthen their campaign to be more pro-active," Thaksin told reporters after a two-hour meeting in Bangkok.
Thaksin, due to start a three-day visit to the region on Wednesday, told the meeting he wanted the police, army and civil servants to coordinate better to capture suspects and prevent incidents, officials said.
Nevertheless, top security officials said the daily violence which began in January last year might not end during Thaksin's second four-year term. "I can't confirm that it will be 100 percent peaceful," General Sirichai Thunyasiri told reporters after the meeting when asked if peace would return in Thaksin's second term.
Thaksin's unprecedented election victory -- he is the first elected Thai leader to win another term -- has been greeted by more violence in the three far south provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat. Militants have assassinated civil servants and civilians, targeted troops and police with remote-controlled bombs and set schools on fire.
On Monday morning, eight people were wounded in two bomb blasts in the area where a low-key separatist war was fought in the 1970s and 1980s.
Suspected militants detonated a bomb in front of a school in Narathiwat's Joh Airong district aimed at a joint security patrol that guards teachers traveling to and from work, police said. The bomb missed the patrol, but a second bomb detonated 15 minutes later about 100 meters (yards) away wounded 8 soldiers and police who came to examine the site of the first explosion.
On Sunday, two Narathiwat village chiefs were killed in separate ambushes.
But Thaksin played down remarks by some Islamic leaders and academics that the latest wave of violence was retaliation for the alleged abduction and killing on innocent people by police and soldiers.
"There are no more abductions and killings. This is propaganda by those troublemakers who are instilling fear into people's mind and persuade them to distrust the authorities," Thaksin said. If he decides to get as nasty with the Muzzy Killers as he is with drug dealers, the 'Slamists are in for a rough and tumble ride - and this is one Muzzy encroachment / infestation that will fail. The Thais know how to play nasty.
Posted by: .com ||
02/14/2005 6:52:10 AM ||
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I expect you all to have fun with this. The year is 2007. After a clash with Turkish forces in northern Iraq, US troops stage a surprise attack. Reeling, Turkey turns to Russia and the European Union, who turn back the American onslaught.
This is the plot of "Metal Storm," one of the fastest- selling books in Turkish history. The book is clearly sold as fiction, but its premise has entered Turkey's public discourse in a way that sometimes seems to blur the line between fantasy and reality.
"The Foreign Ministry and General Staff are reading it keenly," Murat Yetkin, a columnist for the Turkish daily newspaper Radikal, recently wrote. "All cabinet members also have it." Several other columnists have also written about the book, suggesting its depiction of a clash between the two NATO allies could become a reality. Serdar Turgut, the editor of Aksam, one of Turkey's largest newspapers, penned a recent column that took one of Metal Storm's premises - that members of Skull and Bones, the secret society that President Bush joined as a student at Yale, has taken control of US foreign policy - and presented it as fact.
"Powerful people, nearly all of whom are members of a secret 'sect,' are aiming to bring a radical change to the order of the world," Turgut wrote. He further suggested that the US military is developing technology that would allow it to trigger earthquakes, something that will eventually be used against Turkey.
The book has arrived at a time when anti-American sentiments are running high in Turkey. A BBC poll taken last month found that 82 percent of Turks believe Bush's reelection made the world a more dangerous place, the highest figure in any country surveyed. During her recent visit, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed concern about the issue to Turkish officials. Meanwhile, there is increasing tension between Ankara and Washington. Turkey is frustrated with what it claims is US failure to take military action against the separatists of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who are holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq. The country is also concerned about events in the oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where the Turks say Iraqi Kurds are staging a power grab as a prelude to the creation of an independent Kurdish state, something it views as a serious threat.
Egemen Bagis, a member of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and chairman of the Turkey-US friendship caucus in parliament, says the unpopular war in neighboring Iraq continues to fuel anti-American feelings. "This public feeling, this public tension, is not any different from what is happening in other European countries or other Middle Eastern countries," Mr. Bagis says.
But American officials in Turkey say the kinds of things they are hearing represent something different. "It's not an isolated phenomenon - you see it all across Europe, but it is more of an exaggerated phenomenon here," says one US official. "I'm not sure in Europe you would see the manifestations that you see here, like this book."
Adds another US diplomat, who declined to be named: "Just like sex sells, anti-Americanism sells right now. Unfortunately, it's nothing to laugh at, because it's damaging to both American national interest and to Turkish national interests. We're really pulling our hair out trying to figure out how to deal with this."
A particularly striking feature of the book - one that may say a lot about recent changes in Turkish opinion - is who saves Turkey from defeat: Europe and Russia. For decades, the European powers were derided in Turkey as the ones that tried to carve the country up after World War 1. Russia, which invaded Turkey in the early 20th century, had always been viewed here with great suspicion. In fact, the potato-and-mayonnaise concoction known in most places as Russian salad is called American salad here. "In all the surveys, increasingly we see people more anti-American. What is different today is that they are less anti-European," says Ali Carkoglu, a political scientist at Istanbul's Sabanci University. "Back in the [19]70s, they wouldn't even trust the Europeans," he says. "The change has been very swift."
For Metal Storm's two authors, Burak Turna and Orkun Ucar, success has come swiftly. This is their first published work. Sitting in an Istanbul cafe, the two say the novel came out of the conviction that the battle they depict is a strong possibility. The book, they say, is their contribution to Turkey's well-being. "Everybody was thinking about a clash like this in their subconscious," but it was articulated by Metal Storm, says Mr. Turna, who used to work in an US-owned textile company but now devotes himself full-time to writing. Turna does not see the book as fiction. "From our point of view, it's a philosophical and scientific calculation," he says. "It's more than a novel."
#1
What is different today is that they are less anti-European," says Ali Carkoglu, a political scientist at Istanbulâs Sabanci University. "Back in the [19]70s, they wouldnât even trust the Europeans," he says. "The change has been very swift." And just WTF makes you think the Europeans are going to trust you
Iran has neared completion of a uranium production facility that could be used for the assembly of nuclear weapons.
Iranian officials said they were in the last stage of completing a uranium ore concentrate production plant. They said the facility, located near the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, would begin operations by 2006.
The Bandar Abbas Yellowcake Production Plant was disclosed by the Iranian opposition in October 2004. The National Council of Resistance of Iran has uncovered several secret nuclear sites, later acknowledged by Teheran, Middle East Newsline reported.
Iran has already begun the mining of uranium, the first stage in the production of nuclear material, officials said.
The IAEA referred to the Bandar Abbas site in its report to the board of governors in November 2004. The report said the site was next to the Gehine uranium mine.
After the uranium is mined, it would be processed into uranium ore concentrate. At that point, the concentrate is turned into uranium hexaflouride, used in gaseous form as feedstock for the enrichment of uranium.
In November 2004, Iran reached an agreement with the European Union for the suspension of uranium enrichment. Officials said the Iranian decision would be reviewed in April.
The Bandar Abbas facility would process ore extracted from uranium mines into uranium ore concentrate, officials said. The processing of the ore, also known as yellowcake, precedes the production of enriched uranium through gas centrifuges.
Iranian Atomic Energy director Gholamreza Aghazadeh said the facility, termed the Bandar Abbas Yellowcake Production Plant, would begin operations during the next Iranian calendar year. The year begins March 21.
[In Teheran, Iranian officials have formally protested through Swiss diplomatic channels the United States's invasion of its airspace, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. The daily reported that three U.S. officials confirmed that the Bush administration has been flying surveillance drones over Iran for close to a year in an effort to gather evidence of nuclear weapons programs and detect weaknesses in air defenses.[
Officials said Iran has sought to complete the nuclear fuel cycle in an effort to avoid dependence on foreign suppliers.
After the uranium is mined, it would be processed into uranium ore concentrate. At that point, the concentrate is turned into uranium hexaflouride, used in gaseous form as feedstock for the enrichment of uranium.
In November 2004, Iran reached an agreement with the European Union for the suspension of uranium enrichment. Officials said the Iranian decision would be reviewed in April.
"The low but variable grade uranium ore found in near-surface deposits will be open-pit mined and processed at the associated mill," the IAEA report said.
On Sunday, Iran rejected a European demand to stop building a heavy-water nuclear reactor and Teheran said it will not replace it with a light-water reactor. Both plants can be used to enrich uranium but the extraction of weapons-grade material from a light-water reactor is more difficult.
Monday, February 14, 2005 - The internet newspaper worldtribune.com reported last week that Israel Air Force F-16s intercepted and downed two Syrian MiG-29 Fulcrums over the Mediterranean on Sept. 14, 2004. The article was based on a false report from the Washington D.C.-based Reform Party of Syria, a group which has tried for years to sway public opinion in favour of Syria.
Hah, I knew this story smelled funny
The report from the Reform Party of Syria was based on a dubious story about a September 2001 incident in which IDF/AF F-15 Eagles allegedly downed two Syrian MiG-29 Fulcrums. Apparently, the Reform Party of Syria kept the story, but changed that date and the type of aircraft involved. All other details (including pilot names) were identical and typewritten on the same computer as the 60 Minutes Texas Air National Guard story.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/14/2005 11:23:28 AM ||
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Wasn't the original link from here to Debka? Shouldn't that have rung some alarm bells right off?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/14/2005 12:00 Comments ||
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#2
Hang on....they are trying to puff themselves up by saying they got their asses kicked? I thought UBL cleared all that up with his weak horse/strong horse parable.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
02/14/2005 12:04 Comments ||
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#3
They are hoping the EU pricks will feel sorry for their stupid asses and pick on Israel some more.
#8
Hang on....they are trying to puff themselves up by saying they got their asses kicked? I thought UBL cleared all that up with his weak horse/strong horse parable.
The Reform Party of Syria is opposed to the Baathist regime, which is why they are in DC. Typical Dissidents collecting bad stories about the government, whether true or not.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/14/2005 20:47 Comments ||
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In recent weeks, the Bush administration has toughened its stand against the fundamentalist Shiite Muslim government of Iran, calling it one of America's key enemies.
But the administration has not yet presented a clear-cut strategy for dealing with Iran, instead hinting alternately that the solution may be European-led negotiations with Tehran, an Israeli military attack or a rebellion led by the Iranian opposition.
The debate has echoes of the fight two years ago over Iraq, and some critics are saying the administration is making the same mistake -- relying on dubious intelligence sources to justify the case for overthrowing a hostile foreign government.
The U.S. threats have come back to back. Vice President Dick Cheney warned that Israel might attack Iran's alleged nuclear weapons sites. President Bush called Iran "the world's primary state sponsor of terror." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the Iranian regime "something to be loathed." And the White House left unchallenged media reports that U.S. commandos had been conducting spy missions inside Iran since last summer to prepare for a possible attack.
The tough U.S. stance has differed markedly from the attempt by Britain, France and Germany to negotiate an agreement with Iran over its nuclear facilities. The 2-year-old talks have produced preliminary accords but no final deal. Iran has been unwilling to give up the capacity to enrich nuclear fuel that it says it needs for its civilian nuclear power industry, while the Europeans are unable to meet Iran's key demand -- the guarantee that it will not be attacked by the United States or Israel.
In Europe last week, Rice expressed general support for the Iran negotiations. However, she declined her hosts' request to join the talks or to indicate willingness to offer Iran a security guarantee.
"The strategy of the United States is (to hope) that the Europeans can't deliver on some things Iran wants," said Shireen Hunter, an Iran analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "The administration is expecting that, by late spring or summer, the European track will fail."
In place of negotiations, the administration and many members of Congress seem to be suggesting that the Iranian people should revolt. In his State of the Union speech, Bush seemed to signal such an approach, saying, "To the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you."
Last month, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., introduced the Iran Freedom Support Act, which would authorize direct aid to opposition radio and television stations. The bill was co-sponsored by Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, and 49 other House members. A likely recipient of this aid would be NITV, a Los Angeles satellite station that beams its programs into Iran 24 hours a day.
"We think what is needed in Iran is not bullets but information about democracy," said Zia Atabay, a former Iranian pop star who is president of NITV and leads one of its news programs. "The United States has to provoke a democratic discussion in Iran."
Atabay's station is the most prominent foreign-based media outlet to Iran, and its views generally represent the 1 million Iranians in the United States, many of whom live in Southern California and went into exile when the monarchy was overthrown in the 1979 revolution.
Many proponents of this approach call it the "Solidarity strategy," likening it to the U.S. aid to the union-led opposition in Poland in the 1980s that eventually succeeded in overthrowing that country's communist regime.
But Iran's opposition has no equivalent to Solidarity, and its political parties, student groups and nongovernmental organizations are divided and in retreat as the government continues a gradual crackdown on dissent.
A more muscular strategy with support in Washington is modeled after Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, the loose coalition of militias that did most of the fighting for the United States in defeating the Taliban in 2001.
The key tool in this strategy is the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, an Iranian guerrilla force that has 4,000 fighters housed in a U.S.-guarded military base north of Baghdad. This group, known as MEK, is supported by some Washington neoconservatives and liberals, as well as by many European lawmakers, but nonetheless has been designated since 1997 as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
The group has suspended its guerrilla activities within Iran since 2001, apparently hoping to improve its international reputation. Its backers hope the administration soon will take the MEK off the terrorist list and give it a green light to resume guerrilla activities in Iran.
"The MEK is very much hoping for a combination of Chalabi and Northern Alliance," said Abbas Milani, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, referring to Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi leader who used his influence with Bush administration conservatives to help build support for invading Iraq. "They want to be picked as foot soldiers and intelligence (operatives) for the United States," Milani said.
The MEK's Paris-based civilian leadership avoids openly appealing for U.S. aid but makes clear that it sees itself as a U.S. ally.
Shahin Gobadi, a member of the foreign relations committee for the MEK's political wing, the National Council for Resistance in Iran, praised Bush's State of the Union speech. "The remarks by Bush were a very necessary and important step for distancing the West from its appeasement of the fascist dictatorship in Iran," he said. "But we hope for further, more practical steps in confronting this regime. We should be freed to help lead the opposition to the mullahs."
Most analysts say the MEK has little support within Iran, mostly limited to professionals and students, and outside Iran it is seen as a cult run by its husband-and-wife leadership, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.
The MEK has been a major source of U.S. intelligence on Iran's alleged nuclear program, producing evidence of clandestine centrifuge production that has proved accurate when checked by U.N. inspectors. Other allegations by the MEK have been proved wrong, however, and experts warn that the Bush administration is making the same mistakes on Iran as it did before leading the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
"There is an eerie similarity to the events preceding the Iraq war," David Kay, who directed the CIA's search for weapons of mass destruction in postwar Iraq, wrote in an op-ed article in Monday's Washington Post. "Now is the time to pause and recall what went wrong with the assessment of Iraq's WMD program and try to avoid repeating those mistakes in Iran."
Kay warned that information from the MEK and other exile sources is untrustworthy, just as Chalabi's Iraq intelligence proved to be.
"Having gone to the Security Council on the basis of flawed evidence to 'prove' Iraq's WMD activities, (the United States) only invites derision to cite unsubstantiated exile reports to 'prove' that Iran is developing nuclear weapons," Kay wrote.
Although pro-American sentiment is relatively widespread among the Iranian people, some analysts and exiles say military attacks by the United States or Israel would provoke a surge of nationalism among Iranians and would allow the clerical regime to gain support.
Atabay said most Iranians in exile want change in Iran, but without bloodshed.
"Most Iranians within the United States are with U.S. policy," he said. "They are against the mullahs, but they don't want war. No Iranians want an invasion, because Iranian young people love America, but if America attacks them, they will turn into the enemy. Why should we have to change our close friends into the enemy?"
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/14/2005 12:43:30 AM ||
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#1
Most Iranians within the United States are with U.S. policy," he said. "They are against the mullahs, but they donât want war. No Iranians want an invasion, because Iranian young people love America, but if America attacks them, they will turn into the enemy.
So the choices are.
(a)Mulacracy with nukes, but the young people love America.
(b)Mulacracy without nukes, but the young people hate America.
That's a hard, hard choice.
#2
Continually threatening America should have consequences. Sorry for the young people - if they tolerate the black hats, then too bad. A mullacracy with nukes should not be acceptable.
#3
"But the administration has not yet presented a clear-cut strategy for dealing with Iran, instead hinting alternately that the solution may be European-led negotiations with Tehran, an Israeli military attack or a rebellion led by the Iranian opposition."
How much more clear do you want? A telegraphed feint to the right with European-led negotiations followed by an Israeli military attack left hook and then a regime ending rebellion led by the Iranian opposition upper cut to the chin. Sounds like a plan to me.
Posted by: Rock ||
02/14/2005 11:45 Comments ||
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Iran rejected a European offer aimed at limiting its nuclear fuel activities and warned Washington against "playing with fire" in an increasingly bellicose standoff between Tehran and the West.
Iran would not give up construction of a heavy-water reactor, which can be used to make nuclear weapons material, in exchange for a light-water reactor offered by the Europeans, foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi insisted.
"We welcome such proposals but we will not under any circumstances replace our heavy-water research reactor," Asefi told a news conference.
"We will continue working on our heavy-water reactor," under construction at Arak southwest of Tehran.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer warned Iran it would be referred to the UN Security Council if Tehran resumed nuclear enrichment.
"If Iran behaves in an unreasonable way, if for example it restarts enrichment... then that would lead to the Security Council," Fischer told an international security conference in Germany.
Asefi was unimpressed.
"We have told the Europeans to tell their American allies not to play with fire and the Europeans received that message perfectly well," he said.
The conservative-controlled parliament has muddied the waters, drawing up draft legislation requiring Iran to produce some of its own nuclear fuel.
Key decisions on Iran's nuclear programme are taken at the highest levels of the regime, but MPs have approved legislation to make a symbolic point. Last October, they passed a bill advocating continued uranium enrichment.
Britain, France and Germany are trying to convince Iran it should dismantle an enrichment programme, which the United States says is part of a covert atomic weapons development, in return for economic and political rewards.
Diplomats said EU negotiators have offered to send a mission to help Tehran obtain a light-water research reactor in what would be the first concrete move towards rewarding it for abandoning uranium enrichment.
But Tehran's stance on the Arak reactor is likely to complicate the European task amid an escalating war of words between Iran and the United States over the clerical regime's nuclear activities.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is purely for civilian energy needs, but the United States -- less than two years after its invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) in March 2003 -- has hinted at the possible use of military force.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) has said an attack is not on the agenda for the time being but has urged Europe to take a tough line with Iran.
"We don't take Rice's threats seriously," Asefi declared.
"Rice and US officials know well Iran's capabilities (of responding)," he added.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that the United States has been flying drones over Iran since April 2004, seeking evidence of nuclear weapons programmes and probing for weaknesses in Iran's air defenses.
The revelation came after the US National Intelligence Council launched a broad review of its classified data on Iran to assess its alleged weapons drive, and its impact on regional and global security.
Tehran insists its talks with the so-called EU3 which began in mid-December, must have concrete results within three months if they are to continue.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani, has acknowledged that if Tehran is referred to the UN Security Council, Iran cannot bank on avoiding sanctions.
"It is unlikely one of the permanent members would use their veto in favor of Iran," he said. Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States are the council's five permanent members.
Iran agreed last November to suspend uranium enrichment but as a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it has the right to enrich for peaceful purposes.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/14/2005 12:27:40 AM ||
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#1
So, we are "playing with fire?" That's getting close to "sea of fire." Maybe the Norks have shipped other things to Iran.
#2
The administration is expecting that, by late spring or summer, the European track will fail
The is no way that the Euro solution/bribe/beg/plead/whine or whatever you care to call it can be considered anything but failed right now. The mullahs are playing for time and the Euro's don't appear to understand that.
Then what? A security council resolution or sanctions? ooooohhhhh.....how very scary for Iran.
At least the rest of the world will end up with another demonstration of how utterly useless and the UN is. Oh, I forgot, a nuclear armed Iran as well.
#3
Joschka Fischer warned Iran it would be referred to the UN Security Council if Tehran resumed nuclear enrichment . . . Asefi was unimpressed.
Come on, I'm sure they're shaking in their sandals over there in Tehran! I mean, it's the Security Council, man! The Security Council!
Posted by: The Doctor ||
02/14/2005 11:28 Comments ||
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JerseyMike-yep, and more. If the European strategy with Iran fails, the consequences are HUGE and we won't let it lie. Every one of us should keep shining the spotlight on our conflicting strategies because they apply to more than Iran.
So much of the current foreign policy rift between the US and Europe grew out of our different approaches in how to handle deadly impasses with malignant Islamic foreign powers. We moved pre-emptively on Iraq because we were unwilling to wait for catastrophe to land on us via Saddam; Europe and the much of the int'l community were willing to wait it out, just as they are now, by favoring soft power strategies. Should the outcome of Iranian nuclear ambition be a nuked-up Iran and the Islamicists remain in power, boasts about soft power working will go straight into the scrap heap of history and responsibility for the increased insecurity of the world will land straight in the lap of the "international community". Those powers that put the people of the whole world at risk because they were too sophisticated to believe in such things as good and evil are going to sound one collective gulp and face more than ridicule from Americans.
#5
"If Iran behaves in an unreasonable way, if for example it restarts enrichment... then that would lead to the Security Council," Fischer told an international security conference in Germany.
Asefi was unimpressed.
Yep, they saw what happened to ol' Saddy when the Security Council got together. More debating, more resolutions, none of which amounted to anything.
There's no reason to believe this time will be any different.
#8
Joschka Fischer warned Iran it would be referred to the UN Security Council if Tehran resumed nuclear enrichment . . . Asefi was unimpressed.
Hey, what do you know? Asefi and I agree on something. We are both unimpressed with Fischer's UNSC threats. Hey, we've made a start on understanding. We both agree that the EU's negotiations will go nowhere. Something to build on.
[/moron optimist rant]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/14/2005 21:45 Comments ||
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An Iranian-backed group, Hizbollah, has threatened to kill Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas if he continues to work for reconciliation with Israel, a British newspaper claimed on Sunday. According to Sunday Telegraph, the threats to Mahmoud Abbas came via Palestinian Hizbollah contacts. The newspaper reports the security forces are taking them "very, very seriously".
"Many groups both here [in Palestine] and outside do not want a ceasefire because a ceasefire means they will be without power," Sunday Telegraph quoted an unnamed Palestinian official as saying. "As in Iraq, a lot of different powers and groups in the region are involved here and are trying to manage the resistance in our territory. Abbas is challenging their power, and so it is a dangerous path for him." Some media reports also indicate that the Palestinian president personally acknowledged that Hizbollah might be after his life during a private meeting with two US senators — Joe Biden and John Sununu — shortly before last month's Palestinian election. "He said the main threat might be less Hamas and more external," Newsweek International recently claimed.
The Palestinian officials have now intercepted e-mail and other correspondence, showing the bank transactions through which Hizbollah provided funds for Palestinian terrorists. According to Sunday Telegraph, Hizbollah operatives in Lebanon have been offering up to $100,000 "to any Palestinian willing to carry out a suicide attack against Israel". Analysts believe Mahmoud Abbas is faced with a formidable challenge of convincing Palestinian militants to halt attacks against Israel and let him try to negotiate an end to the Israeli occupation. His patience was tested when Hamas attacked Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip just two days after his talks in Egypt, making him sack three senior security officials for failing to prevent the violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Hizbollah is Iran by proxy. So Iran wants to assassinate Abbas. This fits in with my prediction Abu Mazen toes up with in 6 months.
#2
Where does Abbas have the resources and the loyalty to rein in Hizb'Allah and Hamas? He may have some support from the US with a wad of money, but who is going to go in and kick some serious terrorist ass? He's doomed, doomed, I tell ya. Nothing will happen until the terrorists are reined in, and that will not happen until the Paleos are tired of this suicide bomber crap and start ratting out the terrorist cells. Pigs will fly before that happens.
[/Pessimistic but realistic rant]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/14/2005 1:45 Comments ||
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Analysts believe Mahmoud Abbas is faced with a formidable challenge of convincing Palestinian militants to halt attacks against Israel and let him try to negotiate an end to the Israeli occupation.
#4
Abbas' problem is more fundamental. There is no Paleo state to control. The UN, Israel and a bunch of external charities run most stuff. All Abbas has is control of the money stream (I assume) and some security outfits of dubious loyalty. Unless and until he controls security there is no Paleo de facto government and I don't see how one happens without disarming Hamas etc and I don't see how disarming occurs without a shooting (civil) war which Abbas would almost certainly lose in Gaza without outside intervention. That is if he lives long enough to try.
#6
If Abbas were to actually negotiate with the Zionist entity then there would be peace and we wouldn't be able to kill jooooos. That's unislamic. Abbas the infidel must die.
#8
ok..now I feel bad for saying that. If indeed Abbas is attempting to move the Palestinian's forward, mind boggling though that may be, I wish him all the success in the world.
#10
its all about the Iranian empire folks. Teheran has a more or less loyal client in Syria. Though Lebanon is Syrias client, through Hezbollah Iran exerts direct influence over Lebanon, influence that has grown since the Israeli withdrawl. Iran is still struggling to make tangible gains in Iraq from the fall of Saddam. They tried to gain control of Herat, Afghanistan, but Karzai outmaneuvered them. Supporting Pal rejectionists is there way of asserting influence over West Bank and Gaza - and less directly, over Lebanon and Jordan as well.
Pals factions have always been playthings for outsiders. Historically PLO was Nassers, although Arafat gave some independence vis a vis arab states. Certainly that play hasnt ended. Abbas is aligned more with Egypt and Jordan. With Iraq gone, and KSA being more careful, the extremists look to Syrian and Iran.
Either Wally Jumblatt or Professor Irwin Corey, I'm not sure which.
The Ain al-Tineh gathering of government and Syrian supporters is gaining momentum ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections, with Syrian loyalists accusing opposition members calling for the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 of treason on Friday. Justice Minister Adnan Addoum on Friday accused the opposition of overstepping the limits of Resolution 1559 by "making the wrong bets and plucking courage from foreign powers."
The U.S.-backed resolution mainly calls for the withdrawal of Syria's 14,000 troops from Lebanon and the disarmament of Hizbullah. During a news conference, Addoum cautioned against derailing the Lebanese-Syrian track, "a situation that could lead to the isolation of Lebanon to strike a peace deal with Israel."
Replying to opposition member Chouf MP Walid Jumblatt, who described participants of the Ain al-Tineh meeting held earlier this week at Speaker Nabih Berri's official residence as "puppets," Addoum said that "puppets are those executing the orders of foreign powers and not those defending the Lebanese cause." Earlier in the day Addoum discussed with Labor Minister Assem Qanso the legal proceedings against the Progressive Socialist Party, led by Jumblatt, on charges of undermining relations between Beirut and Damascus by accusing the Baath Party of assassinating his father, Kamal Jumblatt. Addoum said that the State Prosecutor's Office will study the case and, should it find evidence to support the lawsuit, a letter will be addressed to Parliament to deprive Jumblatt of his parliamentary immunity. "The case is purely legal and not based on political considerations," Addoum added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
It looks like the late comedian Marty Feldman doing an impersonation of 'Detective Sipowicz' from NYPD Blue.
#2
That is Jumblatt. A historical note: He was directly responsible from the deaths of thousands of Christians in the Chouf and by current definitions certainly a war criminal.
#3
Uh, oh. Is that a red binder he's holding? [insert mysterious musical bridge here] Hard to tell - the reds in the image seem muted, Jumblatt looks like an alky with the red nose intentionally subdued, so maybe... I wondered where it would end up after Arafish's demise...
During his sermon delivered at Al-Imamayn al-Hassanayn in Haret Hreik, in the presence of several religious, social and political figures on Friday, Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said Lebanon is a bargaining card used by powerful countries in order to exert pressures on Syria. Fadlallah said the country is going through a period of "political chaos full of sectarian positions," which will lead to the failure of democracy and liberty: "The sectarian speeches delivered by some officials in the name of democracy and liberty will lead to the failure of these principles."
Fadlallah added that the U.S. is using Lebanon to exert pressure on Syria and to achieve its interests through that strategy. "Everyone knows that 'international arrogance' is seeking to achieve its own interests and not Lebanese interests, and is using Lebanon as a bargaining card to exert pressure on another country in the framework of its strategy to exert pressure on the whole region."
This article starring:
MOHAMED HUSEIN FADLALLAH
Learned Elders of Islam
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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United States Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, called on Washington to strongly support Europe`s ongoing nuclear and political talks with Iran. "The United States needs to vigorously support European leadership on this issue but our friends must also realize that no deal will be worthwhile unless it includes a verifiable monitoring regime," McCain said Saturday evening in his address to the 41st Munich Conference on Security Policy. The EU has vainly called on the US to play a more active role in the sensitive nuclear negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran. America has so far ruled out direct political and security talks with Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Hey, the EU is doing great. Why should we (the Great Satan) help? The MMs have repeatedly stated "Death to America." We do not have much to talk to them about. But in the spirit of humanity and brotherhood, we send Valentine's Day greetings to our friends the Iranians through the Swiss Embassy. Have a nice day.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/14/2005 1:50 Comments ||
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McCain can't just STFU. I wonder what demographic he thinks he's appealing to - and which one he feesl he can afford to alienate with this bit of stupidity... Jumping on a ship which is sinking fast. Yep, he's a brilliant tactician. Wotta guy.
#3
what McCain says above is precisely admin policy - though we may be supporting the EU3 more vigorously than some in the EU3 would like - I we're supporting them to be tough.
#4
Lh - 10 days ago, it was. Not today. Even the SF Chronicle story today almost gets it.
Every day we have another story from Rafsanjani, or Khomeini, or toothless Khatami, or some Iran FM spokeswinkie and the message has been clear for weeks. now: we ain't gonna abide by no E3 thingy. Period. In every way they can think of to say it, this is what they've said. We get it. I'll bet that even ol Dubya gets it.
Well, Dr Rice went out of her way last week at the NATO thingy to toughen up the statements, saying that we would not join the E3 and that since those efforts were failing, then other options would have to be considered.
Even Tony Blair's backing off because it's clear to anyone who cares to look and listen that Iran is not going to play nice. They even turned down the light water reactor, cuz it won't yield plutonium... so even an E3 member decided to publicly "get it".
Now ol Johnny, he loves a headline. And he loves the spotlight. And, most of all, he loves ol Johnny. I'd bet a Steak at Ruth's Chris that he was not acting in any White House capacity at this conference. The reasons are two-fold, I'm sure. First, he's an asshole and Bush would not be interested in letting him play himself up to kick off his 2008 posturing. Second, they would not, today, use the words "vigorous" or "support" and the E3 effort in the same sentence. It has changed - to keep up with reality. Remember, this isn't any surprise to anyone - it's diplo-bullshit so that the boxes can be checked off along the way.
Bush & Co are flowing with events. Checking off the boxes as they go. A month ago, we were happy to let the E3 play their hand - and say we backed it if asked by the MSM. Then came the Inauguration Address, where Bush made it pointedly clear that we were ready to leave that dead stinking skunk on the road, cuz the Iranians had killed it - and offer directly to the Persian people our support should they decide to act.
So yeah, we had that position when it made sense, Now, when it doesn't, we don't - ol Johnny was just polishing his knob in public. Next will be the UNSC. Then will come the vote - and we'll see about Russia and China, in particular.
Then, all boxes checked, something else will happen.
Remember UAV's, we've just found out, have been overflying Iran for a YEAR. Sounds like the minute they had any to spare in Afghanistan and Iraq, they were sent over Iranian territory.
So ol Johnny need to keep up a little better. At least keep up with Hillary - who is probably the chameleon of the century.
That's what I meant by ol' Johnny should STFU. K?
BTW, his backyard thug-push style is no match for Rummy's eye-plucker or his 5-strike exploding heart punch. Rumor has it that he's drilling Condi hard everyday. She's likely to be a Rumfu Master before summer.
#10
Some one should tell McCain that the Hokey Pokey is not a Rumfu move.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/14/2005 14:37 Comments ||
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#11
Hokey Pokey, Lol! Perfect, Mrs D! I couldn't come up with anything nearly that clever when the situation demanded, lol! And indeed, it is no match for Rumfu!
#12
Yes the Iranians are defying and embarassing the EU3 - that doesnt mean the admin has withdrawn verbal support for them - this is all the more time to support them verbally, with the IMPLICATION that the logical result of the EU3 process is referall to the UNSC if Iran doesnt play - AFAICT thats still condis enunciated policy, and theres no space between it and what McCain said above.
Iranians need to hear that if they are unwilling to take the deal, really, that the Europeans are giving ... then the Security Council referral looms," she said. "I don't know that anyone has said that as clearly as they should to the Iranians."
IE what i meany by she is supporting the EU process more vigorously than the EU themselves - the logical result of the EU process is UNSC referall, NOT endless negotiation, even if some EU states themselves wont yet acknowledge this. Thats my read of both the Rice statement AND the McCain statement. Which are aligned. QED.
#14
Lol, Lh! You dig up the quote that proves the first point of my statement that they are NOT the same, then claim they are. You have a long lunch, today?
Ol Johnny and Dr Rice are not on the same page, as the quote makes quite clear. The E3 won't be pushing the referral to the UNSC. It's clear Blair has given up - he may join in, but it will be the US proposing the UNSC take up the matter, possibly with the UK supporting and, one hopes Germany right there with us. France will be aloof, methinks.
#15
support Blair vigorously, talk to Schroeder in private, and ignore the French, for now. The Iranians do the rest of the work, isolating Chirac from the other Euros. And the French want to keep a stake in Lebanon, non? Where somebody important just bought the farm. Wheels within wheels, i suspect.
Parliament will oblige Iran`s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) to produce part of the nuclear fuel needed for the country`s reactors, a senior nuclear energy official announced here Sunday. According to the IAEO`s deputy head for international affairs and planning, Mohammad Saeedi, parliament will present a bill to `task Iran`s Atomic Energy Organization with meeting part of the fuel for the country`s atomic plants`. "As repeatedly announced by the country`s authorities, including the president, Iran`s planning is such that it will conclude (construction) of its atomic plants and meet part of their fuel supply within the country," he told IRNA.
This will mark Tehran`s rejection of the Europeans` efforts to persuade Iran on permanent suspension of uranium enrichment in their negotiations. Iran agreed last November to suspend uranium enrichment under an agreement reached in Paris with Britain, France and Germany, which represent the European Union, in exchange for trade, technology and security incentives. Uranium enrichment is allowed under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which Iran is a signatory, and the country wants it as part of its efforts to master a nuclear fuel cycle. Earlier Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi insisted that Iran would not give up construction of a heavy-water reactor in exchange for a light-water reactor offered by the Europeans. Saeedi said, "Iran`s planning is also such that it takes the issue of suspension of uranium enrichment out of the negotiations context."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Wow, illustration looks like the olde Frog Muesum.
Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew urged Lebanese resistance group Hizbullah to eschew violence amid growing hopes for a Middle East peace in the wake of this week's Sharm el-Sheik summit. His plea comes hard on the heels of international calls for the armed militants to abide by the cease-fire agreed between PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon.
Following a meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud, Pettigrew said: "Canada fully supports Security Council Resolution 1559 and Hizbullah should "recognize that violence is not a way to make the negotiations progress." He added: "The well-being of the Palestinian people is dependent on the efforts that have been undertaken by Mahmoud Abbas and Canada wishes to be a larger player in bringing about peace to the Middle East."
Pettigrew, who is on a five-leg tour of the Middle East, arrived in Beirut late Thursday night from Palestine. He is expected to leave Saturday for Damascus, where he hopes to conclude his Middle East tour with a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Israel has said Hizbullah is the biggest threat to the current Middle East peace negotiations after it was accused of supporting militant groups in Palestine. But the group's deputy secretary general, Sheikh Naim Qassem, denied Hizbullah was involved in any activity outside Lebanese territories. Speaking during a radio interview, Qassem said: "The Palestinians inside the occupied land are the ones to decide if they would accept the truce or not, and Hizbullah has nothing to do with this." He added that although Hizbullah supports the Palestinian fight to regain their occupied land, "we have nothing to do with their activities."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Let the Canadian FM work on the NHL impasse and leave Hizbullah to the big boys.
#2
Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew urged Lebanese resistance group Hizbullah to eschew violence amid growing hopes for a Middle East peace in the wake of this week's Sharm el-Sheik summit.
#3
No tell the Canadian FM to send some NHL enforcers over there and get their attention, eh.
(All due respect to the fine members of the CAF.) FM Pettigrew will be treated politely but he really needs to just STFU. The MM's are playing him and his Transnational Socialist buddies Blair, Schroeder and, Chirac for fools.
PIKEVILLE, Ky.
A North Carolina-based Marine whose battle-grimed face became a symbol of the fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah last year has returned to his home in Kentucky. Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller arrived at Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Jan. 29 with Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. He came home to the town of Jonancy in Pike County for a three-week visit on Friday, arriving without fanfare. "He wouldn't let me tell anyone," said his mother, Maxie Webber. "No signs, no balloons, no nothing. He said 'I'm not a hero.'"
A photograph of Miller, taken by a Los Angeles Times photographer and transmitted by The Associated Press, was in more than 100 newspapers and shown on network television. Miller, 20, was shown with camouflage paint smudged on his face, a bloody scratch on his nose and a cigarette drooping from the side of his mouth. He was exhausted and grimy after more than 12 hours of nonstop fighting.
Miller, a graduate of Shelby Valley High School, would agree to only one interview, which aired Tuesday on the CBS Early Show. Webber said her son wants to spend his leave with his family, rather than rehashing the painful memories of war. "I lost a few of some of my dearest friends," Miller said. "And people don't understand how you can be so close to someone that you've only known for such a short time. But when you spend a year and a half with someone, you know some things about them their own family doesn't even know about." Miller still is smoking, though he is considering dropping the habit. "I actually made a bet with some guys that if I made it out of Fallujah alive, I'd quit," he said.
Islamic Action Organization In Iraq Central Direction 43,205 votes 0.51% 1 seat
Kurdistan Alliance List (Talibani) 2,175,551 25.73% 75
Unified Iraq Coalition (Sistani) 4,075,295 48.19% 142
Tukman Iraq Front 93,480 1.11% 3
Al Rafideen National List (Assyrian Christian) 36,255 0.43% 1
Iraqis (al-Yawer) 150,680 1.78% 5
National Democratic Alliance 36,795 0.44% 1
Islamic Group of Kurdistan Iraq 60,592 0.72% 2
Iraqi List (Allawi) 1,168,943 13.82% 40
Liberation and Reconciliation Gathering 30,796 0.36 1
Nation Union (Commies) 69,920 0.83% 2
National Independent Cadres and Elites 69,938 0.83% 2
All Others 444,816 5.26% 0
Violence by tribal insurgents in the province of Balochistan has been setting alarm bells ringing in Pakistan. The son of one of Balochistan's tribal leaders here sets out his fears for the future of the province. Violence in Balochistan recently prompted tough-talking President Pervez Musharraf to warn Baloch tribesmen to stop fighting or "they will not know what hit them". He was probably referring to his army's newly acquired hi-tech weaponry - such as night vision attack helicopters - given by the US to help eliminate Islamist militants on Pakistan's western border.
Gen Musharraf's threatening tirade, however, has had the opposite effect. Almost overnight, even the few pro-military urbanized Baloch have turned against the general's jingoistic philosophy. The reason for this transformation lies deep within Baloch culture. [snip]
Many now believe that the 78 year-old Nawab of the Bugtis is not unhappy with the idea of dying in a blaze of immortal Baloch glory. If he should die in a clash with the army then tough-talking Gen Musharraf could be in deep trouble.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A test of the national missile defense system failed Monday when an interceptor missile did not launch from its island base in the Pacific Ocean, the military said. It was the second failure in months for the experimental program. A statement from the Missile Defense Agency said the cause of the failure was under investigation.
A spokesman for the agency, Rick Lehner, said the early indications was that there was a malfunction with the ground support equipment at the test range on Kwajalein Island, not with the interceptor missile itself. If verified, that would be a relief for program officials because it would mean no new problems had been discovered with the missile. Previous failures of these high-profile, $85 million test launches have been regarded as significant setbacks by critics of the program.
Even if they suceeded, the critics would declare it a failure
In Monday's test, the interceptor missile was to target a mock ICBM fired from Kodiak Island, Alaska. The target missile launched at 1:22 a.m. Monday EST without any problems, but the interceptor did not launch.
The previous test, on Dec. 15, failed under almost identical circumstances. The target missile launched, but the interceptor did not. Military officials later blamed that failure on fault-tolerance software that was oversensitive to small errors in the flow of data between the missile and a flight computer. The software shut down the launch; officials said they would decrease the sensitivity in future launches.
A non-launch failure is a good thing. Much easier to trouble shoot than a in-flight accident.
Before the Dec. 15 launch, it had been two years since a test. The program had gone five-for-eight in previous attempts to intercept a target. No date for the next test has been announced. It is unclear how continued test failures would affect two experimental interceptor bases in Alaska and California.
Those two bases, Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., are positioned to oppose the threat of attack from North Korea. Both are still classified as experimental but, officials say, they could fire interceptors in an emergency. The Pentagon has not declared those bases "operational," but officials say they would work anyway once certain mechanical blocks are removed from the interceptors themselves. Six interceptors are at the Alaska site, with two more in California as a backup. Up to 10 more will go into silos in Alaska this year, officials say.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/14/2005 11:08:35 AM ||
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The stealth program took up over a decade and tens of billions of dollars - and all it did was enable the Air Force to bomb (or nuke) enemy cities with impunity - a functional we already had via ballistic missiles and submarine- or ship-launched cruise missiles. Given that the point of this project is to prevent tens of millions of our people from being incinerated, it is worth quite a bit more than tens of billions of dollars to get it right.
#2
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the system. Like all other complex systems, it has lots of teething problems that need to be worked out.
AMRAAM was nearly cancelled in the mid-80s, as it looked like it would never work. The XB-17, XB-29, XP-38 (and maybe others) all crashed. The M-16 had a disastrous debut in 'Nam.
[I happen to work at a major sub-contractor for this thing, but I work on a different program.]
February 13, 2005: The U.S. Air Force is buying fifteen more MQ-1 Predator UAVs, as well as 140 Hellfire missiles to be used on them for hunter-killer missions. Predator has proved to be particularly effective at hunting enemy troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other areas where terrorists are being sought. But the air force does not have enough Predators (only 58 are in service now) to fill all the requests.
The air force is also spending nearly eight million dollars to get the Viper Strike weapon working on the Predator. Viper Strike is a 36 inch long unpowered glider. The 130mm diameter (with the wings folded) weapon weighs 44 pounds. Because the Viper Strike comes straight down, it is better suited for urban warfare. Its warhead only contains four pounds of explosives, meaning less damage to nearby civilians, while still powerful and accurate enough to destroy its target. A laser designator makes the Viper Strike accurate enough to hit an automobile, or a foxhole. Moreover, a Predator can carry two Viper Strikes in place of a single, hundred pound, Hellfire missile.
The air force is eager to get Predators everywhere the army, marines or SOCOM wants them. This is because all of those people are also developing UAVs that can carry Viper Strike, and day/night vidcams. If the air force loses demand for its services, it loses money to buy new aircraft, and hire more people.
And we can't have that happen
Posted by: Steve ||
02/14/2005 10:43:05 AM ||
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Interesting. Since they don't have pilots, I would figure the pilot mafia would fight against them, just as it's hard to get the Navy to buy Mines.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer agreed in a meeting last Wednesday to investigate the possibility of purchasing Palestinian natural gas from offshore drilling performed by British Gas off the coast of the Gaza Strip.
In exchange, Israel would provide electricity and water to Palestinians, something Israel provides in any case.
British Gas, which owns the rights to natural gas reserves near Gaza, is asking to sell natural gas in Israel at a value of $3.5 billion. If there is an agreement between Israel and British Gas to buy the Palestinian gas, the company will lay a pipeline from the drilling sites to the Ashkelon coast.
The infrastructure minister said at the meeting that the thawing of relations with the Palestinians, as well as progress since last week's summit at Sharm el-Sheikh, allows the government to reconsider its decision not to buy gas from Gaza.
It appears that Sharon has not rejected the proposal out of hand.
An Infrastructure Ministry spokesperson said that Ben-Eliezer's proposal had indeed been discussed at the meeting last week. The Prime Minister's Office was not available for comment.
Posted by: tipper ||
02/14/2005 2:05:45 AM ||
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Hamas and Hizb'Allah will consider the gas infrastructure a target if Israel has anything to do with it. Of course, if Abbas could reason with them, everything may be ok...
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/14/2005 10:58 Comments ||
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Those guys are always more reasonable when they're dead or in jail. I hope Abbas's strategy is to ensure Israeli support in achieving that end.
The new Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, said in an interview this weekend that the war with the Israelis is effectively over and that the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is speaking "a different language" to the Palestinians. Mr. Sharon's commitment to withdraw from Gaza and dismantle all Israeli settlements there and four in the West Bank, despite "how much pressure is on him from the Israeli Likud rightists," Mr. Abbas said, "is a good sign to start with" on the road to real peace.
"And now he has a partner," Mr. Abbas said.
In a 40-minute interview in his Gaza office late on Saturday night, Mr. Abbas spoke with pride about persuading the radical groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to respect the mutual declaration of a truce that he and Mr. Sharon announced last Tuesday at their first meeting, in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, which was the highest-level meeting between Israelis and Palestinians in four years.
Mr. Abbas said the war with the Israelis would be over "when the Israelis declare that they will comply with the agreement I made in Sharm el Sheik, and today our comrades in Hamas and Jihad said they are committed to the truce, the cooling down of the whole situation, and I believe we will start a new era."
In the interview with The New York Times, his first with a Western news organization since he was elected president of the Palestinian Authority five weeks ago, on Jan. 9, Mr. Abbas spoke with confidence and humor in nearly fluent English. He also spoke of several developments.
Hamas made a commitment to him to run in the July elections for the Palestinian legislature, continuing the group's "conversion into a political party."
Mr. Abbas fired nine senior police and security officials in Gaza and was prepared to fire more if they did not get "the first message" that they are to enforce his cease-fire.
He set the release of Palestinian prisoners as his first priority, and said it would be a measure of how much tensions have eased in the West Bank and Gaza.
He rejected any idea of a sovereign Palestinian state in temporary borders before a final settlement.
The Americans were talking to him "in a very helpful way," and he hoped the Bush administration would deliver on its promises of political and economic aid.
At nearly 70, he expected to retire after one term of five years.
Mr. Abbas wants progress to continue so that the two sides can move quickly to political discussions about the road map, a diplomatic process meant to lead to tackling the most difficult issues that have deeply stymied both sides: questions of final borders, refugees, Jerusalem and now, "President Bush's initiative about a democratic Palestinian state," Mr. Abbas said.
While he is happy to coordinate Israel's withdrawal from Gaza with Mr. Sharon, he says, the Palestinians need a political horizon looking toward a real state. At their meeting in Sharm el Sheik, Mr. Sharon made many positive commitments, Mr. Abbas said, offering to form a joint committee to discuss releasing the 200 or so Palestinian prisoners held since before the 1993 Oslo accords, and the pullback of the Israeli military in the West Bank and the reopening of Gaza's seaport.
Israel acted further on Sunday to improve relations by agreeing to release 500 prisoners.
Mr. Sharon also spoke "about the Palestinian independent democratic state" and "about the occupation, never to be an occupier anymore," Mr. Abbas said. "So on all these things he was positive, but what we want to know is the implementation on the ground."
Asked about his first priority, Mr. Abbas was quick and explicit. "Prisoners, prisoners are our priority, and we told everyone about it," he said, from the American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, to President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. "The situation will be stabilized and will cool down in Gaza and the West Bank" to the degree that Mr. Sharon "helps us to release the prisoners," Mr. Abbas said. The Palestinian Authority says Israel holds nearly 8,000 Palestinians, but the Israeli government has had fierce debates about whether to release Palestinians held for attacks against Israelis, with Mr. Sharon expressing public understanding of Mr. Abbas's need to show Palestinians quick benefits from the new quiet.
But Mr. Abbas then wants to move quickly to political discussions with Mr. Sharon about carrying out the road map. He said he would be happy to coordinate Israel's withdrawal from Gaza with Mr. Sharon, but said the Palestinians need a political horizon looking toward a real state.
Although the road map mentions the option of declaring a sovereign "Palestinian state within provisional borders" while talks continue about a final settlement, Mr. Abbas said, "If it is up to me, I will reject it." Palestinians will see an interim solution as a trap, replacing a final settlement, and "peace will not prevail anymore in the region," he said.
"So it's better for us and for the Israelis to go directly to final status," he said. "I told Mr. Sharon that it's better for both sides to establish this back channel to deal with final status and go in parallel with the stages of the road map."
What did Mr. Sharon say, Mr. Abbas was asked. He laughed. "He didn't respond," he said. "But we'll talk more about it. Maybe he didn't like it. We have to repeat it more and more in our ongoing negotiations."
Less than a month after he took office on Jan. 15, Mr. Abbas spoke with surprising optimism. The Israelis say he started slowly and timidly, and then has done better, showing more courage when challenged. Mr. Abbas contends much has been accomplished, given the deterioration of the Palestinian Authority under Yasir Arafat, "but we can't negotiate everything in 10 days."
With his upbeat mood, he may be trying to instill hope in the Palestinians, who, as he says, "are observing, and they see progress, and they are happy with it, but they want more."
"They want job creation, they want to eat, and they want security," he said.
But Mr. Abbas will undoubtedly face serious challenges from Hamas and other radicals, whose support may be tactical, and some of whom want him dead.
Mr. Abbas said he was surprised that the armed militants, many wanted by Israel, embraced his candidacy. "All the fugitives came to me from all factions and said: 'We are for you. You were with us, and we want you to solve our problems,' " he said. They want real jobs in the security forces of the Palestinian Authority "and to be secure from Israeli assassination and attacks," he said. "I promised them, and now it is realized."
Was the armed intifada of the last four and a half years a mistake? "We cannot say it was a mistake," he said. "But any war will have an end. And what is the end? To sit around the table and talk. And they realize that this is the time to come to the table and talk and negotiate."
Asked if Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are labeled terrorist organizations by the United States, want what he wants, he laughed and said: "No, of course they don't want what I want! They want to come to power if they can. For that they ran in municipal elections and after that they will go" to the legislative elections. "And if they win, of course they want power. And it is their right. It is the competition" of democracy.
Asked about Hamas's recent victories in local elections in 7 of the 10 cities and villages in Gaza, Mr. Abbas said: "This is democracy. We have to congratulate Hamas and say, 'O.K., you won.' Why not?" His own mainstream Fatah faction made many mistakes, he said. The vote "is a good lesson for Fatah to realize its position toward this and that and prepare themselves for the coming elections" for Parliament on July 17.
Fatah is already working to renew itself and bring in a younger generation "in parallel" with preparations for the elections, Mr. Abbas said, including work to form a new government, expected within the next week. Some in Fatah worry that Hamas could win more a substantial share of the vote, and Mr. Abbas is negotiating a new law with Hamas about how much proportional representation, which Hamas favors, will be used to elect legislators.
Mr. Abbas argued that democracy would help tame the radicals. "Of course they should be converted into a political party," he said. "It's good for us. We're talking about national unity."
He said he was not bothered that Hamas could construe the acceptance of Israel merely as a stage toward a Palestinian state, to be followed by a renewed desire to eliminate Israel. "Whether they consider it a stage or not, they will accept an Israeli state within the 1967 borders and they declare it," he said. "For me it is not a stage; for them it is a stage - O.K."
The Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, speaking for the right, has said that a cease-fire is not enough, and is just a "ticking bomb" until Mr. Abbas confronts and dismantles Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Mr. Abbas rejected the argument, but not entirely, saying: "If he will put preconditions, it will not work. It will not start. We say, 'We are now in a truce. Let's strengthen it, let us work to stabilize the whole situation.' Now Hamas and Jihad are running for the elections, and what does it mean? It means that they will be converted in time into political parties."
Mr. Abbas, who will be 70 on March 26, is a refugee, and says he will insist on the right of Palestinian refugees, under United Nations Resolution 194 of 1948, "to return back or to be compensated." But he says he is willing to negotiate this, as all other matters, with the Israelis.
"I don't think the Israelis have the right to say, 'No, we won't discuss it,' " he said. "We will ask them to discuss this resolution, and when we come to an agreement, on anything, of course we will accept it."
Mr. Abbas was born in Safed, in what was then British Mandate Palestine. He was 13 in 1948, during the Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel's establishment as a state. "I remember everything," he said. "It was 1948 when we have been deported from Safed to the Golan Heights to Damascus, and I remember every specific point," he said. "There was a war. We had to leave the city. The Israelis invaded the city, the Haganah at the time. We left our country."
With Safed in Israeli hands, Mr. Abbas said, he could not return until 1995, after the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization were allowed to return to the territories after the 1993 Oslo accords. He wanted to go sooner, but the mayor of Safed organized demonstrations against the visit, he said.But in 1995, "I did go back, but secretly," he said. "The Israeli Ministry of Interior helped me to go discreetly there." He stopped, his face suddenly softer. "I was there for 5 or 10 minutes only," he said. "I was very, very sad. I was very sad."
He looked off toward the far wall, then continued, "Every place, every quarter, every building I remember. I saw my house. But I didn't go inside."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/14/2005 12:32:16 AM ||
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My surprise meter is pegging. What's going on here?
#7
talking the talk, in english. necessary, but not sufficient. Theres some improvement in the arabic talk, from what i understand - walking the walk is still at baby steps, but thats better than under Arafat. Trust but verify, like the man said.
Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may be hiding out in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, local police sources said on Saturday, days after the interim government said it was hot on his trail.
"He came to Kirkuk from Mosul," a source in the Kirkuk police department said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "There's a possibility that he might be captured at any moment."
There was no immediate comment from U.S. or Iraqi officials on the report that Zarqawi had moved to Kirkuk.
Iraqi officials have claimed in the past to be close to capturing the elusive militant, who has been behind many of the deadliest attacks in Iraq over the past year, including the kidnapping and beheading of several foreign hostages.
Iraq's interior minister said this month that Iraqi security forces were tracking Zarqawi and had recently come close to capturing him, missing him by only a few hours.
"We are following him," Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib told Pentagon reporters from Baghdad. "I think we missed him twice or three times, but hopefully next time we will be able to capture him."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/14/2005 12:24:39 AM ||
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Same story also in the UK's Observer newspaper yesterday.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
02/14/2005 9:41 Comments ||
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Kirkuk is the wrong place for this guy - the Kurds know that area, and thats where Z's bombers are most unwelcome excpet by the Sunni bandits who were moved there by Saddam in an attempt to ethnically cleanse the area by displacing Kurds.
If the Kurds do capture Zarqawi, do not expect him to arrive in Baghdad for questioning with all his fingers and toes, nor with his eyes and eardrums and genetalia intact. He will be nice and psychologically broken, saving the Iraqi central government that particular chore.
#4
--If the Kurds do capture Zarqawi, do not expect him to arrive in Baghdad for questioning with all his fingers and toes, nor with his eyes and eardrums and genetalia intact. He will be nice and psychologically broken, saving the Iraqi central government that particular chore.--
#7
Not quite, phil_b; he's using Kirkuk as a "safe house" hoping to hide under the noses of the relatively peaceful Kurds, knowing the US won't rush into an arbitrary attack there! This could be an indication that his trail is heating up, perhaps only by a few hours ahead of the dogs sniffing him out!
#9
Kirkuk is the wrong place for this guy - the Kurds know that area, and thats where Z's bombers are most unwelcome excpet by the Sunni bandits who were moved there by Saddam in an attempt to ethnically cleanse the area by displacing Kurds.
If the Kurds do capture Zarqawi, do not expect him to arrive in Baghdad for questioning with all his fingers and toes, nor with his eyes and eardrums and genetalia intact. He will be nice and psychologically broken, saving the Iraqi central government that particular chore.
#10
Kirkuk is the wrong place for this guy - the Kurds know that area, and thats where Z's bombers are most unwelcome excpet by the Sunni bandits who were moved there by Saddam in an attempt to ethnically cleanse the area by displacing Kurds.
If the Kurds do capture Zarqawi, do not expect him to arrive in Baghdad for questioning with all his fingers and toes, nor with his eyes and eardrums and genetalia intact. He will be nice and psychologically broken, saving the Iraqi central government that particular chore.
The good news out of Iraq on Sunday: Election results, after two long weeks of counting, confirmed a large turnout. Despite insurgents' threats, 8.5 million Iraqis, 58% of eligible voters, cast ballots.
The better news: The cleric-led Shiite group dominated, as expected, but fell well short of the two-thirds majority needed to control parliament. So it will have to work with other groups.
Therein lies the key to Iraq's stability — and the hoped-for U.S. withdrawal.
The test for Iraq's new government is not how much it looks like the U.S. Even Vice President Cheney now concedes that it won't. It is whether the Shiites can create a secular, representative government stable enough for the U.S. to withdraw but not leave behind a terrorist haven.
Signs were promising after the vote count was completed Sunday. Shiite leaders went out of their way to assure the country's minorities that they would have a place in the new government. But the path ahead is challenging, particularly among Sunnis, 20% of the population.
Sunday's results confirmed that unlike the Shiites and Kurds, the Sunnis barely voted. They have only a handful of seats in the new 275-member assembly. They are angry at losing the power they enjoyed for decades under Saddam Hussein and others. And they are the insurgency's main supporters.
The Shiites have to convince Sunnis they won't use their new power to exact revenge for past torments. Most immediately, they have to find imaginative ways to include Sunnis in the next steps that will lay the foundation for the new Iraq — choosing leaders, drafting an inclusive constitution.
That process will begin almost immediately as political groups horse-trade in choosing leaders endorsed by the new parliament. Will a Sunni get one of the top jobs? Will Sunnis get key advisory posts even though they weren't elected?
Before the elections, Shiites in the victorious group promised to follow top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. He envisages a secular government guided by Islamic principles, not a repressive theocracy as in neighboring Shiite Iran. But other ayatollahs have made worrisome statements about a government guided by Islamic law.
For the Sunnis, meanwhile, the choice is whether to continue to be spoilers and fan the insurgency. Or be coaxed, as some Sunni leaders want, into the government. Much depends on how the Shiites handle them.
The U.S. has little to say about any of this, but the stakes could not be higher.
Success could drive a wedge between the Sunni and al-Qaeda elements of the insurgency, leading to more stability for Iraqis and an exit for Americans. Failure could produce civil war or ally Iraq with Iran.
For now, though, the news could not be much more encouraging.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/14/2005 12:07:15 AM ||
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A Shi'ite Islamist bloc won Iraq's first election since Saddam Hussein's overthrow, sealing the political resurgence of the long-oppressed majority but leaving the restive Sunni Arab minority in the cold.
The Electoral Commission said on Sunday the Shi'ite list, known as the United Iraqi Alliance, took around 48 percent of the vote. But that was less than the bloc had predicted and leaves it six or seven seats short of a majority in parliament.
A powerful Kurdish alliance came second with 25 percent, while a grouping led by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi'ite, came third with nearly 14 percent.
Few Sunni Arabs took part in the Jan. 30 voting, which means the minority that has traditionally ruled modern Iraq and held a privileged position under Saddam, a Sunni, will have just a handful of National Assembly seats and little political clout.
That could stoke the insurgency in Iraq which is being fought mainly by Sunni Arab guerrillas who want to drive out U.S.-led troops and overthrow the American-backed government.
The commission said 8.55 million Iraqis, or 58 percent of registered voters, cast ballots in the Jan. 30 poll, Iraq's first multi-party election for half a century. The number of valid votes was around 8.45 million.
In Washington, President Bush congratulated the Iraqi people "for defying terrorist threats and setting their country on the path of democracy and freedom."
The national vote was for a 275-member National Assembly that must agree on a president and two vice-presidents by a two-thirds majority. Those three officials will then agree on a prime minister and cabinet, and their choices must be approved by a majority in the assembly.
Sunni Arab turnout was low. Only two percent of eligible voters in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province cast ballots, and only 29 percent in the mainly Sunni Salahadin province. Sunnis make up about 20 percent of Iraq's 27 million people.
The main Sunni Arab group in the assembly will probably be a bloc led by President Ghazi al-Yawar, although it is set to have only around five seats. A secular party led by Sunni elder statesmen Adnan Pachachi looked unlikely to win any seats.
"The image of Iraq that these results suggest is not real. That is obvious," Pachachi told Reuters.
In another sign of tensions ahead, Kurds in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk erupted in celebrations after results showed them well ahead in the provincial vote -- an outcome that will anger Arabs and Turkmen, who also lay claim to the city.
With no bloc gaining dominance on its own, there has already been furious horse-trading to try to strike deals.
The United Iraqi Alliance insists that one of its candidates -- probably current Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi or Vice President Ibrahim Jaafari -- be appointed prime minister.
The Kurds want their candidate, Jalal Talabani, to be president or prime minister. Under one scenario, the two blocs could do a deal with a Shi'ite candidate getting the prime minister's job and Talabani the presidency.
But Allawi, who visited Kurdistan on Saturday and met Talabani, may also try to form alliances to improve his chances. If he can make a deal with the Kurds and persuade some of the Shi'ite alliance to break away, he may be able to keep his job.
"Since it has no majority, the Shi'ite bloc now has not only got to hold together as a group, but form an alliance with others," said Rosemary Hollis, head of the Middle East program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
"The result reflects the fractious, cross-cutting nature of Iraq, where there are no neat divisions."
Even if Sunni Arabs are largely shut out of government, they could still potentially veto the new Iraqi constitution due to be written this year, causing political deadlock. One of the main tasks of the National Assembly is to oversee the drafting of a constitution which must be approved by a referendum.
Sunni insurgents who have relentlessly attacked U.S. troops, Iraqi security forces and officials have also turned their violence on Shi'ites, raising fears of sectarian civil war.
Iraq has announced it will close its land borders from Thursday to try to prevent a flood of foreign pilgrims arriving for Ashura, one of the holiest events in the Shi'ite calendar, when millions of people converge on shrines in Iraq.
A car bomb exploded near an Iraqi security forces checkpoint on the road between Hilla and Kerbala in a mainly Shi'ite area south of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least one person.
Suicide bombers attacked pilgrims in Baghdad and Kerbala last year, killing 171 people, and Ashura could be a flashpoint again this year, especially if the poll results fuel tension.
The bodies of two men who worked with Allawi's party were found in a rebellious district of Baghdad on Sunday, police said. In the northwest of the capital, gunmen assassinated two senior Iraqi army officers and their driver. The al Qaeda network in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack.
In the town of Baquba northeast of Baghdad, assailants shot dead a Communist party member who was also a local councilor.
In Mosul, a rocket attack on the city hall building killed at least two people, hospital officials said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/14/2005 12:10:50 AM ||
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ACTUAL STATS Iraqi Election Commission...
Total Percent Seats
Registered Voters 15,167,369*
*-Number may be off - certain provinces only reported as %ages...
% Turnout 55
Non Participating 6,805,408* 44.87
Total Votes 8,361,961 55.13
Islamic Action Organization In Iraq Central Direction 43,205 0.51% 1 Seat(s)
Kurdistan Alliance List (Talibani) 2,175,551 25.73% 75
Unified Iraq Coalition (Sistani) 4,075,295 48.19% 142
Tukman Iraq Front 93,480 1.11% 3
Al Rafideen National List (Assyrian Christian) 36,255 0.43% 1
Iraqis (al-Yawer) 150,680 1.78% 5
National Democratic Alliance 36,795 0.44% 1
Islamic Group of Kurdistan Iraq 60,592 0.72% 2
Iraqi List (Allawi) 1,168,943 13.82% 40
Liberation and Reconciliation Gathering 30,796 0.36% 1
Nation Union (Communist) 69,920 0.83% 2
National Independent Cadres and Elites 69,938 0.83% 2
All Others 444,816 5.26% 0
Pakistan's ambassador to the US, General (Retd) Jahangir Karamat has said that there is no evidence that Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan sold nuclear technology to al-Qaeda or other militant groups.
The News quoted Karamat as saying that not only was Khan's network no longer in operation, the fact was that its entire Pakistani operation had been routed.
"I know for a fact that there is no evidence whatsoever for his ever having done business with Al Qaeda or with any other terrorist organisation. Khan's network is gone now. It's history. I'm positive that the network has ceased to operate. There may be people internationally who are underground and who in fact may be getting away with something while the focus remains on something which has been closed down," the paper quoted him as saying
He however, did acknowledge that some of Khan's international associates might still be carrying on the business forward.
He said that though Pakistan was not aware of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al Zawahri's whereabouts, Islamabad, he added had nevertheless broken the back of the group's presence in Pakistan, to the extent that only a mere 80- 100 low level operatives were holed up in the remote areas of the country.
"I don't think there are any more of those kind of leadership people in our urban areas. There are no sanctuaries now whatsoever. And if there are any 80-100 estimated people, they are now on the run and looking for places to hide. I don't think we should be looking at any resurgence of that kind of activity in the future," he added.
"As far as Osama bin laden is concerned, I couldn't tell you where he is. There's never been a sighting of this man who would be a head taller than anybody else in that area. And there's never even been a confirmed rumour or indication, in spite of all the interrogations that have been carried out, about where he is. If he is in that area, some remote part of Afghanistan or Pakistan, then he is probably confined to a house or a compound and he's not moving out from there," he further added.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/14/2005 12:02:26 AM ||
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Pakistanâs ambassador to the US, General (Retd) Jahangir Karamat has said that there is no evidence that Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan sold nuclear technology to al-Qaeda or other militant groups.
Former chief of Inter Services Intelligence Gen (Retd) Hameed Gul said that US intelligences agencies propaganda to pronounce Pakistan a failed state by 2015 will remain unsuccessful. Talking to Online while condemning the assessment report of US agencies National Intelligence Council and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in which they have said 'Pakistan will be a "failed" state by 2015 as it would be affected by civil war, complete Talibanisation and struggle for control of its nuclear weapons, he said, these agencies have always hatched conspiracies against Pakistan. They always express themselves to be our friends but deep from the inside they are the enemies of our homeland, and hatch conspiracies against us but we will fight till the last drop of our blood and their designs against Pakistan will remain unsuccessful." He went on to say that Pakistan has many foes and that is only because of the subordination the government shows to others.
Like to beturbanned goobers, fer instance -- oh, that's not what he meant.
However, nobody could do anything wrong to the nation which has a desire to live and that desire exist among us, he said. "We will fight for every inch of our homeland till presence of last drop of blood in our veins," he noted.
"We will vent our spleens for you, Perv!"
Former ISI chief further said that incumbent government has lost its basic track. "Even the rulers do not have gall to mention the foreign hand that is behind worsening condition of Balochistan," he maintained. Responding to a query he made it clear that Benazir Bhutto will never ever strike a deal with the government. She, he said is a seasoned politician and is only using bargaining tactics, she really knows what she is doing. "Doors of talks never shut down in politics however, President General Pervez Musharraf's attitude will not help in giving us what we want political reconciliation," he underlined.
Gen (Retd) Hameed Gul also said that incumbent government has set aside Kashmir the core issue of contention between Pakistan and India and is negotiating on other matters, which are inferior to Kashmir issue. He said that India has gained success by diverting Pakistan's attention from Kashmir to Baglihar Dam. "India has bought some extra time to complete its agenda and if one looks at future Pakistan at present stance will fail on both fronts and will neither get Kashmir nor be able to get Baglihar issue settled," he observed.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/14/2005 12:34:33 AM ||
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Former chief of Inter Services Intelligence Gen (Retd) Hameed Gul said that US intelligences agencies propaganda to pronounce Pakistan a failed state by 2015 will remain unsuccessful.
#2
these agencies have always hatched conspiracies against Pakistan
No, it's Pakistan that's hatching conspiracies against us (and lots of the rest of the world).
Investigators for the Senate Permanent Investigations subcommittee said yesterday that they had determined that one United Nations-contracted inspector had been bribed to help Iraq export more oil than was authorized under the oil-for-food program.
The investigators said they would present at a hearing tomorrow what they called "overwhelming evidence" that an inspector employed by Saybolt International, the Dutch company hired to monitor oil exports under the program, had accepted more than $100,000 to help the former Iraqi government export more than $9 million worth of oil outside of the program in 2001.
If confirmed, the payments would be the first documented instance of a United Nations inspector for a major contractor having been bribed by Saddam Hussein's government. At least five United States Congressional committees, the Justice Department, and an independent panel headed by Paul A. Volcker are investigating the oil-for-food program, which ended in 2003 and allowed limited oil sales so Iraq could buy crucial aid goods to alleviate the effects of sanctions.
Senate investigators said their inquiry had not found other instances of bribery involving Saybolt or other contractors in the program.
According to two letters in Arabic from Iraq's former oil minister, payments totaling $105,819 were authorized by "the leader God saves," or Saddam Hussein, to a Portuguese oil inspector named Armando Carlos. The letters say the money was for the man's services in helping a French company export two extra shipments of Iraqi oil in 2001 that were not authorized by the oil-for-food program. Copies of the letters were provided to The New York Times by Iraqi critics of the program.
Saybolt officials have confirmed that an employee is being investigated in the case, and a records search listed one of the company's inspectors as a Portuguese man named Armando Carlos Oliveira. In response to questions yesterday, Senate officials confirmed that Mr. Oliveira was the focus of their investigation.
Contacted in Portugal by telephone yesterday, Mr. Oliveira, who identified himself as the manager of Saybolt's operations in the country, denied that he had received payments from Iraq or that he had ever worked there.
Saybolt did not respond to numerous e-mail and telephone messages left at its Dutch headquarters, with its Washington lawyers, and at an office in Houston. In testimony before a House committee in October, Peter W. G. Boks, the company's managing director, said its own investigation showed that one of its inspectors had permitted "topping off" - the loading of unauthorized oil onto an approved oil shipment - but had found "no evidence" that Saybolt inspectors "were aware of the additional unauthorized loadings."
Mr. Boks also said the company had concluded that it was "extremely unlikely" that other instances of such unauthorized shipments had occurred.
Allegations that a Saybolt inspector had received a bribe were first reported by The Wall Street Journal in October. The Financial Times reported Saturday that documents identified Armando Carlos Oliveira as the employee who had been offered money.
Senate investigators said yesterday that they would present "overwhelming evidence" in the hearing tomorrow that Mr. Oliveira had worked in Iraq as a United Nations oil inspector and had accepted money from Saddam Hussein. They said Saybolt officials would testify at the hearing.
In a separate statement issued in response to Mr. Oliveira's denial, Senator Norm Coleman, the Minnesota Republican who is chairman of the Senate investigations subcommittee, said: "These are grave allegations. We are going to present evidence to shine light on the issue. We must keep in mind that the bribe of a U.N. oil inspector is troubling in and of itself, and to make matters worse, it allowed Saddam to generate millions of dollars under the table and outside of U.N. control."
Senator Coleman has been among the most vehement critics of the oil-for-food program and the United Nations officials who ran and oversaw it. He has called for the resignation of Kofi Annan as United Nations secretary general.
Mr. Annan, speaking to David Frost of the BBC in an interview broadcast yesterday, said he would not resign and intended to press forward with reforms of the United Nations.
"Resignation is not on the cards for me at the moment," Mr. Annan said of investigations that have already prompted the suspension with full pay of the program's former director and another senior United Nations official.
"I think when the report comes out the public will begin to understand how complex this scheme was," Mr. Annan said. He said the program was "a political arrangement, a transaction intended to force Saddam Hussein to comply with inspection requirements, disarmament requirements, and in the process concessions were also made to him."
Mr. Annan said those concessions were made because Mr. Hussein was resisting the program and indifferent to the suffering of his own people. "In retrospect one may criticize it, but at the time because of the urgency and the need to help the Iraqi people, some concessions were made," he said.
Posted by: .com ||
02/14/2005 7:23:27 AM ||
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"I think when the report comes out the public will begin to understand how complex this scheme was," Mr. Annan said.
"It was, after all, designed that way. Complexity discourages investigators, after all, and I didn't get where I was by making it easy."
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/14/2005 8:00 Comments ||
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"Resignation is not on the cards for me at the moment," Mr. Annan said of investigations that have already prompted the suspension with full pay of the programâs former director and another senior United Nations official.
Isn't it time for this guy to fall out a window or something?
The NYT's Clinton 2008 push begins... Consider this a love note passed in class. The annual Munich Conference on Security Policy brings together the toughest national security crowd in the Western world, and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton played it safe and cool here on Sunday. In her first appearance before the clubby - and overwhelmingly male - gathering of experts, Mrs. Clinton, the junior senator from New York, showered praise on the United Nations as she called on it to reform and uttered only the most indirect rebuke of the Bush administration. In her strongest plea, she advocated a direct NATO role to stop the killing in the Darfur region of Sudan - including logistical, communication and transportation support. "We cannot continue to say 'Never again' as it happens again before our eyes," she said, although the flatness of her delivery robbed her words of their potential impact.
Mrs. Clinton smiled and evoked chuckles when she thanked Secretary General Kofi Annan "for giving my husband a new job" as the United Nations' special envoy for countries affected by the tsunami crisis.
She was welcomed - even praised - by the audience. Antje Vollmer, vice president of the German Parliament, and one of the few women at the conference, told Mrs. Clinton that "personally, politically and intellectually, it was a great pleasure to listen to you." Miomir Zuzul, the foreign minister of Croatia, thanked her for her "excellent" speech.
The speech was a collaborative effort. Mrs. Clinton sought input from a number of Americans in the forum, among others Richard C. Holbrooke, who served as her husband's ambassador to the United Nations and to Germany; Samuel R. Berger, her husband's national security adviser; Jeffrey H. Smith, the former general counsel at the C.I.A. when her husband was president; and Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser for the first President Bush.
Mrs. Clinton, who supported the invasion of Iraq, referred to the "diplomatic train wreck" in the United Nations Security Council in 2003 that failed to forge consensus on the American-led war and split apart the trans-Atlantic alliance, without saying who was to blame. She said the Bush administration and "its conservative allies" were wrong to denounce the United Nations "in violent terms," since the decisions to deny authority for military action in Iraq were made by the member countries.
In the question-and-answer period, she made clear that she was by no means suggesting that NATO expand "meaninglessly" in the world, but added that there were a number of areas where NATO intervention in pursuit of a United Nations mandate made sense. She urged closer cooperation between NATO and Russia, whose military, she noted, had played an important and timely role in the tsunami relief effort.
Mrs. Clinton even mentioned that creative cooperation of NATO with countries like Russia and China and with regional organizations be put on the conference's agenda next year, suggesting she might become a regular fixture here, much the way a number of her fellow senators on the Armed Services Committee have become over the years.
At the conference's gala dinner on Saturday night, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, singled out Mrs. Clinton for praise. He noted that Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, was absent from the conference last year "because he was pursuing a failed presidential campaign." Mr. McCain, who flirted with a presidential bid himself, suggested that Mrs. Clinton might be next, joking that he and Senator Lieberman "are fellow losers, but this year Senator Clinton is here to keep hope alive."
The conference's guest of honor was Mr. Annan, who urged NATO and the European Union to increase efforts to end the Darfur crisis. "Those organizations with real capacity - and NATO as well as the E.U. are well represented in this room - must give serious consideration to what, in practical terms, they can do to end this tragedy," Mr. Annan said. "Additional measures are urgently required."
... The Game is afoot - and McCain just can't help himself, again.
Posted by: .com ||
02/14/2005 7:14:13 AM ||
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The conferenceâs guest of honor was Mr. Annan, who urged NATO and the European Union to increase efforts to end the Darfur crisis.
Another orgy of mutual admiration and self aggrandisment. And overfed people buzzing around the trough. They may be concerned about the people in Darfur, but none of them have done Jack Sh*t for the people there except talk about it. Pretty disgusting group of people, IMHO.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/14/2005 9:04 Comments ||
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"Those organizations with real capacity - and NATO as well as the E.U. are well represented in this room - must give serious consideration to what, in practical terms, they can do to end this tragedy," Mr. Annan said. "Additional measures are urgently required."
Why doesn't the U. N, do something, Kofi? Lack of leadership? or French business interests? How did it get to be a NATO problem? If the U. N. can't handle genocide, what can it handle?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/14/2005 9:07 Comments ||
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The only thing that could have salvaged this slime-fest would have been for everyone there to have developed simultaneous and noisy explosive diarrhea and trombone vomiting, culminating in a methane implosion.
#4
If she really wants to do something to help solve the situation, send her over to the Sudan and have her crush Epaulet Man's skull between her massive thighs...
#7
The speech was a collaborative effort. Mrs. Clinton sought input from a number of Americans in the forum, among others Richard C. Holbrooke, who served as her husbandâs ambassador to the United Nations and to Germany; Samuel R. Berger, her husbandâs national security adviser; Jeffrey H. Smith, the former general counsel at the C.I.A. when her husband was president; and Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser for the first President Bush
Sandy Burglar? Mr. I Stuff Top Secret Documents From The National Archives Into My Pants??? And isn't Jeff Smith the counsel responsible for convincing Clinton to discontinue the raid to kill/capture bin Laden?
Go ahead Hillary, surround yourself with this little loser clique....it's sure to raise your popularity among the Average American.
#9
At the conferenceâs gala dinner on Saturday night, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, singled out Mrs. Clinton for praise. He noted that Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, was absent from the conference last year "because he was pursuing a failed presidential campaign." Mr. McCain, who flirted with a presidential bid himself, suggested that Mrs. Clinton might be next, joking that he and Senator Lieberman "are fellow losers, but this year Senator Clinton is here to keep hope alive."
Tells you just how much McCain's ego was hurt by losing to Bush. And it should tell Republicans just where he stands.
Nothing is being done in Darfur because of French and Chinese business (read oil) interests. Kofi is irrelevant in this situation. He could, of course, thump the table and cast aspersions at these two Security Council members to try and get them to change their positions, but he does not have the balls to do this. That is his failing, but it would likely be repeated by anyone in his position. Ain't no one in power going to stick their neck out for a bunch of farmers in the middle-o-nowhere.
#12
Lol, TGA. I can't imagine why?! To miss out on such Grateness!
You're a better man than me - I just wouldn't go to those sort of affairs, which would have gotten me canned for attitude long before I was invited to those sort of affairs. Y'see, if I travelled back in time and was who I am, then now I'd be screwed. And if I killed my grandfather, then I'd see my shadow and there'd be 6 more weeks of winter. Yeah, that's it. So don't throw me in the briar patch with the silly American politicians, K? ;-)
#14
Hey, Ship! Whew! Glad you're here. I've been channeling you, sorta, and I'm not doing too good a job. So, now that you're here, You can be you, and you'll do a much better job, almost as good as if you were um, er, doing it. K?
#15
if McCain, Lieberman and Hillary would dump their parties and start over again in the center, theyd be onto something.
Yes, and if they brought the tooth fairy on board, the country could simultaneously wipe out the deficit, give earned income tax credit to everyone making less than 40K a year, and provide each citizen with a dozen clones.
A Shia Islamist bloc has won Iraq's first election since Saddam Hussein's overthrow, sealing the political resurgence of the nation's long-oppressed majority. The Electoral Commission said on Sunday the Shia list, known as the United Iraqi Alliance, took more than 47 percent of the vote. The list blessed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani is expected to get 132 out of 275 seats in the National Assembly once the final results are made official in three days.
But this was less than the bloc had predicted and leaves it six or seven seats short of a majority in parliament. A powerful Kurdish alliance came second with 25 percent, while a grouping led by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shia, came third with nearly 14 percent. Few Sunni Arabs took part in the voting, which effectively marginalises the minority that has traditionally ruled modern Iraq and held a privileged position under Saddam, a Sunni. The commission said 8.5 million Iraqis, or 58 percent of registered voters, cast ballots in the January 30 poll, Iraq's first multi-party election for half a century.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Keep this firmly in mind: Iraqi residents of the US, delivered more votes to the Communist Party than did they give Alawi's pro-US party? Lesson: generosity in victory, sucks! Nuclear arms are cost effective.
That leaves 14% for ALL other slates combined - and there were over 100. So the Communist slate is way the fuck out of it and will have, for all intents and purposes, no voice. Note in the article that the only reference to Communists is in this sentence, in the last paragraph:
"In the town of Baquba northeast of Baghdad, assailants shot dead a Communist party member who was also a local councillor."
So you're wanking about something you read somewhere else? Got a link, dink?
Regards Iraqis in the US, a very tiny fraction of the vote total, BTW -- who do you think they are? Go ahead, take a few minutes to think about it. It will be a new experience for you. We'll wait...
They received permission to emigrate, study abroad, etc. Who was in power? Think maybe, just fucking maybe, that the majority of the Iraqis abroad are Sunnis and Ba'ath Party members? Who else would Saddam have allowed such a privilege? Since many Sunnis "boycotted" the elections and presented so few Sunni slates, who were these morons going to vote for?
You've made no case, whatsoever, for doing anything to the Iraqis in Iraq. Your point is that people do not appreciate our generosity? Well no shit, Sherlock. That defines a large chunk of humanity, doesn't it? So you wanna drag out nukes cuz a few Iraqi expats in the US voted for the Communist slate? WTF?
Who and where would you suggest nuking, genius?
Duh- duh- dumbass.
You're an ignorant twit with no point other than the one on top of your head. Your tiny reservoir of knowledge is second, third, or fourth hand, your understanding of Arabs and the Middle East is paltry - on a good day, and your analysis is pure mindless shut-in Western Simpleton Nuveau.
You should listen and not speak. Your constant reference to nuking shit proves you have nothing to add to the RB knowledge pool. A cost-effective solution for RB would be to block your IP with 5 or 6 keystrokes for being a hate troll.
#4
Were I an Iraqi in the USA and wanted to register an anti-clerical vote then i might well vote communist and I'm about as (rabidly) anti-communist as they come.
#5
If you were an Iraqi in the US, the odds are at least 90% that you'd be a Sunni Ba'athist - the other 10% are lucky living exiles. I'm just happy that the voters abroad numbered so very few relative to the voters in Iraq. Those abroad are predominantly Saddamists, as I pointed out. They didn't want to register an anti-clerical vote, per se, but an anti-everyone-against-Saddam vote...
#7
The turkmen don't like it they can leave. The deal with the Kurds was done before the election. The Turks can STFU. The lack of control we have in the Sunni triangle is in part due to Turkish back stabing. Go see how you 30 peices of silver you got from Chirac spends you Turkish fools. Sour grapes from those that didn't have the balls to go vote. Tough luck. Don't vote don't bitch as they say.
#8
We are generous in victory because we learned the hard way that vengeance in victory creates the conditions for the next war (anyone here remember how the Treaty of Versailles led to WWII, IToldYouSo?). And, we don't go around nuking our enemies when there are still other options because that is uncivilized. Not to mention stupid: using our nukes is Samson-bringing-down-the-temple, poisoning-our-own-nest, Pyhrric defeat stuff. We aren't anywhere near that point yet -- and if we should get there, it won't be just Iraqi idiots who regret pushing us to that point (any chance you live downwind of the Middle East, IToldYouSo? Do you like the idea of radioactive dust falling on your tomatoes?)
#9
If you were an Iraqi in the US, the odds are at least 90% that you'd be a Sunni Ba'athist - the other 10% are lucky living exiles
Not disputing your numbers, .com - or your trashing of our troll here - but where did you get those figures from. I was under the impression that some significant portion of Iraqis in the US are in fact Kurds. Now, they may be Sunni muslims, but I'd lay odds that their Kurdish identity in most cases predominates.
Not looking to flame, but I think we'd better have real numbers before we draw conclusions.
#10
TN: Before 1990, Detroit had a large Chaldean community, mostly Christian. I don't know how Saddam treated Christians in Iraq. I haven't been back there since, so don't know about the more recent arrivals.
TW: I agree that nuking cities full of innocent people would be abhorrent and would be ashamed of voting for a government that instituted such a policy, unless we get forced into an either/or situation (which is what the Left wants). However, I wouldn't agree completely with your Versailles analogy.
The problem with WWI is that Germany wasn't completely defeated; the army was still mostly on French or Belgian soil. They resented the "harshness" of the treaty (which was far milder than Brest-Litovsk) because "we hadn't really lost."
The treaty at the end of WWII was far harsher than Versailles. Something like 1/3 of Germany became Poland (or the USSR). Germany itself was torn in half. They were forbidden from having any military at all. They weren't even allowed a civilian government for a few years. The country was physically occupied by the Allies.
However, this wasn't resented as much because Germany became utterly defeated. The country was bombed flat (or to a cinder). The people had tanks drive and fight across their land. The government unconditionally surrendered. After a defeat of that size, and with things like the Morganthau plan floating around, the actual terms were considered to be generous.
To come back to the 21st century, Iraq quickly folded under the invasion, with many units never coming into combat, so they could say "well, we were never defeated in battle." The Saddamites never had the feeling of complete and utter defeat. It's possible that if we had taken Fallujah the way we did Aachen or Berlin, they would be psychologically defeated and hopeless. Possible. Perhaps not.
#11
It's possible that if we had taken Fallujah the way we did Aachen or Berlin, they would be psychologically defeated and hopeless. Possible. Perhaps not.
But there sure as Hell would be a lot more of them dead.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/14/2005 9:13 Comments ||
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TN- Sorry for slow response - computer NIC went on the fritz and had to swap it out and get reset with cable co.
Iraqi expats, of course, are not a homogeneous spread, so the mix that happens to live the in the US varies from the mix in the UK. However, it is true that the majority that left in the last 35 years are those that either escaped or Saddam gave his blessing to, no?
One of my "friends" in Saudi who went to university in the UK and was working at Aramco was precisely of that majority, Sunni & Ba'athist - and he is the one who told me how it worked - only those who had the right connections were given the easy trip abroad. The last time I saw him was during the war - and he had decided not to talk to me or any other Westerners anymore. So that, was that.
I'll say the approximate figures make sense to me - and he verified the process behind the logic, so I figure they're pretty good. I'm sure you can locate organizations of Iraqi expats and prove or disprove the specific percentages.
#13
ITSY is posting via Alberta Canada. I suggest he take up his grievances with Paul Martin or possibly Bloc Quebecois. He might find better cheese for his whine.
#14
Thanks for correcting and expanding on my post, jackel. You make my point better than I did :-).
ITSY is clearly not Antiwar, then...she posted from Australia, as I recall. She claimed vehemently that she had a real, live boyfriend, and could read, too. So clearly her viciousness had a different basis than this Candadian person's.
VIEW: Have Iraqis voted for a dictatorship? âMuqtedar Khan
Daily Times (Pakistan terrorist entity), Feb 13, 2005
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_13-2-2005_pg3_6
The election should be seen as a manifestation of power that Ali Sistani wields on the Shiite population of Iraq. His decree, making it a religious obligation for Shiite Muslims to vote, was responsible for the huge turnout. The Shiites recognise that the US occupation is a historic opportunity. If they are disciplined and patient they will rule Iraq. Their principal opponents will be quashed by the US itself.
The Bush administration is under the false impression that the elections in Iraq have heralded the era of democracy in Iraq and thus justify the Bush pre-emption doctrine. What, it seems, they cannot see is that the US has just facilitated a major transfer of power in the Arab World â from Sunnis to Shiites. Thanks to the US the Arab Shiites will now control Baghdad â the jewel in the Islamic crown â after a millennium. They did not rule over Baghdad even under the glorious Fatimid dynasty (909-1171) that governed Egypt, North Africa and Syria but had only a tenuous hold over Baghdad, briefly under the Buwayhid tribal confederation, before the Turkic Seljuks invaded and captured the city with help from the Abbasids...
It is a fact that semitic culture is historically rooted in the area bound by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Thus, it is sacred ground to most Arabs. Now, Persian Islamofascists (al-Sistani is an Iran born Persian) have a "faith based" corridor of wild-eyed, Ashoura' blood-hungry friendlies, that stretches from Teheran to Jerusalem. Now, doesn't facilitation of that, spit on the graves of the 9-11 dead? Also, the "angryarab" nasty blog reported that ingrate Iraqi voters in the US, gave more votes to the Commies than to Alawi's pro-US party. Mantra: Fred likes fact and hates fiction; try it and you might like it.
I'mTellingYouSo now, so I don't have to say IToldYouSo, later. Be nice; there might be ladies present.
#19
Start your own blog site. Post your brilliance there. I'm sure you'll be a star in no time.
Factually, you don't have the first clue what you're talking about, as I said originally. You posted nothing that would even remotely begin to refute me. Your hyper-bolded post only indicates your insecurity and need for attention. Get that gratification somewhere else, you're out of it and born to scorned with your idiot nuke posts. And since you're posting from Kanada, that's probably another source of envy. Sucks to be you.
#20
4.3 But points for use of non linear thought and extra bold. It is a fact that anti-semitic culture is historically rooted in the area bound by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Thus, it is sacred ground to most Buchanaites.
With a Shiite coalition set to take power in Iraq, American officials have begun grilling top Iraqi Shiite politicians to try to gauge the extent of their relationship with neighbouring Iran, a predominantly Shiite nation ruled by its clergy. The nature of the Shiite coalition's ties to Iran has become a crucial issue now that the cleric-backed alliance has emerged as the leading faction in the new Iraqi parliament and at a time when the United States and Iran are engaged in a war of words over Iran's nuclear programme. In recent talks, US diplomats have bluntly asked the leaders how a Shiite-dominated government would react if Iran came under attack by an outside power because of its suspected nuclear weapons programme, according to a high-ranking member of one Shiite party.
The Iraqi Shiite leaders have reassured the Americans that they are mostly concerned about how any such attack would affect Iraq, and they have stressed their independence from Iran, said the Shiite party official, who is familiar with the US talks but would speak only on condition of anonymity. Despite such assurances, the questioning highlights a growing US worry that the government set to take power in Iraq could be dominated by Shiite clerics strongly influenced by Iran. Many members of the Iraqi Shiite coalition lived in Iran until the April 2003 fall of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Despite those Iranian links, US officials supported the Iraqi Shiite parties before the war because they shared Saddam as a common enemy. Three of the Shiite parties in the coalition closely cooperated with the United States in the run-up to the US-led Iraq invasion.
The prospect of close Iraq-Iran Shiite ties also worries Iraq's Sunni Arab minority — a group that had long dominated Iraq under Saddam and which nurtures strong anti-Iranian sentiments. The Shiite ticket set to take power in Iraq, called the United Iraqi Alliance, is built around two major Shiite parties with close links to Iran — Daawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI. It was endorsed by the Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, and includes supporters of a young Shiite cleric, Moqtada Sadr, with ties to the Iranian clergy, and prominent politician Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite who once was Washington's favourite to replace Saddam. "The Iranian ticket," was how many Sunni Arabs dubbed the Sistani-endorsed slate.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 8:06:20 PM ||
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Man! Pale old dude looks like he could definitely use more iron...
#2
I Told You So: facilitation of elections in Iraq, while Islamofascists filled the power vacuum created when Secularism was abolished (CPA Order #1 outlawed Baathism; not one CPA order challenged extremist clerical authority), would yield an anti-US government that would threaten US occupation troops, and effectively shield the Persian terrorist entity.
When you see bleeding Shiites in the Ashoura martyr-fest, point the finger at Washington for enabling that inhumanity, and affirmation of a genocidal ideology. Iraq is an Iranian-Frankenstein.
Sudan has hit out at a call by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for EU or NATO intervention in the war-torn Darfur region, saying the world body ought to back the existing African Union observer mission. "We believe that the African Union has the full mandate and capabilities to accomplish its mission satisfactorily and we expect that no other agency would tamper with this mission," junior foreign minister Naguib al-Khair Abd al-Wahab told AFP on Sunday. "We commend the work done by the African Union which has been recognised by the UN as the major body responsible for supervising the peace efforts in Darfur, and we expect the UN secretary general to spare no effort to bolster the AU in carrying out its assigned mission," Abd al-Wahab said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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"We believe that the African Union has the full mandate and capabilities to accomplish its mission satisfactorily
I guess it just depends on how you define "the mission".
A Sudanese minister has said that 700 prisoners of war held by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement would be freed by the end of this week. State Foreign Minister Najib al-Khair Abd al-Wahab said on Sunday that Khartoum's foreign ministry and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had signed an agreement on the release and transport of the POWs. Quoting the ICRC, the minister said the prisoners would be freed this week. Under the agreement, the Red Cross would use its planes and other means of transport to bring the prisoners from the south to the north. The SPLM signed a peace agreement with Khartoum on 9 January, ending more than two decades of civil war.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Pakistan has reportedly 'admitted' for the first time that Dr A Q Khan passed nuclear secrets and equipment to Iranian officials, says The Sunday Telegraph, a respected British newspaper. The paper's report yesterday said that an investigation by Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, details of which were disclosed to The Telegraph according to the paper, confirmed that Khan and his associates sold nuclear codes, materials, components and plans that left his "signature" at the core of the Iranian nuclear programme. The newspaper claims that the admission came during private talks in Brussels at the end of last month between European Union officials and senior ministers from Pakistan and India. The EU officials were told that cooperation between Teheran and Khan, 68, and associates from his Khan Research Laboratories began in the mid-1990s and included more than a dozen meetings over several years.
Most of these meetings were between Mohammad Farooq, a centrifuge expert from KRL, and Iranians in Karachi, Kuala Lumpur and Teheran. Pakistani investigators have told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that centrifuge drawings acquired by Iran closely resemble the design of the first-generation Pakistan-1 centrifuge. Khan also helped the Iranians to set up a secret procurement network involving companies and middlemen around the world, ISI investigators found. The IAEA told Pakistani officials that centrifuges they had discovered at the Doshan Tapeh military base in eastern Teheran closely resembled the more advanced Pakistan-2 centrifuges.
The Sunday Telegraph says that Pakistan had previously resisted admitting Khan's role in Iran's nuclear plans for fear of diplomatic repercussions. Teheran claims that it "plans to enrich only to the levels that are used to generate nuclear fuel". A CIA report, however, concluded this was a lie. The ISI found that Khan and his associates had approached some potential buyers of weapons of mass destruction, including Saddam Hussein's regime. "Iraqi officials initially agreed but later backed out because they thought it might be a sting operation or a ploy by the US to implicate them," said one official, according to The Sunday Telegraph. Pakistani investigators found that Khan's network tried not only to satisfy existing demand but also to create new markets for their proliferation activities. "They started working it both ways. They provided options to those who wanted to buy this sensitive material but also developed new markets for their wares."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Khan needs to be strung up. His activities amount to a crime against humanity.
America Has Become Hostage to the Jews, as Benjamin Franklin Predicted
In an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa titled 'Satanic Spirits and American Documents,' Muhammad Yousef Al-Malifi recently cited the "Franklin Prophecy." This follows a November 2004 interview with Lebanese journalist Arafat Nizam Al-Din on Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV, recorded and translated by the MEMRI TV Project, in which he also claimed that Benjamin Franklin, as well as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, warned Americans against allowing Jews into the country.
The Franklin speech is a well-known Nazi propaganda forgery, which first appeared in the 1935 edition of the German antisemitic book 'A Handbook on the Jewish Question' and which has at times resurfaced in the Arab press. The forgery claims that during a speech at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1789 ( sic ; the actual date of the convention was 1787), Benjamin Franklin warned that unless the Jews were expelled from the fledgling nation by constitutional decree they would immigrate in great numbers, enslave the Christian population, and control the economy. There are several variations upon the story: sometimes Franklin is mistakenly referred to as the U.S. president, and sometimes he is said to have made the statements during a recess, and not as a speech. In addition, the forgery is sometimes attributed to Thomas Jefferson.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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When I was in high school, I met a Russian exchange student who was sure based on what he had been taught as a youngster that the U.S. dropped the a-bombs on Japan *after* the Japanese had already surrendered. I showed him our history books for comparison, not sure if he left beleiving me or not. Oh well.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A group of Islamists have asked for a meeting with Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Sheikh 
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned on Sunday of the danger of a "cascade" of nuclear proliferation unless new steps are taken to prevent it and called for help to stop the killings in Darfur. Annan told a conference of defence ministers and security experts "the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has helped prevent a cascade of nuclear proliferation. "But unless new steps are taken now, we might face such a cascade very soon," he said. Annan said a high-level panel which has proposed far-reaching reforms of the United Nations has also made "many forward-looking recommendations" to beef up the system to prevent states from developing nuclear weapons. Without making direct reference to the current nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea, Annan said: "Member states must summon the will to act to strengthen the non-proliferation regime."
An Iranian-backed group, 
During his sermon delivered at Al-Imamayn al-Hassanayn in Haret Hreik, in the presence of several religious, social and political figures on Friday, Shiite cleric Sayyed 
United States Senator 
Parliament will oblige Iran`s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) to produce part of the nuclear fuel needed for the country`s reactors, a senior nuclear energy official announced here Sunday. According to the IAEO`s deputy head for international affairs and planning, Mohammad Saeedi, parliament will present a bill to `task Iran`s Atomic Energy Organization with meeting part of the fuel for the country`s atomic plants`. "As repeatedly announced by the country`s authorities, including the president, Iran`s planning is such that it will conclude (construction) of its atomic plants and meet part of their fuel supply within the country," he told IRNA. 
Canadian Foreign Minister 
Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller arrived at Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Jan. 29 with Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. He came home to the town of Jonancy in Pike County for a three-week visit on Friday, arriving without fanfare. "He wouldn't let me tell anyone," said his mother, Maxie Webber. "No signs, no balloons, no nothing. He said 'I'm not a hero.'"
Former chief of Inter Services Intelligence Gen (Retd) Hameed Gul said that US intelligences agencies propaganda to pronounce Pakistan a failed state by 2015 will remain unsuccessful. Talking to Online while condemning the assessment report of US agencies National Intelligence Council and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in which they have said 'Pakistan will be a "failed" state by 2015 as it would be affected by civil war, complete Talibanisation and struggle for control of its nuclear weapons, he said, these agencies have always hatched conspiracies against Pakistan. They always express themselves to be our friends but deep from the inside they are the enemies of our homeland, and hatch conspiracies against us but we will fight till the last drop of our blood and their designs against Pakistan will remain unsuccessful." He went on to say that Pakistan has many foes and that is only because of the subordination the government shows to others.
The annual Munich Conference on Security Policy brings together the toughest national security crowd in the Western world, and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton played it safe and cool here on Sunday. In her first appearance before the clubby - and overwhelmingly male - gathering of experts, Mrs. Clinton, the junior senator from New York, showered praise on the United Nations as she called on it to reform and uttered only the most indirect rebuke of the Bush administration. In her strongest plea, she advocated a direct NATO role to stop the killing in the Darfur region of Sudan - including logistical, communication and transportation support. "We cannot continue to say 'Never again' as it happens again before our eyes," she said, although the flatness of her delivery robbed her words of their potential impact.
A Shia Islamist bloc has won Iraq's first election since Saddam Hussein's overthrow, sealing the political resurgence of the nation's long-oppressed majority. The Electoral Commission said on Sunday the Shia list, known as the United Iraqi Alliance, took more than 47 percent of the vote. The list blessed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani is expected to get 132 out of 275 seats in the National Assembly once the final results are made official in three days.
With a Shiite coalition set to take power in Iraq, American officials have begun grilling top Iraqi Shiite politicians to try to gauge the extent of their relationship with neighbouring Iran, a predominantly Shiite nation ruled by its clergy. The nature of the Shiite coalition's ties to Iran has become a crucial issue now that the cleric-backed alliance has emerged as the leading faction in the new Iraqi parliament and at a time when the United States and Iran are engaged in a war of words over Iran's nuclear programme. In recent talks, US diplomats have bluntly asked the leaders how a Shiite-dominated government would react if Iran came under attack by an outside power because of its suspected nuclear weapons programme, according to a high-ranking member of one Shiite party. 
Sudan has hit out at a call by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for EU or NATO intervention in the war-torn Darfur region, saying the world body ought to back the existing African Union observer mission. "We believe that the African Union has the full mandate and capabilities to accomplish its mission satisfactorily and we expect that no other agency would tamper with this mission," junior foreign minister Naguib al-Khair Abd al-Wahab told AFP on Sunday. "We commend the work done by the African Union which has been recognised by the UN as the major body responsible for supervising the peace efforts in Darfur, and we expect the UN secretary general to spare no effort to bolster the AU in carrying out its assigned mission," Abd al-Wahab said.
Pakistan has reportedly 'admitted' for the first time that Dr 
America Has Become Hostage to the Jews, as Benjamin Franklin Predicted
